An individual's imagination about an object or place can change the way they perceive the world around them. Karen Armstrong in her essay “Homo Religiosus” explains how “a poem, a play, or even a great painting has the power to change our perception in ways that we may not be able to explain logically but that seem undeniably true » (25), implying that it is entirely possible to transform our false and impractical perceptions into accurate and practical ones. Daniel Gilbert expands on this idea by explaining how, for positive opinions to be truly valid, “they must be based on facts that we believe we have honestly discovered” (135). To what extent does an individual need to experience various situations in order to acquire several perspectives on the same thing? How much do we need to change to gain a different perspective than others? An individual's outcome from various events in their life causes them to create an optimistic or pessimistic response to the event "by unconsciously falsifying the facts and then consciously consuming them" (135). In the essays "Homo Religiosus" by Karen Armstrong and "Immune to Reality" by Daniel Gilbert, the two authors discuss how change in an individual's life through the psychological immune system, their emotions and their interpretations can provide him with different perceptions which It is beneficial to have an abundance of knowledge. Having an abundance of knowledge that offers people different perspectives can also cause a person to produce many different emotions. Emotions play an important role in how perception is perceived by individuals. How we, as individuals, perceive an event plays a role in how we let that event trigger a negative reaction or...... middle of paper ...... one's emotions son allows him to be optimistic or pessimistic about the various experiences he may have. to manage. “People are unaware that their defenses are more likely to be triggered by intense rather than mild suffering, so they poorly predict their own emotional reactions” (Gilbert 140) to different experiences, which prevents them from creating better responses to a similar situation in the future. An individual not only has the capacity to perceive the world but also the capacity to modify its perception. Simply put, an individual can change situations and outcomes depending on how they perceive them. Works Cited Armstrong, Karen. “Homo Religiosus.” The new humanities reader. 4th ed., ed. Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 22-38. Print.Gilbert, Daniel. “Immune to reality.” Miller and Spellmeyer 132-150.