The Whole Reality

by Flemming Funch, 8 December 1994.

The way I see it ..

Reality is everything that can be perceived.

That includes beliefs, feelings, and imagination, as well as it includes tangible physical phenomena.

The old scientific paradigm said that it is possible to "objectively" set out to examine the available isolated phenomena and extract THE correct truth about what is going on. And there was a sharp line between what was "objective" reality and what was fantasy and speculation.

That has for many years now been a crumbling paradigm, even though it still is quite prevalent. For one thing it became clear that one can't examine anything in total isolation from everything else. Also it became clear that the WAY one observes something will change what is being observed. And it is starting to show that the universe isn't as physical as assumed. If you look close enough, physical matter starts to dissolve and look awfully much like just an idea.

Anything that can be perceived has some kind of existence. It doesn't mean that it will be perceived by everybody and it doesn't mean that it will be perceived the same way by any two people. It doesn't necessarily mean that there is an instrument which can measure it. It just means that there is something there.

If my stomach hurts, it is part of Reality. Nobody else might notice, but I can perceive it, and it exists. If I believe myself to be a lucky person and it has been proven to my satisfaction, that is part of Reality.

One's experience in the world is to a large degree determined by what one believes one will experience.

Seeing is not believing. Believing is seeing.

Everything that can be perceived in any way by anyone, anywhere is part of a whole system of Reality. Each person will have a unique personal Reality consisting of what they personally perceive and experience.

- Flemming