The need to be Holistic
One of the greatest concerns of human beings throughout history has been the search for the truth. Knowledge that we can acquire from things around us, occurrences and ideas, interests us to the extent that it draws us closer to our concept of the truth. 
Many techniques have been developed in an attempt to differentiate what may be a simple opinion from knowledge accepted as true. 

In our search for the truth, we cover almost the entire range of human knowledge, from earthly to mystical aspects. For example, we are interested in the origin of the universe and human life, the nature of thought, the existence of life on other planets, basically everything that provides us with the opportunity to draw nearer to the truth, to the reality of the universe surrounding us and the internal universe that each one of us has inside. Something that produces great uneasiness in human beings is that observation of the same phenomena can be perceived so differently. 

A noteworthy comparison can be made of the opinions of a group of persons who have witnessed the same occurrence. There is such a difference that on many occasions, one could think that different occurrences are being described. Opinions can even be absolutely contradictory, although each observer is certain that his/her version is correct. Some may think that there are bad intentions behind stating the facts: for many people there is still a great tendency to believe that one’s personal perception of reality is the only truth and that it should be accepted by all humanity as the undisputed truth. 

Becoming aware of the fact that your senses can sometimes play tricks on you, can lead you to think about what your chances of knowing the universe around you really are. It is interesting that reflections on your limitations allow you to get a glimpse, if only a partial one, of the true nature, not of transcendental things, but of things that are absolutely ordinary and part of the daily challenge of living of every human being. For example, the reasons why one is not promoted, or loses a job, if generally everyone considers himself/herself to be hard-working and efficient. 
The reasons why a sentimental relationship didn’t work out, in spite of all the interest and energy one put into it. The reasons why many parents have so many problems with their children, especially when they become teenagers and no longer accept parental authority as something indisputable. 

Undoubtedly, a more complete, global outlook is needed on the world we live in. In general, humanity has gradually been losing this more complete outlook, due to the education we are given, in which it is very important to divide everything in components in order to understand things. There is a tendency to analyze. We can see this tendency, for example, in the way children play, taking their toys apart to see what is inside them. After taking a favorite toy apart, every child can see that it has stopped working and that it is no longer useful in the same way. This is the first experience that we have that shows us that everything is not always equal to the sum of its parts; rather there is something additional in the way these parts are put together that gives them a different aspect and that special usefulness we appreciate. It is what makes us perfectly able to distinguish the difference between a human being and a certain number of atoms of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which are the main components of the physical part of every living being. 

Therefore, in order to understand such a complex universe, we must be able to understand all the parts and their function at the same time, acquiring knowledge that not only covers the concrete aspect of things, but that at some point enables us to understand the essence of things. This understanding of the essence of things enables us to work directly on developing the abstract mind. We must not forget that development of this mental activity is one of the characteristics that are gaining importance to humanity today. 

Curiously, some people could say, although we would say causally, that currently there is great interest in developing a holistic ability to perceive things, born of the need that we human beings have to know the truth in every possible aspect. 

The word “holistic” has been in fashion lately. It comes from the Greek word “holos”, which means whole or entire. Therefore, holistic knowledge is aimed at simultaneously understanding all the aspects of a thing and the way these parts interact to become that particular object, living being or idea that is so original that it can not be confused with any other. 

The technique has also served to make the holistic idea present in human thought. Relatively recently a technique called holography, through which it is possible to obtain three-dimensional images using lasers, was developed. This technique was developed in 1947 by Dennis Gabor, a Hungarian scientist who received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1971 for this invention. Like photography, holography is a record of light on film, but it is more like sonar and radar than photography. 

In holography, information is distributed equally over the entire film, so that if a small part of it is cut, the whole can be seen through this small portion. Each part of a hologram, however small it may be, records a completed scene, although it is seen from a different perspective. The ability of holograms to store information in such a disperse manner has led many people to speculate on the possibility that the human brain functions in a similar way. It is possible that memories are stored like a hologram in the mind. 

Therefore, in order to start the work of developing holistic understanding, you must take all the possibilities presented to you and work on them in depth. One very important part of holistic understanding is the assistance that other people you interrelate with on a daily basis can offer you. In order to receive this help, however, you must be attentive to the ideas that others give you; listen carefully, without criticizing them, before understanding them completely and without competing with other people with your own ideas. You should take into consideration that many of the ideas given to you are backed by accumulated knowledge and experiences that you don’t have or that you have partially, and that this exchange offers you a valuable opportunity to obtain knowledge that it would be possible to obtain otherwise. 

Another important way to obtain a holistic view of things is to have knowledge of a large number of different disciplines. Of course, this is not a matter of being a walking encyclopedia, but of having sufficient knowledge to permit you to establish relations between one content and another in order to obtain the complete, holistic vision that you want to develop. Therefore, superficial and specific knowledge are only partially useful: what is most important is to have mental order that allows you to take advantage of the information available to you so that you can create complete structures in your mind that will enable you to develop an abstract mind by working with analogies. 

All points converge on the same path toward the same stages of development, and all the current discoveries permit one to progress toward that knowledge that is becoming indispensable to human beings in order to continue the evaluation being conducted since man’s appearance on the face of the planet. 

Imagine that each face of a cubic box is a different color. Inside the box there is a small object, perhaps an apple. Around the box there are six observers, one for each face of the cube. Each one of the observers can only see one face of the cube. One for each of the cardinal points, one for the top face and one for the bottom face. None of them is capable of seeing the content of the box. If each of these observers is asked what color the box is, each one will say what he/she can see at that time. Surely someone will say that the other observers are wrong and that he/she is the owner of the truth. Despite having a view of only one face of the cube, each one of the observers will probable arrive to the conclusion that all of the other faces, which are not in view, are the same as what he/she can see at the time. 

It would be unlikely that one of the observers would be able to tell that there was an apple inside the box, much less perceive its characteristics. How can one overcome the terrible limitation that seeing only one aspect of reality implies? 

Each one of these observers has that opportunity, as long as he/she communicates with the others and accepts the fact that the others are also observing; it is even possible that at some point his/her understanding of the reality that the other person is observing is such that he/she can put himself/herself in the other’s place and see the same thing the other sees, finally realizing that the box has different-colored faces. 

Finally, having been capable of doing the work related to perception of the outside of the box, he/she may reach a higher stage of development that permits access to the inside of the object and he/she can know how the box is inside and out at the same time; and with even further development, he/she may be able to perceive the apple inside of it. 
When all of this has occurred, we will be able to say that a holistic perception of reality has been produced and, undoubtedly, the person capable of that perception is much more developed internally and can perceive other, more transcendental realities that are hidden for those who have not had the opportunity to develop in that sense. 

This article was obtained from the following website: http://club.telepolis.com/agaigcu/