The Dual Nature of Truth – The Relative and the Absolute

Truth, like all ideas that prevail within the material realm, is dual in nature. The entire material realm is formed by a universal (common) and personal (individual) aspect that are complementary in nature. These complementary aspects are separated from each other by degrees that that form a scale as a range of possibilities between the two that ultimately connect them. Many people believe that truth, like reality, is always absolute and objective, meaning it’s the same for everyone, and that what we call truth in terms of what’s true for us, is also true for everyone else. Yet nothing could be further from the truth (pun intended). Just as we have both an objective and neutral (devoid of meaning) reality, and a subjective and relative one (based on meaning) formed as a personal version of reality, we also have what we can accurately call a universal and absolute truth, which is based on Laws and Principles that govern and operate to create the entire material world. Our personal truth is formed by how we perceive the world around us, which is what makes it true for us.

What’s true in the ordinary sense, is whatever we say is true and can prove or validate somehow using our mental model of the world, which is what forms our perception that we then call true. Truth exists on what we can think of as a progressive scale, formed as degrees of consciousness that serve to facilitate our evolutionary growth from childhood to maturity. This is easy to understand when we simply self-reflect and realize that what was true, and therefore real for us as at 16, may not have been true for us at all by the time we were 25. Though at 16, this truth came as a natural part of our growth and development, which was based on how we processed and interpreted information in the world around us by molding it into our existing mental model, forming a holistic idea, which ultimately shaped our perceptual lens. Our perception of the world is what forms our experiences, out of which we learn and grow ourselves by steadily integrating new forms of information acquired through various types of experiences. It’s like a feedback loop that’s self-perpetuating and continuous throughout our lifetime. Personal truth exists much like a belief in the sense that we structure our reality out of it (it forms our perceptual filtering system) and so it’s constantly being validated through our own perception. We usually fail to realize that we’re the one creating our experiences out of our beliefs and, as a result, consider our beliefs to be true and therefore real. It’s a paradox and oxymoron in the most basic sense.

Universal Law is what we actually call absolute truth, which means it’s neutral and non-personal in nature, and operates as natural laws equally for everyone and in every situation. Truth as Universal Laws, are the very foundation for all material creation and operations, and are the same creative laws that govern the mind, which has the ability to create unique versions of reality as a subjective experience, using those same laws. So the only actual truth in any situation is the recognition of the laws operating within it, which work equally for everyone, and are eternal and unchanging in nature. Our personal truth comes more as an evaluation of what we imagine to be facts based on the appearance and behavior of someone or something, that’s being interpreted by us through our mental paradigm which is what evaluates it according to perceived attributes, qualities, and characteristics that we also possess. We give everything the meaning it has by building it into a natural part of our ongoing story about things. We’re only capable of seeing and recognizing in others and everything around us what we are comprised of in terms of our character and moral constitution. As we perceive everything around us, we naturally reshape it to match our beliefs and thoughts about it. Anything that exists outside of our mental paradigm, we literally can’t see or comprehend, and is therefore not real or true for us.

Our mental paradigm, which consists primarily of beliefs, values, preferences, decisions, and memories, all compiled through how we’ve integrated our experiences up to this point, serves as a filtering system that forms our perceptual lens that we look through in order to perceive everything else. We only see what matches (is of the same nature) and can be explained, described,  understood in the practical sense, and validated as being true or real through our model, which is our criteria for judging and interpreting everything to give it meaning. We judge, evaluate, and interpret everything to be like us, to have the same qualities, characteristics, to play a part in the same dynamics, and be motivated by the same reasons, as the means for interpreting their behavior and actions in order understand and experience them in a way that makes sense to us. We’re always reforming everything else to be of the same nature as we are through our very perception of it. We’re only capable of seeing in other what exists first in us, because our mind is what’s doing the perceiving, and we’re literally creating through our perception.

To project or impose our truth onto someone else, claiming it to be the truth, and therefore an accurate observation and interpretation or opinion as also being their truth, is a blatant misunderstanding of the nature of their own mind. What is true for me that I readily use to guide my life and conduct, may not be true at all for someone else who has a whole different version that naturally arises and is fully supported by their paradigm as their way of looking at things. We are all the ones responsible for not only producing and formulating our own truths, but also for evolving those truths with the introduction of new information that grows and expands on them, transforming them to a higher level of understanding that’s at once a demonstration of our growth, while simultaneously facilitating it by opening our mind to be able to behold new ideas. Relative truths are more like conclusions we naturally formulate based on the information we currently have and are working with. These truths, much like scientific truth and life itself, are in a constant state of growth, expansion, and evolution based on the realization and integration of new information that upgrades our mental model.

The relative nature of truth as a personal interpretation of a perceived reality follows along the same lines as the truth behind the fact that all of what we call reality is actually subjective in nature. This is obvious through a basic understanding of the laws of physics as the relationship between the mind (consciousness) and matter, where the material reality is influenced by the consciousness observing and interacting with it, and changes how it shows up in terms of appearance and behavior to match the intention and expectation of the mind interacting with it. So every reality being perceived by the individual mind is unique to that individual as a personal creation. It’s using the same objective and non-personal reality as archetypal forms to reshape into a unique version of the same idea. Even if we were all quantum physicists observing what we believe to be the same reality or phenomena, the only way we would have of knowing whether or not it was real and therefore true, is if two or more people appear to be seeing the same thing. And even then, we can’t be 100% sure.

What we call the Universal mind or objective reality as the original creation that we’re all a part of, is archetypal in nature, which means it exists as a dynamic theme in a purely potential state that contains within it every possibility for creating a variation of that same theme. The basic act and art of creation that’s always going on, is that the individual mind exists within the universal mind, which being archetypal in nature is void of meaning, and resonates with certain aspects of that whole reality, which activates some aspects (the ones that are complementary) while deactivating other ones, abstracting partial information that matches its internal structure, and uses it to compose a whole reality based on partial information. Truth, like all things is based on perception which is formed out of everything we know up to this point, and is evolved to higher truths through the induction of new information that wasn’t previously recognizable. Once new information is obtained through our ability to perceive and conceive of it, we integrate it into our model, modifying and upgrading it to be able to perceive greater and greater forms of truth. So truth in this sense, is a living and dynamic entity. It’s not stagnate and dead.

The Universal and Absolute truth involved in this equation is based on the laws governing energy as both consciousness and matter, one of which is active and the other passive, and together they form an imagined reality that appears equivalently and simultaneously inwardly and outwardly. It’s based on vibration as a frequency or range of information that vibrates that same information in everything around it, activating and bringing it out (to the surface), while failing to stimulate other aspects which recede and aren’t a part of our awareness, that it then organizes into a new pattern or theme of the frequency as a specialized version of a universal idea. Through sympathetic resonance we’re only able to absorb, imagine, and comprehend what’s of the same nature as we are. Once we absorb certain aspects of a whole reality or informational field, we organize it into a pattern that makes sense to us, forming coherence as harmonious, and we see, experience, and interact with the reality of our own making, perceiving it outside of us and therefore making it real and true.

The Absolute Truth are the laws operating in the situation which have nothing to do with the outcome involved in terms of the material manifestation, but rather forms the creative process that produces the personal reality as a unique creation. These same laws of vibration as frequency that tunes us to certain aspects of a greater whole, that has a self-organizing mechanism inherent in it that forms elements into a thematic pattern of the frequency, reshaping it into a coherent and cohesive reality that matches and is the product of our own mind. These are the laws involved that are eternally true, because they’re the same for everyone, and are always operating in any situation as the fundamental creative capacity of the individual mind.

By understanding the ability and natural tendency of the individual to create its own truths, we will never impose our truths on them again, and instead we can come to realize the nature of their minds structure in terms of why and how something is true for them. We can gain insight into the beliefs and values and how they apply those to form their perception of right and wrong, good and bad, and truth and lies. We can come to realize what’s true for them and how they conduct themselves as a result. We can also self-reflect and gain new insight into our own professed truths and begin opening our mind around them, questioning their origin and validity and become more open to considering new forms of information that return us to a growth and evolutionary process of becoming more, rather than stagnating on a personal creation that we mistake for being true that limits us in some way, much like a belief does.

Whatever we proclaim to be true for us becomes a self-imposed limitation (necessary for creating it) that can often be an illusion that prevents us from seeing the very thing that reveals its illusive qualities. Whatever we say is true, outside of universal law, is really more of an assessment and conclusion that we’ve drawn based on what we know and how we’ve integrated information into our mental paradigm up to this point in time. Once we learn something new through the experience or realization of something that contradicts it, and thereby proves it to not be entirely accurate, we evolve our perception to incorporate the new information and evolve ourselves and the world around us at the same time. This is how we grow in awareness and in doing so, expand on what’s possible, and hold ourselves to greater and greater forms of truth as our souls evolution through time located within a body posed to a limited perspective within certain conditions and circumstances.

Dr. Linda Gadbois

Transpersonal Psychologist, Personal Transformation Coach, and Spiritual Teacher