ABOUT THE REALITY PARADOX:
CONSIDER THIS YOUR WARNING!
You - like many people - may not know that we believe most of the lies we hear. But it’s the truth. As such, the reality paradox is that our experiences and the world around us are at once completely real and completely illusory. The power of our resulting perpetual mistakes is to defi ne truth in our consciousness in a delusional way.
The murderous stories I shared are exceptionally rare in the sense that the lies told to me were exposed, my near-death trauma narrative and self-identity as a specially-skilled psychologist enlightened me that my reality was unreal. Objective reality existed not in my mind but in a kind of parallel universe into which I had a rare glimpse.
As a criminal psychologist, I’ve applied this scientific knowledge in getting at the truth with perpetrators and victims of horrendous crimes, understanding how the legal system rightly or wrongly defines reality for us. The essential matter of this book, then, is to document how our personal realities to a large extent are defined by the lies we tell ourselves and the ones others tell us.
Enter at your own risk!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
STEPHEN PORTER, Ph.D. has published more than one hundred scholarly articles on false memory, deception detection, and and psychopathy around the world. His work has been widely profiled, including in the New Yorker and the Globe and Mail. He now works as a consultant in the area of psychology and law. Stephen is frequently consulted by police in serious crime investigations, and consulted by courts as an expert witness, having completed over two hundred comprehensive psychological assessments of criminal offenders or defendants
PRAISE FOR THE REALITY PARADOX:
“We are fascinated by crime stories and drama, not because we are all so different from criminals, but because we we can see some of ourselves in these criminals... The Reality Paradox places a high precision mirror in from of ourselves, sharing fascinating stories and important lessons and insights about the humanity that is within all of us.” - Dr. Dan Ariely,New York Times best-seller and author of The Honest Truth about Dishonesty
“The Reality Paradox is a lovely way to learn about the workings of the human mind. Be prepared to be convinced that our memories can be real and unreal at the same time.” - Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Irvine, and author of Eyewitness Testimony
“Memories are the foundation of our very sense of self. But is that foundation entirely… real? In The Reality Paradox, Stephen Porter, Ph.D. painstakingly uses philosophy, literature, art, research, and his own extensive forensic fi eld experience and comes up with answers that are challenging, engaging, scholarly and entertaining. ” - David Marxsen, Criminal Investigative Psychologist with the “E” Division Behavioural Analysis Unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“The Reality Paradox is a well written book that overviews how our pasts can be constructed in our minds in ways that contradict what really happened. The conducting and publicising of research on how memory illusions and lies can render people blind to themselves and their world is of crucial importance.” - Dr. Ray Bull, Psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Forensic Psychology at the University of Leicester