Amen. “Truth felt mainly like freedom. Like breaking out of the intensely uncomfortable and restrictive shell of untruth.” As you read in my memoir, the unraveling of family secrets not only set the truth free, but also freed my own life story and identity from an undifferentiated shroud into a much more grounded sense of self and purpose.
Thank you for this confirmation, Kimberly! Yes, I can imagine how disturbing, confusing and restrictive it is not to know your true story (although at some level you always carry that knowledge in every cell of your being)
'Freeing your identity from an undifferentiated shroud' ~ what a great image. I believe everyone has such experiences in some ways, along the journey of discovering who we are. Your journey has been particularly complex and unsettling, with unexpected twists and turns. I believe many of your readers are deeply grateful to you for sharing it.
Great post, born of current experience. The biggest lies are closest to the truth. They can sound so convincing. And perhaps when uncovered they offer an opportunity to comprehend the truth at a much deeper level. Intuition and Instinct tell a more truthful story than the culturally-driven expectation of giving people the benefit of the doubt.
The quote by Rachel Cusk “... the problem with being honest, he said, is that you're slow to realize that other people can lie” is well noted. Biblical advice and analysis that we track through the world 'as sheep among wolves' seems a bit condescending to sheep, and judgemental about wolves but the point is taken. Perhaps 'being wise as serpents and gentle as doves' is more helpful. 'Trust God and tether your camel" is also apt. But at some point one has to let go and watch 'the right thing do itself'. I'm intrigued as to what will be the final climax, and resulting dénouement.
so am I... with the story still in process, I was wondering whether it is too early to post this. But the right thing is doing itself. The shell of untruth is cracking, revealing the truth, as the plot thickens...
Yes! Initially there is a brilliant sense of freedom when untruth is realized! (Then the anger & betrayal to integrate.) Perhaps the “truer” gospel would be: knowing the untruth sets you free.
Great point, Jess! Yes, "knowing the untruth sets you free."
Even during the early stages ~ while still in doubt about your own truth-instinct, or while experiencing gas-lighting from the deceiver, insisting on their own untruth ~ that deeper knowing of untruth is ultimately freeing.
Iain McGlichrist presses on with his haul of evidence ... I am reminded of Iain because he also refers to the Max Planck story of physics and immaterial relationship ... So the odyssey continues... and then we came to paradox... I grew up when the song was young: "Life's illusions I recall ... "
I commend your Resolution and can with Aquinas stll believe in the view that love and friendship are truly prior to the legal order.
PS And I am indebted (sic) to Graeber for his discussion of contemplation and knowledge, Reason, the symbolon and the antiquity of mysteries.😊
"Life's illusions I recall..." Joni Mitchell, right? I used to sing those songs as a teenager in a little folk band with friends. It sounds like we have covered some similar ground on our journeys.
I am not very familiar with McGilchrist's work, but I'm glad he's picked up on this story too. Isn't it stunning and bizarre? The great Max Planck 'didn't want to discover anything new...'?
I'm not at all familiar with Graeber, but your mention makes me curious...
Right! Me somewhat earlier but more sing-along than singer.
McGilchrist's major work is a mountain I have yet to climb though I have listened and read what he has to say in a number of Q&A sessions and other intros. He comes from clinical psychology and neuro science, tending he says to be 'a believer among sceptics and a sceptic when it comes to belief'. He thinks consciousness is primary, and that 19thC materialist physics was overturned definitively 100 years ago. Biological science hasn't caught on yet.
Yes, thanks for the flag, lovely story re 19thC physics. Guess young Max P had an orderly & obedient but acute mathematical mind. Am curious how logic proceeds in or from the unknown (it does apparently), but I am no scholar of science history.
Graeber: anthropologist academic and activist took a notion to write "a big sprawling scholarly book of the kind nobody writes anymore": Debt, The First 5000 Years'). His chapter 10 has a big discussion about symbols, ancient Greek 'symbolon', and Mediaeval Christian thought (in 'the Far West') connected to antique 'Mystery Religions' and their use of 'cryptic tokens' to approach the unknown. The theologists were reading apparently the earlier Christian'Pseudo-Dionysius the Araepagite'.
I have had the book some time but it is mostly for reference! 😊
"He thinks consciousness is primary, and that 19thC materialist physics was overturned definitively 100 years ago. Biological science hasn't caught on yet." Thank you for this synopsis. I fully agree with McGilchrist on all points. Anyone who scratches the surface of the official narrative (on consciousness and science) with an open mind must come to these conclusions.
Graeber sounds like a fascinating scholar and author. I wonder why I haven't come across his work before... He sounds like one of these unique people, brilliant mind, free spirit, unafraid to upset the apple cart, gone too soon.
McG is also keen on singing and the ground of human arts, perceptions etc. He has also an interesting brother, art historian who has reached back to Pythagoras and the 'Greek mind'.
Yes, we need Graeber alive these latter days. The values of a 'moral economy' seem far off. The scene has got very dark. I had brief conversation last week with 'Uncivil Savant' Caroline Ross on the agonising present, and what has been set loose in the world. She had been hit hard by some congruent 'news'. (She is one of McGilchrist's friends it happens.)
Thanks for sharing! Sounds like quite the ordeal. Bless you both. Let the right thing do itself. Thank you for unveiling the “truth”. I love your deeper dive on the words and the journey their meanings have travelled. Your posts are wonderful. I love the way you write. Bless you Veronika. 🙏❤️
Ordeal not over yet, in the meantime we're honing our skills in letting the right thing do itself. 😂 We can only laugh or cry about these things... sometimes both at the same time.
I love Rachel Cusk's work and Anais Nin, both perfect here. More key though: All you say about truth and its key to freedom, particularly now in the world we face and the potential for autocracy. We need freedom, and truth gives us guardrails against lies and the loss of that freedom. Well-done.
Thank you Mary! Yes, I can't get my head around people lying to us, while believing, not only that's ok, but they're 'offering a good customer service'. What parallel universe are they living in?
I agree. I trust my instincts on what is true or not. These are instincts based on living a life of honesty and avoiding deception as much as is possible today. Your story of the agents trying to deceive is all too common. But you and Josh, despite the imbroglio, stuck to the truth. Bravo.
I find it interesting that non-human animals have excellent evolved instincts in whom to trust. I often look at how Arya the Cockatiel responds to people. He does not trust everyone who visits us; he also picks up energy vibrations and hears and sees things beyond my range.
Thank you also for the lesson on word origins. I also find these interesting, remembering how I used to read dictionaries when I was bored as a youngster.
Thank you Perry! I think every human has this 'truth-instinct', just like your winged companion Arya. The problem is that we have been taught not to trust our instincts. To give other people 'the benefit of the doubt'.
As we get older we learn to trust ourselves more. We are still generous with giving 'benefits of doubt' but when this gift is abused we can respond more efficiently and take it less personally.
Thank you for your continued companionship on my writing journey 💕🙏 🪶
Veronika- There's so much beauty in this piece. But my favorite part is perhaps the honesty and lies bit. So very accurate. Thanks for sharing. Hope you're well this week? Cheers, -Thalia
What a lovely comment! Thank you so much, Thalia, also for your good wishes!
We've just survived a couple of days of wildfires in Central Portugal... Tonight the rains have set in and we're safe again. It's been intense, but yes, I'm very well. All best wishes to you too.
Thank you very much for your perspective, Yuri. I don't speak Russian, so this is fascinating to me. I truly appreciate the gift of offering a glimpse through your language-lens.
> West Saxon treowð, which carried a wide range of meanings
Well, treowð sounds like Russian for truth -- pravda (правда). And that Russian word has the same root as pravo, which means right. So "true" means "right" -- surprise!
It IS fascinating! Of course the reason for the similarities is that all these are Indo-European languages, descendants from a common pre-historic ancestor.
My favorite chain is lego (to gather, to assemble), logos, Tocharian lak (gather with your eyes), English look, Russian slozhny (for complicated). They are all about an ancient and a long lost art of understanding through imagination. Well, mostly lost.
"Even though the Logos always holds true, men fail to comprehend it." (Heraclitus, 500 BC)
"In [the Logos] was life and the life was the light of men. And the light in the darkness shined; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:4)
I love the idea or image of lies being the shell or husk and the truth, the seed. There's something powerful in that, something to meditate on. That being said, I'm sorry you had to go through months of anguish. These days there is so much we can't ever know as true. And I definitely feel like we have to accept this as a new truth.
Let's say, fake news, gaslighting and such offer ample opportunities for discernment. In the particular situation I described, we found out the factual truth, and it confirmed exactly what we felt to be true all along. The experience confirmed what I already knew to be true (but perhaps needed confirmation?). One thing I now know to be true for sure: »listen attentively to our inner voice and trust our own truth, no matter what others say.«
Thank you so much for this amazing post, Veronika!
I like how you included Anaïs Nin and all the quotes throughout the post, great pace and timing.
Your exploration into the meanings of words like "truth" and "lie" is inspiring; it's been a part of my childhood to wonder about what is real (truth) and what is not. Playing with different elements and attempting to understand their physics, chemistry, and beauty all at once was a way of making sense of my world and others. But it's not just science that is getting us closer to universal truth; there is also intuition, creativity, and art, all of which are important if we can see though our own bs.
They push us beyond our egos and help us discover truths in their own unique way. Thank you for sharing!
Alfred Adler said “A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.”
you are making many great points here, Katerina. Indeed, intuition, creativity, art... many insights come to me while writing.
And thank you for the quote by A.A. He's absolutely right. We've been spontaneously asking ourselves, for example, why our agents feel a need to lie to us. What are they scared of?
Nobody in their right mind would lie to their (paying!) customers in a situation where it is very likely that they'll be found out sooner or later.
Amen. “Truth felt mainly like freedom. Like breaking out of the intensely uncomfortable and restrictive shell of untruth.” As you read in my memoir, the unraveling of family secrets not only set the truth free, but also freed my own life story and identity from an undifferentiated shroud into a much more grounded sense of self and purpose.
Thank you for this confirmation, Kimberly! Yes, I can imagine how disturbing, confusing and restrictive it is not to know your true story (although at some level you always carry that knowledge in every cell of your being)
'Freeing your identity from an undifferentiated shroud' ~ what a great image. I believe everyone has such experiences in some ways, along the journey of discovering who we are. Your journey has been particularly complex and unsettling, with unexpected twists and turns. I believe many of your readers are deeply grateful to you for sharing it.
Awww thank you Veronika. So many thought parallels in our journeys of discovery. It’s been so enlightening to share space with you here.
Great post, born of current experience. The biggest lies are closest to the truth. They can sound so convincing. And perhaps when uncovered they offer an opportunity to comprehend the truth at a much deeper level. Intuition and Instinct tell a more truthful story than the culturally-driven expectation of giving people the benefit of the doubt.
The quote by Rachel Cusk “... the problem with being honest, he said, is that you're slow to realize that other people can lie” is well noted. Biblical advice and analysis that we track through the world 'as sheep among wolves' seems a bit condescending to sheep, and judgemental about wolves but the point is taken. Perhaps 'being wise as serpents and gentle as doves' is more helpful. 'Trust God and tether your camel" is also apt. But at some point one has to let go and watch 'the right thing do itself'. I'm intrigued as to what will be the final climax, and resulting dénouement.
so am I... with the story still in process, I was wondering whether it is too early to post this. But the right thing is doing itself. The shell of untruth is cracking, revealing the truth, as the plot thickens...
Yes! Initially there is a brilliant sense of freedom when untruth is realized! (Then the anger & betrayal to integrate.) Perhaps the “truer” gospel would be: knowing the untruth sets you free.
Great point, Jess! Yes, "knowing the untruth sets you free."
Even during the early stages ~ while still in doubt about your own truth-instinct, or while experiencing gas-lighting from the deceiver, insisting on their own untruth ~ that deeper knowing of untruth is ultimately freeing.
Thank you so much for popping in 💙🙏
What worlds we uncover!
Great post!
Iain McGlichrist presses on with his haul of evidence ... I am reminded of Iain because he also refers to the Max Planck story of physics and immaterial relationship ... So the odyssey continues... and then we came to paradox... I grew up when the song was young: "Life's illusions I recall ... "
I commend your Resolution and can with Aquinas stll believe in the view that love and friendship are truly prior to the legal order.
PS And I am indebted (sic) to Graeber for his discussion of contemplation and knowledge, Reason, the symbolon and the antiquity of mysteries.😊
Thank you Philip for a great comment!
"Life's illusions I recall..." Joni Mitchell, right? I used to sing those songs as a teenager in a little folk band with friends. It sounds like we have covered some similar ground on our journeys.
I am not very familiar with McGilchrist's work, but I'm glad he's picked up on this story too. Isn't it stunning and bizarre? The great Max Planck 'didn't want to discover anything new...'?
I'm not at all familiar with Graeber, but your mention makes me curious...
Right! Me somewhat earlier but more sing-along than singer.
McGilchrist's major work is a mountain I have yet to climb though I have listened and read what he has to say in a number of Q&A sessions and other intros. He comes from clinical psychology and neuro science, tending he says to be 'a believer among sceptics and a sceptic when it comes to belief'. He thinks consciousness is primary, and that 19thC materialist physics was overturned definitively 100 years ago. Biological science hasn't caught on yet.
Yes, thanks for the flag, lovely story re 19thC physics. Guess young Max P had an orderly & obedient but acute mathematical mind. Am curious how logic proceeds in or from the unknown (it does apparently), but I am no scholar of science history.
Graeber: anthropologist academic and activist took a notion to write "a big sprawling scholarly book of the kind nobody writes anymore": Debt, The First 5000 Years'). His chapter 10 has a big discussion about symbols, ancient Greek 'symbolon', and Mediaeval Christian thought (in 'the Far West') connected to antique 'Mystery Religions' and their use of 'cryptic tokens' to approach the unknown. The theologists were reading apparently the earlier Christian'Pseudo-Dionysius the Araepagite'.
I have had the book some time but it is mostly for reference! 😊
"He thinks consciousness is primary, and that 19thC materialist physics was overturned definitively 100 years ago. Biological science hasn't caught on yet." Thank you for this synopsis. I fully agree with McGilchrist on all points. Anyone who scratches the surface of the official narrative (on consciousness and science) with an open mind must come to these conclusions.
Graeber sounds like a fascinating scholar and author. I wonder why I haven't come across his work before... He sounds like one of these unique people, brilliant mind, free spirit, unafraid to upset the apple cart, gone too soon.
Thank you for pointing me towards this track.
Thank you.
McG is also keen on singing and the ground of human arts, perceptions etc. He has also an interesting brother, art historian who has reached back to Pythagoras and the 'Greek mind'.
Yes, we need Graeber alive these latter days. The values of a 'moral economy' seem far off. The scene has got very dark. I had brief conversation last week with 'Uncivil Savant' Caroline Ross on the agonising present, and what has been set loose in the world. She had been hit hard by some congruent 'news'. (She is one of McGilchrist's friends it happens.)
Very interesting indeed, thank you! I just checked out Nigel McG's website.
I see Caroline Ross has a substack too...
Thanks for sharing! Sounds like quite the ordeal. Bless you both. Let the right thing do itself. Thank you for unveiling the “truth”. I love your deeper dive on the words and the journey their meanings have travelled. Your posts are wonderful. I love the way you write. Bless you Veronika. 🙏❤️
Thank you so much, Jamie, 💗🙏
Ordeal not over yet, in the meantime we're honing our skills in letting the right thing do itself. 😂 We can only laugh or cry about these things... sometimes both at the same time.
I love Rachel Cusk's work and Anais Nin, both perfect here. More key though: All you say about truth and its key to freedom, particularly now in the world we face and the potential for autocracy. We need freedom, and truth gives us guardrails against lies and the loss of that freedom. Well-done.
Thank you Mary! Yes, I can't get my head around people lying to us, while believing, not only that's ok, but they're 'offering a good customer service'. What parallel universe are they living in?
I agree. I trust my instincts on what is true or not. These are instincts based on living a life of honesty and avoiding deception as much as is possible today. Your story of the agents trying to deceive is all too common. But you and Josh, despite the imbroglio, stuck to the truth. Bravo.
I find it interesting that non-human animals have excellent evolved instincts in whom to trust. I often look at how Arya the Cockatiel responds to people. He does not trust everyone who visits us; he also picks up energy vibrations and hears and sees things beyond my range.
Thank you also for the lesson on word origins. I also find these interesting, remembering how I used to read dictionaries when I was bored as a youngster.
Thank you Perry! I think every human has this 'truth-instinct', just like your winged companion Arya. The problem is that we have been taught not to trust our instincts. To give other people 'the benefit of the doubt'.
As we get older we learn to trust ourselves more. We are still generous with giving 'benefits of doubt' but when this gift is abused we can respond more efficiently and take it less personally.
Thank you for your continued companionship on my writing journey 💕🙏 🪶
Veronika- There's so much beauty in this piece. But my favorite part is perhaps the honesty and lies bit. So very accurate. Thanks for sharing. Hope you're well this week? Cheers, -Thalia
What a lovely comment! Thank you so much, Thalia, also for your good wishes!
We've just survived a couple of days of wildfires in Central Portugal... Tonight the rains have set in and we're safe again. It's been intense, but yes, I'm very well. All best wishes to you too.
It looks like freedom but it feels like death... it's something in between I guess.
That's what they say in Russia -- who knows too much gets old too soon.
Thank you very much for your perspective, Yuri. I don't speak Russian, so this is fascinating to me. I truly appreciate the gift of offering a glimpse through your language-lens.
You are very welcome, Veronika.
> West Saxon treowð, which carried a wide range of meanings
Well, treowð sounds like Russian for truth -- pravda (правда). And that Russian word has the same root as pravo, which means right. So "true" means "right" -- surprise!
Fascinating, isn't it, how the meanings of different words overlap?
And how very similar overlaps can be found in very different languages...
It IS fascinating! Of course the reason for the similarities is that all these are Indo-European languages, descendants from a common pre-historic ancestor.
My favorite chain is lego (to gather, to assemble), logos, Tocharian lak (gather with your eyes), English look, Russian slozhny (for complicated). They are all about an ancient and a long lost art of understanding through imagination. Well, mostly lost.
"Even though the Logos always holds true, men fail to comprehend it." (Heraclitus, 500 BC)
"In [the Logos] was life and the life was the light of men. And the light in the darkness shined; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:4)
Obviously, we are still working on it :)
I love the idea or image of lies being the shell or husk and the truth, the seed. There's something powerful in that, something to meditate on. That being said, I'm sorry you had to go through months of anguish. These days there is so much we can't ever know as true. And I definitely feel like we have to accept this as a new truth.
Thank you for your kind words, Lani! 💗🙏
Let's say, fake news, gaslighting and such offer ample opportunities for discernment. In the particular situation I described, we found out the factual truth, and it confirmed exactly what we felt to be true all along. The experience confirmed what I already knew to be true (but perhaps needed confirmation?). One thing I now know to be true for sure: »listen attentively to our inner voice and trust our own truth, no matter what others say.«
Thank you so much for this amazing post, Veronika!
I like how you included Anaïs Nin and all the quotes throughout the post, great pace and timing.
Your exploration into the meanings of words like "truth" and "lie" is inspiring; it's been a part of my childhood to wonder about what is real (truth) and what is not. Playing with different elements and attempting to understand their physics, chemistry, and beauty all at once was a way of making sense of my world and others. But it's not just science that is getting us closer to universal truth; there is also intuition, creativity, and art, all of which are important if we can see though our own bs.
They push us beyond our egos and help us discover truths in their own unique way. Thank you for sharing!
Alfred Adler said “A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.”
you are making many great points here, Katerina. Indeed, intuition, creativity, art... many insights come to me while writing.
And thank you for the quote by A.A. He's absolutely right. We've been spontaneously asking ourselves, for example, why our agents feel a need to lie to us. What are they scared of?
Nobody in their right mind would lie to their (paying!) customers in a situation where it is very likely that they'll be found out sooner or later.
Patience, groundedness, gratitude and team work, bravo!
Best wishes, Josh and Veronica, Geraldine Hughes
Thank you, dear Geraldine. We gratefully accept your good wishes and do our best to make them come true 🤭