Okay. Here is my dilemma. I practice what I refer to, for lack of a better term, as sorcery. I profess that human beings have the capability of altering objective reality through the exertion of will. I don’t go dragging supernatural entities into my system, as I see no need to. Now on the other hand, I fully acknowledge that maybe the things that I think I or others have made happen may be fortunate series of incredibly precise coincidences, that have happened to give me the exact result that I was seeking at the time, and I’m okay with that. So needless to say, my idea of reality is rather fluid, and is probably not aligned with anything that any rational person would refer to as normal. I believe in consensus reality, and I acknowledge that not everyone’s reality tunnels are going to align perfectly.
So, as a dweller on the “fringe”, how much validity must I ascribe to beliefs which I consider to be outlandish that I come across, without drifting into the arena of hypocrisy?
The specific case that I am referring to involves a happy chap who apparently lives in a world in which elves and gnomes are real. And unicorns are too. Really real.
What the hell am I supposed to make of that? Maybe his reality is vastly different than mine is. Maybe he kicks back and eats oranges with elves on a regular basis. Can I judge? I’m still trying to work this one out, but I needed to get this put down on pixels so I don’t forget about it during a bender or something.
Observations on fringe culture, science, epistemology, and the occult
You should worry about this more when he can introduce you to the gnomes and elves and unicorns. If these things are a valid reality for him but no one else then it is his problem. When he can manifest them for others then it has become a part of the consensus reality that people share. Given your definitions you have no way to separate a legitimate reality from clinically insane delusions. That bothers me.
ReplyDeleteI like Robert Anton Wilson's take on it all: "The border between the Real and the Unreal is not fixed, but just marks the last place where rival gangs of shamans fought each other to a standstill."
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to define a legitimate reality. In a world where even the scientific method and laws of physics have come under fire from various religious factions, it's hard to find a solid consensus. For example, I believe in the generally accepted cosmological explanation for the formation of the earth 4.5 billion years ago. But I have conversed with people that will vehemently defend the view that the earth is precisely 6014 years old as part of their core beliefs. I think that they are wrong, but I can't convince those folks otherwise.
I see this all the time in current events. Just last night, watching the last combat brigade leaving Iraq, there was discussion about whether or not we were seeing "the end of the war." Right now, no one really knows, and I think that the folks that act as though they do know are being dishonest.
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