The Myth Of Objectivity As The Only Reality
Spiritual principles are quite different from traditional scientific or religious ones. Spiritual principles focus on subjective experiences, showing us how the subtlest levels of life cause major events to happen in the world. They explain the affects of our thinking, feelings, and being and show how our underlying attitudes influence the outcome of every aspect of our lives.
The area of spiritual discovery has only recently gained credibility in the scientific world. That was due to quantum physics and the advent of the new paradigm. Previously, spiritual experiences were thought to be mystical, magical, emotional or fantasy, but certainly not real. They were "just" subjective experiences, not objective reality.
Even many religious traditions place no value on discussing the subjective experiences of God. I had a dear friend who was a nun and the director of a large hospital. Even though we came from very different religious backgrounds, we enjoyed getting together often to discuss our shared interest in spirituality. One day she said to me, "Kalie, I am a nun. My whole life is dedicated to God. The sisters and I talk about God all the time, but my conversations with you are the first time I have ever discussed how I experience God."
The modern scientific world has defined reality in terms of objectivity. This invalidates all truth that is experienced subjectively, giving only the physical senses the right to discern reality. This denies reality to everything we have treasured in our hearts; everything that has motivated us to overcome adversity, to care about others, to reach for the moon, to enjoy the beauty of nature, to love and to die for. It denies the reality of love and hate even though they drive us through life. It denies our deepest spiritual experiences of God.
We need to overcome this bias and stop viewing life through the lens of objective science. The rules of objectivity do not apply to all of life, but only to a narrow band of existence that we experience with our five senses.
Let's take a brief historical look at how reality was defined in the past. Before the industrial revolution, religious authorities defined reality. Civilizations were governed by and grew up within the total domination of some central god. This god was reflected in their morality, politics, culture, art, and science. Everything was seen as a god or other metaphysical powers -- dreams, omens and signs, magic, myths, nature, heavens, healing, etc.
Religious authorities decided what was real. They interpreted all events and gave them all the meaning they had. Their interpretations of events were thought to be The Truth. People were not free to determine truth for themselves. To do so was heresy, a crime that was often punishable by death.
There was no freedom of thought or expression. Even in the democracy of Greece, the great philosopher, Socrates, was put to death for not recognizing the Greek gods. Reality was thought to be decreed by godly authority figures, not discovered by humans.
The mechanistic/scientific paradigm itself emerged out of the evolution of human consciousness as some people spontaneously began to experience individual freedom. They began defining and interpreting reality for themselves. The actual consciousness of freedom emerged before the revolution which gave it form. There were simultaneous revolutions taking place in religion, science and culture as some people demanded expression of their new found ability to think for themselves. Rebellion burst forth from every seam of civilization. They wanted the religious freedom to interpret scriptures for themselves, the intellectual freedom to examine and interpret nature objectively, and the political freedom to define cultural rules that were just for all people.
After having been at the mercy of the whims and moods of those in authority and burdened by religious oppression, people eagerly accepted objective definitions of reality from scientists, the new authority. They also began participating in defining objective rules and just laws for everything. This served two primary functions. First, participatory politics helped people know exactly what they could do to improve their life and have some measure of self-determination. This gave birth to the idea of equal rights and real democracy. Second, scientific proofs could prevent people from being victimized by unsubstantiated claims based on superstition, hysteria and imagination as they had been in the past. The witch-hunts were stark testimony to the abuse of religious power.
If we view civilization in developmental terms, we can see that three aspects of civilization-consciousness, culture and science-were in a fused state prior to the industrial revolution. All aspects were so tightly intertwined that independent thinking or growth in any one area was extremely difficult, if not impossible.
In the natural process of development, civilization had to begin to differentiate these three aspects, so each aspect could be discovered and develop on its own merits. As they began to differentiate there were great advances in our civilization, resulting in the industrial revolution and the developments of science and technology. Politics changed radically as people began to govern themselves and strive for equality and justice.
The next phase of natural development is to integrate these aspects with each other so that each area supports the development of the others and all three work together as an integrated whole. However this integration stage has not yet occurred, which has stunted our growth.
With the advent of modern science, the pendulum swung to objectivity as the only reality. Science worked with industry to solve the problems of civilization. Scientists were not only given the responsibility for solving our problems through technology, but they also began to define the problems too. While science itself can be a powerful evolutionary force, it grew like a cancer and took over, defining reality in all fields of life, just as religion had done in the past. Science became the new religion, in which objective reality was defined as the only reality. If something couldn't be measured and predicted, it wasn't considered real.
The Subjective and Quantum Level of Reality
The universe has natural tendencies that bring us back toward wholeness each time we get out of balance. There is a natural tendency for anything, taken to its extreme, to become its own opposite. The most extremely exacting of all sciences is quantum physics, which deals with subatomic reality. Its discoveries take place entirely in the metaphysical, subjective realm.
Since the time of Plato, people have looked for the atom, which was believed to be the physical building blocks of the universe. When quantum physicists were finally able to experience atoms, they found there was "no-thing" there. They found particles of light traveling through vast amounts of space so rapidly that they merely gave the illusion of atoms. For example: A propeller blade is long and thin, but when it spins rapidly, it gives the appearance of being a round disk. This disk is an illusion. However, if you stick your hand in this illusion there will be a very real effect. It is the same with atoms. Atoms were discovered to be illusions created by something else. Particles in motion appear as atoms. Atoms in motion appear as molecules, and molecules in motion appear as cells, etc. There is no substantive physical world. The physical world only appears to be completely substantive.
The atom is not invisible because of the limited capacity of electron microscopes. No one has ever seen an atom, because atoms exist at the metaphysical level of reality."Meta" means beyond. Atoms exist beyond the physical, objective level of reality, and scientists can't examine a subjective, metaphysical abstraction with an objective, physical instrument, because they are from two different levels of reality.
An atom turned out to be an unvisualized abstraction-an idea. Scientists cannot objectively look at what goes on in the invisible atomic and subatomic realms. Their models, like all models of reality, are what Einstein calls "free creations of the human mind" that satisfy our innate need to correlate experience rationally. The most exacting science of all, quantum physics, is a product of the subjective mind. The powerful subatomic world is a metaphysical realm which can be experienced only by the subjective mind, because they both exist at the same level of reality. Without intending to do so, scientists began substantiating subjective reality and the effects of consciousness.
Scientists later discovered that whether atoms are actually like their models or not is unimportant. What is important is that by understanding them in this way, scientists are able to generate effects. The effects they get validate their model. This is a vivid demonstration that how we understand anything determines the kind of effects we will generate with it. So how we understand subjective states of consciousness has a major impact on us and how we use our consciousness. Our models of consciousness are not passive diagrams, but active agents of our destiny.
Scientists also proved that this subtle, subjective level of reality is more powerful than the objective level, because energy has more impact when it is generated at subtler levels. For example: dropping a large bolder has less impact than dropping a small stick of dynamite, and a molecular explosion of TNT has less impact than an atomic explosion.
This also demonstrates that energy generated by the mind has more impact than energy generated at the physical level and is comparable to atomic energy, since it originates at the same metaphysical level of existence. If scientists can use the metaphysical level to make atomic bombs capable of killing all life on this planet, then perhaps we are capable of using the metaphysical level of our hearts and minds to heal, to move mountains and to raise the dead.
Integrating Objective and Subjective Realities
As we move into the new paradigm and continue our evolutionary journey toward maturity and peace, the integration of objective and metaphysical realities is part of our developmental task. While we exclude any aspect of reality, our thinking is distorted, affecting how we treat one another, just like the distortions of the dark ages.
Accepting objective physical reality as the only reality has a major impact on how we see ourselves and the world. Even though subjectivity is the opposite of objectivity in every way, we project objective characteristics onto subjective experience. For example, objects are separated in space, so we project separateness onto subjectivity and conclude that subjective experience is personal; an inner reality contained within us, like brains in bodies, located somewhere inside of us. My subjectivity is over here and yours is over there. As a result, we live with the distortion that how other people think and feel doesn't affect us directly. It only affects us indirectly through their words and actions in the objective world. This gives us a false sense invulnerability and independence.
This also affects how we think about spiritual healing and prayers. For example, if we think objectively, we will see ourselves separated in space from a person needing healing in another state. How can our healing energy or prayers over here have any affect on someone way over there? We may not have any healing affect if we don't believe we can affect anyone at a distance. The concept of distance stands in the way. Our beliefs are very powerful, because they direct our intentions and the focus of our energy.
While physical objects, like bodies, are separate in space, there is "no-thing" at the metaphysical level, and therefore literally nothing to separate us except ideas in our mind; how we conceptualize what we experience and what we think we are. At the metaphysical level we are one. Like individual drops in the ocean, we are unique and yet one, feeling all the waves and currents of each other's lives influencing us and moving us through life.
All experience is immediate and holistic. However, because of the way we interpret our subjective experience, we don't recognize our connectedness and end up experiencing life in separation from others.
Each subjective experience is a hologram in our minds. It includes everything we have in our awareness, whether our eyes are open or closed. Nothing is separate. Separation is an objective mental concept, not a direct experience. In each moment, our subjective experience extends everywhere we have awareness throughout space and time. It fills the space and time of our awareness. It has no boundaries. Subjectivity embraces all reality, for nothing can be experienced outside of it. Subjectivity is not contained within our bodies or the objective world. However, the objective world does live within our awareness of it.
When we were born, we experienced the world as a whole, because we were free of mental constructs about it. However, we did not yet experience any depth to life. We did not experience the three dimensions of space, the fourth dimension of time or subtle qualities like compassion for other people's experiences. We were aware of no perspective but our own. We could not differentiate things, people and the parts of our own beings, so we could not use them. We were undifferentiated and unintegrated. Even with the capacity for greatness, we were unable to express it.
Depth emerges as we discern the differences in our environment and parts of ourselves and develop concepts and language for our experiences. Some people have begun to discover the metaphysical level by discerning emotions as something we can observe and have control over. While we have always had emotions, these people can now differentiate their emotions from what they are. This only scratches the surface of the metaphysical level, for there are other aspects of ourselves to be discovered. We have not finished developing, for there is much more to ourselves and life than we have yet discerned.
Subjective Characteristics
We know people are capable of intuiting information subjectively. The fact that people can do this at all demonstrates some of the characteristics of subjective reality.
Information about our world is available to us at a subjective level, whether we discern it or not. We impact on each other subjectively. If we can gather information, then we must be impacting on each other subjectively, too, even if we are unaware of it. Subjective impact can distort awareness. While this impact must normally be unnoticed or uninterpreted for what it is, it is still present. If it is not correctly identified, it may create some distortion in our subjective experience. This may explain why trained observers cannot enter a mob without beginning to think like mob members within a very short time. There are many far-reaching ramifications of this. Subjectivity is a shared reality, not separate, with currents of resonance rippling through the field. Subjective, metaphysical reality is a unified field, like an ocean with many currents and waves of vibration impacting on each other. Attitudes are as all pervasive as awareness, resonating the active qualities of our being through the field to everyone.
Some Consequences of Ignoring Subjective Reality
The biggest problem with moving into the new paradigm is that we were raised in the old paradigm. The old mechanistic paradigm is a way of thinking about reality. Many of us have awakened from its influence to some degree, but we are still influenced by it far more than we realize. We are so deeply immersed in it that we don't even realize how much it affects us. I have been studying paradigms for years. I have pioneered research in the new paradigm, and I still notice ways that the old paradigm influences my thinking.
The myth of objectivity creates a major distortion in how we understand and treat people. When we take care of someone while assuming our subjective experiences are separate, we, as counselors, disregard several important factors
Subjective Experience Standards
It's time to give some credibility to subjective experiences; to think about them differently and discover where the truth lies within them. Spiritual principles about the experiential nature of life are very useful for this, because they are not based on religion or science. However, not everything that calls itself a spiritual principle is true. In other worlds, we must be able to sort out which ones are true and which ones aren't, and we must be able to do this for ourselves.
We can ascertain reality subjectively for ourselves. But for everyone to be able to do this regularly with any degree of certainty, we need to develop subjective guidelines for discerning truth and a language of subjective experiences to help increase our awareness and understanding of the subjective level of life itself.
Research into perception has shown us that we are not aware of things for which we do not have a language. Einstein said that the statement, "Seeing is believing," is not true. He said, "Believing is seeing." We must first have a concept of something before we can experience it. We cannot perceive anything we don't think is real.
Only recently have people started identifying their feelings. Many of us were raised with flash cards teaching us the language of objects and actions, but there were no flash cards for emotions, because we can't draw a picture of an emotion. However, we can teach children our emotional language by verbalizing our feelings, because children are very sensitive and feel other people's emotions. But if we don't accurately identify our feelings, children won't know where the emotions came from or what to call them. They will think the emotions are their own. Most of us were raised unaware of what we were feeling or of what we were picking up from others around us, because the emotions weren't labeled. We felt our parents' fears, hurt, guilt and anger as our own, which helped form our beliefs and self concepts.
It is important to validate subjective experience and put these experiences into language so they can be identified by anyone. There is a huge field of life that has not been considered real, even though we are impacted by it every day. The subjective field is very rich with energy and information, whether we are aware of it or not.
I am not proposing that we go back to the way it was before the scientific paradigm and have holy wars over who's judgment of subjective reality is correct. Religion is based on spiritual experience and not the other way around. Distortion occurs each time historical religious doctrine is used to interpret spiritual experience instead of using spiritual experience for the growth and development of religious ideas. A stagnant doctrine does not reflect a living God who is ever becoming.
When people first began rebelling from the Catholic church, they wanted the freedom to interpret the scriptures and their spiritual experiences so that they could determine reality for themselves. What most of them got was new religions and new religious and scientific authorities to define reality and tell them what was true. People began a movement toward independence and true democracy, but it hasn't been accomplished yet. We aren't free yet.
Real Freedom
We can't begin to have real freedom until we have developed the ability and understanding to discern truth for ourselves. While the intellectual education of our left brains about objective reality moves us toward that goal, we won't be free to discern reality for ourselves until we also educate our right brains with an understanding of subjective reality that includes and integrates objective reality. It is important to begin to validate subjective experience of the metaphysical field and put these experiences into language so they can be identified by anyone.
© 1998 Kalie Marino
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