# Humans Can Deny Obvious Realities by Ajit Varki > “The human ability to understand and consider our own mortality without being consumed by fear seems natural to us. In fact, it appears to be just one manifestation of a peculiar human ability to ignore, rationalize, or outright deny obvious realities, and even to believe in multiple or alternate realities at the same time.” > **— Ajit Varki**, *“Did Human Reality Denial Breach the Evolutionary Psychological Barrier of Mortality Salience?”, October 22, 2019* ## Sources and Context - **Original or near-original source and full passage:** [“Did Human Reality Denial Breach the Evolutionary Psychological Barrier of Mortality Salience?”, October 22, 2019](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-25466-7_6) — Varki presents this as part of his Mind Over Reality Transition theory, which he says is not currently directly falsifiable. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] - **Article:** [[articles/Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems|Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Ajit Varki|Ajit Varki]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “The human ability to understand and consider our own mortality without being consumed by fear seems natural to us. In fact, it appears to be just one manifestation of a peculiar human ability to ignore, rationalize, or outright deny obvious realities, and even to believe in multiple or alternate realities at the same time.” — Ajit Varki, “Did Human Reality Denial Breach the Evolutionary Psychological Barrier of Mortality Salience?”, October 22, 2019 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-ajit-varki-humans-can-deny-obvious-realities ```