There is no world!

Vince Migliore

There is no world. This is the thought that
will return your mind to God. With this idea
you awaken to the Atonement, the realization
of unity with your Creator. Here we examine
some of the points of origin for the idea that
there is no world.

Plato
The story of the cave was one of the first recorded references to the idea
that we are not seeing reality. Platos allegory compared our perceptions to
people chained in position inside a cave with just a dim light casting
shadows on the far wall. The chained prisoners are so used to seeing only
dim shadows that they believe this to be the real world. In the allegory, one
of the prisoners is led to the mouth of the cave, into the sun, which at first is
painful and dazzling. The narrative continues with the enlightened man
going back into the darkened prison and trying to explain to his former
comrades the existence of a brighter experience outside of the illusion. He
is met with scorn and ridicule.
In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in
which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory
presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief
that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of
it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually.
- http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html.

Try to tell people today that the world they are seeing is an illusion. As Plato
suggested, you too will be met with scorn and ridicule.

Maya
In the Indian Vedic literature, Krishna calls the physical universe an
illusion. Maya, the Grand Illusion, forms the basis for many world
religions, most notably Hinduism and Buddhism. It states that the mind is
powerful, and constructs temporary material forms, including the physical
universe, which we mistake for our reality. This realm of matter, physical
form, is created by our ego and establishes a duality, a dichotomy where we
are separate from God and each other. The goal then is enlightenment,
where we once again experience the real Self, which is united with our
Creator.
Of course, few of us like to have the validity of what we are doing in life
challenged or the reality of the world as we see it called into question. But
how real is the world that we experience through our senses? Do we see
reality through our senses, or are we merely receiving a surface glimpse of
something far greater or even different than what it seems? Even if we add
the tools of science and the media with their instruments of greater
communication and perception to the data gained from the senses we may
still be getting an incomplete or distorted view of the world, not the world as it
is but rather only one side of it, like the proverbial blind men and the elephant.
- http://www.vedanet.com/2012/06/the-meaning-of-maya-the-illusion-of-the-
world/.
In Buddhism all physical forms are seen as temporary and therefore have
no real identity. Reality is seen as a form of projection of the thoughts of the
person experiencing the physical world. The Australian Aborigines call this
life The Dreamtime.

Quantum Physics
Modern physics has come to the same conclusion: the material world is an
illusion. It states that human consciousness affects the material world.
Some variations to this theory hold that every time someone makes a
decision then a whole new universe is formed where each side of that choice
becomes a separate reality. In a nutshell, quantum mechanics has rocked
the world of physics.
Niels Bohr, a Danish Physicist who made significant contributions to
understanding atomic structure and quantum theory once said: if quantum
mechanics hasnt profoundly shocked you, you havent understood it
yet. Quantum physics has left scientists all over the world baffled, especially
with the discovery that our physical material reality isnt really physical at all.
Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as
real. It seems philosophers of our ancient past were right, our senses really
do deceive us.
- http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/12/05/the-illusion-of-matter-our-
physical-material-world-isnt-really-physical-at-all/.

A variety of physical experiments and mathematical formulations indicate,
among other strange things, that:
Physical objects can be at more than one location simultaneously
The thoughts of the observer can determine an objects properties
An action in one location has instant effects on other object millions
of miles away.
That last property, known as entanglement in physics, means that if a man
China hits a ping-pong ball it might alter a grain of sand on Mars. This
instantaneous connectedness concept resonates with the metaphysical
picture of unity the idea that everything is really all one thing. On a
spiritual level, this is equivalent to mankind being united with God. In
other words, this ends duality: God and his children are united.

Near-Death Experiences
The idea that the world is illusion is also found in some Near-Death
Experience accounts. They indicate the earth life is more like a dream.
Sometimes the person experiencing an NDE is not sure which reference is
reality:
During the first three months after my experience, I had to make up my mind
which reality was the real place. The temptation to return was nearly
overwhelming at first.
- Arielera's NDE Http://www.nderf.org/arielera%27s_nde.htm.

In this case, the respondent feels that the spiritual realm is our real home:
I don't know how long I was floating above my body, or how I was actually
transferred to another dimension. I did know that I was now Home, my (our)
Real home. The nature of this Reality is so completely different; there is no
language adequate to express the emotions and surroundings. Time and
language, as we know them, don't exist there. Love and compassion are the
only words I can think of, and they barely scratch the surface of what I felt and
perceived around me. The vibration feelings are so strong and yet totally
incomprehensible at our physical (or perceptual) level. It was a perfectly
normal feeling not to be in a physical body.
- Filiesha L. NDE Http://www.nderf.org/filiesha_l_probable_nde.htm

If life on earth is an illusion, does that mean then that what we call death is
an escape from illusion? Or is death itself an illusion?
Death in that instance is a glorious moment; a wonderful experience. Now the
soul can return to its natural form; its normal state. There is an incredible
lightness; a sense of total freedom; a limitlessness. And an awareness of
Oneness that is at once blissful and sublime.
- Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God, Book 3, Chapter 8,
Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, VA, 1998

A Course in Miracles
The theme of the material world being unreal is found in the popular book,
A Course in Miracles. Several passages refer to the illusion of our
perceptions. All such references and all the topics touched on so far are
summarized in one place in A Course in Miracles: Lesson 132; I loose the
world from all I thought it was.
Some excerpts illustrate this point:
Healing is the gift of those who are prepared to learn there is no world, and can
accept the lesson now. Their readiness will bring the lesson to them in some
form which they can understand and recognize. Some see it suddenly on point of
death, and rise to teach it. Others find it in experience that is not of this world,
which shows them that the world does not exist because what they behold must
be the truth, and yet it clearly contradicts the world.
What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs? And what can save the world
except your Self? Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts you hold are mighty,
and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth.
Yet is salvation easily achieved, for anyone is free to change his mind, and all his
thoughts change with it. Now the source of thought has shifted, for to change
your mind means you have changed the source of all ideas you think or ever
thought or yet will think
The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. And what you
behold upon it are your wishes, acted out so you can look on them and think
them real.
There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your ultimate release.
Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change
accordingly. Ideas leave not their source.
There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your ultimate release.
Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change
accordingly. Ideas leave not their source.
- A Course in Miracles, Lesson 132.

Conclusion
All of the ideas discussed here argue that there is no physical reality. One of
the best sources for this discussion comes from author Gary R. Renard. He
wrote a book designed to help us all to overcome this illusion. He ties this
escape to complete forgiveness. Forgive yourself and forgive those who you
think have sinned against you and you can return your mind to your true
Self.
Now its time to forgive yourself for dreaming this whole mess in the first
place. If nothings happened and if the Course teaches anything, its that
nothings happened then youre innocent. Thus as you forgive your brothers
and sisters, your mind realizes simultaneously that you are forgiven.
- The Disappearance of the Universe, Gary Renard, Chapter 7, The Laws of
Forgiveness, Hay House, 2004.

The final word, in my humble opinion, also comes from A Course in
Miracles:
"And the last to be overcome is death." Of course! Without the idea of death
there is no world. All dreams will end with this one. This is salvation's final
goal; the end of all illusions.
- A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers; 27, What is Death? (7).


Vince Migliore is a writer and researcher.
Contact:
Vince Migliore
BlossomHillBooks@aol.com