| The world is an illusion. This is a view | | | | gas clouds and nebulas and galaxies. The |
| held by Vedanta, Sikhism, Buddhism, Plato, | | | | universe, too, is mainly empty space. |
| Arthur Schopenhauer, Christian Science, and A | | | | |
| Course In Miracles. | | | | 5. The field of all possibilities. |
| | | | |
| Contradicting this view is your own sense | | | | On the level of the consciousness that |
| experience of realness, the constancy of | | | | organizes all things, this world is only |
| stimulus, the enduring nature of time and | | | | another possibility out of an infinite |
| events. | | | | choice. How many worlds with sentient beings |
| | | | exist? Is our universe only an electron in a |
| Which view is correct? The idea of the | | | | cosmic atom? Given a field of infinite |
| illusion or your experience of the realness? | | | | choices, how much weight does one choice |
| | | | hold? |
| This answer proposes an objective observer, | | | | |
| one who is not part of the system that is | | | | The idea that the world is real can be argued |
| being observed. Newton held that time is | | | | in the following way. |
| absolute. Einstein held that it is relative | | | | |
| to the observer. Perhaps that same paradigm | | | | 1. What you are experiencing is real to you. |
| shift can be applied to answering the | | | | |
| question of what is real and what is not. | | | | When you think of the world as an illusion, a |
| | | | sense of despair arises because it slights |
| Those who propose that the world is an | | | | the beauty of your realness. It is |
| illusion are correct. | | | | pleasurable to touch and hold, to see and |
| | | | hear, to act and change things. It is |
| Those who propose that the world is real are | | | | ennobling to see the vast sky above your head |
| also correct. | | | | and feel the wind in your hair and hear the |
| | | | squawk of a passing bird. It means much for |
| The idea that the world is an illusion can be | | | | us to be here and to be alive in this moment. |
| argued in the following way. | | | | |
| | | | Neither science nor philosophy can deny the |
| 1. You do not see the world as it is. | | | | realness of your experience. |
| | | | |
| You see the world as you are. | | | | And in this context, even your dreams are |
| | | | real enough, because while you are in them, |
| This happens in two ways: | | | | your entire experience is authentic enough |
| | | | for you. If you are being chased by a lion |
| One, you can never escape your subjectivity. | | | | in your dream, it will feel as real to you as |
| You may claim that the world is objective, | | | | if you were being chased by one in the waking |
| but this is a claim made from the subjective | | | | state. |
| state. Hence, if you were to lose your mind, | | | | |
| you would also lose the world. Without an | | | | 2. Who you are is important to you. |
| observer, there is no world. With your | | | | |
| disappearance, the universe disappears. Does | | | | Your life is important. You desire to be |
| it exist despite you? If you are not there | | | | more than you currently are because you can |
| to ask or hear the answer to the question, it | | | | feel the vast throb of life within you |
| has no meaning. | | | | expanding ever forward to know more, |
| | | | experience more, and touch a fullness not yet |
| Two, the world that you see is a direct | | | | known. |
| result of your experiences in it. A rock is | | | | |
| not just a rock; it is also your memory of | | | | Your past is not just useless memory but a |
| all rocks seen by you. When what you see is | | | | scrapbook of struggle and change, triumph and |
| more complex and engaging, you experience | | | | adversity, risk and new learning. Your |
| more emotions, sensations, and ideas about | | | | present is the vividness of your current |
| it. Thus, you never really see anything as | | | | experience. Your future is your promise, to |
| it is. You only see it through the lens of | | | | yourself and to the world. |
| your own thoughts about it. | | | | |
| | | | Reality, then, is not fixed. It is an |
| 2. All forms will pass away. | | | | interpretation of consciousness and how it is |
| | | | interpreted depends on the inner and outer |
| Entropy is built into the system. Nothing | | | | experiences of the observer. The world you |
| can escape this iron law of nature. Neither | | | | live in is real enough to you as you live it. |
| beauty nor truth, wealth nor power, genius | | | | If this world is an illusion, does it mean |
| nor intent ever last. Death and decay is the | | | | that there is a really real world, as Plato |
| lot of everything, from atoms to stars, from | | | | conjectured. Probably not. If this world is |
| our own sun to the universe itself. However, | | | | an illusion, then so, too, are all worlds. |
| this collapse is a dissipation of energy, not | | | | And if this world is real, so, too, are all |
| an absence of it. According to the law of | | | | worlds. |
| conservation of energy, which has never been | | | | |
| refuted, energy can neither be created nor | | | | Appreciating the miracle of having a |
| destroyed. What dies, then, is the form of | | | | consciousness to live in a world may be all |
| things, the structure the energy was | | | | we need to know to live happy, fulfilling |
| supporting. | | | | lives, whether in this world or in other |
| | | | worlds which we will transition into after |
| 3. The microscopic. | | | | this one. |
| | | | |
| On the level of atoms, a vast space exists | | | | Consciousness, like the law of conservation |
| between the electrons and the nucleus, and | | | | of energy, can neither be created nor |
| even the subatomic particles are not solid | | | | destroyed. Where you find consciousness, you |
| bits of matter but transient energy forms | | | | will also find energy structured into the |
| that appear and disappear and reappear again. | | | | form of a world. And since consciousness |
| It is mainly empty space. | | | | never dies but appears to only grow |
| | | | increasingly more refined and sophisticated, |
| 4. The macroscopic. | | | | worlds, too, probably evolve along similar |
| | | | lines. Are these worlds illusory or real? |
| On the level of the cosmos, a vast space | | | | They are real enough to those who live in |
| exists between stars and moons and planets, | | | | them. |