How Do We Know What’s Real
In a world increasingly shaped by information overload, emotional fragmentation, and competing truths, How Do We Know What’s Real? offers a psychologically grounded exploration of perception, belief, and awareness. Through eight audio-based lessons with full transcripts, this course helps you examine how your mind constructs reality—and how to live with more clarity, flexibility, and presence. You’ll learn how memory, identity, culture, and trauma influence what you see and believe, and discover practical ways to step outside automatic patterns and relate to reality more skillfully. The outcome is not certainty—but grounded insight, psychological coherence, and a deeper connection to the world as it actually is.
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Lesson 1: Why Reality Matters
In this opening lesson, we explore why the nature of reality is not just a philosophical question, but a deeply psychological one. We look at how confusion, disorientation, and fragmentation affect mental health, and why understanding our internal frameworks is the first step toward clarity and coherence.
In this opening lesson, we explore why the nature of reality is not just a philosophical question, but a deeply psychological one. We look at how confusion, disorientation, and fragmentation affect mental health, and why understanding our internal frameworks is the first step toward clarity and coherence.
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Lesson 2: What Do We Mean by Reality?
This lesson breaks down what we’re actually referring to when we use the word “reality.” We unpack objective vs. subjective reality, consensus culture, and how language and cognition shape what we experience as true. Reality, it turns out, is more layered than we think.
This lesson breaks down what we’re actually referring to when we use the word “reality.” We unpack objective vs. subjective reality, consensus culture, and how language and cognition shape what we experience as true. Reality, it turns out, is more layered than we think.
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Lesson 3: The Mind as Filter – Perception, Belief, and Memory
Here we explore how the brain doesn’t just record reality—it constructs it. We dive into the science of perception, belief formation, memory distortion, and the shortcuts the mind uses to keep us safe, even when those shortcuts come at a cost.
Here we explore how the brain doesn’t just record reality—it constructs it. We dive into the science of perception, belief formation, memory distortion, and the shortcuts the mind uses to keep us safe, even when those shortcuts come at a cost.
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Lesson 4: Living in Narratives – Identity and Meaning-Making
Humans are storytelling beings. This lesson examines how we form narrative identities, how our personal stories shape what we see as real, and why meaning is often more important to us than accuracy. We also explore how healing happens when stories become more flexible.
Humans are storytelling beings. This lesson examines how we form narrative identities, how our personal stories shape what we see as real, and why meaning is often more important to us than accuracy. We also explore how healing happens when stories become more flexible.
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Lesson 5: When Reality Fractures – Trauma, Dissonance, and Distortion
What happens when our inner world can no longer contain what we’ve lived through? This lesson looks at trauma as a collapse of narrative coherence, the role of dissociation and dissonance, and how the mind protects itself when reality becomes unbearable.
What happens when our inner world can no longer contain what we’ve lived through? This lesson looks at trauma as a collapse of narrative coherence, the role of dissociation and dissonance, and how the mind protects itself when reality becomes unbearable.
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Lesson 6: Consensus and Culture – Shared Reality in a Fractured World
Consensus reality holds communities together—but what happens when it falls apart? This lesson explores how culture, media, and belonging shape our shared sense of truth, and how psychological safety can determine what we’re even willing to believe.
Consensus reality holds communities together—but what happens when it falls apart? This lesson explores how culture, media, and belonging shape our shared sense of truth, and how psychological safety can determine what we’re even willing to believe.
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Lesson 7: Awareness Beyond the Mind – Disidentification and Presence
What if we’re not the contents of our mind? In this lesson, we explore disidentification and presence as psychological tools. You’ll learn how awareness allows us to observe thought without being ruled by it—and why this shift offers real contact with reality.
What if we’re not the contents of our mind? In this lesson, we explore disidentification and presence as psychological tools. You’ll learn how awareness allows us to observe thought without being ruled by it—and why this shift offers real contact with reality.
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Lesson 8: Living With Openness – Psychological Flexibility and Grounded Curiosity
In this final lesson, we look at how to live without needing certainty. We explore psychological flexibility and grounded curiosity as mature responses to a complex world—and offer an approach to reality rooted not in control, but in clarity, contact, and care.
In this final lesson, we look at how to live without needing certainty. We explore psychological flexibility and grounded curiosity as mature responses to a complex world—and offer an approach to reality rooted not in control, but in clarity, contact, and care.
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