[ExI] "create our own realities"

Stefano Vaj stefano.vaj at gmail.com
Fri Jan 11 15:42:46 UTC 2008


On Jan 11, 2008 4:23 PM, Mike Dougherty <msd001 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 11, 2008 9:58 AM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The problem with "one's own reality" is that some techniques to change
> > it do not really prevent other, harder  aspects of your own reality
> > from biting back your bottom, or however the American say goes... :-)
>
> Thanks for continuing this line of thought.
>
> If I become convinced through some personal observation that deli
> mustard is poisonous, and refuse to consume it (and perhaps try to
> convince others to also avoid it) - am I 'creating' a new reality or
> am I simply delusional?
> btw - I enjoy deli mustard and used it for illustrative purposes only

So do I, but I think it is a good example. Let us say that you do live
in reality where deli mustard is poisonous, but as external observers
we can assume that reality is subject to a likely change if you are
the kind of person that is going to accept, after perchance ingesting
some unvoluntarily, that you did not actually die and that you are not
(yet) in heaven.

In broader terms, phenomena is all about which we can sensibly speak.
And phenomena are what is part of our world and apparent to our
"perception" (in the broadest sense of the world). Philosophically,
there is nothing especially strange in admitting that black holes were
not part of the world of the Ancient Romans. We can on the other hand
say that our own perception of reality does not only include them, but
see them extended, along a coordinate that we arbitrarily call time,
to the region where we position the Ancient Romans themselves.

Accordingly, "delusions" are those perception of reality which are i)
highly unstable, ii) subject to be quickly pruned by darwinist
competition amongst different "realities", in a very literal sense.

E.g., a shaman might be perfectly persuaded that he had won a battle
fought by his curses against firearms, but since he died in the
process his "reality" is not really around to be discussed any more...
:-)

Stefano Vaj



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