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Pistis: Reology, The Three Grand Illusions, and The Power To Choose: A Book About Reality
Pistis: Reology, The Three Grand Illusions, and The Power To Choose: A Book About Reality
Pistis: Reology, The Three Grand Illusions, and The Power To Choose: A Book About Reality
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Pistis: Reology, The Three Grand Illusions, and The Power To Choose: A Book About Reality

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Who Am I? Why Am I Here? What Is Reality Really All About?

Throughout mankind's history, our perceptive reality has led us to question who, what, and why we are here. What is this universe we perceive around us? These questions have been the driving force of our survival and have contributed to the evolution and proliferation of man's existence.

While there have been many disciplines of thought which have attempted to answer these questions, the truth seems to elude us, thereby indicating a lack of satisfactory answers from all our religions, philosophies, mythologies, and sciences.

Ironically, we do in fact have enough knowledge, experience, and information to discover, define, and comprehend the true nature of our existence, as well as our individual roles in it. To realize this requires the willingness to see things at their most basic level, and recognize that what we find there provides us the evidence to understand the foundation of all that exists.

For thousands of years, theologians, philosophers, and scientists have monopolized the question of "what is reality?" Now it's a topic for the rest of us.

Anyone sufficiently motivated to ask themselves questions such as "Who am I? Why am I here? What is this existence really all about?" already has the inherent ability and the direct evidence to find the answers.

It is often said that truth can be stranger then fiction. No where is this more true then in the pages of this eBook.
LanguageEnglish
PublishereBookIt.com
Release dateApr 26, 2016
ISBN9781456600075
Pistis: Reology, The Three Grand Illusions, and The Power To Choose: A Book About Reality

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    Pistis - Anonymous Author

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    Table of Contents

    Preface

    Introduction

    PART I: WHAT IT SEEMS

    Chapter I: Setting The Stage

    Chapter II: The  First Grand Illusion - Perception And The Five Physical Senses

    Chapter III: The Second Grand Illusion - What's The Matter With Matter And Energy

    Chapter IV: The Third Grand Illusion - What Time Is It?

    PART II: WHAT IT MEANS

    Chapter V: The Conscious Connection

    Chapter XI: The Greatest Choice Of All

    Chapter VII: Power To Choose

    Chapter VIII: Perfection And The Bottom Line

    Chapter IX: On Love And Will

    Chapter X: Truth Or Consequences?

    Chapter XI: The Greatest Choice Of All

    Chapter XII: In Closing

    Preface

    This book is the culmination of a compulsion that began in 1954, when I received a much wanted telescope for Christmas. I wanted to see Heaven; more specifically, I wanted to see God. God was in heaven I had been taught, so in the mind of the eight year old I was then, it seemed perfectly logical that a telescope was the obvious tool needed to complete my search. Needless to say, I didn’t see God, but it didn't take me too long to figure out how really practical a telescope might still be. The local teenage beauty lived across the street. What began as an intellectual pursuit turned into a hormonal one.

    Fortunately for her, because my vantage point in the attic was too high, I became expert only on the architecture of her feet, for which I soon lost all interest. These two experiences were the highlight of my eighth year. Never the less, 1954 was a keystone in my life, for it was then that I became confronted with two of life's greatest mysteries; questioning the existence of myself and everything around me, and having to deal with my sexuality. I naturally had no idea then about how these two topics were destined to become such great sources of dilemma, confusion, and frustration in the years to follow.

    My life, while naturally unique to me, is I'm sure not too unlike your life, at least in general ways. Hardships, tragedies, sorrows, disappointments, regrets, and failures, all intermixed, fortunately, with joys, triumphs, achievements, successes, and those periods in which we are contented, have filled the time between birth and the present. All these experiences come to each of us in various degrees of intensity and duration.

    I began my awareness of my existence, that is, the point where I began to realize I could think objectively, even if not always realistically and reach conclusions about my life, with an abundant curiosity about who and what I was, and how this existence came to be. Most of this curiosity stemmed initially from my early religious teachings. The Bible stories I was taught were fascinating, and to think they were part of the human experience filled me with great awe and wonder.

    The more I questioned however, the less sense the answers I received made. The dogma and diversity in Christian religious sects, while believing in the same God, seemed a man made thing rather then a God inspired one. The Ten Commandments were professed to be divine law, yet who obeyed them? Certainly not those around me who were telling me they must be my rules. The hypocrisy actually became very amusing to me, as I'm sure it has to many others.

    Two plus two wasn't even coming close to four here, and my first major conclusion about life was that organized religion was simply not understood the way God had intended. The contradictions seemed too great, and the tales too imaginative, confusing, and mythical. The intent of religion however cannot be ignored, and neither can it be disrespected. The people who devote their lives to God are for the most part more dedicated than most. This is of course not to say they are above being human, subject to the same temptations and even perversions not uncommon in society at large.  The idea of the word of God being written by man, and then interpreted and re-written numerous times to the present seemed to me to leave an awful lot of opportunity for author embellishment and fabrication. My reasoning led me to conclude that to glorify God with temples of gold and million dollar T.V. productions, while so many are in need, simply made no sense , and couldn't possibly make any sense to the God I was taught to believe in. Back then, religion did not seem to have any viable answers to the questions I had about myself and existence, and how we came to be, in spite of this affinity I felt within me that God truly was the Creator of all.

    About this time, I was getting old enough to understand some of the things we humans were doing to discover our source. Science became my religion. Here you weren’t required to believe things willy nilly, or on what appeared to be the translations and interpretations of personalities stretching over several thousand years of history. Science required no faith; it could not only discover the makeup of things, it could predict future results from its discoveries. It seemed that Science had already defined most things in nature, at least for the things I could understand. While I was learning of science's invincibility, along came Sputnik and our own entry into space exploration. This was awesome; these were the events of the Bible without all the hocus-pocus stuff. Going into space from earth by man's ability to discover was the kind of miracle I was looking for. Science would find God sooner or later I thought, for here man was using to the maximum what God endowed him with.

    So began my preoccupation with chemistry, biology, and physics. These subjects were not normal school curriculum until high school back in those days, at least not in the schools I attended. If I wasn't out at the local trout stream, I was buried in books at the library, or up in our attic devising experiments to discover the cure for cancer, or designing and building rockets to launch into space. Growing mold and bacteria, making a Wilson Cloud Chamber and Van De Graff Generator, taking apart electrical appliances to make instrumentation, and mixing rocket fuel with chemicals from the local druggist with caramel candy on the stove were  the things my life revolved around. Looking back on all this, it is a miracle that I never burned our house down. There were a few occasions I came close. My parents would have had a heart attack if they only knew half the things I did in the name of science.

    It was around the time of these events that I became aware of and interested in the research of Dr. J.B. Rhine at Duke University, and also about the life of Edgar Cayce. Both these men where involved in what is called the paranormal experiences of humans. Actually, before I even knew this was a science, I was interested in unexplained phenomenon due to what was then my favorite T.V. show. I don’t remember the shows title, but it is a monument to advertising that I remember it was sponsored by Alcoa Aluminum. It portrayed recorded, but unexplained events.

    Two shows still stick out in my mind; one was about a man who was in Europe, where he became ill and died. At the same time of his death, he visited some friends in the United States. Quite a feat! The other episode was about a man, who in the Thirties, tried to get interest in his invention of a pill, that when added to water, turned the water into combustible fuel.  Naturally, everyone thought he was a scam artist and no one took him seriously. So one day in desperation, he sneaked onto the White House grounds, put a pill in a car of the Presidential motorcade, and with a garden hose, proceeded to fill the car's gas tank with water. He didn’t get too far, for the secret service men grabbed him and took him to a holding room. When he explained what he was doing and why, and because the car he treated left without any ill effect, he was taken to a laboratory where his pill was mixed with water and analyzed. It turned out to be gasoline.

    When the officials went to get this man from the waiting room in which they left him, he was gone. No one saw him leave the building, which had security for those coming and going, and no trace was ever found of him again. We could sure use him today! Now whether these stories are true or not, I don’t know, but back in those days they impressed me. It seemed to me that between science and its facts and means of discovery, and this field called the paranormal, which dealt with inexplicable powers of the human mind and a life beyond the physical one, the source of existence and God could be found.

    All these topics gave me countless hours of fascination, yet this stage of my life was one of both ignorance and innocence. While the innocence would soon be lost, the ignorance seems a permanent fixture in the human condition. It seems the best we can hope for is to become just less ignorant as time goes by.

    Completing high school, going to college, and dealing with the reality of making a living, as well as all the experiences intertwined in these pursuits became a rocky and even tumultuous road to travel.  While all the events that comprised the make up of these experiences are critical to the creation of this book, there is little benefit to go into them further here. The bottom line is that the lessons learned from the endeavors pursued with science, religion, and life’s challenges are the source from which this work was derived. It is therefore just one person’s observations and conclusions about this reality.

    Introduction

    This book is about reality. It’s about drawing conclusions about our existence based on obvious, yet ignored principles that are fundamental to all the experience we know, including the experience of ourselves. It offers viable clues to understanding the who, what, and why of what mankind is, as well as all that exists.

    The goal of science is to arrive at a Unification Theory, where Einstein’s Theory of Relativity can be reconciled with Quantum Physics, thus arriving at the answers to and explanations for the origins and function of all things that exist.

    Religion seeks the same goal, but in terms of an intelligent Creator as the answer to and explanation for all that exists. So far Science and Religion cannot be reconciled with each other because of their inherent fundamental principles; Science’s cause and effect yielding predictability, and Religion’s faith in the unseen and unknown.  Despite such opposite approaches to the discovery of life and all experience, reconciliation of Religion and Science, and all philosophies is possible. There is in fact knowledge we are aware of that can offer fundamental, absolute understanding that can explain and answer all questions. This is the perspective presented here.

    It is not intended that this work should be viewed as an authoritative account of the concepts presented, but instead a challenge to each reader to put aside their preconceived notions about what each believes to be true about existence, and be open to at least comprehending what follows. In fact, there would be no other way to understand this book. 

    It is often said fact can be stranger than fiction, and that is especially true here. Yet the fundamentals we are about to review are established by Science and Religion and we each have the direct evidence of them. The purpose of this book is about its message, not its messenger. This author therefore has chosen to remain anonymous by using the pen name Anonymous Author.

    PART I: WHAT IT SEEMS

    Chapter I: Setting The Stage

    Reology: The overview of all experience and existence in terms of what is the ultimate fundamental ingredient of that experience and existence.

    The Law of Reology: Conviction always precedes experience.

    Who are we? What are we, and why are we here? What is the point and purpose to this life we each lead? These are questions we all ponder from time to time, especially when our lives are not going as we wish, and when events around us seem to indicate there is a futility to this existence that insures that, if not everyone, then at least most of us must suffer and experience aspects of life both repulsive and undesirable.

    What about the inhumanity we display to each other, whether an obscene gesture to let another know we are displeased with something they’ve said or done to wholesale oppression of another race or culture.  Why? With all the beauty and wonder in this world, with all the kind and loving behavior we are capable of and manage to exhibit, how do we also get so focused on hate, depression, destruction, and inhumanity? Why does it seem some of us consistently get the short end of the stick, while others seem to have everything go their way, whether they deserve it or not? Perhaps it is because we don’t fully realize what actually causes our experience.  The Law of Reology offers us a clue, an insight to this very dilemma.

    Conventionally accepted thinking would take an exception to this Law of Reology, since it is believed that convictions are not formed until after they are first experienced. Think of any conviction you hold. Did it become your belief before or after the experience of that conviction? It seems obvious that before you knew something for a fact, you first had to experience it, even if that experience was simply hearing it from another person.  The first time you ever burned yourself on the stove wasn't because you conceived the conviction that stoves could burn, or you would never have been burned to begin with. When Dr. Fleming discovered penicillin, he didn’t first decide that penicillin existed and that it would cure bacterial infection, and then go about finding the stuff.  He discovered penicillin by accident, after which he realized it killed bacteria. We believe that every fact that we know came about through discovery, whether by intention or accident. Trial and error, the effect and its result; these are the means from which we believe we know all we do, regardless of whether it pertains to science or a better recipe for apple pie.  So how can someone be so mindless as to think up a Law of Reology that says existence occurs exactly the opposite of what all our senses tell us is real; that first you must have the conviction about a thing before it can have identity as experience in physical perception?

    Presuming that the body of humankind has blinded itself to this Law of Reology, if for no other reason than just to be able to continue this book, how is it possible that life could proceed in a way that seems to flow with a consistency and predictability based on convictions that may be totally wrong? Essentially, we go about our lives dealing with those events that arise on a daily basis. Some we overcome, while we feel dominated by others, and adjust ourselves accordingly to get by.  We make life work, and life makes us work, and everything is what it is. Yet, what is it we actually do? Events occur, and we react. Our behavior seems always to be in response to some experience arising around us, whether from ourselves, others of our kind, or from elements of nature. While we consider ourselves to be creatures of action, our actions are really reactions to our desires, needs, imaginations, and to the influences we perceive around us.

    This may first appear as a mute point, but reologically it is important, for in terms of what we think is our essential nature, we are responders to our existence. We are preoccupied with focusing on our experiences, as opposed to focusing on the actual source of those experiences. Even our actions are just reactions to whatever motivated us to take action in the first place. Something happens in our life, and if we don’t like it, we try to discover how it came about, so we can eliminate its effect or at least avoid its reoccurrence in the future. We do the same for pleasurable experience to insure its recurrence. But how good are we at actually accomplishing this? Who has never made the same mistake twice? Most of us seem to meet the same old challenges over and over.  It is the source of the phrase that refers to history repeating itself.

    Despite what we believe are our most earnest attempts to discover the source or cause of our experience, we actually limit ourselves to dealing with its results. This indicates there is an illusionary aspect to existence. It makes us think the origin of our experience is somewhere other than where it truly resides. If we attempt to change experience, yet only wind up re-experiencing what we desired to change, we can't be addressing the cause, only the result. 

    While we are speaking in only the most general of terms here at this point, each of you have more than one experience that continues to repeat itself, despite all your efforts to change them. Fortunately, we all also have been successful in eliminating some of the experience we have found displeasing. The same applies to desirable experience; we’ve been unsuccessful in duplicating good events, and have been successful re-experiencing others. The problem is we are far less successful at eliminating the undesirable and duplicating the desirable. If this were not true, the world and all of us who occupy it would be far happier than we presently are, and that would manifest itself in far less conflict and suffering in this world.

    Why then are we able to achieve some results, yet not others? As reasoning creatures, that is, life forms with the ability to think and conclude and manipulate our reality, we operate on certain generally accepted ideas. We call these ideas facts. We tend to associate with those who are like minded, and avoid those whose views differ. The differences between our ideologies and cultures are extremely varied and diverse while from individual to individual there is never any duplicity. We wind up then with, not a uniform concept of existence, but rather many unique concepts all converging on and influencing each other, and all subject to individual interpretation. With all these diverse ideologies, and concepts of them, it shouldn't be difficult to understand how humankind can be blinded to the true nature of reality's source. Each culture and each ideological viewpoint, and each individual, thinks their convictions are the ones that are correct, and understandably so.  But this can only result in conflict, between cultures, nations, groups, and individuals.

    Despite this, at the same time there are some basic assumptions or convictions upon which we all agree. For example, we all know we are physical creatures performing physical endeavors, in a physical universe, regardless of whatever other ideas we may have. From these basic convictions about being physical, we also support other universally accepted basic convictions about ourselves and this universe we live in. We have to eat to live. We have to breathe.  We all have needs, wants, and desires. We are able to exist within physical existence, unassisted, only within limited ranges of temperature, climatic, and other environmental conditions.  We all wish to be loved.  We all seek to be happy by our own individual definitions of what happiness is. We all perceive our world through one or more of our five physical senses. We are all subject to what are referred to as the laws of nature, and it’s forces of gravity, electro-magnetism, and the strong and weak forces within the structure of matter. These are all some of the seemingly basic traits we all share, despite the great diversity between individuals and cultures and ideological beliefs.

    If these basic traits were absolute, ultimate facts and conditions of existence, there would be no exceptions to them and we would know the true makeup of everything that exists. Exceptions abound however.

    For example, there are many instances of people who have literally died,

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