Reality Is At The Point Of Perception

If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?

It’s an ancient Koan – an unanswerable question intended not for resolution, but instead to encourage us to play with the idea. And this question has been repeated throughout history, by theoreticians, scientists and physicists.

The cat is both alive and dead at the same time, concluded Erwin Schrodinger, of his 1935 thought experiment. He posed this question: A cat is placed in a box with a radioactive isotope and a radiation detector. If the radiation detector detects radiation, a flask of poison is smashed, and the cat is killed. Is the cat alive or dead? There is no way to know for sure, unless we look in the box – so it could only be concluded that up until the point of inspection, the cat is both alive and dead.

These same mechanics of physics have been applied to the idea of subatomic quantum entanglement. Tiny particles can exist in potentially infinite states – a superposition – until they are witnessed, at which point they exist in only one. Until that point they are all states. Reality is, therefore, decided at the point of perception.

Quantum physics delights spiritualists, which in turn frustrates quantum physicists. Spiritualists see the abstract concepts of quantum physics as proof that magic – in its fluffiest sense of understanding – is real. Physicists, on the whole, disagree, but struggle to disprove them because the extremely complex mathematics of quantum physics is so extremely complex that you need to be a physicist or a mathematician to understand it.

But considering that reality is decided at the point of perception, they are both right. Magic is real. Physicists ad mathematicians are just magicians who have figured out how the trick works. And all metaphors are just proxies for reality.

Consider this:

We generally believe that ‘reality’ happens outside us. Yet, we experience it with our sense organs – touch, sight, taste, smell, and all those other senses that enable us to navigate and find our place in the world. But all that these sense organs do is transmit electrochemical signals to a central processing place somewhere deep inside us, to be translated, quantified and understood. This is where perception really takes place. Not “out there”, but “in here”.

And since reality occurs at the point of perception, then the entirety of reality must, therefore, surely exist within us. And it’s snuggled up next to our daydreams, our hopes and fears, our fondest memories and our wildest fantasies. All of these things form part of a spectrum of reality. Everything you think, everything you feel, every that could be, everything that is, everything you imagine and hope for, exists within you. The entire universe, everyone you know, and all those you don’t – even those who don’t exist other than in the pages of books, on television screens, or simply in your imagination – are within you.

Furthermore, as all is perception, and as we have influence over how we see the world, then we are free to manipulate reality. Ever notice how much better the day is when you’ve had a good sleep and you’re in a good mood? This slant on reality comes entirely from within. We create it ourselves.

If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a noise? Yes and no. It’s up to us to decide.

We get to choose.

But here’s something else. We all experience the universe and life differently, thanks to an immeasurable number of different factors. From upbringing to brain chemistry, past experiences and traumas, to relationships and even location, even the most closely of shared realities are in fact very different. There are as many realities as there are viewpoints to perceive them. A multiverse of possibility and perceptions, all layered on top of each other in the same physical space.

Within each of us is the entirety of existence. The whole universe, each other, all of time from the beginning to the end. A constant feedback loop that continues infinitely, with an infinite number of possibilities. You are in me, I am in you, and everyone and everything exists in each of us. The divine inside me bows down before the divine inside you, and we know that we are infinite.

There is a Sanskrit aphorism – Aham Brahmasmi. It means ‘I am absolute’. 

Descartes made us real when he posited “I think therefore I am”. And in being we have become everything. We are the fragrant flower and its fragrance, we are the blade of grass trodden under foot, we are each other, we are the windy day, and we experience the windy day. We are absolute. We are god. We are divine. Infinite. Everything. 

Reality is created at the point of perception. How we perceive reality – and therefore shape it – is up to us. So, let’s create reality in the best way possible, through love and kindness and understanding to others, to ourselves, and to the world. 

Together, we make everything real. Namaste.