For as long as he could remember, college student Sung K. harbored an intense, uncompromising hatred for squid. He hated looking at it, and he despised the smell of it.
Whenever squid appeared in school lunches throughout elementary, middle, and high school, he flatly refused to eat it. Even if a tiny piece was hidden inside a mound of fried rice or a savory meat patty, he would meticulously dissect his meal to pick it out.
To the outside world, he was just a stubborn picky eater. But what Sung didn’t know was that his fierce aversion had absolutely nothing to do with his taste buds, and everything to do with a deeply buried childhood illusion. This is the fascinating story of how one student used meditation to uncover the bizarre memory controlling his palate, proving that our strongest prejudices are often just forgotten “pictures” stored in the mind.
The Inconvenience of “Personal Preference”
Living with a severe food aversion is exhausting. For Sung, carefully picking around his food was inconvenient and annoying. Whenever his friends teased him for being so difficult at the dinner table, he would defensively shut them down with a standard response: “Everyone has foods they hate. I just don’t like squid.”
He firmly believed that his disgust was an innate biological trait—a simple, unchangeable personal preference. He had never stopped to question why the mere sight of the seafood triggered such a strong emotional and physical repulsion.
Unearthing a Bizarre Childhood Memory
Everything changed when Sung attended a meditation camp for university students at his mother’s recommendation.
One day, the meditation guide prompted the students to reflect on the things they deeply disliked and to practice letting go of those feelings. Naturally, squid immediately came to Sung’s mind. But this time, instead of just accepting his disgust, he asked himself a probing question: “Why do I hate squid so much?”
He began tracing his mind back through the archives of his childhood memories. Suddenly, a very specific, long-forgotten scene surfaced.
It was a memory of watching an old animated cartoon called Run, Toppo. In one particular scene, mice were shown turning squid legs into something that closely resembled mouse tails. That single, unsettling image had imprinted itself deeply into his young, impressionable mind.
From that day forward, his subconscious had forged an unbreakable link. Every time he saw a squid, his mind automatically connected it with something disgusting. When he saw mice, he thought of squid. When he saw squid, he imagined mouse tails.
“Ah,” he realized with a shock. “I hated squid entirely because of a single image stored in my mind.”
Erasing the Image, Changing the Reality
Once Sung understood the irrational root of his disgust, he desperately wanted to be free of it.
During his meditation sessions, he intentionally and repeatedly visualized that cartoon image, objectively acknowledging it, and then releasing it from his mind. As the mental “picture” dissolved, something incredible happened: the physical feeling of disgust began disappearing right along with it.
The transformation was astonishing. He no longer felt repulsed when he looked at squid. When he finally mustered the courage to actually taste it without the mental filter of “mouse tails,” he discovered a surprising truth: it actually tasted good. Even spicy seafood noodle soup (jjamppong)—a dish he once considered completely vile—became a meal he genuinely enjoyed.
The Freedom to Let Go of Any Prejudice
By clearing a single, false image from his mind, eating became an infinitely easier and more comfortable experience. But the implications of his breakthrough went far beyond the dinner table.
Sung realized that if a deeply ingrained, lifelong physical disgust could be cured simply by discarding a stored mental picture, then any prejudice could be let go. Whether it is a strong dislike toward certain foods, an irrational aversion to specific animals, or deeply held prejudices against certain types of people—they are all just accumulated images.
Sung K.’s 3 Insights on Overcoming Hidden Prejudices
1. “Personal Preference” is Often Just Conditioning “We aggressively defend our dislikes, claiming, ‘That’s just the way I am’ or ‘It’s just my preference.’ In reality, many of our strongest aversions are just automated reactions to forgotten childhood memories or unexamined associations.”
2. The Mind Dictates the Senses “I thought I hated the actual taste and smell of squid. But I was never actually tasting the squid; I was tasting the disgusting image of a mouse tail my mind had projected onto it. Once you clear the mental picture, you can finally experience reality exactly as it is.”
3. If You Can Change Your Palate, You Can Change Anything “Realizing that my lifelong hatred of a food was just an illusion gave me immense confidence. It proved that any mental barrier—whether it is a fear, a grudge, or a prejudice toward another person—can be dismantled once you learn how to let the old images go.”
