No scientist has ever dissected a human brain and found a single idea, never mind our being (as in “human being.”) A neuron is a neuron, not "love." So there is much that lies beyond the scope of the scientific method and what we call “the material world.” This raises the question: what is the material world, and the larger world in which it sits? We will address these questions in four brief steps:

STEP 1. The Framework of Reality

Consider a society composed of two people. There are two fundamentally different kinds of relationships in this society. First, there is the relationship between the two people. Second, there is the relationship each person has with society itself.

This simple example reveals the basic geometry of reality: it has two sides. The person-to-person relationship represents the external side of reality (because it is external to each person), while the person-to-society relationship represents the internal side (because it is contained within society). Reality itself is the union of these two sides, however you choose to describe them.

These ideas are not intellectual abstractions: they are very much influencing, even determining, the life you are living today, and which your kids will be living tomorrow. Our deepest problems begin with confusion over this vital dichotomy in reality, and what it means. Conversely, if you can understand it, and all that flows from it, you can better understand the world in which we live, what is wrong with it, and what needs to be done to fix it. You can arm yourself with the knowledge necessary to live in accordance with reality, a prerequisite for happiness.

Let us now go on to further describe the unique characteristics of each side of reality.

Next: External Reality