Mental Filters

Our limited capacity to learn necessitates having a filter to reduce the amount of information to a level we can absorb and make sense out of. Our filters are biased and molded and tightened by culture and bigotry. The new birth brings a new filter. We will always have a filter because of our limited ability. We always believe our filter is correct no matter how irrational. A mew filter must come supernaturally but it also must be chosen and accepted. A filter strengthens and grows by feeding on information that favors its bias.

There are two basic kinds/types of filters – those based on FEAR and those rooted in LOVE.

A fear filter narrows and restricts over time until it chokes out all counter information. A love filter zeros in on life-giving information and faces, and over time is able to expand one's capacity to think more broadly, more complex and with peace. An indicator of what kind of filter we are using is how we define the word “truth”. If truth means primarily information collected to buttress our bias, then likely you will find that fear is the adhesive used to hold it all together. If truth is a balanced discovery of life-giving relationships and information that contributes to explaining and enhancing those relationships, then you will likely begin to notice that compassion and love is the substance of choice to bind together the various materials and people that bring joy.

As a person moves from the 4+ level lower and lower in the brain he loses relational capacity, synchronization etc. Ironically sometimes he believes while he is moving deeper into isolation that in fact he is ascending into higher and higher truth. He becomes more intense in self-justification and becomes frenzied in assembling information and facts in his own defense. He believes himself to be approaching the very center of truth while in fact he is losing touch with reality because of his isolation of spirit. He insulates himself with facts so that he cuts off more and more channels of communication from outside his mind. Intensification of false reality leads to a self-justifying spirit which by extension is also an other-blaming, other-condemning spirit.

Growing awareness of true reality leads to more spontaneous compassion. To realize how and why someone is self-deceived can nurture pity, caring, concern and a warming that I too often suffer from self-deception and need latitude from others and protection from God while I grow.