Inner Space - the final frontier
Nothing is real (which is slightly inconvenient for capitalism)
The last time I heard the phrase “nothing is real” was during a lecture by the physicist Nassim Haramein. The first time was at a Pink Floyd concert while I was high on acid. There’s been some time between the two, but it seems the Highbrows and the Hippies are finally on the same page.
Schopenhauer said all truth goes through three stages:
Ridicule
Violent opposition
“Well, obviously.”
We’re now firmly in stage three. It is now clear that nothing physical is solid or fixed. Under a microscope, everything dissolves into vibrating atoms. Each atom has a nucleus and electrons that whizz around it. The familiar picture of an atom doing its thing has found its way into brand logos and slide decks, whenever Energy or Power need to be represented.
We’re so used to seeing this image, that we forget it isn’t drawn to scale. In fact, if the nucleus was the size of a baseball, the circling electrons would be about two miles away. A correct representation of an atom would obviously cause logistical problems when printing the company letterhead…but what does it mean for us?
We are made of atoms. Therefore, most of who we are is empty space… except this space isn’t empty… it’s just not physical.
To explore this “not physical” bit – which, inconveniently, is most of who we are – we must enter the metaphysical. This requires us to leave our thinking mind at the door. Reports from Inner Space (including one from Albert Einstein) are surprisingly consistent. There appears to be two main features; infinite creativity and unconditional love.
The thinking mind prefers individual creativity and conditional love. “I made this.” “Be impressed.” “Like and subscribe”. So, the kind of creativity we’re talking about tends to appear when the thinking mind is otherwise occupied… usually by a crisis.
When Captain Sully lost both engines, he didn’t consult his inner spreadsheet. His thinking mind shut down under pressure, and something else took over… Infinite Creativity.
The same thing happened to the man who stopped a stranger jumping off the Brooklyn bridge. When asked what he was thinking, he said: “I wasn’t.” Time stood still, and in that instant, it seemed that he and the jumper were one and the same person. He was saving his own life... Unconditional love.
Now imagine having access to that level of creativity and connection, without needing a near-death experience.
This is where things get tricky. Because the thinking mind has built an entire civilisation on control, certainty, and winning. And it’s very attached to all three. It divides everything into good / bad;. right / wrong; win / lose.
And yet, something in us yearns for the state of non-duality.
Take the attraction of casinos. We think it’s about winning, but gamblers seem to be more addicted to the moment just before the ball lands. In that moment, there are two possible outcomes, which brings the tantalising feeling of both possibilities co-existing, before they collapse into a single fixed outcome.
We love that feeling. We just don’t trust it.
We love the uncertainty “Anything could happen… yay!” And we hate the uncertainty “Anything could happen… fuck!”
So we retreat. Back to data, division, and control… to scrolling cat videos, carrot slicers, keto diets. Trying to fill a space that can’t be filled…because it is us.. Streams of consciousness sound lovely, but streams of content are far easier to manage.
Meanwhile, the win/lose game reaches its logical conclusion. Four men now own more wealth than half the planet. At this point, it feels reasonable to build a podium and say: “Congratulations. You’ve won capitalism. Please stop.”
But the game doesn’t stop. Because the thinking mind doesn’t know how. It only knows how to accumulate, divide, and keep score.
Inner Space doesn’t play that game. It can’t be owned, divided or monetised. Though new age spirituality is giving it a good go. It exists for the whole, not the individual. It serves all the atoms, not the individual electrons, regardless of how impressively they dance around begging for attention.
Which brings us back to the original problem. “Nothing is real.” What it actually means is: No thing is real. And that’s fine. Because the most important parts of life…love, creativity, connection, freedom, were never things to begin with. They’re energy… waves. And when enough waves move together, they don’t create a product… they create a force. A force that can create cultural change.
Which may be useful, because historically, civilisations don’t end particularly gracefully. Empires and Kingdoms have risen and fallen in the past. As the ruling elites become more rich and powerful, they tend to lose touch with what’s going on around them.
There’s usually a moment. A symbol. A perfect snapshot of collective denial…
Nero playing music while Rome burned; Marie Antoinette suggesting cake. And perhaps, for us… Jeff Bezos, ignorant of inner space, preferring to spend billions travelling to outer space… in a penis-shaped rocket.
If you’re interested in exploring your inner space, I have three spaces left on My Fear to Flow Retreat on the Greek Island of Agistri. 27th May – 3rd June.
This is the place where shifts happen. Not through force. But through environment, awareness, reflection, conversation, and play.
A week where you step out of your usual patterns, and into something more fluid. More intuitive. More alive. DM me for details.