True Enlightenment Is Not a Reality Tunnel

We live in reality tunnels. We appear to be a reality tunnel.

A reality tunnel is created by the conscious and unconscious selection of perceptions, experiences, concepts and beliefs that create our experience of ourselves, others and reality. Out of billions of possibilities flooding us at every moment, our neurophysiology notices those things that support our beliefs and filters out those that don’t. In psychology, this is known as “confirmation bias.”

A reality tunnel is experienced as true and real by us and therefore is usually mistaken for reality itself. Our life is defined by reality tunnels.

There are countless reality tunnels floating around in the absolute vastness of what is. Thought and language are their major building blocks. We are always participating in a reality tunnel each and every time we communicate with each other. We are putting each other into a trance. Reality tunnels are enfolded by and unfold within each other and are interconnected, multidimensional and constantly creating new and other reality tunnels.

For instance, this paragraph you have just read is a reality tunnel (RT).

I’ll just point out a few here (RT) and there (RT) so you get a better (RT) idea (RT) of what they are.

There are functional and dysfunctional reality tunnels, depending on the circumstances, which are also RTs. For instance, if you choose to actually land a human being on the surface of the moon, the RT of the sciences of mathematics and physics may serve you better than the RTs of the Bible stories you learned in a Sunday school class. On the other hand, if you wished to instill certain moral and ethical values (which are RTs) within yourself or others, Sunday school class may seem to do a better job than the rt of mathematics. Maybe.

Let’s look at a way reality tunnels work (RT) and are experienced (RT). Let’s say it is mid-November (RT) and you say to a bunch of your (RT) friends (RT), “Wow! Christmas (RT) will soon be here!” Your reality tunnel about Christmas is a positive (RT) one. It consists of the beautiful (RT) story (RT) of the birth (RT) of Jesus (RT), snow, Christmas lights, Christmas music, warm fires in the fireplace, Christmas presents (RT), time off from work (RT) and spending time with loved ones (RT). You are glad Christmas is almost here. You love the Christmas season. 

But for a friend of yours, your words trigger a totally different reality tunnel or trance. S/he (RT) has the same awareness that Christmas (RT) is coming, but a very different reality tunnel. For your friend, Christmas (RT) means noisy music being piped out from every store into the streets (RT), chaotic crowds (RT), traffic jams (RT), greedy consumerism (RT), hypocrisy (RT), people entranced by a mythical story (RT) and children being selfish and spoiled (RT). Your friend also has to spend the holidays with a highly critical (RT), mean (RT), drunk (RT) and dysfunctional (RT) family (RT). Your friend cannot wait until the holidays (RT) are over and everything is back to normal (RT). S/he hates the Christmas season.

The point is that everyone lives in very different reality tunnels, even when the RTs appear to be the same.

“You” – the “you” you conceive, perceive and experience yourself to be – are a complex, multidimensional reality tunnel. You are a product of your genetic heritage (RT), social conditioning (RT) and the innate (RT) capacity (RT) of your multidimensional (RT) being (RT) to change (RT), transform (RT), evolve (RT) and mutate (RT).  

As we become conscious, grow and evolve, the infinite possibilities of infinite reality tunnels unfold within us and all around us. Most of us tend to select just a few of the RTs offered by our culture (RT) and society (RT) and stay secure within them. It is much less confusing and frightening that way. We tend to get born, be male or female, go to school, grow up, get a job, get married, have children, pay taxes, go to church, retire, play golf, grow old and die (all RTs).

Some of us, for whatever reasons – perhaps because of meditation, psychedelics (it was Dr. Timothy Leary who coined the term “reality tunnel”) or, gee, just by being intelligent and observant – become aware that there are infinite reality tunnels available to us at any given moment. This is both very exciting and very frightening! As in the film The Matrix, we have Neo’s choice. Do we take the red pill or the blue pill? The blue pill puts us back into the prescribed and limited trance of societal conditioning, very familiar and secure. The red pill opens the doors of perception into the infinite possibilities of infinite reality tunnels. We discover we are always creating new RTs! Instead of being a limited (RT), mortal (RT) human being (RT), we begin to feel very God-like (RT). Wow! We can be and create whatever we want! (Actually, a true WOW! may be a moment outside of RTs.)   (This article continues…)

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