The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. From it we have learned most of what we know. Recently, we have waded a little out to sea, enough to dampen our toes or, at most, wet our ankles.
– Carl Sagan in Cosmos
Since my teens, a central part of my experience is that we – I and all of humanity – are only scratching the surface.
What we (think we) know is a drop in the ocean. There is always infinitely further to go. There is more to learn and experience.
There are always other contexts and worldviews to understand something within that make as much or more sense than the ones we are familiar with, and that will turn our view on it upside down and inside out.
MY EXPERIENCE
Why is this so strong for me? I think it’s partly because I loved science from early in life, especially Cosmos by Carl Sagan, and he certainly made this clear. Later, when I was about fifteen, I got into Fritjof Capra, shifting worldviews, and the history and method of science, which also makes this very clear.
That’s likely why I have never thought that whatever noticing or insights I have, or tell myself I have, is even close to any full, final, or absolute truth, or that it’s anything else than scratching the surface.
No matter how much experience or insights I have about something, it’s a drop in the ocean of what’s there to experience, notice, and have insights about.
There is always further to go. It’s an ongoing process.
MENTAL MAPS AND FUTURE UNDERSTANDING
That’s also how it is with my mental maps and understanding. My thoughts are questions about the world. They have a limited and practical function only, which is to help me orient and navigate in the world. They cannot capture any full, final, or absolute truth. There is some validity in most if not all thoughts. (We just need to find what kind of validity.) Reality is always more than and different from our stories about it.
In the future, our current understanding – whether it’s in natural science, social science, psychology, or the science of awakening and healing – will be seen as old-fashioned and outdated. They will have a different understanding and new contexts and worldviews to understand it within.
I love that it very likely is like this. It allows for continued and unlimited exploration.
A PITFALL
To myself, it’s very clear that whatever experience, understanding, and insights I may have is nothing compared to what’s out there to explore. I am always a novice, a beginner. That’s fine. It’s accurate and it allows for receptivity, fascination, and curiosity.
There is something for me to be aware of here. I often present myself in the world in this way too, as a novice and beginner, since it matches my experience and how I see it. It’s accurate in the big-picture context that I use. It’s accurate on the scale of infinite exploration.
The problem is that others understand it in another context, in the everyday context of human life and the scale of what’s out there in society today. Here too, I am not too far on the expert side of the scale in anything, but I am also not a novice in many areas of life. I have explored certain areas of life and mind further than the average person.
This leads others to often dismiss what I have to say or contribute, at least those on the novice side of the scale. (If they have more experience, they tend to recognize it. The exception is if they are strongly tied to certain identities or assumptions.)
This fits into my trauma response of wanting to hide and be invisible. It feels safer for me to be invisible, to be seen as a novice and beginner even if it’s not accurate in a conventional sense. That’s likely why this is happening.
I already have a view of any amount of experience, noticing, and insights as close to nothing compared to what’s possible. That’s accurate enough. If parts of me were not caught up in this trauma response, I would keep that distinct from the conventional scales of experience that most people use in daily life.
Since parts of me are caught up in that trauma response, they use this accurate view and present it in the world, even if I know others are likely to misunderstand.
That’s satisfying to the parts of me that want to keep me safe by hiding, and it’s also frustrating to other parts of me that would like me to be normally visible, behave in a more healthy way, and make more use of my experience, insights, and skills.
A NOTE ON THE QUOTE
The quote I used above is about our understanding of the physical universe. We know very little about the universe beyond this beautiful and fragile planet.
I used it since it works well for any kind of exploration and understanding, including about anything that’s part of this planet, ourselves, and our nature.
We are still in the shallows.
In a sense, we always will be since no matter how much we learn and think we know, there is always an infinite amount more waiting for us to explore and get to know.