how we interact. We hold a model of our universe inside our heads, which is more or less accurate. For some people it is accurate, for others less so. We use this mind-map of the world to navigate our way through life. And when our map of reality is inaccurate we run into problems as the universe does not behave in the way which we think it should. When our map of reality is proven to be inaccurate we often fight against repairing it as we feel our ego is threatened. So the graph is a plot of this grasp of reality. People who’s map of reality is good are plotted to the left on the graph, close to the absolute reality on the vertical axis. People who are seriously mentally ill may have a very poor grasp of bits of reality and their maps are plotted a long way from reality to the right on the graph. In between the extremes of absolute understanding of the universe to the left, and extreme delusion to the right are most people. There are forms of delusion which are commonly accepted. For example the concept of religion. Many religions involve the belief in something of which there is no evidence. This is sometimes called faith, but a more hard-nosed psychiatrist might call it delusion. Many people believe there is a God, but haven’t seen Him. Even if someone claims to have met God, there’s then the chance the person may be suffering from some kind of delusion.
As most of us are somewhere in the middle, we may have less understanding of the universe than some people, and more than others. For example, Einstein was so connected to the universe that he spotted something which all other scientists had overlooked – a flaw in the previously accepted Newtonian physics, which did not correctly explain the nature of light and gravity, which Einstein then explained through his theories of relativity. Most of us don’t understand relativity, so our mind maps are less accurate than Einstein’s in this aspect and he appears closer to absolute reality on the graph than most people. Conversely most of us can see through extreme delusions like “the moon is made of cream cheese”, and so the majority of people on the graph lie closer to reality than such extremely deluded people.
Now. We don’t usually like our mind maps challenged. We have pride in what we think we know, and we feel foolish when we are shown to be wrong. So we only readily accept new information which is close to our already assimilated interpretation of the universe. Now consider this diagram...
For a person who has a grasp of reality at X, there is an acceptable variation in perception, v, which we feel comfortable with. The person plotted at x will often only readily accept information which lies within this variation in perception – the grey area. This is narrow-mindedness. We are all capable of investigating information anywhere on the reality scale, but our egos usually make us rapidly dismiss information which lies outside our variation in perception. The easiest way to dismiss information which does not fit our mind-map it to say the