Selective Vision

 From משלחן רבי אליהו ברוך.

A person has selective vision.  One paints a picture in their mind of what they saw to fit their paradigm of life.  He extends this same principle to explain the sin of the meraglim.  The possuk (14:34) says that the sin of the meraglim would be held for 40 years a year corresponding to each day of their journey.  Why are they punished for their journey, the sin was the report, not the journey itself?  Rav Chayim Shmulevetz explains because as they were traveling they were thinking badly about Eretz Yisroel and one gets punished for the thoughts of loshan harah as well.  Through their travels their opinions were formed because they had already concluded that it was a bad idea to enter Eretz Yisroel.  All of the events that they saw were meant for their benefit (Rashi 13:32) but they were not able to see that because they were painting the picture of what they saw to fit with what they wanted to see.