I was watching a very interesting show on the National Geographic Channel today called “Inside a Cult.” It was a very interesting documentary about several of the big religious cults that have been exposed in the US. The show focused on the compound of Strong City. This group believed their leader was the Messiah, but their “Messiah” ends up not being able to accurately predict the end of the world and instead is instead taken and prosecuted for sexual relationships with minors that also lived on the isolated compound.
One of the most interesting parts of the documentary was when it showed the members rejoicing over what was suppose to bring about a change in body for their “Messiah” but yet nothing happened that day. As it turned out the world did not end on October 31, 2007. They had a psychologist who studied different cult behaviors, she kept being brought on to interject comments on what was happening. After we saw the members rejoicing despite the fact that nothing happened on the date that had been proclaimed, the psychologist came on and stated that in cases like this where the cult has completely consumed their lives, instead of abandoning the beliefs that they are hanging on to, it is easier for them to distort their perception of reality to match their beliefs….Strangely enough none of the members or the leader would comment on his supposed change in body.
Although the psychologist was referring to the mindset of cult members, I have to wonder how often people do the same thing in every day life…..How often do people want and/or need something so badly that they begin to alter what is real around them to make themselves feel better. Some people would argue that is all religion is in general. Others would argue that is all life is….what is reality??? Isn’t everyone’s reality how they perceive it, even if it is not what is actually real, what is real is what we believe to be real. How can we tell the difference between actual reality and our perception of reality?
Do we all live in an altered reality? If so, what is it that makes us decide who is a part of it and who is not “normal”? Maybe there is a common understanding of the reality that we all experience… Look at it like this, if there is a fight that happens and ten people are watching the two people fight. There are twelve different interpretations of what happened for things it escalate into a fight. All versions of the story might have comment threads, but everyone’s perception will be just different enough to be declared their version of the story, their truth. Is this how life works? We all live with the common grounding to the world, but have our own perceptions from then on?
