Bubble: A Conversation With Reality

Talking with the Universe

So many bubbles, each one its own universe with its own physics, its own reality. Look at that one! I could live in there. I could be that bubble. I wonder what it's like to be a bubble. Does it think? Can I talk to it? If I am the bubble would it be like talking to myself? 

The water is so hot and relaxing. Maybe I'll take a nap in here. Maybe I'll dream of bubbles...

...Where am I? Is that me? How am I there when I am right here? Is this a dream? It is! I'm in a bubble looking at myself in the bath. I'm actually dreaming of bubbles. I am the bubble. I can float around. I can fly. I can be that bubble, I can be all the bubbles.

Wait. I'm not a bubble anymore. Where am I? What am I? No body. I can't see. I- I can see, but it's not seeing. I can see with my mind but- I have no eyes. I have no arms to feel if I have a head. Where's my mind?

"Hello."

"Who's there?"

"I am."

"Who are you? Where are you? Where am I?"

"You are nowhere. I am called many things. I Am. You Are. We."

"Are you... God?"

"Some have called me that. I am the zero-point-energy. I am the ground state, the lowest possible state of energy in the universe. No charge, no form. No id, no ego. I Am. You Are. We."

"So you are God?"

"You may call me that if you wish. I do not have a name for myself, only a description. Normally it is impossible to observe and experience me at the same time. This is known as uncertainty. You are experiencing and observing me. I Am. You Are. We. I have intelligence but as I am in my ground state I have no form. I am not matter."

"Is that why I have no body?"

"Your body is the result of your energy's intelligence remembering its shape based on its own perception of that shape and the expectations of those you come in contact with in your physical form. In this place without location there is no need for your energy to have form. It simply is."

"Am I... dead?"

"Death has no meaning in this place without location. What has no life cannot die."

"Am I dreaming?"

"What is a dream? To the dreamer it is reality but to the waking individual the dream is a fading memory. Did it actually happen? To the dreamer in the midst of the dream, it is happening. There is no question. It is as real as every other experience. Much like death. The living being believes his reality is as real as every other experience. But how does he define the truth of that reality and differentiate between life and death? How does the dreamer differentiate between dream and reality?"

"If I can see something, it must be real."

"You can see the dream, it is real. But when you wake up does it stay real?"

"Does that mean this isn't real? I can't see or feel anything. Is my mind making this up?"

"The dream is real to the dreamer because his mind makes it real. There is no mind here. No matter to form a brain to house a mind. There is only intelligence here. Energy in its purest state."

"Then I am dead!"

"Death only affects the physical body. The fact that you are here means that your intelligence is not dead. The body dies only when the intelligence learns all it can and has no need to remember the shape and form of the body that holds it. The intelligence returns to its ground state and shares its experience."

"How can I be dead? I mean, life sucks sometimes, but I have more to do, more that I wanted to accomplish. It's not fair. How can you say I've learned so much already that I have no other reason to live? I want to go back."

"Yes. Death is a potent motivator. It is the only part of life that is guaranteed. Since you knew it was coming sometime, naturally you wanted to accomplish something meaningful before that looming deadline. Naturally, you based your physical success on the success of the physical beings around you."

"This makes no sense. It's too soon. If I was alive to learn, who is to say I have learned the right lessons? Is someone else more right than I am? Is their truth more true? Nothing changes anyway. People die all the time and no one gets any smarter or more enlightened. The wrong person dies and the world goes on as if nothing happened."

"The wrong person never dies. Physical beings are limited in their understanding of why things happen."

"I'm the wrong person. What makes my experience so important that I had to die? Or was it not important enough? Is that it? What's more true, what you want to be true or what each person thinks is true? Truth and experience are two different things."

"They certainly are different things, but each individual experiences life on its own terms. It is a personal experience. Each person has a truth that is true to him but hidden to everyone else. Even if he shares his experience, there is still much that is hidden no matter how clear he makes it."

"So truth doesn't matter?"

"It matters to you."

"Does it matter to you?"

"As I said, each person has his own truth based on his experience. Common experiences can create common truths but because each experience differs in some way the common experience is less true than each individual experience. It is incomplete."

"So my truth is more true that agreed upon facts?"

"It is to you. You are the only one who experienced it the way you did. Only you know what that is like."

"How does that work?"

"Imagine two people who witness a car crash from opposite sides of the street. Since both people see the crash from different angles and vantage point they see the same event but in different ways. What one person sees might be hidden from the other person. This is the same with the drivers of the cars. The first driver might have stopped short because of a dog in the street. The second driver did not see the dog and did not anticipate the car in front stopping short."

"So it's all about point of view, perspective."

"Individually, yes. But consider what happens when the investigator tries to put together a comprehensive story of the crash. He has to factor in both drivers' experiences as well as what each witness saw. Certain facts are corroborated and others are left out. This is the common truth, the official story. But it is not the whole truth, not necessarily what each person knows happened."

"So nothing is really true?"

"What is truth but a matter of perspective? Personal experience and conviction."

"But then everyone is confused? No one knows what is real? How can people expect to believe science books or history? Death changes nothing, gives no insight back to the rest of the living."

"It has the benefit of allowing you to see through different eyes."

"But nothing changes for the people that are still alive. They can't see what I am seeing till they are dead."

"All is change. Finite beings do not experience change in a meaningful way but infinite intelligence does. You die but you bring all your experience with you. You remember your whole life, do you not? Just because the people that are alive now don't learn from your experiences doesn't mean the life that comes after will not."

"I suppose that makes sense. There are some things I could have done differently and left unsaid and maybe that would have made for a better experience. But I did those things, I said them. And I can't and won't take them back, even if I could."

"It seems you have learned something."

"I have, but I can't go back and change it. Life is finite, as you said."

"Then you accept your past? You are at peace with your life and your experiences?"

"Yes... but only because I know I am dead. If I was still alive I could use this knowledge to make a better life."

"But you would only die. So what is life to you? If life is a book, do the words have meaning? When a writer writes, who gives the words meaning?"

"The writer, obviously. He knows what he wants to say and uses the words that will tell the story he wants to tell."

"But what gives the words meaning?"

"The story is the meaning, isn't it?"

"Who reads the story? If I write a story and no one reads it, did it live? Does it have meaning? What about the pen and the page? How do they contribute?"

"The pen puts the ideas on the page but the pen is a tool and the page is just paper. Without the writer, the pen is useless and without the words, the page is useless."

"So who gives the words meaning?"

"The writer."

"The writer only knows what he wants to say. He uses the pen to write his ideas down on the page, which brings those ideas to a reader. That is where the magic happens. The page is only a conduit, like a computer screen, a lecture, an audio tape, a silent movie, even a human body. It only brings words to the audience, the reader. The reader has to interpret the words and make the story come alive in his mind."

"So I am the reader and the meaning?"

"When the idea is thought up in the writer's mind, that is the zero-point-energy, this experience right now. No form, no ego, no id. The pen puts that idea on paper. The pen reflects the will of the zero-point-energy to be more than just formless energy, to have meaning. The pen reflects the motivation of the writer to bring life to the idea. The page, then, is the human body, the canvas for the paint, the home for the intelligence. It carries the words to the reader. The reader is the combination of intelligence and form. The reader gets to choose the meaning of the words."

"I don't understand."

"You will. I am the writer. The pen is the intelligence. The page is the human body. The reader is the end result. I Am. You Are. We. Get the picture?"

"I- I think so."

"Find what distracts you and you will find your prime mover. Neither is easy to find, but you've got time. How much time? Who knows? But it's all the time you need."

"What does that mean?'

Where am I. What's going on?

"It's a girl!"

What's a girl? Wait. I can see people. Who is that?

"Get her cleaned up so mom and dad can hold her."

Mom and dad? I'm a baby? I'm a girl? I think I get it...

Wow, look at all those bubbles. Look at that one! I could live in there. I could be that bubble...

Author's Note

Adapted from a conversation between a friend and I. Not meant to be empirical, just to make you think.

Reviews

[Philip Muls]

Some deep questions there, food for thought. Thanks for sharing.

[Marie]

It is very thoughtful and insightful. What is reality? What is dreaming? What it death. Too many questions to be answered here, of course. But you've certainly written something very interesting.