Loopholes

This week I went on a bit of a philosophical tear concerning what is the truth

What am I doing? Not in the practical, I’m mowing the lawn way. Nor in the existential, what is the purpose of existence way. Rather I am asking what am I doing in a way that bridges those two polarities. In a way that captures the practical but also assigns meaning to it.

On a practical level, I do massage. I do my best to help people out using varies tactile modalities. This can range from trying to simply alleviates some post-acute pain to trying to assist someone to incorporate new movement patterns within their body. Now, what does that mean? What am I really (big picture) doing? When I look past any cultural guises, what is the essence of my work? What am I expressing through my work that would remain unchanged regardless of any external circumstances? If I was chopping wood, programming a computer, or doing any other task what would I be really doing?

My answer to this question is trying to find loopholes. While finding loopholes may seem a bit undignified, or even sketchy I believe there is nobility in such endeavors. There is value in spotting the weak links in any system of logic. It’s not that I don’t see value in rules, or that I want to necessarily exploit any rules. Rather I believe just taking the effort to learn where ruled can be worked around makes us free. Just the act of seeing the finite nature of any structure of belief in an infinite world makes all rules, whether they are just or unjust, seem less scary. Cultivating our consciousness in this way provides us with at least a sense of consent, which should always be a part of the equation.

So back to massage. On a practical level massage is a medical art, which I take seriously. People trust me with their bodies, which is a responsibility I wish to honor. A rigorous level of honesty must be adhered to. Whatever I say whether it in my L.M.T. role or just as a fellow human walking the earth, must be said with good intent. In essence, this is all being a professional is. Someone who can profess, or speak, some truth.

Now massage juggles epistemologies. There are many ways in which we calculate the truth. Some knowledge comes from peer-review science, while others come from one’s direct experience. I do not necessarily put more value to one than the other. Both means of extracting knowledge from the world has its strengths and weaknesses, but I think we should acknowledge the differences between these methods. We should properly label any information we pass along under the correct file. It's not up to me to decide what your truth should be, but I do wish to be as transparent with how I arrived at that truth as possible.

Since massage has many ways to glean truth we are a bit freer to pick and choose what truths we put our belief in. Now as I mentioned earlier I there is an idiot standard of honesty that must be adhered to. So how do I square the circle of maintaining strict standards of truth with a more cultural relativist would view where we can know things in different ways.

Well for starters I can’t just make anything up. Any information I pass along has to be grounded in some reality. Furthermore, I have to incorporate the epistemology that produced any information into the structure of that knowledge. If I think something is true because I heard an anecdotal experience I need to mention that it's anecdotal. I think it's culturally arrogant to completely dismiss antidotal data points. Many times they are useful, but I don’t think they should be conflated with knowledge derived from empirical, quantifiable, and falsifiable methods.

So returning to the concept of loopholes. There are an infinite amount of data points in the world. How do we distinguish signal from static? For me, it comes down to whether a piece of information is useful or not. Placebo effects are well documented. Just the belief that something can help often is helpful in itself. Contrariwise there are nocebos or the belief that something is harmful, that causes real harm. Either way, it means our beliefs, our subjected understanding of reality has tangible effects on our lives. I see the wisdom in putting the most positive version of any phenomenon, that does not obfuscate the necessary shadows, into someone's consciousness. What is the best way I can frame a situation while not compromising the truth.

Reality ultimately has hard edges. It's finite. As sci-fi mystic Philip K dick famously said.”reality is that in which we stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”. But there are loopholes in reality. Due to the extreme complexity of our biology, there are plenty of places where we simply do not know the exact truth. In these spaces, we often have to compete for belief systems offering us different stories. It is in these spaces that healing happens.

Anthony Bruni