Certainty causes problems in our psyches and in the world. We want to feel certain and we’ll go a long way to get it. It’s a drug. We seek it in the arms of various demi-gods because the alternatives of doubting and not knowing are uncomfortable.
We get addicted to one view or one position and we defend it with pride. Our minds are closed, sometimes bordering on psychotic.
A healthy mental state is free of the addiction to certainty. It accepts uncertainty and is quite content with doubt. Such a mind is open and modest.
Thomas Szasz said:
Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.
I am not suggesting all certainty is bad, but being too certain of the solutions we hold is blinkered. And the worst blinkers are psychosis. Life is a balance. We should be aware of both certainty and doubt and be able to weigh up positions and let go if called upon to do so.
Today, though, there seems to be a prevalence of certainty. Doubt is out.
Here are some of the demigods of certainty.
Unrealistic positive thinking
People desperately seek to manifest realities. A form of positive, humanistic psychology tells us that we can and should have what we want. If we visualise what we want, it will manifest for us. The world is certain. It is in our favour.
Gurus give us a false sense of security that everything will be just as we want it. Personal coaches tell us we must not doubt. We must go for it and we will succeed.
We like these messages because certainty is nice. So the gurus and the coaches do good business.
But a healthy psyche is open to unknowns. He or she understands that unknowns are realistic. A healthy person has hopes and desires and works towards them with trust and realistic confidence… yet is happy to go with the flow and content with other outcomes. This person does not require certainty. In fact contrived certainty makes no sense to this type of person.
Psychics and spiritual conviction
Our drive for certainty takes us into the arms of psychics to tell us our futures. Interesting as the psychic phenomenon is, people should not be addicted to quick answers that psychics provide. It is not healthy to depend on certainty and think you have it. You never have absolute certainty, no matter what someone sees.
Full human development requires contemplation not easy solutions. Consider as many views as you like, but don’t capitulate to the tempting idea that someone knows your future with any certainty, or can tell you how to be.
Dogmatic beliefs
Dogmatic beliefs make us unable to compromise. People stuck in dogma react to the world from an exclusive position. A position that allows for no doubt, no openness to the other and to other perspectives on reality. This certainty crushes the inherent spiritual inclinations in humans to connect and be boundless. It breaks down peaceful societies and ushers in conflict.
Dogma is at pandemic proportions in our world. The Internet and social media makes an ‘expert’ out of everyone. And we follow like sheep.
People are opinionated and certain whether it be spiritually, politically, scientifically or any other realm. The opinionated, certain mind drives conflict within oneself, in families, in work environments, in politics and society. Unreasonable certainty is the root of all conflict.
Science
Many hold science up as the demigod that gives certainty. That is not true today. Of course some cause and effect relationships are certain… but so much more is in doubt.
During the Victorian era, scientists were confident they could predict the behavior of everything from giant galaxies to the smallest atoms from the simple mathematical rules worked out 200 years before by Isaac Newton.
But that confidence dissolved in the 20th century in the face of the spooky weirdness and unavoidable uncertainty of quantum physics. We face the disorienting reality that most of the matter and energy in the universe is, and may remain, ‘dark’ to us.
What we don’t know is expanding not shrinking. This is a crushing realisation for those who are addicted to science’s promised certainty.
Investment gurus and insurance companies
These may be the most powerful of the certainty demigods. They give people the lovely rush of financial security. People sacrifice hours of their daily lives working to maintain expensive insurances and become consumed with investing in supposedly sure deals.
We spend our lives on the work treadmill desperately trying to make sure our futures are certain. We even need certainty that our families will have enough money after we die.
The financial gurus will have you believing there’s no other responsible way to live.
Addiction to certainty
Our brains crave certainty like we crave food, sex and other primary rewards.
A sense of uncertainty about the future generates a strong threat or ‘alert’ response in your limbic system. Your brain detects something is wrong, and your ability to focus on other issues diminishes. Your brain doesn’t like uncertainty – it’s like a type of pain, something to be avoided. Certainty on the other hand feels rewarding, and we tend to steer toward it, even when it might be better for us to remain uncertain.
Our aversion to uncertainty explains why any kind of change can be hard. Change is inherently uncertain. It explains why we prefer things we know over things that might be more fun, or better for us, but are new and therefore uncertain. It explains why we prefer the certainty of focusing on problems and finding answers in data from the past, rather than risking the uncertainty of new, creative solutions.
Healing
Anyone who is faced with a crushing realisation, should take heart for new insight usually follows.
Rebirth comes after death. Light comes after darkness.
Letting go of certainty and opening to doubt is a dark experience. Like breaking any addiction, it is like you are losing a part of yourself. You yearn for it back. But staying clean is the only way to develop as a person beyond the shackles. The embrace of uncertainty and opening to newness, to modesty and trust, has wonderfully liberating psychological effects.
Very few people are willing to accept that life is made up of events that please them and events that upset or challenge them and both have the same level of importance. In fact. You see this in the lack of appreciation for the challenging times and the level of rejoice that comes with pleasing times. Essentially our emotions are controlled by external stimuli and not by our inner selves because if they were controlled by our inner selves it would a possibility that we can perceive how alive we are when solving life’s greatest challenges. The mind also seems to be lacking in malleability and tends to become identified with certain “world” views and the pursuit of certain states. We tell ourselves that “if only I could have this, then I would feel that”, which is a great limitation. Why can we not feel that just by being right now. The answer is simple there is a lack of experience of one’s inner self and constant identification with external things which hold the power over our joy. Terrible. The worst thing about it is that we as human beings refuse to admit our lack of understanding when it comes to matters of the spirit. We instead allow all manner of beliefs to stand in the place of what understanding we could gain from inward looking and in today’s world there are many people we can unite with to share our beliefs such that our ego can be protected from the notion of not knowing such matters. It is quite frightening to see the confidence that comes with people who do not understand, but believe and are happy to do so and judge others who are not believing what they believe because they belong to certain other groups.
Life is beautiful with a wide spectrum of possibilities, we should start developing and feeling our true inner selves so we can begin to have a more holistic experience.
Hi Sonwabe. Nice to have your comments. Maybe run into you again soon… Winstons??