Solipsism

[Natasha77]

Is this the case? The Universe can only be perceived through our Mind? Thus our Beliefs and Perception mold the Universe? Perception equals Reality? Or rather, Beliefs equal Reality?

Quantum Physics seem to point toward it. That science is a MODEL of the Universe. Eastern Beliefs would say the "grass APPEARS green to me".

Is the Universe this malleable, at the end of the day, it is an objective-based-on-subjective style Universe?

[Gazeeboh]

It seems to me that it is both illusion and hard truth.

Take your biology for instance.
The WHOLE world and every experience you think is yours, is run through your biology. Light hits your eyes and turns to electric in your brain. Your brain makes a picture up. Your brain makes a smell up. This chemical equals this output. So, the whole world in this case is, literally, in your head.

But to use this viewpoint you have to accept that there is a world "out there" or that you even have a "head/brain" for it to be run through. So in this scenario, yes your world is a symbol for the real one (an illusory world) but there seems to be something more concrete if you could only TRULY perceive it.

Maybe. But then if you achieve high levels of mediation/trance or do drugs of that nature you really have to wonder just what the hell is going on and how it all works. I doubt humans have the capacity to comprehend that much information. At least in terms of our brains being able to get at that information.

[Natasha77]

Great details. Robert Anton Wilson in "Quantum Psychology" goes into that as well. I believe that and science has came to that conclusion. This "world in our head" is what I would call Maya. The world we cannot see DIRECTLY would be the Reality, or the energy that composes everything. To me, magick is when one manipulates this maya.

Therefore we can never know the Universe directly. But we can have extra sensory experiences, such as intuition etc. to 'communicate' with it.

[Tanemis]

So essentially Natasha is saying that the world is like the Matrix. We see and taste and touch and smell because we know that the steak is juicy, that the wind is blowing and that eggs left out stink, but we know that these are mearly an illusion that our mind is telling us is real when in fact it is nothing more than an electrical signal being sent to our brain to tell us these things. If you view the world in that sense, understanding that everything in the world is a living energy is much simpler. Our brains attempt to categorize the energy source in the senses and we then apply a illusionary device to an object in order to understand it.

[Tanemis]

Yes and no, when out of body you're going to see through your Mind's Eye and therefore can see whatever you want to perceive. If you see the same thing when out of body then that is because your mind has decided that is what it looks like. While I'm new, I have been reading a great deal on meditation and astral projection and everything that I've read is when out of body the universe you are in is malleable and can be altered (with practice) to react and commune with your spirit in the form that you desire. I'm not saying you're going to be out of body bending steel girders with your mind but your perception of the steel girder is completely within the mind's eye.

[Natasha77]

The astral is malleable, but I believe there are different types of astral. There is that which is inside your own subconscious. That which may exist in a greater universe, such as upper and lower planes. And when one leaves the body but remains here on this plane.

In Carlos Castaneda's series, the shaman seer Don Juan says that a Seer can 'see' the reality. As in, a shaman can see the energy without it's "illusion skin". Also, in "Art of Dreaming", he teaches Carlos to go into the astral and command to 'see' energy instead of seeing 'illusion'. Therefore a tree would not be a tree, but an emanation of energy. A person would not be a person, but a luminous egg.

[Gazeeboh]

Natasha,

This is actually a hallmark in Taoist Alchemy or Tai Chi. When you get to a certain point, your energy shoots up into your skull and cycles down into you dan tien. Kind of like a kundalini awakening. Anyways, usually when this happens, you see the world as golden energy and crystalline structures. I just thought it was neat that its in the same vein as what you were saying the TRUE world is.

And for Tanemis-

The Matrix movies are Gnosticism with sci-fi dressings. Yes, the world we live in is the false world created by the Demiurge who he himself incorrectly believes is God of this world. Neat stuff.

It also has strong parallels to the concept of Maya which Natasha mentioned. Tibetans have a cool view on this. You can even dispel Lord Yama if you realize he isn't really there.

As for the Astral, I've only been a few times and can't say for sure that it isn't some other level of Maya.

[ZeldaFitz]

As for the Astral, I've only been a few times and can't say for sure that it isn't some other level of Maya. Gazeeboh wrote.


It isn't, it is what it is. The world is only a reality in our own mind, in our own three act play. We are the only writers but there are many actors.

[Tanemis]

My entire point with the Matrix reference was that while we have a preconception to view things as we perceive them, in the mind's eye you have the ability to perceive them as you wish.

[ZeldaFitz]

Just what I said BUB. LOL.

[Natasha77]

Yes, I personally like the Matrix metaphor. It's probably the simplest way of explaining it.

Similar is described in the Castaneda series about gaining energy to 'see'. I've never met anyone who has done this. Theoretically I suppose it's possible.

[zero]

there is the all, I am but a piece of, yet I too am the all

If I am blind I see nothing, yet I feel and it hurts to run into things.

If I have lost the ability to touch do I feel nothing, indeed I hear nothing.

when the smell of apple pie is no more, I lose my apatite.

without the sense to perceive surroundings there is only all.

[Natasha77]

Tolka, I suppose you would have to remap the boundaries of Logic. The astral isn't logic, especially if a person can fly or change shape. Yet, perhaps it is only a higher logic or a separate logic or perhaps we have limited the definition of Logic? Personally I believe 'magick' is just a higher form of Logic, such as why it may be referred to as "divine genius".

Yes, a chair is concentrated energy within the laws of this plane. What is behind the set then?

I do agree it is all within Science, or moreso, it is all within Nature, within the Universe as a Whole. I have a rather pantheistic view of it.

[Knight]

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Eleanor Roosevelt

Mind over matter really works, in my opinion. For a very long time I've considered imagination a divine aspect of any being with such. We can imagine limitless things in a seemingly limited universe, and why is that? I think it is something to meditate upon.

I think a master mage has the ability to live life without having the environment or outside perceptions influence peaceful thought and appreciation. It is difficult for me to put in words. I haven't reached that level, lol.....but, it usually only takes one insult or rudeness to change a person's day, but to be able to be so willful as to not even consider it, would be amazing. Not the same as ignoring it, or pretending like they just didn't insult you, but to actually realize the truth of something greater always.

[Tanemis]

I've been spending a great deal of my personal study around meditation and the astral. I think that imagination is an aspect of the astral since it can be modified to whatever we want it to be and because of that I agree with Knight, imagination is a divine aspect hid in everything with a consciousness.

[Plarkenstorf]

I've been spending a great deal of my personal study around meditation and the astral. I think that imagination is an aspect of the astral since it can be modified to whatever we want it to be and because of that I agree with Knight, imagination is a divine aspect hid in everything with a consciousness.

Wouldn't this question remain anyway: is the astral only part of your mind too?

[Tanemis]

Maybe, but thats where a Wiccan (no I'm not one but I like the maxim) "As above, so below" comes in. As the universe is, so it is in my mind.