Tag: Bias

The Book of Five Rings – The Wind Book

The Wind Book from Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings is about the changing traditions according to the lifestyle. The Wind Book focuses on multi-disciplinary ways of learning things and developing wisdom. Miyamoto-san through the Wind Book explains that there is no single secret way, no single formula, no single attacking style to solve an unconventional problem.

Miyamoto Musashi’s philosophy for 21st century

Ever Changing Nature of The Wind

Our personality is the outcome of the surroundings, the society we live in, the people we interact with. Our family is the immediate society for us and in most cases has larger impact on our conscious and subconscious choices. The influences from our family, our friends, our heroes/ idols/ role models, the villains we hate create certain set of preferences towards everything. And when stuck in some thin situations, our preferences may become our limitations which surely make life difficult. Miyamoto-san knew this very well and hence in his Wind Book from the Book of Five Rings he tries to throw light on these ideas of obsession and liking towards certain ways of living life.

Miyamoto Musashi while discussing his ‘Way of Strategy’, ‘Way of Life’ through the Book of Five Rings makes sure that the person absorbing all his philosophy will not develop that subconscious bias, preference, liking to his philosophy. For Miyamoto-san, any type of favorite-ism, preference, polarization, liking is instant death when we are faced with the ultimate challenges in the battle of life. We have already seen his philosophy through The Ground Book, The Water Book and The Fire Book. The Wind Book is about how to not follow these ideas blindly.

The Wind Book is about the ways to actually solve the problems, especially the unconventional problems. Unconventional problems have this “unconventional” nature only because they do not fit the “traditional” patterns of our understandings and knowledge. The Wind symbolizes the change. Humanity has gone through many generations, eras to reach to the present modern stage. It is important to notice that the traditions we had before are changing according to the challenges presented to them. Even though we hold on to the traditions symbolizing their preferential nature, inherently orthodox nature but at the same time the adaptability of the same traditions to change themselves to the newer lifestyles indicates how nothing is permanent in our lives. (The word tradition itself points to that which is being done, being carried repetitively over the course of time, mostly mindlessly-mechanically) The Wind Book is about making necessary changes in our Ways of Life. The Wind Book thus demands to do that which is necessary instead of doing that which one loves especially in challenging times in life.  It is about being multidisciplinary in the learning process throughout the life.  

It is Miyamoto-san’s way of saying “Modern problems require modern solution.” (Apologies for the oversimplification)

“It is difficult to know yourself if you do not know others. To all ways there are side-tracks. If you study a way daily, and your spirit diverges, you may think you are obeying a Way but objectively it is not the true way. If you are following the true way and diverge a little, this will later become a large divergence.”

Miyamoto-san was very well aware that the wisdom he was trying to dispense through the Book of Five Rings is solely dependent on efforts the readers will take to implement in their own real, practical life. You will find sentences pointing to self-study, self-practice, self-realization scattered all over the book, rather in almost every paragraph he tells that “you must appreciate this”, “you must learn this on your level”, “you must understand this”. Miyamoto-san urges readers to explore his shared wisdom on their personal level. When a person starts to test and practice a part of technique on his own level without his master’s direct supervision, then there is high possibility that he will practice the technique he loves the most more and will not practice the technique which he does not like or finds difficult. This favor towards certain techniques limits the ability of the person thereby diverts him from the actual intent of the wisdom shared by his master. Many a times, when the pupil fails certain unconventional challenges even after fully practicing, he blames his master for not teaching him completely and properly. Miyamoto-san thus warns his pupil to not stick to a favorite technique, favorite philosophy. He knows that even a small preference towards a thing can drag the person completely back in the moments of challenge (just like the story of Achilles’ heel)

The story of Achilles heel implies that even a single insignificant weakness can cause downfall of great person in unconventional challenges. It is rooted in the myth of Achilles’ mother dipping him in the River Styx, making his entire body invulnerable except for the part of his foot where she held him—the proverbial Achilles heel.

The Wind Book

The Wind according to Miyamoto-san refers to the traditions- the old, the present day and the family traditions. The Wind book is about picking the best from the ongoing trends and not blindly sticking to certain favorite trends. For the trends, traditions keep on changing continuously like the Wind.

“Without knowledge of the Ways of other schools, it is difficult to understand the essence of my Ichi school.”

In simple words, this is Miyamoto-san’s attempt to convince how his philosophy works by using practical and effective technique of comparison. It is his way to point out where other schools go wrong.

“That none of these are the true Way I show clearly in the interior of this book – all he vices and virtues and rights and wrongs. My Ichi school, is different. Other schools make accomplishments their means of livelihood, growing flowers and decoratively, coloring articles in order to sell them. This is definitely not the way of strategy.“

Wisdom is free from the material gains. And the wisdom of Miyamoto-san is not meant for the material gains rather it lies above all materialistic things. Even in the Ground book Miyamoto Musashi make is very clear that the real way to live a life is not about extending yourselves to some material gains, it is about discovering different possibilities the life offers and remaining open to such experiences. If you already have preferences towards certain ways of life then you won’t be able to experience the infinite possibilities of the life.

Many of us have such early preferences in our lives, especially while transitioning from the campus to professional life. Education system has further amplified such preferences. It is not imperative if one is an engineer then he/she should only follow that profession for life. There are other and many ways to discover life, this also does not mean that one should blindly follow the trend to achieve what others have achieved.    

Other Schools Using Extra-Long Swords

Miyamoto-san now focuses on how certain schools, idea of combat actually has a characteristic style, preferences towards certain move, certain weapon. This preference, this characteristic style actually limits the person in completely unconventional challenges which may lead to death.

“I expect there is a case for the school in question liking extra-long sword as a part of its doctrine. But if we compare this to real life it is unreasonable.“

Those people who consider themselves the expert of long sword will fall short when they are trapped and cornered in confined spaces – where free movements become restricted. The skills they practiced hard, the skills the bound their whole lives to – here the skill of long sword fighting will be of no use. Blindly following certain technique without an intent to understand it will be fatal in life altering scenarios.

“From older times, it has been said: “Great and small go together.” So do not unconditionally dislike extra-long swords. What I dislike is the inclination towards the long sword.“

Thus Miyamoto-san again makes his point clear. He has no problem with the people teaching these techniques, he has problem with students blindly sticking to these techniques and these techniques only because these are their favorite techniques. Your enemy won’t always see you your favorite moves and attack accordingly, rather he will attack with that moves which you do not like (obviously that is why he is your enemy in the end). Too much inclination towards certain things, certain ideologies, certain, styles, ways of thinking can narrow our field of perception and create biases.

“In my doctrine, I dislike preconceived narrow spirit.“

The idea is to keep you mind open while diligently practicing certain technique, skill. A true teacher always wants his pupil to follow his teachings but also to develop his own personal style, his personal touch.

The Strong Long Sword Spirit in Other Schools

When Miyamoto-san explained how long sword can be problematic in a confined areas he is aware that a blind follower will call long sword a bad choice. That is why make it clear that it was never about the weapon, it is always about the attitude of the warrior, the intent of the warrior which is to kill the enemy. Whatever weapon you carry, whatever technique you use – do it with the intent to execute the job instead of showing off the weapon or technique.

Miyamoto-san explains that when you think of using long sword strongly your cuts will fall short and ineffective also you could not attack with lesser strength as it is already a foolish move. What you are trying to do while attacking with strength is to execute the style and weapon in a style, you want that move to happen in certain stylish way – that actually won’t kill the enemy. This gets even worse when enemy recognizes the style you are trying to demonstrate, thereby predicting your attack. Miyamoto-san calls such techniques of blindly using strength to win the battles a foolish move.

He says:

“The strongest hand wins.” has no meaning.

Even in big battles if your enemy is as strong as you, then using strength will only consume your valuable resources and there will be no favorable outcome. This is time when a warrior must think with the intent of winning instead of focusing of small details of how to execute certain style of attack on an enemy. The warrior must think in an unconventional way when strengths are equal.

“The spirit of my school is to win through the wisdom of strategy, paying no attention to trifles.”

Use of the shorter long sword in other schools

Miaymoto-san again practically explains that for big people handling big sword i.e., Tachi will be very easy and for the same reason short sword i.e.; Katana will be least preferred to them. Big people already have such preferences. Some people will think that by using the Katana – Shorter Long Sword they can stab enemy by easily jumping over unguarded enemy.

Tachi – long sword and Katana – short sword

“To aim for the enemy’s unguarded movement is completely defensive and undesirable at close quarters with the enemy.“

Miyamoto-san makes it clear that even preference towards Katana s ineffective for those who think that Shorter long sword – Katana is better that the Long sword – Tachi. When a warrior will be surrounded by many enemies, he will have to sweep his Katana multiple times in fight which will be difficult when simultaneously fighting many people. He will get “entangled” with the enemy, meaning that his moves will be predictable to the other enemies around him.

“The sure way to win thus is to chase the enemy around in confusing manner, causing him to jump aside, with your body held strongly and straight. You must chase the enemy around and make him obey your spirit.“

So, Miyamoto-san says here that it is not only about executing a sword move or using either Tachi or Katana effectively in the battle. It is about confusing enemy to kill him and kill him only. Your enemy won’t fall for your technique and when he knows your technique it is already useless. You enemy will fall for the spirit of unpredictability you hold which cannot be gauged by certain techniques, styles.  

Other Schools with Many Methods of Using the Long Sword

It is very interesting how Miyamoto-san in his times understood what actually urges a person to like certain move, prefer certain weapon, prefer certain style. It is because the student thinks that this is the formula, the ultimate way to dominate the enemy. He thinks that ‘this’ style he likes will bring something special out of him. He thinks that this template guarantees his victory, because following certain set of style a template calms his mind through the illusion of predictability in chaotic situations. It is only when things don’t happen the way this person expected, then he realizes the illusion of style, illusion of ‘attitude’ he was carrying with him.

That is exactly why Miyamoto Musashi explain that the best style is to follow no style. The best secret is that there is not secret. (Classic Kung Fu Panda moment)

“Attitude – No attitude“

“The Secret ingredient is that there is no secret ingredient”

Style brings in predictability which eases the mind of enemy and gives patterns t defeat you. By imbibing free spirit, a warrior becomes unpredictable and lethal. He dominates his enemy simply by confusing the enemy instead of using special technique, special resource or special weapon.

“Attitude is the spirit of awaiting an attack”

Attitudes are meant only when the warrior is practicing, when there is no enemy. Enemy will never wait for your style to get executed properly, rather he expects exactly opposite.

Fixing the Eyes in Other Schools

Miyamoto-san also explains how certain combat techniques teach the warrior to focus on certain parts weapons of the enemy. He knew that if the warrior only focuses on certain areas during the fight, then he eventually narrows down his vision. Narrowing vision immediately cascades into his own confusion if even a single move goes unpredictable.

“If you fix the eyes on these places your spirit can become confused and your strategy thwarted.”

In simple words, if one only focuses on certain zones, areas of the enemy he can be easily fooled of confused when enemy discovers his areas of preferences.

In modern times, we have so much raw data, information available everywhere that is has started overwhelming us. It has created those unbreakable reward cycles, short term pleasure cycles which are difficult to break. Very few amongst us are able to actually make sense of the information we are being fed continuously. Thus Miyamoto-san talks here about developing a sense of intuition, insights and understanding about the information around us. He does not want a mechanical fighting machine executing techniques seamlessly, reacting to the attack effectively; he wants a thinking warrior who can end the battle with minimum resources and minimum damage.

“When you become accustomed to something, you are not limited to the use of your eyes.”

When you perceive and feel surrounding around you, when you develop an intuition, you never react mechanically rather you react with an intent. When a seasoned musician is playing his instrument, he does not even feel the need to look at the positioning of his fingers, his limbs. He is so in-tune with the music that he can play certain improvisation even without physically looking at the instrument. That is what is the difference between seeing and perceiving.

When a warrior comes out of this mechanistic nature of styles, moves then he truly becomes visionary. He does not need physical eyes to understand the surroundings around him.

Use of the Feet in Other Schools

Miyamoto-san also talks about how a warrior should use his feet in combat. As his teachings go, there is no special way of walking to win any fight.

“In my strategy, the footwork does not change. I always walk as I usually do in the street. You must never lose control of your feet. According to the enemy’s rhythm, move fast or slowly, adjusting your body not too much and not too little.”

In simple words, if enemy notices that you are walking slow then you become predictable; you will again become predictable when enemy notices that you are running fast. So, the idea is to walk normally to demonstrate your calm spirit as if nothing is happening to you. This confuses the enemy who is so eager to understand your rhythm and attack accordingly.

Destroying the predictability in every possible sense is the idea of winning a neck-to-neck competitive game.

Speed in Other Schools

Miyamoto-san also clears one myth in combat that being fast guarantees victory.

“Speed implies that things seem fast or slow, according to whether or not they are in rhythm. Whatever the Way, the master of strategy does not appear fast.“

Whenever a warrior thinks that it is the speed that actually killed the enemy, he is wrong. It was the unpredictability, out of rhythm move that killed him. If the enemy would have been as fast as you then that same move would be useless.

Speed in every combat is always relative as Miyamoto-san goes here. He wants the warrior to be full of intent and not speedy or swift. He wants the warrior to make the attack at the right time, with full intent and with full clarity.

“Interior” and “Surface” in other Schools

Miyamoto-san exclusively wrote the Wind Book to discuss the shortcomings of having certain favorite style of fighting. On superficial level and for a normal reader, it will feel like he is trying to brag about how and why only his technique is the best technique in the whole world. But deep down when Miyamoto-san clarifies the shortcomings of the other schools and people of those schools blindly following such teachings then it becomes very clear why there is never such thing like a single formula to victory or a single weapon to defeat them all or a single style to kill an enemy. In a way Miyamoto-san actually identified the concept of Black Swan in his ancient days. There will always be something which you cannot gauge, cannot predict which will completely contradict to what your previous beliefs were before. It will challenge you to change all the previous assumptions, styles, preferences you had.  

A Black Swan Effect is an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight-previous date to predict.
People used to think that there is no such thing as a Black Swan until they discovered one in Australia.

Hence, he instructs the readers about how to start learning something new. According to Miyamoto-san, the ways of learning are always changing like the wind, there is no style or no single style to achieve anything and everything in our lives. As a lifelong learner, you will start somewhere and build on it without having any prejudices, presumptions and keep your eyes open to everything beneficial in your knowledge building process. The idea is to start with what you like just to penetrate the topic but when you get the hold of it you must not limit it to your preferences, you should widen your perspectives to learn the new and unconventional.

“When I teach my way, I first teach by training in techniques which are easy for the pupil to understand, a doctrine which is easy to understand. I gradually endeavor to explain the deep principle, points, which it is hardly possible to comprehend, according to the pupil’s progress. In any event, because the way to understanding is through experience, I do not speak of “interior” and “gate”.“

Richard Feynman was one such person who was known such unconventional critical thinking and problem solving, Pablo Picasso who is known for creating such out of the world and unconventional perspectives through his art. These are some examples of people who truly rediscovered what their domains of expertise were.

“I could now continue by giving a specific account of these schools one by one, from the “gate” to the “interior”, but I have intentionally not named the schools or their main points. The reason for this is that different branches of schools give different interpretations of the doctrines. In as much as men’s opinion differ, so there must be differing ideas on the same matter. Thus no one man’s conception is valid for any school.“

Miyamoto-san here explains why his teachings do not include the best of all, the first of all technique to fight the battle – one-to-one or in masses. He also makes it clear that why he didn’t even number his teachings, techniques, chapters or the books. He knew that our human mind is so perceptible of the patterns, rankings, preferences in everything that it immediately develops a bias, a preference towards everything. Miyamoto Musashi’s the Wind Book thus is all about understanding the traditions, changing them by challenging the bad aspects for the ultimate gain of true wisdom. This process itself is never ending, hence it is not a job of single person or a single ideology or a single philosophy. It is very important to understand the greatness of Miyamoto-san’s teachings for being open to new ideas, being open to up-gradation/ renewal for that is how you can win over every unconventional challenge.

The true wisdom is innocent yet lethal; It is free from the biases, prejudices and preferences. A true wisdom never holds onto something, it is not mechanical rather it morphs according to the challenge presented. When the true wisdom fails to overcome the challenge presented, then it is also ready to reject its previous identity only to be born into a newer and evolved wisdom. Miyamoto Musashi’s the Wind Book is all about such continuously changing, upgrading spirit of the wisdom of life.

“You must simply keep your spirit true to realize the virtue of strategy.“

“You keep on learning and learning, and pretty soon you learn something no one has learned before.”

Richard Feynman

Links for further readings:

  1. The Book of Five Rings – The Ground Book
  2. The Book of Five Rings – The Water Book
  3. The Book of Five Rings – The Fire Book
  4. The Book of Five Rings – The Wind Book
  5. The Book of Five Rings – The Book of the Void

Biases and Delusions – Steering on the borders of rationalism and insanity

Humans and the longing for eternal existence

There are these moments in many popular stories where our protagonist – the hero is feeling hopeless – depressed, is fed up by the cruelty, hardships, failures and some age-old character, a well-seasoned teacher or ‘that life altering event’ which give him the hope to continue against the antagonist – the villain of the story; obviously our hero wins. There are very common examples not only in pop culture, cinema but also in real human history and literature. It is very important to understanding that the qualities demonstrated in such exceptional times by our characters seems very illogical. (Remember the explanation of “The power of true love” or “the power of Hope” at the climax of your favorite movies, stories) In simple words, the reasons for such events are justified by the realization of something beyond the reality we experience, something supernatural – something which cannot be justified by a rational, logical thought. The explanation in these cases seems more spiritual and less practical or rational. Today we will see how one can differentiate between practical irrationalism (i.e., hope) and impractical irrationalism (i.e., delusion)   

They say that “the death is the ultimate equalizer” which highlights how everyone of us considers their own existence as the most important part of our being. It is the most real and rational part which enables us to experience our life in reality. We are aware that all real and rational things are perishable, end-able and yet we are always making some attempts or at least thinking of prolonging our existence for eternity. This seems very irrational, impractical and still our mind always tries to falsify the thought that our life has an end somewhere. (We plan what we are going to eat/ wear/ do tomorrow, plan that trip, make new year resolutions even after the uncertain nature of our life and with the optimism/ hope that we will live to do those things as planned.)   

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar
The human urge to improvise, do something unconventional at the last moment of life is often epitome of all extreme survival stories. (Not only in movies but also in reality)  

Our basic survival instincts are always aware of the chances and ways in which we can die. A healthy person’s subconscious mind is aware of the death and its consequences. Our immediate involuntary responses to life threatening events are examples of that. (You immediately remove your hand from a very hot thing because you know that it is going to hurt you.)

Interesting is when these such feeling for the longing of survival gets highlighted in some extreme and abnormal conditions. The conditions which are not generally faced by normal human beings.

Victor Frankl and The Delusion of Reprieve

Victor Frankl an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist in his days in Auschwitz observed a very extreme and irrational behavior amongst the victims including himself. When the newly admitted Jewish prisoners were torn off of their own identities, the only thing they were left with was their hope for surviving through the tortures wishing that they have some things to finish, some purpose of life to fulfill after living through that real-life hell. Frankl in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” creates a lively and horrifying picture of what a living hell looks like. Not even the greatest empath in the humanity can relate with the pain that these prisoners went through.

Frankl in this book explained the whole process when the Jewish prisoners were admitted to the concentration camp. At first, the prisoners went through the shock that they were being taken to Auschwitz – a place infamous for ruthless deaths of Jewish people. Then the hostility of a deserted, dry, barren land maintained by people with similar dried emotions amplifies that shock.

In this exact moment, Frankl noticed a group of people who looked much healthier and with some wit/ humor which highlighted the sanity of their minds even in such hostile environments; maintaining that snobby “attitude” even in this deserted, unfriendly environment was one relief for him.

With this observation, Frankl concluded that he too will be able to match with these people in order to survive through this hell with relatively lesser pain. One has to understand that this urge to have a lesser painful life in Auschwitz was not even closer to the reality, even the word “exception” would fall short for this. And still, even after knowing the fact that there is no escape from this hell, even after knowing that almost all of the people in Auschwitz die from inhumane mental and physical tortures, hard labor, starvation, diseases, internal disputes, favor-ism, unfairness, Frankl thought that there is a chance that he can climb up this ladder and become part of this “snob party”. One has to understand that the thoughts Frankl is having here are totally irrational. Frankl was already aware of the consequences of being sent to Auschwitz but even after that his mind chooses an irrational idea of facing less pain in Auschwitz. Frankl justifies this irrationalism by the “inborn optimism in him” and calls this condition in psychiatry as “delusion of reprieve”. He explains this in following words:

“The condemned man, immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very last minute. We, too, clung to shreds of hope and believed to the last moment that it would not be so bad.”

This “delusion” of being “pardoned” at the very last moment becomes the very first stage in the psychosis (a mental disorder of getting detached from the reality) of the people exposed to extreme ruthless environments of Auschwitz. This is totally different from the stories of conventional heroes and villains. Here, the person has completely lost the sense of what is a real possibility and what is an unrealistic demand. The conscience – ‘mere rational’ of the person gets broken in the hope that there is still something good and some chance of survival through this.  

Biases, Delusions and Apathy

In psychology the biases and delusions are closely connected and highlight the tipping point from where the psychosis starts. First of all, it is very important to know that we all have biases. Biases are our favored, prejudiced opinions for someone or something. Biases are some sort of mental shortcuts to avoid the energy loss for processing huge amount of information. Here are some examples of cognitive biases (a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment):  

Availability Heuristic Bias – People do not make decisions based on the data and statistics but on the stories and the stuff they hear from other people. You would want to easily trust what news show than to actually check and cross check fact with real data.

Choice Supportive Bias – People defend themselves because it was their choice. Because, if they made the choice, it must be right. You could be never wrong because you feel so is common scenario. Remember the time when you don’t even care to google what you just assume to be right because you think so.

Confirmation Bias – We tend to listen to information that confirms what we already know. Even after knowing that you were wrong you support and believe only that information that proves your thinking. Remember the flat earth conspiracy?

Ostrich Bias – Subconscious decision to ignore the negative information. Remember (again) the flat earth controversy?

Placebo Bias – Belief will help you recover. Loosely speaking, it can be explained by the idea of fake it until you make it. Your mind will make decisions based on the illusion that you are rich thereby ultimately making you rich. Placebo drug therapy is also the best example (but repeated words won’t explain the meaning)

There are many types of cognitive biases which actually throw light on our belief systems. (This could be a good discussion for some other times). The point is that when such biases start having a strong hold on a person’s mind, the person becomes delusional, leading to delusional disorders. This is triggered by some abnormal and unexpected situations. Victor Frankl actually observed and even went through such experiences where he establishes the “emotional death” of a person.

Due to constant shocks and bombardment of unconventional cruel treatments, the mind of person becomes numb to the extremities of the experiences and their response to such cruel, extreme and abnormal things no longer remains reactive as if these are normal situations for them. This is the “emotional death” Frankl is referring to. They became detached from the reality and thereby the humane emotions and responses to the cruelty around them – they became apathetic. Neither positive nor negative emotions.

Fine line between biases and delusions

Carrying the hope of having some moments of escape is also one example of the biased thinking the prisoners carried. Even after knowing, seeing and experiencing the cruelty in Auschwitz, their minds were not ready to accept the reality that it is close to impossible to escape this hell. Frankl’s well explained ‘delusional behavior among prisoners’ is one important part of Humanistic Psychology and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

Delusion disorder are classified as Bizarre (realistically impossible) and non-bizarre (possible but wrong in nature). Jumping to conclusion bias is one of the most researched bias connecting to delusional disorders.

Jumping to Conclusion Bias (JTC Bias) – A bias where something is assumed to be true without collecting all the information/ data. It is also known as inference-observation confusion.

You can find in Frankl’s description of their admission in Auschwitz where he explained “those” healthier group of people. The optimistic urge of Frankl to be in level with them is an example of jumping to conclusion bias. With very little information and an unrealistic urge to survive Frankl unknowingly became victim to the delusion. (Although his profession helped him to distinguish such behaviors and work over them leading to strengthening and establishment of Logotherapy) There are some studies which have also highlighted that jumping to conclusion is one of the biases closely related to delusions and psychosis but it not the only reason, rather it is very unclear that how delusions form. Studies show that there are two possible reasons to why JTC Bias and delusions are closely related. One is “the intolerance of uncertainty” and second is the “impaired working memory”. In simple words, firstly – the fear of unknown, ambiguity in the outcomes of the things makes the mind to take shortcut and create a simple conclusion to settle the chaos of the data (which already is limited) thereby making an unrealistic expectation from the event and secondly the incapability of one’s memory to handle the routine tasks makes it impossible to derive conclusions from complete data thereby restricting the flow of information as minimum as possible to make the conclusion which then become unrealistic. These two reasons possibly indicate the connection between JTC and delusions. Please note that JTC is not the only bias which can cause delusions.

Although delusions are very extreme part of human psyche, it is very interesting to understand their link with the biases almost every human being has. Given that such types of biases are always there within us representing some short-lived illusions from truth or I would say “quasi-delusions”, it becomes very important to notice such patterns and immediately work over them. Being mindful, being aware of the thoughts we are having and the coherence of the conclusion we are drawing from them is one of the most important way to remain free from the biases and delusions.

The Metacognition therapy, the logotherapy thus are the important branches in humanistic psychology which contributed in this field. The psychology of hope is also one important aspect of delusions related to survival; especially in the cases resembling to Viktor Frankl’s experiences.

References and Further Reading:

  1. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
  2. Delusion formation and reasoning biases in those at clinical high risk for psychosis, The British Journal of Psychiatry
  3. Thinking biases and their role in persecutory delusions: A systematic review, Early Intervention in Psychiatry
  4. Delusional disorder – Khan Academy
  5. The tendency to stop collecting information is linked to illusions of causality, Scientific Reports by nature.com

Two “long arms” of the law – The Principles of Natural Justice

According to Aristotle- the law means “a sort of order, and good law is good order” and “reason unaffected by desire”, and “the mean”. Many of us are unaware of how a law making system established itself, its inner workings and its vast expanse. “The Principles of Natural Justice” may help us to understand some of the workings, importance and purpose of the law and judicial system in Human Civilization.

“You can’t escape from long arms of the law”- is one of the most famous dialogues from the classic detective/ investigative/ crime-based movies. These movie plots have somewhat same structure under them; our villain has tried all the ways to destroy the evidences from the location of crime and the witnesses. Eventually, the smart protagonist who was unable to prove the innocence to the court due to the trickery of antagonist finds a clue, a loophole which leads to the final victory in the court. There are many real-life examples of these cases. Here, the court serves as a middle man or the independent decision maker to decide what is right or wrong. (Even though ‘we’ as an audience know that the hero of the movie is right, the director takes whole movie to prove the thing to the judge!)
A system to decide ‘what is fair and what is not’ as a Judicial system is one of the most important parts of being a stable human civilization. This is what separates us from animals in some ways- we have a system to resolve the conflicts without too much of a blood shed. A strong judicial system is one of the pillars of democracy for the reason.
This means that there are certain laws for deciding what actions have to promoted and what actions are to be penalized. But the law has its limitations too. You cannot go on making law for everything in the world to be correct (and may be that is why you can still put pineapple on the pizza).
Human conflicts are so much diverse in nature that you cannot frame all of them or categorize them in certain sets and furthermore establish a law system to all of them. That is the point maybe beyond the reach of the law. There are many moments in real life where time calls for the clarity of what is wrong and right in situations at your workplace or you might the one who will be responsible for deciding the fate of people you are leading. How will you make the fair decisions there? What if, there is no written law to decide what has been right and what has to be called wrong? How to be fair and just in such situations?
You know what- you can’t escape the long arms of the law!
There is a fantastic concept of Principles of Natural Justice which is used to decide the fairness of any judgement. Actually, the scope of Principles of Natural Justice is highly focused on and intended for the Administrative Laws where there might be instances for which specific laws are not established.
There are two important statements which are stated in the Principles of Natural Justice from Latin maxims-

Nemo judex in causa sua

no-one is judge in his own cause

Audi alteram partem

listen to the other side

Nemo judex in causa sua-
The intention of this maxim is to make the decisions without any prejudices. Being judge in owns case already establishes the polarity of decisions while doing justice. The decision will always be in the favor of party the judge personally prefers which will lead to unfair decision. The unfairness in decision will actually diminish the trust of people in the judiciary system thereby the foundations of a good civilization. Hence, the independence of judge/ decision makers becomes of high importance while performing justice.
The maxim tries to remove one of the biggest flaws of being a human which is the flaw of being biased. The biases are the favored truths, prejudices of people which for them are the bendable truths. The biases will make the decisions subjective hence it will be difficult to create a good example out of any situation. Biases are like tinted goggles which filter certain ideas and makes the decision maker unclear of what the facts really are.
There are many biases found in human behavior which are always creating the illusion of truth until someone comes and proves them wrong for us. The Natural Justice highlights on some of the following biases:
Personal biases- It is the favor made while making decisions which will affect us and our relatives, friendships in a bad way. Thus, there must not be any personal interest or relation between the parties and the judge.
Pecuniary bias- It is the favor of decisions made to achieve financial advantages. The decision-making authority/Judge must not have any financial interest between the parties demanding justice and the judge.
Subject matter bias- A person who has supported a subject or has following for the subject on which the proceeding is going on will not give the hearing for the case. Otherwise again the favor of judgement will occur.
Departmental bias- A bias which is highly observed in administrative cases. As the name indicates the judge must not be of the same departments to which the justice demanding parties belong.
Preconceived notion bias- There must not be any presumptions in the mind of the judge which will affect the unfairness of the case. This bias is the most difficult bias to challenge. We as person are developed for the choice of what is wrong and what is right based on some truths and their comparison with the situations. These are our personal truths which actually develop the tendency to give justice while making decisions and we must accept that some of them may not be actually true.

The cultural differences, the upbringing of a person, the financial and family background of person, the environment around the person, the life altering events in that person’s life, the impact of other peoples’ decisions on the person’s life and so on, there are many factors which make a person- not only person but we all as a human to have our version of truths.
Even Friedrich Nietzsche also quotes the following:

All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Meaning that out of all the truths everyone has, some of them feel true only because of the conditions in which they were presented. When we say that “Only victors write the history”- it leaves that space to think whether the victors were good or bad. If they were really bad then we have been presented the dark parts of history with needless glorification which is the real injustice with the truth. Here, the role of science becomes of highest importance which looks for the proofs of the facts.
Anyways, biases are that one integral flaw in our nature as human beings which will always challenge the fairness of decisions we make while solving the conflicts.
The ‘Nemo judex in causa sua’ helps to build the trust in the intentions of person giving the judgements. Otherwise, what is the point of an order which will not be enforced by the people for the well-being of the system created for the people themselves.


Audi alteram partem-
The purpose of this maxim is to gather all the information to make the judgement as fair as possible. It provides the chance for both the parties to put forth their version of truth.
This is also known as ‘the right to notice’. Unless the party is aware of the facts presented in or against their favor one cannot truly defend themselves. This also brings the inherent image of fairness, a just decision-making procedure in the judicial system.
Listening to only one side already violates the first maxim related to bias. It highlights that judge her/himself are favoring to one side only. Hence, listening to the other side creates that common ground for people with different version of their truths in front of the judge.
It not only important for a judicial system to offer justice to the people the act of offering a fair, just decision must also be observed by the people. ‘There must always be someone watching the justice being granted’- is the essence of the second maxim. This also strengthens the belief of people in judicial systems.
Listening to other side is not just about giving opportunity to other side- it is also one way to collect more supporting information for decision making.

Reasoned Decisions
There is also a third part of the Principles of Natural Justice which highlights the importance of reason in the justice offered. Their must be some provable logic/ reasoning to strengthen the justice offered otherwise it will be further challenged and the loop will go on. The people who will be affected by the decision must know why they will be affected. This importance of logic and reason in any hearing must be a speaking order which brings the seriousness and responsibility in the people and eliminates randomness of decisions. Any randomly passed decision will create loophole in the system thereby leading to many bad decisions in future which are sufficient enough to bring the entire system down.


If any ideology proves that the Principle of Natural Justice were not followed during the judicial process, the order becomes void or null. It becomes of no value.
There are some exceptions where the principle of natural justice natural justice will not be followed. This can be decided by the apparent nature and intentions of the actions while giving justice. Some of the events are related to the importance of emergency (exclusion in terms of emergency), maintenance of secrecy (exclusion in terms of confidentiality), tedious nature of addressing everyone when a group of people is representing one side (exclusion in case of impracticality), exclusion in case of routine matters- where the routine evaluations are being made for deciding fairness, exclusion in case of interim decisions – where the final decision has not been given and the suspension order is in effect, exclusion in case of legislative action- where the actions are taken base on the law already established (otherwise the law would be challenging itself which will create paradox) and the cases where no human rights were violated.


In the essence of the Principles of Natural Justice, it is one integral yet independent part of any judicial system in the world. These principles have actually defined the image of we as humanity and the system which runs it.
Actually, the Principles of Natural Justice digs deeper into the nature of subjective thinking of human beings for the mere purpose of survival.
The principles being ancient also highlight the fact that though many years have passed since the existence of human beings, we still think in the same way, we still create our own versions of truths, we still make decisions in the same way our ancestors used to do. Though the path followed is same, the primitive brain used is the same- survival instincts used are the same, it’s the addition of new truths to the previous set of truths in the process which are making humans to adapt to new definitions of being human- what it means to be a human.