On The Manipulation of Subjective Reality
by David Oliva
“Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one.” - Albert Einstein
“Culture is not your friend.” - Terrence McKenna
The Duality of Reality
1. It’s ones perception of the world that shapes ones reality, and the absence of certain facts from ones consciousness can only result in an incomplete perception of reality. There are at least two types of reality, objective and subjective. Objective reality is concrete, a set of facts outside of any one person’s perception, that encompasses all data. Theoretically, objective reality is the absolute truth. Subjective reality is an individuals interpretation, or perception, of a small cross section of the data that constitute objective reality. It is impossible to have a complete knowledge of objective reality. In order to do so one would have to know everything. This means one can only have a subjective view of reality, shaped by the bits and pieces of objective reality that one has gathered.
Culture Is Not Your Friend
2. Culture is "the behavior and beliefs characteristic of a certain group". Culture can be said to be a common illusion of objective reality, a common set of myths or mythos, or a common subjective reality. It is a force that works to shape a common subjective interpretation of a selection of the data that make up objective reality. Individuals within the group each have a more refined subjective reality, generally held within the boundaries of their culture. This may be why each culture is different from the others. Having developed isolated from other cultures, they have each developed a different interpretation of the data. And having at their disposal different pieces of objective reality, they have had different data to interpret.
3. The mythos, defined as “the complex of beliefs, values, attitudes, etc., characteristic of a specific group or society”, determines what a group of people within a given culture consider to be normal, which means "conforming to the standard or common type". Ones subjective reality, usually similar to the mythos of ones culture, then defines normal for this person. The mythos is constantly evolving and is guided by the most widely known data present within the culture.
4. Those within, outside or above the culture who have the ability to disseminate information en masse have a major influence in determining the current mythos. Therefore, those with the ability to disseminate information en masse can determine what individuals within the culture consider to be normal by regulating which bits of information make their way into our perception. In this way the subjective reality of large groups of people, (culture or mythos), can be manipulated quite easily given modern technology's amazing capacity for reaching billions of people, and given the fact that a large percentage of the tools for disseminating information en masse are in the hands of a rather small group of people. The Department of Defense and many public relations firms call this technique perception management.
5. We’ve all been given this common subjective reality (if you are reading this you are most likely a member of the same culture as the author) by our culture and by those who can influence culture. We share a common set of ideas, concepts, language, etc., that allows our society to function. This we generally accept as objective reality. But if ones sources of information are strictly authorized outlets, i.e. those capable of disseminating information en masse, then one can be led to believe that their subjective reality is indeed objective reality. Especially if one does not understand this concept. In fact, in that case the thought may never even occur and most within the culture might believe that it is objective reality, simply because most people agree that it is.
