3 Dominant Narratives You’ve Been Conditioned to Believe — And You Need to Unmask

See through the haze of myths to escape the culture’s matrix.

A narrative is a coherence of beliefs that creates a story in our minds. We use these stories to shape our realities. According to Owen Flanagan, a leading consciousness researcher: “Evidence strongly suggests that humans in all cultures come to cast their own identity in some sort of narrative form. We are inveterate storytellers.”

We create stories. Culture is a product of the cohesion of hundreds of little stories, an assemblage of hundreds of narratives.

There are many examples of narratives. Racism is a classic phenomenon that derives from “non-healthy” narratives. Patriarchy was one of them but it has faded out through the years. Another example, which is still apparent today, is race superiority. Both of these are obviously wrong.

However, so many people were conditioned with them. Hence, whole societies bought into them very densely. As a result, these narratives became dominant and for a period of time, they were characterized as “normal ” while entire nations had stepped upon them.

These narratives were so subtle. Because no one was rejecting them, they felt so real, to a point they’ve become part of our perception of the world. Nevertheless, we’re still governed by that kind of “stories”. Stories you’ve heard and seen so many times that you can’t doubt, you can’t even imagine them being invalid.

Picture yourself living in the medieval period, in a kingdom. You are a child of a simple farmer. It would be ridiculous for you to believe that you have equal rights with the king. However, as history moved through, you now have.

So, even today, that we think we’ve completely known and explained everything, in fact, we still believe accidentally in myths. And myths are meant to be revealed — That’s how the truth uncovers. Shall we start?

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” — Descartes

1. The Consumerist Marketing Effect

We live in a consumerist culture. Marketing is everywhere. Every day you’re getting overwhelmed by thousands of commercials and advertisements that are popping up non-stop. They sell you all day long.

If you’ve been born in the 70s or later, you’ve been conditioned to believe in the narrative, that you have tons of needs and you must buy in order to fulfill them. What type of needs? Of course, the imaginary and plasmatic ones; those that exist just to satisfy our endless wants and to indulge our mania for status, recognition, and power.

And what about you? You’re standing in the middle, being hit by the countless “shots-sales ”of the “musketeers-marketeers”. They step upon your evolutionary psychology and your flaws as a human to make you feel less to give them some money. Eventually, you‘ve been seriously psychologically damaged.

You don’t feel enough. You feel inadequate. You have an emptiness in your chest. Even how much you feed it, that starving emotion will furiously implore for more. You’re never satisfied with anything. You’ve been programmed to believe that “you need something”

2. The Hollywood’s and Disney’s Movies Relationship “Symptom”

Since we’ve been little kids we’ve grown up thinking that we need to find our soulmate to fulfill us. That dominant romantic myth is playing in our insecurities and intensifies them. However, it’s so indirect that we all accept it unconsciously.

As a teenager when I started flirting with girls, I had this false expectation that I have to find my other half. As a result, I was feeling incomplete. I was waiting for someone to complete me.

This narrative also feeds many relationship problems. Phenomena of strong dependence and extreme possessiveness have become very often and “normal” since we’re used to naming them as cute indications of love. When we attach to our partner so strongly we “choke ” them emotionally, whereas, in our part, we think that we’ve been completed, like the protagonist in the film.

However, the reality is way more different, from Hollywood or Disney movies. And usually, it ends up with tears but not for a happy ending. Give yourself permission to feel complete, and don’t crave for a romantic partner to fulfill the void within you.“You don’t need to find your soulmate”

3. The Happiness Paradox

We’ve been conditioned to believe that happiness is something we obtain when we finally accomplish certain things or goals. This narrative is being replicated through the subtle feedback and messages we receive from our social environment. For instance, in your childhood, when your dad had taken a rise in his job, it was the first and the last time you saw him being happy.

The paradox lies in the fact that happiness comes internally not externally. It only exists in the “now”. The concept that someday, somehow, we’ll discover it is completely untrue. It just makes us forget more and more to appreciate what we have and what we’re lucky to possess. This narrative makes us focus on tomorrow and lose the moment. The present moment is all we have.

It makes us chasing our shadow — our future. Because the future is untamable. You’ll never catch it. Aim for a better career, success, and life conditions but still be grateful for the situation that you’re currently in.“One Day You’ll Find Happiness” is a myth.

“The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is.” Eckhart Tolle

Final Thoughts

We, as a species have been evolving thanks to our willingness to unlearn. Of course, unlearning things is difficult and challenging, let alone if those things are beliefs that are deeply rooted in our core.

Of course, now, we don’t speak about a biological or a civilizational evolution. We’re are talking about an emotional and internal one. However, the same principles apply everywhere.

Reflect on the delusional narratives and demystify them. Distinguish the falsehood and separate it from the truth. This is how you’re ascending in life.

“To attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood. It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing the Darkness. It cannot be.” Frank Herbert

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