Is the World an Illusion?

The world is an illusion, and it is also not an illusion. This is one of the paradoxes within the Truth. The world is an illusion in the same way that a dream or a hologram is an illusion. It is created by someone outside the dream or hologram to appear real, while it isn’t real. It is an illusion. An illusion is something that seems to be real but isn’t.

The Creator creates creation, and at the same time, the Creator is creation. There is nothing outside of the Creator, just as the dream is not outside the dreamer. Everything that is created is inside the Creator and, like a dream, from the Creator’s standpoint, it is self-created and not real, in the sense of having an independent reality.

Because the world is not independent from the Creator, it could be considered an illusion, just as the dream is the dreamer’s illusion. The dream has no independent reality. Nothing in creation has an independent reality either, since nothing is independent from the Oneness. Everything is happening within Oneness.

From the standpoint of the creations or dream characters, however, creation or the dream is real. So, the world is both: to the Creator, creation is an illusion, a hologram, a self-creation without any independent reality; to those in the world or in the dream, it is real, as real as they seem to be, because they are not aware of the origin of the world or dream.

This is interesting information but not particularly helpful to those in the world or those in the dream, as it doesn’t change their experience—that the world is real. The only benefit this knowledge has is helping people gain a perspective other than the generally oppressive one held by their egos, since the experience of the world when you are in it is essentially the experience your ego is having. Knowing that the world is an illusion or a dream can help people put their experiences into a broader perspective, one that contains the possibility that there is something beyond the world and an actual purpose to the world, that it is not simply meaningless.

This is paradoxical, isn’t it—that seeing the world as an illusion or dream can actually make life more meaningful? Because if you see the world as real, then you will take your own mind’s word for what it is and possibly not see that something else is going on here. When you wake up from a dream, you wonder, “What was that all about?” You see that you have been fooled into thinking something that isn’t true. The dream fooled you. So, it is with the world, or rather your ego’s perception of the world, how you have been programmed to perceive it: Your ego’s perception, although it seemed so true, simply isn’t the truth. What a jolt, what a surprise!

Or you could see this human life as a movie or play, where the characters look and behave a certain way and respond according to a script, except that these characters have some measure of free will. I say “some measure” because most respond to life in predictable ways according to their conditioning and not really freely according to some other will than that of the character or the character’s ego.

Then, when the movie or play is over, the characters cease to exist, and it turns out there was no such thing as that character. It was unreal, a passing fantasy or imagination. Was that real or unreal? Isn’t what is real what is beyond the characters, script, and movie?

In the same way, this is how the world is an illusion. You are playacting. You are not actually who you think you are. You are behaving as the character you have been designed to play. The “real” you is something entirely different. The “real” you designed and created all of it. From the real you’s perspective, this world and its characters are its creation, its imaginations come to life. But from the perspective of creation, this life feels and seems completely real.

There is little point in arguing whether life is an illusion or not, since both statements are true in their own way. However, if you misunderstand this teaching and think that “the world is an illusion” means that nothing you do matters and that there is no meaning or purpose in creation, you would be wrong. “The world is an illusion” doesn’t result in a world that has no meaning or purpose.

“The world is an illusion” just means that there are two levels of reality, one more real than the other. And yet, this isn’t realized while one is in the world or while dreaming at night until one wakes up from the dream or has a spiritual awakening. Then, it is possible to see the truth—that the world is not how it seems (to the ego). The ego’s perceptions were not real—they weren’t aligned with the Truth.

Then, it is possible to see more about the Truth, to explore it more fully and see how it is different from what you once believed. The lies of the egoic mind are exposed; the dream is seen for what it is. The Truth is finally uncovered. And then, it is possible to live in the world more comfortably and to love the world and be grateful for the gift that life and creation are. Creation is a gift, and it is a gift born of love.

So, ultimately the Truth is good and something worth discovering. And what if it were otherwise? What if the Truth were that life was how the ego perceives it to be? There would be no way out, no way to happiness, peace, and love. And yet, the great, good news is that love is all there is and goodness is at the core of life.

The Creator is Love, and this love for creation is made manifest by building in a fail-safe device that ensures a way out of the suffering caused by the ego’s perceptions. You are never lost for long in the illusion. In relation to eternity, this experience of illusion spun by the ego is very short-lived, indeed, and other experiences in higher dimensions are not distorted by anything like the ego.

This world that you live in is a particular reality with many veils obscuring the Truth. But once you have seen the Truth, you graduate from the illusory world of the ego, never to return. You are freed to experience the gloriousness of creation without the ego’s burdensome beliefs. The illusion of separation built into this world was all a lie, as you awaken to the Truth that you created it all—not you, the character, but you as Oneness!

Now, for just a moment, I’d like you to notice how veiled or unveiled the illusion is to you. There are signs that indicate the degree to which you are free of the illusion, free of the ego’s spin on life. Perhaps the most obvious sign is the degree of relaxation and ease you feel in this moment. If you are feeling relaxed, open, at ease, at peace, you are in the Truth, not caught by the illusion.

There are lots of moments, if not most of the time, that you are not caught in the ego’s perceptions. The Truth is not really so difficult to see and experience. When you are aligned with it, you relax and are just letting everything be as it is and enjoying everything just as it is. This state is so simple, so ordinary, that the ego overlooks it, discounts it, and then tries to draw you out of it. To the ego, this isn’t enough! And why should we be surprised, when that is the ego’s constant experience: “Life isn’t good enough. I’m not good enough. That person isn’t good enough.”

But life is what it is, and what it is, is always good enough, because the truth is that there is no such thing as good or bad. These are words, like so many, that create the illusion and hold it in place. So, watch out for these words. They will take you out of the Truth or keep you from seeing the Truth: Life is good!

Life is exactly as it needs to be. All is well and always has been. Whatever might argue with these statements is your egoic mind, which assumes it knows how life should be, what is good and desirable, and what is not. But does it know this? What is the ego anyway?

The ego is not an entity that has intelligence. It is not any kind of entity, not even an unintelligent one. It doesn’t have consciousness, so how could it know Truth? How could it know anything? The ego doesn’t have a mind. It doesn’t think. It doesn’t evaluate. The things it says are things it has heard others say—things it repeats and that get repeated from person to person for generations.

What is in your egoic mind is in other people’s egoic minds. But these are just ideas—beliefs—passed from one person to the next, often unexamined, unfounded, and untrue or only partially true. Yes, the illusion is created by ideas that have been believed and passed down to you. They are false ideas that appeal to your basest instincts, because these ideas come from deep within your subconscious and the collective unconscious of humanity—ideas that have caused all the suffering on earth.

It is time to wake up from this illusion now, time to be here fully in this world without all of that, time to be in the Truth—to be in this simple, ordinary moment, stripped of all knowing and all pretense of knowing. Just here, right now, free and simple. We will help you strip away the veils that uphold this illusion and help you stay in the Truth. Have this be your prayer today. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your openness. We are with you always.