What is reality?

A distinction between subjective and objective reality

6 min reading time | published on: 19.08.2024

A brief excursion into quantum research shows that the question “What is reality?” has long been addressed by external science and inevitably leads to philosophy and comprehensive considerations about reality. Is our reality measurable, calculable and comprehensible in this way, as proclaimed by external science? Are the scientist, the observed and the observation really separate from one another? Is objective research possible?

A foray into quantum physics

Quantum research is challenging our worldview. The world around us: it seems reliable, solid and unambiguous. A chair is a chair – regardless of whether we sit on it or throw it out the window. The blue cup on the breakfast table is there even when we are not looking. The key is hanging on the hook and is not in the kitchen and the living room at the same time. There seems to be a cause for every effect and, even if the causes are too complex to be analyzed precisely, theoretically we could find them. Are these all self-evident? No, they are not.

See also: Self-realization – What do I really want?

Chair, cup, key: they all consist of trillions of atoms, which are made up of electrons and nuclear building blocks, bound together by force particles. And this is where our visible and assumed reality is seriously called into question, because, for example, electrons can be in several places at the same time. They sometimes behave like a particle, sometimes like a wave, and when something decays is unpredictable and happens seemingly randomly. Particles can be connected in a ghostly way, even if they are light years apart. And the most important insight of all: the observer influences what is observed!*

How can our solid everyday world be based on this moving micro-world that functions according to mysterious laws? Are we perhaps blind to deeper laws and cling to what is visible, measurable and reliable? What do we really know about the nature of things? Quantum theory now provides the basis for modern technological achievements and, although it does not correspond to our comprehensible perception (“The key is hanging in the hallway”), it forms the foundation for explaining phenomena and the development of highly specialized technology.

Open your eyes! – The path of spiritual discernment

from Mariana Caplan

Mariana Caplan’s book offers extremely useful, comprehensive and clearly structured instructions for developing discernment on the spiritual path. Caplan makes it clear that real spiritual development occurs through a merciless process of confronting ourselves, our fears and resistance, our entire conditioning, and that it is usually long and arduous and leads through many crises. The shock of a serious crisis often proves to be healing and growth-promoting, especially if we are able to see it in this context.

Our very “own” truth

For an inner researcher, interest in reality is probably less related to the “essence of things” than to the questions: Who am I really? In what reality do I live? What are the limits of this reality? And what is THE reality?

„Meine Realität“ ist die Brille, durch die ich blicke, sind die Interpretationen, mit denen ich Erfahrungen und Wahrnehmungen einordne, sind Überzeugungen, die für mich wahr sind, und sind auch die Gefühle, die aus all diesen Gedanken hervorgehen. In der inneren Wissenschaft, der Forschungsmethode eines inneren, spirituellen Menschen auf seinem Weg, erfolgt irgendwann die Erkenntnis, dass die größte Blindheit des Forschenden darin besteht, seine „eigene Welt“ nicht wirklich zu kennen. Wir sind identifiziert mit einem Ich-Geist, d.h. einer in sich geschlossenen Welt, die glaubt, Wirklichkeit zu sehen. Und der erste wesentliche Schritt, um sich der Realität anzunähern, könnte darin liegen, sich diese Begrenztheit einzugestehen.

Wir stellen fest, dass wir uns für Wahrheit interessieren, weil wir ahnen, dass wir in Unwahrheit leben – nicht in der Realität, sondern in unserem Traum, in unseren Überzeugungen und Vorurteilen, in wiederkehrenden Gefühls- und Gedankenmustern, in einer Wahrnehmung von Getrenntheit, die Mangel – und Angstzustände hervorruft. Das Interesse für die innere Wissenschaft entsteht aus unserem eigenen Leidensbewusstsein. Wir leiden unter der Begrenztheit unserer Perspektive und beginnen uns für innere Wahrheit und das wahre Selbst zu interessieren. Dies wird zu einem Bedürfnis aus der Tiefe unseres Herzens und ist kein reiner Willensakt und nicht nur eine Angelegenheit unseres Verstandes.

Acquiring Discernment

Because this world that our minds create at every moment represents reality for most people, and we only have a vague suspicion that this could be a limited view, we need to know our subjective view of things in order to get closer to reality. What are our unconscious identifications and beliefs that we believe in without really knowing? It is false knowledge that limits us the most, whereby “false” is not to be understood in a moral sense, but simply describes the fact that we think we know what we do not really know. This admission is a big step for many people, because it triggers inner insecurity; the ground on which I thought I was standing securely begins to shake; the chair, the cup, the key – they are no longer what they were to me. I myself am not who I thought I was. This gap that arises in our natural perception of ourselves and the world can trigger the desire for religion in its true sense: a return to reality, to the source, to ourselves. And for this return to the source we need discernment.

Open your eyes! – The path of spiritual discernment

from Mariana Caplan

Mariana Caplan’s book offers extremely useful, comprehensive and clearly structured instructions for developing discernment on the spiritual path. Caplan makes it clear that real spiritual development occurs through a merciless process of confronting ourselves, our fears and resistance, our entire conditioning, and that it is usually long and arduous and leads through many crises. The shock of a serious crisis often proves to be healing and growth-promoting, especially if we are able to see it in this context.

The interest in truth

“I encourage you to focus your contemplation on what truth is, what freedom is, who you really are. Deepen your contemplation more and more. Insights and revelations appear naturally in contemplation. Wisdom and clarity are natural byproducts of contemplation and the willingness not to follow the mind.” (Gangaji)**

All inner teachings of the spiritual traditions say that an objective reality exists and can be recognized by a person. The concept of “self-realization” indicates that in the penetration of our subjective reality, in the letting go and dying of untruth and false knowledge, what remains is what is real, the self. It is difficult for us Western people to recognize that this level of knowledge and realization cannot be reached through our minds. It is our thinking mind that separates us from reality, and we find it difficult to imagine that there is a deep intelligence within us that can come into contact with a reality that has always been and is and will be. The inner researcher who is interested in reality can only find it by embarking on a path that questions what he has previously believed in; by being willing to empty himself again and again of archived knowledge and – innocently like a child – listening to what the great spiritual masters teach; by facing his own limitations and having the humility to fundamentally question his subjective world.

References in the text:

*freely quoted from: GEOplus “What is still real? Quantum research questions our worldview“ by Klaus Bachmann

** from “You are THAT”, Gangaji, published by Lüchow Verlag

*** OM C. Parkin in Darshan “I slept and dreamed my life”

Recommended literature on the topic:

Mariana Caplan: Open your eyes! – The path of spiritual discernment

OM C. Parkin: Intelligence of Awakening