Is Reality Even Real? Part 2 | Self-Deception, Consciousness & Objective Truth
About this episode
This episode explores the nature of reality, self-deception, and how our perceptions shape our experiences.
If your perception isn't objective...How do you know what's actually real? In Part 2 of this Decoded series, Elisabeth McKay explores one of the most unsettling questions in neuroscience and psychology: How does self-deception form, and why does it feel indistinguishable from truth? Building on the foundation established in Part 1, this episode examines how attention, memory, emotional salience, prediction, and past experiences shape the reality you experience every day. Elisabeth explains why two people can experience the same event and leave with completely different conclusions—and why certainty itself may be one of the brain's greatest illusions. In this episode: Why attention determines your experience of reality The Reticular Activating System (RAS) explained How the salience network decides what matters Why memory is reconstructed—not replayed Narrative formation and emotional meaning Why relationships break down over interpretation Trauma, prediction, and self-fulfilling prophecies The psychology of self-deception Reality vertigo and cognitive dissonance Plato's Cave and modern neuroscience Consciousness and the "hard problem" Simulation theory through a…
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