The Distance Illusion

The Distance Illusion

It is said that the reality we perceive is an illusion. It would be more accurate to say the way we perceive that reality is the illusion. Of itself, it simply is. It is like we are the fingertip of the Universe and the Universe is looking at the fingertip, whilst the fingertip looks back at the Universe. They seem separate, but cannot be: The fingertip is part of the hand, which is part of the arm, which is part of the body, which is an extension of the mind and heart, which allows both the Universe and the fingertip to perceive one another. They are one because the whole is one.

We come to think that distance is real by seeing experience as linear, discreet parts: It takes time and effort to reach a goal. It takes so long to get somewhere. It takes so long to make something. Each of these represents distance as both a measure of time and of effort. Each of these teach us that time the measure of distance: It is the limit we create upon experience because all measure is to limit. But as energy, all things are touching at all times because they are one whole. This allows things to be connected infinitely, just as a fingertip is connected to the entire body. Distance is merely a construct of our minds made manifest. The true nature of distance is that we orient our priorities spacially – the more relevancy it holds for us, the closer it is.

There can be no real distance because time does not flow linearly. It cannot because it is whole and undivided. We only perceive discreet packages of information because we are trying to define ourselves within the context of myriad other complexes of energy. When this ends, we see that all moments are held together like a faceted jewel; one moment or experience resides on one facet and another experience within the center and so on for all experiences. yet they remain as one.

Another example would be a painter, a landscape and mood which they endeavor to capture and the painting itself. The painter and their emotion does not vanish, and so to the landscape and the painting: There is no distance between the painter and their emotion, or the brush and paint, or the scene in which all is being experienced. All are one contiguous whole. Each exists simultaneously. Each is simply an aspect of the same thing and each is whole unto itself, yet remains a part of the entire and the entire is one. We experience a small part of the connectedness of time through memory, foresight and imagination.

As one whole, there is no separation between moments and therefore no distance either. We are the connecting or dividing force between one experience and another, through our capacity to think and feel and therefore perceive and desire. This is because all things are connected through relevancy and meaning: Reason determines relevancy and the emotions determine meaning. It we who decide what has relevancy based on previous experience and meaning through how we allowed ourselves to be shaped by those experiences. It is in the very process of deciding that things and time become divided because in deciding we cut off other possibilities, thereby segregating realities from one another.

As the connecting and dividing force between moments, we are also the rhythm of time through our consciousness: Our emotions determine the strength and direction of the wave of moments and our reasoning and therefore perception, stops its motion. We make it move and we make it stop to become a part of now. But as connector we are also able to move from one point in time to another, both linearly as we usually do and non-linearly as time actually is. How we move is a matter of whether we can accept the whole as it is, or only as we divide it up in our minds.