Metaphysics

Hello all, its me again. *pauses for applause* I have decided to share the journey of my metaphysical theory as it has evolved over the years. As I said in my last post “Illusions” by Richard Bach, has provided the basis for my theory. Essentially, anything is possible if you believe it to be. If you believe you can walk on water, then you can walk on water. If you believe you can play the guitar or fly an airplane, then you can, as long as your belief is strong enough. I adopted this philosophy as my own personal belief for a while. Then I read a book called “Deep Wizardry” by Diane Duane. In it a very wise whale said that it was not enough to believe you can do something, you have to know you can do it. This provided a much more satisfactory answer as to why I was not able to walk on water and the like.

Originally I was of the opinion that I could not do these “impossible” things because there was still a small seed of doubt within me holding me back. While this is true, S’ree the whale allowed me to form a more precise reason. I believed that anything was possible, but as S’ree said that is not enough. I have to know that it is possible. The critical difference between knowledge and belief became by basic metaphysical thesis. However my journey does not end there.

I recently came across a paradox in my theory. I love paradoxes, so I explored it further. This is my first attempt to put it words so bear with me. The reason for the title “Illusions” of the book that changed my life came from scene in which Donald Shinoda, a modern-day messiah, is almost fierce in his insistence that he understand one thing. That all of the world, and all you perceive is an illusion. Because nothing is real, anything is possible. The fact that the world is defined by your perception of it, allows for all things to be possible. This is all well and good, but it causes a paradox in my current metaphysical theory.

Knowledge can be defined as the absolute, irrefutable, fact that something is. However, Donald Shinoda states that all things are an illusion, and therefore nothing is absolute, irrefutable, or fact. You have to know you can do something in order to do it, but if nothing is absolute, then knowledge is impossible. When I presented this paradox to my father, who shares my love of the metaphysical, he dismissed it as a mere issue of semantics. This brought to mind an incident in another Richard Bach book, “One”. The characters were attempting to discuss some complex, metaphysical issue and were finding the English language to be a stumbling block for their communication. The language was obviously not designed for such communication. I am not one to let mere linguistic barriers get in the way of my communications. If no term or word exists for what I am trying to express than I will make one up.

In this case I realized I needed a new definition of knowledge. While everything in the perceived world is an illusion, I realized there had to be certain absolute truths that define the universe. These truths may not be perceivable by the non-ascended mind, but they are in existence none the less. This is in fact the only true knowledge. However, I had no desire to discredit the wise words of S’ree the whale. So I split knowledge into two subcategories: absolute knowledge and perceptual knowledge. Absolute knowledge, being the literally un-thinkable, universal truths and perceptual knowledge, being what most people, or whales, in the case of S’ree, consider being knowledge. When you know that you perceive something in a certain way, you perceive it.

Whew! That was long and complicated. Now you can all applaud me on my genius