Perceptualism

Facing Up is not a belief system but a way to live without one. But doesn’t everyone have to believe in something? Well, no. In this chapter I will show an alternative to belief that I call Perceptualism. Perceptualism is how I escaped the chains of dogma and found life beyond belief.

I will make three statements about Perceptualism. To me, these are undeniable. If you don’t agree, nothing that follows will make any sense.

My first statement is: I do not see Reality, but what I see is real.

In my first book, The Story of my Fall, I tell about a day back in high school when I lost my temper and blew up at my basketball coach. The words that came from my mouth were bizarre. I threw up my hands and shouted, “I don’t know what’s going on!”

When my kids were little, I came out of my bedroom and greeted them at the breakfast table with the same words, but in a silly falsetto voice: “What is going on?” They began to refer to this alter-ego as Carol. I still torture my poor wife with Carol. As I look back on my life, I see that this question is no coincidence. It is the question. What is going on?

For centuries, people have searched the answer. Are we a figment of our minds? Are we part of a simulation? Is this just one manifestation of a multiverse? Is time an illusion? Do we ever really die?  Did we ever really live? What is the Whole of which we are a part? These are the questions no one can answer, the ones that made make me say to my coach, my kids, my wife, the universe, “What is going on?”

I do not know. I don’t think anyone does. At the core of humanity lies a question mark. This is our common ground and our deepest bond, more profound than any religion or philosophy; not something we know. The fact that we are lost.

We do not see Reality. But that does not mean what we see is not real. Just because we don’t see everything doesn’t mean we don’t see anything. We can’t reach out and wrap our arms around the universe, but our feet touch the earth. That connection may be tiny but it is real. We may not be able to comprehend the Whole but we do touch it. And that touch is everything.

Consider the bee. Bees engage Reality very differently than we do. We occupy the same universe but our perception of that universe is very different. Is the bee wrong? Are we wrong? Of course not. We each see a very real part in a very real way. Neither of us see Reality. That does not mean what we see is not real. Partial is not false.

My observation is an ancient one. I goes back to the parable of the elephant and the blind men. In case you haven’t heard, it goes like this:

A group of blind men learned that a strange animal called an elephant had been brought to their town but none of them knew what an elephant was. They went out to investigate. The first man, whose hand landed on the elephant’s trunk, said, “The elephant is a thick snake.” Another touched its ear. “The elephant is a kind of fan,” he said. Another wrapped his arms around a leg and said, “The elephant is a tree-trunk.” One placed his hand on its side said, “The elephant is a wall.” One grabbed its tail and said, “The elephant is a rope.” One felt its tusk and said, “The elephant is hard and pointed, like a spear.”

None of them grasped the Reality of the elephant but each of their perceptions was real. In the same way, I do not see Reality. But what I see is real.

The most surprising thing about being human is not that we don’t see the whole, but that we know we do not. That’s worth repeating. The most surprising thing about being human is not that we don’t see the whole, but that we know we do not. To deny our ignorance is to slam the door on the part of our humanity that opens the door to wonder. As Jesus put it, those who say they can see are blind. Those who know they are blind can see.

Of course, most people don’t consider our inability to see to be wonderful. We want to be know-it-alls. We are a race of smarty pants who call ourselves homo sapiens. (“Sapiens,” of course, means “wise.”)

The question is whether we will accept our human slice of Reality as our portion or whether we will say, “I reject this. For me, It’s all or nothing.” If we insist on all, we get nothing.

As for me, I’ll be like the bee and the flower, and the ant, and the bird, and the sea and the sky. I will open my eyes and embrace the wonder of being human through the lens of human perception. I will be what I am and bloom where I am planted. I don’t see Reality, but what I see is real.

My second statement is this: Our superpower is that we tell stories. Our Achilles heel is that we believe them.    

Humans don’t stop at perception. We move on to conception. These are two important words that open the door to two different worlds.

Perception is what we see. Every species perceives things differently. This, more than any other factor, is what binds each species together. Birds of a feather flock together, not because of a common creed, but because of their common perception.

Your perception no doubt differs from mine in some ways, but as a member of the same species, we are basically on the same page. No other species is listening to this or could possibly understand it. We perceive things similarly. So why is it so hard for humans to flock together? The answer is that we don’t leave it at perception. We move on to conception.

Perception is what we see. Conception is what we make of what we see. Our ability to conceive is the most amazing feature of our species. We can make things up! We can use imagination to fill in the gaps of our knowledge and even create whole universes.

Perception is limited to what we see. For a primitive tribe, maybe this was the top of a ridge. For us it is the edge of the universe. We might congratulate ourselves for seeing more than the primitive tribespeople but we are just as lost.

Conception allows us to imagine what lies over the ridge, or beyond the edge of the universe. We employ our imagination to fill in the blanks. In religion, we call this myth. In science, we call it hypothesis. There is nothing wrong with this, indeed, it is one of the most remarkable features of being human. We spin stories like spiders spins webs. Many are beautiful.

In his bestselling book, Sapiens, Noah Yuval Harari does a masterful job of describing how human beings have harnessed the power of story to become the dominant species. He shows how religion, nation, money, and even the Limited Liability Corporation, allow us to create a shared world and work together. This is our superpower. The power of story has made us the dominant species.

If telling stories our superpower, believing them is our Achilles heel. A story taken as a fact is called dogma. There are three problems with dogma.

1. When we take our stories for a fact, we assume the role of Creator. This always ends in disillusionment because stories are not Reality. There is nothing wrong with being creators (small “c”) and stories are marvelous expressions our humanity. The just won’t work as foundations for our existence because they are made up. 
2. When we believe our stories we break into tribes and go to war. It doesn’t take long for our stories to come into conflict. How shall we treat those who don’t believe? Since dogma is taken as Truth, it is a rigid requirement for participation in the community. There is no room for unbelievers. They must be brought into the story or be avoided, or worse, destroyed.
3. The third problem with believing our stories is that they make liars of us. When I remember that my stories are merely human conceptions, I can hold them lightly and make adjustments. Myths can be revised. Hypotheses can be abandoned. But if I regard my story to be sacred, I have no choice but to deny any perception that conflicts with it. Fundamentalist Christians must turn a blind eye to geology to match their story of a world that is 6,000 years old. Donald Trump must turn a blind eye to the verdict of over 60 courts to live in a world in which he won the 2020 election. In both cases, conception trumps perception. We deny our perception to our own destruction since perception is the essence of existence.   

(review three problems with dogma)

1. When we take our stories for a fact, we assume the role of Creator.
2. When we believe our stories we break into tribes and go to war.
3. The third problem with believing our stories is that they make liars of us.

The ability to create stories is the greatest thing about being human. Stories open the door to wonder and inspire investigation. They expand our universe and elevate our souls. Stories are marvelous servants.

The problem comes when we blur the line between perception and conception, when turn stories into dogma. The moment we do this, we discover that though stories are marvelous servants, they are cruel masters. Our superpower is that we tell stories. Our Achilles heel is that we believe them.

Here is my last statement: Maps are useful tools to navigate our existence.

In the following chapters, I will share what I call a perceptual map. “But wait!” you say, “Isn’t a map a conception? I mean, it’s not like we open our eyes and perceive a map. Don’t we conceive them? Aren’t they made up?”

No. Maps are depictions, not a conceptions. The maps I will share are not not fanciful drawings of an imaginary world. They are depictions of the world I encountered. Since we are the same species, I assume we perceive things similarly. “Birds of a feather,” remember? I make no claim to have mapped Reality. For that you’ll need a God or a guru. Mine is a human map, depicting human perception. Our friend, the bee, would no doubt draw a very different map of its perception. Neither of our maps is Reality. Both are real.

I am not asking you to believe anything. My map is no more a system of beliefs than a globe is. The question is, “Do you see what I see?” You might choose other labels and draw your lines in different ways. But if I did my job well, you will be able to recognize your human experience on my map because we are both human. My goal is to depict, not conceive, to set aside my imagination and draw my experience, to be cartographer, not a mystic.

Maps don’t answer questions. They don’t tell you where to go or who to be. They simply give you the lay of the land and help you navigate. The maps I will share emerged when I stopped asking what to believe and focused instead on what I saw. I will depict the human experience with two maps  : 1) As a journey to three islands. 2) As a chart. These are two ways to show the same thing.

As a Christian, I walked by faith, not by sight. Now, I walk by sight, not by faith. That, in a nutshell, is what I mean by Perceptualism, and what I mean by Facing Up. I have released my demand to answer the question, “What is going on?” I have forsaken my trust in stories, be they religious, scientific, or personal. I accept and embrace my perception as the essence of my existence. What I see is what I get. I’ll be like the bear and go over the mountain, map in hand, to see what I can see.

To review, here are my three statements about Perceptualism:

1. We do not see Reality, but what we see is real.
2. Our superpower is that we tell stories. Our Achilles heel is that we believe them.   
3. Maps are useful tools to navigate our existence.

If these statements seem reasonable to you, I invite you to set out with me on an eight week expedition to explore human existence. If your journey is like mine, you will return with a deeper awareness of what it means to be human and maybe even a whole new way to be. We depart next Sunday for the the Island of Desire. I hope to see you aboard.