I have shown you a little about what assumptions are in general and how they work. Let’s look at the specific assumptions that all of us make. I have spent years researching and categorizing assumptions. These assumptions are very powerful, and yet they are surprisingly simple. I have found that many middle school children understand the importance and power of assumptions. Think of the iceberg illustration I used in my last post. While the “above the water” topics and ideologies may be very complex and require a lot of education and study to fully understand, the assumptions underneath these topics and ideologies are not very sophisticated at all.
I have identified many specific assumptions that we all tend to make. However, underneath them all, at the very bottom of the iceberg, is the biggest, rawest, deepest assumption of all. I call this our core assumption. It is the first and most basic of all of our assumptions, and it is the one from which our other assumptions and later our beliefs and knowledge stem. It is the starting point from where we try to understand ourselves and the world around us. I call this the biggest, rawest, deepest assumption of all because it is not questioned and it has little or no proof. But we ALL have one. We can’t not do it. The question is not if we assume, but how we assume and if our assumptions are true.
Since we don’t all agree on various topics, it is usually because we are operating on different core assumptions. In fact, as I have devoted my time to understanding assumptions, I have discovered that there are actually three core assumptions that people make. You are operating from one of them right now even though you probably don’t know it. How you understand yourself and the world around you is based in this core assumption. Because it is hidden and not obvious, has little or no proof, and is not questioned, this assumption controls everything you say, do, and think. Now, that’s pretty powerful!
Core assumptions have to do with what we think is really real—what is really here. “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away” said Phillip K. Dick, the creator of Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Adjustment Bureau, and Imposter. Philosopher Dallas Willard once mused that “truth reveals reality, and reality can be described as what we humans run into when we are wrong.”
Sorry to keep you hanging, but I want to try to keep my posts fairly short. In my next blog post I will describe each of the three core assumptions.