I feel, and I know I'm real
The other day, I was talking about peyote, explaining something that happened when I took this powerful medicine.
<<But was what happened real?>> she asked.
I said "That's a funny question. What do you mean when you say 'real'?"
<<This table is real. I can touch it; I can feel it.>>
"You can touch things and feel things in dreams too. Does that make them real?"
Of course, it might take a lifetime to fully answer the question "What's real?" Feeling something proves that you are real, but it can never prove that the thing you feel is real.
How can we know what is constant?
Someone told me recently that the speed of light is a constant, and we know that because of the data. I told him, let's say you saw your neighbour's car parked in the street on Monday, and again on Tuesday. Would it be correct to say that the car was always there? Even if you saw the car there 10 times or 100 times, you couldn't say it for sure. No matter how much data we have about the car being there, we cannot say that it has always been there - we can only assume. The same applies to the speed of light - we can measure it many times, but never know for sure that it is constant.
Likewise, no matter how much data we have about our world, we cannot say that there is an underlying objective reality - something that exists without us having to look at it, that doesn't change no matter who is looking at it. The data that we have at hand, points to the idea that reality is not the same for all of us, that our world has little constancy - people can witness the same event and have different versions of it... so we cannot say that there is any such thing as objective reality.
What your friends say doesn't count
Objective reality is something that we think exists because we have friends to back us up. But knowing that your friends believe the same thing doesn't prove anything. If you and all of your friends believe that the earth is flat, or that it's round, that doesn't make it so. How are you going to prove that your friends even exist? By getting your other friends to say they do?
In logic, this is called "the fallacy of appeal to popular opinion". It's easy to point to millions of people who believe something, and say that must be the case. But it's not always true, and we can look at many cases where millions of people have been wrong about something. Some people call those cases "history".
Why does any of this matter?
It matters because when you talk to people, you're probably going to disagree over facts, and over opinions. You might be tempted to think that the other person is "wrong" (I know I often am). But if we don't know that there is such a thing as objective reality, perhaps what is wrong for you, is right for them. It may be that you're simply viewing reality from a different angle. It may even be that you're dreaming, and arguing with yourself.
You might start to get angry when you disagree with someone. Remember that there is a chance that you know around about zero percent of nothing, and you can remind yourself to be humble, and stay calm.
Life is a journey, an adventure, and a blessing. Let's spend it together.
About me
My name is Kurt Robinson. I grew up in Australia, but now I live in Guadalajara, Jalisco. I write interesting things about voluntaryism, futurism, science fiction, travelling Latin America, and psychedelics. Remember to press follow so you can stay up to date with all the cool shit I post, and follow our podcast where we talk about crazy ideas for open-minded people, here: @paradise-paradox, and like us on Facebook here - The Paradise Paradox
Some other cool posts
Here are some other posts of mine to check out: