Have you ever known anything other than your own existence? Have you ever experienced a state where you did not exist? Of course you haven’t! The question itself, upon reflection, is absurd! And yet, somehow, people are asking the question: “Is consciousness an illusion?”
The reason why they are asking this question is because we intuitively know that there’s something fishy going on. Something doesn’t feel quite right. This “not quite right” state is felt because there is an illusion being projected, and this illusion is being taken as the reality.
Materialists begin with the assumption (yes, it is an assumption) that the physical realm is fundamental reality and therefore any phenomena that exists that is not physical (can be experienced via the senses), is not real.
The “I”, the sense of Self, cannot be touched, seen, heard, tasted, smelled. Therefore, to the materialist, the sense of “I” must be an illusion that somehow is projected via a mechanism within the functioning of the physical realm.
A glaring problem with this line of reasoning, is: “Where does the physical realm begin and where does it end?” If the physical realm is what is experienced by the body via the senses, how does technology fit into this process? Is the physical realm exclusively what we experience directly via the senses, or does it include indirect experience through the augmented experience generated through the use of technology?
While one is looking through a telescope or a microscope, they are not experiencing phenomena directly as it is, but indirectly. The image seen produced via the use of a tool/machine, isn’t what you are seeing, it is what the machine sees. You are seeing the image that the machine is producing, and there is no way to tell if that image has anything to do with the realm of the natural senses. The connection between the image produced by the machine and the image produced by the nervous system, is imagined and then assumed to be.
If the physical realm is what we experience directly via the nervous system, how can we also call that which is being indirectly experienced, through a third party (the machine) part of the physical realm? When a person looks through any machine, whether it be the Large Hadron Collider or the James Webb telescope, they are seeing a version of reality that is being projected by the machine. How is this not an illusion?
How can we say that what a scientist sees while looking through one of these machines, is a part of the realm of the senses? The cellular, molecular, atomic, subatomic, quark realms are projections produced via technology. Similarly, the planetary, solar, galactic and universal realms, are projections produced via technology. There is no way to distinguish whether the results are a result of the machines detecting phenomena that are “there”, or whether the results the machines produce are projecting the appearance of the phenomena. The belief that the machines are detecting the phenomena rather than projecting them, is simply a bias within the psyche of the observer.
What about the physical world that is experienced directly via the senses? Where does that begin and end, and is it fundamental reality?
In dreamless sleep there is no time and no world. The realm of the senses is not experienced in dreamless sleep. Do you cease to exist, along with time and the world, in dreamless sleep, only to pop back in with the world upon waking? This brings us back to the question: “Have you ever known/experienced anything other than your existence?” In dreamless sleep the non-existence of time and the world is experienced and yet Self abides. Time and the world arise and pass within Awareness naturally within the circadian cycle. Therefore, the physical realm of the senses is also an illusion projected by a machine. That machine is the body. In the same way that one can’t be sure that what is being interpreted via technology is reality, one can’t be sure that the senses aren’t projecting the physical realm, rather than detecting it.
If the senses are projecting the world rather than detecting it, then materialism is an inverted view. However, the materialist would rather deny their own existence than admit that the world is the illusion. This is pure delusion. It is self-evident (literally) that Self is fundamental. As you have never experienced anything but your own existence, it is pure assumption and hearsay to believe that at some time in the past or some time in the future (time itself is an illusion) you will cease to exist. If you are the body and the body did not exist at some point in the past, and will not exist at some point in the future, then by this logic one can not exist when the body is not. So one’s own direct experience indicates that you have always existed, and the assumption is that at some time you will did not/will not exist. Materialists side with the assumption rather than the direct evidence.
If the body is “your name here” and someone sees the body associated with “your name here”, on the ground, then “your name here” is still here. But there is a state where your body can be on the ground and it is said/understood that “your name here” is no longer here. If “your name here” is “gone” and the body is still “here”, then you can not be the body.
The materialist world view is completely inverted. Even the most rudimentary investigation proves this to be true. It is only the really complicated models that convince/confuse.
Yes, there is something fishy going on, and materialists have swallowed the bait hook, line, and sinker. Your existence is the most obvious, self-evident phenomenon. The very fact that the question: “Is consciousness an illusion” is being discussed, is an expression of a deep state of delusion. This delusion is produced by the scientific method and propagated by academia through the programming process (“learning”).
The fundamental Truth is self-evident and due to the delusion human consciousness is under, it is unable to see it. This fundamental Truth requires, not learning (memorizing) built upon concepts, but recognition of what truly IS. It is the learning that has veiled reality.
How has humanity gotten itself into the terrible mess it's in? This also seems to me as obvious. It is the inverted view that humanity has been brainwashed into accepting as correct. Brainwashed by academia.
To recognize what truly is, delve deeply into thought free Awareness. This is the only way to break free of the delusion
Well said.