“We begin life with the world presenting itself to us as it is. Someone—our parents, teachers, analysts—hypnotizes us to ‘see’ the world and construe it in the ‘right’ way. These others label the world, attach names and give voices to the beings and events in it, so that thereafter, we cannot read the world in any other language or hear it saying other things to us. The task is to break the hypnotic spell, so that we become undeaf, unblind, and multilingual, thereby letting the world speak to us in new voices and write all its possible meaning in the new book of our existence. Be careful in your choice of hypnotists.”
Sidney Jourard, via Sunbeams (Page 120)
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“When someone acts in a way that seems strange to you, rather than reacting in your usual way, such as, ‘I can’t believe they would do that,’ instead say something to yourself like ‘I see, that must be the way she sees things in the world. Very interesting.'” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“We live in the world we are thinking of.” ~ Ralph Smart, Infinite Waters