Steve Correa Blog

Truth vs Fraud – reflections by Steve Correa
The very notion that there is truth creates it anti-thesis that there must be untruths.
That there is truth and falsity. The presence of one invites the other and vice versa. It is like the two sides of a coin. You cannot have one. As humans,especially from birth till seven years, we acquire such ambivalences: trust,mistrust; love, hate, these emotions are held simultaneously and create perennial conflict in us. The object of our love is also the source of our hate: the mother. How does one reconcile these? Much is said about the middle path – the balance. Staying in the middle does not create the balance. Of being aware that the both emotions exist and lie
in the continuum. Having the awareness that the two are extreme counterpoints. Knowing
that the protagonist and antagonist are but one. That good and evil are both from the same universe. Knowing that when we create one, we create the other. That running from one is running to the other. That running from capitalism we embrace communism, running from anti-men, we create women lib, running from violence we create anti-violence marches. From gluttony to starvation and sacrifice. From hedonistic living to ascetic living. All these are counterpoints. All this is escapism. And while one exist, the other will always be present. Being aware, frees one from being caught in the inevitable vicissitude of swing from one end to the other. There is no freedom on the line – freedom comes only when you transcend. What is truth? I like to
talk about a movie by Akira Kurosawa – Rashomon. One event: a murder. And 4 versions. Which one is the truth? The reality is we all see things differently – of even the same event, eg: a road accident. In other words, we ‘select’, what we see, and ‘filter out’ what we do not wish to see. Truth is the stimuli, but dependant on cognitive interpretation, and biased by past experiences and beliefs, both conscious and unconscious.We see truth, as a function and relation to ourselves. When we priortise, we prioritise just our order of ourselves. Truth is ‘organised data to ourselves’.
Science answers only to the questions it is asked – it does not answer to truth. Even the very law of physics, we hold so sacrosanct, may be a cosmic accident, applicable for a few universes, but not for all. (Multiverse universe theories). One by one, scientific logic has - from Einstein's realization that measurements of space and time were not absolute but observer-dependent, to quantum mechanics, which not only put fundamental limits on what we can empirically know but also demonstrated that elementary particles and the atoms they form are doing a
million seemingly impossible things at once. In Hinduism, there is a notion of ‘almost true’ ;
it is like truth, but not truth. Let me explain: a rope, assumed to be a snake in the dark – is such an example. The freedom is to become aware of the phenomena. Many of us are aware and preach one thing and do another: this is hypocrisy. Then there is the other: who are naïve and
innocent - the gullible. Our society is in the hands of the hypocrites shepherding the gullible. Total awareness of what is happening takes place when one is fully conscious and in the present. Through practice of meditation – tapping the alpha state one gains access to intuition – the seventh sense!
Everyone has his own truth and we must respect it. Carl Jung, once was examining a
patient, who saw a chariot horse ride across the moon. He worked with her, as it was ‘her truth’. Respecting the ‘truth’ as held by the client is important – no matter how much it clashes with
our own notion of the truth. Truth is, it needs no proof. It exist for the person. We know we exist, we breathe, we love, we have emotions: we know! Truth needs no proofs. There is no need.
Falsity needs to be nurtured. A lie has to be created, fostered, stroked and looked
after. It has to be remembered. It has to be proved time and time. Hence we are
forever defending our lies. Hitler said, a lie repeated and repeated becomes the truth. He should know J . All our beliefs have to be defended regularly – they have been passed down. Hence the creationist theory clashed with science – The church’s truth was in variance with the truth of science. The sun no longer going around the earth! We no longer came from Adam and Eve. It is better we live with the reality that life has no meaning, than a meaning created that does not hold up – soon a fairy tale! Truth is not palatable – he who brings it is unpopular. Hence we go on substituting our lives, with small lies to keep away the truth, and the lies build up. Dealing in lies is one of the best businesses invented by men in power.

The worst form of falsity is when we deceive ourselves. Take the case of Valmiki, a famous sage, who had convinced himself that robbing others was his truth and supported by others, ie: his family. This self-justification, self-rationalisation is the ultimate deception. Research now reveals, that we lie unconsciously and multiple times within an hour itself. It has become a
habit. True truth comes from self-realisation. All truth is to be self-acquired. Borrowed or here
say truth is a lie. For truth is a lived phenomenon, an experienced phenomena. Truth is subjective reality – it belongs to just one, just one! Do not ask, what is truth? Whose truth is it anyway?