How your world was made—and how you were made with it
“That’s a ball.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. It’s right there. I can see it. I know what a ball is.”
“But you didn’t always. The word ‘ball’ was given to you. So was the concept. So was the idea that there are things—separate objects with names. You weren’t born knowing that. You learned it.”
“Sure. But I learned it because it’s real.”
“You learned it so you could join the world of others. Not because the ball demanded a name—but because you needed to belong. Language is not a mirror of reality. It’s a bridge into social life. The ball is only a ball because we agree to call it that—and you learned that agreement by being part of us.”
“So… it’s not real?”
“It’s not fake. It’s social. Just like you. The sensations are real. The field is real. But the idea of a ‘ball’—and of a ‘you’ who sees it—is part of the symbolic system you were raised inside.”
When you were born, you didn’t have a name.
You didn’t know where your body ended and the world began.
You didn’t say I or mine.
You learned all that—slowly, painfully, beautifully—by being with others.
You became someone by becoming socially legible.
You learned to smile when someone said your name.
You learned to point when someone asked “Where’s the ball?”
And little by little, the weave wrapped around you.
And you began to feel like you’d always been here.
But you hadn’t.
You were woven in.
Even the “you” who says I
is a thread in the tapestry.
🧠 What Science Actually Shows
Newborns don’t see objects. They experience a field—light, warmth, motion, sound.
Around 6–9 months, they begin to expect patterns—object permanence.
By 18–24 months, they begin to represent, pretend, and name.
That’s when symbolic reality becomes their world.
Not discovered—constructed.And the ball? Still just a ripple in the field.
The symbol is what makes it “real.”
The world is not made of objects.
It is a field—a continuous unfolding of energy, motion, possibility.
What you call a “ball” is not a thing in itself.
It is a pattern in the field—a stabilized shape made visible through the lens of culture, language, memory, and agreement.
And you?
You are not separate from that weave.
Even the you who says “this is my perception”
is a symbol you were given—
a social self, trained to interpret the field in familiar ways.
This is not a trick.
It’s how human life becomes possible.
But if no one tells you this,
you’ll live inside the weave without ever knowing it’s there.
You’ll think your thoughts are your own.
You’ll think your language reveals the world instead of shaping it.
You’ll say “That’s just how it is.”
And you’ll never ask who taught you to say that.
Or why.
And then one day… you see a thread.
You feel the edge loosen.
You realize:
The world you live in is not the only one possible.
And neither are you.
This is not the end of meaning.
It’s the beginning of agency.
It’s the doorway to reweaving.
If the weave is made…
then it can be made differently.
And that begins with a vow.