So you call yourself a hardcore realist, firmly standing on the ground of the concrete world of material objects? I would like to suggest you probably are not. Because reality is ultimately a tricky thing. Indeed a very tricky thing. It is so tricky that it takes natural sciences like physics and biology to understand it, although it won’t be enough but becoming a category error without an insight of a spiritual awakening. That won’t make it simpler to fathom what reality is, but it will give a much less partial truth. Because you cannot comprehend reality very much if you draw conclusions from one single quadrant (hence Integral theoretically speaking).
Or maybe you come from deeper aspects of the other side of the spectrum (hence the upper left quadrant, Integral theoretically speaking)? So you are a friend of spirituality, right? So you think that the ego is nothing but a deceitful illusion? Well, I would say that you are on your way but only have begun the journey. Hence, the illusion of an ego is true but only partially. Or rather, it is true but that doesn’t differentiate it much from anything else.
Exploring the reality of objects
Let’s start our exploration of the topic by digging into the natural sciences, because it will make some sense to most people I assume. Imagine the following scenario:
You can see one kind of object right in front of you, for example a great rock. It’s a sunny day and you can feel the heat on your skin. You are standing with naked feet and can feel the desert’s sand between the toes. Luckily you have a bottle of water so you have a drink. On a hot day like this it tastes wonderful. Suddenly there is a soft breeze that brings a subtle smell of a civilization’s dump with it, as it comes from the great noisy city nearby.
Okay, so what do we have? A rock, the Sun, the skin, the feet, the desert, the sand, the toes, the bottle, the water, the breeze, the civilization, the dump, and the city. We also have vision, the heat, the touch, the taste, and the olfactory perception.
What does the natural sciences tell us about the objects and perceptions? Well, a physicist and a biologist would probably claim that the most important objects of them all, the Sun, ultimately is energy. Thus, the reflected sunlight waves are registered by the eye’s different parts and are transformed into nerve impulses, which are passed on through the optic nerve to the vision center in the occipital lobe of the brain, and then spread into other parts of the brain that are involved in the end result of a total sight impression by perception and interpretation — for instance in the form of a rock. Obviously, and indeed to say the least, a very complex process of transformed energy that is far from the object itself .
If needed for your convenience, watch these YouTube clips which illustrate the process fairly well in their own rights:
Where it leaves us
So where does that knowingly leave us? Well, one intelligent conclusion would be that the only thing we ultimately know for sure as our experience is that the world we know is created by the brain, just like in the example of the rock. And to assume that this ”inner” world in the brain is a perfect reflection of the ”outer” world’s objects is thus a matter of believing rather than actually knowing, simply because we cannot experience the objects as such but only the energy that one way or the other is transmitted via them. Or in other words, the assumption of a perfect reflection is like a traditional religion – believing stories to be literally true, more so than actual experience – because the only real evidence of reality we can have at all is a product of the brain and made out of energy, rather than objects ”out there” per se.
Although, that level of intelligent conclusions does not appear in the clips above. And the reason for that is their ignorance which makes them miss the ultimate mark; because they are trapped within the partial truth of the right quadrants’ (hence Integral theoretically speaking) paradigm implications that seeing is just a perfect reflection of something objective out there in the physical world. But how can they ever prove any qualitative aspect of the objects in themselves by using their eye vision – which, as they claim themselves, ultimately is constructed by their brain out of light energy rather than a direct contact with objects? It simply doesn’t make sense, does it?
And it doesn’t help very much to prove the qualitative aspects of objects ”out there” by using other complimentary senses, because their impressions too are made up by the brain with some kind of energy form as their building material. Thus, triangulation of sense perceptions would only leave us with yet another but eventually more complex catch 22, wouldn’t it? Increased complexity may be more convincing to believe, but essentially nothing has changed – it still would be an illusion rather than a direct experience of what is ”out there”.
Which eventually leads us to the conclusion of being an object based realist is to believe in stories of illusory experience. Or, if you will, to believe in illusory reality. At least as long as you stay firm in, and therefore are restricted by, the object paradigms of the natural sciences (hence the right quadrants, Integral theoretically speaking).
Final words
Finally, if we are here seeking for ultimate truth, it will lead us into a much more intricate exploration of what reality actually is. And I can bet that the end results of the exploration will have an intrinsically mystical and thus incomprehensible ”loose ends” quality of sudden silence to them. Thus, the real realist would become the mystic rather than the (objective) realist! Or to turn the perspective into another but perhaps more fruitful angle: Every form in consciousness can be nothing but illusory, regardless of its ”outer” or ”inner” characteristics! Sense perceptions of the ”outer” material world, or perceptions of ones own body, as much as perceptions of thoughts and feelings. It does not matter; the intrinsic natur of reality can be nothing but an illusion as long as consciounsness is dealing with forms. Hence, illusions are the one and only real reality of every form no matter where they seem to be!
So what is there to say about the ”outer” world of material objects, if we cannot know them in our direct experience? Well, the obvious but yet breathtaking assumption would be that they cannot be anything but unknown to us. And that realisation may soon become a very tricky territory to navigate in, since ”outer” objects not only include material goods but also e.g. other people and your own body…
Do you now comprehend in the deepest sense what I mean by using expressions like ”tricky”, ”loose ends”, ”sudden silence” and ”mystery” in regards to reality? If you don’t, please stop reading about it or listen to others; instead try to explore reality for yourself! And don’t take my word for it, because that would just become another religion to believe in. You have to be your own light!
Moreover, as you have seen above, you obviously won’t even have to leave the safe and comfortable haven of natural science (hence the right quadrants, Integral theoretically speaking) to start the journey. So, what stops you?
Bli först med att kommentera