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 Real You Vs. The False You

For many this will seem like an intriguing concept, the concept of there being another you. Most people go about their day by day lives thinking that what they see in the mirror is ‘real’. What’s more, most people believe that everything they see in the world around them is ‘real’. Have you ever seen the cartoon Transformers? It is an old cartoon which was around in the 1990’s and has become popular in recent times by Michael Bay’s attempt at bringing them into the theatre. For those of you who saw the original cartoons, can you remember the tag line in the theme song? For those not familiar with this song the words are, “Transformers, more than meets the eye”. This being the perfect phrase to now use in describing you, as just with the transformers there is also a lot more to you than meets the eye.

Most people tend to identify themselves with what they see in front of them. If you are like most people, when you look in the mirror you believe that person being reflected back is you. As far as you are concerned everything that is ‘you’ can be seen in that mirror. But in reality this couldn’t be further from the truth. What you see in the mirror every day is just the reflection of something greater, something that is hidden within your physical shell which we call our bodies.

This hidden part of ourselves is not hidden in the sense that we are not meant to find it. Neither is it hidden from us so that we will not find it or become aware of it. It is hidden in the fact that it cannot be seen with our traditional five senses. And seems we as humans tend to equate reality with being able to perceive it with one of our senses, we are not normally aware of this ‘hidden’ aspect of ourselves as we go about our day by day lives. It is this hidden aspect of ourselves that we will be looking at here.

Many civilisations, nations, cultures, people throughout the ages have had an awareness of this hidden aspect of being. Many refer to it as spirit, whereas others call it the soul. It is this spirit, this soul, where the ‘real’ you resides. This is the ‘you’ that existed before you were born on earth, and will continue to exist long after you pass through the process we currently call ‘death’. This part of you is eternal; it cannot be created or destroyed.

Now this is completely opposite the characteristics of the ‘you’ you’re acquainted with on a day by day basis. The ‘you’ you’re used to is fat, slow, ugly, dumb, broken, limited, weak, handsome, hairy, short, tall and the list goes on. And according to this part of ourselves we will cease to exist once we die. This is based off the fact that we have seen our ancestors die and be put in the grave; therefore we too will follow the same path.

It is at this point appropriate, after having established that there are two aspects to us as human beings, to put names to these dual aspects of ourselves. First of all, one of these aspects of our being is false, whereas the other is real. No points for guessing which one is which at this point, right? The false aspect of ourselves is called the ‘ego’, with the real aspect of ourselves being referred to as ‘I AM’, or the Higher Self.

Before getting into any more detail it is important to provide some visual aids to help describe what is being explained. The following diagram depicts very basically some attributes of these two different aspects of us as human beings. Following the diagram we will break it down and apply it to ourselves in seeing how this knowledge can benefit us in our day to day lives.

The Real You – ‘I AM’ This is your spirit. This is the eternal you that is: Unlimited Unchangeable Immortal Accepts everything without judgement Part of the One One with all things Exists in the ‘NOW’

The Filters These represent our filters as human beings. These function as we go about our daily lives. The filters are: Beliefs & values Perceptions Environment Memories Decisions Attitudes Language Time/Space It is these filters that determine what we experience in our lives. We do not actually see life as it is, we only see life through these filters. Each of us have differences in how we use these filters, which is why we all experience different things in life.

The False You – ‘The ego’ This is the container that is the effects of the filters on the left. How we use the filters create the ego, or the false self. The ego is your false self, it is the you that is: Limited Changeable Mortal Judges Separate from the One Separate from all things Exists in the past and future At birth, this false self, the ego, is blank. Thus each of us creates our own egos as we go through life from birth. The ego grows and feeds off our filters. Without the filters the ego would not exist.

Let us now take a more detailed look at these dual parts of our being. The deepest, most authentic part of ourselves is who we really are, the ‘I AM’. It is within this ‘I AM’ that our true nature and abilities reside. It is the ‘I AM’ that has come to this part of Earth to experience life within the physical density. This was necessary so the “I AM’ could experience itself in a way that wasn’t possible before we were born on Earth.

As part of being born on Earth we each acquire a physical body of flesh and blood. But we also acquire something else when we enter mortal existence; we acquire filters. As seen in the table above these filters include beliefs & values, perceptions, environment, language and time/space. These filters were not part of our existence before being born on Earth. It is these filters that colour every aspect of our physical lives.

This is where it begins to get very interesting. How we use our filters from birth essentially determines who we become. But you see, who we really are, the ‘I AM’, is unchangeable. Who we really are is already perfect and complete. We are not here to become something as the ‘I AM’ already is all it can be. And it is here we enter into one of the greatest paradoxes that life has to offer.

As we grow as children we begin to experience and use these filters in different ways. As we do so a certain thing known as the ego begins to expand and grow. The more and more we use these filters the stronger the ego becomes. As the ego grows stronger the ‘I AM’ slips more and more into the background. The more control the ego has over our lives, the less control the ‘I AM’ has. Put another way, the more we live from ego, the more of an illusion we live in; and the more we live from ‘I AM’, the closer to reality we live.

The more we identify with ego the less we identify with what is real. The ego does not see things as they really are; it sees things according to the past. For example, after multiple break ups we begin to be resistant to entering into future relationships. Why? Because according to our ego, relationships cause hurt, pain and suffering. Your filters are now coloured accordingly and all you experience in relationships is pain, hurt and suffering. This applies to any experience which we have judged or perceived to be a certain way.

Hence the fact that it is all but an illusion. In reality all of life is a fresh moment, a new moment of NOW. This new moment is not influenced by any of the previous ones, unless we allow it. When we live from ego, we live according to our past, according to our life story. But this story is nothing but an illusion of past beliefs & values, perceptions, environment, language, memories, decisions etc. If we were to drop these filters at any moment we would see life as it really is. This is the paradox we live in. We live in a reality that is an illusion created by ourselves.

The irony of it is that reality is always there to be seen, but we choose not to see it as we live via the ego. The real you, the ‘I AM’, is the pure awareness that exists beyond your thoughts, beyond the filters, and beyond the ego. You are not your thoughts. You are not your filters. You are not your body. And you are most definitely not your ego. These things are parts of you, but they are not you. It is like your body. It is made up of hands, fingers, a head, neck, legs etc. These things are part of you, but they are not who you really are.

As you wake up to this you will start to experience the power that lies within you. As you recognise you are not the voice in your head, it begins to liberate you from the inside out. You will realise you are not a slave to that inner voice, to your emotions, your feelings, and your thoughts. You will realise that you are the silent ‘I AM’ that underlies all of these things, the part of you that is real. As you get in touch with this ‘real’ you, life as you know it begins to shift dramatically. You realise that you have been living in an illusion, albeit an illusion that seems very real while you are in it. Einstein affirmed this as near the end of his life he stated, “Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one”.

You cannot begin to live your full potential until you realise who you really are, and in order to do this you need to understand who you are not. I hope that as a result of reading this you now have a better idea of who you are not, so that you might more fully get in touch with who you really are. There is so much more to you than meets the eye. The more you get in touch with the ‘real’ you, the more you will be able to transform your life. It all starts with a decision, the decision to act. Will you continue living in the illusion, or are you ready to step out of the illusion into reality. The choice is yours.

Are You Special?

This morning I checked my email inbox as I do every day, and I was greeted by a few status quo emails. But there was one email amongst the lot that was not status quo; it stood out above the rest.  This email was directed to me, I mean REALLY directed to me. I felt a real sense of love as I began to read the words of this one particular email. The email was from the blood donation centre, and they were wishing me a happy birthday. But this was not your ordinary birthday wish. The basic message of the email was this: ‘Even though you get to feel special one day of the year on your birthday, to us and these people whose lives you save, you are special every day.’

For some reason this email really struck a chord with me. So much so that I have been pondering over what it really means for a person to be special ever since. In my pondering a simple truth has begun to repeat in my heart, a truth that often escapes us in the pursuits of daily life. The truth is this: each and every one of us is special, every single second, of every single minute, of every single day of our lives.

The most important question though is do you really believe it? Normally we only feel special when something outside of us triggers us to feel that way. An example being the way I felt after reading that email this morning. But the reality is that our specialness is always there within us, it never vanishes away or ceases to be a reality. It is an innate part of our essence, and forms who we really are. We are each children of the Divine. And as such each of us possess the attributes of Divinity waiting to be brought into full blossom.

Why then do we not always feel special in our day to day lives? Is it because we are not as good looking as our best friend? Or is it because our neighbour gets more attention than us because of their million dollar house? Perhaps it is because we don’t get as many people post on our facebook wall as other people we know? Could it just be that our job isn’t special so we are not special? There are many such examples, but you get the picture.

And so it is that most of us associate being special with having something outside of us. In order to feel special we need to be told from an external person. Or it is some other external source in the form of a quote or a book that fires up the feelings of specialness within. But is this really where our specialness exists? Does our being special reside in a book? Does it exist in facebook? Can it be found in having blonde hair? Or a fast car?

The answer is no, it cannot be found in anything external to you. The reality is that we are always special. Where then does this specialness reside? Where can one find it? The answer is within your true self. Now there is a difference between your true self, and your fake self. Each of us has a fake self. The fake self is formed by others opinions and beliefs. It is formed by our own judgements of ourselves as we go throughout life. Our fake self creates the mask which blocks the true self.

Within the true self is our innate specialness. It is always there, and is never not there. The only time most of us see or feel this specialness is when something external causes us to remove the mask for a time. But the reality is we have the ability to remove the mask ourselves, any time we choose. The moment we stop comparing ourselves to others, looking outside ourselves for self-worth, judging ourselves etc., is the moment we remove the mask. The mask is merely an illusion, a mask we all have to varying degrees.

So when will you choose to take off your mask? When will you step outside the shadow of your fake self and into your true self, who you really are? Are you ready to stop accepting what other people say of you and start accepting your true special nature? Special is who you are, who I am, and who the all are. As it is for one, so it is for all.

All the answers to life are within you this very moment. You are the very thing you’ve been looking for. You are the most special person in existence. As the old proverb goes, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Right now my heart is telling me that I am special, and that you are just as special. Glorious be the day when we can accept this every single second, of every single minute, of every single day of our lives.

You Are Your Life

You are the centre of your universe; as I am the centre of my universe. What you see in the world around you is, well, YOU. Hang on a minute, you are probably thinking. Did he just say what I thought he said? Yes ladies and gentleman, you read it right. YOU are what you see in the universe around you every second of every day. As an individuated conciousness, you are the centre of every thing that is happening in your life. In essence, you are your life.

Most people think in a very limited sense as is conditioned in us as we grow older in this world. We are taught in school that everything in the universe is separate and independent of everything else. Traditionally we think that no one can be the center of the universe because everyone cannot be the center at the same time. Again this is based of the thinking that consciousness is separate from itself. But in actual fact, consciousness is projected from where you are. All conciousness exists in one place and time and that is where you are.

You as a human being are consciousness itself. Every single human being is an individuated aspect of conciousness within the One conciousness. Every single one of us as an individual conciousness in connected through the One great conciousness, that which is often referred to as God. As such whichever point of view you are experiencing within a certain point of time and a certain place is a projection from you. It is this way so that you as an individuated conciousness can experience everything else from that point of view. Essentially we experience what we choose and we choose what we experience. This is the object of this physical life. The appearance that everything is separate is an illusion. In reality, every human being as conciousness is connected with everything and as such exists in a state of Oneness with all that is.

This truth holds the key to understanding why things happen in your life. Essentially what this means is that you are the creator of your own reality. God, the Source, the First Cause, or however you prefer to define Deity, has intentionally organised the universe in this way. And when you come to understand how it works more fully, you begin to see how perfect it really is. This universe is perfect in every single way possible. Why? Because the Grand Cosmic Director who organised it is perfect. A perfect universe is a reflection of a perfect conciousness.

This amazing truth applies to all areas of your life. You notice positive qualities and attributes in another because they are within you. When you get angry at something someone says or does, it is because you do that very same thing and it makes you angry. You project from your conciousness every person and every circumstance in your life. All illness is created from within, as nothing outside of you can effect you unless you let it. Essentially, every experience or situation in your life is an extension of your conciousness. The universe, or more specifically, your world, is a mirror of who you are at any given moment or point in time. It has been designed like this intentionally and purposefully, and is certainly no accident.

In order for you to fully experience yourself as the creator of your reality, you first need to be aware. Awareness means being fully concious in the moment, not lost in thought or dulling your senses with TV, music or anything else that distracts your attention. As you become aware, you will realise that you are the centre of all that is taking place in your life, your universe. By thinking that something or someone outside of you is the centre of what's taking place in your life, you are essentially giving your power to that thing in the external world.

The reality is we are concious creators, we cant be conciousness and not create. The very fact that we are conciousness with choice means we by nature and right create the reality in which we live. We therefore are the observers and the observed. We observe the very things create, and we create the very things we observe. When you truly understand this your world and universe begin to change accordingly. No longer are you a victim of circumstance or at the mercy of chance. There is no longer any room for luck, as you are the luck in your life, both the perceiver and the perception of it.

When you live from this mindset you realise that no longer do things and people move around you without your approval. It quickly becomes apparent that you are able to cause the things and people around you to move according to your will and desire. You are the centre of all that happens to you. The more you move closer to living from this reality, the more power you will have of the world outside of you. You will find that you are the master and creator of your own reality. And in a very real way you will begin to experience the reality that you are your life.