Posts Tagged ‘David Bohm’
What Are Illusions?
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live,
they are modes in which we think.”
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
“The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”
~ Albert Einstein
“I have realized that the past and future are real illusions,
that they exist in the present,
which is what there is and all there is.
~ Alan Watts
“Time, space and causation are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen. In the Absolute there is neither time, space nor causation.”
“…this separation between man and man, between nation and nation, between earth and moon, between moon and sun. Out of this idea of separation between atom and atom comes all misery.
But the Vedanta says that this separation does not exist, it is not real.”
~ Swami Vivekananda – Jnana Yoga
What appears to be a stable, tangible, visible, audible world, is an illusion. It is dynamic and kaleidoscopic — not really “there”. What we normally see is the explicit, or unfolded, order of things, rather like watching a movie. But there is an underlying order that is mother and father to this second-generation reality.
~ David Bohm
“The world, indeed, is like a dream
and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage!”
“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion,
does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha
“The less we’re illusioned,
the more we’re illumined.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Introduction
Dear Friends,
Have you ever wondered: “What are illusions?” and “What is “real?“?
Spiritually, these are crucial questions. So today’s posting esoterically answers them for us, with the foregoing quotations and following Q and A essay and explanatory comments.
May these writings and reflections help bring us ever-growing life fulfillment and happiness, until we lose all illusions and transcend this wonderful world as LOVE.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
What Are Illusions?
Q. What are illusions?
A. Illusions are false ideas, conceptions, or beliefs,
accumulated and aggregated in the memory bank
that we call the “mind”.
Illusions are projections from the past
which obscure or obstruct our experience of the present.
We can’t live fully in the present,
when we are living partly in the past.
Illusions are mental obscurations.
They cloud or conceal our insight into
That which is Real.
But, as we clear the ‘mirror of our mind’
of old illusory ideas and paradigms of
who and what we think we are,
We can and shall become ever more present,
insightful and illuminated –
about what we really are.
So let us choose to lose our illusions.
For, the less we’re illusioned,
the more we’re illumined.
Ron’s audio recitation of “What are Illusions?”
Ron’s explanation of “What Are Illusions?”
According to dictionaries, “illusions” are misperceptions or misconceptions of reality, fact, or truth. Whereas “reality” is that which factually exists.
For millennia, non-dualist Buddhists and Vedantists have taught that our entire space/time ‘reality’ is a mental mirage or illusion, and not true Reality; that what we perceive and believe to be ‘real’ material forms in space and time, are mentally projected misperceptions from misconceptions of our conditioned ego-minds, which see “through a glass darkly”.
We assume that we are independent human beings, separated from each other and Nature, and acting based on our own free-will. But according to non-dualist mystical philosophies, all of this is mere illusion – samsara or maya. Even our supposed free will is an illusion, because we are inseparable from Nature which determines all we experience, via mysterious karmic causes and conditions. Thus, perceived worldly events or phenomena are always determined by invisible cosmic forces which are as yet unknown to our conditioned ego-minds. (see e.g. Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 18, verses 60-61)
A century has passed since Einstein’s revolutionary relativity theory revealed that “reality” can’t be reduced to objects or entities in space/time. Since then, quantum science has confirmed that everything in space/time is energy (e=mc2); that all forms and phenomena are merely vibrating and radiating immaterial energies endlessly and inevitably appearing (from unknown causes and conditions) out of and disappearing into ineffable mystery.
Thus, Western science has more and more shown what ancient shamans, seers, and indigenous societies have known throughout history:
That there is a cosmic web of life connecting everything and everyone in Nature from the greatest galaxies to the tiniest sub-atomic particles; that we are each an integral inter-connected and interdependent part of Nature’s web of life – not separate from it; and that, as Einstein observed:
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness”; “reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”; “space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think”.
Inspired by Einstein, I have composed the foregoing poetic Q & A essay titled: “What Are Illusions?”, as preceded by apt quotations.
These teachings are deeply dedicated to helping us find relief from belief,
and thereby bringing us ever-growing life fulfillment and happiness.
Invocation
From seeing everyone and everything as discrete,
and separated by apparently immutable boundaries,
may we increasingly realize that all forms and phenomena
are ever-changing energies appearing from a common origin
of Universal Awareness – our true Nature and Source,
which is LOVE.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Discovering How Consciousness Holographically Projects ‘Reality’
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“Objective reality does not exist” ….
“the universe is fundamentally a gigantic … hologram”
~ David Bohm
“We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.”
~ Buddha
“We human beings consider ourselves to be made up of “solid matter.”
Actually, the physical body is the end product, so to speak, of the subtle information fields, which mold our physical body as well as all physical matter. These fields are holograms which change in time (and are) outside the reach of our normal senses. This is what clairvoyants perceive as colorful egg-shaped halos or auras surrounding our physical bodies.”
~ Itzhak Bentov -“Stalking the Wild Pendulum”
Q. Does Objective Reality Exist… Or Is The Universe A Phantasm?
A. “What is ‘there’ is actually a holographic blur of frequencies, and if the brain is also a hologram and only selects some of the frequencies out of this blur and mathematically transforms them into sensory perceptions, what becomes of objective reality? Put quite simply, it ceases to exist. As the religions of the East have long upheld, the material world is Maya, an illusion.”
~ Michael Talbot – “The Holographic Universe”
“What appears to be a stable, tangible, visible, audible world, is an illusion. It is dynamic and kaleidoscopic — not really “there”. What we normally see is the explicit, or unfolded, order of things, rather like watching a movie. But there is an underlying order that is mother and father to this second-generation reality.”
~ David Bohm
“The very study of the physical world leads to the conclusion that …. consciousness is an ultimate reality and, all the possible knowledge, concerning objects can be given as its wave function”
~ Eugene Wigner, Nobel laureate physicist and co-founder of quantum mechanics
“Every particle of the world is a mirror.
In each atom lies the blazing light of a thousand suns.”
~ Mahmud Shabestari, Sufi Mystic, 15th century
“Reality isn’t real.”
“Reality is a holographic theater of the mind.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Theory of Everything:
E = mc2 = Consciousness = Self.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Discovering How Consciousness Holographically Projects ‘Reality’
Introduction.
After the unforgettable inner experience of seeing my thoughts manifest as separate kaleidoscopic thought-forms outside my body or brain, I deeply intuited that thought was the genesis of all phenomenal reality. [See Beginning a New Year and a New Life With a New Mystery] But I had no idea of how that could happen, and became quite curious about any such “creation” process.
Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find. Synchronistically I was gradually given answers which confirmed my initial intuition about the origin of manifest ‘reality’. I had no computer then, or mathematical or scientific background or aptitude, so most of what I was learning came synchronistically, intuitively, and from Eastern mystical teachings, which previously were completely unknown to me.
And gradually I also became acquainted with ‘cutting edge’ scientific models of holistic reality.
In 1977, on recommendation of Dr. Lee Sanella – who later led me to Guruji – I attended lectures by Itzhak Bentov, unconventional Israeli engineer, inventor, adept inner explorer, and whimsical artist, who was then proposing a scientific approach to understanding consciousness in his wonderful book called Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness.
Bentov’s talks and book proposed a scientific and holographic model of the universe consistent with his mystical insights, and with my mysterious psychic and clairvoyant experiences. Bentov suggested that all manifestation results from oscillating electronic fields; that humans are multi-dimensional electromagnetic holograms mentally generating interference patterns with all other manifest consciousness in the universe, and thereby holographically experiencing various apparent realities. Bentov proposed that the universe and thought are inseparable, and that the thoughts of all human beings affect each other and in turn the whole universe.
Until then, I had never heard of holograms and didn’t clearly understand what Bentov was saying about them. But I had previously channeled that “This world is wrought with naught but thought”, and I intuited Bentov’s credibility and authenticity, and was inspired to better understand his ideas about holograms. And soon thereafter that happened.
With my children, I visited The Exploratorium, a wonderful San Francisco science museum, which “coincidentally” then had an exhibit explaining and demonstrating holography, including an amazingly lifelike three dimensional holographic display of Holstein cows. From that exhibit I began to understand holograms. And on viewing the lifelike holographic Holstein images I became intuitively and irreversibly convinced that Bentov’s holographic hypothesis was correct; that our entire universe is an immense holographic informational field, a virtual consensual reality perceived and experienced by each of us – as Universal Awareness energy vortices – from infinite perspectives.
Later, in early 1981, I had an amazing “peek” experience in a meadow on Mount Shasta wherein with microscopic/x-ray vision I holographically beheld images of saintly beings in every atom of every cell of every blade of meadow grass. [See A Magic Mushroom in a Magic Meadow on a Magic Mountain]
Afterwards, I became acquainted with the cutting edge holographic theories of Dr. David Bohm, a foremost theoretical physicist, who had worked closely with Albert Einstein and had advised the Dalai Lama and J. Krishnamurti on theoretical physics. Though I did not read Dr. Bohm’s books, I listened to him in masterful radio interviews by my friend Michael Toms, of New Dimensions Foundation, where I was a Board member for approximately twenty years.
In 1991, Michael Toms also interviewed Michael Talbot, author of an exciting new book entitled “The Holographic Universe” which eloquently summarized and augmented Dr. Bohm’s holographic explanation of reality with holographic brain theories of Stanford neurophysiologist Dr. Karl Pribram, of which I was previously unaware.
Working independently in the field of brain research, Pribram had also become persuaded of the holographic nature of reality. He theorized that the human brain can be modeled as a hologram wherein memories are encoded not in neurons, but in patterns of nerve impulses that crisscross the entire brain in the same way that patterns of laser light interference crisscross the entire area of a piece of film containing a holographic image.
As a sensitive and talented intuitive with a history of many paranormal and mystical experiences unexplained by conventional science, Michael Talbot’s life experience enhanced his insight into the significance of the Bohm and Pribram scientific theories. Talbot concluded that holographic theory could scientifically explain psychic phenomena. *
Fascinated by Talbot’s ideas*, I eagerly read “The Holographic Universe” and more than ever before accepted holographic theories of “reality”, both intuitively and scientifically.
Beyond my intuitive insights, the information in Talbot’s book convinced me that universal consciousness projects space-time/causality “reality” holographically, and that holographic theory can largely explain ‘paranormal’ phenomena and mystical experiences, yet unexplained by conventional science. Since reading Talbot’s book I have continued to explore cutting edge scientific explanations for our “universe” without yet discovering any idea that has changed my insights about the holographic nature of space/time reality.
In 1893, Swami Vivekananda came to the West from India and, addressing the 1893 Chicago World Parliament of Religions, eloquently explained to Westerners how according to ancient Indian Advaita philosophy this impermanent and ever changing world is an unreal illusion called “maya” or “samsara”; he equated maya or samsara with “time, space, and causation”, explicating that
“Time, space and causation are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen. In the Absolute there is neither time, space nor causation.”
And Vivekananda presciently predicted Western scientific confirmation of the ancient Vedic non-dual philosophy of One Infinite Existence beyond relative reality. [See Epilogue – below]
Thereafter, in 1916, Albert Einstein revolutionized Western science with publication of his general relativity theory that “mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing”; that there was an equivalence between all matter and energy in the universe, quantifiable by the simple equation e = mc2. But Einstein’s non-mechanistic science has been very difficult for Western materialist minds to comprehend because his mystical view questioned the substantiality of matter and the ultimate reality of space, time and causality. Gradually, however, we are seeing the fulfillment of Vivekananda’s prediction as more and more Western scientists like Einstein verify the accuracy of the ancient Vedic science.
Like Vivekananda and the ancient Vedic seers, Einstein questioned the ultimate reality of space, time and causality. He said:
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think”
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”
“There is no place in this new kind of physics for the field and matter, for the field is the only reality.”
And like the ancient Vedic inner explorers, Einstein intuited and venerated an ultimate universal Reality beyond time, space, and causation, saying:
“That which is impenetrable to us really exists. Behind the secrets of nature remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.”
Conclusion.
It is with deepest veneration of THAT Infinite Existence beyond relative reality, these memoirs are offered with the heartfelt prayer that Humankind shall soon realize at long last that – as Swami Vivekananda eloquently observed –
“…this separation between man and man, between nation and nation, between earth and moon, between moon and sun . . does not exist, it is not real” ; and that “Your own will is all that answers prayer, only it appears under the guise of different religious conceptions to each mind. We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, but it is only the Self, the ‘I’.”
* Footnote.
Here is an excellent article, THE UNIVERSE AS A HOLOGRAM, written by Michael Talbot which summarizes his ideas about holographic reality. Also, you can now find on-line rare audio and video interviews of Talbot, who died at age 38 shortly after the 1991 publication of this book. And you can obtain mp3 interviews from New Dimensions Media.
Epilogue.
Swami Vivekananda’s 19th century prediction of Western scientific confirmation of the ancient Vedic non-dual philosophy of One Infinite Existence beyond relative reality is more and more proving prescient in the 21st century.
After addressing the World Parliament of Religions, Swamiji met noted scientist Nikola Tesla who became influenced by Eastern perspectives about the material world, and presciently foresaw that:
“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena,
it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”
~ Nikola Tesla
Both mystics and quantum scientists now say that all the forms we perceive and call “reality” are impermanent – ever appearing and disappearing beyond time and space; and that “consciousness is fundamental”.
“I regard consciousness as fundamental.
I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.
We cannot get behind consciousness.
Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
~ Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.”
~ Niels Bohr
Thus, more and more non-material scientists have begun confirming – like Einstein – that our perceived ‘separation from each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.’
Moreover, in recent years even many conventional scientists are now seriously entertaining – and some are accepting – what is widely known as “The Simulation Hypothesis”: that “reality” is like a computer-generated simulation. (See “Samsara 3.0”: The Simulation Hypothesis)
What is “Reality”?
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
“There is no place in . . [Quantum] physics both for the field and matter, for the field is the only reality.”
~ Albert Einstein
“Consciousness is always Self-Consciousness.
If you are conscious of anything, you are
essentially conscious of yourself.”
~ Ramana Maharshi
“This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once: scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic.”
~ Carl Gustav Jung
“The world, indeed, is like a dream
and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage!”
~ Buddha
“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion,
does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha
“What appears to be a stable, tangible, visible, audible world, is an illusion.
It is dynamic and kaleidoscopic — not really “there”.
What we normally see is the explicit, or unfolded, order of things, rather like watching a movie.
But there is an underlying order that is mother and father to this second-generation reality.”
~ David Bohm, Quantum Physicist
What is “Reality”?
“Reality” isn’t REAL!
“Reality” – like beauty –
is in the eye of the beholder.
It is a mental concept arising in consciousness,
and projected by the beholding self-awareness
onto certain perceived objects.
As rays of sunlight are in essence
the same as the emitting sun source,
perceived “reality” is in essence
the same as the Awareness
from which it originates.
But, because of the “magic mirror” of mind,
“reality” is mistakenly perceived
and objectified as separate and distinct
from the perceiving subject.
So, isn’t it NOW
time to really realize
that “reality” isn’t really real;
That only Awareness is REAL?
Ron’s Reflections on What is “Reality”?
Dear Friends,
Have you ever wondered what is really “Real”? – or “unreal”?
These are crucial questions because our beliefs about “reality” determine our Earth-life experiences.
Today’s What is “Reality”? posting focusses on mystical perspectives of “Reality”. It can help explain how in our world of duality – of apparent opposites – our projected mental perspectives determine our experience of “reality”.
“Reality” and “the real world” are common concepts; frequently used but rarely deeply considered. They mean different things to different people.
According to dictionary definitions, “reality” is that which actually exists as distinguished from that which is merely apparent. So what in this world actually exists? And what in this world is merely apparent, like a non-existent mirage or a dream? – or a virtual or simulated reality?
Albert Einstein realized that cosmically everything is energy – e=mc2; so that when we experience as reality our perceived separation from other life-forms, it is is an “optical illusion of consciousness”. And Einstein said that
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”;
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live,
they are modes in which we think”.
Similarly, Eastern mystics have long revealed from inner exploration that this world is not actually real, but an ‘unreal’ illusion:
“The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage!”
“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha
Also for millennia, indigenous shamans and mystics everywhere have told us that there is only ONE eternal and immutable Source, of the seemingly countless impermanent forms we perceived as “reality”; that therefore this world of apparent multiplicity and separation is merely an ever impermanent dream-like mental projection of That ONE matrix.
“All things come out of the One, and the One out of all things.”
~ Heraclitus, 500 BCE
“Reality cannot be found except in One single source,
because of the interconnection of all things with one another.”
~ Gottfried Leibniz, 1670
“Though One, Brahman is the cause of the many.”
~ Rig Veda, 1500–1200 BCE
“We did not weave the web of life. We are merely strands in it.
All things are bound together. All things connect.”
~ Chief Seattle
“At the center of the Universe dwells the Great Spirit and —
this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”
~ Black Elk, Oglala Sioux
“This separation between man and man, between nation and nation, between earth and moon, between moon and sun.
Out of this idea of separation – – comes all misery.
But the Vedanta says that this separation does not exist,
it is not real.
~ Swami Vivekananda
Shakespeare wisely told us that
“there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”.
[ Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2]
Similarly, cutting edge scientists increasingly confirm that what appears to us as “real” or “unreal” depends upon our thinking – the projected mental perspectives of those concepts. Also, that the supposedly ‘solid’ Earth reality of our limited perceptions is an ever impermanent energetic illusion – only a virtual, simulated, or relative ‘reality’. (https://sillysutras.com/our-mentality-is-our-reality-quotations-and-reflections/)
Conclusion.
Our spiritual evolution is greatly advanced if we realize and remember our true self-identity and “Reality” as universal Awareness or Eternal spirit, not just as mere separate and mortal physical body/minds. Such realization will dramatically transform our Earth-life experience. If we stop separately self-identifying and labeling everyone and everything, it will bestow happier and more fulfilled human lives, with ever expanding compassion for all other life-forms, and with less suffering from unhelpful worldly emotions, desires and attachments.
In the current “new normal” era, it is particularly important that we end our immensely limiting illusions of self-identity as merely mortal separate entities.
As presciently explained in 1980 by brilliant quantum physicist and Einstein protege David Bohm, our
“widespread and pervasive distinctions between people (race, nation, family, profession, etc., etc.) .. are now preventing mankind from working together for the common good, and indeed, even for survival.”
~ David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, 1980
Thus transcendence of our “optical illusion” of separation has become especially crucial in the current 2020 “new normal” coronavirus era of unprecedented worldwide human deprivations, suffering and turmoil, with extremely imminent threat to survival of life as we’ve known it.
Dedication and Invocation.
Realization that our precious planet is only a virtual or simulated ‘reality’ need not in any way diminish our immense awe and thankfulness for Earth’s magnificence as part of Nature’s miraculous manifestations, well beyond our comprehension or imagination.
Nor need it detract from our unspeakable gratitude for our experiences in “space/time soul suits” as precious human body/minds – harmonious life-form manifestations of Nature, to be lovingly and skillfully nurtured from our unique perspectives.
So may we find growing happiness and fulfillment in this precious human lifetime, as we ever evolve toward Self-identity as universal Eternal spirit, not just as mere separate and mortal life-forms.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
