FILTERS: BASIC DEFINITIONS, APPLICATIONS & SCENARIOS

By Crystal Clark, June 17, 2013

 

The following (4) definitions come from the Merrian-Webster online dictionary:

1a: a porous article or mass (as of paper or sand) through which a gas or liquid is passed to separate out matter in suspension

1b: an apparatus containing a filter medium

2a: a device or material for suppressing or minimizing waves or oscillations of certain frequencies (as of electricity, light, or sound)

2b: a transparent material (as colored glass) that absorbs light of certain wavelengths or colors selectively and is used for modifying light that reaches a sensitized photographic material —called also color filter

3: something that has the effect of a filter (as by holding back elements or modifying the appearance of something) <his work is too often viewed through the filter of race — Brent Staples>

4: software for sorting or blocking access to certain online material

Examples used in a sentence:

He placed a blue filter on the camera lens.

Using digital filters that stop high-frequency sounds.

He sees the world through the filter of rose-colored glasses.

Filters & Perception Management

The referenced definitions, although covering broad-spectrum use of filtering and its mechanisms, refrain from attributing the concept to social and intellectual filtering until definition number four:  blocking access to certain online material. The gap between number four and its predecessors is an interesting leap that has me wondering why its implications were reserved for the “electronic” information age. Nevertheless, I appreciate its eventual inclusion as it very clearly points to intentional censorship (blocking access) of information and/or data. This is by no means a recent phenomenon, and when we take a closer look at what has been censored or blocked, as well as when or where, we find an interesting window into the psyche of those who decide what to block others (or even themselves!) from accessing and why.

How filtering manifests in, impedes, and/or changes the natural evolution of a culture intentionally polarized by it, has been discussed elsewhere on the blog in depth, especially in the SACRED SCIENCE and REALITY sections. The applied principles and patterns in those materials can guide us to look in new directions for answers, and also help us better understand what we see when we do. If a principle is correct, the details will not only reinforce and support it, but will also add considerably to its conceivable width, depth and breadth—beyond what was previously conceivable without its inclusion. Also, it remains true that principles and details are not quite the same thing.

A simple explanatory analogy can be found the phrase, “thinking outside the box”—the phrase represents a principle-based idea or understanding. As a principle alone the idea is valid, before the details of the box are included. What is the box of limitation to human thought and progress? Where did/does it come from? Who selects, creates, and reinforces its perimeter and parameter, and why? Whom does it ultimately benefit? Those are the details—details that may otherwise never be scrutinized and sorted out if the leading principle didn’t come first and consequently point critical thought in that direction.

Filters & the Sacred Science

The inclusion of all the previous definitions for the word filter, as well as the examples of its use in a sentence, was to reiterate that at their core, filters have one primary purpose: limitation—limitations that often narrow the focus of exposure or create a form of compartmentalization for refining a more fractal (layered) view of creative co-factors. If we’re running water through filters intended to strain out harmful chemicals or solids, or straining foods like milk to get a more solid, reductionist or dense product like cheese, this is a good thing. The same can be true for scientific experimentation and advances where studying the effects of color-specific light waves are concerned, and in school we learned to dissect and diagram sentences based on the same concept—a process that began with a very basic focus on the individual letters of the alphabet. Also, the principle of an alphabet comes before individually studying, or even creating, the details of the letters that comprise it. Easy stuff to remember, and a good lesson on why getting bogged down or manipulated into fighting over which details (letters of the alphabet) are more important, is a complete waste of time when done without considering the context of the guiding principle (entire alphabet for complex communication skills) that originally gave them any real meaning to begin with.

Like so many other things, filters are not necessarily a bad thing in and of themselves, but the ways in which they are applied can be—even by well-meaning people. This is exceptionally true when externally applied narrow filters become internalized beliefs that are then handed down and passed on to others without question. In this case, many of the filters through which we personally view our lives and therefore perceive reality, were inserted into the human collective long before we were born. This is often the result of wide-spread yet undetected perception management/manipulation later morphing into peer-pressure to conform to views that we otherwise may never have adopted or considered during the course of natural evolution. [A form of this was expressed regarding the risks of leaving records behind in the SACRED SCIENCE section].

These filters may be coming from your boss, your co-workers, elementary teachers and college professors, pastors, clerics, rabbis, politicians, parents, cousins, class-mates, television commercials, wives, husbands, in-laws, law enforcement, newspapers, city councils, mayors, presidents, prime ministers, judges, gurus, doctors, lawyers, scientists, nightly news, magazine ads, customers, friends, talk-show hosts, and so on. More importantly however, the moment we adopt those specific and narrow filters, we have also adopted their limitations.

As these limitations have a tendency to spin out of control and eventually coalesce around another such self-destruction episode or Catastrophic Biosphere & Biodiversity Collapse (CBBC), what is presented here is done in the hopes that we may prevent another unfortunate and entirely unnecessary end. Doing so is as possible now as it always was, but as it is with details and principles, possibilities and probabilities are not always the same thing—yet they can be.

In another section of the blog I referred to the Einstein attribution regarding the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Filters, when constantly passed back and forth, generation after generation and without question or change, can certainly become a means to accomplish exactly that—a way to go absolutely nowhere, really, really fast. Stagnation (or even regression) and evolution are clearly at odds with each other. Along those lines there is another Einstein-ism that I find more pertinent to what will be covered throughout the remainder of this section: We cannot solve problems using the same thinking/mentality responsible for creating them.

Unlike the Treatise on the Sacred Science posted as a single document, this FILTERS section will be divided into very specific sub-categories and sub-tabs. This is to aid not only in making each specific example easier to pinpoint for reference, but also to example how much growth and wisdom can be achieved through the lens of the Sacred Science, even if only one subject at a time.

Patterns and filters were discussed in depth in WAWR 101 in various ways, and based on the feedback I received from readers in this regard, this is an area I prefer not to condense any more than necessary. It has also been my experience over the years that most people already innately know which filters they carry and are uncomfortable with, but haven’t found the clarity they need to exchange them for something more far-reaching and self-empowering.

It remains my continued hope that viewing a wide-range of interrelated issues through the lens of a Sacred Science that can be zoomed in or out as far you would like to go, will be as eye-opening and helpful (self-empowering) to you as it has been for me. It offers a unique kind of inner–outer focus at the same time, in that it never lets us forget how large and all-encompassing it really is, regardless of where current focus may lie—even across time and space. To emphasize the validity of that statement, the first example or sub-section deals with the kind of clarity that can be obtained when viewing prophecy through this out-of-the-box lens—even Nostradamus prophecies.