In the demiselfist model, I accept that truth is a property of being in accordance with reality. But who decides what reality is? In demiself, reality is defined by a variety of authorities who are not me. That is the defining quality of all demiself authorities: they are not me. And consequently, I do not have sovereignty over many matters which these authorities do.
There is a set of beliefs I accept, such as that I am a person temporarily experiencing a much larger world around which I move. I accept that there are certain truths of this larger world discovered by other people throughout time. I do not know the details of all these truths, but I accept that others do. I willingly give this authority away to other people I believe exist. To people I imagine exist, even though I never directly experience them. Another way to say it is that authority is always someone else, somewhere else, and even sometime else.
There are certain domains I believe I am allowed to be the ultimate authority on: “subjective” areas. I grant myself authority over these truths. But in most others, I accept that there are “objective” truths entirely independent of me and my beliefs. The only constant in all of this is that I have decided. I have decided that there are authorities other than me, and there are a restricted set of “subjective” matters upon which I have full authority. Effectively, I have decided to give authority to these experts. But whose authority did I give away? Who originally possessed that authority? Demiselfism does not ask this question; it assumes that truth is a tangible, preexisting property of something, and my believing it does not impact that truthfulness in any way.
In triselfism, I can evolve a new understanding of truth by re-examining these things I believe in demiselfism. Truth, in all these circumstances, is a decision I make. Ultimately, I am deciding if something is true or not. I may believe that I exist on a planet called earth, and then extend the validation of that to science, scientists, discoveries, theories, and equations. But it is a decision I make to believe all those people and all those things. It is my decision to read a book and believe what is in it; to watch a video and believe the scientists and their stories. I may believe that fact exists independent of me, but again, that is a decision I make. No matter what I believe, believe is true, or believe is false, everything begins with my believing. Whether I believe that I am right, wrong, knowledgable, or ignorant, I believe. Everything in my existence is rooted in my belief that it exists.
Truth as a concept is essential to define, but if I get the definition wrong I will miss it. Truth is that which is fundamental. In triselfism, my act of believing is the constant which precedes everything I believe. That I believe precedes what I believe in every case, which makes my act of believing more fundamental than what I believe. If my act of believing is the most fundamental of all, then I must align my definition of truth with my act of believing, rather than anything that comes after it.
That I believe is more fundamental than what I believe. Whether something is true or false is insignificant compared to the fact that I believe there is something which can be either true or false. It is a very subtle distinction at first, but an important one. Truth is therefore not something I do, do not, can, or cannot know about something; rather, truth is what I experience. Truth is not a native property of something I do, do not, can, or cannot experience; truth is embedded directly in my experience itself. I believe that what I experience, exists. My experience itself is the truth; my determination that I do, do not, can, or cannot know some property of some small part of my experience which I manifest is a trick of my illness, of my personhood.
My experience is what I believe; and my belief precedes a later determination of what is true or false, right or wrong, good or bad. Experience comes first, and my understanding of my experience is much less relevant and non-fundamental. I might contest this by pointing out that something exists, and therefore has some properties which are true, and others which are not. But that thinking neglects the origin of that thing I am observing and experiencing: I chose to awaken, and I chose to manifest that thing I am experiencing first. Prior to any such thing with true or untrue properties, there was my decision to take the steps that manifested it. And the first step was my awakening itself.
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