Mental Filtering

Mental Filtering


Mental filtering is something we all do, often unknowingly. The human mind (and thus, the eyes) rejects things in its conscious when it is objectionable to the viewer. Mental filtering is often person-specific, meaning each of us rejects or accepts things based off our personal likes and dislikes. We are not as open-minded as we initially fathom. We are beings with a mind that has a certain “tune” of clarity. At the core, the human mind should reject nothing. However, as personality is formed, we develop a sense of conscience that wishes to see only what it approves of.


The Mind’s Filter

We are creatures who believe in many things, and as mentioned, this is personally shaped as we grow up and live life. We are not astute beings who are okay with everything our senses take in. Instead, we are beings who shape our morals or lose our morals. Morals are also personally based and can differ radically from person to person. This does not mean that one has diminished morals, but more so that their locale and family have helped to shape the person’s morals in a way they or the individual sees as appropriate. This means that the person will mentally filter what is against those shaped morals. Simply put, the mind will not want to view what’s stressful or uncomfortable to it. This is the mind using its defense mechanisms to its fullest.


Mental filtering is something I would describe as “choice ignorance.” It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a shield to protect the mind from things that could educate the person fuller. Otherwise, mental filtering is used in a correct way to reject what is uncomfortable to most or all people. Where mental filtering develops is anyone's guess. Why would we want to blind ourselves to new truths? No one knows exactly, nor will they ever. Perhaps years of selective mental conditioning and control has made us reject common things that are educational and when it comes to things that are actually objectional we tend to accept them in through our filter. Thus mental filtering is needed when it is executed correctly. We are otherwise committing the mistakes of our past generations when we accept an incorrect view or belief as our own.

Mental filtering is a process that can be seen as a person looking through a microscope or pulling away when the “organisms” (or ideas) are not suitable to the viewer’s taste. Mental filtering is something that should be viewed completely as “ignorance is bliss.” This is a thing that should be discouraged in people. Ignorance is truly a conditional stage for the mind. The line between clarity and disrupted for the mind seems to be too large and too great. I cannot learn from my mistakes if I fail to see the virtue of not letting the mistake happen again. Likewise, letting our mind never try something new that could be beneficial to the person is a crime, and our culprit is mental filtering. Embrace new things and ideas constantly, as what we hold close to ourselves now could definitively change should we find something new and amazing that would of otherwise been shut out due to mental filtering. Filter all media fairly. Reject what is only truly inappropriate. Learning from others perspectives creates empathy. I am not telling you to go and shake hands with people who are living a disturbing lifestyle, but what I am telling you that this world has a combined mental filter that could use some fixing. Do not subscibe to what this world tells you to do. Instead, adjust your mental filter and accept people today.