Alan Watts wrote this almost 50 years ago about the Common Cultural Delusion… but it sounds like the uncommon one a lot of us have… to me, anyway.
“The whole illusion has its history in ways of thinking – in the images, models, myths, and language systems we have used for thousands of years to make sense of the world. These have had an effect our perceptions which seems to be strictly hypnotic. It is largely by talking that hypnotist produces illusions and strange behavioral changes in his subjects… The stage magician, too, performs most of his illusions by [distractive] patter and misdirection of attention. Hypnotic illusions can be vividly sensuous and real to the subject, even after he has come out of the so-called ‘hypnotic trance.’”
Say wot?