You create your own reality?

Non-Phish General
#1

Not for the TL, DR crowd but for those that don’t mind thinking, chew on this…

"Quantum physics describes the so called “observer effect,” which refers to the impact the mere act of observing can have on the phenomena being observed. Physicists call this the “collapse of the wave function.” The wave function describes the probabilities of a particle being observed in any of its possible states. When an observation is made, the wave function “collapses” and the particle is observed in one particular state. A popular interpretation of this is that the act of observation affects physical reality, “freezing” it into a certain state. Hence the claim that you create your own reality.

Originally Werner Heisenberg stated that it is your knowledge of the system that collapses. Nothing in the real world actually changes; the only thing that changes is the uncertainty of your knowledge.

Nevertheless there is a sense that you do create your own reality: You create your own experience of reality. Take for example, your ability to see. Light enters the eye, triggering nerve impulses that travels to the brain. The impulses are analyzed and put together into an image. (Think about it, where do you actually “see;” nowhere else but in your own mind.) You think you see the world, but what your seeing is a reconstruction of the world. The same applies to all your senses. In this way, you’re creating your own perception of reality.

How you perceive reality depends in a large part on your attitude. A positive attitude is clearly a good starting point and may in part explain why things sometimes turn out the way you want."

Ode- 10/07

So whats the point of such an understanding? We learn something like this so we can try to make every situation in life go our way and then we’ll be happy? No, I don’t believe so. That will never be the case and could be faced with disappointment time and time again where we could ultimately feel a failure and become jaded, resentful and perhaps even spiteful.

I think it better to understand reality doesn’t really exist the way we think it does. Then perhaps we can learn to let go more and be naturally happy rather than holding onto every situation trying to make it conform to what we think would make us happy.

#2

Interesting. I am beginning to write an article about Reader Response criticism and how the reader distorts the novel simply by reading it. There are 2 realities in the universe: the conditoned reality and the unconditioned.

The unconditioned reality is limitless and is all powerful, all knowing, and not limited by space, knowledge, or time. The UR is what religions would call a heaven, nirvana, or something else.

The conditioned reality is the “real world” where humans are limited by space, knowledge, and time. We can never be in two places at the same time alive, we can’t theoretically know everything, and we are doomed to be born and die.

got to go, more to come…

#3

Sounds like someone is taking a philosophy class.

#4

M.A. Religious Studies, University of South Carolina

#5

there have been a couple movies made on just this subject, with a quantum physics meets metaphysical mysticism slant:

What the Bleep Do We Know?
and
The Secret

both very interesting and insightful. both deal with “reality” and it’s pliability according to our attention. check it out, yo’s.

#6

I’ve often thought about the fact that what I see is only my perception of the world. How do I know that what I’m physically seeing through my eyes is what everyone else sees?

#7

I’ll agree with this. I think we are raised with certain expectations and wether or not we meet these expectations it what determines most people’s happiness, i/e securing a good job, financial stability, driving the right car, having the right friends, living in a big expensive house with a hot wife/husband and 2.5 kids etc. However, these are all just things. You can’t take them with you and if inside, you are an unhappy person, these “successes” will only be a temporary band-aid for what’s really going on inside your head. Once we learn how to be content with who we are and not what we have, then and only then can we be truly happy. The trick is to surrender to the flow :slight_smile:

#8

The article I took this from was a commentary on the Bleep movie and the Secret. The point was these movies placed more focus on acquiring material wealth etc. rather than the choice we have in how we see, experience and interpret reality.

#9

Is this why there are so many differing “opinions” on Phish performances?

#10

^that touches on a secondary point relevant to the phish crowd. You have many of these drugged-out, blissed-out hippies who think they were able to alter or affect the energy and flow of phish shows. However, as we’ve seen, all they were doing was altering their own perception of the show. Its a kinda puffed up pride that makes one think they had some sort of power to influence the energy on stage… unless that hippie was the one who gave Trey the drugs…

Of course, there was interaction between the crowd and the band and both fed off each other but it wasn’t because some dosed dready dude was in the back weaving some ethereal magic spell.

And also, as we’ve seen, we don’t need drugs to make a change in the way we see, experience and interpret reality. Its a choice. It takes work. What I’ve seen is drugs can show you things don’t exactly appear the way you think they do. Then the work is to make that a real part of your being.

#11

yeah, i know. that’s kinda how they were packaged and presented to the public at large. i think it’s brilliant. it’s high time the masses were introduced to these ideas. and i do believe we largely (and largely subconciously) create our own experience of reality.

i saw an interview with one of the people from the Secret movie (that reverend guy. can’t remember his name) who was addressing this very issue and he said that of course wealth is part of it (really, who doesn’t want financial security? it’s not necessarilly greed), but hopefully people would also come to understand the larger, divine aspects of the law of attraction. ie: love attracts love; acceptance attracts acceptance; gratitude attracts more to be grateful for and so on. on the flip side, anger creates more anger; hate more hate etc. basically that which you deeply believe, is true…to you. it’s completely subjective. there are as many realities as there are experiencers of reality.