The Map is not the Terriotry

by Gregory Allen Butler

The Map is not the Territory is a concept used in NLP, or neuro linguistic programming. NLP is a form of psychotherapy that was developed in the 1970s at the University of California Santa Cruz. I do not intend to explain in detail anything about NLP except that it based on a series of presuppositions, and that this presupposition, (the map is not the territory) is an important one. And basically, what it means is that things are not exactly as they seem.

This presupposition struck a chord in me. It’s a self-evident truth. Just look a holographic image. It’s nothing but an illusion. Eastern mysticism goes a lot further than that, stating that the whole world is an illusion. And my favorite quantum physicist, David Bohm, goes even further than that in his model of a holographic universe, or holomovement, suggesting that the universe is a seamless field of undivided flowing wholeness.

In Michael Talbot’s book, The Holographic Universe, which goes into great detail about Bohm’s view of the universe, states: “The holographic paradigm also has implications for so-called hard sciences like biology. Keith Floyd, a psychologist at Virginia Intermont College, has pointed out that if the concreteness of reality is but a holographic illusion, it would no longer be true to say the brain produces consciousness. Rather, it is consciousness that creates the appearance of the brain as well as the body and everything else around us we interpret as physical.”

That also explains why amputees still feel the amputated limb and why the placebo effect works.

If that is the case, it takes the question of “Who am I?” a bit further into “What am I?”

The presupposition “The Map is not the Territory” also applies to people. How can words ever describe a person. Even if I described myself to you to the very best of my ability, you still would not know me as I really am because I am still learning about myself everyday and changing everyday. And just because I don’t know something about myself does not mean that it isn’t true. I could give you my medical records, dental records, or even my astrology chart and my numerology chart, and you still wouldn’t know me. Even if you came into my house and noted the books I read and the music I listen to and see the foods I eat, you still wouldn’t have the complete picture.

What are my influences? Who and what do I love? What will I react strongly to? How to all of these factors combine to determine what I am capable of? Nobody knows, including me. Something could happen in my life tomorrow that inspires me to accomplish something that I haven’t even dreamed of. Or perhaps something tragic that renders me hopeless and helpless.

And then there are dreams as influences. I once had a dream, after two years in music school, that convinced me to become a writer. Before the dream, no one would have ever described me as a writer. Now it is all I do. The age old question, “Who am I?” is one that never seems to get answered completely. It’s an endless game.

The whole world interacts on everybody. So in a sense the whole world lives in me and in you. The map we draw of each other is barely touches the surface. It is what I would describe as a minimalist’s interpretation. So clearly, the map is not the territory.

If Keith Floyd is correct about consciousness creating the brain, then that turns Darwin’s theory of evolution to a new angle. It would make it an evolution of consciousness because consciousness precedes the form. That is exactly how Meher Baba explained consciousness and evolution in his book, God Speaks.

And he sums up a complex matter quite succinctly: “Truth cannot be known as truth unless ignorance is known and realized as being ignorance.” His use of truth and ignorance can be exchanged for reality and illusion.

That is the dilemma we face—knowing what is real and what is illusion. And that is the role of consciousness. And as our consciousness changes, so does our map.

How would you like it if you were taking a long trip in your car and every time you looked at the map, it had changed? That is the dilemma we face on our journey to know ourselves in our world. We keep changing and so does the world. We can’t use the map of last year. And what looked like a dead-end on last year’s map is now part of a vast highway system spanning an entire continent.

But even if a map can point the way to a destination, you don’t know anything about the destination until you get there. For instance, take New York City. There is no way to describe it in words. You have to experience it first hand. I could tell you about the buildings, the millions of people, the non-stop noise from traffic, the stores, the price of hotels, the restaurants, Central Park, and about all the taxis and buses. This is more information than the map depicts, but it isn’t the actual reality. The best you could do is make theoretical comparisons with cities that you do know.

So it is with consciousness. You could pick up the book, Handbook to Higher Consciousness, and get some idea about higher consciousness. But the book is only words, pointing the way.

We have two choices: learning from external sources or learning from actual experience. We have physical bodies for the purpose of learning. By inhabiting our bodies fully, we can get beyond the limitations of living in our mind, which as you can see, can never have the full picture. We need to experience something first hand to actually know it. It is in our bodies, with all of our senses, that we learn, that we feel, that we can enter into the present moment fully.

We need to learn internally, more so than externally. Books and maps are external sources of learning. It’s what we experience with our bodies, minds and hearts that comprise inner learning. Reading a book on love cannot give you the experience of what it means to love. Reading about a headache can never fully describe what a headache feels like if you have never had one.

This means we need a living body for growth and understanding. The map is a tool. It is not reality. We really need to learn from our first-hand inner and outer experience. If you don’t know something that you want to know, use the map to get there, but once you are there, a different type of knowledge and understanding happens.

I remember when I was 29-years-old. I had been wanting to go to India for over six years. I had read about it. But it seemed too far and too costly a trip for me to undertake. You could say my map made it impossible.

But then one day I got really excited and I made my plans. When I arrived, the experience was so overwhelming I just cried. It felt like I was home. All the maps in the world couldn’t have given me that experience.

Here are some external resources on this from a slightly different perspective:

The Map Is Not The Territory by Rex Steven Sikes
Rex Steven Sikes elegantly explains that no two people can have exactly the same map. While we all have similar neurological structure, it functions differently in all of us. This is the basis for our problems in communication when we try to impose our map upon another person. Learning to recognize the structure of another person's map allows us to "see the world though their eyes" and therefore understand and relate to others respectfully and accurately.

The Map is NOT the Territory by Vikiam Karve
Vikiam Karve states in this article that there are no such things like good luck and bad luck. What disturbs you are not events but your attitude towards them. You must learn to distinguish between facts and your attitude or judgment towards those facts.