INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCE

I watched an interesting TED talk the other day by David Eagleman about how we experience the world.  David and his team are doing breakthrough research for deaf people using technology to allow deaf people to actually hear.  It's pretty amazing stuff what they are doing.   

In his talk he mentions the German word umvelt, which means the surrounding world.  David argues that our experience is constrained by our sense perception and that the reality that we experience is defined by the limits of our sense organs.  He also talks about what would happen if we use technology to increase our sensory experience, such as being able to directly perceive UV light or infrared light.

Would that increase in sensory experience expand our umvelt?  Would it lead to a more expansive experience of the world?

Surely.  Without a doubt.

But how does that actually benefit us?

When I was in college, me and my roommate got in a heated discussion with one of his friends about the use of LSD or other psychoactive drugs.  The basis of his argument was that our brain is wired to only experience reality a certain way and by taking drugs you could expand that experience and presumably gain something in the experience.

Is it our experience of reality that limits us?

It is without a doubt in my mind that we could experience more, indefinitely so.  We could experience an expanded visual consciousness, a wider auditory consciousness, a more subtle olfactory and taste consciousness, and a much more discerning perception of touch.  We could do all of those things.

All of this is based on the assumption that we have insufficient data or information, and that insufficiency limits us.  It limits our experience and our experience equals...what does more experience equal?

More experience could equal more humility, more awe and insight.  I think that is really the hope.  But truly, more experience usually equals more ego.  What if we could become like the gods and know all?  How marvelous would we be?  Our amazing experience would mean that we are amazing.  The significance of everything that we experience would translate to our lives being significantly significant.  We would find our lives meaningful.  Having experienced EVERYTHING, our lives would be fulfilled.  Maybe we would even finally feel satiated.

What really limits our experience is that we crave experience for our own sake.  Then we fixate on that experience of reality as true, having experienced it ourselves.

Craving and ignorance, those are our real inadequacies.

Craving keeps us in a cycle of consumption.  Ignorance fixates on me and mine.  Neither are fulfilling.  Both constrict our experience.   


 



 

What do you want to do today?

There is so much opportunity in that question.

We tend to fill that void with errands, entertainment, consumption and distraction.  We fill it with browsing, shopping, social media and all sorts of sudden urges. We fill it with many things that have no lasting value.  Illusions you could say.

So what do you want to do today?

I am tired of chasing illusions.  Tired and weary.

It is not so much that my life is really that busy.  I make it busy in order to avoid answering that question in a meaningful way.  It is easier to consume and be entertained.  Easier to remove myself from the irritation of being open and present with that incredible opportunity.  Easier to stay distracted than face the uncertainty and discomfort that arises when you don't actually have an answer. 

I can't say what value having a spiritual practice will bring to your life.  What I can say with confidence is that having your own practice will allow you to sit with uncertainty, with doubt and discomfort.  It will allow you to pause for a moment before neurosis leads you down illusion's game.

You might end up being honest and certain about who you are in an authentic and genuine way.

When you are authentic and genuine, you discover an inexhaustible wealth that wants to be shared.  It wants to connect, lend a hand, share a laugh and benefit others.

What do you want to do today?

Static.

We are not very familiar anymore with static on the radio, but do you remember those days of dialing into a radio station? You would get close, close enough to hear the lyrics, but just off enough that you kept tweaking the dial. 

Then you would hit it.

The vibrance of the music would shoot through the speakers, its clarity would lift your soul.  Its energy enliven your mind.  Oh, how those hips would start to groove and that music would move you.

You would dance.

Today most of our days are filled with static.  The endless distraction, consumption and activity.  The static of our job, our situation, our chosen social network.  We are all supposed to be somewhere or something but where we are at is not it.  Most days we can barely even discern the lyrics, there definitely ain't no music coming through.

Every once in awhile though, we tune in.  We hear something that we connect with.  It moves us.

If that music stirs your heart, picks you out of your funk, makes you feel a little jive-  Follow it.  Let it move you and create the conditions for it to keep playing in your life.  Go deeper. 

Then you might find your music.  Your rhythm.

Share your music with the world.  Be Generous.  Be Loving.  Be Kind.  Let it lift the weak and enliven the weary.   Let it infuse your work, your life and your day.

It's good to be dancing again.