Dr Moore wrote: ↑Fri May 20, 2022 1:34 am
I appreciate Don's post. And DrStak, I used Google search at least 7 times to fully understand that comment. This stuff is all way above my pay grade.
I'll offer an analogy -- the real number line.
Where:
* Integers, or whole numbers, represent things that are objectively verifiable or observable. This is the realm of hard science -- things, facts, ideas which can be replicated through predictive experimentation.
* All of the non-integer real numbers in between (the non-integer rationals and irrationals) represent things or ideas which cannot be replicated through predictive experimentation. Mysticism. Spirituality. Love.
This is too simplistic, but hopefully the basic ideas come across.
1) Both sets are infinite
2) The integers are predictable and can eventually all be "known"
3) In between any 2 integers, there are infinite real numbers. Or in this analogy, there are infinite subjective realities in between that which can be objectively verified.
4) Moreover, between any two real numbers, no matter how close together they are (say, 1.71459282238947 and 1.71459282238948) there are also an infinite number of real numbers. This is true no matter how small the distance between numbers, or in other words, there could be infinite subjective realities between that experienced by any two people, however similar their experiences. Likely, every person's subjective experience will vary in some small way from another's.
So this is kind of how I visualize the question of "reality" of spiritual things. Sure, the experiences are real. The enlightenment, or state of being, also totally real. No question. But without some means of objectively, predictably checking in on a specific asserted spiritual reality, the idea itself is like a non-integer real number -- infinite in variation, and inversely the odds of any specific claim being "true" vs "subjective imagination" are statistically zero. Just like the odds of any specific real number being picked out of a random gap in between any two real numbers is also statistically zero, given infinite possibilities.