Ultimate reality

The so called “Flammarion engraving” is a famous woodcut illustration that first appeared in Camille Flammarion’s book “L’atmosphère: météorologie populaire” (The Atmosphere: Popular Meteorology) in 1888. The illustration depicts a medieval scholar, often interpreted as Flammarion himself, reaching through the outermost celestial sphere to observe the mysteries beyond.

A naïve missionary of the Middle Ages even tells us that, in one of his voyages in search of the terrestrial paradise, he reached the horizon where the earth and the heavens met, and that he discovered a certain point where they were not joined together, and where, by stooping his shoulders, he passed under the roof of the heavens.

The engraving captures the urge to see what’s beyond the known world.

Before tearing the fabric of reality let’s see how much we know about it. Our main sensory organ — the brain — is not giving us a complete picture. We are always confined within our senses and understanding.

Our sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose, skin, and tongue) can only detect a certain range of stimuli. We see only a range of colors within the electromagnetic spectrum, hear a certain range of frequencies, and so on.

Our brains process sensory information and make assumptions based on prior experiences. This leads to misinterpretations and illusions. And we miss out on details of events happening outside our attention.

Reality is a constant flow. At the subatomic level, particles defy our usual understanding. Time dilation, quantum entanglement — they break common sense. We’re seeing only a fraction of what’s out there.

Our perception is a subjective, filtered version of reality. Useful for getting around, but not the full picture.

Everything we experience comes through three lenses:

• Sensory: This is our senses, shaping how we perceive the world around us.
• Socio-cultural: This lens is created from our environment. It is the cultural and historical context in which we live.
• Individual: This lens is unique to each person. It is their personal history, experiences, and perspective.

The ultimate reality is inconceivable. We are experiencing only a tiny sliver of it. And to pack what’s going in our heads, we are telling ourselves stories about who we are and what we do.