There is no Truth - But there is none (Featuring New Author @shortcut)
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
- Joe Klaas, Twelve Steps to HappinessInto the Truth
I had been borne and raised into a christian sect, that claimed to have found the truth. Whenever they talked about being a member of the sect, they didn't just say: "I'm a believer." They said: "I'm into the truth."
Luckily I was able to get out of the cult as soon as I was of legal age. But the following questions haunted me: "Is there something like the absolute truth?" And if so, what could it be?
I found lot's of new ideas about the concept of truth through reading books of Hermann Hesse and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche rejects the idea of universal constants, and claims that what we call "truth" is only a mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms.- Friedrich Nietzsche On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, 1873
He also "thought that truth should be used as long as it promoted life and the will to power, and he thought untruth was better than truth if it had this life enhancement as a consequence."
Source under cc by 2.0 license Nihilism
I felt a huge relief and instantly was all in for the idea of just living my own truth and not being called to account for any mistakes I might make.
At least every mistake would lead to life enhancement, I thought. The worst thing that could happen to me would be death and that's what we all face sooner or later, don't we?
All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense,
meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense,
true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense,
and true and false and meaningless in some sense.A public service clarification by the Sri Syadasti School of Spiritual Wisdom, Wilmette.
From Principia Discordia
Anarchism and Discordianism
When I started studying at the University of Dortmund (computer science and arts), I soon met a group of like minded people that also had some interesting ideas about state power and society. Who needs a government to tell us what is wrong or right? The only and very simple rule I accepted, was not to harm or limit the rights of someone else.
The group I hung up with was also into consciousness-expanding stuff like eastern philosophy, discordianism and psychedelic assets.
Via WikipediaDiscordianism is centered on the idea that both order and disorder are illusions imposed on the universe by the human nervous system, and that neither of these illusions of apparent order and disorder is any more accurate or objectively true than the other.
Me Tripping to Truth
During one of my psychedelic journeys, I was realizing that everything is connected with everything else. Actually it even felt like every part of the universe contains everything else as an idea or option.
During that trip I thought I had the potential to let things happen, just by thinking about it.
But how could it be? When I created my world just by my thinking, what happened if my friends thought about something that is contrary to my thinking?
That brought me to quantum physics.
Truth, it is said, consists in the agreement of cognition with its object. For since the object is outside me, the cognition in me, all I can ever pass judgement on is whether my cognition of the object agrees with my cognition of the object.
- Kant
The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
Via WikipediaThe many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that (...) implies that all possible alternate histories and futures are real, each representing an actual "world" (or "universe").
The hypothesis states there is a (...) perhaps infinite number of universes, and everything that could possibly have happened in our past, but did not, has occurred in the past of some other universe or universes.
Schroedinger's Cat
Schroedinger's cat is a thought experiment by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger.
"A cat, a flask of poison, and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If an internal monitor detects radioactivity the flask is shattered, releasing the poison that kills the cat. After a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead.
The prevailing theory, called the Copenhagen interpretation, said that a quantum system remained in this superposition until it interacted with, or was observed by, the external world, at which time the superposition collapses into one or another of the possible definite states."
Via Wikipedia
Butterfly Wing Theory
If we have the power to switch into another universe, then nobody else but ourselves is responsible for what is happening in that world.
This concept started to become sort of angst-inducing to me. What if I choose the 'wrong' universe? And what if my choice leads to an impact that I neither couldn't foresee nor implied? I began to understand, why so many people prefer to follow a truth or believe, than taking their fate in their own hands.
At that time my girlfriend got stuck on a bad trip. It was the time of the first gulf war (desert storm) and we had been active in the peace movement with all our power and without much sleep. After getting on a bad trip, she thought the world would soon blow up into a 3rd world-war scenario. She even wanted to become a nun and pray for peace 24/7.
The only way to hold her back from that idea, was marrying her. And so I did.
Source under cc-by-sa-2.0 license Do nothing and get everything
After our marriage we felt some more order in our lives, but then coincidentally my wife met a meditation teacher. I was very sceptic about accepting a guru and his teachings, on the other hand I had been kind of clueless about my life and all the endless possibilities. So we gave it a try.
In short it was another rollercoaster ride and well worth a blog-post on it's own. The meditation technique really helped me to calm down and see some things clearer again. The guru teaches were essentially that through meditation one can get into a so called unified field of all possibilies where the ego-centrated thinking and all kind of stress is able to dissolve. Then, after meditating, one will automatically act more likely in harmony with those natural laws.
He sums it up with his saying: "Do nothing and get everything." - With doing nothing he means a state were someone just sits there in deep medition and after that, one will more likely be able to get everything that he wants, because his actions are in accordance with the unified field.
After feeling somewhat lost in the endless possible universes before, I was relieved by the idea that there is some sort of 'natural law', an underlying plan, that I was able to get consistent with.
Unfortunately this teachings attracted lots of people that were very strange and suddenly it felt like being into a sect again. That's why I quit!
Truth is a pathless land
My search for truth has been a long and wild ride so far. It's still work in progress and every step of my life helped me to get closer to my personal truth.
If you'd ask me today, how I'd define truth, I likely would answer with Krishnamurtis words: "Truth is a pathless land." You have to find out by yourself!
A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others.
- Krishnamurti Dissolution Speech
Image by NASA Conclusion
Even if you won't find any kind of absolute truth ever, I really can recommend to discuss the different points of views and to adjust your own thinking accordingly.
Truth is also a social idea, that can bring together like minded people. It's important to not just find out your own truth, but also to tolarate the many different truths' of all the other people out there. I'd be happy to know your truth and that's the Truth!
Radical constructivismThat is, the process of constructing knowledge, of understanding, is dependent on the individual's subjective interpretation of their active experience, not what "actually" occurs.
PragmatismPragmatism rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Instead, pragmatists consider thought an instrument or tool for prediction, problem solving and action.
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© Sirwinchester
This is an awesome article, I love it! Upvoted, well done, @shortcut
And thanks, @sirwinchester, for featuring this gem.
Thank you so much for your feedback, @ines-f!
You are very welcome, @shortcut
I love the concepts you present :) I'm going to be comtemplating them! Also love Nietzsche. A lot of his words are more relevant today than ever in history...
Yes, Nietsche really has the power to open up brains and destroy the 'frozen' believes.
Science with a twist , I love it!
Thank you!
very interesting read, good job to the author!
Thanks a lot, appreciate your feedback.
the butterfly effect is so interesting for me. definitely a great and informative post! :)
When small things have such an great impact. It's kind of angst-inducing sometimes, but it also gives everyone the same powers. Thanks for your comment.
I can see that sirwinchester only features the most talented authors. cool post!
Wow, I feel honored. Glad you liked the post.
"Truth is singular, it's versions are mistruths." (Somni-451)
Interesting quote, have to contemplate over it. I liked the Cloud-Atlas movie a lot, so thanks for bringing that up.
Maybe it says that the the only truth is the sum of all mistruths...
Thanks for your post, @shortcut. I was also brought up in a religion who believed they knew the Truth. (note the capital T!) Without naming names, the church was known as an ecclesia, we went to "the meeting" on Sunday morning, and they felt a great kinship to Israel. That might be enough to tell you whether it's the same one or not. I also left at about 18 years old, but it's not so easy to leave the conditioning behind. Although my journey since then hasn't been exactly the same as yours, we've crossed paths a few times and are probably not so far from each other now. You may find it interesting to look into Ho'oponopono. It's on my list of things to post about, maybe I'll get to it soon. All the best for your continuing journey.
Hi @kiwideb, thanks a lot for sharing your story.
Although I guess I had been in a different sect, the patterns of this kind of religion are very similar. I'm sure even people that had been raised into one of the so called 'world-religions' might more or less have to deal with the Truths those religions presented them. The 'conditioning' that happenes in the early years is really one of the hardest things to overcome.
I'm sure there are many people out there, that share a similar background story and it really feels good to know, that you also chose to start a journey to find your own Truth. Well, questioning and learning is one of the main incentives of life in my opinion.
I took a brief look into the Ho'oponopono wiki-article and it sounded really interesting. Can't wait to read your article and your personal experiences about it. I also followed you. Would be nice to keep in contact. All the best.
Really great article!
Thanks for letting me know.
Truth is organizer body of the society. Thank you for the good post.
Yes, I agree. Truth is important to organize common life. That's pretty much the way (american) pragmatism sees it, I guess. Also we need some kind of coherence to build on our experiences. Thanks for your comment.