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Perspective
Is Life an Illusion?
by
Arya Bhushan
 For
long we have heard that life is an illusion. All the epics mention this
world is nothing but 'Maya' (the Hindi equivalent of the word Illusion).
From the dictionary, we understand that illusion is a deception or a
misleading perception of reality. Then, is this life and the world we
see all unreal? But how can this be true? How can we believe that the
people and the things we see and which appear so real are not there? Our
first reaction is that only what we see is real. But then what about the
blind man? Are not things real to him? No, the blind man believes that
what he hears only is real.
What is it that makes a thing to be real; are things real only when we
see them? In that case to a blind person, nothing should be real. Even
to us, who can see, there are some things that we don't see, but are
real. For example, we do not see air, yet we know that it is there. So
it is our feeling that makes a thing real. It is our awareness by which
we decide about the reality of things.
So feeling and awareness are our tools to perceive the world in it's
apparent form. We have five means of feeling - touch, smell, taste and
as already mentioned, vision and hearing. But how do we know what we
feel is correct? For example, in the famous experiment on perception of
hot and cold, when we put our hands, one in hot water, and the other in
cold water, after which put both of them in the water at room
temperature, the two hands sense differently. The hand that was kept in
cold water feels it to be warm while the other finds it cold.
In the field of vision also we find things being perceived differently.
A color blind person sees colors differently than what a normal person
sees. Even normal people sometimes get deceived, as is seen in the case
of a mirage, when people see water where it is not. I would like to
mention about an experiment that was published in 'OMNI' some years
earlier. In the experiment, the researchers, recorded the wave patterns
after connecting electrodes to the brain of a person while showing
different colors to him. Thereafter, he was asked to imagine those
colors and another set of patterns was recorded. It was observed that
the patterns were similar for the colors imagined to those actually
seen. Finally, he was shown colors different to the ones which he was
asked to imagine. The patterns noticed in this case were those of the
imagined colors and not those actually shown. This leads to the
conclusion that what we see in our mind is what we believe.
Another example of our mind set is that when we like some one, we tend
to overlook all the faults of that person and have trouble believing
that that one could do anything wrong, even if facts point differently.
On the other hand if we do not like the person, we believe in all the
bad things we hear, but find it difficult to accept anything good about
him/her. This often happens in party politics. GOP party-men will never
believe that a Republican President can do any thing wrong in the same
way as Democrats will refuse to believe anything bad about their
President.
So is with ourselves. Our ego refuses to accept that we could do
anything wrong. When we do something which we do not consider right, we
want to think that it was the force of circumstances that made him do
it. After all no one wants to do anything bad. Then why will one do it.
The reason for that, I consider is that in every human being there is a
good 'I' and a bad 'I' battling for control. What makes one, win or
loose? The innate sense of self preservation of course.
The concept of Illusion, struck me most vividly when I visited the
Holographic Exhibition at San Jose in 1987. The exhibits, I saw clearly
with my eye were actually not there. At one place a Telescope was shown
through which you could see the stars by looking through it, but
physically there was nothing there. In another case there was a bugler
standing in front of a bench on which a bugle was kept. As you moved,
you saw the bugler, pick up the bugle, put it to his mouth and blow into
it. Then he would put the bugle down and smile at you. The whole thing
you saw actually happening in front of you in three dimensions while
physically nothing was there. There were several objects exhibited in
this manner and I was dumb founded. There were machineries displayed,
which you could see moving without actually existing.
Before seeing this exhibition, I had thought that the stories in our
Indian mythology were all figments of imagination, like the description
of Pandava's palace called the 'Maya Sabha' where prince
Duryodhan gets deceived, seeing things which were not there, and not
seeing those which were actually there. And for this Draupadi made fun
of him, calling him blind even when he had good eyesight. But after
seeing the Holographic Exhibition I could believe in any thing.
Don't we see similar things every day. To people in remote areas who
have never seen Television, if they are told that one can see on a
screen any thing which is happening anywhere in the world, would he ever
believe it? The advent of Internet is another sphere through which the
whole world seems to be getting connected and of which no one could have
dreamt even a short time earlier.
Having learnt through science, that everything in the universe is made
of atoms, which themselves are nothing but electrical sub-particles like
electrons, protons etc. Arranged in a particular fashion, they give rise
to different shapes & solidity. They even have different colors. What is
the process through which this happens? I often wonder. Who or what
controls it? Is it our mind, which is creating it? But if it was our
mind, how could everyone witness the same thing? Or is it that the mind
is only witnessing it? It may be that our minds are connected to the
same source from where these scenes are projected.
Another wonder is the dreams we see when we are asleep. Where do these
come from? Sometimes we see that things in the dream actually come true.
Once we went to see a movie. When the film started my wife said, she had
seen the whole movie in her dream the previous night. On another
occasion, I saw a dream, and the next day things happened the same way
as I had seen them in the dream. Is it that during our sleep, our minds
are able to travel and see the future? It is all a mystery.
Ghosts and Poltergiests is another area about which people wonder. There
is so much literature published on it. A large section of people believe
in the phenomenon, while quite a few do not. In fact more the education,
less the belief. The area, however, is so fascinating that one wants to
get to the truth. It is, however not known which side the truth is. I
was born in a family of non-believers and so always thought that Ghosts
were an aberration of the mind, and only the week-minded fantasized on
it.
However, once I happened to go to the place of one of our acquaintances.
They had a student son. We asked him what he was doing. The parents
answered and told us that he was to appear for the high school
examination, but could not do so on account of illness. On being asked
what the illness was I was told that he was haunted by a Spirit. They
informed me that when he was possessed, he started talking German
Language and used terms which were highly scientific. They also told me
that during such visits, white foot-prints were seen from the door up to
his bed. It was really strange. For the first time, I heard such a thing
from someone who had an actual experience of this kind. And I had to
believe him as why would one mention such a thing about his own son, if
it was not true. On our next visit I was told that a sorcerer was
called, who talked to the spirit and was told that he was an army
officer of the World War I and he was roaming about as proper last rites
were not performed for him. He agreed to leave the boy if some definite
quantity of sweets were offered in a Church. This was done and the boy
was cured. To me the whole thing was a mystery.
Such stories have made me ponder about how to distinguish between
hearsay and belief. The same happens when one hears stories about
reincarnation. But with the research carried by Dr. Ian Stevenson on
children remembering their previous lives, I am quite convinced that at
least some people are born again after their death in this life.
In early seventies, certain experiments were conducted by Russel Targ
and Keith Harary at the Stanford Research Institute, which have been
described in the books "The Mind Reach" and "The Mind Race"
The experiments describe persons, who could view at a distance what was
happening. In fact in one case, one could describe, the event half an
hour earlier than when it happened. Does it mean that he could project
his mind not only distant in space but in future as well.
In his book "The Future is Now" Arthur W. Osborn describes events
of which some people had pre-cognitive knowledge and came out to be
true. From these he concludes that the events which occur in future
already exist. Only we are not able to see them Hypnotism is now an
established science which makes us believe that our mind can see things
differently if influenced by a trained Hypnotist. Then how do we
establish Truth?
November
19, 2006
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Perspective
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The Week of November 19, 2006
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