Steve Pavlina is a professional speaker and writer, and one of the inspirations for this blog. Much of his personal development advice is smart—by which I mean to say that I agree with it. His theories on the nature of reality, however, are inaccurate and misleading.
For centuries, dedicated martial artists have worked to shed the layers of egoistic and social insulation that prevent a direct experience of reality. Some have risked their lives in empirical testing, to verify and refine the martial path to enlightenment. What can the discipline of martial arts teach us about subjective reality?
Subjective Reality Theory
You can read the detailed theory on Steve Pavlina’s website, so I’ll just give a few brief quotations here:
Here’s the way I’m using this term: Subjective reality is an integrated belief system where consciousness and awareness are primary. They are the container in which everything else exists. And I do mean EVERYTHING.
In a truly subjective universe, there is nothing outside your own consciousness — no world, no bodies, no brain. Suppose I ask you the question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” With an objective belief structure, you might say yes, but you might also say no, depending on your views on quantum physics. However, if you believed in subjective reality, you have to reject the question entirely. You’d say that there’s no such thing as a tree outside your awareness. That tree doesn’t even exist. Nor does the forest for that matter. If you are not there to observe it, it doesn’t exist at all. Without consciousness there is no existence.
A secondary element is that within a subjective universe, thought is the primary creative element. All thoughts manifest in some form, whether conscious or unconscious. So the physical universe is like a giant computer, crunching your thoughts into reality. Thoughts are waves, and the physical universe is the summation of all those waves. Hence where there is no thought, there is no physical existence. If a thought does not exist, its physical manifestation does not exist either.
Source: Subjective Reality Q&A
The Martial Perspective
There is an objective reality. Anyone who has been shot, stabbed, or punched in the nose can attest to its existence. To quote the Persian philosopher Ibn Sina:
Anyone who denies [the existence of objective truth] should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned.
If you are reading this article, it is probably because you find the subjective reality concept appealing. It explains some unusual experiences that didn’t fit into your previous objective model. And since those experiences were unquestionably real, objectivity must be an illusion.
But there is a flaw in that line of reasoning. Perhaps your personal model of objectivity only needs a slight modification, in order to accord with these experiences? Let’s make a few adjustments…
Your ability to perceive objective reality is limited. As a human being of limited faculties, your attempts to identify the truth will be inaccurate and imprecise.
Some limitations are physical, based on your sense organs. For example, you probably cannot read this article from 10 yards away, because your eyesight is too poor. Even if you cannot see these words from a distance, they do remain on the page.
Other constraints are psychological. For example, addicts and other neurotics deny painful truths that, if accepted, would compel them to drop their compulsive habits. (It is no coincidence that many of these folks embrace a theory of subjective reality!)
Despite these human limitations, you need not feel depressed, because…
The accuracy of your perceptions can be improved, with time and effort. This observation inspired the so-called “internal” styles of martial arts, which use sensitivity and awareness to prevail over speed and strength.
The internal martial arts use a variety of solo and partner exercises to increase the precision and accuracy of perception. These exercises have undergone continuous testing and refinement for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
The subtle and profound skills of the greatest martial arts and qigong experts demonstrate that…
Willpower is an objective force. Its effects can be measured both inside and outside of the body. This primacy of will is explained by the Chinese adage yi yi ling qi (the mind can lead the qi).
Nevertheless, acknowledging the force of mind is not equivalent to endorsing subjective reality. Practically speaking, willpower is a limited power. It can bring about many things, but not everything. Furthermore…
You are not the only agent in this universe. You are a small, relatively insignificant player on a grand stage. Just as another person’s flesh and bones may oppose yours, their intentions may counter your own will.
You probably believe that the satisfaction of your personal desires would serve a higher purpose, a greater good! Well, so do George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, and everyone else on planet Earth. Welcome to the party.
Reality is Really Real
Subjective reality is a self-nullifying theory. If there is no truth or value anywhere, then there is obviously no truth or value to subjectivity. On the other hand, if complete subjectivity is real, it is objectively so. This theory isn’t even strong enough to defend itself; how can it support your personal development and growth?
But the greatest shortcoming of subjective reality theory is not its logical fallacy, or its inherent lack of falsifiability. The theory is dangerous because it is a cleverly concealed form of ego reinforcement. In a world where you control everything and everyone, there is no need for acceptance, and no path to ego transcendence.
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30 responses so far ↓
1 hiscity // Nov 11, 2006
Just cross connecting the discussion.
http://www.digg.com/programming/Transcending_Subjective_Reality#c3787395
2 RickMatz // Nov 11, 2006
I used to think about those types of questions, but they made my brain hurt. Then I began thinking about having a quiet mind. Now I don’t even do that anymore. Sometimes my mind is quiet, and sometimes it isn’t.
So I haven’t come up with many answers, but I’ve found that the questions just sort of fade away.
3 aaron // Dec 4, 2006
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
-Philip K. Dick
4 Watash // Feb 20, 2007
My reality is a combination of what I have been
taught to believe, what I see and feel. It changes according to the state of the gray matter between my ears. Is there any evidence that when one
delves into these spheres of thought/perception,
that one finds one’s singular theory and lives
happily ever after? One more question; does all
this ultimately fall into the realm of re-incarnation and past lives? Thats when I turn it off.
5 Christopher Staanas // Mar 27, 2007
Dude, this website does not deserve to even mention “steve Pavilna” or his work. infact, you should pay steve for letting you mention his name or his work.( you probally don’t know it, cause you are living in an objective world, but you probally just boosted steve’s traffic on his website!!!) Steve’s work is far more sufisticated from this website that is not even comparable. Thats like a pornsite posting an article about “why being a virgin is important” This website is about “martial art” fighting, violence, hurting each other ” Bob on Top 5 Reasons Why Pro MMA Fighters are Like Prostitutes
The Legend of Bagua ” have you ever read the contexts and subjects on Steve’s site? HIS STUFF is SO RELAVENT to EVERYTHING in the WORLD!!! Id like to see the “Traffic Comparision” between this website and Steve’s” id also like to see who’s making more dough. Im actually glad websites like this exsist cause it gives contrast between, a real well rounded website as oppose to a squared, unshape website. I’m not trying to make you feel bad, im just saying your article about subjective/objective reality had NO, let retype that, NO NO NO chance against steve’s work !!! honestly.. really..compare this website to STEVEPAVLINA.COM and tell me which is more appealing???? honestly, you can tell the difference. someone should do their homework !!! GOOD LUCK , and don’t get it wrong, i wish you well.
6 Chris // Mar 27, 2007
This website is about using martial arts to improve your quality of life. It is a work in progress, which probably explains the difficulties you have finding relevance.
Do you have anything to say about the subject of this article, besides the fact that it doesn’t appeal to you?
7 YoYo // Oct 25, 2007
Hey Chris!
I found your post to be quite interesting but I have a rebuttal. We must have differing understandings on the spirituality practicing Martial Arts is ’supposed’ to bring. Coming from a Northern Shaolin standpoint, I understood practicing Kung Fu as a way to reach Nirvana, enlightenment. Going along with this, as I read more articles on subjective reality, it seemed that enlightenment and subjective reality were one in the same.
Connecting the dots, to my understanding, one achieves enlightenment (subjective reality) through practicing the arts.
The physical reality of being a martial artist has to encompass objective reality for obvious reasons, but why can’t a martial artist adapt a subjective mindset in terms of his spiritual reality?
Anway, loved your post!
Keep in touch!
-YoYo
8 Lou Majors // Dec 14, 2007
Hi Guys!
I don’t think anyone is denying the reality of our nervous systems and pain and physical reality…we are just saying one is a subset of the other.
We all experience our objective realities but they are an reduction and subset of our collective self. We can expand beyond our human nervous systems to experience the whole as ourself.
9 Incorrect // Dec 23, 2007
Your making the common misconception that Subjective reality is centered around the ego, or the body-mind. Thats actually called Solipsism.
Subjective reality is the belief system that your true identity is conciousness, and that the real you is NOT your ego or body-mind, but everything that exists in your reality.
10 Chris // Dec 23, 2007
If reality is subjective, then how can I be incorrect? Seriously though…
Subjective Reality is a theory of Dualism. Like all such theories, it reduces to the assertion that something equals nothing, which is absurd.
Steve Pavlina wrote:
Solipsism = degenerate, partial lucidity
I will finish what he started:
Subjective Reality = degenerate, partial Advaita (non-duality)
11 Shaded light // Jan 9, 2008
Yes I believe what Lou Majors was saying is exactly right. Here is my standpoint. All possiblilities are possible. There is no absolute truth. The closest thing I have found to an absolute truth is that we are conciousness its self, or god…whatever you wanna call it, us. The main thing we’re seriously all missing is that everything is a paradox. Existance is a paradime. It really what ever we believe it is. If you believe that there is no subjective reality, then there is no subjective reality in your moment of existance. We are mearly just peices of “god.” We have a universal case of multiple personality disorder(best way I can discribe it) We are god, and we are mortal at the same time. Like Jesus’s trinity. You can find evidance in almost every religion through out the world. We are allowing eachother to exist at the same time within ourselves. The hard part is getting past the conditioning we have put ourselves through so that we would make ourselves experiance growth, because as a perfect being how do you expect to experiance growth?Grah I really could go on forever, but lets just leave it at there are infinit possibilites you just have to truely open yourself to them.
Thanx for your time, and I enjoyed the post.
P.S. your all correct :0
12 Brad Crowder // Jan 9, 2008
chris, i like your comment, “If reality is subjective, then how can I be incorrect? Seriously though…” this i think is the single best question against subjective reality. although i am fully aware this is a really bad analogy, lets just supposed subject reality and a dream were the same thing… everything your thinking/feeling is whats manifested, well i’ve had dreams with other people in it, as im sure everyone else has too, and can you ever picture yourself explaining to one of the characters in your dream that you are dreaming? even if you have control over your dream, this just doesnt even come up as a possibility, most people i mention this to never even gave it a bit of thought. But its the best argument… if subjective reality is true, why are all these different people talking about it? are we really all just one persons thoughts interacting with each other? and like you said chris, if subjective reality is indeed true, especially according to the way pavlin describes it, how the heck can anyone really be wrong about anything? especially something thats obviously more opinionated than factual.
13 Chris // Jan 9, 2008
YoYo,
As I said earlier, Truth and Subjective Reality are ontologically incompatible. Choose one.
As a martial artist, you realize that an unwelcome fist to the face constitutes effective proof of an objective physical reality. So why not embrace spiritual subjectivity at the same time? My answer, in short: it’s turtles all the way down; at no point do you become invincible (outside of delusional lucid dreams or fantasies).
Shaded light,
Have you tried Ibn Sina’s experiment above?
Brad,
Logically speaking, we could accept that “we all are one” on some level, at the same time we are rejecting universal subjectivity. In fact, this is precisely what many spiritual adepts have done.
14 Shaded light // Jan 10, 2008
The proof of objective reality is your belief of what reality is.
The point is, whatever you truely believe is YOUR reality. If you believe in an objective reality, then that is your reality. If you don’t truly believe in a subjective reality it can not be true. The trick is to truely believe somthing one hundred percent. We all know thats extreamly hard.
I know you can feel we’re all connected, but we convince ourselves that we are completely seperate entities because we do it to ourself, to test ourself and experiance growth. Growth is the objective because as a perfect being you can not experiance growth. You are all things at all times.
I couldn’t possibly tell you how its possible because i chose to be human, live in my moment, and simply be happy to have a chance to realize that I have a chance to live.
Thats the greatest thing I believe you could possibly come to terms with. I am happy to be alive, and be able to realize it.
Anyway, its fine I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, we all have our own paths being human. Just take a second a wake up. Just appreciate the chance to be alive. Stop and smell the roses kind of thing.
15 YoYo // Jan 11, 2008
I don’t think life is as black and white as truth or subjective reality. I haven’t completely formulated reasoning behind this so I’ll have to get back to you on why.
Shaded Light: Nice post. = )
16 Orange // Jan 11, 2008
You just proved that subjective reality is wrong given the assumption that objective reality is right. However, you have no basis for this assumption, because there is no way to falsify subjective reality from first principles. You only falsified subjective reality from within the viewpoint of objective reality. If you analyze objective reality from within the viewpoint of subjective reality, you will find that it is not false, it exists within the viewpoint of subjective reality. So objective reality is a special case of subjective reality.
To summarize: Ibn Sina may beat me and burn me in a way that I am not conscious of, that I will never be conscious of, all he wants, and I will admit to him that he is doing nothing.
17 Chris // Jan 12, 2008
I falsify subjective reality from first principles on a regular basis, as does everyone with the courage to step onto the mat or into the ring.
These spurious shows of open-mindedness remind me of the recent essay by B. R. Myers:
Thankfully, pugilism and postmodernism do not mix.
18 Shaded light // Jan 12, 2008
Thanx YoYo ^_^
Heh exactly. You believe what you want your reality to be. If you feel safe in an objective world that is your choice, and you will never except subjective reality, because of your belief system it is not a possibility.
Subjective reality is something that you can’t understand unless you’ve tasted the experiance for yourself.
I have a friend in the Air Force whom I thought would be someone who would be understanding to my beliefs. I thought to myself that it would be interesting if I could talk to him about what I felt about reality. About a week later he called me telling me he thought he had found god. I asked him, you mean in a Christian sence? He said not exacty, but I have this feeling like we’re all connected in some way, and the reality that we except as true isn’t exactly as it seems.
That was an awe inspiring feeling, because at the time I was starting to question myself on exactly what my beliefs were.
Heh even my grandmother is on board with similar beliefs, and the funniest part of it all was when these notions first came to me, I had no idea what subjective reality was.
Anway, like I said this experiance can truely only be understood or excepted if you experiance it yourself.
19 Sanjay // Mar 11, 2008
Steve’s subjective reality is a hodge-podge advaita. Advaita is also subjective reality, but by its own admission, it is other worldly and not for the householders. In fact many teachers of advaita insist on formal renunciation by the student before teaching anything. In contrast Steve’s subjective reality is advaita for money seekers. Let us see how it fails.
For the sake of discussion let us assume that subjective reality is true.
Now going back to Steve’s analogy of dream world, my ego is the dream character and the dreamer is the real I. How does it lead to intention-manifestation? Who is making intention here? Is it the dream character or the dreamer? If it is the dream character, then intention is futile. Dream character is bound by the rules of dream world and cannot make any changes in the dream by his own intention.
Now let us look at the dreamer. It is true that all dream is dreamer’s creation. However, does dreamer create that dream by his intention? Can you as a dreamer will what you want to dream today? And what motivation a dreamer can possibly have in willing his dream world to be any different than what it already is? Dreamer and dream are two different orders of reality and there is no evidence to suggest that they interact.
Thus even assuming subjective reality to be true, intention-manifestation does not follow from it. I’ll bet that half of Steve’s readers will quit his site if he told them that SR will not help them become a millionaire.
20 Lou Majors // Apr 12, 2008
Quote:
“If reality is subjective, then how can I be incorrect?
Reality is always a reflection of your subconscious whether you are asleep or awake.
If you have a belief that you are incorrect or ‘can be incorrect’…that will manifest.
It’s ALL you!
21 Lou Majors // Apr 12, 2008
Quote:
“How does it lead to intention-manifestation?”
The desire ‘to be active’ is eternal or ‘always present’…
the nature of our collective essence.
Our intentions as Homo Sapiens are merely the evolved, more complex developments of this primal impulse or desire.
In other words, even before we evolve intelligence and personalities there is an INTENTION or desire impulsing the unified field for patterns.
With us this ability has refined itself to evolve words and creating images in subtle energy fields we call the ‘mind’.
Quote:
“Is it the dream character or the dreamer?”
There’s no difference.
It’s all you.
22 Neo // Apr 14, 2008
It seems like someone has taken red pill and it was rancid.
I think that the person reading this is real (and has a soul) just like me reading other folks stuff are real (with a soul). The thought that I am talking to myself sounds rather - well - stupid.
23 Chris // Apr 14, 2008
That would be a cool band name: The Rancid Red Pill.
24 Sanjay // Apr 15, 2008
>>Quote:
“Is it the dream character or the dreamer?”
>There’s no difference.
It’s all you.
What about the argument that SR analogy fails from both stand points? In a dream, neither the dreamer nor the dream character has any ability to alter his dream.
25 confusedsoul // Jun 15, 2008
Ehh? Help me out on this one. Terribly new with all this, stumbled on this page while reading bout the Invisibles.
So subjective reality is everything that you can physically sense, not just what exists mentally for you… because what you physically sense eventually does turn mental? Like touching a book, means its really there? Whereas a tree falling in a place you dont know means it didnt make any sound cause it doesnt exist for you?
But then I should have a certain amount of objective thinking. For example if I know for a fact, a tree has fallen, I will also know that it has made a sound, irrespective of everything else.. but now since Im not aware of anything beyond this plane/universe, I know the rest of my thinking would be based on subjective reality.
But then again wouldnt subjective reality bring up the topic of parallel universes or am I just getting too confused?
Help! I need some one to explain!!
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