Inner Space — The Final Frontier
Inner Space — The Final Frontier
The last time I heard the phrase “nothing is real” was during a lecture by eminent physicist Nassim Haramein. The first time I heard it was during a Pink Floyd concert while I was high on acid. There’s been a fair bit of time between each incident, but it seems the Highbrows and the Hippies are now on the same page.
According to 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, “All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.”
It is now self-evident that we’re not in fact solid people. We’ve seen through the looking glass of a microscope and discovered that we’re actually made of vibrating atoms. Each atom has a nucleus in the centre and electrons that whizz around it.
This 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 actual 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… and would no doubt require a stationery cupboard the size of an aircraft hanger.
So what does this 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.
If we want to explore this space (and who wouldn’t want to explore the biggest part of who we are) we have to go into the metaphysical realm, where the rules of quantum physics apply. Pioneers of Inner Space report back, that the space seems to have two properties — Infinite creativity and Unconditional love. They also say that entering Inner Space requires us to leave our thinking mind at the door.
The main feature of the thinking mind is that it wants to own things, so obviously it wants to own the creativity. “I did this all by myself. Be impressed! Like me! Follow me! And it also wants to own the love “I get to choose who I love, and who I don’t love, so obviously I’m excluding you!”
Because the thinking mind is so strong, it usually takes a crisis to knock it unconscious. In a crisis (for example the threat of imminent death) there is too much incoming information for the thinking mind to process, so it freezes. This allows Inner Space to take over.
Perhaps this is what happened when both engines failed on Captain Sully’s plane. He went metaphysical, allowing him to make lightning speed calculations that were better than those of the most sophisticated computer. The lives of all 155 passengers were saved. It was dubbed The Miracle on the Hudson. In the physical realm, miracle is the closest word we have to describe this kind of phenomenon. In Inner Space it’s our natural state — infinite creativity.
Perhaps this is what happened when a passer-by ran to grab hold of a man intent on jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. Putting his own life in danger seemed a strange concept to the journalists who interviewed him later. During the rescue, he could have easily gone over the edge himself. What was he thinking in that moment? The man replied that he wasn’t thinking. 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. In Inner Space this is our natural state — unconditional love.
Imagine if we all had access to the kind of creativity that could solve the most complex of problems and the kind of love that could heal the pain of the world.
Of course we’d have to have a conversation with the thinking mind with its obsessive need to divide everything into two… Good/bad. Right/wrong. Win/lose.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Instead of trying to make our brain more intelligent (surely we’re exhausted with this by now), perhaps we could explore Inner Space, where opposing things can co-exist quite happily,
I went into a gambling casino once. I’d never even bought a lottery ticket, so I was intrigued. “Someone has to win” shouts the advertising. “But the odds” I shout back. “They don’t make sense”. Spending time in the casino made me realise that it’s not about the odds or the winning.
Gamblers seem to be addicted to the moment just before the ball lands on the roulette wheel. In that moment there are two possible outcomes, which brings the tantalising feeling of both possibilities co-existing. It’s a glimpse into the metaphysical world, before the ball lands bringing the gambler back to the fixed reality of this one.
We’re in a love hate relationship with our Inner Space.
We love the uncertainty “Anything could happen… yay!” And we hate the uncertainty “Anything could happen… fuck!”
We love getting our mind out of the way so that our Inner Space can have free creative expression “Ah… the blank page. Bliss”. But we hate being out of control “Aghh!! The blank page. I need chocolate/alcohol/Instagram”.
We know, deep down, that Inner Space is the source of all the best things we’ve ever experienced… love, desire, inspiration, spontaneity and creativity. Our mind may be good at logic, strategy, goal setting and competence, but if we enter Inner Space, our soul can stretch far beyond these limitations. Our soul can play a game with different rules. It isn’t confined to the win/lose game of physical reality.
Right now this win/lose game seems to be coming to a climax. The richest four men in the world own more wealth than 50% of the global population. We should build a podium, give them medals and say “Congratulations… you won capitalism. Please stop now”.
The media cling to the dying embers of the win/lose game, which only allows for polarised views. We have to be for or against everything. For example, we can’t be “for the vaccine” in certain cases and “against the vaccine” in other scenarios, we have to choose.
Spades or Diamonds? Black or Red? Place your bets. No jokers! Whose side are you on?
Hundreds of spiritual books have been written about the need to let go of our attachment to the win/lose game of the material world. Despite being massively popular on social media, they haven’t gained much traction. It’s the journey that’s important, not the destination! (As long as you remember to take photographs of the scenery and upload selfies of you “enjoying the journey” on Instagram).
We yearn to live in a stream of consciousness, but we settle for streams of data, because that’s the stream we can control… or can we? Cat videos, carrot slicers, keto diets. On and on we scroll obsessively. We can’t stop.
Our rampant consumerism continues. We consume to take away the feeling that there’s something missing inside. But we’re the ones who are missing. We are the Inner Space, trying to cling to the illusion that we’re something real.
The beauty of Inner Space is that it can’t be owned or manipulated for personal gain. Perhaps it was designed that way. The space is for everyone. It exists for the whole, not the individual. It serves all the atoms, not the individual electrons, regardless of how impressively they dance around. Look at me!!
“Nothing is real” means that No Thing is real. Luckily, creativity and love aren’t things, they’re energy… Waves, not particles. And if a lot of waves get together, they’re capable of turning into a tsunami. Imagine that.
We may be in the death throes of this civilisation. 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 in the world around them.
There’s often a symbol that perfectly represents this myopia…Nero playing the fiddle, while Rome burned. Marie Antionette wondering why the people didn’t eat cake if there was no bread. (WTF?)
Perhaps the symbol for our End Game will be Jeff Bezos, ignorant of inner space, preferring instead, to spend billions on travelling to outer space… in a penis shaped rocket.