Why and How the Universe Is an Illusion

What is an illusion, anyway?

Jul 06, 2024

Some ancient philosophies, such as Advaita Vedanta, claim that the universe is an illusion. This statement is not only quoted by spiritual people, but also by some influential Western thinkers. Albert Einstein, for example, said:

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
(Albert Einstein)

What exactly does that mean? In what sense is the universe or reality an illusion? In the following, I bring clarity to this topic.

The word ‘illusion’ is based on the Latin words in, meaning ‘into,’ and ludere, meaning ‘to play.’ It is used in the sense of ‘deceptive appearance.’ Something is an illusion if it is not what it looks like. An example is the following optical illusion in which you see a cube, although there is no cube:

A cube is a three-dimensional object. Since this picture is two-dimensional, it cannot be a cube. The picture shows a configuration of twelve line segments that are arranged in such a way that they suggest a cube. In fact, the picture even suggests two different cubes: one with the lower left square as the front and one with the upper right square as the front.

You see a cube because the picture suggests a cube and you are familiar with cubes. You are familiar with cubes because you have seen countless cubes and other rectangular objects in your life. Your eyes send electromagnetic impulses to your brain and your mind interprets the resulting state of your brain based on your familiarities. Everything you perceive, you perceive from the perspective of your familiarities and, therefore, your life story. An illusion arises when the mind misinterprets based on your perspective.

To what extent is the universe or reality an illusion? From which perspective do we look at the universe, and what is the truth behind the illusion?

A person’s perspective has a mental and a physical part. The mental perspective is the life story. The location from which you view something creates the physical perspective. For example, if you stand under a tree, you see the tree differently than if you look at it from 100 feet away.

In order to see a maximally objective picture of the universe, we should look at it from a distance, ie from outside the universe. However, this is not possible within the framework of the usual physical-materialistic worldview, because there is only the universe – and nothing outside it. We therefore need a different worldview.

In the universe, things are separate from each other. Therefore, the universe is the “kingdom of separateness.” The opposite is the “kingdom of non-separateness.” In this kingdom, everything is connected to everything.

In quantum physics, a physically inexplicable connection between elementary objects such as electrons has been discovered ... and the term ‘entanglement’ has been chosen for this phenomenon. In the kingdom of non-separateness, everything is entangled with everything. I therefore call it ‘EL’ as an abbreviation for ‘entanglement at large.’ You can find a detailed derivation of EL and a comprehensible description of its properties in my article “There Is More Than Just the Universe.”

Let’s perform a thought experiment: We are in the universe, ie in the kingdom of separateness. We look from the universe at EL, ie the kingdom of non-separateness; in the following picture, the red eye represents this.

Now we go from the universe across the border into EL. In EL we turn around and look back to where we have come from.

Since EL is the kingdom of non-separateness, there is nothing separate from it. So from the perspective of EL, there is no opposite – and therefore no universe. From the perspective of EL, there is only EL. EL is all that is.

It is as if you were standing on the beach, looking out to sea, stepping into the sea, turning around ... but there is no beach ... only the endless sea. In the physical-materialistic worldview, this is paradoxical. In the expanded worldview of the two kingdoms, this is logical. From the perspective of the universe or separateness, there is the duality of the universe and EL. From the perspective of EL or non-separateness, there is no duality – only EL.

Is the EL perspective just a philosophical game? No, on the contrary. As I explain in the article “There Is More Than Just the Universe,” EL is the fabric of knowing. The EL perspective is “I know.” It is our natural – and indeed our only – perspective.

In the EL perspective, there is no separateness, because EL is the kingdom of non-separateness. Yet you see/know a universe spanned by space in which things appear separate from each other. It’s like the optical illusion where you see a cube, even though there is none. You see a universe in which things are separate from each other, although in truth, everything is connected to everything.

You fall for this illusion because you are familiar with separateness. You are familiar with separateness because you learned it growing up. You learned that you are separate from other things because everyone around you believes in separateness. I describe the emergence of the programs that control us in my article “Why the Question ‘What Am I?’ is Important and Magical.”

Separateness is an illusion. In truth, everything is connected to everything. You are not separate from anything ... not even from other people. Imagine a puppeteer who has eight billion fingers. There is a finger puppet on each finger.

This is humankind. EL is the puppeteer and your body is one of the puppets ... and so you are a perspective of EL. Each of us is a perspective of EL. This insight complements what I described in my article “What Is Life and When Does It Begin?”: EL is ‘life at large.’

The ability to not follow your patterns, familiarities, or programs is part of being human. Therefore, you can free yourself from your programs – including those that create the illusion of separateness. Here are three exercises to get you started.

Exercise 1: Look again at the picture that suggests a cube. You now know that this image has three perspectives: a cube seen from the bottom left, a cube seen from the top right, and a two-dimensional pattern of twelve line segments. Practice switching among these three perspectives at will.

Exercise 2: In this picture you see a white square partially overlapping four black discs:

But this is an illusion. There is no square because there are no four line segments of equal length with 90° angles between them. The picture only shows four incomplete black discs that look like Pac-Man figures. Practice not to see a white square, but four Pac-Man figures. How can you achieve this?

Exercise 3: Practice feeling connected with your environment: with plants, animals, other people. How does this perspective change your behavior?

You can find more exercises for deprogramming in my book “Being Free – Get Out of the Box.”

Further reading:

Article “There Is More Than Just the Universe”

Article “Why the Question ‘What Am I?’ is Important and Magical”

Article “What Is Life and When Does It Begin?”

Book “Being Free – Get Out of the Box”

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