Expert: Marilyn - 2/25/2009

Question
Does the real world exist? And can we believe it is the same as it appears to be?

Answer
You might look for a Truth Project in your area:
http://www.thetruthproject.org/
This organization has produced videos and training materials to help persons like yourself find truth.

My prayers are with you

Marilyn

Hello Natalya;

Yes, the material world exists.  Specifics get a little trickier.  For example, recently I read about a study done to see how well people are paying attention.  A person walked up to a student on a college campus and asked directions to a nearby location.  While they were talking, a pair of individuals walked by carrying a door and bumped into the student giving directions.  One of the persons carrying the door switched places with the person who’d asked for directions.  The student didn’t even notice he finished giving directions to a completely different person.  

For many teenagers, reality is shrunk down to cell phones, TV and computer screens.  This kind of reality lacks odors and many sensations among other things.  An American Indian of a few hundred years ago experienced a reality full of odors, colors, sounds and textures most of us today have never experienced.  Some of us have never actually seen the night sky.  A person raised on the streets of a city has a different experience of odors, colors, sounds and textures from the person living in a rural area.  Each of these realities is real.  We may create our reality, such as in the case of the teenagers’ narrow electronic experience.  We may be oblivious to the material world, we may not observe what’s going on around us correctly, we may be fooled by something we’ve seen, but the material world is real.

Each person lives in his or her own reality.  You may be sitting right next to me, yet we don’t share the exact same reality.  You may perceive the couch is a bit lumpy where you sit and it’s giving you a headache while I may think the couch is perfectly fine and I’ve never felt better.  Three people may be sitting in a house and hear boards creak upstairs.  One thinks it’s a ghost, another thinks the heat has caused the boards to settle, the third might think some animal has managed to get into the attic.  Even if these three investigate the sound, they might not discover any evidence to prove any belief, or they may find something completely different, such as a stranger has managed to climb in a window and he’s walking around upstairs.  If the three find nothing (and sometimes even if they find something), each will settle on his own explanation of the sound.

We are active participants in shaping our realities.  If I stay in the house all day, I will not experience the birds’ joyful chatter, smell the wind or see the sunset.  I will have created for myself a reality limited to my desk with its computer, or my living room, etc.  But, today, my reality also includes your question through AllExperts, my prayer for anointing to answer your question and the thoughts and perceptions that follow.  My reality will include the imagined world of the novel I’m working on and my thoughts as I pray for friends, family and acquaintances.  My reality today will likely include news and commentary I might read online, pictures I might view, and so forth with the resulting thoughts and reasonings that follow.  Outside, the reality of bird song, wind, spring bringing plants to life continues, though for me those may not become part of my reality.  

Essentially, though the real world exists, exactly what the real world is composed of is a thing we each compile and create in our own minds based on where we live and with what things we must contend.  My reality in rural New Mexico is just as real as your reality wherever you live, but the two realities are very different.  An acquaintance’s perfume allergy is reality for her.  Her allergy shapes every moment of her day right down to the mask she wears while shopping and her interaction with persons completely unaware of the deodorant they put on this morning or the hair gel or the fabric softener in their clothes.  Her world is defined more by odor than anyone around her, that’s her reality.

We may agree on certain things.  Everyone recognizes the Taj Mahal.  Everyone recognizes the Statue of Liberty.  But some of us will not agree that chocolate is the most wonderful taste in the universe, though we can agree chocolate is real.  Yet, some of us do not agree that astronauts walked on the moon.  For the astronaut who did walk on the moon, that moonwalk was very real (I met one of them and he spoke about it).  But often we must rely on photographs, things we know are notorious for retouching and air brushing, for information about places we cannot go.  We must rely on the writings of people who have been somewhere we’ve never gone.  We trust these people to tell us the truth the best they can, though we know sometimes people lie.  Whether or not we choose to believe the astronaut’s personal testimony, we can probably agree the moon is real.  But then you have the people who might insist the moon is just an illusion, that the Statue of Liberty is a paper cut-out, that the Taj Mahal is an architect’s drawing.  These people’s perceptions are real to them.  Each of us lives in his own reality--yet still the material world is real.

The first four words in the Bible are, “In the beginning God...”  In the beginning only God existed.  He separated from Himself a point and into that point spoke, “Light be,” and light was, the first “day.”  This is the event the Belgian priest LeMaitre described as the “cosmic egg” and Sir Fred Hoyle labeled, “the big bang.”  The name “big bang” stuck, though it was LeMaitre who did the math describing the “big bang” and scientists at Bell Labs discovered the background radiation he predicted they’d find, a sign of the explosion of the “cosmic egg.”  He called it the “cosmic egg” because when it hatched light sprang into existence and from light all matter was created.  Essentially, the entire material universe is made either directly or indirectly from light.  God is Light, I John 1:5.

We humans don’t all agree on these foundational ideas.  Sir Fred Hoyle, an atheist, didn’t like the idea that the universe had a beginning, because he recognized that if the universe had a beginning then it also had a Creator.  He created the math explaining a “steady state” theory of the universe in which the universe is eternal.  But his theory has been disproved.   

Einstein’s theory of relativity opened the door for the atomic age.  E=MC2 is the math behind “Light be.”  It is the equation that describes when a huge amount of energy is forced into matter.  A huge amount of energy is released from matter when you smack two atoms together, a reverse of “Light be,” an event that gives us the atomic bomb and nuclear reactors.   

Hoyle didn’t like the reality of a universe with a beginning so he tried to fabricate one that didn’t have a beginning.  Other atheists who accept the “big bang” but also don’t like the idea of a Creator think they’ve managed to cut Him out of the picture by postulating that our universe is nothing special, it’s just one of perhaps billions and billions of universes out there, somewhere.  Each one of these universes had a “big bang,” in fact, according to these scientists, “big bangs” are happening all over the place somewhere in this gigantic mega-universe.  

The problem with this theory is that since we can’t see past the edge of our universe, it can’t be proved or disproved.  Scientists who believe in the multiple universe theory believe what they believe by faith, same as those of us who believe God created our unique, one of a kind universe in the moment He said, “Light be,” believe by faith.  There is more evidence to support faith in a Creator God than there is for those who believe in multiple universes or evolution by chance, but like any kind of an argument between people who are invested in a belief, neither can change the other’s mind.  Richard Dawkins calls people who believe in God, “flat earth” people.  Those of us who believe in God think he’s a flat earth person.  Here we go, the arguments keep coming; our perceived realities are vastly different.  You and I might be watching the debate and wondering, “What’s the truth?”  God isn’t perturbed by human uneasiness with any situation.  If a person is uneasy enough, he might give God a minute of his time and actually listen for a change.  

God isn’t perturbed.  He likes arguments and He’s not going to settle everything beyond a shadow of a doubt for anybody who wishes He would.  Besides, if God were to come down in His spectacular Glory, crossing that interface between the spirit realm and the material realm in a form we could actually see and hear, those of us who don’t want to see him wouldn’t, we’d explain Him away, and those of us who do want to see Him would and nothing could explain Him away.  Which is right back to where this all started.  Reality is what we make it in our own minds; reality is what we decide to believe.  It’s the ghost in the attic, no it’s a raccoon...  

I have to speak to you about what I understand of reality.  Given my firm conviction that the Bible is true and God is Reality and given the research I’ve done as a lay-person into the origins of the universe and the physics around it, I start with God and His Word and then see how science fits in.  Science is an inexact art.  A scientist starts with an idea and then tries to prove or disprove it.  Often, scientists fall into the all-too-human trap of having an idea and trying to make the evidence prove the idea even if the evidence has to be fudged it or altered completely in order to do it.  The debate on climate change is an example.  There’s power in having things go a certain way, having the engine of progress stalled and people forced to give up their SUV’s, paper cups and over-heated or cooled, too large homes.  Lately, more people have been coming out with papers and articles denouncing the science behind the global warming scare.  Just the other day some Japanese scientists equated the global warming “science” with ancient astrology.  We have to be careful what we choose to believe, but how to find the truth?  

From my personal experience, discovering first hand that disobeying God really makes a mess of a person’s life and trying to live according to New Age ideas isn’t a tolerable alternative to God and His Way, I come to the conviction that the Bible is true and God is Reality.  I have come to the conviction that the Bible is true because when I’ve obeyed what it tells me to do, my life has improved.  At this point in my life, when I’ve tested God’s promises and seen God work miracles for me, nobody will shake me out of this conviction.  God and His Word are more real for me than anything.    

The material universe is a separate thing from the spirit realm.  It has to be if God separated from Himself a point and spoke into it.  In order for a material universe to exist, God has to do this because before He spoke “Light be” He was all that existed.  However, the spirit realm isn’t that far off.  It’s more like, though the material universe is technically separate, it is essentially surrounded and infiltrated by the spirit realm.  

The magazine “Scientific American” has an article this month on non-locality challenging Einstein’s theory of special relativity.  Non-locality is the idea, as the authors explain, that a fist moving in Des Moines, Iowa, for example, can hit a nose in Dallas, Texas, and not affect anything in any points in between.  The idea of non-locality affects the molecular level.  It’s part of a thing called quantum entanglement and the concept will give a person a headache unless the person is a physicist who’s been studying it awhile.  It gave Einstein a headache.  He wrote a refutation of it with a friend of his.  But though Einstein wrote the refutation, the idea won’t quite go away because something about it is true.

Admittedly, I’m no physicist, but I think what’s going on here is once a person gets down to the realm of particles he’s into the interface between the material world and the spirit realm.  In that interface the rules controlling the two realms mesh into what seems to us a confused jumble.  

The spirit realm operates according to different rules from the material universe.  For one thing, in the spirit realm there is no past or future, there is only NOW.  Everything we comprehend about the material realm is based on an understanding of the past, an understanding of the past that we use in predicting or preparing for a future and in dealing with the present.  In the NOW, which is all there is at the molecular level, there is no predicting anything because there’s no past to measure and no future to anticipate.  How to reconcile a macro universe in which things happen in predictable ways according to laws that make sense to a atomic universe in which things are, to us, unpredictable and make no sense is the holy grail of science--the unified theory--which hasn’t been discovered yet.    

An action in the spirit realm can have an effect on a specific thing or living being without affecting anybody else or anything else.  This is the principle of non-locality, the entanglement theory in action.  You might pray for someone and God will answer your prayer healing that person or whatever you asked Him to do--that’s non-locality in action.  Your friend’s illness is very real, God’s healing power is also very real, but the two exist in separate universes; it was your faith that brought God’s power from the spirit realm into the material realm where it manifest in healing for your friend (or whatever it was you asked God to do).  Your “fist” in Des Moines, God’s Hand in Dallas because you prayed.

If you place a chair in the middle of the living room before going to bed, you probably will bark your shins on it in the dark because the chances are that since that chair hasn’t been in that spot very long, in your sleep sotted state you’ll forget it’s there.  Reality of yesterday has changed; the new reality is the chair in the middle of the living room--ouch!  The blood flowing from your wound is real and the exclamation you shout is also real--that’s the principle of locality; an object must be right next to another to directly affect it.  The principle of locality rules the macro world.  Quantum entanglement or non-locality rules the micro world, which, I believe, is actually the interface between the material universe and the spirit realm.  

Reality may appear an elusive thing.  I used to have practically no self-esteem.  My concept of myself was so low that I was incapable of hearing compliments.  Someone else may be so overwhelmed with worry, or anger, or the sense he’s been treated unfairly that he completely misses all sorts of blessings that come his way moment-by-moment, day-by-day.  The compliment was real, but I didn’t hear it.  The blessing of a warm house, a soft bed, a lovely flower--whatever the blessing--is also real but the person overwhelmed by some negative emotion won’t notice it.  

What I’ve learned from my own experience is that my perception of reality is faulty.  The person I believe has just insulted me has actually done no such thing, he’s made an awkward joke trying to break an unpleasant silence or he’s simply oblivious to my hyper-sensitive feelings and he’s just interacting with me as he normally interacts with everyone he likes.  Example:  the boy who pulls a girl’s hair because he likes her; boys beat each other up when they like one another because boys aren’t allowed to get physically affectionate, thus the boy pulls the girl’s hair.  He’s really trying to show the girl he likes her, she thinks he’s an annoying twit who has no respect for her.  Two separate realities.

To find reality, we must return to the beginning--to God.  

Hebrews 1:3, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His Being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word...”  This is reality.  Jesus is the very picture of God, the exact Image of Him.  To truly know reality, we must know Jesus.  To know Him, we must study His Words.  Everything we can know about God comes from His Word--even the light from which the material universe is made comes from His Word because He spoke it into existence.  The very universe itself is a Bible in effect, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--His eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse,” Romans 1:20.  In short, LeMaitre, with his math explaining a beginning discovered God while Hoyle with his math, which he thought explained an eternal universe, did his best not to see God.  

If we fix our attention on God as Number One, then we will begin to perceive reality as it truly is.  The Bible is our textbook, our guidebook to reality.  God is the center of both the material universe and the spirit realm, when we know and understand Him we will be in the center of Reality.  Other ways to get to know God and enhance our relationship with Him include prayer (not just talking, but listening) and praising Him.  If He is the center of your life and you place your whole trust in Him, you will not be lost in unreality in any realm--even when you’re not sure what’s next--because He takes care of those who belong to Him and He is Master of both the material universe and the spirit realm.  

When we know God, our perceptions will fall in correct order.  Galileo was threatened with excommunication because he said that the earth is not the center of the universe.  The early church fathers had made an error in adopting the Greek concept that the earth is the center of the universe.  They were wrong, but it took quite awhile before they admitted it.  Galileo, a devout Christian, understood that the earth could not be the center of the universe because God holds that position.  The sun is a picture of God for us.  We, in turn, are symbolized by the earth itself.  Therefore, logically the center of our solar system has to be the sun, not the earth.  Thus, when Galileo witnessed the planets and stars through his telescope behaving in ways that could not be explained by the Greek model, he saw reality instead of the error he'd been taught.  Scientists believed that the universe had no beginning until LeMaitre wrote his math.  LeMaitre believed the Bible which clearly says, “In the beginning...”  After thousands of years of smart, educated people believing the Greek model of an eternal universe, the physical evidence of the beginning (the big bang) was discovered in the 1960’s.  LeMaitre’s concept of reality was not fazed by the dogma of science.  Instead, he clung to the Bible, the handbook of reality and eventually, science proved him right.  Michael Faraday, a devout Christian, came to his discoveries about electricity and magnetism because of his focus on God as a Unified Being of Three in One.  Thus, Faraday could discern that electricity and magnetism were related.  George Washington Carver, another devout Christian, asked God to tell him everything and everything.  He said God answered: You can’t handle that much; pick something smaller.  So he picked plants, specifically the peanut.  He picked the peanut, because as a former slave, he wanted to help the people of the south who needed an alternative crop for cotton which was depleting the soil and suffering from boll weevils and other diseases.  Because he was willing to listen to God, he invented all sorts of uses for the peanut, a plastic from a plant and developed the principle of crop rotation among other things--all of which helped the people of the south.  Carver was driven by the reality of God who personally touched his heart one day in an attic and whose voice he learned to trust as he struggled to obtain an education and sustenance.  In my own case, when I came to know God, I came to understand that God values me very highly, He created me for a purpose and my perception that I was worthless gradually was replaced with a more real perception of myself.  To know what is truly real, one must get to know God.

So, yes, the real world exists.  In order to know if it is exactly as it appears, we need to know God.  Knowing God will fix anything wrong in how we perceive the world and lead us to true understanding of reality.  

May God be with you and lead you.

Sincerely,

Marilyn