This is http://www.essayz.com/a8809092.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %PERSONAL COMMUNICATION SIGNAL OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE 880909 Personal communications may pertain to objective or subjective realities. Objective realities reside outside individual persons and are perceived and the subject of communications between individual persons. Their being the subject of personal communications does not mean that they are subjective realities, even though they play a role in subjective consciousness. Through personal communications it can become clear to the participants in the communication that there is something real outside of them which they apprehend in very similar ways. They can agree on the nature and character of the reality which exists apart from their own existence. Personal communications may have to do with objective realities at the same time that they pertain to subjective realities. People can communicate regarding how they feel about objective realities, possibilities, anticipations, past events, etc. Objective realities may play roles in the drama of subjective lives and communications. People create generalizations regarding objective realities; i.e., the laws of physics which describe invariant characteristics of objective processes. Such generalizations can be communicated in ways which pertain more closely to objective realities than to subjective realities. Yet, people may respond to such generalizations and the attempts to communicate such generalizations---and the responses may be as subjectively personal as objectively oriented. Communications may pertain to the subjective responses more than to the objective aspects of the realities or to the generalizations pertaining to the objective realities. Not all people experience communications in exactly the same way. What to some people may be an objective communication about objective realities may to other people be overlaid with highly significant subjective aspects which are not perceived by those who are living exclusively in the objective domain. Such differences in modes of perception may lead some people to be unaware of what others regard as objective realities. Disagreements regarding objectivity may originate in differences in sensitivities to subjective communications. Some personal communications pertain to realities which are not objective. Some realities do not reside in the objective realm. Some realities reside purely in the subjective realm of personal experience. Knowledge of such realities depends completely upon revelations of the realities by the people in whom the realities are real. Such revelations may be clouded, partial, misleading, open, honest, complete, etc. The character of the revelations is not likely to be completely evident, but may be inferred in part by noting the presence or lack of integrity in the whole of the communications pertaining to the subjective realities. Communications regarding subjective realities may on the one hand appear to be about objective realities. Jack may say he sees a green apple, while Jill reports seeing a red apple. If Jack is red-green color blind and unaware of that fact, it is clear that Jack is reporting a subjective reality which he may regard as an objective reality. Mis-perceptions may be rooted in physiology as in this example. Mis-perceptions may also be rooted in belief systems which lead to the interpretation of physiological signals. A racially prejudiced person may report seeing a no-good person out in front of the house. They may regard the person in front of the house as objectively a no-good person. They may have seen a member of a race against which they have great prejudice. Perception can be dominated by beliefs and attitudes. Communications which are regarded as having to do with objective realities may reveal more about subjective realities than the communicators may know. The message which is sent is not necessarily the message which is received. All messages are interpreted in terms of attitudes and belief systems. Jill may send Jack a signal which indicates a receptivity to an increasing level of openness, honesty and intimacy. Such a signal is a bit of communication, a signal; but it is not about any objective reality. It might having nothing to do with realities external to Jill. In it Jill is not reporting her perception of an objective reality. Jill is not even reporting a pre- existing internal reality in the form of a feeling or emotion, even though feelings and emotions may be present. A signal of openness to greater intimacy is a signal which creates the reality which follows, as much as it reports on a pre-existing reality. Such invitations are not communications about objective realities, but initiatives which may create that which did not exist before. Such signals may be associated with feelings and emotions which can be reported, but they are not the same as the feelings and emotions which may be reported. Jack may respond to Jill's signal in many ways. He may ignore it, perhaps repress awareness that it was sent. He may be unconscious of it and respond to it in unconscious ways which dis-courage Jill so that Jill does not have the courage to send such signals to Jack in the future. Jack may be conscious of the signal and respond to it in a negative way, indicating offense that Jill would do such a thing as suggest intimacy which Jack can not contemplate with integrity. Jack's response to Jill's signal may be little more than a report of his emotional response to her signal; a communication concerning subjective realities realized by Jill's signal. Such communication is different in character and content from Jill's signal. Jack may respond to Jill's signal with his own signal of an openness to greater intimacy. With that signal Jack may also report on how he feels about Jill's signal; but such a report is not identical with any signal which Jack sends regarding his receptivity to greater intimacy. If Jack and Jill reciprocate receptivities to greater intimacy they may create a new reality which is subjective in large measure, but may also involve objective changes which may be observed by other persons who cannot know the details of the original signals and subjective realities. The difference between objective and subjective realities is not always a clear and distinct difference. There is a dynamic interplay between different kinds of realities, and between the various aspects of each kind of reality. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================