Inner World, Outer Truth, and The Adventure of a Lifetime
"You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star." ~Friedrich Nietzsche
My inner world lays out a path most meaningful.
My guide on this path is intuition.
The decisions informed by intuition, based on my inner world, have made life a meaningful adventure.
Our culture treasures the thinking, measured, and reason-based scientific rationale that defines our modern era—a statement that's hard to contest.
It's no wonder, though, because the discoveries made through scientific inquiry have been profoundly fruitful. The subsequent implementation of these scientific discoveries in the market is nothing short of a miracle!
Over the past 25 years alone, we have lifted 130,000 people a day above the international poverty line and remarkably improved living conditions. We have increased the accessibility of information and human connection previously thought impossible, drastically decreased the level of childhood mortality, increased our global levels of wealth tremendously, are on the cusp of creating something more intelligent than ourselves, and are even communicating with each other through dreams (discovered last week).
In all this beauty, we seemed to have lost something fundamental about humanity—humans are primarily driven by story.
While scientific rationality has propelled humanity forward immensely, it has neglected something fundamental: the connection to a meaningful life through a shared story.
Humans have emulated and embodied myth throughout documented history; it has been a useful tool for us to discover things about ourselves in the world. In this regard, we are no different.
There's an argument to be made that humans are driven by an implicit, unconscious myth. For example, the Judeo-Christian ethos is embedded directly into the legal system of the Western world. As we act in the system, we implicitly accept each human's divine right without recognizing this axiom's original implementation.
Some people embody the myth of their social communities (Don't Die), more of their companies (Apple, Tesla), and many of their nations. Even the most reason-based philosophies have some underlying myth that dictates the actions of those participating - such as the e/acc movement, which makes a god of dissipative adaptation and acts according to the 'will of the universe.'
That leads me to an important question: If we embody a myth, are we meant to live the story that writes us as characters or the story we write ourselves? Are we meant to live out our myth, a myth that calls from within?
Our modern era seems to presuppose this is a foolish way to live—not an impossible way of life, but a difficult lifestyle to walk due to the social resistance it receives.
This ignorance pervades our exploration of the unknown.
The world of the unknown is an unfamiliar home. While visiting, I feel a dense fog resting on my shoulders. Every step forward lays itself out as long as I am respectfully thinking and intuiting. Each step makes itself known, and at times, the fog lifts, and I feel I can see as far as the horizon extends around me in all its horror and beauty.
I live for the fog to lift, hoping to build something beautiful for those traveling with me in this new territory.
However, exploring the unknown is dangerous. I risk sounding insane and am likely to be inaccurate. The immense utility derived from science has led to the marginalization of concepts outside its framework, often labeling them as fringe or incorrect, disincentivizing its exploration.
This is a dangerous way to think.
Extend your timeframe by thousands of years and ask: How much are we correct about?
1% might be extraordinarily generous. I would guess that we don't understand most of what there is to understand yet.
Allow me to explore the deep unknown for the following sentence. How do we know that the paths we take and the things that take hold of us and guide our interests aren't beings themselves, operating at a frequency, energy, or dimension that we cannot see or measure with current tooling?
We don't know. But because that statement isn't falsifiable, it's not scientific.
So what do we do with ideas like that one? We let them move on and sit in the idea sphere until they grab someone's attention at a time when those ideas are scientifically measurable.
This is a poor solution. We need a framework for ideas and inquiry that aren't scientifically measurable but worth extended exploration as they may lead to some fundamental truth about the universe that we just can’t measure.
Some might argue that venturing beyond the scientific method risks embracing unfounded beliefs. However, integrating intuitive insights with rational thought doesn't dismiss science; it enriches our understanding by acknowledging the full spectrum of human experience.
Upon reflecting on the question of the afterlife, Carl Jung proposed a solution in Memories, Dreams, Reflections for where information about questions that cannot be scientifically answered can be found and what we can do about it (bolding mine),
"My hypothesis is that we can do so with the aid of hints sent to us from the unconscious—in dreams, for example. Usually we dismiss these hints because we are convinced that the question is not susceptible to answer. In response to this understandable skepticism, I suggest the following consideration. If there is something we cannot know, we must necessarily abandon it as an intellectual problem. For example, I do not know for what reason the universe has come into being, and shall never know. Therefore I must drop this question as a scientific or intellectual problem. But if an idea about it is offered to me—in dreams or in mythic traditions—I ought to take note of it. I even ought to build up a conception on the basis of such hints, even though it will forever remain a hypothesis which I know cannot be proved."
Many of these ideas are to be found in our inner world, the world of the unconscious, which is vastly underexplored in relation to our outer world.
Can we deliver something great for humanity with a proper orientation and following the guide of the inner world? Is it something that only our unique individual combination of experiences, thoughts, feelings, and interests was meant to deliver? Does each of us have this?
At a minimum, an adventure awaits each of us in this world, one that is unique and only we can enact. All that's required is the leap into the story.
Life can be complex, and some concerns make taking the leap difficult.
Sometimes, it isn't 'practical' to make the jump and act out one's myth. It's a problematic endeavor to see the story play out in front of you, being unable to contribute to the next sentence.
In grappling with these ideas, I'm reminded of why I write.
Writing an essay is an act of faith. I never know where I will land, but I know I will learn something about myself and the world by following through to the end - inner and outer truth.
The learning comes from the excitement, the pain, the intermittent boredom, the creeping nihilism trying to claw me down, the anticipation of being well received, the fear of rejection, the hope to find at least one more reader who connects with you, and the difficulty in walking a path that is uniquely individual to you, all while working carefully toward discovering the truth.
Writing is a microcosm of reality.
I ask myself, "why not, then, pursue the act of faith that awaits you?"
To which the only response that I can gain comfort with is, "Well, life is more complicated than words on a page. So, while that leap of faith is not your reality in the moment, you can take those leaps every day on this page."
The journey wasn't meant to be easy.
Otherwise
What would be the point?
"But when one follows the path of individuation, when one lives one's own life, one must take mistakes into the bargain; life would not be complete without them. There is no guarantee—not for a single moment—that we will not fall into error or stumble into deadly peril. We may think there is a sure road. But that would be the road of death. Then nothing happens any longer—at any rate, not the right things. Anyone who takes the sure road, is as good as dead."
~ Carl Jung
Until next time,
Take care of yourselves, everyone
Dom
