Whether you are aware of it or not, we all live in what is called a “Model Dependant Reality” or MDR for short.
What we call “Reality” is the sum total of our perceptions and experiences. Our perceptions are, at best, an approximation. Our experiences are stored as memories within our mind. They are not only frequently inaccurate but have been proven to be subject to change over time. Our “knowledge”, which forms the basis of our personal belief system is generally incomplete and often poorly understood.
“We are prisoners of our perceptions” – Viktor Frankl
Each of us perceives and experiences the world in a slightly different and individual way, and as such, “reality” is slightly different for each and every one of us. However, there is a very high degree of collective agreement on what constitutes “reality”. For example, we all pretty much agree that if you walk off a twenty story building, that gravity will certainly cause you to fall to your death. However not all of us agree on what will happen to you next…
Some people embrace very different models of reality. Depending on the degree of functionality that a particular model (MDR) allows an individual to achieve in their interaction with the “real” world, the rest of us decide whether we consider that person to be “sane” or “insane”. There is much that occurs in our lives that we either mis-perceive or do not understand and consequently we are forced to modify our model to incorporate these events/perceptions into our belief systems.
“Magic” is a classic example of a perception that challenges our sense (model) of reality. When we perceive something that just doesn’t fit with our model, like a woman floating in air or being sawn in half and then walking away healthy and whole. Some people will react by believing that they have witnessed true “Magic” while others realize that their senses have been tricked into perceiving something that did not actually occur. Of course it’s a lot easier to reach this conclusion of “illusion” when the event occurs on a theater stage with all the appropriate fanfare. An “Optical Illusion” is a common example of our perceptions failing to provide us with an accurate perception of “reality”.
Clearly the prevailing common model of reality, as it is perceived in our world today, has changed and evolved considerably from the commonly accepted MDR of two or three thousand years ago. What is important is that you accept and understand that there is a real degree of “flexibility” in what you call “reality”. Once you accept and incorporate that belief into your own personal (Model Dependant) Reality you will realize that there is knowledge out there, there are truths out there, just waiting to be discovered and incorporated into your personal MDR that will literally change your life and your world overnight.
To fail to recognize that what each of us call “Reality” is in fact nothing more than a well established personal “belief system” based upon a distorted and incomplete perception and understanding of the cosmos is a huge act of intellectual dishonesty.
When physicists encounter inconsistencies in their model of reality through experimentation they need to resolve these problems by adjusting their model (MDR) to explain and accommodate the observed phenomenon. Sometimes the existing model cannot accommodate the new observation and has to be changed radically, or thrown our altogether. Like when it was discovered that the earth was not flat… or when Newtonian physics got sucked into the gravity well of Einstein’s relativity.
When you get down to the level of Quantum Mechanics there are many observed phenomena that will utterly challenge the foundations of your model of reality. Before you say that these infinitely small or infinitely large realms have “relatively” no bearing on your present life’s reality, I would like to point out that not only is there nothing subtle or insignificant about a thermonuclear explosion, but also, and more to the point, that virtually every modern electronic device which has so profoundly changed the way we live today depends specifically on quantum effects to function.
I’m not saying that I expect the very foundations of what we commonly agree upon as “reality” to abruptly change any time soon, but just by nibbling around the edges of our perceptions in the esoteric realms of subatomic particles we have utterly changed the world we live in, that is to say that we have changed OUR reality.
O.K. “things change” we all know that, so what’s your point? My point is that once you realize that the thing that change is not reality itself, but just your perception and understanding of reality… you realize that it is just your model that changes.
Your Model Is Your Reality
Generally speaking, if you are what we collectively agree upon as “sane” then your model generally serves you well. The problems (the “ugliness” mentioned in the title of this article) occur when our observations disagree with our currently accepted model and yet we insist that our model (MDR) must be right and the observation must be wrong. Our dogmatic insistence on the veracity of our collective model is not only intellectually dishonest but it is also fundamentally oppressive.
I ask that you recognize the truly personal nature of what we call reality and to understand how our individual model (MDR) indeed makes us who we are. I beseech you to realize the existence of subtle flexibilities in what we call reality and how an intellectually honest pursuit of knowledge can utterly change your world overnight.