The Shell

Let’s play a mind game; however before the game one needs to understand a story. It is the story of a cave that was devised by Plato as part of a mind game trying to understand “reality” 

The story is explained as a dialog between Platos brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates. Narrated by Socrates

It starts with Socrates stating that there exist prisoners chained together in a cave. Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners are people carrying puppets or other objects. This casts a shadow on the other side of the wall. The prisoners watch these shadows, believing them to be real. Socrates then posits that one prisoner could become free. He finally sees the fire and realizes the shadows are fake. This prisoner could escape from the cave and discover there is a whole new world outside that they were previously unaware of. This prisoner would believe the outside world is so much more real than that in the cave. He would try to return to free the other prisoners. Upon his return, he is blinded because his eyes are not accustomed to actual sunlight. The chained prisoners would see this blindness and believe they will be harmed if they try to leave the cave.

Now that you know the story of the cave let us replace some of the circumstance in the cave. 

The changes to be done are as follows 

1. Imagine that there is only one person in the cave (you). Not chained at all but free to move around 
2. You are also the one that is casting the shadows on the walls with the help of a fire 
3. You also know what exists outside but prefer to be mesmerised by the shadows on the wall and continue to feel safe in the comforts of the cave. 

Sounds familiar? The cave represents us in our normal day to day life’s; happy and content with our beliefs, values and or ideas. The Shadows on the wall represents our beliefs, values and or ideas which we so dearly cling on too. The outside represents the real world which we are very afraid of as it is full of unknowns. 

Physiology calls this condition cognitive dissonance - we tend to hold on to beliefs , ideas and or values which are contradictory to the real world. A simple example of this would be to “pig out” on a meal when going out and then complaining that one cannot loose weight. Not only that but being able to find an excuse to justifying that cheat meal by saying that I will exercise more to compensate and never getting to do it. 

All of us have this shell or cave where we retreat too when faced with the unknown or when faced with difficult questions. It’s the easiest thing to do. In the more extreme cases folks tend to shut themselves from all social contact and prefer to live the rest of their life in isolation. (Someone on a spiritual quest will also isolate themselves but they do so for quiet contemplation)

We don’t even realise that we are in a shell or a cave and that to get in touch with reality again will require a lot of effort on our part. Namely identifying the false belief/value/idea that is holding us in the cave and seeing it for what it really is. Then making the effort to step out into reality again. This is a forced attitudinal change that has to occur - one has to understand the imbalance cause by the belief/value/idea and make an effort to bring balance . 

C