Being human, we like to divide reality into different sections.
There is day time, and night time. There is the weekday, and the weekend. There are people with lighter skin, and darker skin. This mentality of cutting reality in half has a name - it’s called: duality.
Dualistic thoughts can be very useful. After all, if I want to drive from Maryland to Georgia, it’s good to know whether I’m on the correct road, or incorrect road. However, a lot of times we use dualistic thinking incorrectly, or trust in it too much.
The problem is this: There is one, and only one, reality. Thinking dualistically is in direct contradiction to that ultimate truth. Is it ever really a weekend? No. It’s just the continuous stream of time. If you go to mars, are there weekends there? No. Therefore, a “weekend” is not something that is a part of reality. It’s just a human thing we do - we divide reality arbitrarily, and label the divisions.
How does this affect us? Well, there’s a popular thought that is dualistic in nature, that I talk a lot about: “If you want to become good at psychic abilities, you must practice.”
Hiding behind this thought is a partitioned reality. Now, that doesn’t mean the thought is useless. Clearly there is some truth in there, because people who practice psychic abilities do become more proficient. But ultimately - the thought has some inherent falsehoods because it’s reliant on cutting reality in half.
There are a lot of cuts the thought makes, but the one I want to discuss is that it divides experiences into either natural or supernatural. Encoded inside of “practice psychic abilities to get better” is the thought that your current experiences are mostly “natural”, and if you want more “supernatural” ones, you need to practice.
This is the falsehood inside the thought. An experience is neither natural or supernatural. An experience is just an experience! Reality doesn’t go around, observing events, judging whether something was bizarre or not - humans do! Reality doesn’t give two shits, and just does what it does. This division between everyday life, and some awesome and profound paranormal experience, only exists in our mind.
Usually dualism isn’t too bad. In some cases it can be very dangerous, like racism, religion, or selfishness. Dualism serves the purpose of helping us understand things in human terms. But it’s vitally important to remember that when we are thinking dualistically, it’s only out of the necessity to break things down to our level, and NEVER a reflection of how reality actually functions. Reality isn’t dualistic. Reality is one.
Only use dualistic thinking in order to serve yourself. Never enforce your arbitrary divisions on reality itself. Reality doesn’t care about whether YOU think an experience is natural or supernatural. So get over it, and start seeing the beautiful in the ugly, the love in the fear, and the supernatural in the natural.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I like how you personified “reality”. It is my belief that to get closer to the truth we must attempt to mimic how reality would think; or how it thinks, depending on how you look at it.
If I where the universe, how would I see an object? What would it look like through my eyes?
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Very good post, the dialectic mind has been something of worry to me for a while now. Even many paradox´ rely on exploitation of this particular world view. To state Richard Bandler: “All generalisations are wrong, including this one.”
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
“Reality isn’t dualistic. Reality is one.”
So much for multiverses? =P
Still we are able to model reality pretty nicely with our dualistic deterministic finite-state machines. Otherwise known as computers.
We can produce accurate visual, and aural representations of reality soon enough. If our senses cannot tell the difference, Which one is real?
Virtual reality we would have created would be part of the reality. A part that can be named, singled out and investigated. Just as a weekend is a part of time.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:48 am
Great post. Reality really shouldn’t be what we see it as, but what it is, for real =) Makes you think about how we can’t change the past, and that we won’t live forever. Really brings you down to earth. Back to reality. Too bad reality sucks. Mabey thats why people waste their days playing hours of video games: to escape from reality…
May 25th, 2008 at 5:20 am
“reality is one”
I was always afraid I wouldn’t be able to look at the dark sides of the street ; Homeless,lonely,abandoning,diseases, poor, sadness.
all those thing I tried to avoid the most because I don’t think I can handle them.
If reality really is one, I should handle it in the future when I’ll be ready!
Good Post!
May 25th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
i guess its abit like overcomplicated.
i am a heart, a brain, a stomach, a face, some skin, among others, but i am essentialy one person.
antisankari: just because you cant tell the difference dosent mean there isnt a difference
May 25th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
redefine:
No it does not.
Does a falling tree make a sound if there is no one around to hear it?
May 29th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
After reading your previous post, this one continued to disappoint me. To see my rant on the previous post, just go to that page. To see my rant on this one, look below:
Reality doesn’t care about whether YOU think an experience is natural or supernatural.
^^ You’re saying that you shouldn’t have any opinions because they are STUPID and NON MATERIAL. Saying that no one gives a damn for your thoughts and that even if those thoughts are everyone’s they still don’t matter.
So get over it, and start seeing the beautiful in the ugly, the love in the fear, and the supernatural in the natural.
^^ Here you’re crossing the boundary way too often. Yes, I agree that people should see the good and bad sides of everything, but saying that opposites are the same is just connecting the green wire to the red wire.
You’re saying we shouldn’t create concepts out of reality but just let it go through us, without any processing, feeling, emotion, thought, or opinion. We shouldn’t give any labels to anything.
Reality for different people is different. Everyone builds their perception of the world based on their experiences from their experiences and opinions. Since opinions are based a lot on point-of-view, then everyone has a different sense of the world around them. Reality is different for all of us. The reality I’m talking about right now is reality as we envision it. True, reality for real is only one. Facts are facts. But our own realities aren’t just facts. They go beyond. Personal realities are our souls, who we are. We live the worlds in our heads (here by live I mean experience). Not only, however, Rejecting the facts is plain out stupid, but rejecting the world inside our heads is dangerous.
Putting labels on reality helps us find our way.
What you’re saying is what people hundreds of years ago thought, but for a different reason: “No, the Earth is the center of everything. Do not mess with what is. Comply or things will become worse.”
I’m waiting for your next post.
May 29th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Fruo:
It would appear that you are applying what appears to be your logic of argument to what has been posted by Sean. (Duh?) Let me explain further.
Every counter argument that you have provided has been modeled after how you perceive what is NOT being said, and it’s kind of weird to me.
For example:
Reality doesn’t care about whether YOU think an experience is natural or supernatural.
^^ You’re saying that you shouldn’t have any opinions because they are STUPID and NON MATERIAL. Saying that no one gives a damn for your thoughts and that even if those thoughts are everyone’s they still don’t matter.
When did he mention Stupidity, Non-Materiality, or other people? It would appear to me that he is stating that whether or not you categorize a given thing, that is not necessarily what it is.
Example 2:
So get over it, and start seeing the beautiful in the ugly, the love in the fear, and the supernatural in the natural.
^^ Here you’re crossing the boundary way too often. Yes, I agree that people should see the good and bad sides of everything, but saying that opposites are the same is just connecting the green wire to the red wire.
Never was it stated that ugly IS beautiful, or love IS fear, or the supernatural IS natural. By virtue of your argument this is what you are implying was originally said. Rather, what was said to see the beauty IN ugly, love IN fear, supernatural IN natural. Do you understand what I am trying to say?
I think one of the lynch-pins of the argument that I believe Sean was trying to portray was expressed best in this statement:
“Only use dualistic thinking in order to serve yourself. Never enforce your arbitrary divisions on reality itself.”
It is about adaptability and fluidity of mindset; Understanding that what you may believe is something, could possibly really be something else. Knowing when to see a tree as a tree, or a tree as the fruit the tree bares.
I hope that I have helped to show you another point of view what has been said; Rather than that I appeared in opposition to you.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:42 am
Hey boy I’m trying to send you an e mail bou all times I try I receive a message that your e-mail doesn’t exist. Do you have another one? My one is rafael.balbinotte@gmail.com
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:20 am
Sean you might want to read some Kant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant#Kant.27s_theory_of_perception
You are completely right when you say that reality is one.
However, there are two sides to reality:
the things how they are and the things how they seem to us.
We cannot realize how things are independent of us, but what you allege is true nonetheless: We, as men, must be aware that what we realize depends on who we are. that is why we should always question our first impressions in concerns of reality in order to escape false judgment and dogmatism.
homo faber by Max Frisch is another interesting book concerning reality and falsified reality.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
kiepmad, I agree with your above post. Reality that matters to us is how we perceive it, through our eyes. Thanks!