Changing Reality #48 #cong23 #reality

Reading Time in Minutes

3

1. Our senses help us experience reality
2. Education changes perception of reality
3. Reality can be distorted
4. Dreams can be a gateway to alternate reality

You can connect with Ronan on LinkedIn or send him an email.

By Ronan McMahon

Well, the theme for this year’s Congregation has perplexed my mind for the last number of weeks…..and still I have a difficulty in putting thoughts on paper (well text on screen). It has raised more questions for me than answers.

My first thought and source of inspiration was the internet. Isn’t it ironic that is where I head for initially – isn’t that the epitome of the opposite to reality!

When I think of reality, I think of something that I can use my senses to understand ie to see, to hear, to touch, to smell or to taste. I can’t use any of my senses to understand the internet. It is just “out-there”

Take it a step further and I ask myself the question, if I can’t see, hear, touch, smell or taste it, does that mean it’s not real? Or is it just not real for me and therefore not my reality.

Many years ago we had not got the equipment or technology to see things as they were, for example the infinite number of stars and galaxies in our skies – however they were real, we could not see them but they were there and therefore part of our reality – but not in our minds or the mind of people who lived 1,000 years ago. Which leads me to the point that, what we believe to be our individual and group reality is forever changing, but the reality is not. This changing perception has been and is being brought about by knowledge, experience, belief, thoughts and education.

We have heard the phrase that “dreams become reality….when thoughts become actions”. Dreams are not real, but they can give us a thought and a belief in something, which if we harness our motivation and others and take action, we can take a step closer to them becoming a reality, and eventually a reality. Again, this brings me back to the internet, which is a modern tool to help bring dreams to reality.

Another point I would like to make is that in a non-physical sense, Our reality is purely only a perception of reality. It may not be true, but if we believe it to be true, then it becomes our reality, but it may not be reality. And as we gain more experience and knowledge, it may change our perceptions and hence our reality – without anything changing except what we had believed.

In this modern world where we are bombarded daily by so much information and misinformation, real and unreal, our perceptions often change and hence our reality. We need to be mindful of this as a weakness in our makeup and be careful that we don’t rely on what we believe as reality, as if its real reality. The world has got so complicated with so much information available and thrown at us, that I wonder are we any better off than our ancestors, be it a century or a millennium ago, where their reality was less complicated and probably as close to real if not closer than ours is today with more perceived knowledge.

When the Covid pandemic hit, the one thing that struck me is the amount of people in Ireland who could continue to work – remotely. It was an eye opener to me to see the transformation, not the fact to see that it could be done, but what were these people producing – by sitting in front of a screen, tapping a keyboard, talking into screens, or clicking a mouse. What does the modern worker now produce? And these are real jobs. Society has developed so much that the number of people really producing something that we need is diminishing to a very small number. Perhaps the world needs a good reality check and who is brave enough to make a start?

And what does the future hold in this space, now with the advent and prolification of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the subject of reality is and will only get more complicated and harder to define. This is one aspect of the future, which I am not looking forward to and have my reservations about whether it is a positive for the world we are living in.

I think the subject matter “Reality” for congregation 2023 has thrown up more questions than answers for me, which I welcome, because there is nothing like a thought provoking subject to open peoples minds to their own and others reality.