PERSONAL VALIDITY Home Page

walk with dignity, that is bravery.... many must have it - Hemingway

[See explanatory note 1 at bottom of page]

An Exploration Into The Limits of Human

Knowledge and Potential

[ Inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's : Profiles of the Future - An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible]

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going

beyond them into the impossible.........Arthur C. Clarke

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far

one can go..... T S Eliot

Some kind of dialog is now going on between individual human beings
and the sum total of human knowledge and...nothing can stop it.
............Terence McKenna

I have found this concept useful as a valuable tool for the self-examination
of what is and what is not personally valid for individual human beings, and
I believe this concept can be useful for others also who tread the difficult
but highly rewarding path of self-exploration, and may even also be of use
to those who have no desire to self-examine, or have reached a state of
sufficient self development .

This concept may also be useful for those for whom the exercise of self-
exploration is not personally valid (for example religious persons).

This web site is thus focused on epistemology, philosophy, metaphysics, religion
and belief systems, social and cultural paradigms, a study and analysis of real and
fake knowledge, real and mechanical choices, right and wrong courses of action,
the two fundamental and primordial forces of Will and Spirit (and the resultant of
the two: Intent), knowing through the Heart and Mind, reason and intuition, the
Self as an autonomous unique being whose existence in space and time has a
self-sought and self-defined meaning and purpose to be discovered and developed
by means and methods to be devised and improvised by one's own Self, and one
such initiative is presented here which is a language and intellect based set of
tools in which the key concept is Personal Validity.

In Part 1, this concept has been introduced, along with the overview and
the focus or purpose of this work. Part 1 ends with the crucial counter-
concept of Personal Validity, that is - General Validity, and the important
distinctions between the two domains of operation.

Part 2 is the ontology behind this work in which I have attempted to expand
the context in which I have used certain words or concepts. Concepts mean
different things to different people, so the concepts used in this work, the
assumptions or axioms are clarified, expanded or defined. This has been
considered essential to impart clarity to the use of terms, so that the use
of terminology does not obscure the meaning that is being expressed. The
ontology of this work has been defined to whatever extent possible, the
terms used have been extensively defined along with their relationships,
and the basic assumptions behind this work.

Part 3 deals exclusively with the central concept and its supporting ideas
that attempt to probe deep into the functioning of the human mind, heart,
psyche, moral choices, meaning, purpose and relevance of existence.

Part 4 is about metaphysics, about the nature of reality. The emphasis is
upon the reality of our world, about our time, rather than chasing an abstract
"ultimate reality".
Social, Religious and Cultural Paradigms are analyzed to probe into their
foundations in order to connect the present with the past and then to
project the potential future.

PLUS : SUPPORTING ARTICLES AND WILD EXCURSIONS

Sometime in the last ten years, the best brains of the Occident
discovered to their amazement that we live in an Environment.
This discovery has been forced on us by the realization that we
are approaching the limits of something.....Gary Snyder

"There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom

traveled, which leads to an unknown, secret place."

........Chief Luther Standing Bear

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again

.......Joseph Campbell

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.

......William Blake

Copyright Notice & WARNING! :

No portion of the material presented here in any of the pages is copyrighted.
Any person can copy anything from this website, and even claim to be the author
of any portion or even the whole of this work, but will have to take full and total
responsibility of all and every consequence and eventuality arising out of any act as
a result of reading this work, copying it, distributing it, making changes, additions,
alterations to any portions, and putting their own name as the original author.
And if someone distorts the contents and uses the contents in a manner not
befitting the intent of this work, he does so on his own risk.....

Reach into the depths of your abilities, bring out your essence,
Gather your resources, fuse them together into excellence.

Explore but don't exploit, experiment, but not at others cost.
Experience everything in order to create, not to get lost.

Reach for the moon, reach for the stars, but not after ruining this Earth.
Learn from others, but also make your own mark, your own worth.

Knowledge is Power only if it helps others find their own way.
Power becomes Knowledge that corrects but not to stay.

You are totally responsible for whatever happens to you.
Believe this, in all conditions, whether you are high or feeling blue.

Fear not to undertake anything, then the world's in your pocket.
The Sky is the limit, but not in a rocket.......

We shall never cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
.......T S Eliot

QUOTES, REFERENCES & CREDITS :
[ see explanatory note 2 below ]
The author of this work acknowledges with the deepest thanks and gratitude for using
quotes and materials to the authors/sources of these quotes and materials.

CAUTION ! It is being clarified here that in all the quotes/ reference
materials, the specific quote should be taken as complimentary to the main
text and context of this author, not as an agreement with the overall views,
attitudes, personality and philosophy of the quoted authors.

NOTE 1: Why this nihilism?

This work is the result of an early personal experience which for the lack of a better word
I have to put under the category of nihilism. This experience, as I interpret, is the experience
of the paradoxical relation between time and 'timelessness' or eternity, the paradoxical relation
between the finite and the infinite. A consequence of this experience is a lasting sense of
wonder and puzzlement, and when this becomes combined with the empirical experience
of the foolish and meaningless acts required for a mere mundane existence, this logically
leads one to confront the ultimate question: why do we exist at all? And until one can find,
discover, forge or create an answer or solution to this existential question and which no one
else can provide, must necessarily come from within, all answers provided by family, society,
culture and religion must necessarily be thrown into the (RECYCLABLE) dustbin.
The resulting nihilism must be confronted head-on as a mandatory challenge, as a necessary
stage, until this nihilism devours itself and a path, a goal or a challenge opens up that
provides a worthwhile purpose which brings meaning to one's life, and the paradox is resolved.
Until then, this passage from Shakespeare's play Macbeth (I call it the 'Macbeth experience',
or more appropriately 'MacDeath experience) should serve as inspiration as it did for me
personally, so much so that I type this from memory:

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps up in this petty pace, from day to day
Until the last syllable of 'recorded time'
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
Their way to dusty death.
Out! Out! brief candle.
Life is but a shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard of no more.
It is a tale told by an idiot,
Full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

NOTE 2: Why so many quotes?

This work of Personal Validity was constructed initially with only three or four quotes on the
index page, and almost no quotes in the articles. But I realized that since this work was a
consolidation and integration of human knowledge and potential, it must have a relationship
and reference to other people who have in the past attempted something similar or at least
taken to the path of an intense study of human nature in all its diverse aspects reflected in
diverse, even divergent people and cultures. So instead of providing a bibliographical list at
the end of each article, I found it more effective to insert the appropriate quote along
with the name of the author.
I consider a person's literary work reflected in a condensed form of a set of quotes by that
person that convey powerful ideas that are valid not only through time but also easily render
able or translatable into most languages, particularly the English language because of its huge
vocabulary and also the fact that world literature and concepts have consolidated in this
language, thus becoming the natural and logical language of consolidation of ideas and
concepts, and thus the necessary or logical connection or inter-relation between them.
That means that a particular sentence must use simple words that have a conceptual relationship
and integrity that conveys ideas that can be grasped across time and cultures. They must have
the inherent quality of universal applicability and validity. And in all the pieces that have been
quoted here, this criterion is easily met by the likes of Buddha, Native Americans, Kierkegaard,
Jung in particular and many others also that are too numerous to name here.
Of all the writers, almost every known quote of Kierkegaard and Buddha, I found had an
appropriate place in this work, and supportive of the ideas presented here. Jung's quotes are
more elaborate, and reflect the breadth of ideas developed by him in his various works.
Then there are certain works that have a completeness of ideas expressed in such a manner
that only in its whole rendition does it make sense, and that too for few people that become
involved as well as committed to its comprehension. Such is the work of Carlos Castaneda.
This is the kind of work that is impossible to classify. The concepts in it are alien both to the
West as well as the East, and furthermore not all that familiar even to the native American
or Mesoamerican cultures, although one of the main concept : that of the warrior, is familiar
to the American Indian culture, but different to the concept of the warrior of East and West.
Thus it has not been considered appropriate to include many quotes from Castaneda's work
in the main articles of Personal Validity. Incorporating any of the concepts and ideas in
Castaneda's work was so difficult that it made little sense to include quotes from his mammoth
work and so has become a separate work altogether, and to integrate the work or to relate it to
any other work is a colossal, if not impossible task. This has led to a separate section
altogether: The Last of The Shamans.
In the main body of the work of Personal Validity, these quotes have grown considerably,
simply because whenever I came across a particular piece that conveyed a profound truth
about human nature and purpose, I felt I had to include it, and so I did. And to my pleasant
surprise, I found that I could almost always find a place for it to fit into and which seemed
to beautifully compliment and integrate what I wanted to express.
2013 update
Also to my surprise I found many lectures from certain professors who have expressed
original, even radical ideas, even while in the academia. Some of them who were
excellent in their presentation are: Rick Roderick, Michael Sugrue, Robert Solomon,
Francis J Ambrosio, David Roochnik (all of these are by TTC) and Peter Kreeft (by TMS)
TTC WEBSITE http://www.thegreatcourses.com/

on Last of the Shamans :
Any mention of Castaneda evokes a sharp response from academia and so called pundits -
the pseudo intellectuals of the mass culture. This is part of an interaction on the web:
It has to be understood that the entire work of Castaneda is outside the domain
and context of science and religion.
[Web Int: 2013: The very first book is not the best, although prerequisite to the others, even the title
is meaningfully misleading ( the 'way of knowledge' in the case of Don Juan was the accumulated
knowledge of a secret lineage that did not belong to any specific nation, tribe or culture, but can
be loosely called as originating from a fusion of the of the knowledge of ancient seers from the
destroyed civilization of the Toltects and the way of the warriors of the Meshicas presumed to
originate from Ixtlan or Aztlan ).
The interesting parallel that can be drawn is : just as the Western civilization became the consolidating
focus of the knowledge of the physical realm, the lineage (or similar lineages that did not surface) of
Don Juan became the consolidating focus of the non-physical realms.
So that he and his lineage does not become objectified, Don Juan carefully and elaborately obliterated
all tangible traces of his existence in this world, and so even if he may have been born a Yaqui, the
title of the first book is actually and deliberately misleading.
This itself can be called 'the trickery of the Spirit' at its best, and a joke that I never cease to enjoy.
In reading the works of Castaneda you need a human quality that is the counterpart of intelligence
- as a matter of fact this is true for all works of art - and Castaneda's work is art firstly and intellect is
secondary, but nothing at all to do with science, and since anthropologists are grounded and limited by
the scientific methodology, from that point of view these works are sheer nonsense, not even fiction,
and is so for even the most intelligent person with only intelligence and scientific education.
The key arts are: Art of Stalking, Art of Dreaming and Mastery of Intent
You see, all the works of art are not meant for everybody, but has a specific target audience or
subject and if you are not that target or subject, that art will bypass you totally.

�It was (blind) intelligence and nothing else that had to be opposed.�.... Kierkegaard

A culture that is incapable of examining its assumptions, is incapable of understanding (let alone insight)
other cultures with different assumptions, and is only capable of destroying other cultures, and so this kind of
culture is no culture at all, it is a machine that can and will only destroy - for that is the burden upon it's fate.
And it has in its aid mountains of scientific data and evidence to do just that. Only those who challenge it can
save themselves from being crushed in it's vice - and that is a poet or artist. Poets like Eliot and Blake who
tell us in clear terms where we are heading "Art is the tree of life, and science is the tree of death".

So you ask yourself the question: Are you The Hunter or The Prey?
http://www.sfbardo.com/castaneda.htm
This is someone who wrote a beautiful obituary to Castaneda :
http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-13-98/austin_cols_ventura.htm

"A book that furnishes no quotations is, me-judice, no book
-- it is a plaything."...T.L. Peacock

epistemology,philosophy,metaphysics,religion,belief,system,social,cultural,paradigm,knowledge,
ontology,power,moral,fundamental,force,Will,Spirit,Intent,knowing,Heart,Mind,reason,intuition,
autonomous,unique,being,existence,space,time,meaning,purpose

An Exploration Into The Limits of Human

Knowledge and Potential

This concept may also be useful for those for whom the exercise of self- exploration is not personally valid (for example religious persons).

In Part 1, this concept has been introduced, along with the overview and the focus or purpose of this work. Part 1 ends with the crucial counter- concept of Personal Validity, that is - General Validity, and the important distinctions between the two domains of operation.

Part 3 deals exclusively with the central concept and its supporting ideas that attempt to probe deep into the functioning of the human mind, heart, psyche, moral choices, meaning, purpose and relevance of existence.

PLUS : SUPPORTING ARTICLES AND WILD EXCURSIONS

MISCELLANEOUS SECTIONS

This concept may also be useful for those for whom the exercise of self-
exploration is not personally valid (for example religious persons).

In Part 1, this concept has been introduced, along with the overview and
the focus or purpose of this work. Part 1 ends with the crucial counter-
concept of Personal Validity, that is - General Validity, and the important
distinctions between the two domains of operation.

Part 3 deals exclusively with the central concept and its supporting ideas
that attempt to probe deep into the functioning of the human mind, heart,
psyche, moral choices, meaning, purpose and relevance of existence.