Reality Musings #15 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

Reality has been defined as a fixed thing that exists whether we believe it or not. There are other aspects to reality which inculde the subjective and the personal experience of people. Science has brought us further in understanding what reality might be but it has also opened us new avenues. I think that reality may be a communal creation, built on communication and sharing.

Total Words

1,038

Reading Time in Minutes

4

Key Takeaways:

  1. The desire to understand reality is part of human nature.
  2. Reality has become yoked to other words like alternate, augmented, virtual to explain new concepts and ideas.
  3. Reality can be defined in a realist (objective) way or an antirealist(subjective) way.
  4. Reality for me is best understood as a co-operative and collective creation.

About Catriona Healy:

I am a recently retired special educator with particular interest in challenging behaviour. I spent most of my career working with students with moderate-severe/profound disabilities. I have really enjoyed my first year of retirement and I look forward to doing more of the stuff that fills me up in the future…(writing/painting/ potteringh etc).
I just adopted a puppy called Oscar and he is amazing!

Contacting Catriona Healy:

You can connect with Catriona via email

By Catriona Healy

We humans have a bit of a problem with reality. We experience it all the time, but struggle to define it, let alone understand it.

It seems so solid and yet, when we examine it closely, it melts away like a mirage. We don’t know when it began, how big it is, where it came from and where it is going, and we certainly have no clue why it exists.

Nonetheless, the desire to understand reality seems part of our nature, and we have come a long way. What was once explained in terms of divine creation is now in the purview of science, Through science, philosophy, religion metaphysics and mathematics, we have tried to peel back the layers of reality, even if we are still not entirely sure what we have revealed.

If anything, the mystery has only deepened.

We are now at a point in human history where we have alternate reality, augmented reality and virtual reality along with “regular” reality. Not only that but “Reality TV” provides us with entertainment that is anything but!

It’s quite possible that for the human race, reality has never felt so unreal.

In the debate about reality across multiple disciplines, author Philip K. Dick offers a helpfully succinct definition: “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”

It’s a solid starting point — even if you don’t believe in gravity, you’ll still fall down if you trip.

Neuroscience, on the other hand, tells us that our brains create our reality. It takes in input from our senses and creates a model of the world we experience.

This model can be called reality.

Philosophy tells us that while reality is something that exists independent of our minds, it can be known through reason and observation.

Our perception of reality is not an exact representation of the objective truth but rather a combination of sensory inputs and the brain’s interpretation of these signals. This interpretation is influenced by past experiences and is often predictive, with the brain creating categories of similar instances to anticipate future events.

One might say that “truth,” or “reality,” is relative and subjective, and that would be correct in the sense that everyone’s “truth,” “reality,” or “world” does come from within, from his or her own mind, which is then projected outside, which he or she then observes.

The basic idea of realism is that that things which exist are independent of us; antirealism denies this. Most people find it natural to be realists with respect to physical facts: how many planets there are in the solar system does not depend on how many we think there are, or would like there to be, or how we investigate them; likewise, whether electrons exist or not depends on the facts, not on which theory we understand or subscribe to.

However, it seems natural to be antirealist about humour: something’s being funny is very much a matter of whether we find it funny, and the idea that something might really be funny even though nobody ever felt any inclination to laugh at it seems barely comprehensible.

The saying that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ is a popular expression of antirealism.

An obviously controversial example is that of moral values; some maintain that they are real (or ‘objective’), others that they have no existence apart from human feelings and attitudes.

Einstein (who knew more than I about this topic) suggested, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

However, I feel that in some ways the opposite of what is real is not illusion, but the fake, the counterfeit, that which can’t be trusted and has no inherent value.

Theatre, television, art and literature all deal in illusion but can be very real in the sense that they can nurture and edify us, help us to make sense of our experiences. When they fail in this, they feel unreal, they don’t ring true. They fail as art and as reality.

How real does something have to be, in order to be? Is reality definitive? It seems to me it is more a collective sharing of the same beliefs? You alone can not totally and accurately define reality, because you have nothing to compare your reality too. That is why we need each other so that we can communicate and listen to others to form a more complete version of reality. The puzzle of reality may never be finished, we learn new things all the time about the world we inhabit.

There will never be an end of our efforts to understand reality. Consider the ongoing discussions about dark matter, dark energy, string theory, quantum mechanics and worm holes — just when we think we have unlocked the secrets of how the universe works, it turns out we have only peeled back another layer, and what’s inside may upend the reality we think we know.

A Reality Journey through Science, Subjectivity, and the Wisdom of Age #14 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

In exploring the concept of Reality, my perspective has evolved to encompass both scientific objectivity and personal subjectivity. I’ve found that reality is a multi-layered construct, shaped by measurable facts but deeply influenced by individual experiences and emotions. This nuanced understanding, further enriched by ageing, drives me to continuously examine life’s complexities, from the tangible world to the intangible aspects of human perception and beliefs. The Reality, as I’ve come to define it today (yes, today, as it’ll most certainly change again in the future), is an intricate tapestry of fact and feeling.

Total Words

819

Reading Time in Minutes

3

Key Takeaways:

  1. Reality is multi-dimensional
  2. Reality is best understood when scientific truths are interwoven with philosophical insights
  3. Perception shapes reality
  4. Understanding of Reality deepens with age

About Stan McGowan:

Branding and Digital Marketing Don Quixote turning the marketing industry on its head with a revolutionary Pay-On-Performance model. I enjoy spending time with my family & kids, making music, photography/videography, cooking, and swimming.

Contacting Stan McGowan:

You can connect with Stan via email or LinkedIn.

By Stan McGowan

In my years of grappling with the concept of Reality, my understanding has deepened, shaped mainly by the passage of time and the accumulation of experiences. The perspective I’ve gained isn’t easily confined to a single line of thought, as it spans the scientific and the subjective, the measurable and the intangible, bringing me to recognise that reality is a tapestry stitched with intricate threads of fact and feeling.

My grounding as an agnostic means that I have a profound respect for science and what we can objectively observe in the universe, yet life has taught me that pure objectivity doesn’t entirely capture the essence of reality. Consider pain. Science can chart the neural pathways that light up during physical pain, giving us readings and measurements, but the realm of emotional pain, such as the agony anyone can feel during loss, failure, or disappointment, is far more elusive. What unit could possibly measure the despair one feels when grieving the loss of a loved one or the intensity of betrayal? The paradox here is that while science can give us objective metrics, the subjective experience of each individual adds layers of nuance to the definition of reality.

This blending of subjective experience with objective truths extends to how we interpret our surroundings. The physical universe exists, measurable and concrete; however, our mental states, such as our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, act as prisms through which we view this physical reality. Our subjective minds influence how we interpret and react to objective events, creating a complex overlay where science and philosophy intertwine. While science offers the tools and metrics to understand the “How”, philosophy grapples with the “Why”. One tells us how the world is, and the other tells us what it might mean, but in my eyes, you need both for a full-spectrum understanding of reality.

But perception is the real game-changer in the narrative of what we consider to be Real, and I’ve come to realise that what we see, or choose to see, is often just a fraction of what is truly there. Take a simple object as an example. Viewed from different angles, the same object can look entirely different. Now apply that metaphor to life itself. The gif below demonstrates there could be multiple angles and points of view to a single thing or event, and all of them make perfect sense when reviewed under the same perspective.

Think of how social media and marketing present curated snapshots of other people’s lives, often projecting a facade that rarely mirrors the full reality. Or how media can choose to tell a story, shaping public opinion and, in a sense, creating a ‘shared reality’ that may not align with individual experience.

As I’ve aged, this kaleidoscopic view of reality has only become more acute. Where once I might have been content with surface-level understandings, I now find myself contemplating the complexities of life more deeply. In my youth, the realities of mortality, responsibility, and the consequences of my choices were often background noise and easy to ignore. But age has brought them to the forefront, making me acutely aware of their weight. And I don’t think I’m alone in this. It’s a stage in life when the abstract becomes concrete, and the distant becomes immediate. So these are the layers of reality that age unearths, underscoring the importance of recognising life’s complexities and acknowledging that reality is indeed a multi-layered, multi-sided construction.

Reality, as I’ve come to know it, is a multi-dimensional concept, a blend of science and subjectivity, facts and perceptions, the concrete and the abstract. And as the years continue to roll by, I find myself more engrossed in its intricate tapestry, eager to explore and learn every weave and thread. At least, that’s how I see it.

Throwing the Book at Reality #13 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

An invitation to consider the place and power of language, and particularly literature, in our understanding of reality. Before we can act intentionally and create a changed reality, we must think. Before influencing others with our thinking, we must translate it into language. And the more dramatic and lyrical that language is, the more significant the impact.

Total Words

893

Reading Time in Minutes

4

Key Takeaways:

  1. Words inspire action that creates a new reality
  2. Words give us a new perspective on reality
  3. Words create a new inclusive worldview out of two opposing realities
  4. Language forms a bridge between our inner and outer realities

About Anne Tannam:

Anne is a creative coach and poet. And, as you may have guessed, always has her head stuck in a book! For more on Anne’s coaching, visit www.creativecoaching.ie For more on her poetry, visit www.annetannampoetry.ie

Contacting Anne Tannam:

You can connect with Anne via email or read her poetry and find out her coaching work.

By Anne Tannam

In thirteen years, Alexander the Great created one of the world’s largest empires that stretched from Greece to northwestern India. The story goes that throughout his military campaign, the youthful general slept with a box under his pillow. In the box was the dagger of his vanquished enemy, Darius, and a copy of Homer’s Iliad. At the beginning of his campaign, he even takes the same route to battle as Achilles in Homer’s epic poem. Inspired by another’s stirring words, Alexander shaped a new geographical and political reality that formed the basis of our modern Western culture. Because of the words of an 8th-century poet and his influence on a 3rd-century general, the 21st-century culture that shapes our Western reality exists.

Of course, this is provocatively simple, and it’s not meant to be an argument but rather an invitation to consider the place and power of language, and particularly literature, in our understanding of reality. Before we can act intentionally and create a changed reality, we must think. Before influencing others with our thinking, we must translate it into language. And the more dramatic and lyrical that language is, the more significant the impact. It’s why presidents employ poets to recite at their inaugurations, and politicians pepper their speeches with lines from literature. Words have always mattered. Empires and nations have risen and fallen because of words. New realities are born and die because of stories.

‘If he made a good recovery, Boxer might expect to live another three years,
and he looked forward to the peaceful days that he would spend in the corner
of the big pasture. It would be the first time that he had had leisure to study
and improve his mind. He intended, he said, to devote the rest of his life to
learning the remaining twenty-two letters of the alphabet.’

It’s years since I read George Orwell’s Animal Farm, but even now, when I think of Boxer, the hardworking and loyal farm horse, being driven away in a van with the words’ Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon.’ (which, tragically, Boxer and many of the other animals couldn’t read), I feel viscerally the cruelty and mercilessness of the Russian Revolution under Stalin. I can’t imagine what the book’s impact was for those living with the aftermath of that reality. Fiction can give us a new perspective on reality, allow us to see the bigger picture, connect the dots of cause and effect, and, hopefully, give us a blueprint of how to design a new, better reality.

This leads me to the world’s first known author, Enheduanna, born in ancient Mesopotamia, around the 23rd century BC, 1,500 years before Homer. The daughter of King Sargon the Great, the first empire builder who conquered the independent city-states of Mesopotamia under a unified banner. He spoke Akkadian, and the cities in the south, who spoke Sumerian, viewed him as a foreign invader and revolted. To bridge the gap between the two cultures, he set up his only daughter, Enheduanna, as high priestess in the city of Ur’s most important temple. A brilliant strategist and writer, she set about writing in Akkadian and Sumerian forty-two religious hymns that combined both culture’s deities and mythologies into a unified cosmic reality. What had previously been experienced as two distinct and opposing realities, through the power of words, became a prosperous and inclusive new reality.

Words allow humans to express what’s happening internally and thus influence what is happening in the external world. In Jungian thinking, much of how we experience reality comes from projecting earlier realities onto our current situations. As the diarist and essayist Anais Nin says, ‘we don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.’ This isn’t to say that there is no objective reality. Still, our experience of reality is constructed from both what is objectively real and how we subjectively experience it. One of the properties and powers of literature is to provide a bridge between the outer and inner world of reality and a way of navigating the relationship between both. As readers and writers, books can help us to embrace the complexity of our lived reality and to find innovative ways to shape new realities.

What are the books or stories that have helped shape your reality?

The Illusory Nature of Reality #12 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

The nature of reality is fluid, perception is subjective. We depend on fictional constructs to add meaning and structure to the infinite array of phenomena that surrounds us. A recent psychedelic experience gave me an unexpected perspective which has had a significant impact on my current view of reality.

Total Words

1,217

Reading Time in Minutes

5

Key Takeaways:

  1. The perceptual nature of reality
  2. The importance of fictional constructs
  3. Experiencing reality as an illusion
  4. Living in presence and acceptance

About Zanya Dahl:

I am a visual artist, working primarily in oils and specialising in figurative painting.
My focus is around the theme of connection – the absence and discovery of it. I am fascinated by how we connect within, with each other and with our environment.

When I’m not painting, I’m playing hockey, engaging in comedy improvisation, and mothering two little people. I rely on yoga and meditation to still my mind and loosen my limbs.

Contacting Zanya Dahl:

You can connect with Zanya via emailInstagram and LinkedIn

By Zanya Dahl

I was recommended an excellent book recently by Will Storr called “Selfie”. He introduced me to a wonderful new word: “confabulation” which he explains as follows:

“Our narrator is just observing what’s happening in the controlled hallucination in our skulls – including our own behaviour – and explaining it. It’s tying all the events together into a coherent tale that tells us who we are, why we’re doing what we’re doing and feeling what we’re feeling. It’s helping us feel in control of our thrilling neural show. And it’s not lying, exactly. It’s confabulating.”

The more I accept that reality is completely unpredictable and that my version of events is my own confabulation, I feel my attachment to opinions, events and memories loosen.

It’s harder to be righteous and judgmental when you know that the world as you see it is a neural construct rather than the absolute truth. Knowing this makes it easier to be more accepting of contrary views. My own views change all the time.

Thoughts come and go, feelings come and go, events come and go – nothing stands still.

We are constantly adapting and redefining our responses in every moment, sometimes consciously, mostly unconsciously.

Reading ‘Sapiens’ by Yuval Noah Harari, I was blown away by his assertion that the greatest difference between humans and animals is our ability to collaboratively buy in to fictional constructs such as money, nationality, and religion. Even though they are merely concepts, they are collectively endorsed on a global scale and have enormous power over us.

After listening to a lot of teachings on non-duality, I remember struggling to wrap my head around the idea that time is also a fictional construct.

What would my reality be like if time didn’t exist? Would it be so bad to be freed from its shackles and live in a random unstructured flow of happenings? It’s hard to even imagine. And yet, this question was somewhat answered a couple of years ago after I intentionally ingested a large dose of handpicked Liberty Caps in the comfort of my own home.

I was looking forward to journeying into unexplored realms of psychedelic insight. Initially, my brain was dazzled by a kaleidoscope of visual effects. I could feel my whole being becoming the music I was hearing – I was no longer human but simply a wave of sound. Eventually, as the special effects began to fade, I felt the trip was coming to an end. I was sleepy and I walked to my room to go to bed. As I did so, I became aware that time had somehow evaporated. I vaguely wondered if I was 80 or my current age or if I was in an afterlife, haunting my own home. I didn’t know if tomorrow was going to come. I couldn’t feel the solidity of my arms or legs. Nothing felt “real”.

With creeping horror, I had a realisation that everything in my reality is an illusion – my partner, my children, my friends. None of them are real. It was like an experience of being God – everything in my life that I took to be real is a manifestation. I didn’t feel like an all-powerful creator. I felt very alone – like the last person left alive in the world. I also feared that in that moment, if I attempted to go beyond the illusion of Zanya for even a second, I’d disappear too. I felt my brain trying to claw its way back to the reality it knows, desperately trying to preserve my Self. I wanted to go back to being the oblivious character in a dream and not the character who’s wide awake in a dream knowing that her world is not real but a dream. I didn’t want to be the solitary godlike Dreamer either. I wanted to return to my illusory reality. With every fibre in my being.

I felt a wave of nausea and rushed to the bathroom to throw up, relieved to clear the mushrooms and all their filter-altering psilocybin out of my system. I just wanted to get to sleep and wake up to a stable tomorrow.

Ever since, I’ve steered clear of any plant medicine. I’ve no further desire to chase after the ‘authentic truth’ of life. To find it, I would have to be willing to disappear. If I choose to exist, then my version of reality is still a projection of my mind.

The great Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher, Jiddu Krishnamurti put it nicely,
“If I do not know reality, the unknown, how can I search for it? Surely it must come but I cannot go after it. If I go after it, I am going after something which is the known, projected by me; by my own mind.”

I am now paying more attention to my existence with a clearer, upgraded lens – keeping my two feet on the ground and enjoying the magic of living rather than disregarding it or trying to uncover the mysterious force behind it.

And yet, as I gratefully feel the solidity of my existence, my mind still pulls me into hypothetical scenarios – dreaming of positive outcomes, re-living pleasant memories, planning my response to imagined obstacles or worst-case scenarios. Every time I do this, I disappear from the present moment and enter yet another confabulated virtual reality.

There’s so much to explore in the present moment. Why do I keep jumping out of it?

When Krishnamurti offered to share the secret of his life in his later years, his audience held their breath in excited anticipation. His reply was this:

“I don’t mind what happens.”

It sounds flippant and simplistic on first hearing, but it’s so deeply profound. Imagine being ok with whatever may or may not occur in your reality, be it a missed opportunity, a disagreement, a falling out, an unexpected loss, a rejection, a failed attempt at something, an unfulfilled dream.

Oh to be free of fear and desire – the two states of mind that cloud our view of everything.

Every time I catch myself worrying about an outcome, I say those words to myself:

“I don’t mind what happens.”

Imagine accepting reality like that.

.

Reality is Sharing #11 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

The article discusses the idea that reality is shaped by our social connections and the influence of others. It argues that we don’t view the world objectively but through the lens of our biases and experiences. Our lives are largely habitual, and change is resisted by our brains, leading to a limited sense of reality. The author suggests that science and technology can manipulate the world but often see it as separate from us. They emphasize the importance of social bonds and shared knowledge in shaping our perception of reality. The article concludes that our experience of reality is ever-evolving, requiring us to adapt to changes in our socially connected world.

Total Words

1,240

Reading Time in Minutes

5

Key Takeaways:

  1. There is no individual sense of reality.  Our perceptions are all based on those that have been had by others and shared with us.
  2. Experience is important, but even more so when put into a social context.
  3. We cannot possibly know everything therefore our knowledge is bounded.
  4. Our sense of reality changes as our information about reality changes. It is Darwinian in the sense that we either adapt or die as we become aware of new knowledge.

About Tom Murphy:

Classics and Philosophy student at NUI Galway.

Contacting Tom Murphy:

You can follow Tom on Twitter

By Tom Murphy

Reality is sharing. Without connection to others and left to yourself in not so short a time you will go doolallly.  You will disconnect from the normal disposition that anchors your perception of reality – how you view and relate to the events going on around you in the environment in which you operate. This new reality is not a different reality in kind. It is something that has come loose and unhinged from normal day activity. We need other brains to make sense of the world.

Without the input of others the world soon becomes nonsensical.

The real world could be defined in materialist terms as the things that exist in our notion of time and space as being objects open to examination by scalpel of the reductionist mindset. A conglomerate of things that are further reducible to their individual parts layer by layer until we get into the quantum world where it seems all bets are off.

This approach of making sense of the world by analysis and reason has served us well over the last five hundred years. It is hard to argue that the advances in technology and medicine have been in the overall sense a good thing. But it is not how we, ourselves, operate. We don’t see the world through an objective lens and we don’t live our lives that way. We live our lives through what we perceive of the world through education and experience. To save energy reliving every event as though it was the first time we apply rules of thumb, heuristics if you will, that serve as a shorthand way to inform us on how to act and react. This means that after a certain age we no longer see the world fresh and new but through a series of preconceptions and assumptions that, while helpful most of the time, are riddled with biases.

We live our lives in a largely habitual manner. We are heavily routinized in our thoughts, actions and feelings. To escape that requires change which is a huge load to be placed on the brain and the brain doesn’t like to do extra work unless it absolutely has to. This narrowness of behaviour leaves us with the lives we lead every day – our reality.

This sense of reality, which is inherently limited, leaves us with the feeling that there has to be more to life. Which in an absolute sense is true. If our perception of the world is limited by our biases, experience and education, then there has to be more.

Science and technology can dissect and utilise the world in myriad ways – sometimes positive and sometimes negative. But the there is always a sense that these two forces are working on and transmuting a world ‘out there.’

We are born as individuals but share many, many faculties with those around us. Curiosity, learning capacity, fear of falling, and so on. This leads to the relative ease of assimilation into our families and culture. While this is highly beneficial in a practical sense it means that we automatically discount or ignore information that does not fit easily into the world view that is being created as we grow up. Therefore, our sense of reality is limited. We don’t know yet, and I doubt that we ever will, all that goes on the scientifically observable universe but what we do know is how to behave in a functional way.

This sense of functionality works to supply us with our sense of reality. Our everyday lives consist of complying with and negotiating with the boundaries that have been set up by other brains. While we might always like the way the world is set up we have to acknowledge that the world as we experience was set up by other people with brains just like ours.

We could argue that Mother Nature is the supreme arbiter of what is real and what is not. Most of us dropped without supplies or a support structure into a barren wilderness would not last very long at all. The world in its natural state is quite deadly to humans. That we have survived thus far is some kind of miracle. But what made that survival possible. It wasn’t the genius of particular individuals, though that didn’t hurt, but the codified knowledge and experience that comes from the tribal mind. We all know that we are highly sociable creatures and need the presence of others around us or life can become exceedingly difficult. This need for others manifests itself in our needs to form ourselves into families and the beyond that tribalism.

You do not have to travel very far in the world to see that there are great many fully bought in world views. Some of these world views are openly hostile the possibility that their world view could be wrong. Fundamental religions are one example. Other world views are open to the possibility of change and development. But even then there is a trade off in the hope that the benefits of new discoveries may improve our experience of reality but not change it in any way beyond the superficial. But most of the people who inhabit these world views accept them as reality – the way the world is. They have their rules for behaviour and for the most part it has worked over generations so why mess with it?

Our reality is human bound and our sense of it changes as we change. But change can be perceived as bad in the sense that it will expose us to new risks, many of them borne out of unintended consequences.

Reality, or more importantly, our experience of reality as formed by our social, familial, and cultural ties is always changing and we will always have to adapt our thinking and the thinking of others so we can, as a social concern, can adapt to the inevitable changes that will occur. In that sense reality is the product of our socially connected reality to deal with reality itself.

A Scanner Lightly #10 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

“Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann is a timeless and profound poem offering guidance on understanding reality. “Desiderata” provides a holistic perspective on life, addressing various aspects such as interconnectedness, spirituality, and personal growth, making it a timeless guide for those seeking a deeper understanding of the reality they inhabit.

Total Words

972

Reading Time in Minutes

4

Key Takeaways:

  1. Inner Peace and Equanimity: The poem emphasizes the importance of maintaining inner peace and serenity amidst life’s chaos. It advises readers to “go placidly amid the noise and haste,” highlighting the value of focusing on inner well-being as a foundation for understanding reality.
  2. Self-Acceptance and Self-Love: Ehrmann encourages self-acceptance and self-love, suggesting that understanding reality begins with understanding oneself. Embracing our flaws and learning from experiences is vital for personal growth and a deeper understanding of the world.
  3. Empathy and Tolerance: The poem underscores the importance of empathy and understanding others. It advises us to speak our truth while listening to others, even those we may perceive as dull or ignorant. This approach fosters a deeper comprehension of the complex interactions that shape our reality.
  4. Perseverance and Balance: Ehrmann promotes resilience and determination in the face of adversity, reminding us that life is a mix of success and failure. The poem encourages us to find our unique path, avoid negative influences, and maintain balance, helping us better understand the ebb and flow of existence.

About Turlough Rafferty:

Turlough Rafferty is a technologist based in the West of Ireland. He assists business start-ups and scale ups. Interests include digital technology, new space and the bioeconomy.

Contacting Turlough Rafferty:

You can connect with Turlough on Twitter or LinkedIn.

By Turlough Rafferty

“Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann is a timeless poem that has served as a valuable life guide for many individuals seeking to understand and navigate the complexities of reality (Ehrmann). This prose poem, written in 1927, imparts wisdom and insight into life’s fundamental truths, offering a roadmap for personal growth, inner peace, and a deeper understanding of reality. The poem provides a blend of philosophical, spiritual, and practical advice, which continues to resonate with people today.

One of the most prominent themes in “Desiderata” is the importance of maintaining inner peace and equanimity amidst life’s challenges and uncertainties. Ehrmann advises readers to “go placidly amid the noise and haste” and to “keep peace with your soul.” In a world filled with chaos and distractions, these words remind us that we can find serenity by focusing on our inner well-being. This concept aligns with the teachings of mindfulness and meditation, which emphasize the importance of inner tranquillity as a foundation for understanding the reality around us.

The poem also encourages self-acceptance and self-love. Ehrmann suggests that we should “love what you have” and “take kindly the counsel of the years.” This advice underscores the idea that understanding reality begins with understanding ourselves. By accepting our flaws and learning from our experiences, we can grow as individuals and gain a deeper understanding of the world around us. Self-love and self-acceptance are essential for fostering a positive perspective on reality.

“Desiderata” touches on the concept of empathy and understanding others as well. Ehrmann writes, “Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.” This highlights the importance of active listening and appreciating the diverse perspectives of those we encounter. By embracing this wisdom, we can develop a greater sense of empathy and tolerance, which contributes to a more profound comprehension of the complex web of human interactions that shape our reality.

The poem also advocates for perseverance and resilience. Ehrmann encourages readers to “exercise caution in your business affairs” and “let this not blind you to what virtue there is.” This advice is a reminder that life is a mixture of success and failure, but it is essential to remain determined and virtuous in the face of adversity. It implies that understanding reality includes recognizing the imperfections and challenges of life and yet persisting with integrity and determination.

Ehrmann’s poem suggests that we should aim for a balanced life by “avoiding loud and aggressive persons” and finding our own place in the world. This balance promotes harmony, helping us understand the ebb and flow of existence. It teaches us that understanding reality requires finding our unique path and not being swayed by external pressures or negative influences.

Additionally, “Desiderata” alludes to the interconnectedness of all things. Ehrmann states, “You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars.” This interconnectedness emphasizes the idea that we are all part of a greater whole, and our actions have ripple effects in the world. Recognizing this interconnectedness encourages us to act with responsibility and empathy, further deepening our understanding of the reality we share with others.

The poem also contains spiritual undertones, highlighting the importance of finding meaning and purpose in life. Ehrmann advises us to “be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.” This open-minded approach to spirituality encourages individuals to seek their own beliefs and values, contributing to a more profound spiritual understanding that can guide them in their life journey.

In conclusion, “Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann serves as a valuable life guide to understand reality by offering timeless wisdom on various aspects of life. The poem’s themes of inner peace, self-acceptance, empathy, perseverance, balance, interconnectedness, and spirituality collectively provide a holistic perspective on navigating the complexities of existence. It encourages readers to cultivate self-awareness, empathy, and an open-minded, spiritual outlook. This poem continues to resonate because it speaks to the universal truths of human experience, guiding individuals on their journey to a deeper understanding of the reality they inhabit.

Ehrmann, Max. “Desiderata Original Text.” Desiderata.com, 2016, www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.

What is Reality? #9 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

The human brain is an amazing computational instrument. It can reason, project, control, and otherwise fuse together thousands of inputs at once, creating an awareness, a synthesis of understanding. It’s something that philosophers and scientists throughout the ages have struggled to fully understand and, of late, have attempted to model in silicon and hardware to create things like artificial intelligence and neural networks. The complexity of our creation belies the infinitely complex interconnections between chemicals, electrical signaling, and perhaps, a deeper unseen aspect. Whatever is composed out of the chaos of our cortices, it holds true that we are masters of narrative, of creation, of reality.

Total Words

1,224

Reading Time in Minutes

5

Key Takeaways:

  1. Humanity is incredible for their collective ability to create and imagine.
  2. Reality is defined by our collective narrative and stories.
  3. Reality is a collision between the observable and the imagined.
  4. Shaping reality, especially in the day/age of AI and all of its permutations, must be grounded in who we are as creative, sentimental beings.

About Dave Graham:

Dave Graham is a research technologist and the technology advocate lead for Dell Technologies’ Office of Research where he focuses on how technologies are integrated into organizations, society, and their potential for global transformation.  He is currently working on his PhD at University College Dublin – SMARTLab looking at how data is used to increase social agency.

Contacting Dave Graham

You can follow Dave’s daily musings on Post.News, read his Substack thoughts or check out his photography on Instagram

By Dave Graham

What is reality?

Take a look at the picture presented here. What do you observe?

On first pass, I’m sure that you notice the line of separation down the horizon, separating the two halves of the picture. There are coloured leaves, resplendent in their autumnal finery; the water is still, reflecting mirror-like the sky and the traces of flora that find themselves front and center in this idyllic scene. It’s a tranquility that speaks of preparation, of stillness, of potential. It’s a capture of reality.

On second look, there are perhaps other things that catch your eye: the darkened corners, the almost too-reflective water on the lower half of the picture, the slight blurring of leaves on the trees. There seems to be an almost casual distortion in parts of the image as if some digital thumb swooped in and mucked about with the pixels, upsetting their natural order.

Your brain has determined one of two things in this moment:
1. This is nothing more than a picture showing a tree reflected in the water.
2. There is something amiss with this picture which may mean it’s altered or generated.

So, which is it: which explanation is real?

The human brain is an amazing computational instrument. It can reason, project, control, and otherwise fuse together thousands of inputs at once, creating an awareness, a synthesis of understanding. It’s something that philosophers and scientists throughout the ages have struggled to fully understand and, of late, have attempted to model in silicon and hardware to create things like artificial intelligence and neural networks. The complexity of our creation belies the infinitely complex interconnections between chemicals, electrical signaling, and perhaps, a deeper unseen aspect. Whatever is composed out of the chaos of our cortices, it holds true that we are masters of narrative, of creation, of reality.

The picture you see here was captured no less than 24 hours before writing this piece, near a pond a scant few kilometers from my residence. The fall air was still, the water placid, and the leaves on the maples and birches were stunning. As I leaned over the water, watching for the reflections to align just-so, I was rewarded with momentary calm and reality was captured.

With a slight tweak to colour (I prefer my reality a bit darker than lighter), I noticed that the image was a perfect mirror of itself. That up could be down and down, up. That reality wasn’t constrained to the cardinal directions of captured 3 dimensional space: it could exist completely upside down or right side up. Would the story change, I wondered, and would it represent the same truths of the moment in which I observed it?

I created a reality out of a momentary capture of photons hitting an electrical sensor and simultaneously my optic nerves. My brain flipped the image, letting my neurons do the dirty work of interpreting the scene in meaningful ways. On my laptop, I engaged in digital arbitrage, exchanging light for dark, up for down, reality for a narrative of my own devising. I created the foil for today’s story, an image to back a narrative, a device.

Reality is what we define it to be. I’ve provided my version of reality through an image here: I’ve taken a pastoral scene, flipped it upside down, and made you consider what I’ve done. If you were casually browsing through a collection of photos, you’d more than likely miss what I had done. You’d have seen the darkened corners, the slight blurring and perhaps ascribed an artist’s aesthetic to it: “Ah, this photographer didn’t get their focus correct” or “It’s a bit dark…why do they edit it like that?” It’s easy to pass over because this slice of reality doesn’t jar the senses, doesn’t force a fusion of sight, sound, touch, and emotion. It just is.

The struggle with our definition of reality is that there is an inevitable collision between our reality and that of others.The galling violence we’ve seen displayed via various media outlets over the last year point to this very ideal. There’s a collision between the reality of our daily lives and that of the greater world around us. Our inoculation from war, from violence, from the depravity of humanity allows us to very narrowly define reality to what is directly in front of us, what we can taste, touch, smell, see. When confronted by an outside reality, we have no box to put it in; it affronts our hallowed senses, our stories and we are galled by it.

Reality, then, is a construct of our imagination, composed of our senses and assembled together from the rudiments of experience. It’s a constant metering and evaluation of what lies before us: the click of these keys, the movement of letters on a screen to form words, the vibrant beauty of an idyll captured not so long ago. It’s a story composed for an unconference, a stroll through the meadows of a caffeine-and-ADHD addled mind, and the ideas that reality is a creation, beautifully ugly, of our own devising.

I suppose the grand challenge (and what I’ll leave you with today) is to understand more how reality is shaped: by experience, by novelty, by intersection and to make it life-defining. I challenge you to understand how your reality is shaped by the stories of others and the stories you write for yourself. How can the tide of humanity’s experience be channeled to create a more wholesome reality for all while simultaneously be true to the story of its creation?

Thoughts for another day, another unconference, another journey through the solemnity of the woods outside my domicile, in a world that is more upside down than right-side up in my reality.

May it ever be so.

The Nature of Reality #8 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

Reality is individually perceived.

Total Words

750

Reading Time in Minutes

3

Key Takeaways:

  1. Reality does not care what you think.
  2. Your reality and mine are driven by our perceptions.
  3. Our perceptions of reality are based on our biology, neurobiology and experiences.
  4. It is important that we consider that our perceptions may be faulty.

About Ger Mulcahy:

Dad, husband, writer, leadership coach, technology leader, flyfisherman, adapted introvert. I live in Dublin with my wife and three daughters, and read and write as much as I can around family activities.

Contacting Ger Mulcahy

You can contact Ger by email, or connect with him on LinkedIn

By Ger Mulcahy

I spoke with a colleague recently over dinner, and we started talking about physics, which is his passionate interest. I’m not a physicist, nor can I play one even in my mind, never mind on the Internet. He, on the other hand, studied physics in college. He continues to read widely on things I consider borderline arcane, including quantum physics and mechanics. The conversation briefly moved onto the nature of reality before diverging and heading into more mundane conversational waters. But it triggered something because I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that the nature of reality is about individual experience.

Neuroscience-based coaching, which I practice, teaches us that every brain is different. We have the same basic structures, but our experiences shape the physical structures of our brains over time. What we focus on shapes our brains. For example, studies on London taxi drivers showed their hippocampus grew substantially due to learning “the knowledge”. Our brains establish and strengthen connections based on what we consciously or unconsciously place a value on.

We all operate, in addition, with a set of filters and biases which help us make sense of the world quickly. Our brains are expensive to run, so we use these forms of biological shorthand to lessen the cost. If we don’t have to engage “system 2” thinking per Daniel Kahneman, we can save resources. Cognitively demanding thinking is more expensive from a glucose and oxygen perspective.

The result is that we often accept the world as it appears to us. We believe that our perception of reality is reality. This is known as “naive realism”. This is an easy mistake to make – we are primarily visual and have learned to accept the evidence of our eyes and other senses. If we take that visual reality to start, mine will always differ from yours. Depending on my age and optical quality, I may see more or less detail in the world than you. Does that make my visual reality different to yours? Absolutely. Throw in something like red/green colour blindness, and suddenly, my perception of reality is very different to someone without that visual challenge.

Perception is the core of our reality. What I perceive and what you do can be entirely different based on our position in a room, our experiences, our height, gender, and attitudes to life. I may witness precisely the same thing you do, but my experience of that event and my memory of it may be totally different. We do not make good crime scene witnesses as a result. The car was blue, or maybe red. The man was tall, fat or perhaps a powerfully built woman.

Why does this all matter? Because when someone has a different viewpoint from us, it is entirely possible that what they perceive or recall is more accurate (or at least just as valid) than our viewpoint. In addition, the introduction of “realistic” AI-generated imagery or textual output can be sufficient to fool our senses. We must question our perceptions of the world and understand that reality is not a fixed concept – it is fluid, contextual and personal. Some things are objectively real, but even determining those can be challenging. Using the philosophical thought experiment that we may exist in a simulation or one universe of a multiverse of parallel universes should be sufficient to raise questions about our macro-reality.

Being willing to question ourselves and to openly question others to determine why they believe certain things can be helpful for us to ground ourselves. It can also help us develop more diverse ways of thinking about our challenges. And it can help us avoid becoming stuck in believing that our ideas are the best ones and allow us to understand that what we “know” is largely illusory.

Hopepunk trumps grimdark – light your own reality #7 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

In a world where reality seems to be growing increasingly grim and dark, there are those – the hope punks – who are prepared to resist on behalf of the reality they know to be worth caring for. Look out for each other.Reality can be scary. We sometimes try to artificially control it to ease our minds. Some seperation is useful, ultimately, living is a team sport.

Total Words

571

Reading Time in Minutes

2

Key Takeaways:

  1. The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on.
  2. It is genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength
  3. It isn’t about submission or acceptance; it’s about standing up and fighting for what you believe in, standing up for other people
  4. It is about demanding a better, kinder world; believing that we can get there if we care about each other (Rowland, 2019).

About Mag Amond:

Mags Amond is a retired second level teacher who has recently finished her PhD at the School of Education in Trinity College Dublin. Mags has been a long time volunteer in the Computers in Education Society of Ireland, a teacher professional network which celebrates its 50th year in 2023.

Contacting Mags Amond

You can contact Mags by email, or follow her on Twitter (X)

By Mags Amond

I had an epiphany in April, at an Open Education conference in Inverness. I wrote a detailed blog post about the conference. But the seismic moment was during the keynote by Rikke Toft Nørgård. Rikke was speaking of possible futures (it was a true brainbender, in a good way). She used many terms I had not heard before, but two of them stopped me up to think as soon as I heard them. They made immediate sense of the reality of the recent world, and of myself, to me. The first was hopepunk, the second was grimdark. Both words describe modern literary genres, but have been borrowed to describe new realities. The grimdark was self-explanatory – it captures the reality of the past few years perfectly in its compound descriptors, evoking a bleak, nihilistic view of the world. It was the hopepunk that was like a beacon to me (and not just me, most people in the room sat up and took notice), it helped me understand my own recent reality.

So it turns out that in 2019, hopepunk was one of Collins English Dictionary’s ‘new and notable’ terms. It first appeared in a viral Tumbler post by Alexandra Rowland, @ariaste, calling out that “the opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on.”

Before this, my definition of hope came (and still comes) from Heaney – Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. Hope was working FOR something. A good thing, but perhaps a wee bit on the passive side, a tad PollyAnna. In an explanatory VOX blog post by Aja Romano @ajaromano they describe hopepunk as ‘a storytelling template for resistance in the era of apocalyptic change, hopepunk is hanging onto your humanity at all costs’. So it is not just working FOR something, it is using hope to RESIST a graimdark reality. Right now, hopepunk as a concept is evolving from literary genre to cultural phenomenon, political stance, worldview, philosophy, a community call. Like many useful things, it defies exact description.

A Break from Reality…. #6 #cong23 #reality

Synopsis:

Reality can be scary. We sometimes try to artificially control it to ease our minds. Some seperation is useful, ultimately, living is a team sport.

Total Words

588

Reading Time in Minutes

2

Key Takeaways:

  1. Seperate yourself to gain perspective
  2. Reality can and will be abused
  3. The Observer has a different reality to the Object
  4. If you stray too far, you might need a rescue team

About Alan Costello:

Many things startup and investment @Resolve Partners & Resolve Ventures
Many things Climate orientated there and also www.naturalcapitalireland.com

Contacting Alan Costello

You can contact Alan by email, connect with him on LinkedIn, see his work with Resolve Partners and read his thoughts on Medium

Leaving the unreality of TwiX.com soon

By Alan Costello

I’m writing this in a fairly unreal place.
I’m in a log cabin, by a lake
I have no family, no dog, no laptop, no work.
No phone.
Thats how unreal this is.

I’m on my 1st ever personal retreat, taking some time to refresh, think, write and empty my mind between two very busy periods of time.
I’m initially struck by the clip of David coming from the dentist and wondering “Is this real life”, but its not that type of retreat.

Now we are sitting in Cong-gregation. 100 heads from a variety of walks of life, united by curiosity & community. It is of course an alternative reality – away from our day to day lives, taking space to wonder, engage with new and old.

And we do not all live in a bloody big Castle.

I’m picturing the Mouse that controls us all, that is looking on from the outside at the 100 of us. A bit like the early experiments in reality TV – potentially interesting experiments led by Endemol Media, but very quickly degenerated into force fitting people into the Big Brother house with scripts for the viewers entertainment.

Dont even start me on Married at first sight.

What are people like when they are in a group, on stage, broadcasting.
Brian Friel explored this with Public Gar and Private Gar in Philadelphia. Does Cong bring those inner thoughts into the public, or a version of them. Which is the true part, the reality of what we are all proclaiming this weekend.

Some alternate realities are not alternative any more. I cant watch Black Mirror anymore since my work tells me this is not Sci Fi, not alternate fiction, not fake, but possible, almost current. A mirror is of course reflective of what you put into it, albeit the other way around as you are reminded when Zoom asks you to mirror your video to turn you the ‘right’ way around again.

Black Mirror contributes to me being very very very nervous of the power of deep fakes. We think about reverting to ‘serious, trusted mastheads’ like the BBC, Guardian, NYT and ignore the biases they deploy in search of what is mostly the reality of major events.

I’m interested in the phrase – “break from reality”. Do we want to get away from it? Does it have to be broken to preserve us, or allow us to retreat from danger? I guess its closely related to escapism. Simplistically, I think to escape is a good thing. What is wrong with our reality that this becomes the escape, the retreat. All the language of the defeated army.

Well, a ‘break’ is less military, more easily synonymous with a holiday, or a weekend away……