‘If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.’

This quote from Wayne Dwyer, American Self-help author, encapsulates ‘watershed’ insights from philosophy and science. The famous statement of 17th century British philosopher, Bishop Berkeley, was that ‘objects cannot exist unperceived’. Think about it: can you know anything around you - a building, tree, animal or person - other than through your perceptions? If I look at a rock, or touch it with my hands … everything I know about that rock comes to me via my visual and tactile sensations. Right? It’s hard to disagree. Berkeley concludes that we cannot know the rock at all, only our ‘rock sensations’.

Dwyer takes Berkeley’s dictum a step further really. He’s saying that how I am in myself - my moods, outlook, knowledge, thoughts, emotions - affects how I perceive everything around me or going on in my life. Ok, we already know that. But he puts it in a way that is startling: we literally create our world. Our world is different depending on how we are. How we view our world - buildings, trees, animals and people - determines what we see and how we experience those things.

So what about science? In physics, the ‘Observer effect’ is well-documented. So the act of observing phenomena, has an impact on or alters what is being observed. It’s analogous to checking the air pressure in your car tyres - in doing this, you let some air out which means you’ve already changed what you’re trying to measure. Anyway, this effect is recognised in thermodynamics, electronics and quantum mechanics.

But let’s come back to what this means for us in our everyday life. Something like: be attentive to who you are and the quality of the energy you’re giving out to the world, your loved ones and those closest to you. How about everyone you meet along the way too, whether you know them or not.