Emily McDonald

perceive the vertical objects like the table legs, but they wouldn't get up and perch on horizontal ledges and they wouldn't respond normally to horizontal oriented objects.

And so I remember learning about that experiment.

And again, it's just kind of, you know, the vision system and the taste and all of our senses, that's kind of the micro level.

But then when you think about the kitten experiment, this is sort of the macro level of how our programming is actually shaping our reality.

And when I learned about that, I was like, whoa, where am I the kitten in my own life?

And I ask myself this all the time, like every time I want to level up or I have a new goal, like, okay, like where am I the kitten right now?

Because maybe this new thing that I'm wanting is a stripe that I've never seen.

And if I've never seen it and it's not familiar to my brain, it could be right in front of my face and I wouldn't be able to capitalize on that opportunity or I wouldn't even be able to maybe even necessarily notice it.

I might not even notice it.

And so, yeah, I think that all of this together kind of just really had me start to really think about, OK, wow, my brain is really constructing my entire experience of reality.

And if that's true, I remember when I first told my grandma about this and she was terrified.

She was like, well, that's scary.

Emily, why are you saying this to me?

She was actually scared.

And, you know, I don't blame her.

It's kind of, you know, shifting.

But.

I said no mammy like it's not it's not terrifying it's actually quite empowering because when you realize that your brain is constructing your entire experience of reality then and through and you understand the power of neuroplasticity right you can actually rewire your brain and adapt and learn new things and familiarize yourself with new things then you can actually change your experience of reality and that's where it gets super empowering yeah well said I

Yeah, he calls it a controlled hallucination.

Yeah, I was the kitten in so many different areas.