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Planetary Human
Living the Eleven PLANETARY HUMAN VISION-KEYS: in Thought - Feeling - Action - Presence
Key 7 - Being a Possibilian
This orientation can help you enter into new categories of freedom !
“Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position,
but certainty is an absurd position.”
- Voltaire
Remaining open to possibilities is different from believing in one
'version' of reality. A 'possibilian' is someone who can be aware of multiple
versions or 'stories' about 'the real' while at the same time
understanding that any abstraction derived from something, or a reaction
to it, is not the thing itself. Describing something in any language,
including mathematical language, is never the reality itself.
Planetary Humans remain open to the deficiencies of the human sensory systems,
and the limitations of the human nervous system in general. They embrace
the position that with broader and deeper categories of 'knowing'
come ever more challenging and perplexing categories of Mystery.
Process Question:
"If I let go of the familiar,
and became completely open to new
and transformative possibilities,
what would that be like?"
When carefully studied one finds that human emotion is one of the primary adhesives that glues a person
to a particular viewpoint. The pride and emotional investment in a theory, so often found in
academics and adherents to the scientific method, can blind these individuals to the fact that
the human mind cannot and will never be able to encapsulate the totality of reality.
Some of today's 'hard-science' will be surely be the mirth of future generations.
As scientist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski stated as early as 1931, "the map is not the territory" and
"the word is not the thing." Science, based always on limited evidence; and religions, based on sketchy historical accounts, on ancient texts often written in dead or nearly dead languages, that originate within disparate contextual circumstances, will always result in fragmentary and incomplete versions of reality.
When considering any idea about some 'ultimate reality' - we can benefit from the tale concerning a
question posed to the Buddha when asked if there was anything after 'enlightenment'
- therein, even the Buddha had to concede, "...veil after veil after veil..."
A posture and attitude of openness to what is, and to what might be or could be, becomes the pathway back to the realms of spontaneous living once experienced in childhood, but now imbued with the
capacities of the rational mind and the responsiveness of the emotionally mature 'spiritual adult'.
If the human enterprise continues for the next few centuries, who could possibly believe that the
consensus versions of reality that are currently running, be they scientific or religious,
will be the same versions used in any distant future scenarios?
Perhaps the unfolding developments of ontological mathematics will serve
as a vehicle to a more rational and conclusive knowledge-based
understanding of reality for the thinking members of a future humanity.
"The map is not the territory."
- Alfred Korzybski
"Being A Possibillian emphasizes the exploration of new, unconsidered possibilities. Being a possibilian is comfortably holding multiple ideas in mind; it is not interested in
committing to any particular story."
"It is an active exploration of new ideas and a comfort with the scientific temperament of creativity and holding multiple hypothesizes in mind."
~ David Eagleman PhD
"I dwell in possibilities."
- Emily Dickinson
This way of being inclines one toward a life-affirming embrace
of 'BOTH/AND' as differing from a rigid outdated, conflict and separation-inducing orientation of exclusivity - of 'EITHER/OR'.
Planetary Humans remain open to different frames of reference
and find ways to include and celebrate diversities as:
'Elements of enrichment in limitless fields of Mystery'
Video: Cognitive Neuroscientist Donald Hoffman PhD - on Perceiving 'Reality'
"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,
but in the expert’s there are few."
- Shunryu Suzuki - 'Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind'
Embrace Mystery!
"I believe in mystery and, frankly, I sometimes face this mystery with great fear. In other words, I think that there are many things in the universe that we cannot perceive or penetrate, and that also we experience some of the most beautiful things in life only in a very primitive form. Only in relation to these mysteries do I consider myself to be a religious man."
- Albert Einstein
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