I remember reading one of those psychiatry handbooks my friend, who's a doctor, used for exam preparations. Being a handbook the letters were really tiny but not unreadable. On the whole its format was familiar except for one feature - short accounts of real mental patients. One such story was about a lady whose house was near an airport. She suffered from delusions of grandeur and believed herself to be royalty. She had built her whole life around that delusion ignoring minor and major incidents that would've contradicted it. Sometime later she saw a very good shrink who managed to successfully treated her delusion - she realized that she wasn't royalty after all. Fastforward a couple of months and she promptly killed herself.

Interesting story, no? This woman was living a lie and the lie was keeping her alive. After she discovered the truth, life became unbearable enough to make her commit suicide. The falsehood/lie/delusion was what sustained her will to live. This ain't empowerment in any sense of that word but it sure does make your thesis - believe what empowers you - relatable.

To not think there is a collective of some kind seems somewhat absurd to me. I know that I create my own reality but I know I am not the only one creating my own reality. I am also not the only one participating to the destruction of this planet. — Thinking

I think there is a collective of some kind, be it culture, or humanity, perhaps now social media, but we relate to it individually. As you say, you create your own reality from the beliefs you hold to be true, as does everyone else, either knowingly or unknowingly.

This woman was living a lie and the lie was keeping her alive. — TheMadFool

I think there is a little bit of this in all of us. Royalty is a little absurd, but given the weight of beliefs ( not facts ) creating human consciousness, it seems unlikely all the beliefs can possibly be true, so there is a certain amount of delusion in us all.

Same way visa versa eh?

I see your point. The truth can be a hard pill to swallow.