Although Descarte’s declaration of “I think therefore I am” unintentionally or intentionally added to an already increasing view of fragmentation from nature by separating mind and body, Descarte was attuning to the realization of the existing reality or world that exists within one’s self- the inner world.
Although, try as we might, to prove the concrete existence of an exterior world, everything…literally everything that we can possibly attend to, point the finger of awareness at, or aim to quantify measurably is ultimately manifested as image information passed through the senses.
We can resolutely claim that “something” out there is triggering a stimulus of response through the senses, yet we cannot definably certify that the presentations occurring within mind are the absolute true portrayals of that “something”.
Everything is a byproduct of the imagination piecing together sensory information coming in along with already existing emotional, physical, and cognitive story pieces stored within memory from past experience and learning.
Everything is dream…
The exact level that the portrayals within the mind differ or match the possible outside originals is both relative and up for speculation and debate. Each individual’s sensorimotor functioning is unique like a fingerprint. And each individual’s experiences, education, and inheritance is also unique. Therefore, the portrayals that are presented within each unique mindscape are unique.
No mind represents the outside world of information in exactly the same way. Therefore, there is no concrete absolute version of the outer reality. There are enough similarities that are shared that allow for similar navigation through the outer world, yet the feelings associated, the boundaries of individual sensory functioning, and the shades incurred from conditioning that exist within the relative schemata make each individual’s experience and perception of the outside world quite unique.
Can there really be a conception of the outer world without including perceptual experience?
In his 1945 book- “The Phenomenology of Perception”, Maurice Merleau Ponty introduced the idea that all mind-stuff (sensory representations, emotions, etc..) may actually be part of the body of that which is being observed. Meaning; the version of a tree which might be seen in the mind’s eye is not technically the body of the individual perceiving. The version perceived in the mind’s eye is the body of tree instead.
This concept creates a permanent bridge and channel between the outside world and the inner world of perception. The representations presented through the mind are the materia of the objects being observed in the outer world…
At the same time, we are greatly influenced by the outside world and our perceptions. Our identity, character, persona, and overall sense of self is intimately tied with the materia of the outside world. James Hillman, in “Revisioning Psychology”, resonated the idea that all of psychology and related therapeutic work is incomplete without considering the relationship we share with the environment of the outside world of nature.
We are as much shaped by our perception and relationship with the outside world as the outside world is shaped by our perception and relation with it.
As well, the inner world of feelings, emotions, sensory imaginings, and thoughts are are intimately connected with environment, the soul of place, and all the present nature beings.
Our dreaming is as much a part of nature as the rhizomic activity amongst fungi, bacteria, and root systems beneath the soil. The dreaming is the inner rhizomic activity within the soil of being. What is above the surface is deeply connected and dependent upon what is occurring beneath the soil unseen.
Within music and sound, there is a concept of fidelity (high fidelity and low fidelity) which relates to the measure by which a recording matches the original. Within the living of dream, it can be proposed that each individual’s life quest might be simply to find the highest fidelity- between the original and the replication…