Photo by Hanson Lu on Unsplash

What if none of it is real. What if the world is a holographic projection of the collection of our minds. We are pretty attached to these bodies and our stuff. But what if none of it is real.

What if we are mighty and playful and can be, do and have anything we want. What if global warming isn't real. Not as in, "they" are making it up. But as in we created it by our beliefs. 

Somewhere, someone had an idea that what we were doing was terrible. People began to buy into it, and soon we were all believing and creating this fall off a cliff. But what if it isn't that simple. 

If we were all painters, we'd paint things differently. Some would paint nature, and some would paint people, some buildings, etc. And, those painting nature would choose different topics within the environment, have different views of beauty. But what if someone who painted buildings walked over and painted one in the middle of your beautiful landscape. You'd be pissed. 

Well, maybe the world is a little like that. The highest common denominator of our thoughts is the world we create. There's more variation as you travel down from the whole to the individual. But as individuals, we can't change the whole because we are just one person. We can start a conversation that can catch on and pick up traction, and soon everyone believes it, and the world shifts a little or a lot. 

I know I'm not original in the idea, but it's something that keeps teasing at the back of my mind. 

A Glimmering of Possibility

I remember the first time I understood that it's not all as concrete as we think. I was in a class, and the teacher brought out a bowl of sugar. She had a student come up to the front of the classroom and hold the sugar in one hand. The teacher had the student hold out her empty arm and told her to resist her as she pushed down on the arm. They did this a couple of times. Each time, it was easy for the teacher to push the student's arm down.

Then she put the bowl of sugar in the middle of the room and had us all close our eyes. We were to send love and positive energy into the sugar. We did that for a few minutes, and then she repeated the exercise with the student. The teacher could no longer budge the student's arm. Hmmm. The door knocked open just a bit inside my mind.

A few years later, I was in a class with the same teacher. We were working with some of Jean Houston's material. The exercise of the moment was to close our eyes. Think about our arm. Imagine reaching up to the ceiling and rub our hand against the ceiling. How does it feel? 

I was relaxed, and we'd been doing these kinds of exercises all day. I could definitely "feel" the ceiling. When we stopped and opened our eyes, I looked up. Sure enough, I could see the texture of the ceiling, and it matched what I'd felt. 

I suppose my subconscious could have noted the texture of the ceiling when I entered the room or at some other point in the workshop. I didn't have any conscious recollection. It was a room with high ceilings all painted in dull institutional white — nothing to stand out. But even so, to notice to the detail of how it would feel? 

The Capacity for Change

Our minds have much more capacity than we know. And, maybe. Just maybe. We are making up this whole thing. 

And, if we're making up our world, small or big, what kind of world do we want to create?

If nothing was real, how would you live your life? Would you be a better person, less fearful? Would you decide not to care and live wild? Would you be kinder to those you love or walk away?

Maybe for just a day, try living your life like none of the stories in your mind are real. Like not of the stories we make up as a species are real. What kind of world would you create?