Spiritual Reality, Material Illusion

 "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." ~ Albert Einstein

 

When we speak of "reality", actual reality, we are essentially engaging in our relationship with truth.  An entire world can embrace utter illusion, but that doesn't change our personal relationship with truth.

"Reality" is far too often silently prefaced with the word "material".  

That's the assumption.  

That's the illusion. 

Those of us who have objectively witnessed and studied things that cannot be explained by the illusion of "material reality" know the truth goes deeper.  A materialist might say (and this is a hypothesis that fits for materialists) any evidence of a "non-material" reality must necessarily be evidence we are living in a material simulation.  Materialism is assumed, without question, and nothing else.  The simulation hypothesis contains the convenient aspect of necessarily negating verification of ANY observation.  After all, if you are living in a simulation, how can you objectively observe and verify anything?  Anything at all?  Thus it implicitly discourages the honest exploration of reality.  It's only a hypothesis, nothing more, and it arises out of materialism.

We spend a lot of time evading exploration.  We lack the courage to consider our paradigm may be collapsing.  We even deny that paradigms have regularly collapsed, those things we assumed were true.  No doubt we would dwell on intentional evasion even more intently should observation defy our presumed constructs.

Why is spiritual reality important?  Does spirituality exist because we can observe it?  Could it even be a part of a "material illusion" if it didn't have a foundation as a "concept"?  Spiritual Reality is such a profound discovery, even to observe it is to create it.  Love is at its Center.

How tragic it is to see just how much we have sacrificed at the altar of materialism.  We also sacrifice our authenticity daily.  We pretend the Real doesn't exist to "fit in", even when we know better.  We allow everyone and everything around us to pretend it doesn't exist as well, without question.  We even immerse our children in learning about what we know is a material illusion.  And then we are surprised when spirituality is mocked - and silenced.  

We participate in the silence.  We even silently participate in the mockery.  We appear to accept it.  And so we propagate it.  We project an illusion.  And we do know better.

This isn't going to work anymore.  The material world we live in is hanging in the balance.  The materialistic paradigm appears to be nearing its final gasp. 

This is an excellent day to share some videos demonstrating what happens when materialism fails - all of our centuries of "development" have brought us to this.  I hardly have room to share them all, but I will trust my inclination.  We aren't learning enough about this, lately.  We were schooled in it well long ago.  

 This particular scene was widely viewed on "network television" in 1983.

An astonishing number of people watched The Day After.  Back then, we would have "network television events" that reached a lot of people, and people surely paid attention to this one.  It depicted just one place, but people understood it was bigger than that - the counter-attack was referenced as well, but not shown. (See War Games, below, for a demonstration - RE: "mutually assured destruction", aka "MAD".). 

I was actually more moved at the time by the quieter movie Testament, as it better demonstrated the "slow motion" personal poignancy in intensely tragic ways.  It reminds me in a way of how a family member returning rather recently from a trip described the bottles of water people still leave as an offering in Nagasaki (because people who survived could find no water to drink).

Another 1983 movie was quite popular (and considered "lighter" entertainment).  WarGames even included AI in the equation.  This is a pivotal point in the film ("Spoiler Alert"), but worth viewing.

 

 

We had a lot to think about back then - at least back then, we were given something to think about, and thinking about it was considered totally OK.  Talking about how we felt about it was fine, too.

 

Here is one particular way we saw the future (from a film made in 1984, though the story is older).  2010 seemed far away (yet very close).  This series also happened to famously (or infamously) contain AI, though it's not relevant to the following scene.  Other things are.

 

 

 

Things have "progressed" since the early 1980's, materially.  How have we progressed spiritually?  Whatever has brought us to this insane level of material ignorance (and denial) - and it's taken centuries of it - I can tell you one thing - it isn't worth it.  

 

It will never be worth it.   It was just as "mad" then, as it is now.  

Is Spirituality itself capable of "winning"?  Hint: Spirituality is capable of ANYTHING.  It is, after all, about mutually assured survival (aka LOVE).  

Omnipresent.  Unconditional.  And even beyond our imaginations.  Sometimes we can glimpse it.

That's Reality.  It's no illusion.

("Spoiler Alert", below.)

It's time to be open and honest about how more and more of us truly feel about it.  

Why not today?

 

Nature photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Miracles out of Nowhere

 "It's so simple, lying right before your eyes, if you'll only look through this disguise.  It's always here.  It's always there.  It's just Love and Miracles out of nowhere." ~ Kansas

It must be Saturday night.  I'm listening to music, again.  This is a real classic, one that reached me long ago, and always has.

 

Simplification

 "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." ~ Leonardo da Vinci

 

Unfolding understanding may appear intricate at times, but it's a rather astonishing thing when clarity arrives.  Things are what they are.  And you see it.  You may not see everything, but you don't actually need to.

There's a lot of talk about truth these days, how to find it, how to know it, how to tell it.  It is not entangled.  It simply is.  Deeper truths are spiritual.  Deeper truths, you feel.  

Even so, this is our human journey.  Shallow "truths" demand our attention.  They can even be captivating.  They may indeed be true, or they may actually be false.  Or often they are some combination of the two.  

The simple path is liberating.  Suddenly things deepen.

 

 

Forest Path photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Turning Point

"It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come." ~ Field of Dreams

There is a scene in Field of Dreams when the Magic becomes visible.  The doubters couldn't see.  They thought is was "crazy".  

How could you mow over your corn?  

Because there is Magic.  And I'd like you to see.

There came a day.  The day everything changed. 

I sense we're not far from this day on this planet.  We have much of an over-thought world driven by "rationalists", when we don't need to live on mere "rations" at all. 

The Magic will find them, one Heart at a time.  They knew it as children and long, long ago.  We did too.  We do now.  They are coming.

It's the world that once was, and is, and will be again. 

P.S. I noticed a typo while previewing this entry.  I chose to keep it (or should I say, "is") very intentionally. ;-)

Is this Paradise? A Lesson from Persephone

During a particularly "connected" week some years ago, I found myself rather unexpectedly guided to the topic of Persephone.
It happened one day while listening to classical music on the radio in my old world at work as a computer scientist (a world that seems very distant to me now!). A rather ominous and jarring piece came on announced as The Persephone Suite, breaking my concentration. In that moment, I was strongly "nudged" to stop immediately what I was doing and look the piece up on Google, though rarely did I diverge from the detail of my work.
My search immediately led to Persephone herself, someone whose basic history was familiar to me through a cursory knowledge of Greek mythology, traditionally known as the Queen of the Underworld.

Often paradoxical in her portrayal, Persephone symbolizes cycles of destruction and rebirth, emblematic of awakening, and directly associated with the intensely mystical experiences of the Eleusinian Mysteries, highly appropriate for my state of mind that day.
There is actually more to this story, much more, as what I discovered that day also led to some interesting revelations regarding reincarnation, relating to eerie parallels in a beautiful painting of the Roman version of Persephone (Proserpine) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti that immediately appeared when I searched for her.
I will not convey the entire mythological story of Persephone here, except to say that abducted from her Divine parents by the God of the Underworld, she spent six months below and six months above, a wanderer between worlds, essentially forced to eternally journey from Heaven to Hell and back again.
About a month ago, I found myself rather unexpectedly interacting with an unusual guest as a regular caller to late night Portland paranormal talk radio. This is someone I would be unlikely to encounter in my daily life, a person whose spiritual path is intentionally focused on Darkness. And in a fascinating twist, we found ourselves connecting on common ground in a surprising way, despite the diversity of our apparent paths, common ground leading straight to and from the Divine.
This conversation and some subsequent research had quite an impact on me, leading me to face and attempt to reconcile the Darkness, including the Darkness in our world and in ourselves. It led me to ponder a question I had confronted before: What if "heaven" and "hell" aren't quite what we perceive them to be?
When we reflect on the question "Is this Paradise?", reminiscent of the wanderers in Field of Dreams, we are invited to reconcile Earth's most challenging paradoxes.
Pondering the plight of Persephone, seemingly caught between worlds, I was inspired to set her free, crafting a simple tale of Illusion rendered by Duality:

What if Persephone discovered that Heaven and Hell meet in a place called Paradise?
And in this place Persephone discovered between the two worlds she resided, one day she invited the angels and the demons to meet to play a game.
The angels were asked to stare as long as they could possibly bear at the darkness until utterly repulsed. They did this willingly, being the empathic beings they held themselves to be, seeking to understand.
The demons didn't need to be asked to rise to the challenge, boldly staring at the light with demonic bravado, being the daring creatures of the dark they held themselves to be.
Then something unusual happened they did not expect. Suddenly they realized they were all staring in a mirror, the most repulsive sight of all, yet they could not look away.
For the "angels" saw the darkness they despised within themselves, just as the "demons" saw the dreaded light within.
And in that magical mirror of utter Clarity, the dark and the light instantly disappeared before their eyes, revealing the Beauty masked within.
It was in this way Persephone finally taught her beloved how to truly love themselves, handing them the Key to Paradise.

"Avatar" and the Voice of Expanded Consciousness

I have now seen James Cameron's "Avatar" twice, and I will no doubt see it at least one more time during its theatrical release. Why is it that so many feel this movie calling them back to theaters again and again? Is it the special effects? Perhaps, for some. But I think for most, it is something far more profound. It reminds me of how we lined up for "Star Wars" again and again and again in the 1970's. That wasn't all about special effects either.

Some have claimed that the storyline of "Avatar" is simplistic, but the greatest messages of humanity are often delivered in simple packages. I realize in retrospect what a remarkable impact "Star Wars" had on me in my sheltered youth, despite its simple story. The themes behind the story, exposing many of us to the concept of expanded Consciousness in a subtle way, were what gave "Star Wars" its true power. And the "Avatar" phenomenon is the "Star Wars" of the present day, both in special effects and more importantly, Consciousness effects.

We are at a point in our history where "the little people" will no longer tolerate being disempowered by those who claim authority over us in unethical, insatiable ways. That's because we finally realize we are not "little people" at all. Corporate greed and power plays are being exposed for what they are. The ignorance of selfish, war-hungry arrogance, such as what led to the utter desolation of many indigenous cultures on this planet, is rapidly falling out of favor. Religions claiming fear-based, violent, authoritarian "gods", veiled with a veneer of privilege and conditional love, are losing their resonance. Fear itself is losing its grip on the planet, though it may not seem that way at times.

The Voice of expanded Consciousness is speaking to us through "Avatar". The Voice of true transformation. We are fully capable of connecting to the planet, the Universe and each other, even more readily than the fictional Na'vi. We can already "see" into the hearts of others and All That Is, if we simply open our eyes. We can finally release our fear of death and even connect to the voices and the hearts of the past, once we realize Life is never-ending.

"Avatar" is leading many to ponder whether the supposed glories of our technology are truly worth the price. The sarcastic, atheistic snickering quietly explored in "Avatar" reveals just how arrogant, vacuous and destructive the strictly materialistic mindset can be, when taken to an extreme, in light of TRUE reality. Ultimately I believe technology will become one of many tools in a much grander toolset, until it is one day rendered obsolete by Consciousness itself. Technological evolution is not the answer for mankind. That path, when pursued at the expense of all others, only leads to emptiness, unbridled greed and utter destruction. The real answer for humanity is our quantum leap in Consciousness.

Dawn is breaking, after a very long night. Can you "see" the Light?

We are ALL "avatars" dreamwalking on this planet we call Earth. Our true Consciousness resides in Infinite Love.

I See You.