The proposition that we are experiencing our “Earth Game” lives within a simulation has one fundamental significance: it means that, by definition, there is a “more real” reality out there somewhere. To illustrate, think of playing a video game. There is a playing character – an “Avatar” – representing you within the game. But there is also a “you” outside the game. That “you” outside the game is more real than the playing character “you” within the game. And, your reality outside the game – that is, your everyday reality – is more real than the reality within the video game.
To be clear, although the video game analogy provides a useful illustration, I would stop short of comparing what we are about here in Earth Game to any video game of human design. No, our level of Earthly reality is so grand, so comprehensive, so brilliant in its design, that it disrespects the design to compare it to even the most advanced virtual reality games designed by mere humans. Nor do I resonate with the notion that Earth Game was created by extra-terrestrial game designers working with massively more powerful computers. No, this physical reality is not a product of more advanced physical technology. Rather, it emanates from beyond the physical.
I acknowledge that brilliant thinkers who have studied the development and rapid advancement of human-created games have identified a likely future progression. They project that we could in the not-too-distant future develop games that would be very hard to distinguish from what we consider to be “reality”. But, I think they take a wrong turn when they conclude, based on our progress to date, that ancient civilizations likely already have created such games – and that Earth Game is probably such a game. That line of thinking begs the question: okay, so who created those advanced beings? And no, “turtles all the way down” (i.e., the notion that the creators of our simulation are also within a simulation) is not a logically acceptable answer to that. I am not persuaded that we are merely following the path of other civilizations as we develop increasingly sophisticated gaming. Quite the contrary, I believe we are intuitively catching glimpses of the hand of “God” – and thereby instinctively developing technologies that to some extent mirror God’s own work.
“Optimization”, which is so key to the effective functioning of our video games, is something the designers of our physical Universe similarly had in mind. No need to create particles for all the possibilities; just run those as information, while rendering as 3D multi-sensory pixels (i.e., sub-atomic particles that we call “matter”) only what needs to show up on the screen for purposes of our Earth Game experience.
No, we are not inside a game created by others of our ilk who have simply been at it longer; we are inside a game created by God. And, since we are part and parcel of God, we are not inside a game created by others. We are playing a game of our own design, immersed in an adventure and an exploration of our own imagining and our own making. As for the “computer” on which the game runs, that is the “Universe” itself – which, our physicists are beginning to see, is fundamentally about information. Beyond the Universe as a centralized and entirely interconnected store of information, our physical brains serve as the remote computers that tap into “Earth Game”.
Where the comparison between Earth Game and our video games does particularly ring true is the concept of an “Avatar”. The word comes from Sanskrit, and literally means “descent”. In the context of our video games, one’s “Avatar” is the player, dropped into the game. In the context of Earth Game, the “you” who exists beyond Spacetime – i.e., in the “More Real” – drops something of itself into the game. Not all of itself, of course – the whole of that Consciousness could not be compressed into the denseness of physical reality. Nor would it serve the purpose; the Avatar within Earth Game needs the amnesia and the illusion of separation from God / Consciousness / Source / All That Is. Just as, when you play a video game through an Avatar, not all of who you are gets dropped into the video game. Obviously, the more expansive “you” continues to exist outside the video game. That “you” is more real than the player within the video game.
So, let’s ponder the more real reality – I’ll call it the “More Real” – that is beyond your Spacetime reality here on Earth. The More Real is where you came from, before you signed on for your current round of Earth Game. And it is where you will return when your adventure here is over.
We can explore the More Real. Yes, we can do that. We can touch it, sense it, feel it. Not with our physical senses, of course – they are designed to be able to sense only particles of matter, not the reality beyond particles. But we are more than just our physical senses.
Yes, it is a stretch of imagination to think that we might catch a glimpse outside the game. But consider a three-stage progression. Most among us are still in the first stage, where they are entirely caught up in the game. Immersed in the action; in the metaphor of one’s life as a movie on the screen, they are up on the screen. Unaware that it is a screen; unaware that there is a projector; unaware that they are actors in a grand play. And mostly thrashing around on the screen ineffectively (or at least inefficiently).
Spiritual disciplines have long pointed to the next step in the progression: become the observer. Pull back from the movie screen, and realize that you are more than the character on the screen that is somehow also “you” – or at least a part of you. Observe the action; watch the movie unfold. With an uncommon (and Zen-like) acceptance and calmness.
From there, contemplate a third stage. Turn around. See the projector behind where you are seated in the movie theater. And see the world of matter for what it is: 3D, multi-sensory pixelated images being projected from a world of consciousness. Once you catch a glimpse of that, you can begin to look at anything in the world of matter – an apple, a tree, even another human body – as 3D pixels projected out of a sea of interconnected consciousness.
The above progression could also be expressed in terms of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Being caught up in the action on the screen is akin to seeing only shadows on cave walls. Becoming the observer is like being able to turn one’s head so as to see the light coming into the cave. Turning to see the projector is venturing outside the cave.
Yes, all of the above takes imagination. But, if you have already achieved some mastery (through meditation or otherwise) of becoming the “observer”, that too began with imagination. So begin. Because catching even a glimpse of the More Real that is outside Earth Game will change you forever. And, perhaps paradoxically, can lead to an uncommon adeptness in the playing of Earth Game.
We’ll get into the beauty and majesty of the More Real below. First, though, let’s talk about how you might actually touch it, feel it, explore it.
One way, it would seem, is the “NDE” (Near Death Experience) route. No question, every NDE touches the More Real in some way. But, it would seem that route chooses you, not the other way around. You get that wake-up call delivered if it serves you; of the myriad NDE stories I have come across, not one of them happened because the individual overtly asked for an NDE. Further, they are unavoidably messy; one must just about die. That inevitably involves some sort of drastic illness or accident or violence. Apart from the ambulance and sirens and all the distress caused to loved ones, presumably some come with knock-on physical consequences. For all these reasons, if there is a way to explore the More Real without an NDE (or for that matter actual death), that would seem the way to go. I will offer below a method I have been exploring, in the hope that it may provide for at least some others a means of initiating an exploration of the More Real. First though, a word about psychedelics as another option for glimpsing the More Real.
I have no personal experience with psychedelics; i.e., I have used none of ayahuasca, LSD, or “magic” mushrooms. Nor am I drawn to do so. No doubt, many have caught a glimpse of the More Real while using psychedelics. The pathway there is the doorway of the pineal gland, i.e., the sixth chakra or “third eye”. There are downsides to using psychedelics as a “shortcut”. Most obviously, there are the physical reactions to the drugs. Personally, I prefer that my spiritual experiences not involve vomiting (which is a common effect with ayahuasca). Beyond that, and as others have observed, employing drug-assisted shortcuts builds only a temporary bridge. I prefer the more solid foundation of a meditative bridge that becomes more readily available with each crossing.
If the doorway presented by psychedelics calls to you, it calls to you. As noted, I am no authority on psychedelics. For myself, I prefer the path to the More Real described below, which comes with no safety warnings, no physical side-effects, and no cost.
You may be familiar with the seven chakras that correspond to the physical body. Years ago, I came across a beautiful description of chakras eight through twelve. Before we explore there, however, let’s put in context the first seven chakras, which correspond to the physical body. (I won’t recap the seven here; just Google “chakras” if you are not already familiar with them.) They are doorways between the physical realm and what lies immediately beyond it. Because they connect to the physical, the seven chakras correspond to colors and to musical notes, and also to the elements of nature and to core emotions. The fourth (heart) chakra can open you to divine love; the sixth chakra (third eye) can open you to divine wisdom. The seventh (crown) chakra can open to beyond the physical realm.
Chakras eight through twelve do not correspond to any color or musical note; they are beyond the physical. Since we won’t be discussing the eleventh and twelfth chakras in this article, I will address any (understandable) curiosity about them by pre-emptively mentioning that they correspond respectively to Soul/Spirit and Higher Self.
Chakras eight and nine correspond to “Quantum” reality. Think of the eighth chakra as being located below your physical body. Think of it as the “Quantum Field”, which represents thought-forms that are almost at the point of manifesting “on the screen” as 3D pixelated matter. In terms of what happens in Earth Game, think of it as the realm of the probable. (Imagine, if it helps, the metaphor of a raincloud that has the appearance of being just about ready to generate precipitation.)
Imagine the ninth chakra as being above the top of your head, above your crown chakra. Think of it as a “Quantum Realm” of consciousness-at-work – of thoughts that could find their way onto the screen of 3D pixelated matter. Think of it as the realm of the possible. Here is where the “Universe” – as the centralized intelligence (or Central Processing Unit, perhaps) of Earth Game – weaves together the story of Earth and the myriad of our individual stories.
Think of the Quantum Field and the Quantum Realm together as an intermediary between the physical realm and the More Real. In video game terms, the Quantum constitutes the Central Processing Unit and Graphics Processing Unit out of which Earth Game is rendered. Out of that rendering, your own computer – your physical brain – puts an image on the screen (i.e., the world of matter that you perceive and to which you direct your attention) for your Avatar to experience.
For present purposes, all you need do with chakras eight and nine is to imagine them – so as to allow them to serve as a doorway. Imagine the quantum world of swirling probabilities and possibilities. Fecund and fertile, bristling with creativity and potential. Then, guide your imagination just a little further above your head. Silently whisper to yourself the words “More Real”. And feel the energy rising into something ineffable, something beyond. There, the tenth chakra is … a gateway to the More Real. Entirely outside the game that is “Earth Game”. Entirely beyond the physical. Now in the realm where the designers of Earth Game dwell. Where “Source” energy seems everywhere, in a sea of interconnectedness, interknowing, and an indescribable yet remarkably all-pervasive love.
In that ascension, feel the polarities of Spacetime lifting, floating back up into the archetypal energies from which they came. The polarity of love and fear lifts to simply love. And then drifts upwards to ecstasy. The polarity of joy and sadness lifts to pure joy … and then on to rapture. The polarity of peace and anger lifts to peace … and then on to bliss. The polarity of connection and separateness lifts to an interconnectedness of all things. No longer is there a polarity of abundance and scarcity; there is only abundance, the infinite.
In the lifting, the fear and the sadness and the anger and the loneliness fade, become somehow no longer relevant. They simply … come home. And so do you.
What’s more, in the More Real time comes home. No longer the taskmaster, no longer the death sentence of the endingness of all things as the hourglass runs out. Instead, time stands still. There is only the endless now, eternal.
Take some time in your meditation to just be in the More Real – to whatever extent that you can imagine yourself touching it. You don’t need to do it perfectly; catching even the foggiest glimpse of the More Real will have impact.
Do you have to use the tenth chakra to access the More Real? No, of course not. You may find other and perhaps better avenues for your imagination to take you there. The important thing is to go there – however you get there. Do understand, though, that this is not about efforting; you do not strain your way (or for that matter, earn your way) into the More Real. Accessing the More Real is more a function of releasing, letting go, than any sort of efforting. To the contrary, by some (channeled) accounts, it takes considerable energy to compress Consciousness down into the polarity and density of Spacetime. I wonder if that might even be an explanation for why your Consciousness takes regular breaks by sleeping; sort of like “AFK” (away from keyboard), only “AFA” (away from Avatar).
I am not suggesting explorations in the More Real as only some sort of idyll, i.e., a temporary distraction or, worse yet, an opiate-like numbing of the trials and tribulations that attend living in the physical. It is true that just touching the More Real, however imperfectly, can be transformative; NDEs, after all, are not about doing. Beyond that, however, there are very practical things you can do in the More Real. I will describe in the next few paragraphs a particular avenue I have been exploring of late.
For context, the More Real is the stuff of God – in the sense of “God” as the best available (or at least the most concise) shorthand for the Creator / Source / Consciousness / All That Is. That “stuff” is love and peace and joy, which in the More Real lift to the higher octave of ecstasy, bliss, and rapture, respectively. This is why those who, through whatever spiritual avenue, “touch” God in some way, commonly describe the experience in terms of ecstasy, bliss, and rapture. As for why those are the qualities of God, I really don’t know, and perhaps can’t know. But plainly, they are. Not the only qualities, of course; for instance, “abundant”, “infinite”, and “eternal” also seem apt. You can probably think of others. My point is that, in the More Real, “Godness” prevails. There is love, but there is no fear. There is peace, but not anger. Joy yes, sadness no. Fully welcoming; there is no element of judgment or rejection.
As an aside, we should be gratified that the stuff of “Godness” is what it happens to be. Imagine if the stuff of Godness were judging and punishing and smiting and all that (as some old religions would have us believe). Instead of any of that, we can be certain that anything we touch of Godness – i.e., anything we touch in the More Real – is going to feel delightful.
Now, let’s compare this description of the More Real to the “less real” that we experience here within Spacetime. We have love, but we also have fear. Peace is available, but also anger. There is joy, yet there is much sadness. There is abundance, but also scarcity. There is life, but also death. Light, but also darkness. There is delight, but also much pain. Our physical realm is a world of polarities; the More Real obviously is not. In the More Real, you are beyond polarity.
It seems that, in contrast to the pure “Godness” of the More Real, here in the less real of Spacetime we have a combination of Godness and the opposite of all that. That is, we have God, and we have anti-God. Perhaps think of matter and anti-matter for illustration; both are part of the design of our Spacetime. (The analogy quickly breaks down, though, so don’t take it too far.)
We don’t particularly like the anti-God stuff that finds its way into our personal realities. For that reason, we tend to “stuff down” the anti-God stuff, hide it somehow in the depths of our thoughts. Of course, if we feel it as it comes and let it pass and release, no stuffing occurs, and thus no harm is done. It is the stuffed stuff that causes the damage. Mostly, because it continually tries to find its way to the surface, i.e., our conscious thoughts, so that it can be released. As Michael A. Singer eloquently points out in his recent book Living Untethered, what he terms “samskaras” are constantly pushing their way up so that they can be released. Because we tend to resist that – hey, if we stuffed something once, we’ll probably try to re-stuff it when it comes back up – it eventually comes at us. Which is why we tend to have so much stuff to deal with in the course of our everyday living. As I have observed, yes, “shit happens”, but it never just happens. Well, one reason so much of it seems to happen in our lives is that we all tend to be stuffaholics. The more we stuff, the more life comes at us.
For a while I had assumed that the winning move was to grab the stuff as it bubbles up and toss it in some sort of dumpster or trash bin. The problem with that strategy was that no convenient dumpster or trash bin seemed to be on hand. But, introduce the More Real into the equation, and the solution becomes obvious. No, the More Real is by no means a dumpster or trash bin. But it is where your “stuff” wants to go. Lift up the anti-God stuff so that it touches the “Godness” of the More Real and … gone. Dissolved.
So try that. Let your fears bubble up into the God-quality love – i.e., the ecstasy – in the More Real. And just let go of them. Take your anger and frustration into the peace and the bliss of the More Real, and imagine yourself just unclenching your grip on them. Take your deepest sadness into the joy and release it. Take your scarcity into the More Real and give it to the infinite abundance. Whatever kind of anti-Godness is afflicting your Earth Game experience, it must and will be annihilated when it touches Godness (here again, perhaps let in a little of the matter / anti-matter metaphor).
No, your world will not suddenly become perfect, and Earth will not be magically transformed into some sort of Eden. But the particular pain that you took into the More Real will lift, will ease, will somehow no longer be quite so heavy; it need no longer take up so much of the “screen” of the reality that you experience.
This is just one practical way to make use of the More Real. I am but an explorer, and I am just beginning to explore this realm. But if I can begin to explore the More Real, so can you; I claim no magic that is not available to every one of us.
Beyond letting go of the heaviness of this physical realm, your imagination is your ticket to explore the lightness of the More Real. Perhaps try this one, which proved for me a delightful adventure: Ask to communicate with the designers of Earth Game. That is, the God-connected collective who together designed every aspect of this physical realm in which we serve as Avatars. In my meditative conversations with them, these “game designers” preferred to call themselves the “Founders”; feel free to tell ‘em I sent you. Perhaps even ask them if you might access and download the “Next Level” of Earth Game. (If you do, let me know what you experience.)
Another delightful option in the More Real is to feel yourself into “Source” energy, i.e., the essence of “Godness”. In the More Real, accessing Source is no more difficult than when you, in the physical world, access electricity by simply turning on a switch. Just sit in the flow of Source energy, focusing it into wellbeing or abundance or whatever aspect of it you would like to feel. Or perhaps invite each of the thirty-some trillion cells that constitute your physical body to let Source energy flow into them.
No matter how much bliss you find in any particular timeless sojourn in the More Real, before very long you will want to return here, to Earth Game. There are sunsets to look at, music to listen to, dogs to pet, wooded trails to walk along, perhaps a cold beer to savor with friends. After all, you jumped at the chance to experience your present round of Earth Game because it is a wonderful playground to explore – and you still have much here to explore. But before you return from your meditation, let something of that More Real come into your sense of who you are. And bring it back with you. To the extent that you can do that, you will literally bring back into your physical reality some measure of “Heaven on Earth”.
You can also bring back with you a new perspective. You can see the Maya, the illusion, for what it is – a gameboard, a playing field. And, you can see your experience here as an adventure, a story playing out in real time. From that perspective, you can see through the illusion, and in doing so you can begin to have dominion over the illusion. I am reminded in this context of a line from the movie The Matrix: “Do not try to bend the spoon, that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth … there is no spoon”. When you touch the More Real, you can see the spoon for what it is.
The great irony in all this is that most of us tend to play “Earth Game” in an upside-down way. That is, we strive and struggle and strain and work our tails off to line things up nicely “out there” in the physical world – i.e., on the screen of 3D pixelated matter – so that we can then feel good and think happy thoughts. Get an education, build a career. Love, relationship, family, absolutely. Build some wealth, find a nice neighborhood, establish a home. Eat well, exercise, achieve lasting health. And when all that is masterfully in place, we can at last relax, kick back, and actually enjoy the ride. But this gets it all backwards. If instead we put our primary focus on lining up the energy inside, then the puzzle pieces will come together with so much less strain and struggle and serial exhaustion. What shows up “on the screen” (i.e., in the world of matter) will start to become much more to your liking. With none of the self-sabotage that used to trip you up along the way.
The world of physical matter that constitutes your personal world is merely what is up on the screen; it is a reflection of things going on beyond the world of 3D pixelated matter. As noted above, immediately beyond the world of matter is the Quantum. Still a domain of polarity, but a world of thought – i.e., where thoughts have not yet precipitated into matter. Waves, not yet particles. Frequencies, signals, vibrations – but not yet things.
Beyond the Quantum lies the More Real. To the extent that you can let yourself touch the More Real, the wondrous frequencies that you will find there will be beyond polarity. You can let those frequencies imbue your personal Quantum Realm.
As I have pointed out in another article (see “Quantum Living, Simplified”), it is “As above, so below”; what is going on in your personal Quantum Realm will eventually find its way onto the “screen” of your personal physical world. If you can spend a bit of time in the “beyond” of the More Real, you can let that beyond inspire your “above”. Your “below” – your physical world – will thank you.
Explorations in the More Real might even be a present imperative in a world that sometimes (especially of late) seems too dark, too dangerous, too bereft of hope. What is up on the screen in the global reality (or at least certain aspects of the global reality) might as well have this stenciled upon it: You. Can’t. Fix. This. Because you can’t. No, it isn’t about “fixing” at this stage. Rather, it is about bringing in new energies, adding something entirely different to the mix of what is going on here in Earth Game. What better place than the More Real for us, individually and collectively, to source new frequencies, and introduce them into the Story of Earth.
When you can introduce into your world – and thus into the world – something of the More Real, you can be your own game-changer. In the More Real, beyond the illusions of Spacetime, everything is different; you are different. Unconcerned with the past and the future, there is only the endless now. Unbothered by world events or thoughts about what may come next. The road stretches out forever, and there is no hurry to get there.
As for the very real darkness in our world of polarity and matter, you have three options for dealing with all that. You can fight it, rage against it, be determined to defeat it. That would be the “Western” way, it seems to me. Good luck with all that. Or, you can simply observe it, impartial and impassive. Such acceptance seems a more “Eastern” way. No change in the equation, however. But consider a third way: pay no heed to the darkness, except to contemplate its opposite. Then source that opposite in the More Real, and let it infuse you. And in so doing, you infuse something of that light into the world. A fresh take, perhaps, on the words “Be the change you wish to see in the world”.
When light and darkness meet, light inevitably prevails. The darkness of any polarity cannot sustain when it encounters the More Real. Will you perhaps serve as a portal (one of many, I hope) for the More Real to make an ever-grander entrance in Earth Game? We could all use a little “Heaven on Earth” down here.