“Wow, reality, what a concept.”

This was a popular saying awhile back, an ironic term used by young people to describe one’s state of mind when coming back from a detour into some mistaken opinion or preconception that didn’t quite fit the facts after all. We are forever being reminded that reality is not always what it seems at first glance.

This presents us with something of a dilemma, because its important to have a good grasp on reality.  As M. Scott Peck explains it, "The more clearly we see the reality of the world, the better equipped we are to deal with the world.  The less clearly we see the reality of the world -- the more our minds are befuddled by falsehood, misperceptions and illusions -- the less able we will be to determine correct courses of action and make decisions.  Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life."

Constructing a map of reality is literally the most important thing we will ever do. It is with our map that we chart our course in life and determine what is possible for us.  Our map sets the parameters of our experience, tell us what is important and not important, whether we have succeeded or failed in our journey.

The scientific map

For most people, the most accurate and finely detailed map is the one drawn by science. Yet although the New Age takes this map into account, as we all must if we want accuracy, it also recognizes that this map is grievously incomplete. 

A scientific map is composed of a series of self-referential numbers and measurements devoid of metaphor or story to impart meaning.  As James Lovelock put it, scientists are “like competent librarians who devise the most intricate classifications of every new library they discover, but never read the books.”

The scientific map may be finely detailed, but there is no symbolic legend, no compass to orient us, no pointers to anything beyond the flat surface of the map. The New Age recognizes that even though the scientific map is invaluable help, it does not tell us the real story, the story one can get only by “opening the books.”

Luckily, an increasing number of physicists are now speculating about the context of their numbers and measurements.  That’s because as science advances, it continually stumbles up against the limits of measurement.

In order to keep fine tuning their classifications, many physicists have found themselves moving from objectivity into subjectivity, from materialism to idealism.  And they are discovering that their numbers and measurements are pointing them to a story more wondrous than Newton could ever have dreamed.

Holograms

As physics move deeper and deeper into the nature of matter, reducing it to its smallest components, science finds that “a tree, a table, a cloud, a stone -– all are resolved by 20th-century science into one similarly constituted thing, a congeries of whirling particle-waves obeying the laws of quantum physics,” writes Dr. Charles Muses.

“That is, all the objects we can observe are three-dimensional images formed of standing and moving waves by electromagnetic and nuclear processes… super-hologram images, if you will.” 

Physical reality is primarily emptiness, and throughout that emptiness are tiny electrical charges of energy dashing about at incredible speeds while taking up less than a billionth of the volume which matter seems to fill continuously. 

In order to comprehend the tiny amount of “matter” in each atom, imagine that an atom is the size of a fourteen-story building. The nucleus of that atom would be about the size of a grain of salt.  As for the electrons whizzing about -– the salt grain of the nucleus has about 2,000 times the mass of an electron. 

Or conversely, as Jean Houston explained, “Any single one of the roughly 1027 atoms in the average human body has almost all its mass concentrated in a nucleus so small that if all the nuclei of all the atoms that make up the whole of humankind were packed together, their aggregate would be the size of a grain of rice.”

The physical world is literally empty space which energy makes “appear” to be solid.  Matter, as Muses concluded, is nothing but an image of reality.

A cloud of possibility

The image of reality, which seems so real and solid to the human eye and hand, flickers toward surprising instability through the quantum microscope.  When describing the constituents of atoms, physicists must refer to them not as actual things, but as probabilities and tendencies that display a distinct “degree of unreality.” 

Subatomic particles show a marked tendency to fade in and out of concrete actuality depending on whether they are observed or not.  The only way to truly describe these most basic constituents of the universe is as “possible” particles. 

Science writer Nick Herbert elaborates:

A physicist observes the atom at a particular time, looks away for a moment, then observes it a second time… If the physicist tries to describe the atom in between observations as possessing definite attributes at all times, he finds he cannot predict correctly the results of his second observation.  On the other hand, if the physicist describes the unobserved atom as… a “wave of possibilities,” he will get the right result every time… What the math seems to say is that between observations, the world exists not as a solid actuality but only as shimmering waves of possibility.

According to this wave function, all unobserved atoms exist in possible places, not definite places. Of course, the wave function is merely a mathematical tool physics uses to describe reality, and not reality itself. Yet, for the physicist, the question remains:  How do concrete things rise from the thingless world of quantum possibility?

The quantum question

There is apparently little agreement on the answer to the “quantum reality problem,” and theories vary on why the quantum world behaves so capriciously. Interestingly, the theories put forth by different physicists often sound even more bizarre than that of a psychic channeler’s favorite entity.

For example, Hugh Everett’s “Many Worlds” interpretation suggests that all quantum possibilities must be actualities that exist in parallel universes alongside ours.

According to Herbert, the quantum reality problem has become, “strictly speaking, not a physics question at all, but a problem in metaphysics, concerned as it is not with phenomena but with speculating about what kind of being lies behind and supports the phenomena.” 

He adds that physics has reached a point where it can no longer answer such questions all on its own, and that without metaphysical “models of what is really going on in the world, quantum theory remains nothing but opaque mathematical formulism, a very sophisticated kind of ignorance.” 

In other words, it remains nothing but a map with no symbolic legend, no compass to orient us, and no pointers to anything beyond the flat surface of the map.

So here we have been given very exact knowledge of “reality” by physics, and still we are left to ask along with the physicists, what is really going on?  What is the true reality behind its strangely behaving images?

The veil

Twenty-five centuries ago, when Plato was drawing his own map of reality, he did not have knowledge of quantum physics to aid him; yet, he intuitively felt that the world we perceive with our senses was not actual reality, merely a reflective image of reality. 

Plato boldly declared that reality’s true nature is contained in Ideas, and considered the material world to be shadow play cast by the eternal world of Ideas. He likened the ordinary person to a man sitting in a cave and looking at a wall on which he sees nothing but the shadows of the reality which unfolds unseen, behind his back. “The eyes,” said Plato, “are full of deceit.”

Even before Plato, the Hindus had grasped that the world is illusion, which they called maya, the veil of appearances which hides reality. Maya, or the world of objects, is a playful creation, like an epic drama, spun from God’s imagination.

After all,as Muses continues, "The very nature of an image, however sophisticated, cries out the existence of a concomitant projection process and image source."  For the Hindus, the image source was Brahman, or God.

When we consult this map of reality, it comes as no surprise to learn that when astronomers attempt to measure the energy in the entire universe, both positive and negative, they continually arrive at the total sum of zero. Zero energy! 

The universe and all its wonders is quite literally made from nothingness. It is indeed an image, an illusion of appearances. The maya thus spins out in dancing images from the void, from the dreaming mind of God.

The days and nights of God

When the Hindus first envisioned the creation of the maya, they imagined it emanating from the mind of God in an eternal rhythm of cycles. For a long stretch of time called a kalpa (4,320,000 years), the universe was manifested and made real by a sleeping God’s dreams.  For another kalpa God was awake and no longer dreamed the world into being, and nothing was manifested.

Now suppose, said Alan Watts, that you were God and you had the power to dream whatever you wanted.  At first you might dream yourself a life of riches and plenty, dream yourself up food and toys galore.  You might dream yourself as a hero in an adventure.  You might dream yourself as a saint.

But after awhile, for variety, you might also dream yourself into a terrible situation, in a prison, in a war, just to see what happens.  After a very long while, even this might become a little dull, and you would be constantly looking for something new and different and dramatic.  And you would certainly not want to know what happens ahead of time, for that would spoil the fun and ruin the whole purpose of the dream.

In this way, life unfolds within the mind of God like a dramatic dream.  And what is God’s reason for dreaming up our ever-changing reality?  The same reason that we humans invent stories and put on plays and make movies; the same reason that we sit enthralled in dark theaters, or before the screen of a video game, or stay up late at night with a good book.  So that we might experience everything that is possible for us to experience, and feel all there is to feel, and learn all there is to learn. 

We carry within us God’s purpose, we carry within us the drive of the entire universe -– to continually expand consciousness by creating, by learning, by ever becoming something new.

The world as maya is a playful, educational drama acted out by and for God, who is both the actors and the audience.  And, as we slip in and out of the maya, we find that the world is real as a stage is real with its hard wooden floors and velvet curtains and props and lights and the smell of greasepaint.  And we, the characters on the stage are real as long as the soul of the actor within us says our lines and wears our costumes.  But when the actor leaves the stage, and the soul discards the body, we wake from our dream and the illusion becomes obvious.

Living a dream

For a New Ager, this long-enduring idealist map of reality as dramatic illusion has been the map is the one that most “makes sense.” It answers our heart’s deepest question of why we are here, and gives our lives the stability of clear purpose without weighing it down with heavy religious consequences, or without making us feel lost in a sea of random scientific processes.

This view of reality also gives us a profound sense of security. By allowing us to see through appearances, see through fleeting and ever-changing materiality to a constant spiritual reality, we discover that we have nothing whatsoever to fear. No matter what happens in the drama, we succeed in our purpose; we cannot fail. And no matter what happens in the drama, we, as part of God, are always safe.

When fear goes out the window, fun comes in. When all is a game, a play, a show -- we are free to enjoy the adventure. When all is a game, we can more easily laugh about our foibles and falls. We can also approach our lives as would any actor playing a role. The more challenging the role, the more satisfying it is to play it. 

Tragedy and comedy, horror and suspense, romance and adventure -– no matter what kind of role we find ourselves playing today, the New Age tells us we might as well laugh out loud and cry real tears, and keep ourselves on the edge of our seats. As everyone knows, life is not a dress rehearsal. We might as well give it everything we’ve got.

Go to Creating Reality.