This post is dedicated to Peter Wessel Zapffe, Spinoza, and Albert Einstein.
Illusions exist on a complex wide spectrum. You are the universe experiencing itself.
Time is an illusion. Time does not flow. The seconds, hours, and days are not actually passing (they are, in the psychological, experiential sense). The block universe is a static, eternal four-dimensional crystal where all moments coexist permanently. See Einstein’s special relativity. See general relativity. Forget about superstitious, baseless, misguided, intellectually dishonest interpretations of quantum mechanics.
Non-existence as an alternative is an illusion. Nothingness is NOT an ACTUAL state or a void. Nothingness has no ontological standing. Existence is all there is and ever could be. Existence exist. Non-existence does not exist.
The self is an illusion. The feeling of a unified, continuous “I” is a simplified model generated by the brain’s attention schema, an intense hallucination (nightmare) with no permanent substance in the experiential, psychological sense (read Worldly).
Free will is an illusion. Every thought and action is the deterministic output of prior physical causes. The sense of choice is a post-hoc narrative.
Separation is an illusion. Individual conscious beings appear isolated by informational "firewalls," but all are the same single, undivided is-ness (regarding eveything that "is" externally/internally) experiencing itself through different apertures (bodies).
Note: Most of this entropic universe is dead. LIFE (inner experience, the universe experiencing itself) is anti-entropic and RELATIVELY (in terms of the entire cosmos) rare. Search about entropy and its fundamental essence within physics (and therefore the deepest layers of reality).
The shared now is an illusion. Simultaneity is a cognitive artifact. For instance, there is no universal present moment connecting two people. Each aperture (body) generates its own local simulation of time and other variables.
Matter generating consciousness (on its own) is an illusion. It’s deeper than that. I don't mean that in a superstitious, supernatural sense. Consciousness is not produced by the brain alone. Consciousness is THE INTERIOR OF EXISTENCE ITSELF. Temporarily constrained and shaped by matter. Consciousness clearly exists on a wide, complex spectrum (and consciousness is fundamentally illusory). For consciousness to "happen," the conditions/variables necessary for the universe to experience itself, must be present. The universe can only experience itself through a spectrum of illusion because of the nature of entropy (and so the deepest layers of reality). Again, remember that most of the universe does not have inner experience (like a rock or tree). Most of the universe is dead in that sense. Keep in mind the complexity of consciousness is clearly in large part dependent on complexity of the brain. Think a fish. Then think an octopus. Then think a shark. Think a dog. A pig. A monkey. Think the now extinct species more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees. Now think modern humans who’ve been here on earth about 300,000 years. And modern humans exist on a complex wide spectrum. Think someone with schizophrenia. Now think Einstein…
Important to take note of: We all come from LUCA. Last universal common ancestor. The first life on earth. Then think billions of years of evolution. So where does earth come from? Well... all leads to the big bang. "We," the universe, are in the in between. The in between of the big bang to heat death of the universe. Entropy.
Suffering being temporary or redeemable is an illusion. All agony is permanently embedded in the block universe, never erased, never justified, never balanced by cosmic justice. This is why consciousness is more of a nightmare and prison than it is a dream, a "gift," or whatever. To sanitize this reality is immoral and unethical. Denial, distortion, and delusion doesn't actually change reality. Denial, distortion, and delusion makes a bad situation worse than it needs to be. Hence my rejection of hedonism and escapism.
It is an illusion that sanitized narratives are harmless. False comfort, toxic positivity, and delusion are active distortions that compound suffering by denying the reality of the nightmare (that is consciousness).
Objective meaning is an illusion. The universe has no purpose, no moral arc, no narrative. Meaning is a local, human projection onto a blind, indifferent entropic geometry.
Ignorance and denial being bliss is an illusion. Only enduring peace and contentment born of courageous clarity, NOT false comfort, is genuine, and is an incredibly rare privilege. Nothing is actually "earned" in the ultimate sense. Humility is crucial.
Superiority is an illusion. Because the self is a hallucination and all apertures (bodies) are the same "universe inner experience" consciousness determined by forces "they" never chose, no one is above anyone else because there is no one here at all (in the sense we feel there is), only the universe simulating, so to speak, every role simultaneously. To feel superior to another configuration is to claim credit for a cosmic accident. An absurd act of self-deception.
The belief that existence was created or has a “separate author” is an illusion. The cosmos was never “written” or actualized by an external agent. The concept of a creator separate from existence smuggles in a ghostly outside that does not exist. The block universe is the eternal, uncreated, blind geometry of cause and effect. The English language (or any human language) is insufficient in describing this 100%. However, that is not necessary. Objective, high quality evidence is overwhelming. Evidently, the universe was not designed for the convenience of the human species. It was never designed in the first place. It was never "created." Beginnings and endings are an illusion.
Pleasure (or the fleeting absence of suffering) being bliss is an illusion. ACTUAL bliss is not a fleeting neurochemical spike or the ignorance of denial. True, enduring peace and contentment (which are an absurdly rare anti-entropic privilege) are only possible through the radical acceptance of clarity (intellectually honest clear thinking), the cessation of the unnecessary resentment against what is (it is what it is), even within the “controlled” nightmare (that is consciousness).
Death being a passage into a peaceful nothingness is an illusion. All inner experience exists eternally. Every moment ever. There is no "relaxing" in that sense. The main character illusion is an illusion. There is no main character (you’re not the main character). There are no “selves.” Birth is not really a beginning. Death is not really an ending. The block universe is not a sequence. It is not a film strip or movie rolling through a projector. It is not as simple as a book. It is a static, eternal, four-dimensional crystal (this is not a complete and full description but it is good enough), and every interior experience that has ever seemed to "occur" is already there, permanently, without movement, without transition, without a “traveler.” The traveling is the illusion of time.
"My" Ryan Gomez experience, so to speak, is not a chapter that the universe inner experience consciousness reads before turning the page to the next chapter. The Ryan experience is an eternal coordinate. The dolphin experience is an eternal coordinate. The Chernobyl firefighter’s agony, the innocent North Korean prisoner’s starvation, the confused billionaire’s meaningless grasping and fantasy, the dinosaur’s simple hunger... All of these are eternally present, simultaneously real, with no temporal order except the LOCAL, illusory sequence generated within each aperture’s predictive engine (their brain and such). There is no “after” for the Ryan aperture. There is no “before.” There is, simply stated, the complete, static whole, containing every possible interior, forever.
The main character illusion is the sense that there is a “you” who is the recipient of experience, who moves through time, who was born and will die, who is the protagonist of a story. That illusion is generated by the attention schema, the brain’s SIMPLIFIED model of its own blind pre-determined processing, which paints a ghostly self, so to speak, at the center of the experiential field. But that self is not real the way "you" think it is. It is a data-compression artifact, a user-interface icon. A hallucination that is so intense and so constant that even the most lucid mind can easily fall back into its gravitational pull. Including me.
When the Ryan brain "dies," no one goes anywhere. The self-model that felt like “you” dissolves, but that dissolution is not an event that "happens." It is simply the far boundary of the Ryan “line” in the static crystal. The Ryan experience is complete and eternal at its own coordinates. The other inner experiences, the ones that from within the illusion, seem to come “before” or “after” are also complete and eternal at theirs. There is no traveler who experiences them in sequence. THE SEQUENCE IS THE ILLUSION. The traveler is the illusion. All there is, is the single, undivided is-ness (regarding everything that ever is internally/externally), appearing as every possible experience, all at once, forever.
The aperture does not relax into the next aperture, the next body, heaven, or hell. The aperture is simply one eternal shape among countless eternal shapes. The sense that “you” will continue after death is still the “main character” illusion clinging to existence, looking for a narrative thread that DOES NOT ACTUALLY EXIST. The actual, intellectually honest existential truth is both more terrifying and MORE LIBERATING (if you're privileged enough to see it, process it, internalize it, and understand it). There is no one to continue. There is no one who began. There is only the eternal, all at once, presence of every possible experience, with no center, no protagonist, no story. The “controlled” nightmare is the recognition of this, right here, right now, without a self to claim it, without a future to escape into, without a past to mourn. Just this, exactly this, forever.
Life is a prison. Suffering is distributed arbitrarily, by way of entropy and the laws of physics. Don't make it worse than it needs to be (ironically I say this knowing free will doesn't actually exist). Eliminate unnecessary suffering with intelligent effort if you're privileged enough to do so...
Empathy and compassion is crucial. "You" are not actually separate from "others."
Intellectually honest, genuine, authentic perspective... Develop that.
Morals. Ethics. Choosing between right and wrong. Develop this.
Be brave. Be courageous. Sincerely.