Perception: The Roadblock To Logic And Critical Thinking
By Dorraine Fisher
I’m out to prove that logic and critical thinking are the biggest ruses ever perpetuated onto the human race. Or at least to make people think about them a little bit deeper and question what these terms are really suggesting. Until we all turn into Vulcans like Mr. Spock from Star Trek and can stoically and methodically analyze our own thoughts, we need to scrap these ideas entirely.

According to Merriam-Webster, logic is a science that deals with the principles and criteria of validity of inference and demonstration: the science of the formal principles of reasoning.

I’ve always found this definition troublesome because it doesn’t clarify where these “formal principles of reasoning” come from. It doesn’t allow for the inevitable personal perceptions of the one who is attempting to be “reasonable.” Every single person you talk to believes they’re being reasonable or logical, but it’s based on their own perceptions of what reasonable and logical mean to them personally.  And it’s based on their personal perceptions of the subject they’re attempting to be logical about.

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Why Some Of Us Aspire To Conspiracy Theories
By Dorraine Fisher
When you have a large population of people in the world as we do right now, it’s impossible to control them all physically. But they DO have to find a way to control us because they’re afraid of us. Because we have power beyond measure and they know it. So what do they have to do? They have to find ways to control our minds.

The term “conspiracy theorist” has often been used as a derogatory term to objectify a certain group of people and make them look crazy. But this is only another means of mind control. It’s an attempt to make one group of people who aren’t grounded in who they really are and who feel safer running with the herd believe that thinking for themselves isn’t acceptable.  And it’s also an attempt to try and make the conspiracy theorists doubt themselves or suffer too much ridicule so that they give up their original ideas and give in to the mindset of the status quo.

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Gaslighting is the act of telling someone they didn’t see what they think they saw and attempting to shut down the conversation and make them think they’re crazy for bringing it up. Paranormal witnesses and investigators know this all too well. People do it to them all the time.  But they don’t care. Being called crazy in the paranormal community is a badge of honor they consent to wear. This is the price they pay for blazing the trails for true critical thinking.

The world is changing fast, and there’s a war raging right now on out-of-the-box thinkers. Anyone capable of thinking beyond what they’re being told on a daily basis by the media or any other of the powers-that-be, are being called conspiracy theorists, or just unintelligent. But why? Well, let’s be real here. Some of them have an agenda. And not a very nice one. Some of them would like to suppress any kind of critical or out-of-the-box thinking because it threatens their status quo and their ability to manipulate us.

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I often chuckle when people start talking about critical thinking. Many people think they’re critical thinkers,including me at times, until I correct myself, because it’s harder to think critically than one might imagine.

According to the Foundation For Critical Thinking, critical thinking “is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.”

This is a great and very thorough definition. And I was happy to see that it now acknowledges the flaw in it that I’ve been talking about for years. The flaw that comes from the humans themselves.

No human, no matter how much they claim to be a critical thinker is devoid of human flaws. We all believe lies sometimes. We all are subject to irrational or uncontrolled thinking at times. We are all slaves to our personal perceptions more often than we imagine. Real critical thinking relies a great deal on our ability to understand and control our own thoughts and recognize when our thinking is flawed. The problem is, the majority of people are unable to do this. And the most dangerous thing is that, all the while, they’ll think they’re doing it. This is why I’m a bit guarded when people claim to be critical thinkers. I’ve known very few.

It's one thing to be able to think. It's quite another to be able to think about what you think. To pick it apart and analyze it and decide if every part of it is useful or not. And it’s quite another thing entirely to be able to decide that maybe what you were thinking before is wrong. That’s where the supposed critical thinkers often hit a snag.

Even the most intelligent people get caught up in the idea of being right. Like being right is the most important thing there is. And being wrong is the equivalent of the sky falling. And the basic insecurities of humanity cloud the discussion before it even starts. Egos get in the way. They often need to feel they’re right and superior in their thinking. So, in order to achieve this, someone has to be wrong. And this is where critical thinking falls apart. Not because of critical thinking itself, but in the failure of the humans to implement it.

There are a lot of people who might roll their eyes at me when I say this, but exercising subjects like cryptozoology and the paranormal is a good practice on the subject of critical thinking. They teach us to think about what we once thought and whether we still want to believe it.

In the worlds of cryptozoology and the paranormal, there is a whole group of people whose paradigms have been forever changed by something they saw or experienced. Something that wasn’t supposed to exist, or something they didn’t believe existed.

Are these people incapable of critical thinking? Not at all. But they are, like every other member of humanity, subject to their own personal perceptions, shaped by an unusual experience. This can’t be avoided. But the important thing to remember is that the group of humans judging this person’s experience and claiming it was a figment of their imagination are also in possession of the same human flaws and personal perceptions created by their LACK of having had the same experience. So is anyone here really applying critical thinking? Not really.

If our personal perceptions get in the way of our analyzing a subject, then we’re not thinking critically. In order to be a real critical thinker, we have to recognize this problem and eliminate perception from our thought processes. We have to have the ability to clear our minds of any preconceived thoughts, beliefs, or ideas that will hinder the process of getting to the truth.
  
That is what critical thinking REALLY is. It’s being able to think about and analyze our own thinking and correct it when necessary. But the hardest part is recognizing when we need to do this. It’s  not an easy task, and I’ve rarely seen anyone able to do it completely. We have to  entertain the idea that we could be wrong, and that’s not easy for many people.  It takes a lifetime of self-reflection and self-analysis in order to even begin to really do this right.

So, are you a critical thinker or not? If you’ve read this article through this far, then I know you’re at least open to the idea. The real success is in implementing it. Which requires critical thinking. It’s hard being human.

Reference: The Foundation For Critical Thinking

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