reality tunnels - Waking Spirals

I Have Only Come Here Seeking…

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h3>”The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
— Stephen Hawking

Save me from surety. It is so easy to ‘know’ things. We decide that the universe is a given way and immediately it conforms to our view. Anyone who thinks differently is either foolishly wrong or mendaciously evil. Very little will happen in contradiction to our world view that we cannot explain away or ignore until it goes away. When contradictions arise that are too difficult to explain or ignore, we can distract by pointing out what someone else is doing wrong. If we cannot see any evident wrong-doing, we can invent it and add it to our body of knowledge. We can become so busy pointing out wrongdoers that soon we will never have to explain anything and our ‘knowledge’ of the universe will remain pristine.
At least during my more cynical times, that is how the world appears.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

The UnMapped Labyrinth by G A Rosenberg

Reality Bubble by G A Rosenberg

Coat of Arms by G A Rosenberg

Meaning , More or Less

All phenomena are real in some sense, unreal in some sense, meaningless in some sense, real and meaningless in some sense, unreal and meaningless in some sense, and real and unreal and meaningless in some sense.
— Robert Anton Wilson

If you believe that your life is the be all and end all of meaningful existence:
Imagine if you were a housewife in Tennessee how you would see your current priorities. An owner of a retail business in London would have a whole different set of priorities. So would an accountant in Madrid. A voudon priest in South America would see things totally different than any of them. For each of these cases, what is real, what is unreal and what has meaning and what doesn’t would be very different. This is not necessarily a measure of their spiritual progress or ours. It is just a case of the relativity of experience that most of us miss out on.
Yet in this kaleidoscope of experience we can change our perspective and find a totally different picture or several.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Warrior Spirit by G A Rosenberg

A Fractal Illusion by G A Rosenberg

Seeing Different Realities

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
— Henry David Thoreau

Looking at public reaction to the news of the last few weeks has been fascinating. Never has it been more obvious that there is more than one reality. Was the United States Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage a strike for equality and an affirmation that gay people matter or was it a redefinition of marriage that will make Jehovah and Jesus very cross and cause the foundation of society as we know it to end? Having lived in Canada for the last 10 years I would tend towards the former view but I have my reality tunnels too. This is but one example.
Is the discrediting and removal of the confederate flag a blow against a symbol of slavery and degradation or was it a removal of a symbol that stood against oppression? Were people who celebrated gay marriage buying into a government institution that was meaningless or was it celebrating a hard-fought battle? Who’s reality wins and how do we reconcile it? What do we see and what lens are we looking at it with?
Is it possible for the sake of understanding to allow ourselves to see what another sees even if it contradicts our own viewpoint? I believe so and I have proved it to myself in a number of ways. It sometimes means that one has to give up investment in one’s own outlook to do it. This doesn’t necessarily mean changing our point of view as much as loosening it a bit to see how another reality can fit. This makes it a bit easier to not dismiss those who hold opposing viewpoints. It is possible to both understand and disagree with someone. It just takes work. Could that be merely what I see?
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Seed of Contemplation by G A Rosenberg

The Calling of the Moons by G A Rosenberg

Words Matter

“No one gets angry at a mathematician or a physicist whom he or she doesn’t understand, or at someone who speaks a foreign language, but rather at someone who tampers with your own language.”
― Jacques Derrida

In my experience there is nothing mere about semantics. Words are powerful symbols that many live by. You can call the same entity an angelic being or a demonic force and by doing so alienate a good portion of the people reading. You can say someone or something is retarded and some would nod their heads along with you while any who either had a developmental delay or who loved or supported them would be offended. Something similar would happen by using the word gay. We all have terms that offend us, words which we are quick to see as victimizing no matter the intent behind them. Words which tend to cause either otherness or offence based on a given reality tunnel. If you have never met any one who was gay and had no real experience with people who are classified as developmentally delayed than when you hear those terms so offensive to some, it might as well be a foreign language. When they are words that have been used to describe you or someone you know or care for then it becomes personal. The above are examples. There are many others depending on paradigm, people known and phrases used. Words do matter just not the same words to all people.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Red Dreams by G A Rosenberg

Moving Through the Machinery by G A Rosenberg

Artistic Doggerel

“All we have to believe with is our senses: the tools we use to perceive the world, our sight, our touch, our memory. If they lie to us, then nothing can be trusted. And even if we do not believe, then still we cannot travel in any other way than the road our senses show us; and we must walk that road to the end.”
— Neil Gaiman

Colours flashing lights fading
creatures of the night invading
Daemons soar on angel wings
Real are my imaginings

My senses in and out of control
what I can see may take its toll
madness, inspired lunacy
may inspire or undo me.

Animals with human heads
mermaid, gryphons, the undead
greater knowledge do they bring
my inspired reckonings

Used to wish that they would stop.
constantly my brow would mop
then with my visions, made my peace
now my panic has surceased.

On my screen I bring to life
all my visions, I midwife
Unreality tunnels shared
my art leaves my soul unbarred

Colours, symbols still recurring
archetypes my soul are stirring
Through me tho not by me come
From my art I’ll never run
— G A Rosenberg

Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Blue Web by G A Rosenberg

Lizard’s Vision by G A Rosenberg

Moving Outside the Frame

“In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.”
— Robert M. Pirsig

These days most of us spend way too much time removed from our surroundings. We spend time on our computers and phones and look out the windows of our offices, homes and cars. Being truly in our surroundings with nothing separating us from our experience enhances our lives so much. It is not only in our bodies that we limit ourselves to viewing life through a window. We do it constantly with our thoughts. We dismiss experiences and outlooks that are outside our frame of reference either because we fear what we may see, find it too odd or too opposed to how we see life. If only we could drop our life lenses and leave our reality tunnels aside and consider each viewpoint directly without worrying about how it fits in with ours. It would be like going outdoors after too long a period of just looking through the window and the scenery is so beautiful.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Riding Under the Stars (Aloces) by G A Rosenberg

Fetching the Universe by G A Rosenberg

How We See It

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all Ridicule and Deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, So he Sees. As the Eye is formed, such are its Powers.”
— William Blake

To some, the universe is a pretty harsh place and life is a difficult process where one is constantly beaten down. To others it is wondrous. Each tree and each street light is magical. There are challenges yes but adventure too and one can easily become the other. Both viewpoints can come from people living in remarkably similar situations. Yet each thing that happens to them will further confirm their viewpoint. To one who sees themselves as the victim of their story, an argument with a friend will be seen as a betrayal. To the other it will be a gift of insight into how people think and act. A loss of a job can be seen as just another example of the world being against them or an opportunity to find something better or have some time off. It’s amazing how the same world can appear through two different lenses. Of course these are only two perspectives out of countless others. Each one an example of the many hues, the prism of experience can break into. Changing perspectives can be a challenge but being able to hold onto as many different ways of looking at things as possible can be endlessly rewarding.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Questing on Bear Back (Puson) by G A Rosenberg

Calm at the Centre of a Randomizing Pattern by G A Rosenberg

Imagine Better

“We live in condensations of our imagination”
― Terence McKenna

So much of what each of us consider real comes from our interpretations. When someone whom we respect tells us that we have done a good job do we swell up with pride or do we become angry at condescension? Do we become puzzled and hurt and try to figure out what they might mean by it and base our reactions on the conclusion we come to? A single mother leaves her child in the car so she can run in to a store. Is she negligent or is it ok? The answer to that depends on the imagination of the observer. So much of our reality is dependent on our viewpoint and how we fill in the blanks and there are always blanks. There are always unknown factors that we are unaware of. How we fill these voids depends on our experience in similar situations and what we imagine the consequences may be.
In either case, it is our imagination that determines our reality. Understanding this gives us the opportunity to imagine other possibilities. If we want to change the world, it may help us to adapt different interpretations. Imagining other viewpoints or other reality tunnels can enable us to act more compassionately and more positively and more openly to other people. Imagining better makes us better.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Waiting Chamber by G A Rosenberg

Strange Abstract Portal by G A Rosenberg

Unlimited

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

I believe that many men do mistake the limits of their vision as being the absolute limits (which is as good an explanation as any I’ve heard for how some of the fundamentalist views I occasionally hear espoused can still be held by more people than I care to think of) but every man? If this was true than the only way that we could expand our limits would be by random chance and never of our own volition. How can you expand a limit that you don’t know exists? It is only because we know that Reality is so much bigger than we can imagine that makes it possible to continue expanding our fields.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full sized:

Chalice by G A Rosenberg

Crystallization by G A Rosenberg

Exploring Another’s Reality

“I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”
― William Blake

We spend the majority of our lives trapped inside our own heads. No matter how often our viewpoint or reality tunnel may change there is still a certain ‘me-ness’ about it. How refreshing it can be to come across someone who thinks and acts differently. What a great opportunity for understanding. In my life there has been little I have enjoyed more than playing dress up with someone else’s worldview. I love trying it on and parading in front of the mirror and then showing friends and family and see what they think. Far too often tho, the artifice shows through and it fails to impress. This can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 20 years to discover. This aping and acquiring of someone else’s reality is a double edged sword. On the one hand there is something useful in almost any point of view. On the other hand, what is new and refreshing now can oh so quickly become a prison. There are many people who find themselves trapped in religious cults or prison who stayed at the party of someone else’s vision for too long and now can’t find their way home again. Luckily even with determined effort there is only so long that this can be sustained.Eventually we find our way back home to ourselves or at least find ourselves lost. Being lost is a lot better than it sounds as in ways it is a reset to zero and we have a chance to rebuild based on a much clearer vision.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Joining of Fields by G A Rosenberg

The Walls Have Eyes and Sometimes Thoughts