THE BIG QUESTION This book is about the ultimate question: What is the purpose of reality, and how does it come about? In considering any possible answer to this, many other interesting questions arise that need to be addressed as well. For instance, does reality include the past, present, and future, or is it just the present? If it is more than just the present, then is the past and future any less real than the present? If they are, then to what degree? If not, then why do they seem so experientially intangible in comparison? Is reality what changes over time, from past to present to future, or is reality the change itself? Is what was changed as real now as it was before it changed? And will the present moment be as real in the future, when it’s the past? And how far does physical reality extend into the macrocosm of space? Infinitely? If not, then what lies beyond it? If it is nothing, then does this mean that the concept of ‘nothing’ is not real? And how far into the microcosm of material substance does physical reality extend? Is there a point at which it stops and can be no smaller without becoming nothing? Can a point in space be reduced to a point of nothingness? And would that nothingness therefore be the same nothingness that must lie beyond the limits of the universe? Is the space you currently occupy more real than the outer reaches of space or the inner reaches beneath material substance? And what about consciousness? Is subjective reality as real as objective reality? Is it less real? Is it more real? Do we all experience the same underlying reality, or different variations? If they are different, then how? Is our own reality somehow more real than those of others? If it is more real, then to what degree? If it is the same, then why do they all seem to be different to one degree or another, and how can they mesh together so that we can relate our own reality to those of others? Questions like these can go on and on and take us deeper and deeper into the complexities of understanding that our original question inevitably leads us into. Understandably, most people never contemplate these sorts of questions, and if they consider them at all, will invariably resort to considering them in terms of a description of things that has already been proposed by others, such as from within the mechanistic framework of the scientific establishment, or perhaps from a more spiritual source, such as the theological framework of one or another popular religion, or maybe even something that encompasses both. At the very least, there are certain things about our individual experiences and perceptions that we will all essentially agree on and find similar, and which bind us together in our shared existence within the same interactive reality. These things that are consistently understood to be similar between us are found to be the most objective and physical experiences of this shared reality, and provide a foundation for the reasoned understandings that arise and form into the various frameworks that are commonly accepted. Although the scientific framework is self-limited by its strict rules of objective determinism, certain other frameworks do not negate the subjective aspects of reality, and help to offer a broader understanding. For this reason, the latter are often popularly accepted in order to extend our understanding beyond the limits of what the scientific framework can explain. These learned frameworks that we tend to rely on for understanding our world and ourselves are very helpful, and provide a more or less uniformly common background for us to operate in and interact with each other and everything else on the physical level, but they are by no means the extent of reality as a whole. Nor can they ever reflect an altogether accurate representation of reality. Such frameworks of understanding can only represent what we are in current acceptance of and give a degree of absolutism to. However, these frameworks are only descriptions of the actual territory, and no description seems to be without its limits and imperfections. It is inevitable that a truly accurate and fully comprehensive understanding of reality that all can agree on is an unattainable achievement. This is not because of the complexity of questioning that arises, but because reality cannot be fully defined in such absolute and commonly agreeable terms. In a sense, to be absolute means to be similarly understood by all observers. However, the very nature of our separateness as individual conscious observers, experiencing reality through the interpretations of our own uniquely developed understandings, will cause us to interpret our experiences according to the direction that we give our attention to it. Beyond the mutually defined interpretations of our objective experiences and observations, which appear to be essentially of a similar nature, all else is more or less differentiated, and within our power as individuals to define, and essentially to control. But does this mean that objective reality is necessarily so absolute that it cannot be any other way than as we have come to understand and perceive it? Is it already established a priori? And is subjective reality only secondary to objective reality? As we will see throughout these pages, all of reality is completely metamorphic and evolving in its structure, and even the laws of physics as we know them may be susceptible to change. Physical matter itself is only real as far as we accept it to be, and how we perceive what we experience and what unfolds in our world is fully within our control to mold and manipulate. In understanding this, we may hope to come to a point where we can truly liberate ourselves as individual conscious beings and take full mastery over ourselves and over reality in general. To do this, however, we must first understand how we have come to perceive reality as we currently do, and realize how our perceptions are largely determined by our own beliefs and expectations, not just as individuals, but also as mutual participants in a group creation. In essence, to answer the ‘big question’, we must first decide on what we want the answer to be before it can ever actualize objectively. In the following pages, we will consider the nature of reality and see how it unfolds from our very minds as an interactive field of expressions based on the power of our beliefs in what we have established about it. We will start by looking at our physical reality at the finest level we know, to see what quantum physics can reveal to us about its underlying nature. * * * * * Let me know if you want to read further...