Reality - Do We - Or Not Do We - That is the Question

Have you ever had one of those mornings whereEverything Else is Illusion David Icke explains the
you groggily get out of bed, make your way to thestrange way our world is perceived: "Our eyes only
bathroom and suddenly stub your toe against thetransform light into electrical signals that are
bed post? Sir Isaac Newton would certainlyconstantly delivered to the brain for interpretation.
understand. In this case, a solid object in motion (toe)This 'visible light' is confined to a tiny fraction of the
%2B immoveable object (bedpost) = #$*&?!!electromagnetic spectrum, which is, itself, only 0.005
However, strange as it may sound, at the quantumper cent of the matter/energy of the known
level of things, Newton's laws simply break down anduniverse..." Mr. Icke goes on to explain how in that
the idea that the physical world is solid is revealed tominiscule frequency range, we decode light into our
be impossible. The bedpost, your toe, the entirephysical reality. He adds; "There is no world 'around'
bedroom, the entire You for that matter, actuallyus as we perceive it; everything is all happening in our
have no solidity. How can this be, when the intensebrains..."
toe pain certainly says otherwise?Harvard graduate and best-selling author Gary Zukav
Remember what you learned in high school aboutstates in his book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters; "...the
atoms? We are taught the ancient Greek Democritusfact is that quantum field theory...is premised on the
in 530 B.C. was the first to claim matter wasassumption that physical reality is essentially
composed of tiny particles which he named "atoms".nonsubstantial. According to quantum field theory,
We, and everything around us, consist of atoms. Thefields alone are real. They are the substance of the
positively charged central region of an atom (theuniverse, not "matter." Matter (particles) is simply the
nucleus) is surrounded by negatively chargedmomentary manifestations of interacting fields which,
electrons. The forces between the two are sointangible and insubstantial as they are, are the only
powerful that nothing can cause the electrons toreal things in the universe."
unite with the nucleus, there is always "space"As mentioned, the building blocks of everything
between them.'around' us and all our physical organs that allow us to
In the award winning DVD What the Bleep Do Weperceive it via the senses, are of course, atoms.
Know? Down the Rabbit Hole, anesthesiologist,Atoms consist of particles called protons, electrons
professor and researcher Stuart Hameroff M.D.and neutrons, and each of them are also considered
explains that not only are atoms "mostly empty" but"mostly empty". The protons and neutrons group
"they never actually meet". The bedpost atoms andtogether in the central part of the atom, (the
the atoms of the toe can never really touch eachnucleus) and the electrons 'orbit' the nucleus. In his
other. At the atomic level, there is always spacebook, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill
between them because when two atoms are forcedBryson quotes Professor of Chemistry, William H.
together (the toe hitting the bedpost), a very thinCropper; "As Cropper has put it, if an atom were
electromagnetic repulsion layer keeps negativelyexpanded to the size of a cathedral, the nucleus
charged electrons of the atoms from actually makingwould be only about the size of a fly...." The 'space' is
any contact.considered 'empty' to our perception but is actually
So what the heck causes that horrible pain in thecomposed of vibrating energy on a wavelength
toe? The sensation comes from a neural stimulushigher than the 'physical'. So how could atoms
from the toe that registers in the brain as pain, andconstitute our 'solid' world if they are empty with no
that stimulus is a result of the electromagnetic forcesolidity? That is the billion dollar question. Mr. Icke's
between the electrons of the toe and post. Ourreply; "They can't, 'solidity' is an illusion." (Infinite love
senses are basically playing tricks on us as theis the Only Truth, Everything Else is Illusion)
sudden electromagnetic force (the impact) creates aThis sentiment is found in Judaic thought. In the
neural response by the brain and registers as veryKabbalistic tradition, all of creation is; "An illusory
unpleasant "contact". We are thus experiencing anprojection of the transcendental aspects of God."
illusion here, albeit, a very convincing one.Michael Talbot notes in his book, The Holographic
The character Morpheus asks Neo, in The MatrixUniverse; "The idea that the creation set into motion
movie; "What is 'real'? How do you define 'real'? Ifby the God of Genesis is an illusion is reflected even
you mean what we can taste, smell, hear and feelin the Hebrew language...the Zohar...the most famous
then what's 'real' is nothing more than electrical signalsof the esoteric Jewish texts, notes, the verb baro
interpreted by your brain." The movie may be"to create," implies the idea of creating an illusion."
fantasy, the statement however is based onThere is agreement from the Hindus as well. The
mainstream science. Sometimes however, fact canmaterial universe is maya, according to them, which
be stranger than fiction.means transitory and unreal. Their Svetasvatara
There is the common belief that we 'see' with ourUpanishad states, "One should know that Nature is
eyes. "Seeing, is believing." Correct? Well, technically,illusion..."
that's not entirely accurate. As lecturer, author andI had a dream in which I was walking through a kind
researcher, David Icke, succinctly illustrates in hisof museum/mall in the future. One of the popular
book Tales from the Time Loop; the eyes areattractions there was the Life Tour. For a certain
essentially the lenses that receive neural informationprice, one could sit in a special recliner and experience
which is then directed to the primary visual cortex ofan entire lifetime as another person in about five
the brain located at the back of our heads. It is thereminutes. A frail thin woman could experience living as
that we 'see' the world around us, thus we actuallya large hairy man and vice versa. One could even
'see' with the back of our brains and not our eyes. Ifchoose any time in history to be 'born' and eventually
you think that sounds odd, wait, it gets better.die. Death, of course, was merely the awakening
Something mysterious also happens during thefrom the 'tour'.
process of sight; the temporal lobe of our brainIn Tibetan Dzogchen Buddhism, perceived reality is
reconstructs and edits more than 50% of theconsidered to be unreal. According to Dzogchen
information it receives. Therefore, we only 'see' whatteacher Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, the "dream of
the brain is conditioned to 'see'. This means there islife" and our regular dreams during the night, in their
50% or more of 'something' there, that we neveressential nature, have no difference between them.
'see'.All perceived appearances of the life of an individual,
In his book, The Holographic Universe, the lateincluding tastes, smells, sounds, and touch sensations,
Michael Talbot mentions: "...Some studies suggest thatare as a "big dream".
less than 50 per cent of what we 'see' is actuallyWhat is this information revealing to us? What does
based on information entering our eyes. Theit say, not only of the world 'around' us, but of
remaining 50 per cent plus is pieced together out ofourselves as well? Do we physically exist, or are we
our expectations of what the world should look likepurely consciousness, dreaming our world exists? To
(and perhaps other sources such as reality fields)..."be or not to be, do we or not do we? That is the
In his book; Infinite Love is the Only Truth,question indeed.