Korpo
Illusion
by
, 21st July 2012 at 10:53 PM (6449 Views)
On some intellectual level we may or may not have come to the conclusion that what we perceive as reality might be illusion. I have seen this idea appearing in many guises. But another thing seems to hold true as well - no matter what people think, the illusion of reality seems pretty persistent. Apparently, conceptual understanding does not pierce this veil of illusion.
However, at other levels, primarily the ones we consider nonphysical, we can see the illusion being pierced. We're just not noticing it because of our own expectations!
We expect of the astral that we can fly, walk through walls and do all these fantastic things. But if you pay close attention to what several posters on this site have reported you notice one thing: It isn't necessarily the reality that others present on the astral plane experience.
I have read several experiences where the posters reported becoming lucid and trying to show others around them what can be done - especially when it comes to flying. All kinds of reactions exist, but nearly none of them seem ever to be that everyone takes to the air all of a sudden.
Some similarities to be noted here... It appears that some on the astral plane seem to be bound by rules that others are not. Not being bound by the rules seems to mean that they are still real and binding for others. And the knowledge that the "rules" are an illusion can not be easily transmitted.
Who are these people, anyway? Shades - discarnates experiencing the astral plane as part of the afterlife experiences. Dreamers - non-lucid dreamers caught up in their nightly routine. According to several articles on Kurt's website here their experience is much more limited than those of the Rangers - the ones roaming free on one or more of the higher planes. A dreamer or shade might be limited to just one subplane of the astral plane even - not able to shift to another unless certain things are processed and done with.
But what does it mean "not being able to shift?" It's not as if they have the knowledge they could shift but somehow cannot pull it off. In their state of consciousness the subplane they're experiencing is real and they accept it as such. Like you might have been in the past when you had an intense nightmare as a kid - it was real! Being able to fly or shift subplane are levels of lucidity that are beyond them at that instant in time. Because that's another aspect of lucidity in my eyes - the ability to pierce the illusion.
Full lucidity is at the same time the full recognition - as inner knowing, direct energetic experience - that a plane of existence is illusion. Not in any negative sense, but in the sense of transcending it, being not bound by it. This is the true test whether the illusion of one aspect of existence has been transcended.
Kurt wrote about this in "The Multidimensional Human". He called it "perceptual biases." What binds you into the illusion of each plane are certain limits of perception. When we are perceiving the world through them, the respective plane or subplane seems real and we accept it as is. As long as we indulge in certain intensities of emotion and desire the astral plane cannot be transcended. In a similar way being addicted to certain ideas about the truth, about the way things "should be" and holding on to certain beliefs may bind us to the lower mental plane.
So the illusion to be pierced is not necessarily the world(s) around us. The illusion is defined by the filters of perception we do not overcome that make us see the world as we do. When our actions and reactions repeat the patterns that bind us into desire, dogmatic belief or expectations, we cannot be free. By being attached to ideas about what makes us happy - by desiring a thing or a person so much, by following ideas about the truth so much that they blind us to the nature of reality, we are bound.
The nature of spiritual work is then to challenge all of this. The illusion can only be transcended and perceived as such if one can come to terms with those things we struggle with. You cannot say "But that's all illusion!" and be done with it. The way out is the way through - to have lived and learned and have come to terms with it.