One Way of Looking at Unrealness

One way of many on how to see and understand our made up experience.

When asked the question “How made up is our experience?”, I gave an answer as follows. Don’t forget, this is only one way and one example of how to look at experience to show the imaginative aspect of everything:

You hear the stories of people coming back from psychedelic trips saying words of ego death, infinite space, meeting gods, and we can think yeah yeah sure, but that’s not “real”, how our minds in sober state can see reality of what actually is. Us in the Western materialistic world don’t realize enough that yeah, everything is made up, and all dependent on the way of looking.

The best example, and there are many many examples of different ways of looking, is about the concepts we have for objects. We have a concept for what a “Mountain”, which is different from a hill “Hill”, or a “Mound” or a “Drumlin”.

We have a concept for"Teacher", “Guru” is, and “Western Mind”, which are important to have so we don’t get completely caught up in words people are saying. Their motivations might be negative, and the way they view societal issues might be from a different grounding.

On the human level, we have a concept of what our “Friend”, or “Neighbor” or “Mother”. If asked, we can talk about “who they are as a person”.

Now, to go one step further and realize, and fully commit to, that our “Self” is also a concept. There is no real “Me”. It is also made up like other people. If asked to give a definition of who I am, it’s the exact same thing is as if I was asked that about a different person.

Another angle on this: We talk about people having certain roles at certain times, like a role at work, another with the family, different with friends, or playing a video game or a sport. One person is a “Capitan”, the other a “Role Player” who’s job it is to eat up minutes. Playing each of these personas you may feel like you’re a different than the real you, and after, when sitting at your home getting ready to sleep, you’re then become your real “Self”. But again, that self is just another persona, another role we play, one likely that our society considers correct.

Realizing that all of this is made up is truly liberating. We can look at our external roles as truly fake, and become the type of persona we think would be best in a situation. “Fake it til you make it” is a US phrase we’re told, but truly that’s what we all do. With this new way of thinking, if we know the type of character we think would be best in a situation, we can legitimately become the new type of person. Before, we’d be only putting a mask on.

I say Non-duality is the best term we have for this if you want to look up other perspectives, and there are tons from all different people who might say something that clicks in your head better than what I could do. Non-duality talks about how there is no subject / object concept that we default to. Our minds create that difference, but when investigated, whether through the psychedelics mentioned at the top, the way of looking about personas, mindfulness / meditation practice (of Jhanas for example) all point in that direction. Rituals from other cultures also go into the imaginative non-dual realm. I feel us in the Western mindset are stuck in a low point and need to break out. Human minds don’t do well longer term when viewing the world in the way we do.