Reality, What Happened to You?
The real world is out there, somewhere, hidden from all of us by our own subjective blindness. Nature does not exist solely in our minds and, as I’ve stated many times, we can only see what our fallible senses allow us to see. This inability to even get close to an objective perspective about our life and our environment is the true, deep tragedy within which we pretend to understand reality.
I realize this repetitive message about our limited ability comes across as exceedingly negative. But believe it or not, I don’t mean it to be. My constant harangue is meant as a wake-up call, a splash of cold water on our collective faces. If we don’t understand our own limitations with regard to accepting and actually seeing the world, we can never move forward. We will be forever stuck in a fantasy world of our own making.
In Mark Twain’s story titled, The Mysterious Stranger, a young man is attempting to come to grips with the unfairness of the 1590s in Austria. A character aptly named Satan shows the protagonist the grotesque ills of the world at large, but before disappearing he tells the young man: “There is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream — a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought — a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!” In other words, everything is an illusion, a creation of this “vagrant thought.” In my estimation this story takes my thesis to a bit of an extreme, but it makes the case.
In many ways it is difficult to discuss this subject without becoming too obtuse or oblique and for that I apologize. But any essay or post that critiques our very ability to grasp the world that seems so real to every individual, will never be an easy piece to write or read. So I struggle with the writing of this as well. I have a desperation to get this concept across and that probably has more to do with age than anything. My life has an expiration stamp on it, allowing for a limited time to wave my red flag of warning, so I keep trying.
One aspect of all of this that comes to mind is the ardent reality proclaimed by those whose minds have become dotted with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Their perceptions of the world are no less real to them as ours are of the world around us. We might listen to any one of these friends or loved ones and shake our heads in sadness and disbelief that anyone could so stridently believe that Napolean has come back to life and is trying to poison them or that creatures from the planet Borgroon walk among us and they are the only person who can see them.
To bring “delusional thinking” into a different realm, a realm where people are equally unrealistic and yet are not suffering from a physical diminishment of brain capacity, let me define this word first. The following is from Wikipedia: “Being delusional means holding a false, fixed, and unrealistic belief that persists despite clear, objective evidence to the contrary. These beliefs are typically unshared by others in a person’s culture and are rigidly resistant to logic, reason, or new information.”
My only objection to the above definition is the phrase, “unshared by others in a person’s culture.” I believe there can be large swaths of people in specific subcultures who share delusional thinking and specifically with regard to our current resident in the White House. Over 100 million Americans share the belief that Mr. Trump is doing a great job, that he is beyond competent, and has the best interests of the American people at heart. If this is not delusional, I don’t know what is. But this is their reality. They see someone who is clearly deranged as exceedingly brilliant despite all evidence to the contrary. Where is reality? Where is an ability to question their own sensibilities.
The really difficult part of this comes when we turn this concept around to ask ourselves if our own view of the “real” world is any less crazy. “Of course my world view is nowhere near as delusional as those lunatics,” any one of us might answer. But how do we know? How can we view ourselves from a distance long enough to assess our own vulnerability with regard to seeing the real world. The character in The Mysterious Strangewas certain his world was fixed, that it was real and immutable. Yet in Twain’s fictional story, it was all a dream.
And so my own sense of all of this is what I keep coming back to over and over; the need to constantly question ourselves and our perceptions. This does not mean we have to ponder whether the glass of water in front of us on a table is real. But it does mean that when we are confronted with a choice about our lives, that we stop and assess the potential impact that decision will have on both ourselves and on the environment around us. To not allow anger or emotion driven reactions to control how we proceed, as they so often do.
As many friends have pointed out over the years, keeping tabs on ourselves is not an easy task. Of course they are correct, but moving our species forward is not simple either. If we are to survive beyond the next century, mindfulness and self-assessment are critical choices to incorporate in our everyday lives. We must move through E. O. Wilson’s “Bottleneck of Ignorance” to find that elusive peace of mind I know is possible, though probably highly unlikely.
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Here I am in early morning on Big Island reading your thought provoking essay. My own life has been touched recently with loss of two brothers, older and younger. My reality of a family of nine siblings is now that of seven. And one of those has Alzheimer’s.
Thank you for writing your essays, Tobin. I need to go back and read the ones I’ve missed as I come to terms with my own present life. I have much to cherish in friends and family.
Hi Georgia,
Thank you for your gracious and heartfelt comment to this post. The element of change is certainly a major part of how we all see and deal with our the reality of our lives. We really have no say in whether we want that change to take place or not. Some people have an extraordinarily difficult time accepting a new reality involving loss, in fact I think we all do to a degree. But some people never recover from that change/loss and become immersed in grief that can last the entire remainder of their life. What I know is that the people we love will always be with us and I suspect they would not be happy if they could still see us, knowing we could not move forward because of that grief. I’m probably going well beyond your statement with my reply, but what you said gives me pause. Thanks again for sharing insights.
It sounds to me like you are trapped in your own mind, and it is a fearsome place to be. I’m a bona fide member of that club myself.
The delusional – oh, are they delusional! Or maybe some of them (particularly in the administration and in Congress) are simply so damn scared of the Beast that they continue to rubber stamp the man. It is so frightening to me, makes my stomach clench and my brows meet my nose. If this is reality, I want no parts of it. Let me live in my own delusions.
“Mysterious Stranger” must be a horror story, but I will check it out. Reading your synopsis made me feel like I am shrinking into myself, the possible reality of that dream terrifies me.
So many times over the years I have wondered if there is a God, despite all the indications I experience that confirms His existence in my life. When I get into that mode I tell myself there must be a God because there is Satan. Then I am ashamed of myself for thinking that way……what a pitiful way to confirm God’s existence. If there is no God, no great Creator, I want to live in my own dream and try to be the kind of person who cares about others. Caring itself is not enough, though, so I volunteer with groups that care FOR the homeless, if only in small ways. Sometimes their hugs are the only ones I get all week, so I welcome them, one and all. In that moment, I feel closer to God.
I hope this makes some sense; it is too early to open up my brain today, but life sweeps me up and deposits me in bed at 9 pm. What I did in the meantime I cannot always recount, but I hope I made a difference in my own small ways.
Noreene, Thank you for this perspective. It’s an interesting thought that I’m trapped. In some ways I agree with you in that I am trapped by a desire to see our species survive beyond the next century, but I have very little hope of that based on what I read we have done to ourselves and what we continue to do to ourselves every single day.
The important part of your message is that you feel a sense of obligation to make the world a better place, one step at a time. If more people felt this way, we actually might have a chance. Believing in God, or some form of omniscient being, is not a negative thing though it is not a part of my life. It’s what one does with that belief that matters. Some use it as an excuse to hate, while others, such as yourself, use it for good. Keep up the great work.
Tobin, with this post I think that you are face to face with the demon. Or angel? That’s the conundrum, there is simply no plumb line of reference to discriminate delusion and reality. (The Oracle at Delhi never gave a straight answer) This troubling notion that the ground is breaking apart under us, for many evokes a response of “What, me worry?” The convenient move is to lose oneself in acquiring more stuff, more travel, more partying, more influence, etc., etc.. All convenient distractions.
I wonder if the demons approach for Americans, is in a manner that will soon break us apart, personally, and institutionally.
Is the real world “out there”, hidden on account of our subjectivity, a creature-bias which, if only we could be relieved of – we’d know our surrounding environment in a raw/real form? Am I correct in my understanding of your inquiry?
You sum it up by referring to Twain’s story, The Mysterious Stranger. I’d like to read it for myself. Granted that life has from the inception of history, been perceived as unfair. I am impressed that the conclusion of Twain mirrors that of Hindu philosophy. Nihilism full blown.
By the way this is exactly what Nietzsche warned us about, and feared, by his famous parable of the madman. In this story a deranged individual interrupts the early morning conduct of business in the market square by proclaiming the death of god. He is ridiculed and immediately labeled insane. Whereupon he goes to a nearby cathedral to conduct a ritual requiem to celebrate the death of god. The irony is obvious. Nietzsche was shaken at the prospect of the contagion of nihilism.
Well, is everything “vagrant and useless and homeless and a forlorn wandering”? I do not think so. I think that Reality is nothing other than the relationship between myself as a subject, and external reality. The external real, includes nature, others of my species, institutions, micro to macro, even the cosmos. So, the real is dynamic, very much a joint creation of the desire/aspiration of us. We create, that is instantiate what we are able to image and AGREE upon.
On this account subjectivity is not a disability, and there is NO objectivity. Objectivity is an ideal, for which we have a particular bias as inhabitants of the West. Objectivity is not so important if you participate in a Eastern culture.
What about science? Science is a “carve out” a game with a single purpose. The abstraction of objectivity works for science.
To conclude, there’s no basis for a single univocal version of things that will remain hidden from us. We are tasked with the ability and opportunity of dynamically forming the real, of making the future. No ultimate safe harbor is realizable, because humankind is one of many players. Circumstances/fate will always be at the table. Our knowledge is by definition partial, as multiple levels of “the real” make it quite impossible to capture everything in the epistemic net. Let’s not worry about peace of mind.
In other words, we can afford to lower the bar for our fulfillment.
Jerry – The idea that we should not be seeking a true objective reality is well taken, aside from the fact that it is almost impossible for any creature to be fully immersed in a truly objective environment. And I certainly do not ever expect to gain a true peace of mind. I suspect that few have ever arrived at that state referred to as Nirvana. In some ways, it seems the ability to achieve the ultimate connection with nature is correlated to actually finding a path to objectivity. That they are, at last, not distracted by all of the noise of civilization and can see our place in nature to its fullest extent. As noted, I do not have that capacity regardless of how much I might want to be able to slough off the trappings that weigh us down and keep us mired in cultural muck.
I remain frustrated knowing that a better (or more real) version of reality is “out there” beyond my limited scope of understanding. I still want to experience it and so I continue to struggle with the concept of our limitations. I am also pretty sure that my desire to find that elusive quality is part of the reason I can’t find it. My desire is the manifestation of the locked door.
Tobin, a dimension of my POV is that desire is no barrier unless desire is stigmatized as such. To be a physical-living-being means desire is inevitable, the interpretation of the impact of external “reality” upon your body. As such, desire is material, the fruit of imagination. Curated, disciplined, mutually shared desire is indispensable to creating the future. This counters the thrust of the Buddhist tradition, to extirpate desire. Maturity of desire is what we need.
So it seems to me as of this afternoon.
By tomorrow afternoon I am likely to see things somewhat differetly.
Jerry
Jerry (via Laura’s email) – Thanks again. In reading your reply it seems that the barrier I spoke of has to more to do with the intensity of that desire. The stronger the “want” the less likely one is to find what one is seeking. This may seem counter intuitive but it’s similar to what I used to tell my photography students. I would say that if you go searching for a great photograph to take, your chances of finding what you seek are less than if you walk slowly, breathe deeply, and remain open to really seeing what is around you. That’s when the opportunity for that one-in-a-million shot surfaces.
I agree with your example 100 percent.
I think the central idea—that our perceptions are limited and that we should constantly question our assumptions—is one of the strongest parts of the essay. It made me think about how difficult it is to separate what we know from what we simply believe. One question I had, though, is whether the essay creates a tension for itself. If all of us are subject to subjective blindness, how can we ever be certain that another person’s worldview is objectively delusional? That seems like an interesting paradox worth exploring.
Okay,
So we start with what I believe to be a mis-statement, “The real world is out there”. This statement attempts to define the undefinable as experienced by the individual looking out into the world. Each of us views the world from our own lens, our own perspective, but it’s not “out here”, it’s inside each of us. I believe each and every one of us has the ability to connect with the whole, the natural world and ultimately the universe of collective consciousness which encompasses all things. What our minds are capable of percievng on this present plane of existence is limited. However, from time to time, each us has moments we cannot explain, moments of clarity, a feeling of oneness with the universe.
These moments are fleeting, but they allow us to see there is a connection we each share, a connection to all things and places simultaneously. In physics it’s called quantum entanglement, but on a human level.
My brother may dispute what I am about to say, but in my mind, my soul and my vision, it was real. Many moons ago I took what people call magic mushrooms. It was not the first time, and not the last, but before I continue, I need to state that I take all non-traditional experiences in life with a grain of salt, and always try to bring knowledge of the esoteric back from my journeys. That being said, on this particular star filled night, I had the inclination to look up. When I gazed out into the sky, my mind was blow by what I witnessed. The sky was filled with stars, however, each had a connection to the other, as though they were interconnected, each with a luminous white line going from one star to the next. At first I could not believe my eyes, so I looked away thinking it was an apparition or illusion of the mind, but when I looked back the connections remained.
Now some would say I was simply delusional or the mushrooms were simply fucking with my head, but after that night, I realized all things are connected, that we who live in this universe are part of a whole, that we are never alone.
If one perceives the world through an individualistic perspective, they are and always will be alone, like a prisoner with no chains or bondage. However, reality perceived with the knowledge and understanding that eternal connections exist all around us, that our view and vision of this world is essentially not originated from a single perspective, but from a collective multitude of other like minded entities who have seen the world for what it is, a collective of shared visions and experiences.
What I find to be most the important aspect of this shared reality, my vision of the natural world as I believe it should be, is the balance of all things. I see the injustice of this world, but know in my heart of hearts that through the power of nature no evil deed, no lie, no subjugation of the masses or deception goes unpunished. Evil is subjective, but we all share a common understanding of what is inherently evil, represented by greed, malice, ignorance or any number of tools in mankind’s dark closet of idiosyncrasies.
Life, in my opinion, is too short to seek out and attempt to destroy the dark side of mans nature. In time, one becomes what one seeks to destroy, that is the way of evil, it can only be destroyed with understanding, love and forgiveness. There are exceptions to this rule, but only when the is world out of balance can the total destruction of evil be justified. World war 2 is a prime example, but those were very dark times, and we are all still recovering from the wounds inflicted upon the world by that manifestation of evil.
To fill one’s life with joy, caring and the friendship of our fellow human beings is the true measure of a life worth living, always remembering the sacrifice of those that can before us.
Thank you, once again, for your detailed and very well thought-through reply to an essay. For me, it’s very difficult to parse the difference between what I believe is a reality beyond human comprehension based on our inherently subjective nature, and the reality we create within the confines of our individual minds. It seems that each of us builds that sense of the real and along with that we also build a definition of things like good and evil. But who or what designates those definitions? All human characteristics which carry some kind of qualification are also incredibly subjective. Yuval Harari discusses the human concept of evil in Sapiens and definitively demonstrates that neither good nor evil actually exists. These are only based on a human construct of how one views these traits that turns them into what we consider good or evil.
I believe that somewhere in almost all of us is a longing to connect, whether it is to others of our species or our environment and beyond. Some humans have buried that desire so deep as have it be as close to deceased as we might be able to imagine. These people are usually referred to as psychopathic or perhaps sociopathic which is slightly less egregious.
But what you also describe in a portion of your reply seems to be akin to Karma. And unfortunately I don’t believe that Karma exists, at least not in the way most people would like to think of it. There are unpleasant members of society who live their entire lives hurting others, seeking wealth or power, taking advantage of others. They eventually die, just like all of us, but with no regrets, nothing bad happens to them, they were just nasty people and that’s that. Karma is something we would like to believe exists, simply because we all hope that nasty folks get their comeuppance. But most of the time they don’t and this is strictly my own perspective though.