Beyond the Five Senses: Uncovering Truth in a World of Beliefs and Biases

Have you ever heard someone say, “That’s your truth, not mine” or “There are three sides to every story”? These sayings always make me wonder, and during my morning meditation, one question kept coming to mind: Why do these sayings exist?

The answer that came to me is this: the world we see is shaped by beliefs. When someone believes something strongly enough, it becomes their truth. Once their belief creates evidence we can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell, we start calling it “truth” too. But this made me question: if we only trust our five senses, are we really seeing the truth, or are we adopting someone else’s belief? And if we rely so much on our senses, how easily can they be influenced?

In today’s world, our senses are overwhelmed with information, much of it false or misleading. Misinformation spreads quickly, and with AI, it spreads even faster. The other day, I saw an ad that said, “How to get your company mentioned in ChatGPT.” It made me realize that even AI, which we often trust for answers, can be shaped by those with the tools and resources to control information.

This led me to reflect on how we process what our senses take in. Our five senses collect data, and our brain processes it to create beliefs. Over time, those beliefs can become our truth. From there, we often look for proof to confirm what we already believe, thanks to something called confirmation bias.

My seed questions for this week are:

1. What am I exposing my five senses to?

2. How am I filtering the information I take in?

3. Is my filter tied to my ego, which creates bias?

   
   

To find truth, we need to question what we take in through our senses and build filters that help us separate truth from bias. Maybe even look beyond our five senses. Could a sixth sense show us a deeper truth?