Transforming Reality: Over and Under, In and Through

When I was much younger, sometimes I would love simply to lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling.

Strange? Perhaps.

But it challenged me to play with my perceptions.

What if the ceiling was in fact my floor, and my floor was in fact the ceiling? How would I navigate that reality?

I imagined I’d have to step over light fixtures and wear different kinds of shoes to guard against the stipple on my new floor.

And then, how would I sleep in my bed if my bed was all the way up there on my new ceiling? I’d have to find a way to settle into sleep on the surface on which I found myself.

Confusing? For sure! But it also taught me how limited my own perspectives were.

Just because I experienced my bed as a comfortable object resting on the floor that was also underneath my feet did not mean this was universally so. If I was a bat, I’d probably much prefer to have my feet high above me when I was needing a snooze.

My realities, as I discovered, were very much my human realities. If I were not a bipedal Homo sapien, it’s likely my understanding of reality would be much different.

If I were not a bipedal Homo sapien, it’s likely my understanding of reality would be much different.

Now, if carried to extremes this can be crazy making stuff. You undermine a person’s sense of reality enough, all sorts of negative consequences can be the result.

But, there is something of great importance here: you get too attached to the way you think things are, the more you narrow down the possibilities for what might be, not only now, but also into the future.

Does this mean we need to abandon all the things we think we know?

Absolutely not!

However, we might want to re-examine how we know some of these things.

Let me illustrate:

In my day job, I’m payed to research various topics. I’ve been in the research world for well over a decade now, so I think I know a few things.

However, this doesn’t mean I stop reading books and articles, or decide to give up my desires to write and speak in various places.

Why is this?

The answer is simple: the more I read and study, the more I am aware my understanding of any given topic can change in an instant.

In some ways, this is the thrill of research. Yes, knowing things is exciting; the building of concepts and finding the perfect way to express an idea are some of my greatest joys in my working life.

But, discovering a better understanding of something I’m looking into is also a great joy.

To know that I haven’t got all the answers is what keeps me going in my work. It’s what keeps me going in life.

To know that I haven’t got all the answers is what keeps me going in my work. It’s what keeps me going in life.

Psychologists have discovered what they call the Big Five traits of personality. Of these Big Five, openness to experience is one of them.

According to its description, a person who scores highly in this trait likes to experience new things often. It means they’re committed to not having life always be the same.

Instead, they seek after the new, the novel, and the interesting.

While this can cause problems, particularly if such a person gets bored easily, causing them to change jobs constantly, openness does prompt such people to continually expand their horizons.

Spiritually, this gives them greater flexibility and curiosity than those who are committed to maintaining their specific vision of reality at all costs.

The result is open people can imagine new possibilities. They can see beyond what is immediately in front of them to create a new and better world. They can transform reality because they are aware reality is malleable.

How do they know reality is malleable?

Open people know this because their own sense of reality is always being shaped and moulded by things not yet within their experience.

Open people can therefore change reality because their own sense of reality is constantly being changed.

Open people can change reality because their own sense of reality is constantly being changed.

But here’s the flip side: for a person’s changing realities to have lasting impact, they also have to be deeply rooted.

Somewhat ironically, it’s this deep sense of rootedness that allows a person’s openness to really influence others and bring new things into being.

Why is this?

If a person constantly shifts their sense of reality without working to understand newness within the bigger picture, then novelty becomes an end in itself.

This is not entirely a bad thing.

But, given a person’s spiritual health depends on their ability to integrate themself to the fullest extent possible, the pursuit of novelty solely for the pursuit of novelty could also be ruinous to a person’s selfhood and spirituality.

To counteract the “free-floating” tendencies in many spiritualities, then, it’s necessary to understand openness as multi-dimensional.

To counteract the “free-floating” tendencies in many spiritualities, then, it’s necessary to understand openness as multi-dimensional.

To expand outward, it’s also necessary to expand inward.

Why?

Because inward expansion is the foundation for whatever outward expansion we might experience.

As our lives get bigger, and our responsibilities more encompassing, a person needs maturity, insight, and wisdom to successfully navigate the increasing newness of all their life now holds.

In other words, to avoid getting lost in the newness of all that is, a person needs to be anchored in a sense of self that transcends the impulse to pursue novelty.

This deep, resonant, cosmic sense of self sees the new as . . . the new. But the new is not the eternal. Yet, new and novel manifestations of the eternal is the concern of true spirituality.

New and novel manifestations of the eternal is the concern of true spirituality.

So how does a person begin to change reality as we know it?

It starts by seeing the eternal in and through, over and under everything we encounter on a daily basis.

Then, we deepen our perception of the eternal by making space within us to experience it in and through, over and under us, to the very core of our being.

By growing in all dimensions, then, we grow our capacity to sense and embody the eternal in all circumstances.

In doing this, we also gain the capacity to call the eternal forth from all people and all beings.

So this is how reality can be transformed before our very eyes: by growing our ability to be a channel for the eternal, we also grow our ability to draw all beings we encounter into a similar ability.

This is not airy-fairy stuff.

Rather, it takes the hard, deliberate work of integration to get us moving toward this goal.

But what a goal!

When we experience the eternal in and through, over and under all that is, we participate in the very life of the universe.

Such participation is our birthright; it is our very reason for being.

So let’s aim toward that. Let’s let go of whatever limits such participation. Let’s open ourselves to all that is, over and under, in and through us–our world might change as a result!

Disclaimer: The advice and suggestions offered on this site are not substitutes for consultation with qualified mental or spiritual health professionals. The perspectives offered here are those of the author, not of those professionals with whom readers might have relationships as clients or patients. In crisis situations, readers are encouraged to contact these professionals for appropriate support and treatment if needed.