. . . And What We Don't Know    

How often did you hear somebody say 'Let's get real', as if there is an uncontested reality that everyone agrees to? Something stable, un-questionable and safe.Yet if we were to look at this reality more closely it rests on quite shaky grounds.

First we believe our sensual perceptions are reporting facts to our brain. As in the famous story of five blind people touching an elephant and all coming to a different conclusion about what it is, sensual perception proves to be tricky and not at all reliable.

Another group of facts we accept as real consists of scientific data created by the scrutiny of the scientific method. Although this process is quite rigorous it selects its questions and projects on an insider level: none of the non-scientific people will ever see how they come to conclusions about the existence of elementary particles and their behavior.

We also are not able to listen to whales, dolphins or sense the communication of bats. We have to be aided by technology to get an impression. And without the Hubble telescope we would not see any galaxies.

How about tradition? If history proves anything it is its regional differences and changes over time. And, of course, there are the news as a source of facts: but who really trusts the media?

Apparently we are left with religion, the sixth sense and intuition? Alas, this is another field for believers and the initiated.

Mainstream conventions may glue people together but they also keep us boxed into a narrow perspective. It is a Status Quo that - in an ever-moving reality- doesn't exist. We are left without the desired stability.

Thus here is a proposal for a new description of reality: reality is what we know and what we don't know.  A reality that we know and don't know doesn't deny what is commonly accepted but also knows it is never conclusive and may change (and may be changed) at any time. It also is more open to unusual information. There is simply no fixed picture.

Using this perspective we might see the world as more uncertain, even threatening but also as more open, as a world of possibilities.

It gives a lot of responsibility back to us to actually question, experience and trust our own investigations. We are able to revitalise our creativity to influence the story of our lives.

So let's take up the challenge!