Rational thinking is based on a simple premise – that you base your ideas on facts. With the media today deliberately messing with our minds in order to increase their click rates, most people seem to have lost the distinction between fact and fiction. And this is highly dangerous. Not only does it mean we get attached to our opinions, but also that our opinions could be complete distortions of the truth. As a spiritual seeker this is even more alarming, because the path requires that we learn to move beyond the illusion. But this journey tricks us into the exact opposite direction.

So, what’s going on? It is important to understand the mind before we begin. The mind seeks validation and it needs to feel good about itself. The mind also absolutely loves negative emotions because they are way more powerful than positive emotions. So understand this – if you have the slightest opportunity to hate or despise someone for the (seemingly) right reasons, it is an irresistible temptation for your mind. This is exactly what the media feeds on – it supplies you a list of things to hate. And what’s worse, this has today seeped into our daily conversations and attitude too. We love to hate, it makes us feel good. Once we realise this, we can make an attempt to bypass the natural inclination of the mind and take a rational approach.

Fact? Opinion?

Fact is something that is irrefutable. It is something that definitely happened, something that you can be certain of. Opinion is subjective, and will differ from person to person. Let’s take a few examples. You see someone beating someone up. One person is beating another, that is a fact. To say or think that one person was doing it very viciously, or that the victim was in a lot of pain, is an opinion. To imagine that the person doing the beating is a bad person and the person receiving it is a helpless victim is an opinion – it is very possible that the man is beating the other because he saw him trying to rob or molest someone else.

Fact is what you can clearly see, and takes into account that you almost definitely don’t know everything, because we only know what our perspectives allow us – when you are talking about facts, you are open to the idea that the opinion you have formed based on what you saw/ witnessed/ experienced could be completely wrong.

Opinion is an idea formulated in your mind based on incomplete information. There is nothing wrong with having an opinion, it is the nature of the mind to opine. But to imagine that your opinion is accurate is nothing short of stupidity. And what’s worse, to imagine that others who don’t share your opinion are stupid, regressive or backward, there’s nothing more stupid, regressive and backward than this itself.

There’s a lot we can do to separate fact from fiction.

1. Think about the topics you feel strongly about, things you seem to have clashes with people about. Are you talking about fact or opinion? How much proof have you seen regarding your facts? Is it proof enough to convince you alone, or will it convince others too?
2. If you are attached to your ideas and it is difficult for you to hear opposing views or arguments without losing your cool, you are attached to your opinion, and it has nothing to do with facts.
3. When it comes to news about people you know, stop when you hear gossip and ask for proof – if you really do want to engage in the discussion at all. Who saw whom? What are the chances of this information being exaggerated or distorted? Are you commenting on exact incidents or are you commenting on imagined intentions and desires?
4. When it comes to news and national debates, remember that you only know what you’re fed. Unless you are directly involved, you have absolutely no idea about the truth, and it is very possible that what you are fighting for might in reality be completely against your core principles.
5. I find it fascinating how now a days people have an opinion about everything without having any credentials whatsoever. And somehow they are comfortable with this – it doesn’t unsettle them at all, and they can argue with someone who does have credentials and data, without any qualms. When you have an opinion about something, it is important to ask yourself, ‘who am I to have this opinion, do I have any credentials or a solid foundation to base this opinion upon?’ and even if the answer is yes, it is important to remember that it is still ultimately, just an opinion – it is based on incomplete data and may be wrong.For example you might have cured jaundice by eating cinnamon (just a totally random example, please don’t ask jaundiced people to eat cinnamon!) Now this is great, and you might tell a doctor that you ate cinnamon and your jaundice healed – that is a fact, a relative fact. If you say that cinnamon cures jaundice, then that is an opinion. Even your fact could be wrong, maybe the doctor investigates and realises that it wasn’t jaundice in the first place, or maybe you ate the right medicine by mistake at some other point and that is what actually led to the cure, not the cinnamon at all – so it is still a relative fact and may not be entirely accurate.

So your experience is largely fact – it is a relative truth. But to imagine that everyone else experiences the same thing in the same way is not only an opinion, it is also delusional. We live in a world with close to eight billion people. Everyone has a different set of experiences, different perspectives, different cultures, upbringing, circumstances, IQ, EQ and temperament. No two people are going to agree on everything. If we cannot learn to respect and honor the differences among each other, we’re not going to get very far in terms of co-existence. And that is a (relative) fact, isn’t it?