Many people are aware of the mechanism known as “projection” in which our minds filter our perceptions to match a pre-existing belief. In hypnotherapy, this can be a major issue, since often the limiting beliefs that clients are seeking to dismantle will be causing projections that seem to reinforce the belief, and so new opportunities for experience outside the projection need to be opened.

One famous experiment on projection involved modifying a deck of cards to have, say, a red 4 of spades. The researchers would then show people cards from the deck, giving them a brief moment to identify the card and moving on. When given only a very brief time to see the modified cards, people would give an answer for what the card is based on a regular deck (i.e. “4 of hearts” or “4 of spades”) but upon having more time to see the modified card, people began to realize a problem, but could not accurately state what they were seeing. They would say things like “it’s a 4 of spades, but there’s a red line around it” showing that they could start to see the color red, but still basically “saw” a black spade image because they so strongly expected that shape on a card to be black. Many people tested, even after having extensive time to examine the modified cards, still couldn’t say what the card was and many experienced real anxiety about this.

So we know that a conceptual expectation can modify our sense recognition. But what about emotions? Is it possible that emotional states cause a shift in what/how we perceive at the sense level, just as beliefs do? We know that there are neurochemical changes in the body when certain emotions are experienced. And there are lots of anecdotes and sayings relating to emotion-induced sense shifts (i.e. “seeing red” or “tunnel vision”.) The relatively modern field of behavioral optometry is looking at how vision is learned, and we know that learning is influenced by emotional states.

So this blog is meant more as a question and a teaser, because I have been unable to locate any specific research to support or refute the idea. But also I hope for this to be a “chicken or the egg” idea to expand how we look at the link between our perceptions and our feelings. I have found a lot in the self-help world about adjusting your emotions by adjusting your perceptions, but perhaps we have to look at it the other way around as well. If anyone feels like they have experienced a modulation of the senses as a result of emotional state, please comment me!