(Thanks for reading. Nothing below is truly revolutionary by any means and maybe even already classified by some one else and I haven't read it yet. It will serve to set the frame work for future blog posts so please read and comment)
Reality.
What is it?
Sages and poets have defined it in a multitude of ways since time immemorial. The scientists seek to measure it. The magician seeks to bend it. The chaote seeks to unravel it and reconstruct it to suit them better. Many wish to ignore it in pursuits of false happiness.
I am reminded of an old taoist tale where a man wakes up from having a dream about being a butterfly. This dream was so real and vivid that upon awakening the man starts to question. Is he a man who dreamed of being a butterfly or is he a butterfly now dreaming of being a man? There's much more to this story of course and I encourage you all to read this tale.
Physical Reality
The message I take from this tale is that who and what we are is not simply defined by the physical world for us. The 'real world' of brick and stone is what I'll call 'Physical Reality'. Physical reality is measurable and not really open to debate. It's the world of Newtonian physics and the scientific method.
I'm not so sure if and how much Quantum Mechanics actually fits into Physical Reality. To me the realm of the quanta is where the physical world and the realm of the mind begin to meet each other and merge. Peter Carroll explains this in detail in several of his publications if you want a much more detailed outlook on the matter. I merely read, think, and try to understand a bit.
Mind's Realm
The flip side to Physical Reality is what I'll call the Mind's Realm. Catchy titles indeed! Really though it's for the purpose of a clear definition before proceeding to discuss them.
The Mind's Realm is where our thoughts and emotions exist. As philosophy 101 says 'where is the mind?' I dunno and who cares eh? What I do know is we are emotional and intellectual beings. Our great capacity for thought and emotion is what makes the human race what it is. Whether you believe in evolution or creationism this concept is equally valid.
To attempt the define the Mind's Realm much more would require a long series of posts so I'll stop there hoping enough is explained to demonstrate the idea. Leave a comment if you'd like some more of my ideas on this.
Humanity's Place
If Physical Reality is one side of the coin and Mind's Realm the reverse side then where is reality and where do we fit in? Humanity dwells on the coin's edge.
Take a quarter from your pocket full of change and look at it. (Perhaps you were lucky enough to get the New Hampshire quarter which has the best motto 'Live free or die'. If only more people actually believed that the world would be considerably different. I'll leave the concept of we are shackled by the chains of society for another post ;))
One side is heads - Physical Reality
The other side is tails - Mind's Realm
The edge of the coin links the two sides together.
Individual Reality
A quarter is a great example. Examine it closely and you'll see the side is full of ridges and has a visible streak of copper in the middle of the edge. Taking the analogy one stop further look at the coin again and you'll see where the other metal from the quarter's sides are not rigid delineated lines. Rather it fluctuates.
Such is the nature of mankind. We weave a tangled web of life drawing from what we have experienced in Physical Reality and from what we have created in our Mind's Realm. For lack of a better term I'll call this place Individual Reality.
Individual Reality is the world we create for ourselves and is the world we live in. (We don't actually live in reality. More on that later.) It is our own personal blend of the physical and mental worlds. Commonly used phrases even reference this idea. Phrases like "I don't know what crazy world you live in... Not in my world.. " and so on.
REALITY
If you're still reading then thanks for bearing with me. Finally it is time to define REALITY! Yep, all caps reality. Reality is a consensual average of all of our individual realities.
Read and think about that statement or perhaps let's rephrase it. Reality is what we agree upon based on our desires in the Mind's Realm, our measurable experiences in Physical Reality, and how we've formed our own individual Realities.
Christopher Columbus sailed across the ocean because he had an idea that the earth was round and not flat as was commonly thought. At least that is what was taught in school. So we can say at this point that the agreed upon Reality is that the world was flat.
But then how did Eratosthenes measure the circumference of the earth in the third century BC? Recently unearthed Roman Imperial scepters have a round globe representing the planet on top of them. At some point a group of people decided they would rather believe the world is flat and this changed Reality. The world was now flat.
Photographs of the earth taken from space have clearly shown that it is a sphere and not a flat disc. This is the measurable Physical Reality influencing the consensual Reality we live in.
Columbus is given credit for 'proving' the world isn't flat. Photos of the earth from space are the 'definitive' proof. Definitive is in quotes because there is always some one out there who will dispute 'facts' that do not mesh with their Individual Reality. The interesting thing to ponder here is sometimes those 'crazy' people are right. Columbus being one of those crazy people himself.
Summary of this section
Physical Reality - the measurable physical world
Mind's Realm - our thoughts (intellect) and feelings (emotion
Individual Reality - How we see the world based on personal Physical Reality and Mind's Realm. It is here where we truly exist.
Reality - The currently accepted version of what is real based on interaction between other people and their Individual Realities.
In our next episode Batman will escape the death trap in time and start telling you how this all relates to the title.
Reality is a tricky spot indeed. An old adage goes that if you listen to two accounts of an event, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. You're assessing reality to work under similar logic, that our physical limitations define our mental and social limitations, and our acceptance of such is personal reality. The crossing agreements in our peronal realities creates our reality as a race and a being collective.
ReplyDeleteI ponder the mind's affect on the whole of reality. I'll have to get back in touch with you later when I can hunt down the articles, but the research on reverse-time symmetry is interesting - the mind responds to stimuli in preparation for their affect, before anything has happened.
In regards to the loss or altering of knowledge, I've often wondered about the mental and social cycles of man. For example, Crete had plumbing and running water, but the technology vanished for millenia before being rediscovered. The Mesoamerican tribes had heart and brain surgery at their disposal but we lost it. I think that something in our mental programming forces us to abandon certain methods and techniques for one reason or another. Most times this would be social - a conquering nation destroys the knowledge, an organization hides it to give themselves greater power, a 'better' way comes about and we willingly drop the old method. I consider this mental programming, because somebody consciously decides that their culture needs to deny the information to run according to a plan. You use the flat earth theory as an example. Cultivating the idea that the earth is flat gives the Atlantic border countries power in that people would be less adventurous, less likely to head across the ocean and start a new and potentially dangerous state. The idea forced travel through other countries and left the traveling merchants at the mercy of multiple organizations. With the people kept to a certain set way, the authority has an easier time controlling them. Toss in the possibility that merchants can take another route, one free from roaming tax collectors, inspectors, and highway robbers, and an established system starts to fear.
But I digress. What is reality? Perhaps it is the grey area drifting between us all. Or maybe it is a hard, fast ordeal that the human mind is too complicated to understand fully. The possibility exists that we are making a mountain of a molehill out of the whole mess in the end.
Excellent comment man.
ReplyDeleteAs always you give me more to ponder.