There's more, and less, to reality than we believe

We humans are mavelously anthropocentric creatures. Of course, our two dogs are marvelously caninecentric creatures. All they know about the world is what their dog brains are able to perceive. 

I don't get the feeling, though, that Serena and Zu Zu feel that their way of looking upon reality is the only way, or the best way. Whereas lots of people do.

One exception: when they're engaged in an intense sniffing project while we're on a walk and I tell them, "Come on, let's go!"; their bemused look at me speaks What an idiot -- why isn't he as interested in this great smell as we are??!!

Our dogs live in a world that is vastly richer in odors than I can imagine. Other animals have other sorts of superior senses. So do the instruments of science, which are able to discern aspects of reality totally hidden from everyday human perception.

Today, thanks to a relative's Facebook feed, I came across the wonderfully named I Fucking Love Science page (3,852,000 likes; wow, lots of people fucking love science). One post shared this image; click to enlargenfy:

Nicely put. Nothing is real except as our limited understanding of reality makes us believe it is so. Uh, oh... Beatles flashback. Strawberry Fields Forever. 

Let me take you down, 'cos I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me.

...Always, no sometimes, think it's me, but you know I know when it's a dream.
I think I know I mean a 'Yes' but it's all wrong, that is I think I disagree.

Let me take you down, 'cos I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Whatever works.

To my Strawberry Fields mind this is a better meaning-of-life adage than "pursue absolute truth" or "figure out how things really are." There isn't any absolute truth. And we can't figure out really real reality. 

We've evolved to be the sort of human beings that we are because of whatever works.

To reproduce, find food, secure shelter, get along with other people who we need for survival. Our amazingly complex brains look upon the world uniquely, like no other animal. Maybe like no other form of consciousness in the cosmos.

Yet this shouldn't make us believe that we've got reality all figured out. Our minds are adept at understanding some things while being clueless about other aspects of the world that the Homo sapiens brain hasn't needed to comprehend in order to survive.

As the image above makes clear, science reveals facts about How Things Are that everyday perceptions have no access to. How would we know that visible light is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum without scientific experimentation?

I'm sympathetic to those who look upon mysticism, meditation, altered states of consciousness, and such as similarly revealing hitherto unknown features of the cosmos. 

Given how many mysteries of the brain and conscious experience remain to be fathomed, it seems almost inevitable that some pretty damn big surprises are going to be revealed. Remember how relativity theory and quantum physics gave us a markedly fresh way of looking upon reality not long ago. Other gasp-inducing revolutions in human understanding await.

Let's also remember rainbows, though.

There is both more and less to reality than we perceive. It is easy to be fooled into believing that we know something universal about the World Out There when actually what we're aware of is part of the much more limited World In Here (the confines of the human brain).

Wisdom is knowing the difference.

Comments

[cc]

Wisdom is knowing the difference.

Knowing the difference between what can be verified and what can't is good, but there are people who hear voices and experience mental events that to us are bizarre and unlikely, and many of them are more engaged than most people, despite how marginalized or despised they may be. I'm not advocating nuttiness, mind you, but there is something to be said for people who go their own way. They're beyond arguing and they go about their wackiness with more courage and integrity than most people, so I don't always know whether to raise the scientific standard or to salute their courageous lunacy.

[Ultra Monk]

probably as a result of reading your blog, I've been reading a couple of brain books. I allowed myself to imagine that all my uniqueness is just permutation 10 to the xx of 4 letters. For at least a little, let go of the idea I have a soul. It does change you thinking a bit.
I also allowed myself to think of reading new research as a software update.

[Brian Hines]

Ultra Monk, I love the idea of reading as a brain software update. Wow. You've changed my whole outlook on taking TIME magazine into the bathtub. Thanks.

As I've noted before, I like the idea that I could be a computer simulation. Being the "software" of the brain is the next best thing, I guess. Who needs a soul? Anyway, my software could program itself a soul.

Oh... that's what religion does. I knew somebody already would have thought of that.

[nietzsche]

Hi Brian, I agree it is just simpler and bigger programming than you think ;) See Krishnamurti.

[Mike Williams]

Salig Ram, Founder of Radhasoami Faith
and Swedish Mystic Swedenborg

Salig Ram was known to have a complete
set of Emanuel Swedenborg's occult writtings.

Why would Salig Ram have a set of books that the
Swedish Freemason's used to help draw up their
initiations ?

It was known Salig Ram initiated a viceroy
and had many English friends in high places.

Swedenborg said channeling of spirits was
indeed real. But, he said they almost
always give deceptive advice. He called
these demons liars. He said they made stuff
up as they went along.
(Even atheist Freud seriously considered
these type of events as nothing to pass
off casually.)

Salig Ram rose through the ranks of English
hirarchy rapidly in India to become Postmaster
General of Uttar Pradesh.

He obtained jobs for much of Swami Ji's
family in postal related work.

Freemason's are sworn to give other Freemasons
jobs before all other applicants.

Yet, I can find no connection between Salig Ram's
new Radhasoami religion and Freemasonry.

But, Salig Ram would have indeed initiated
some Freemasons. Freemason's are very cultic.

It seems like some Freemason could have been
initiated by Salig Ram. Such as the viceroy,

This Freemason could have turned around and adopted
Salig Ram as a friend.

This is just a possibility.

[Ultra Monk]

I think the problem with religion is that it refuses to update. If humans evolve then there should be re-interpretations to wisdom or truth experiences. That is, interpretation of the bible (gita or sutra) or jesus should be a software update.

[Shawn]

The finite world is an expression of the laws of the infinite nature as it is the totality within the endless totality.

You know, I don't even know if I believe what I just wrote but it is more of connecting to a feeling, something maybe intuitive in nature that I sense within. I feel that in the world of form there are metaphors echoing out within itself and mirroring the nature of the unseen cosmos that we can't see.

I remember when I was a young child laying on a grass field looking up at the clouds in the sky and wondering if these white swirling mist of mystery were God's writings in some kind of an encrypted code. Such beautiful inquiry that comes forth from the heart and mind of an innocent child. To sense the awesomeness, and commune with nature's wonders is so amazing. Forget the words that rise in speculation, but live in that magic feeling within. Always wonder, always be curious. Let not temporary knowledge smother the child within.

[Mike Williams]

quote Shawn
"Such beautiful inquiry that comes forth from the heart and mind of an innocent child. To sense the awesomeness, and commune with nature's wonders is so amazing. Forget the words that rise in speculation, but live in that magic feeling within. Always wonder, always be curious. Let not temporary knowledge smother the child within. "

Krishnamurti would have adopted you
immediately if he heard that.

I used to watch him stand by a stream near Santa Paula, CA and just look into the water at the pebbles beneath the ripples.

The impossible is possible. It seems impossible that HERE and NOW is our
direct link with eternity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUu2rz8WhZg

[mike3]

"There is both more and less to reality than we perceive. It is easy to be fooled into believing that we know something universal about the World Out There when actually what we're aware of is part of the much more limited World In Here (the confines of the human brain)."

So why should we believe that the mystic claimant's experiences reflect something of the World Out There, and not something of the World In Here, given no additional evidence beyond their own claims?

[Brian Hines]

mike3, excellent question. I believe it is more likely that mystic experiences do indeed mostly, if not completely, reflect the World in Here. Meaning, they are real, but only reflect a personal reality.