Reality questioned

2-9-18 Reality questioned

Reality is being questioned.  Is that new or a continual process?

There has been an ongoing desire to understand what reality is and sometimes one comes to satisfaction in the answers.  At other times (this being one) the facade develops cracks, and reality, as it is known, seems to be falling apart or at least changing.

There is uncertainty and anxiety in this.  There is a desire to create a new construction, a new explanation, one that is closer to the truth.  This too might be a simplification, an abstraction of what is, but the desire to put new order, to not just allow the old to crumble without a ready replacement is strong.

We are afraid of nothingness, of emptiness, of being in a void, or of no relationship.  But the fear may not be the truth.

Since one is questioning psychological reality and not physical reality (although they may seem to be the same), it is harder to get a grasp on what is being questioned.

If one sees that metaphor may be inadequate to truly understand how the psyche works and we do not have an adequate technological lens in which to look, then how does one see, how does one observe?

And is what is observed- the patterns, the tendencies, the relationships, the consequences of action, are those observations important?  Are we missing the obvious because we believe in those observations?  Are there parts not seen (like dark matter), not apparent but holding it all together?

Who wants to know and why? Why not just carry on in the way of a conditioned person with reality already defined by tradition, social values, and personal experiences.

One can see that the conditioning (what one has learned and experienced) holds this reality together and propels it on with continuity.  It is the fuel, the energy of the thought based machine. Because we are not constantly reinventing, but adding to what is known, what has been tried, then we can accept certain givens, a structure built upon. There may be comparison and rejection, but that is still within the program.

Maybe it’s not Truth that is desired, but an alternative to the reality that has been firmly established.  Maybe one feels constrained and sees little room for movement that is satisfying.  One no longer believes in all of the possibilities for action, for a secure and satisfying, pleasurable future and so the question of reality (Is this all that is possible?) comes up.

(Like a rat in a cage – all paths have been explored and there is no way out, so one imagines and wishes that the walls of the cage dissolve in order to have access to space and possibility.)

One can see layers of reality: the dream state, the structure of language, metaphors created by art, images from memory and imagination, social expectations, references to knowledge and experience, the map of the physical environment, interaction with objects and people (the physical environment must be established before the psychological can be built upon it).

In the conscious, daytime, wakeful state one must be in relationship with space, objects, people, nature and the psychological components (thoughts, feelings, and language.) It’s a complex organization, an ongoing movement of physical and psychological interaction.  Sometimes one feels that thought is almost absent as one goes through activities automatically.  At other times, times of physical inactivity, thought is very active in memory or imagination.  But one doesn’t really know how the mind works, how it decides what to do, what to think about, when to move, when to relax, what the triggers are for activity and response.

Since one does not know how to control the psyche from an outside position – as there is no outside position – then perhaps the questioning of reality, or of an alternate reality comes up. Can one change this reality through seeing and understanding? Can one see the falseness of this reality (and then act differently?) Can one see what one is and be set free from the limitations imposed by false seeing?  Is this the only possibility for me, the self, the human being, and therefore reality as we know it? Will it change if we see clearly? If reality changes, do we change? Is reality always a limited psychological construction?

(Image: The World Upside Down)