We're all fools

            We actually know very little about life. Science, even history, has proven this.  Our text books are constantly being rewritten. Just when we think we know something, we make new discoveries and everything changes. The majority of our “facts” out there are merely socially acceptable theories and interpretations that have some evidence to support them but can’t really be proven. Even the small every day things that we are so sure of can totally be made unstable just by asking a few simple questions.
          Take, for example, the “fact” that the sky is blue… How do you know the sky is blue? Isn’t blue just a name that was given to that particular hue? What if another person doesn’t see the same hue as you do but they have been taught that the hue they are seeing is “blue” and so you both think you are seeing the same color, but you are not? What about colorblind people? How do you know that they aren’t the ones who are actually seeing the hue correctly?
           Or how about the “fact” that heat burns and cold freezes? Are we not conditioned from infancy to believe that this thing over here is “cold” and that thing over there is “hot” and it hurts if you touch it? If a man can be hypnotized to believe fire is ice and ice is fire (and he can), and, as a result, a match flame will not burn him, but an ice cube touched to his arm raises a blister, then does that not tell us that what is real to the body is what the brain BELIEVES about it? You see? The facts become unreliable theories. Just because the vast majority of people believe something, does not make it concrete.
           As it is, there are things that people experience every day, all over the globe that are unexplainable, supernatural, if you will. Religious folk blame it on God or Satan or angels and demons. Superstitious people blame it on ghosts. There is no way of knowing for sure what the cause of weird activity is. All we know is that it does happen to all different kinds of people. We can’t deny that these are things that people are actually experiencing. But that is what complicates it. Just because someone experiences something does not mean that another person in the same room would experience it the same way, or even at all, for that matter, and who are we to believe? The person whose view is most like mainstream beliefs or the person whose view contradicts mainstream beliefs?
           We have mental institutions for people that are crazy but what do we consider to be “crazy” in the first place? Crazy/ insane/ mad - (adj.) Senseless, unpredictable, impractical, non-conforming. Well, in that case, they better lock me up!
           The truth is, there are some people that are dangerous in their “insanity” and need to be locked up to protect others, but I would be willing to bet that at least 3 out of 10 people I know would consider ME to be crazy if they knew everything about me and everything I have experienced. Then again, there are religious people who would claim I am under demonic influence because their beliefs have no explanation for it. I can assure you, I am not.  I just might be crazy by definition, but I’m no idiot (this is up for debate). I know the ways of our society and know that if you want to live a fairly normal peaceful life, you can’t draw too much attention to yourself. Some mental disorders such as multiple personality disorders, borderline personality disorder, phobias, some anxiety disorders, etc  are made by an outside influence or traumatic event, but there are some, such as schizophrenia, sleep terror disorder, bi-polar disorder, etc that are nothing more than the brain working differently than what is considered normal. They are indeed unpredictable and can’t be explained, but what if the people with these “disorders” are experiencing something outside of our realm and reality that is just very misunderstood? We may consider them to be abnormal in the brain, but what if their brains are picking up on something that the rest of the population is missing? What if an autistic child develops senses outside our normal known senses because their brain doesn’t allow them to communicate rationally? Many disorders can be explained through brain chemistry (which still cannot be truly understood), but many are still a mystery. You can’t rule out the possibility that we have taken the non-conforming people of our world and labeled them as nuts simply because they are a minority.
           The point is we don’t know anything for SURE. Even if you show me something and say, “See, there it is! You saw it with your own eyes! That proves to you its real!” it is still only what I am experiencing. And even though you may be having the exact same experience, that does not mean that it is real because someone else may come along and experience it differently. We all experience and interpret things based on our preconceived ideas about life and the universe. We see with our eyes, but our eyes cannot see without the brain telling it what to see. So is it possible that our eyes are taking in a whole lot more than what we are actually experiencing because they have no judgment and limitation like the brain does? If the mind is what is really “seeing” what’s around us, then it would not be able to experience anything past its frame of reference. If we are taught and conditioned that the world is a certain way and brought up in those ways so that we believe it with every ounce of our being, then our experiences would be shaped by those deep rooted beliefs. So literally everything is open to interpretation.
            However, being a person who believes that all of creation is in perfect balance, and we are to be searching and aiming for balance within ourselves, I would have to say that you can take this idea of interpretation way too far. It is quite possible (anything is possible) that we are living in a matrix and nothing we are experiencing is real at all, but if that were true, then why go on living? Why do or believe ANYTHING? To learn and research and gain knowledge would only be in vain! …And, well, I just don’t believe that. I CAN’T believe that.
            We obviously have to settle on some facts and truths to keep society in order. So it’s okay to go along (to a degree) with what history and science, and yes, even experience, teaches us along the way. That knowledge, coupled with an open mind that reminds you that what you “know” may be incorrect, I believe, is what keeps you in balance.  Retain information, and then keep digging. Keep searching. Keep questioning because you may stumble on another fact that destabilizes the information you already know. After all, there was a time when everyone “knew” the Earth was flat. Clearly it is not.
           We are learning new things every day. It’s like pieces to a puzzle that we collect over time and are constantly trying to put them all together. There are still pieces missing, but one day, maybe we will have all the pieces, or at least enough pieces to get a pretty good view of reality.
           There was a time a few years ago, when this knowledge of ignorance (talk about an oxymoron) terrified me. I thought I HAD to know these truths, but now I have accepted that it is out of my hands. Whether I like it or not, I do not have all the pieces. Now, after gaining enough knowledge of the universe, quantum physics, history, mythology, religion, spirituality and the human mind to know that there are more gaps than there are not, it truly intrigues me. For it is not the things I know for sure that keeps me on the edge of my seat in excitement , wanting to live life to the fullest extent, but the mysteries.