Our Delusions AKA Our Unexamined Parts
It’s spring. Change is afoot. A perfect time to rethink that which we assume is solid and true. What do we see as unchangeable, a fact, or law, or a given? We can take a micro or macro view on this – the earth is round, gravity is a fixed rate, this is the law, gender, body, problem, pain, relationships, money, etc.
In watching Rupert Sheldrake – The Science Delusion BANNED TED TALK see video below) – I am reminded of our inclination to make things solid and certain, even scientifically. On one level, this has temporary value. We have an answer, decisions, or direction. But if we don’t also hold in our minds that solids are temporary, then we have begun an unattainable path of certainty, closed doors for exploration, and likely a painful road of suffering.
When we challenge that which is seen certain or solid, it can get heated, emotional, and rocky (the video I referenced, got banned from TED talks) Yet, life learning and wisdom has shown us that “solids” are often an illusion – they are dynamic not static. Solid objects are really moving atoms. Laws can change. Culture change, Language change. The value of money changes so $1 doesn’t hold the same value as it did 10, 20, and 50 years ago. The earth’s soil does not hold the same nutrients. Constants like gravity and the speed of light may actually fluctuate rather than be constant. As Rupert Sheldrake mentions it’s more about evolving habits than fixed laws. So is true of us – our health, personalities, careers, relationships, and roles. What habits are we in with others, culture, the world and ourselves? Where would do we need to reexamine that which we’ve made solid.
We are in relationship with change and need to be if we’re not. Meaning we affect change and change affects us. More than we comprehend. In the video mentioned above, the mind is being studied as extending outside of the brain. That our thoughts impact the object we are focusing on. This is how we “feel” a stare from behind and various other intangible interactions that become tangible. What may have initially been a survival strategy between predator and prey clues us as to the other powerful healing capacities when we flip the switch from baseline survival to shared healing. Collective memory is a phenomenon where animals that learn a trick in one part of the world, their counterparts in another part of the world have also learned the trick. Our individual healing is a contribution to our collective healing.
Allow your pain/or situation to not be solid – make it bigger, small or more diffuse as you focus on it. Consider a personality trait of yours or a relation to be mutable. Reframe natural laws and societal laws to be habits. Look at where you can pixilate something to create a crack of new energy to come in a reform itself, temporarily. What new wisdom emerges as the light moves through the fractured solid form? Notice what novel place that takes you and us.