What Do They Mean, "Life Is Just an Illusion?"

Most of us go through our entire lives believing that everything we see in front of us is solid, is real. We never question the nature of the universe or the validity of our senses. Do we even know that there is more to life than what we perceive with the five senses? Most of us would have to answer this question with a “no”. Do we really know what we are looking at each day? What we are touching, feeling, smelling, hearing?

We are all accustomed to and used to the idea that the universe is solid and real. We touch, smell, taste, see and hear things constantly, for this is how we perceive our universe isn’t it? According to our five senses, everything we come into contact with is just as real as we are. To most people, if you can’t experience it with these five senses it does not exist.

This is where it gets interesting, and where we either get confused or lose interest. What we perceive with these five senses, in reality, is only but a small portion of all that exists. Additionally, what we touch, smell, taste, see and hear, i.e. what we sense, is not actually real; as nothing sensed is real. All motion is a simulation, it is an illusion. All we perceive with our senses is motion, motion of light. Motion is not real, although it simulates that which is real.

If this is the case, then what is real? The answer is quite simple, stillness. Stillness of what you might ask? It is none other than Light. Walter Russell, in his timeless classic, The Secret of Light, explains, “Light cannot be seen; it can only be known. Light is still. The sense of sight cannot respond to stillness. That which the eyes ‘feel’ and believe to be light is but wave motion simulating the idea if Light.

When man sees the light of the sun he believes that he is actually seeing the light when the nerves of his eyes are but ‘feeling’ the intense, rapid, shortwave vibrations of the kind of wave motion which he senses as incandescence. Man likewise cannot see darkness. The nerves of his eyes which sense motion slow down to a rate of vibration which he can no longer ‘feel’.”

In layman’s terms, what we see as light is not actually real light; it is but simulated light as an extension of the real Light. It is the same with matter, as matter is but simulated light, it is not the Light itself. The physical universe, where we are currently, is composed of simulated light only, in the form of motion. Motion can only sense motion, it cannot sense stillness. In other words, our five senses can only perceive motion (illusion), and not stillness (reality). This is why Jesus, as recorded in the Bible, said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” Why did he say this? Quite simply, because it is impossible to judge accurately with the senses, as the senses do not perceive that which is accurate, i.e. that which is real, in the first place.

Walter Russell adds further in his book thus mentioned, “Perhaps the confusion which attends this idea would be lessened if we classify everything concerning the spiritual universe, such as life, intelligence, truth, power, knowledge and balance as being the ONE LIGHT of KNOWING, and everything concerning matter and motion as being the TWO SIMULATED LIGHTS of thinking.” Put simply, we cannot know anything real through thinking, as thinking only perceives motion, which is illusion. It is like a mirage. The mirage reflects the idea of that something, although it is not that something.

As summarised by Russell, “The light which we think we see is but motion. We do not see light. We FEEL the wave vibrations set up by the motion which simulates light, but the motion of electric waves which simulate light is not that which it simulates.” This is what it means that life is just an illusion. It is not life itself that is an illusion, but what we think we perceive life to be. The world that we think we see is not the world that really is. Our life is nothing but an accumulation of ‘senses’ experiences which we have interpreted and given meaning. Without judgement, life just is.

What we perceive as being ‘bad’, ‘negative’, ‘devastating’, ‘hard’, etc., are according to our senses, our thinking. Without thinking, none of these things would exist. Most of us live our entire lives caught up in our senses, being stuck in thinking; as this is where we think reality exists. The truth is the exact opposite. Our thinking is limited to illusion, as thinking can only perceive motion. Motion is the simulation of stillness, as stillness is all there is, although our senses tell us otherwise.

So then, with this knowledge, how do we live in reality? We live in reality by living in stillness, which exists only in the now. The past and the future are based on motion. Neither the past nor the future exists, except in our thinking. Stillness is who we really are. As we step out of our thinking and silence our minds, what do we find? Nothing but stillness. We are that stillness. That is who we really are. We are the consciousness, the very awareness that underlies all thought and sensing.

We have the opportunity to live in the moment of now, or to live in the past or future. One is reality, the other illusion. The one entails that everything is perfect, the other that it needs to be changed. The one exists in perfect love and acceptance, the other in fear and separation. Many people never get this because it is too simple. They spend their entire lives searching for some wonderful, amazing, world shattering truth or teaching, never realising what they are searching for is constantly in front of them. It is our choice to which course we pursue in life. When we choose to live in the now, in stillness, we live in reality. When we choose to live in the past or future, in our thinking, which is motion, we live in illusion.

The Art of Letting Go

Have you ever noticed how the more you try and control your life, the worse it seems to get? In the same vein, have you noticed how the more attached you are to an outcome happening ‘the way you want it’ actually makes it not happen that way at all? Have you ever wondered why it happens that way? If you’re like most people, including yours truly, then the answer is yes.

I personally have experienced this multiple times in my life. You might ask yourself in times like these, like I do, what the heck is going on? Why can’t I seem to control everything that goes on in my life? I mean, isn’t that the purpose of life in the first place, to learn to control life more and live it like you want? I don’t know about you, but this is the impression I was under growing up. So then what is really going on here?

As you begin to ponder such questions, I want you to start thinking about times in your life when you seemed detached from the outcome, where you couldn’t care less what happened. As you think back into the past right now, do you notice how most of those events actually turned out in a positive way, much to your surprise? Have you ever noticed that the more you let go of the outcome, or the less you try to control it, the more likely it is to work out for you? Does this seem confusing to you?

What is going on here? This seems to contradict what logic says should happen in our lives. Why is it that the more attached you are, the less likely it is too happen the way you want it? Wouldn’t it make sense to have something work how you want it? And so it is that the remainder of this post is dedicated to answering these questions and more.

It is interesting to note as one begins to contemplate such questions, that there appears on the surface to be a great paradox here. In the first place we are told to set goals, in some cases to set very precise goals, for how we want to live our lives. Yet it seems that if we become too attached to these goals, that they are never achieved the way we want. Then on the other hand, if we set a goal and let go of how it is achieved, it seems more likely that a way is provided to accomplish that goal and then some. Talk about Pandora’s Box!

This introduces us to one of life’s greatest paradoxes; the paradox that we are in control of our lives and not in control of our lives at the same time. For many this will be your first time thinking in such a way. On this train of thought let us delve head first into figuring out exactly what is going on here.

On the surface it does seem much like a paradox, but as we delve deeper we find it is not a paradox at all. As we look at this great paradox from an energetic point of view we find the following: 1) when you are attached too what you want you’re vibrating lack, that you don’t have what you want; 2) when you are detached from the outcome you are vibrating in harmony with what you want, that you do have it. Do you notice the difference? It is all about our state in the present moment. Why is it that way? It is because the present moment is all there really is. No other moment exists outside of now!

In that way it matters little what we want in the future, but everything about whom we are now. It is the present moment that creates the future, one moment at a time. And so we have uncovered the two major ingredients in how to create the life we want. First we must be detached from the outcome, and second we must vibrate in harmony with what it is we want. Let’s look at these two ingredients separately for a moment.

There is a reason why being detached allows you to bring the thing you want into reality. It is because all possibilities exist in the now; present, past and future. All things past, present and future exist right now. We are unlimited beings with the potential to become anything we desire to be. The universe is on our side if we allow it by letting go. Being detached tells the universe that you already have what you want, which is the truth. When you live and vibrate from this truth, you allow it to become a reality in your life. Alternately, when you are attached it tells the universe that you do not have what you want, which is false. When you live and vibrate from this illusion, you stop what you want from becoming a reality.

Therefore the key to obtaining what you want in your life is to be in vibrational harmony with it all the while remaining detached. To narrow it down even further you can say it is all about who you are, as your state creates your reality. Therefore the art of letting go comes down to acknowledging within yourself that you already have everything you need to create the life you want. You can be, do and have anything you desire once you realise that you are a being of infinite potential and light.

In my own life I have found that once I set the intention for what I want it is best to leave it to the universe, to God, to bring about how it becomes a reality in my life. Put another way, it is us that determines the what and why and God that provides the when and how. It is not our job to dictate how something should happen, nor should it be. What great relief this provides to the person that comes to this understanding. Oh the pressure that comes off the shoulders when one realises that they do not have to know the how and when.

As we let go of trying to determine the how and when in life we begin to experience greater success. Once we set the intention, the why and what, it is about letting go and staying detached from the thing we want, for in the very act of doing so, we find it appearing in the most glorious of ways. And this is the secret and beauty of life, not knowing exactly how things will happen in life, but knowing all the while that it will happen. May we all begin to let go in our lives so that we may experience life in all the beauty and splendour that it has to offer.