This was to be a continuation for the earlier post On Subjective Resonance & Artistic Isolation, but something else came to mind while rewatching John Vervaeke's Awakening from the Meaning Crisis -series. In the episode forty-eight he explores the infinitely "both receding and shining qualities of saliency landscape", which is a complex and lengthy topic to explain, but in short, he details the infinite nature of reality, where things are "inexhaustible" (versus something like a VR simulation, where, no matter how immersive, the 'unreal' nature of it becomes apparent when the player has exhausted all its features/possibilities). This, according to Vervaeke, is one of the hallmarks of "reality", or more precisely, one of the main qualities of what makes something "real" - our reality being of prime example.
In the same episode he also discusses how the imaginal acts as a mediator between the material world and the potential of aforementioned inexhaustability. Even if the potential of the real is infinite, only a set amount of things get actualized, and for our mortal, mundane world, only a finite amount of possibilities can ever get realized. Thus, it becomes of paramount importance to hone our relevance realization to perfection, such that we do not waste our time on trivialities, and that "truly relevant" things shine forth for us in our salience landscapes. All this is well and good, but certain things began vaguely harassing me as I was pondering on these concepts. First, the purpose (or intention, which I already touched on in "On Authenticity, I: The Intent"), for, as is apparent from Vervaeke's series' name of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis, his intention with this project is to explore the contemporary meaning crisis and potentials for its solution, approaching from the perspective of cognitive science. I cannot know from where he got his calling for this path, but I suppose it must've been a calling of some sorts, since great thinkers rarely end up as they are by "accident". Perhaps exploring the ultimate motivator behind the purpose, calling, or intention - whatever one wants to call it - was outside of his series' scope. Perhaps he expands on it in some other video, or perhaps I was just too unfocused and simple-minded to grasp it. Nevertheless, it is this hidden intent that operates the "shining forth" of concepts and ideas that was left vague for me (from the series). By now, it should be clear to everyone following this rambly blog that I've taken on calling this force Sophia, already years prior, for reasons I've explained plenty elsewhere. To me, it is no longer a question of finding the exact "reason" or explanation for why my particular salience landscape works as it does. It is the workings of Sophia, and I've learned to be content at that. Or have I? I cannot say for certain. The fact is, nevertheless, that these days it is rather the technical and metaphysical limitations of mediation (actualization of the imaginal) that are the main concern, and the ensuing frustration upon understanding that full potential of Sophia's guidance concerning my salience landscape may never be reached. The second concern I've had with the series is to do with the actual topic of this post - that of limitation within perspectival knowledge. Now, I only have my intuition guiding by stating this (although this intuition is steered by Sophia, as aforementioned, so I've learned to put a significant amount of trust on it), but I suspect that Vervaeke's "faith" on perspectival understanding of someone - or something's - point of view might be over-reaching. Sure, I have experienced deep insights and truly felt like "seeing the world Spinozistically" - as he puts it; just in my case, "Ligottianly", upon reading (and truly understanding [grasping in Vervaeke's terminology]) his stories and the nonfiction work The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Nevertheless of this deep perspectival understanding, I would argue I cannot ever truly "see" the world like Ligotti - only through Ligottian lenses. This is where I think I ultimately disagree with Vervaeke (though only slightly, since I agree on the general power of perspectival understanding). That much I already explained in the previous post. It becomes highly relevant though when combined with a later episode where he talks about this style of understanding concerning Heidegger and Corbin's theories. More precisely, if we apply this mechanism of being able to empathize with something (not just someone) well enough - in this case, Being itself (which could be seen as analoguous to the Self, or God) - we might reach such grand perspectival understanding with this Being/Self/God, that it might start an upward spiral into Agape - a union with God, as the religious types would say. The Perfect mode of existence, the ultimate mode of Being. This is exactly what some mystics claim to have achieved. But it is exactly what I intuit not being possible due to our mortal limitations. There can be no perfect understanding or union, since both our minds and our bodies are fallible. In the case of arts, the skill is always lacking, the technique always sub-par, and even if by some miracle these aspects were perfect, it would still fall on deaf ears. Perhaps purely within their minds some mystics truly have reached such states of perfection - but at the same time they necessarily cut connections with the mortal realm, since such experience can never be perspectivally understood by another person, even if mediated seemingly perfectly (by arts, writing, speech, etc), due to the aforementioned limitations, and because this experience is so completely unique to the individual. Thus, any attempt at doing so is ultimately a foolish one, and only deep isolation within one's "personal revelation" remains. I claim to be no such great mystic, but I've seen enough to understand the tradegy of being unable to mediate these things to any sufficient degree - and being blessed with just enough intelligence to understand the ultimate futility of it.
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