The idea that the knowledge of the world could be exhausted by the perceptions of the five senses known to us alone is not plausible on somewhat closer examination.
The image of a person who enters a house that is strange to him, stops in the hallway and now asserts the following (with full fervor and ready to defend this „fact“ with all the strength available to him and perhaps to bring other people to court or to prison or perhaps even to worse for it) suggests itself to me: „Since I entered this house through this door, there can be no other entrance or exit in this house. The process of entering and leaving this house is guaranteed by this door. Since this is so, it is the only entrance in the whole house.“ This sounds absurd. But this is exactly how man of the material knowledge society sees it. Since he knows only his five material senses, there are by definition also no further, by which impressions or recognitions can penetrate into him.
If the person from our house example then perhaps encounters mice in the hallway, or ants, or bats, he will say (with fervor stated above), „Since the door through which I entered here has a handle and a lock and a key, it is not possible that these beings (mice,…etc.) entered through this door. They could not have opened it.“ (He is undeniably right about that. But here it comes!) „But since there can be no other entrances and exits in this house (because I claim so), these animals are products of my very active imagination – perhaps triggered by a hormonal imbalance or inherited damage to my brain. I should see a doctor!“ Thus, man, who is entrenched in the material world, sees perceptions that he cannot assign to his five senses. They do not exist. And if, then only as a figment in the own imagination. Or they become directly a gorilla man: Although they stand before him breast-beating, they are simply deleted from the perception, because they do not seem to be compatible with the cognitions of the five material senses.
Even if this person in the hallway would be tempted to investigate the cause of these phenomena a little bit before his visit to the doctor: He was only looking for something that would correspond to his idea of a door. With handle and lock and key and hinges. A door that would be suitable for these creatures. Maybe he has a mini door in mind. With a little mini-handle and so on…. He doesn’t see the mouse hole. He doesn’t see the crack in the brickwork that the ants use. He doesn’t see the pores in the rock and plaster through which the microorganisms come in, which also – in an invisible way – affect him. He doesn’t even see the open window through which the bat flies in and out. He is looking for the DOOR. And the DOOR is NOT THERE! So the materially coined man does not get further. Even if he would be tempted to give his fantasies a chance after all (and thereby feels quite stupid inside): He must and will always apply the material standard. He will always start from the precondition of the passing time and the limited space…. in order to arrive then nowhere. His thinking will always remain material. Full of conclusions about cause and effect. As similar as the mouse hole and the front door seem to us as readers in our example: if one looks for handles, locks and hinges, they could not be more different.
We look up at the sky and our mathematicians, stochastics, astronomers and who knows who else, calculate that our earth might not be so unique and that there could be many, many planets like ours in the visible universe.
I am not a probability calculator, but it seems possible to me – if one turns the view once – perhaps to calculate a probability for the fact that our five known senses must not necessarily represent the complete canon of our perceptions and consequently are not sufficient to experience and perceive everything about this world.
How probable should that be, if for example animals, which live in the dark, have no sense of sight any more? The blind cave fish says certainly – would one ask him: „I have all senses which make it possible for me to grasp the whole world COMPLETELY. Your talk of colors and facial impressions is dangerous humbug. Go quickly to the doctor!“
In which darkness do we sit then perhaps and which senses have already developed back and weakened with us? The number of the senses which a being can have seems to be quite changeable – with regard to the exemplary fish. Now these are speculations which only concern and stimulate our mind. The last realizations do not lie in the investigation of these things. But I simply wanted to mention this aspect. Maybe it makes the mind think a little bit. And makes him softer and more yielding.
The idea of a probability calculation is only meant as an aid. A crutch, so to speak. For the human being of the knowledge society it is already a beginning, if he does not know something, but can fall back nevertheless on a certain probability – a possibility. To acknowledge the mere possibility of further accesses to the house and thus not to categorically dismiss the existence of mice, ants and bats present in the house is a step. Many have taken it and stopped there! At the mere possibility. „But it could be possible!“ „I believe in it. But then sometimes I somehow have my doubts.“ „But it is possible!“
With probabilities we are further in the material world; the world of the material knowledge and – the – TWO.
If you want to go further, you have to throw your ideas about doors overboard.
And find the mouse holes and the cracks in the wall.
It doesn’t help. We can’t get past it. Deep inside we know that. And the proof that makes the possible become knowledge is unfortunately not a proof that could satisfy the mind. It is stupidly a proof of the soul.
You can say, „By the fact that the mouse hole is there, I know that it is there.“ Maybe even the other way round: „Because I know that it is there, it is there…„. (A found food for the mind: „So after all: fantasy! Off to the doctor!“ – He can’t understand that. That is only possible in the way of the soul).
Something like that is never enough for the mind that only sees doors with handles. „He says, „There is no mouse hole. There are only doors with handles and ….so… ….“ But that’s all it is. Whoever has found the mouse hole recognizes the truth of the sentence from the beginning of this paragraph. I can’t get tired of emphasizing it, so that nobody even starts to ponder over this sentence with his mind: The finder recognizes it in a soul way.