Strawberry Fields

Today, someone mentioned to me something about a “normal fantasy.” My immediate thought was, “Fantasy—unreality; how can something unreal be “normal?” Then I think back to several weeks ago,when I sat in a class on gnosticism. The teacher told us that we were not really in the classroom. We were in an illusion. I felt like standing up and saying, “Excuse me, if I'm not here, then I have to go find myself. Heck, for all I know, I might be missing out on some fun I'm having somewhere.”

The Buddhists and Kaballists say that we are living in an illusion, as well. An Illusion. Not a fantasy. There is a difference. Well, maybe. Maybe the difference is that we seem to experience an illusion, where a fantasy is something we conjure in our minds but do not experience in our physical manifestation, which is an illusion. So we fantasize while we are are in an illusion, to escape the illusion for whatever reason. Am I making sense? Probably not!

Have you ever listened to the refrain in the Beatles' song, “Strawberry Fields?”

“Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to strawberry fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry fields forever.”

Did you catch that? “Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.” See? Doesn't that just prove it to you? Life is an illusion. Nothing to get upset about. Just let it happen, will you!

“How can this be?” you ask. Well, try this on for size. There are people that are called “astro-travelers.” Many of them claim that they travel in many universes many times through astral-projection. In their travels they find other “realities” where the spirits have agreed to certain conventions and rules by which all live and interpret their environment. Since all have agreed to those “Terms of Service” there is no question of what is “real.” In other words, if all agree that all residents look like lizards, then when they look upon one another, they see lizards.

By extension, in this dimension we call “life,” we have all agreed to a complex“Terms of Service” wherein this Earth we live upon is what we agreed it is. We have seven continents, and we have agreed they are located on an elliptical sphere, the third rock revolving around a solar furnace we call the Sun; and there are many islands, ice caps, etc.; our atmosphere is such and such and degrades as we pollute it. We are just pretty damned smart, don't you think? I don't remember reading the TOS, though, and somehow, it all seems so real, and almost everyone I have met seems to agree on what I have seen.

Is that possible? I'm just a tiger. Don't ask me. I can only tell you what I think I have experienced, and most people are able to relate to my experience because they have experienced “life” in much the same way. I have no REAL idea how I/we came to be. I have suspicions, but nothing more, and nothing about which I am willing to debate.

Like most Buddhists, I do accept that the dimension in which I think I live is temporary—it will pass away into oblivion. I do accept that we as spirits are here to learn and to grow to maturity so that we won't have come here time and time again as we do now. What we experience will end. We have to keep that in mind, otherwise, we may despair in our many failures and give up on growing to maturity. And we have to understand karma, and know that what goes around, comes around. We will reap what we sow, but eventually, we will “arrive” and fail no more. In this life, it doesn't matter what conditions we endure, they are all very real and those around us endure them as well. What matters in the end is that we learned to help one another; to love one another.

Have you ever heard of Raymond Kurzweil? Ray Kurzweil is an inventor—much, much more actually. To his credit are many inventions to include music and voice synthesizers, optical readers, and voice to print converters and print to voice converters. He is a futurist and has promoted many ideas in theoretical physics. Read the wiki on him to get a flavor of the man.

Now, consider all I have said and ask yourself, what would our illusion be like if Ray Kurzweil were not a “dreamer”, a “visionary”, a “fantasizer” living with us in this illusion of ours.

I'm just a tiger. Go figure!

Hey! If you are in for a great mind bender, read The Spiritual Universe by Fred Alan Wolfe. I'm working through it now. I'll probably have something to say as I untangle the convolutions swirling in my cranial cavity.