THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY

This is a tenet of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming.)  We can plan a journey by poring over maps, reading travel guides and deciding an itinerary, but we cannot have the experience until we actually go and do it!

When I was young I had strong beliefs and thought that things were either true or false before I began to recognise that there are many shades of grey, but over my many years I've come to the realisation that my belief system is nothing but a construct; and that must be true of every other human being.
From my early conditioning of racial, family, cultural, educational and religious identity, my beliefs have broadened out through psychology, astrology and philosophical studies.
But many people I meet are stuck in the mindset of their own belief system and find it difficult to acknowledge that other unfamiliar beliefs may be equally valid, or may reluctantly accept that there can be areas of agreement, but that their beliefs are unassailable... so there!

When I have a client who's stuck in the rut of a negative mindset, I can use EFT with NLP to help install new ways of thinking, but its not always so eay to change entrenched beliefs. One way I help them understand how our mind constructs our beliefs is to talk about our dreams... and explain how the mind constructs a story to make some sense of the emotions coursing through us while we sleep. We might notice how children do this all the time, to make sense of their world, which misguided parents might call lying!
Having worked with many elderly clients with dementia or Altzheimers, I've noticed how they do the same thing. Old people like to tell their 'story'... because it defines who they think they are. Sometimes the 'story' is complete nonsense, but that's how their mind has constructed their memories.

I have to conclude that all the maps we have... whether political, religious, astrological, culural or whatever... are simply that... MAPS that tell us where we are in the scheme of things. They are not necessarily true or false, but simply constructs, guides and signposts throughout life.

The Map is NOT the Territory! I've consulted many maps and like to think that I've left the beaten track and followed the road less travelled... at least some of the time... so as to really experience the territory.