(0:00 ) Intro

Hello, welcome to a Grand Reflection. A podcast where we attempt to dive deep into new ideas in order to understand more about the world and more about ourselves. Today’s episode in on truth. I know, this is such a huge topic to go over, and I doubt we'll reach the end of it in just one episode. But I do hope that this will at least create a starting point that we can go off of later. That being said, It's still going to be a lot to go over, so I've created timestamps in the notes that you can click on to jump to different parts of the podcast if you need to. As well as that, at the bottom of the show notes I'll add any outside sources that I've mentioned, as well as some additional resources you can explore if you'd like to.

(1:34 ) Finding Truth, and Not Still Not Finding It

So, let's get started.

Ok. Truth.

What is truth and how do we find it? Well, we start by suggesting an answer to a question, or by making a statement that we think is correct. Then we continue on by gathering information and taking a look at the data. And finally, we try to be as objective as possible, and use reason in order to come to a conclusion about that data. And, maybe if we're being super diligent about it, we might even get some peer review to confirm our findings. This is the core of the scientific method. Hypothesis, Data collection, Conclusion. Very cut and dry. And, it's not just limited to science. We use this for philosophy too. Form a hypothesis, test it with reason, and form a conclusion, and then you have a new theory. But it even applies to religion. Form a theological question, search the sacred text (or commentary of other scholars), and then form a theological conclusion based on reason.

So it seems that no matter what realm we're seeking truth in, we go through the same process. And it's a pretty cut and dry process, that looks to be extremely straightforward. So then, why is truth so hard to find? Why won't people seem to want to listen to reason? And why, in an age of readily available information do we have a harder time than ever discovering the truth? We obviously need a new way forward. And if this method alone was enough, then I don't think we'd still be arguing so much about everything after all this time. But how can we do it differently? What other way is there?

(4:15 ) Some Quick Learning About Learning

That’s a hard question to answer, but I think I've discovered some really interesting things that might help us understand it all a little bit better. Now, there's going to be a lot here to wrap our heads around, and I totally get that this might start to feel like a firehose. So, before we get started, let's look quickly at some key concepts from a book about learning. I hope that it'll ease the burden a bit by giving us a little bit different of a way of gaining knowledge that we can work off of.

The book is called Make It Stick by Peter C. Brown. In the book, he talks about how the human brain actually has a very low capacity for memorization. That we can get things to stay in the brain for a short while, such as long enough to take a test, but that "cramming" method of study that we're used to doesn't actually show great long term results. This is why even though we studied super hard to remember all those dates and names in history class, all but a select few of them are completely lost to us now that we're out of school.

Brown argues instead that practice should be spaced out, interleaved with other learning, and varied in order to produce better mastery, longer retention, and more versatility. People who learn to extract the key ideas from new material and organize them into a mental model and connect that model to prior knowledge show an advantage in learning complex mastery. So, in light of that, I'm going to start us out by introducing some concepts and models first, and then after that we can circle back and reintroduce them together and connect them to each other, and hopefully, through it all get a bigger picture regarding the nature of truth. During this process, you might see some connections between the concepts right away. And that's good. In fact, I urge you to guess as we go along how I'm going to connect them all at the end of it. Because another part of Brown's theory of learning is that it's helpful to guess answers. Brown says that "Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt."

So, with that in mind, let's get started.

Concepts overview

Here's a quick look that the concepts want to go over. And, again, I'll have them tagged in the notes so that you can jump to whichever one you like whenever you like.

Okay, so, here they are:

We're going to go over The Case Against Reality - Where things aren't as concrete as they seem.

Then there's The Default Mode Network and the task-positive network - Where survival and creativity get at odds with each other.

After that is The Left Brain vs The Right Brain - Where we see that it's a little more nuanced than we were were taught growing up, but that there are differences.

And then we'll go to Integral Theory - Where we see how individual and societal consciousness progresses through time

And after that, we're going to take a look at The Secular World vs The Enchanted World - Where we see how we lost a sense of wonder out of a need to feel safe

And then finally, we're going to talk briefly about The Wisdom Ladder - Where we see how wisdom is gained, and what steps are needed.

(7:33 ) The Case Against Reality

The Case Against Reality is a book by Donald Hoffman where he puts forth the Interface Theory of perception. He argues that our senses don't actually give us an accurate view of reality, but that they instead work like an advanced computer interface that gives us useful information. And just like if your computer started showing a ton of zeros and ones on the screen you'd be overwhelmed and unable to make sense of the data, he argues that we would have the same problem if we had an unfiltered view of reality. That our senses are more like icons on a desktop than they are pictures of a microchip. and he goes into great detail with this talking about how our senses deceive us, and how even our sense of time or sense of cause and effect are mere icons rather than aspects of reality. He says that it's quicker to click on a shortcut than it is to manually build a program every time you want one. And, speed is needed when it comes to survival. And we evolved to survive. And so, we evolved a fast, but inaccurate view of the world around us. Useful, but not based on truth. What this means is, all of our measurements and observations are a rough shorthand rather than accurate indicators of what's out there.

Okay, Shifting gears.

(10:34 ) The Default Mode Network vs The Flow State.

The Default Mode Networks is what your brain does when it's doing nothing. Because, as it turns out, your brain is never actually doing nothing. This is the network that's firing up when you're not in the present moment and just sort of mulling over things. As best as we can tell, this is also the activation pattern of the brain that gives us a sense of self. And it gives us a sense of self in two ways: The self in relation to others, and self in relation to time. And this is why when your mind is wandering that it's so easy to get stuck either in the past or future, or stuck on interactions with others. And it has a very specific reason for doing this. Our default is survival, and so our background processes are working to see if there's any threat around. And, it's good to have a strong sense of self in the process so that you have a good sense of what needs to be protected. This network is implicated in a variety of disorders including anxiety and depression. And it's shut down very clearly when we do something like meditate. Which is probably where that sense of peace and oneness comes from. We're shutting off the network of self-obsession and the network of overactive stress response. Conversely, it gets overstimulated when wheres excess of information but not a set goal or task. Such as watching TV or scrolling social media.

And there's something else that shows up exactly when the Default Mode Network isn't active. It's called the Task Positive Network. You might be more familiar with the more casual term for it, which is the "Flow" state. A flow state occurs when we have a task in front of us and are completely in the moment. It's what gets activated when we are totally focused and in the zone, and the sense of time and the sense of self fall away. In this state, creativity is maximized, and new solutions are found. It's not so interested in surviving, but more so in thriving. Creating an excess from a sense of safety and abundance. And it looks like these two networks are at odds with each other. When one increases the other always decreases. You're either in Default Mode, or Task Positive Mode.

(15:33 ) The Left Brain vs The Right Brain

Ok. Since we're on the topic of brains, I want to take a look at the difference between the left brain and the right brain. I'm sure you're familiar with the classic model of this. The left brain is logic and mathematics, and the right brain is creativity and imagination. This is a pretty well-worn theory, but it deserves a more nuanced update. In the book The Master and His Emissary, Iain McGhilcrist gi