This drawing was done in mixed media on matboard. It was preliminary work for a large painting.
How do we know what we know? Humberto Maturana advanced an epistemology that answers this question. It's deceptively simple, for all its seeming complexity. In a biological sense, we don't so much observe the world as create models of the world and then interact with these models. Such models are not simulations. They're assemblages of operations of distinction that are reflexively coupled to other systems through perceptual mechanisms.
This concept is reflected in how memory works. Accessing a memory is not like pulling up stored data from a hard drive. It's more like creating a movie to watch from a broad selection of associated experience imprints. To a great extent, the act of recalling a memory produces the memory. Perceiving creates the perception.
From this perspective, we create our own reality in both actual experience and in remembering experience. This doesn't mean that nothing's objectively real. It means only that consciousness mediates our interaction with objective reality, changing this reality while simultaneously responding adaptively to it.
I like to consider the world to be comprised of two layers. There is the biological and mechanical layer. And then there is the layer of stories people tell themselves and others. I think consciousness is outside the system as well as articulated within it. Here is where I part ways with Maturana, because he considers consciousness biologically emergent and I do not. I think consciousness comes from somewhere else, becoming associated with biology when conditions are favorable.
Imagine a seaside ravine. Wind blows in from the water, across the landscape's rock formations, making a special noise. This noise is the product of this system's mechanical components interacting with each other. It isn't consciousness. In this same system, conditions may be such that a seed from faraway can blow into the ravine, sprout, take root, and live there. In my view, consciousness is more like this plant, an organism from elsewhere that finds a favorable place in the material world to live for a while.
These ideas may appear lofty. Irrelevant, even. But they pertain to the power of the mind and I've found them useful. They allow an important question to be asked in any circumstance. How am I creating this experience?
Asking this question creates psychological space. This space is versatile. In unpleasant situations, asking this question has helped me learn to experience pain without thinking in a way that adds to my own suffering. Asking this question has also shown me ways to increase my enjoyment of pleasant situations. It's a simple question with profound implications.
How am I creating this experience?
Hi mada,
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