04.14.13
The Skeptic, the Shaman, and the Physicist Walk into the Bar Cafe…
An Exploration of Perception
The Set-up
Print this picture on a piece of paper and the analogy is this: The Ink on the paper is “real” reality, all else is immaterial and unquantifiable, in other words, not “real”. Only the Ink is real. We all live on this piece of paper and it’s called “Fedexland”, just south of “Flatland”[1].
The Story [it’s really not a joke, unless you can help me with the punch-line 🙂 .]
So…the skeptic, the shaman, and the physicist walk into the café — Café Dawn. Everyone’s talking about the Arrow. ”The Arrow points to the path of enlightenment,” someone said, who has a friend who has a guru in California who said that. She unfurls a map of FedExLand, shown above, and lays it out on the table next to her caramel flavored macchiato, single-shot, decaf latte with chocolate sprinkles.
“Everything arises from the essence of the Arrow”, “Enlightenment is full awakening — attained when all limitations have been removed from the mind and one’s positive potential has been completely and perfectly realized. It is a state characterized by infinite compassion, wisdom and skill. Everyone “oooh’s” and “aaah’s” and nod their heads. Everyone wants enlightenment, too!
The Skeptic
So the skeptic goes on the internet to his favorite websites (it’s not http://www.skeptiko.com/ .) It says that there really isn’t an Arrow, it’s all an illusion. It’s really even a delusion. The only thing real is the Ink. The Ink is a material substance that can be measured and quantified. It further says that those people that think there’s an Arrow are delusional.
Besides…the Ink is expensive. The arrow doesn’t cost anything because it isn’t real. Those delusional people say the Arrow provides all the energy they need. But that violates the second law of thermodynamics, which basically says, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. They are frauds and charlatans, trying to take your money.
So the skeptic stands up and announces to the many people in Café Dawn,
“The Arrow is debunked. Those that say otherwise are delusional charlatans”.
The people nod their heads in agreement. “Those Ink cartridges sure are expensive.” “Silly charlatans!”
The Loner
The loner in the corner looked up from her book. She thinks to herself, but they haven’t said anything about the Arrow. Do they not see it? Do they not get it? They forgot about Enlightenment. They’ve deflected the situation to money and charlatans.
[Do you see the Arrow yet? It’s between the “E” and the “x”, where there normally isn’t any Ink, but is marked in red below.]
The Shaman and the Anthropologist
The Shaman sat at another table. He knows how to heal people with the Arrow. This knowledge has been passed down through his lineage for millennia. He is adept at working with the immaterial, unquantifiable forces. He knows that the Ink is of the material, quantifiable world, and he also knows how to manipulate the substance of the Arrow such that it bubbles up from the Realm of the Paper to heal in the Realm of the Ink.
The anthropologist at another table [Café Dawn is a popular spot] was telling those present that ancient Peruvians etched the Arrow on their monolithic temples. It is just a myth. They make up stories that aren’t real to appease some gods that aren’t real either, he says.
The Shaman continued at his table, “I didn’t see a bear. I didn’t see a star. I saw an Arrow. It is not made up. The Arrow is not from the Realm of Ink. The Arrow is not material, but it is also not made up. The Arrow is from the Realm of Paper.”
So, what’s your definition of a myth?
The Physicist
The physicist grabbed a napkin and her pen raced quickly in all directions.
She drew the inner workings of the Ink. She delved into the Ink’s molecular structure, down to the atomic structure, where she calculated that if the nucleus of the atom was the size of a basket ball, the electron was 3 miles away! There was nothing in between! The Ink is mostly made of nothing. [This hints at the Paper underneath, but she focuses only on the Ink.]
Delving deeper into the subatomic realm, she uses Richard Feynman’s “trick” of a “Virtual world” in order to “get the math right”, [to normalize out the infinities to get answers that matched the experimental data on the Ink]. Subatomic particles of Ink became Virtual particles, which are real particles that bounce back and forth between the real world of Ink and the Virtual world, but she stayed focused on the Ink.
Deeper still she dove beyond the subatomic; the mundane world of the Ink became the bizarre. The particles themselves seemed to disappear! [The particles became vibrating Strings of multi dimensionality. She noted the superposition principle, whereby objects could be in two places at the same time. Particles can became entangled and synchronize precisely in time and space while isolated from each other, and micro black holes are everywhere, just to name a few oddities.]
Everything vibrates…Space warps… time dilates…
Napkins covered with equations and diagrams were strewn between plates of bagels and quiche.
The Guru speaks of Maya – the Illusion of the Ink
The Guru brings his double-shot, hazelnut-infused chai Yerba Mate latte over and sits down with the physicist. He picks up the napkins and smiles. He understands her completely. The Guru knows the Wisdom of the Arrow and so sees how the physics points from the Ink to the Paper to the Arrow and back again like a Möbius strip.
As he begins to speak, his disciples gather round the table. He explains to them how the equations and diagrams on the napkins correspond to Ancient Wisdom, as they sit in a trance-like meditation with eyes closed. “The Great Masters can bi-locate, they can be in two places at one time.” “We are all connected, entangled. We are all One.” “We are multi-dimensional beings.” “We can walk through walls.”
The physicist stared blankly, like a deer in the headlights, and then sipped her latte.
[Her calculations began again as she gauged the probability of being able to walk through walls. The result was very, very small, but not zero. Another napkin with numbers joined the pile.]
In fact, the Guru continues, the “Ink” is the illusion, the Maya. The “truth”, the “real reality” is not just the Arrow — that is just the beginning. The truth is that the Arrow points to something so vast, so much greater than the Ink, more radiant even than the Paper, mightier than can be imagined or described in words. Hush, Don’t even speak its name.
The Taoist
The Taoist walked by their table and simply said “Neti neti”, which means “not this – not that”.
The Great Wind
Just then, a Great Wind blew the door open, scattering newspapers across the tables, napkins wafting in all directions, and the map of Fedexland was lofted upward and out the window.
“Neti neti.”
The End
The Moral of the Story (Short Version)
We all have in Inner Skeptic, an Inner Shaman or Guru, and an Inner Physicist.
Our Inner Skeptic is validated daily by our 5 senses – which are Ink detectors! Our Inner Physicist is questing for more Knowledge and Wisdom. And we would all like to be able to heal ourselves and understand the Great Mysteries of the Universe, like the Shaman and the Guru.
[1] “Flatland” is a book by Edwin Abbot? Is the most popular author on Amazon, not sure who the original author is and there are 4 movies out by that title, one starring Dennis Hooper, and other starring Martin Sheen. The idea is to explore multi-dimensional realities by “living in” a 2 dimensional reality and comparing it to our normal 3D reality.