We are All Unique Observers

“It is the field in which each and every thing—as an absolute center, possessed of an absolutely unique individuality—becomes manifest as it is in itself.” — Nishanti

Each of us is a unique observer. This statement is true in many domains—relational physics (the question of consciousness), the biology of cognition (the question of reality), spirituality (the question of originality), and Gestalt psychology (the question of perception).

The Question of Consciousness

“A causal universe that is composed of a set of partial views of itself.” — Lee Smolin

From the standpoint of relational physics, views, or more specifically the differences between views, are a fundamental property of the universe. Some views are common with many near copies; not identical but similar. And some are unique or unprecedented, with no near copies. Some of these novel views experience conscious perceptions which involve “bundled grouping of qualia that define a momentary self.” (p.1)

So consciousness in some capacity is a characteristic of novel views of the universe in that consciousness requires novelty in order to be experienced.

On the place of qualia in a relational universe, Lee Smolin

The Question of Reality

“…the reality we live depends on the explanatory path we adopt, and that this in turn depends on the emotional domain in which we enter at the moment of explaining.” — Humberto R. Maturana

The biology of cognition gives us the idea of a living biological observer whose cognitive abilities are altered if its biology is altered. The malleable nature of biological perception leads us to the question of reality. How each observers views reality is a combination of our biology, emotions, and language. Given the infinite variations that can exist among observers, what constitutes reality is different for each observer! While there are things that we can agree upon exist “as facts”, most of what we take to be reality is generated, created, and maintained inside the observer. To have a meeting at 3pm in the afternoon in a room called “Banana” in a certain building in New York City points to these factual parts of reality. But most everything else that occurs in that meeting will happen in the internal worlds of each observer, who then take those happenings as fact. The meaning making and interpretation of what was said and done will be different for each observer according to whatever was happening somatically, emotionally, and linguistically at the time. In this way, each unique observer observes a unique reality.

Reality: The Search for Objectivity or the Quest for a Compelling Argument, Humberto R. Maturana

The Question of Originality

We are original by simply being ourselves, and our creativity tends to be naturally and spontaneously original, without us having to seek out originality. We are complete, and our expressions are true and authentic. — A.H. Almaas

From a spiritual standpoint we get the question of originality. Spiritual traditions point us to the ways we mistake ourselves for what we are not, often described as some combination of ego and essence. Ego being the schemas that we develop as we individuate and become a human in the world, and essence being the deeper nature of who we truly are. And when we begin to access this deeper nature, we make contact with our originality.

Keys to the Enneagram, A.H. Almaas

The Question of Perception

We organize the world within us and tend to synthesize experience in terms of wholes. When we manage to do this, we experience closure - satisfaction, completion, or insight. When an experience is difficult to organize and complete, we feel disease or discomfort.” — Joseph C. Zinker

As unique observers, how do we see? Gestalt points us to some ways to orient ourselves to this question. Taking from the work of systems and fields in the physical sciences, Gestalt extended the idea of ‘the field’ into the social sciences. In this way, objects are do not exist independently of the world around them, but are perceived according to the total configuration in which they are embedded. As Franz Zinker writes, “perception is not determined by fixed characteristics of individual components, but rather by the relationships among these components (p. 47).” Additionally, as pattern-making beings, humans attend to the world and perceive it through relational wholes. The ability to bring awareness to the flow of life, to what requires tending and completion, so that individuals and groups stay in contact with life’s unfolding. And each of us, as a unique perceiver, brings awareness to happens at different points in time, noticing different qualities, and moving into action that keeps us in our own integrity.

Combined with the question of consciousness, the question of perception reveals how each of us, as unique observers with different forms of perception, can begin to form a more coherent sense of what is emerging because each of us is both part of the system and sensing the system.

In Search of Good Form, Joseph C. Zinker