I made an incredible realization about my own mind while playing God of War III.  In fact, it's so strange that I'm actually having trouble believing it.

There are several mini-games in God of War III that involve flying up and down the Chain of Balance, dodging obstacles and debris.

Here is one such scene. In this scene, you use your Icarus wings to fly up the chain. Just watch long enough to get the basic idea.

Now, during this scene, I find that I must have the y movement axis inverted. My brain expects this to behave like a flight sim. It feels like it should play like Starfox. I should tilt the stick up and move down, and vice versa. If I use normal axes, I can't play it to save my life. I die every time. With inverted, I pass it on the first try every time.

Now check this out. In this scene, you free fall down the chain.

During this scene, I have to have normal controls, or I can't do it! With an inverted y-axis, I can't play, and I die every time! With normal controls, I'm flawless every time. There is absolutely no functional difference between these scenes whatsoever. Literally the only difference is that you can see your wings in one, and not the other. The only explanation for this phenomenon is simply the knowledge that I'm ascending in one, and falling in the other. For some reason, my brain expects ascension to behave like a flight sim, but free falling to behave normally. If the devs removed the wings from the first scene, and told me that I was falling, I would probably need normal axes, and vice versa on the second scene. This stunning realization about the expectations of my mind has me reeling. I don't like feeling so uncertain. I'm the type of person who wants all things to make logical sense. I want to be able to play these scenes consistently with ONE control type (I don't really care which). But I can't. This phenomenon duplicates itself every time I play. It's not a problem, and it's kinda neat, really, but it makes my brain itch because it feels like my world won't cohere. This is irrefutable proof of how belief and expectation can radically alter your brain's entire way of functioning. How f*cking crazy is that?!!