The Only Thing

When I was grade school age, I first heard the riddle, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" I was (and still am) very logical and scientific about the way I saw things. I thought, "Of course it makes a sound! Duh! What kind of riddle is that? Even if no one's around, the moving air and impact on the earth would make a sound!"

I realized after a shift in perspective how things really work. The production of sound requires 3 things: A source, a medium, and a receiver. The source creates a series of pressure waves. These pressure waves travel through various mediums including water, air, and solids. The receiver collects and converts these pressure waves into electrical impulses. If you remove any of the 3 requirements for sound, there is no sound.

In the vacuum of outer space there is no medium for sound wave travel, therefore, no sound. In the absence of a receiver in the woods, the falling tree only produces a series of pressure waves.

This is an issue many scientists, and people in general overlook. There is no science without an observer, and yet the observer is often left out of equations and theories. Everyday people also overlook the fact that they see the world from their eyes alone. People influence what they see by what they think and how they feel about it.

Everything you can possibly conceive of in all creation and even imagination, all have one thing in common. Even more, this one thing is the only thing that is ever really real to us. It is all we experience and allows us to conceive of, and perceive the world the way we do.

This only thing is consciousness. Without consciousness, nothing would be perceived or experienced. Nothing would exist without attention paid to it. If eyes were never part of our anatomy, light would not exist for us. Consciousness gives birth and meaning to all experience. If something can not be experienced, acknowledged, measured, or otherwise observed, how can it possibly exist to us?

It's the only thing that there really is. If you can really appreciate that, life is sweet!

Related posts:

• Realizing Life
• Sense of Awareness
• Relative Reality
• It Makes Sense
  

Amazing Potential

What Is Really Real?

First video blog entry. More to come very soon.

The Illusion

Many philosophers have pondered the nature of reality and often questioned if it is real or merely an illusion. Albert Einstein said, "Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one." The ancient teachings in many spiritual scriptures and religions refer to our reality as an illusion as well. Hinduism, to name one, refers to this illusion as 'Maya'.

What is it about the nature of reality that could possibly have philosophers, religions, and science all in agreement? What raises doubt of the authenticity of what we experience our universe to be?

Dreams are an excellent clue to point to the fact that we may experience a reality that is not necessarily real. In the middle of a dream, we are convinced that it is real and we react to everything as if we are physically going through it. In fact, the dream is real. It is just as real as your waking life in the moment you are experiencing it. When you realize that reality is all created in your brain, the source of the stimulus is irrelevant. The end result is exactly the same. Whether you are actually walking down a country road in the physical world or you are dreaming that you are doing so, the electrical activity in your brain is virtually identical. In other words, your brain does not know the difference.

From the scientific point of view, when you examine what the physical world is made of, you will come to realize that it is made of mostly empty space and energy. Matter that was once thought of as solid is actually mostly "not there". What is there is merely vibrating energy. On top of these mind boggling facts, it has also been documented that the act of observing and the intention of the observer actually influence what is being observed. In other words, we shape this vibrating energy.

Spiritual teachings have been speaking of this now scientifically documented information for thousands of years. However, today it is easier than ever to connect the dots. It is easier than ever to inform yourself and see through this illusion that we all live in. It is easier than ever to awaken from this dream.

For more on this and related concepts, read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned!

Life Is an Art

There is a science to life and what our reality is. As a fan of quantum mechanics, I can really say there are massive mathematical equations that actually help to map and explain the forces that make our universe what it is.

But like most things with great depth, life is a paradox. Not only is it a science, but it is an art. Perhaps this is the reason why science may never fully explain everything. The more answers we find, the more questions will be revealed. Thus the intuitive and artistic perspective of life holds just as much value; if not more.

In quantum mechanics, a quantum observer is recognized to collapse a wave function of possibilities into a specific reality. When the ancient sages of Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnostic Christianity, Jewish Kabbalahists, Muslim Ismalis, and other less spoken of spiritual teachings spoke of a true Self or objective Observer they spoke of the same occurrence; only with out the benefit of experiments to back up their wealth of knowledge. They had the art of knowing as opposed to the science of it. Both ways of looking at life yield the same results. The following are a few artistic illustrations of the point of being the observer.

• You are the author of your own story.
• You are the sculptor of your own image.
• You are the illustrator of your own big picture.
• You are the writer, director, and star of your own movie.
• You are the singer of your own song.
• You are the star dancer in this "life is a stage" performance.

These all help point to the fact that it is your perspective, and yours alone, that determines your life's experience. No matter what happens, it is the context of how you percieve it, that detemines how you feel about it. Life is an art. Be a great artist.