It’s become popular today to debate whether or not we live in a simulation. Elon Musk famouly put the odds of us NOT living in a simulation as “one in billions”! His reasoning has to do with the rapid increase in computing power and our ability to create virtual experiences. If those trends continue into the future at even a fraction of the pace of advancements today, Elon and others conclude that prior advanced civilizations must’ve gone through that process and began creating computer simulations that we are a part of.
In the Matrix movies of the early 2000s, humans were living in a computer generated simulation (called the Matrix, of course) designed to keep them enslaved and asleep while AI machines drained energy from their bodies to run themselves. It was a dark vision to be sure, but it got people thinking about what it means to say that something is “real” and that other realities may exist beyond the one we are currently perceiving.
The idea that we don’t live in “base reality” is not new at all, going back at least to ancient India and Greece, but most likely much longer. In Sanskrit, the word maya means illusion, and yogic philosophy states that we all live in this state of maya until we learn how to free our spirit.
Our take at Living Flow is that we definitely live in a simulation! Sorry to break it to you. If this sounds demoralizing or scary, let’s give you the good news first: there is a reliable way out of the simulation (hint, it’s what Living Flow is all about). We’ll explain that a little later, but first, more about the simulation itself:
We live in a simulation that we ourselves have created: our mind processes senses, emotions, thoughts, and memor to create a picture of reality for us at all times. This picture is not real: it’s a simulation. We think it’s real, but if any of those variables change, our reality completely changes as well. Many people learn this through psychedelics: suddenly the way they perceive changes so radically that they become aware that there must be many different realities that we can experience. Or many different simulations.
It is indeed possible to experience many different levels of perception.
Which brings us back to the good news: the way out of the simulation is of course through meditation. Why? Because meditation teaches us how to be aware of what lies beyond thought, senses, and the emotions. As we step back from the simulated reality we otherwise experience, we become aware that the simulation has no substance: we often think thoughts that aren’t true, our sense fool us, and our emotions can be all over the map. If that’s all we know and we don’t do anything about it, we experience a skewed and limited definition of life that we keep perpetuating.
In meditation we become aware of another reality: one in which we simply are, and life is no longer falsely modified by our minds. This reality is more brilliant, more lasting, more multi-faceted than any simulation we or a computer can create. The rest you’ll have to experience for yourself.
Learn how to meditate and see beyond the simulation, beyond the movie screen of life. Then go into any simulation you want, just for fun, and realize you can change it or step out of it completely. It’s all totally up to you!
