What Is Reality?

Last night I saw on television that there is yet another "reality" show making waves on some channels. The nature of such shows in the world of entertainment prompts me to ask, "What is reality?" Is staging potentially dangerous stunts and eating disgusting things reality? Is breaking the usual social order to swap spouses or have children chose mates for parents reality? As opposed to what? Our normal everyday lives? That implies that if we live something ordinary, it must not be reality.

We teach children that "real" things are things we can see, hear, touch and so forth. The things we experience through the five senses. That is useful in allaying their fears of the dark and such when they are young and have vivid imaginations. But at the same time, do we do a disservice to the young by focusing too much on the concrete. We would hope that as they grow older, they would be able to grasp that there are in the abstract world also many real things, such as love, beauty, and kindness, to mention a few.

But when we talk about reality, exactly what are we talking about? I would conjecture that we might have a difficult time coming to a consensus. The nature of reality is a philosophical question people have debated through time. Plato in his myth of the cave said what we think of as reality is but a shadow on the wall of the cave. The ancient Gnostics, and those who returned to their beliefs in the Middle Ages and beyond, held that the material world is not reality. To know reality one must look within. Some even went as far as to say that the material world is a product of our imaginations.

How does Jung fit into all of this? He, too, was most concerned with looking within to discover the workings of the psyche. Those who see reality only in the outer material world tend to dismiss him and sometimes would discredit or overlook his work and contributions. But many discover the outer material world to be an empty, meaningless shell without the balance of an inner life that has its own reality. Perhaps the realization is one that is not easily arrived at without time and experience. The young often are too busy challenging the world and saying, "Look at me; I am here," in the style of reality television shows, to think about some deeper level of reality. That view seems to hold that reality is only the excitement of the moment. Outer challenge and conquest. Coming to value the reality of an inner life often takes maturity, and that is why Jung thought midlife was so important a time in our psychological development.

Go To Page: 1 2