One of the few things that are inevitable as life passes us by is the passage of time. I am not referring to the measurements of which we take to base our civilizations on, to ensure that we get to work or that we make our Dentists appointment, but the ageing of our universe and all life within it. In many of the spirituality and philosophy books that I am reading and studying, they try to objectively demonstrate the possibility that time and space do not exist outside of the mind of the perceiver, that without anyone there to see these moments, they are in fact, not happening.
Epistemology is the study of Knowledge. Within this field, philosophers try to show the difference from knowledge that is known through fact and that of belief. A gentleman named Michael Polanyi explains it well with reference to riding a bike. He explains that although we know the mathematics and physics of riding a bike, how to keep balance and motion, it does not compare to actually being on a bike and the more practical side of the activity. The physics is being the fact and the practical is being the belief.
So to refer back to my point that the mind of the perceiver creates an event is not as outrageous as you may have first thought. All though you may know the science behind an event, this does not mean that the event will happen just as you have calculated.
A saying that my Father used to tell me was ‘If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to see or hear it, does it make a sound?’ At first I would answer ‘Yes!’ because to me of course, it would make a sound, why wouldn’t a huge tree falling through branches and smaller plants finally landing in a bed of dried leaves and twigs, make a sound? But then if there was no one there to hear it, how would we know that it does?
It is questions like these that aid my attempt at learning about the world. To not only look face on to a problem or a mystery, but to look all around it, to observe everything all at once and make no judgment until all the facts are presented. I cannot say that in my day to day life this hypothesis holds true but when in reading and study I try to be as constructive and objective as I can be. Trying not to allow my mind to race off with me and cloud my perceptions of ideas with the instant dismissal that someone else before has rebuffed it, but more so accepting that this is one persons perception of the world, universe and everything and that in comparison with someone else’s perception, they are always going to be worlds apart, even if their faith and understanding are the same. For none of us, even genetic twins, do we see, feel, taste, touch or smell anything in the same way. Our perception is our own.
I have often wondered what it would be like to see through someone else’s eyes but still using my perception. Would I see colours in the same way that my brain has learnt to see them through someone else’s eyes or would they be completely different? Alas this is something I will never know or find out. But the idea of perception is one that has always intrigued me. Do other people think in the same manner as me whether they think in English, French, Spanish or any other language? Do they feel the emotions that I have felt and feel? Is the human consciousness the same in every person as the organic make up is? And thus these questions lead me further into my search for the truth of life and my quest for the knowledge that will one day become my reality. My world is my own bubble floating in a stream of soap bubbles across the existence of what we believe is reality!
