THE THREE REALITIES

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I have, in my life, seesawed or “pendulummed” between atheism and spiritualism, with pit stops in agnosticism to catch my breath. I have never found one more or less mesmerising and astonishing than the other. When I was atheist I was as captivated by the mystery and beauty of physics as I was captivated by the mystery and beauty of The Mystery when spiritualist. For me, these days, the choice between atheism or spiritualism is a choice between two sets of vocabulary. They do not describe different and mutually exclusive realities. They describe the same thing – reality – but they describe them from different perspectives with different terminology. They describe reality with a different style, but equal amount, of confusion.

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And that’s alright.

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We are our own beings and I like it when we have the conviction to describe our reality on our own terms, whatever terminology we might elect to use.

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I like to think of myself as a freethinker. Where some followers of religion cite the age of their scriptures as evidence of their value (as though a truth written down long ago were somehow more true than a truth written today), and some scientists emphasise the “cutting edgeness” of their theories as the indication of their quality (as though the meaning of a previously unseen pattern gets to be determined by the person who first sees it), I do not seek the reassurance of oldness or newness to give me confidence. I use both sides of my brain. I use my emotions and my intellect, my intuition and my imagination – I use everything. Yes, I’m bigging myself up – good for me. Seriously.

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I have all kinds of ways of describing my take on reality, all manner of vocabulary sets at my disposal. I no longer try to pin down “The One True Way”. As far as I can see there is no need to go looking for The One True Way, whatever it is: The One True Way, by definition, can’t be escaped. So, no need to sweat it.

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I came up with the following way of describing my experience the other day, while sitting in a café of course. I’m not going to try and turn it into a Bible…

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Each of us are composed of, and have access to, three realities. We have our internal reality, which is subjective – it is subject to us: we are the rulers of our internal reality. We have our external reality, which is objective – it is a ‘thing’ that can be played with, danced with, fought, studied, ignored. It can be scary, because it seems to have a life of its own. And we have our eternal reality. This is simply the absolute, the unchanging truth of what is. No big deal really.

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I like me, and I like the way I think. I like my powerful imagination, and my capacity for stepping back, stepping back, seeing wide and deep panoramas and big pictures, and then simplifying, simplifying, simplifying. Instinctively I move toward the essence of a thing.

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This particular simplification pleases me greatly…

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Internal Reality
External Reality
Eternal Reality

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My internal reality I love. It can surprise and scare me, for sure, but I trust it - probably, I dare say, because I see it as mine, and I do like myself. I awoke from a tremendous nightmare a couple of mornings ago. In the dream I had the experience of being in a horror film in which an apocalypse was occurring. A contagious infection was mutating people into hideous, frenzied monsters and I was amidst it all, feeling the terrible fear, believing in it. But when I awoke I simply marvelled at it as an example of what my mind is capable of. Yes, I had impressed myself with the power and atmosphere of my own nightmare. It’s kind of funny that I should be able to see even a product of my own inner fears as yet another reason to tell myself how great I am, but life is funny and I am great. So, I owned it, saw it as my own creation, saw it as evidence of my own power rather than a premonition of doom or an indication of something ‘wrong’ with me. One day, if we survive the apocalypse, there will be more people like me. Imagine living in a world where everybody felt ok about liking themselves. Does that thought chill you or thrill you?

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External Reality, here’s where it gets tricky. External Reality is a match for even my all-powerful imagination, my inner mystery, my internal beauty my endless ability to surprise myself. External Reality gets in my face with beauty and ugliness, miracles and mundanity, that rival my own internal creations. It defies my wishes and is fully populated with you guys. You guys! You don’t know how wild you drive me. External Reality is the mirror in which I see my greatest potential and all of my warts. I predict the collective consciousness of the human race will, should we live long enough, become properly sentient one day, properly self aware, as we continue to move away from separation and back to oneness. After that the collective consciousness of the Milky Way Galaxy will become fully self-aware and integrated. At some point the collective consciousness of the sentient galaxies of the universe will realise itself in fullness. It seems obvious to me. I’m surprised more people don’t talk about it. You guys!



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The Eternal Reality is shared by us all. We can call it God, if we wish, or not. It doesn’t matter. The Absolute doesn’t mind. Eternal Reality, well it just doesn’t need worrying about. It’s absolute, unchanging, it just is what it is. There’s nothing I need to do when it comes to Eternal Reality. It takes care of itself.


But the unchanging Absolute cannot experience itself except through experiencing that which it is not, just as I don’t get to experience myself as being tall unless I meet someone who is short. Through the experience of the shifting, changing interplay between our internal and external realities the eternal gets to experience its own absolute nature. So, in my wispy, ephemeral human existence I am doing God’s work, and God’s play. And I can’t get it wrong. There is no getting it wrong.



​In the meantime the only answer I can find in response to the baffling, maddening, stunning dynamic between my three realities is as much self-honesty as I can muster. And this leads me to increasingly wondrous places.

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Some people, especially the religiously inclined, worship Eternal Reality over and above the others.



Some people, especially the scientifically inclined, worship External Reality as the be all and end all.



Some people, especially the artistically inclined, worship the Internal Reality as the most knowable and reliable of the three mysteries.

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I, tremendous freethinker that I am, celebrate all three of my realities equally! Between the three of them I get to experience everything possible. I am great and I am small. I am perfect and I am flawed. I am complete but I am never finished. I am hideously monstrous and I am throbbingly angelic. I am everything, and I don’t even exist.

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I have no needs.

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I do as I do.

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​Daily Life is my Lotus Blossom.