"Korzybski's work held a view that human beings are limited in what they know by (1) the structure of their nervous systems, and (2) the structure of their languages. Human beings cannot experience the world directly, but only through their "abstractions" (nonverbal impressions or "gleanings" derived from the nervous system, and verbal indicators expressed and derived from language). Sometimes our perceptions and our languages actually mislead us as to the "facts" with which we must deal. Our understanding of what is going on sometimes lacks similarity of structure with what is actually going on..... His system included modifying the way we approach the world, e.g., with an attitude of "I don't know; let's see," to better discover or reflect its realities as shown by modern science. One of these techniques involved becoming inwardly and outwardly quiet, an experience that he called, "silence on the objective levels".http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski.Our habitual and automatic use of maps makes prisoners of us all. When you use the word lamp for instance, you are automatically limited to your own personal experience with lamps. You cannot experience what you are looking at as it is. The mind is very good at making maps and it makes life livable. For instance you don't have to figure out what a door is and how it operates every time you approach one. But the mapmaker in us all thinks it is in charge and has us trying to live our lives on (or in) these maps. This makes as much sense as trying to swim in those little blue splotches on the road map in the glove box of your car.
Perspective, Map making and the Ego
Everything I say, everything you think, is a story. A map. This was explained very well by Alfred Korzybski.
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