Awakening to Reality

The Unreality of 'Reality'

However, before we go on to unravel what is hidden behind the veil of the world you see yourself as currently residing in, I feel like I must go on to describe to you my struggles in more detail. Have in mind that I am doing all this to help you understand that I was once you, the unbeliever, naively thinking what I was told as a child was the truth.

What I want to say is that I've struggled to accept what I now know to be true as well. The same way I am sure you are struggling right now to reconcile my words with what you 'know' is true. To help you ease into this terrifying notion of basically knowing nothing about yourself or the world you live in, I shall go on with my tale of awakening, of how it all became clear to me.

After I went through my friend's thesis, more than once, I started thinking about everything on a completely different level. It was as if a fog had been lifted from my mind, and I was able to see all the flaws of 'reality'.

Have you ever truly noticed how unreal 'reality' often feels? Have you ever wondered about the numbness of the mind that often overtakes us when we deem necessary to do some of those chores that exhaust us so much that we feel like robots doing actions which without truly knowing why?

If you've ever had to wait in a long line in a bank or at a post office, I am sure that you understand the feeling I am talking about. It's either you detach yourself from the reality in front of you, or you go crazy getting into a fight with people around you or something equally unpleasant.

Most people choose to avoid conflict and thus switch to autopilot, shuffling slowly, waiting for their turn patiently, like mindless drones.

Does that make any sense to you? Why would anyone do that to themselves? Why lose precious hours of your finite life to a chore that makes no sense?

I mean think about it. You wait in line to get green pieces of paper which you sometimes value more than anything else in life. Then, you proceed to exchange those green pieces of paper for things, or even more senselessly, you gather them up for rainy days that might never come.

Can't you see the unreality of 'reality'? Being in the mindless pursuit of something only to realize it wasn't truly what you've wanted, thus, to go on to another equally pointless chase.

For example, why would anyone do the job they don't want to do?

At the time when I was contemplating all this, I was employed, doing the job that I simply loathed, and I had no idea why I was doing it.

Okay, perhaps I did have some idea why, but my reasoning was odd when I thought about it carefully, when my friend's thesis finally opened my eyes.

The only reason I accepted to do the job was because of my family and friends. They wanted me to have a good job. They thought it would be a perfect job for me.

What about me? Well, I knew it would be the worst possible job for me, and yet I said yes because it was a respectable job that someone with my qualifications SHOULD be doing.

Think what you might about me being weak and not resisting the pressure, but I am sure that if you look carefully you will be able to find many people like me around you. The only thing you need to do is find the crack in the facade and see beyond it.

Why would anyone let themselves live like that, suffer the pain of doing something you despise for other people who won't be there to suffer the consequences of doing what one does not love? Doesn't that sound illogical? Thus, isn't it possible that very insanity is the dream?

Think about it. If dreams are irrational if they don't make sense, doesn't that mean that, by the same logic, this reality in which we do so many illogical things is unreal?

I don't know about you, but when I was hit by this realization, I was starting to get more and more convinced that reality was just a dream. In my opinion, we are all in a shared dream space but dreaming vastly different dreams, depending on our personalities and our 'real' world.

While the vast majority of us are having nightmares: living in poverty, doing the jobs we despise, having emotional or monetary issues, a few are having wonderful, extravagant dreams, that when we think about it are even more illogical than our nightmares.

I mean, there are people in the world who have gold toilets. Why? Whoever looked at the toilet and thought that they could use a golden one? Isn't that too extravagant even for the rich and famous?

When you add up everything that makes no sense, wouldn't it make sense that this senseless place is not real?

Also, the unreality of 'reality' would explain why so many people feel detached from 'reality', why they feel like something is missing. In this world, they are mostly deemed insane and locked up, but I couldn't help but wonder if they were the only sane ones in the world.

If there is a minority of sane people in the world, wouldn't they be considered insane by the insane people? I know your head must be spinning, but I am hoping you can catch even a glimpse of what I am suggesting because one spark is enough to start up the fire of knowledge in your mind.

How is all this even possible? That is the question I've struggled with the most. How come no one discerned the truth so far? How come I am the one to learn the truth, a nobody who stumbled on the biggest conspiracy of the humankind?

The truth is I am not the first or the only one to learn about this, but most of the time things get covered up. You must be wondering by whom. Well, that is a long story, and my journey to full discovery is still on, but I think I've learned enough to be able to enlighten one such as yourself, a soul eager for knowledge.

When I met up with my friend the next day, that was when the theories started flowing, but I'll tell you more about our theories and how they started developing, next time. For now, think about what I've said so far. Think about the unreality of 'reality' and ask yourself whether it is possible then that reality is just a dream, which would explain why it feels so unreal.