I read a great book called ‘The Moutain is You’ by Brianna Wiest the other day. The general premise of the book is that she gives her readers advice on how to turn self-sabotage into self-mastery, challenging what we think to be true. She explains, in part, what ‘psychic assumptions’ are; the assumption that one can predict the outcome of an event/circumstance/someone’s feelings or thoughts based on previous experiences and cognitive biases. These predictive assumptions are problematic as no one can genuinely predict the outcome of events/someone’s feelings or thoughts, yet we all, to some degree, do it.
Why?
Brianna Wiest’s theory is that psychic assumptions can be a defense mechanism to feel safe. If we can predict outcomes, then there is the chance that we can either control the outcome or not feel disappointed if the expectations are low. It will hurt less. People often worry that if the outcome is undesirable, and they predict the worst, there will be less disappointment. This stems from perceiving the world through a somewhat mistrusting lens – a defense mechanism to protect the ego. And since perception is mainly subjective, a lot of awareness, groundedness, and mindfulness are required to mitigate psychic assumptions.
What are your thoughts? Do you unconsciously practice psychic assumptions?
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