The quote from the paper Dr. Redick read at the end of class on Tuesday, September 11th - "there are many centers of the universe" sparked an idea in my head; the unvierse is different to every person, based on perception. So every person is in their own universe.
If perception is reality, then everyone lives in a seperate universide. What is perceived by one person, maybe, does not exist to another - or is perceived on completely different terms, correct? So if what you perceive is real, then that should mean that - since eveyone perceives the world differently - that everyone is the soul inhabitant of their own universe. A girl I used to date would, naturally, say "no, I see that object tree over there just the same as you." But how would she know what I am seeing - to the two of us, one color could be entirely different. And she would - in fact - have no way of knowing that, say, cinnamon smells different to me than to her. Take this for example; a color blind person does not see certain colors that I do - so in his or her world, that color simply doesn't exist! And, somehow, scientists know that dogs see the world in many more colors than we humans can PERCEIVE. But this is not just by species - you see, our universe - or our universes I should say - are not in fact limitless, but they are bound to what we can perceive. However, they are - always - expanding with what new things we see, learn, and come to understand, or perceive - always with an unrestrained power to grow - for there is no limit to the amount of space in the human mind. There is, of course, the noumenal - that which we can't perceive but is supposedly out there - but the noumenal is NOT part of one's universe - that is why it is the noumenal.
And if it is, in fact, true that every individual being inhabits their own universe, then why can we see each other? Perceive each other? It is simple - our universes overlap. Some more closely than others - surely my best friend, Frankie, who I did everything with, and shared many views with, would live in a universe that was very close to mine. Yet, now - sadly - he is living in California. And thus our worlds have grown apart. But a large part of our universes still overlap for having been so close, but now we are pushing out to new corners of our universe, and so our souls are further apart than they used to be; where the hearts of our universe flirted with each other, constantly feeding of each other and bumping into each other.
Our universes would be like a galaxy, with our mind at the center, and the nothingness that supposedly lies beyond the universe being the unknown that we have yet to discover - or maybe never encounter. Of course, there are many stars revolving around the center of a galaxy - these are all the things we have perceived and are in touch with. As we begin to gain a stronger perception of an object or part of the world, the star grows more massive, and draws material toward it, formind planets (conceptions in our mind relating to what we've learned.) But all galaxies revolve around the center of the universe, don't they? That is what we are told. We are also told that the Big Bang created the universe - it was the moment in time in which all the matter encompassed in the universe was so condensed in to one limitlessly small space that it exploded and the universe began to expand outward. But how exactly did all this matter exist, floating around in the noumenal; in nothingness? And what is at the center of the universe where every object finds its FOCUS? There is always this pull towards the center of the universe that keeps everything revolving; keeps everyone's universe in place? And if everything is being pulled toward the center, then why is the universe expanding outward? How is this possible? Is not God the Ultimate Perceiver? Does not everything lead to Him in the long run? And is it not by God's power that we humans received the power to create (expand our UNIVERSE?)
If God truly is the center of the universe, then surely the noumenal is His domain also. So wouldn't that mean that the noumenal isn't actually NOTHING, but simply that which no human has perceived yet? Or that which is too complex or Wholly Other for us to perceive in this life? And the reason why the universe is pushing outwards against the pull of the center of the universe, God, is that we humans are learning, causing the limits of what we can perceive to be stretched further and further?
Now, back to an earlier point, nobody can prove that every human perceives things the same, because, like death is symbol for something we cannot experience and tell about, one cannot experience another being's world. By that standard, no one being inhabits the exact same world.
Now, this may pass as blasphemous, but if everyone has slightly different perceptions of God, or the simply the spiritual, then is there really ONE God, and ONE heaven? It would be impossible because if without perception there is no reality, then to one who does to perceive there is a god somewhere beyond our world, then that person cannot possibly inhabit a spiritual domain, because in their universe, there is none. So every person's world could have its own center, its own Axis Mundi, right? But many people do believe in the exact same god or heaven - of course this is usually because their church has told them what to believe. So could not churches be universal Axes Mundis; focusing points to lead people on to the same afterlife; toward the same God?
Yet what about Buddhists, who believe in Nirvana? Nirvana is being connected with oneself and the universe. But if the universe IS God, then wouldn't that mean they are already connected with God? So an Axis Mundi is not then necessarily a specific onject, but more a PLACE inside a person themselves that they have to find. And perhaps there are objects that for some reason help us find this peace; state of mind; place in our own mind that help to bring us to God.
Yet, maybe God isn't the center of the universe, with we humans as galaxies. Perhaps my analogy was incorrect. Could WE be the centers of our own universe, with God simply being the noumenal; the unperceivable region beyond the universe? But death is encompassed in the noumenal too as are other things. But then couldn't God simply be another symbol we have created? A symbol for something we do not understand because we have no experience of what occurs after death? Could not God simply be a representation of everything we cannot perceive; the noumenal?
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Perhaps you could consider the nature of reality and perception as that of a dream. It is transient, always subject to change, and projects a personal universe which is unique to the individual. Perhaps upon passing through each fold of reality one is capable of entering a more or less personal universe. What if there is more to consciousness than a dichotomy of dreams vs. reality. What about hyperreality? Is an experience of God an experience of a hyperreality? A truth higher than dreams and higher than reality?(Will White)
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