Being a child of the 1960s, I am very familiar with Star Trek. And almost everyone who has seen the original series (and some who have not) as also familiar with the beginning of the narration to the opening credits: “Space: The Final Frontier.”
And to most, space being the final frontier would seem a logical assumption for the era in which the series took place. It could even be argued that it is true for this era as well. Pretty much all the lands of the Earth have been explored. Certainly, a good deal of the ocean has as well. Other than the Earth’s core, what frontier would we expect to be able to explore?
But this limitation assumes that the only possible frontiers are external and to be experienced solely with our five primary senses. In this era, however, the ever-increasing understanding of quantum physics brings about a whole new frontier: I call this the Frontier of Reality. In Reality, we are not matter, but energy (or, more accurately, matter is energy). The world around us is energy, with which the energy that is us interacts on a continual basis. The illusion of a solid physical presence is an illusion created by that other field of energy known as your brain.
And truly, from a visual perspective at least, it is easy to see how it is illusory. Your eyes are not in contact what is being seen. You are seeing light reflected off an energy field. If it is being hit by full spectrum light, some frequencies of light are absorbed while other are reflected. If you say the object is green, nothing could really be further from the truth. You are seeing the reflected (you could even say rejected) light. If anything, you are seeing the color it is not.
When a musical instrument is being played, your ears and brain are not experiencing the instrument itself. You are perceiving air pressure changes caused by energy being applied in a specific method to the instrument. The air pressure changes cause sympathetic movement of the parts of the ear, sending a signal to the brain, which interprets the frequency of the signal as “sound.”
Smell and taste are two of the most direct experiences we have. However, even in those cases, affected nerve endings send a signal to the brain which interprets the signal as smell or taste.
But let’s stick with the visual for the moment, as this lends itself most readily to the point at hand. Imagine yourself outside in a field on a sunny day far from civilization. You see a tree a short distance away. It has large green leaves and coarse brown bark. As you regard the tree, the sun begins to set. You stay until dark on this moonless night. When the last ambient light is gone from sunset, you realize you can no longer see the tree. If you had walked to this spot just now, there would be no tree there as far as you knew. You stay through the night. The next morning, the sky is covered in heavy, dark clouds. You look to your tree. The bark now appears gray, and the fruit is a duller shade of red. Someone seeing the tree only on the cloudy day would describe the bark as gray. Someone who had seen it only in the bright sunlight would have described it as brown. Who is correct?
Obviously, none are correct for the color is only a matter of perception. And, what’s more, if the tree falls right in front of you, does it make a sound? Nope. Your brain makes the sound; the tree only changes the air pressure.
The next time someone tells you it’s all in your head, tell them they’re right. And tell them it is all in their head as well.
True, there is something there. We just are not capable of truly perceiving it with our five primary senses.
So, if reality in its true nature is the Final Frontier, how do we explore it?
I can’t say that I have a definitive answer but finding it has me intrigued. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ll know that I like to divide all that is into three perspectives: 1. Reality: the vibrational energy that has expanded from the singularity at the time of the Big Bang, and of which we are a part; 2. Maya: The experience of Reality through the senses (seeing the apple as a solid, red object). Maya is experienced (though not equally) by all sentient beings. 3. Story: The human interpretation of Maya.
I believe that it is the realm of Story as defined by ego that has led us to the verge of destroying our planet. It is my contention that, with the best of intentions, we have only addressed symptoms of our problems in trying to reverse course, but we need to get to root causes. To get to root causes, we have to back away from Story and learn to interact with Reality. Future posts will be addressing my thoughts on this.
In the meantime, please take a listen to Kaleidoscope and consider what the lyrics are saying.