REALITY – OBJECTIVE OR SUBJECTIVE?

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We have various labels for paranormal phenomena – ghosts, premonition, etc – but can we better understand the paranormal by using a new definition? To me the subject can best be seen as the interplay between mind and environment.
The mind is, of course, subjective, whilst the environment about us would seem to be an objective fact. We know this because science says so, but to what extend does the subjective mind impinge upon this objective reality?
It is a subject that has fascinated philosophers for centuries, but it is an area of research so often missed by parapsychologists and psychical researchers. So I ask a question: Is objective reality simply a bare canvas to be filled by our subjective thoughts?

THE NIGHT I SAW MY UFO

An anecdote to explain what I mean. One night as I was going to bed a blast of wind rattled the window. I wasn’t in a particularly good mood. I pulled back the curtain to see how bad the wind was and became suddenly transfixed.
In the garden next door, about two feet above the ground, was a cascade of golden lights. I have since called it my angel, or UFO, and it was so beautiful that my mood disappeared. After watching for quite a while, I went to bed and slept peacefully for the first time in ages.
The next morning I investigated. There was a pile of bricks in the garden, and trapped on it was the cause of my vision. An empty packet of crisps with its reflective insides showing had reflected an orange street light as it blew in the wind.

TOWARDS A COLLECTIVE REALITY

I have offered just one very visible example. Yet the interplay between objective reality and the subjective mind can be seen as a continual process. Jung offered his theory of ‘archetypes’ within a collective unconscious. We can now look at this in a new way.
An objective reality would be the same to all people. At the root of sensory experience would be a shared impression – a ‘collective’ experience, as it were. This collective experience would provide objective ‘archetypal’ impressions in the unconscious.
We can see this in action in the discipline of Semiotics, where ‘signs’ and symbols provide collective meaning and direction. A red traffic light, for instance, is a collective instruction to stop. A dark cloud is universally precognitive of rain.

WE LIVE IN TWO WORLDS

Such archetypal imagery would also mix with the ‘collective’ aspects of the mind. Certain mind traits, for instance, are shared, whether through our genes or repetitive behaviour.
This interplay between shared mind and environment offers a credible existence to Jung’s collective unconscious. Indeed, myth itself can be seen as a shared psychology writ large, filled with archetypal personality types and human dilemmas.
This reality of a physical, objective world and a shared psychological world has been expressed in religion throughout human existence. Since earliest times we have lived in two worlds – the physical world and a parallel spirit world. We can now, perhaps, see what this concept means.

INVADING THE OBJECTIVE

If a skeptic had researched my ‘UFO’ he would have worked out what caused the vision, offered a wry smile and declared ‘case closed.’ But this is an error. No matter how mundane the cause was, it had an effect in my mind.
In fact, it transformed my mind. It turned my mood, provided relaxation and disclosed a vital key in my theorizing. And it prompts a vital question: If a subjective interpretation of objective reality changes the person, does it gain a degree of objective reality in itself?
Consider the implications. Imagine lots of people witnessing a similarly mundane thing, and similarly misinterpreting it. They think it is a god, and their actions from then on are as though this god exists. In changing objective reality through their future actions, the ‘god’ invades objective reality by proxy. So in some sense, this ‘god’ must exist.

DESTINY AND THE QUEST

What the above suggests is that, whilst objective reality is a constant, a shared psychology is not. A misinterpretation of a mundane thing can cause a subjective change to the interpretation of reality by the person. And his actions from then on can similarly change others interpretation of objective reality, to the point where objective reality may appear to change itself.
We can add another dimension to this. Objective reality constantly bombards the mind with sensory input. We cannot cope with this so we have a ‘filter’ which presents us with only the sensory input of relevance to our present requirements.
If we can impinge our subjective mind upon objective reality, does this change the nature of our sensory input to only receive those signs and symbols that we want? It is a given of coincidence that thinking of one thing can cause similar things to be perceived. This suggests that objective reality can bend to our personal, or communal, subjective values.

RATIONALISING THE PARANORMAL

The interplay between objective reality and shared, or communal, subjective reality can possibly explain much of the paranormal. Repetition of ‘archetypal’ symbolism could automatically predispose the mind to see ‘ghosts’ at locations steeped in supernatural culture.
Mundane prompters in the environment could become precognitive, or even provide perceived telepathic communication, because they are perceived by others, prompting similar behaviour or shared thoughts.
For instance, a mundane item of news unconsciously reminds two people of a shared experience. One thinks, I must phone him, whilst the other already is – and the phone rings …

IN CONCLUSION

The relationship between objective reality and subjective mind can best be seen at the mundane level that most people do not consciously experience. But nonetheless it provides meaning, and possibly a whole host of phenomena.
The subjective mind can constantly tamper with this mundane objectivity, providing a different imterpretation of the objective to suit the person’s subjectivity. Indeed, at some communal levels, such as a household, I can even see the interplay providing the necessary shared psychodrama for a perceived poltergeist infestation.
Of course, the implications go further than the mere paranormal, for if the subjective invades the objective to this extent this could also be the process of religious experience – even fundamental political stances.
I am becoming convinced that we do not truly understand the human condition because we do not relate paranormality to the mundane. Here, of course, I am offering but a theory. Yet, in light of the above, it prompts the question: if this idea became accepted, would it become a fact?
If so, the world is changed by a packet of crisps.

© Anthony North, April 2007

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