“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.”
Albert Einstein
Imagine that the triangle illustrated above represents and contains all of existence. Inside are subtle distinctions, not absolute divisions, across the great hierarchy of beings that comprise this universe.
Instead of reading this hierarchy as a static scheme of human superiority and exceptionalism, however, as if living beings were added to and stacked on top of some material substrate, and human beings were added to and stacked on top of an animal substrate, we need to view it organically and through an evolutionary lens.
Living beings represent an evolutionary breakthrough among all beings, just as human beings emerged by a series of neuroanatomical breakthroughs in animal biology and advances in social intelligence over the course of many millions of years.
But human beings are still living beings, and living beings belong to the realm of all beings. Just as a growing tree projects its lifeforce through the extension of branches and leaves rather than adding pieces to what’s already there, so has the universe “grown” into a living and self-conscious community of beings.
Inside the triangle universe everything is connected and All is One – which is the mystical intuition behind our word universe, referring to the “one song” or “turning unity” of existence itself. The celebrated genius of Albert Einstein was inspired by his sense of belonging to the Universe, and it is doubtful that he would have formulated his theories of General and Special Relativity had he not contemplated this insight into the mystery of cosmic unity.
It’s the second part of his quote that I want to explore here, however, since it reveals why we tend to regard his remark on cosmic unity as so noteworthy. Einstein doesn’t offer to explain how this “optical delusion of consciousness” comes about, only that it is the condition of our feeling alone and disoriented in the Universe.
Human evolution unfolded within the broader evolutionary stream of life, advancing by adaptive mutations in neuroanatomy and further developed by social accommodation of these mutations, eventually bending a naturally extroverted attention back upon itself in self-conscious awareness.
The effect of this reflexive back-flip in consciousness was an experience of being turned into an object of awareness, and then, turning back out from there, confronted suddenly with a multitude of objects separate from itself.
We’ll go deeper into the phenomenology of egoism shortly – this experience of becoming somebody separate and special. But we need to remind ourselves again that the triangle above is meant to represent and contain everything that is real. If the process of ego formation is depicted in my diagram as taking place outside of Reality, the point is not that we are now in another dimension of Reality, but that we have entered something that seems real to us but really isn’t.
According to the spiritual wisdom tradition of Sophia Perennis, this illusion is not generated by conditions in Reality, as when radiating heat waves on desert sand or an asphalt highway produce the appearance of a lake in the distance. Instead, its effect is more like when two mirrors are positioned facing each other at just the right angle to produce a “tunnel” that’s not really there.
In other words, it’s not something out there (e.g., heat waves) tricking us into a mistaken belief, but consciousness itself that is spinning the illusion of a separate identity (ego = “I”) and then mistaking it as real.
In the window above, this “illusionarium” where ego takes form and finds itself – only to feel lost among the countless separate beings – self-conscious identity is depicted as a cluster of bubbles floating outside of Reality. If my reader should protest that, according to the premise already stated, my triangle contains everything in existence and allows for nothing outside it, then I shall wholeheartedly agree.
That is the point: The bubble is not an objective illusion but a subjective hallucination – a delusion. It is entirely in the mind, not in Reality.
Around the bubble representing ego consciousness and the subjective hallucination (or “optical delusion”) of a separate identity, a spinning wheel of arrows let’s us in on the consequences and repercussions for the individual. Retracting into our own center of personal identity and separating from Reality to that exact extent makes us increasingly insecure and anxious. On our own (or so it seems), we feel isolated and exposed.
The anxiety that comes with our separation and exposure is managed somewhat by the social validation we receive by personating roles that ensure our conformity to the group. To the degree we feel at risk of losing their approval, we will put on any identity and hide behind any mask that makes us more acceptable to others.
Pleasing, placating, flattering and impressing those taller powers and key-holders to acceptance and belonging gradually becomes our singular ambition.
Inevitably this mentality of “what’s in it for me?” tightens into a spiral of conceit where our feelings and needs (mostly our subjective feeling-needs) are all that matter. One last quarter-turn of this Wheel of Suffering closes our mind inside convictions and completes the separation of self-conscious identity from the way things really are (i.e., from Reality).
If we should think of god inside our illusionarium, it is as another being, separate like ourselves but much greater, who is capable and caring enough to save us from our misery. This god is depicted in my illustration as another bubble (a literal and objective Super Ego), with an aura of glory to set him (or her) apart as superior to all the others.
Perhaps the most important function of this projection of ours, this “Egod,” is in justifying our convictions and giving supernatural warrant to violence against others, the planet, and even ourselves.
The spiral shape superimposed on the ego inside its bubble of delusion anticipates the predestined fate of one who is locked so deep inside the convictions and costumes of identity that all contact with Reality is lost. Depression is where our energy, interest, desire and hope are crushed in resignation and despair: A life of pretense and “brand management” just isn’t worth living.
Is there a way out? Yes, but not by leaving the body and flying off to a god who is equally a product of our delusion.
Instead, by dropping the charade of becoming somebody special and returning to the body that is “part of the whole, called by us ‘universe’,” we come back to the true Mystery of God as the Power of Love among human beings, the Spirit of Life in living beings, and as the Ground of Being in all beings.
Salvation is about coming back in present awareness to what we are.
Tracts of Revolution 