“The Map is not the Territory” This saying was first coined by Alfred Korzybski, the man who gave us the book “Science and Sanity” in 1933 which founded General Semantic. I first encountered it in a book by Robert Anton Wilson who spent a lot of his writing expounding on this idea and providing parables and exercises designed to help those interested in getting comfortable with this stark fact of life. Ken Wilber often uses this quote as a grounding principle when discussing the Integral Model. Alan Watts had a more whimsical version, “The menu is not the meal.” Basically, it means that our perceptions, maps, and models of reality are never reality itself. An idea about a car will not get you to the airport. The word, “water” will not quench your thirst. An understanding of how trees grow … Continue reading
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