Virtual Spirituality
by Rob Burlinson
In the last few decades, it has been possible to create increasingly realistic computer-based ‘virtual worlds’ that participants can enter into. With each technological advancement, however, a startling scientific prediction is becoming a distinct possibility. If we are able to create a virtual world that is identical to this one, then there is now a very high statistical probability that we too are merely downloads within a virtual world ourselves. Only we have forgotten this to be the case (a 1999 film, well ahead of its time, called ‘The Thirteenth Floor’, sums up this concept well).
The idea that we may all be living within a virtual reality, also begins to explain some of the strange things about it. Reality, at first glance, may look incredibly complex, but underpinning it is actually a very simple mathematical formula: the Fibonacci sequence. This law governs and predicts many things, from the way a sunflower grows, to how storms swirl and the spirals of galaxies. The sequence is found by adding the previous two numbers together to create the next number e.g. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 and so on... This itself is very closely related to the mathematical formula ‘Phi’ (ɸ). Interestingly, the computer/mathematical codes needed to underpin and create a virtual world would have to be simple. This would then allow the world to grow and appear extensive and complex, yet at the same time, all things, from the smallest to the greatest, would follow the same basic mathematically coded rules.
It is numbers and mathematics which form the codes (as in the Fibonacci sequence) upon which the illusionary ‘facade‘ of this ‘reality‘ is constructed. Mathematics relates to sacred geometry, the construction of the shapes around us.
To me, ‘virtual reality’ has become a way of scientifically explaining how our physical selves, ‘down here’ on Planet Earth, are just a shell that house an aspect of our true essence which exists in a different and higher plane/reality/frequency. We are downloaded spirt into matter! There are higher and higher aspects of ourselves, and we exist within worlds within worlds within worlds.
The idea that this reality is no more real than that of a dream, also then makes more sense. We should not become attached to the distractions and glamour of this world, because ultimately, there is nothing of substance behind it. If we wish to truly know who we are and help ourselves ‘escape‘ from this virtual reality/matrix within which we exist, then in order to wake up we have to see it for what it is, and not keep falling asleep, mistaking the simulated lesser fabrication for the real thing. This idea is also contained in a famous allegory by the classical Greek philosopher Plato, 2500 years ago. He depicted a group of prisoners chained up within a cave. They had been in it since childhood with their neck and legs in bonds, and their heads could only face one way, towards the wall. They watched shadows on this wall in front of them, projected from the outside world beyond the cave, and mistook it for reality, not knowing it as merely a pale imitation of the real world lying just beyond the mouth of the cave. However, they did not wish to free themselves or explore because of fear; at least what they knew, was that it was ‘safe’ within the cave. And this is, perhaps, the problem with many people within our ‘reality’. They have got used to, and in fact ‘love’ their prison, because it is all they know. If you have nothing to compare it to, then the dulled senses are happy to spend a lifetime within the matrix, being ‘entertained’ with all manner of glamorous things, and becoming lost within the veils of illusion.
I have a friend who was not brought up within our culture and so finds it easier to ‘step outside of’ the accepted reality in the West. Within her own culture, numerology plays a very important part, and all words are seen as having a numerical value. ‘Words’, therefore, have a deeper underlying energy than what is accepted on the surface because of their hidden numerical meaning. Interestingly, my friend also thinks that the English language itself (so widespread across the world) is the language of the matrix that is used to ‘entrap’ us. Most have forgotten how to use sound consciously and are instead having it used against them. Certainly, modern languages are very far removed from the original language of the Earth, wherein, through words and sound, whatever was said would be brought into form instantly.
My friend believes that words, if spelt the same, then have the same numerical value and energy behind them. Also, a word can contain its true meaning hidden in plain sight, only accessible if you are able to free yourself from the matrix conditioning. Some examples of this would be dis-ease (being ill at ease) creating disease. Also, that we are all watching television programming (being programmed by what we watch). Another more disconcerting example of this, is that from a very early age we are taught ‘how to spell’. ‘Spell in one sense means ‘to write or name letters in a certain sequence’. However, another meaning is to speak words that have magical powers; or it is the condition of being under the control or influence of these words. In being taught to ‘spell’ from a very early age, are we being put under an enchantment through the use of numbers and sounds; are we being conditioned to stay within the matrix? Just like in Plato’s cave, are these words the bonds that make us face the cave wall so we can only see the shadows? If so, we have to try and wake ourselves from this trance-like state. It certainly feels to me as if many people are living under an enchantment, unable to truly see what is going on around them.
But is this the way things were intended to be on Earth or has the matrix been hijacked in some way? The world seems very full of shadows. Perhaps Earth was meant to merely be a learning simulation environment, wherein we learn to control how we create and manifest the reality around us (being aware of our thoughts and emotions at all time), and our impact upon others and the world. Perhaps to learn the nature of unconditional love, and move beyond the ego? And just like in a computer game, we have an endless number of lives to work with (and an endless number of avatars to inhabit). But did something go wrong? Did our collective co-creation in the matrix get out of control? Humanity has done appalling things to each other, as well as to the planet and all its kingdoms, to the extent that some could say we are reaching a critical point of no return.
Something very worrying at the moment is that we seem to be in the process of creating for ourselves an even deeper trap, a deeper form of sleep, a sleep within a sleep, so to speak. Our three-dimensional lives are being compressed into an even ‘flatter world’ through the increasing use of mobile phones, computers etc. To escape the troubles of this one, we are beginning to live our lives through a computer virtual reality, and many people now spend more time in that world, in a normal day, than they do in the ‘material world’. Especially if in a virtual world we can pretend to be someone else, where its nicer, and within which we are the centre of our own story. How long before we begin to literally download ourselves into our computer, our phone, through a microchip we have had willingly implanted in our head? Another film about virtual reality, ‘Ready Player One’, directed by Steven Spielberg and released earlier this year, depicts this phenomenon very well.
Ultimately, with our creation of virtual worlds, and our attempt to understand our own, perhaps what is being tapped into is the very nature of how spirit brings matter into form; the metaphysical structure behind the physical substance. At the highest level, this could lead to a true understanding and concept within science of how such things as the higher self, and soul could exist. But at the lowest level, in attempting to learn the language of the Divine, we could also be creating our own Tower of Babel, with many of us merely falling even further into the matrix; a deeper sleep from which it would be even be more difficult to remember who we really are.
Photo by kind permission of Milan Lysak
The idea that we may all be living within a virtual reality, also begins to explain some of the strange things about it. Reality, at first glance, may look incredibly complex, but underpinning it is actually a very simple mathematical formula: the Fibonacci sequence. This law governs and predicts many things, from the way a sunflower grows, to how storms swirl and the spirals of galaxies. The sequence is found by adding the previous two numbers together to create the next number e.g. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 and so on... This itself is very closely related to the mathematical formula ‘Phi’ (ɸ). Interestingly, the computer/mathematical codes needed to underpin and create a virtual world would have to be simple. This would then allow the world to grow and appear extensive and complex, yet at the same time, all things, from the smallest to the greatest, would follow the same basic mathematically coded rules.
It is numbers and mathematics which form the codes (as in the Fibonacci sequence) upon which the illusionary ‘facade‘ of this ‘reality‘ is constructed. Mathematics relates to sacred geometry, the construction of the shapes around us.
To me, ‘virtual reality’ has become a way of scientifically explaining how our physical selves, ‘down here’ on Planet Earth, are just a shell that house an aspect of our true essence which exists in a different and higher plane/reality/frequency. We are downloaded spirt into matter! There are higher and higher aspects of ourselves, and we exist within worlds within worlds within worlds.
The idea that this reality is no more real than that of a dream, also then makes more sense. We should not become attached to the distractions and glamour of this world, because ultimately, there is nothing of substance behind it. If we wish to truly know who we are and help ourselves ‘escape‘ from this virtual reality/matrix within which we exist, then in order to wake up we have to see it for what it is, and not keep falling asleep, mistaking the simulated lesser fabrication for the real thing. This idea is also contained in a famous allegory by the classical Greek philosopher Plato, 2500 years ago. He depicted a group of prisoners chained up within a cave. They had been in it since childhood with their neck and legs in bonds, and their heads could only face one way, towards the wall. They watched shadows on this wall in front of them, projected from the outside world beyond the cave, and mistook it for reality, not knowing it as merely a pale imitation of the real world lying just beyond the mouth of the cave. However, they did not wish to free themselves or explore because of fear; at least what they knew, was that it was ‘safe’ within the cave. And this is, perhaps, the problem with many people within our ‘reality’. They have got used to, and in fact ‘love’ their prison, because it is all they know. If you have nothing to compare it to, then the dulled senses are happy to spend a lifetime within the matrix, being ‘entertained’ with all manner of glamorous things, and becoming lost within the veils of illusion.
I have a friend who was not brought up within our culture and so finds it easier to ‘step outside of’ the accepted reality in the West. Within her own culture, numerology plays a very important part, and all words are seen as having a numerical value. ‘Words’, therefore, have a deeper underlying energy than what is accepted on the surface because of their hidden numerical meaning. Interestingly, my friend also thinks that the English language itself (so widespread across the world) is the language of the matrix that is used to ‘entrap’ us. Most have forgotten how to use sound consciously and are instead having it used against them. Certainly, modern languages are very far removed from the original language of the Earth, wherein, through words and sound, whatever was said would be brought into form instantly.
My friend believes that words, if spelt the same, then have the same numerical value and energy behind them. Also, a word can contain its true meaning hidden in plain sight, only accessible if you are able to free yourself from the matrix conditioning. Some examples of this would be dis-ease (being ill at ease) creating disease. Also, that we are all watching television programming (being programmed by what we watch). Another more disconcerting example of this, is that from a very early age we are taught ‘how to spell’. ‘Spell in one sense means ‘to write or name letters in a certain sequence’. However, another meaning is to speak words that have magical powers; or it is the condition of being under the control or influence of these words. In being taught to ‘spell’ from a very early age, are we being put under an enchantment through the use of numbers and sounds; are we being conditioned to stay within the matrix? Just like in Plato’s cave, are these words the bonds that make us face the cave wall so we can only see the shadows? If so, we have to try and wake ourselves from this trance-like state. It certainly feels to me as if many people are living under an enchantment, unable to truly see what is going on around them.
But is this the way things were intended to be on Earth or has the matrix been hijacked in some way? The world seems very full of shadows. Perhaps Earth was meant to merely be a learning simulation environment, wherein we learn to control how we create and manifest the reality around us (being aware of our thoughts and emotions at all time), and our impact upon others and the world. Perhaps to learn the nature of unconditional love, and move beyond the ego? And just like in a computer game, we have an endless number of lives to work with (and an endless number of avatars to inhabit). But did something go wrong? Did our collective co-creation in the matrix get out of control? Humanity has done appalling things to each other, as well as to the planet and all its kingdoms, to the extent that some could say we are reaching a critical point of no return.
Something very worrying at the moment is that we seem to be in the process of creating for ourselves an even deeper trap, a deeper form of sleep, a sleep within a sleep, so to speak. Our three-dimensional lives are being compressed into an even ‘flatter world’ through the increasing use of mobile phones, computers etc. To escape the troubles of this one, we are beginning to live our lives through a computer virtual reality, and many people now spend more time in that world, in a normal day, than they do in the ‘material world’. Especially if in a virtual world we can pretend to be someone else, where its nicer, and within which we are the centre of our own story. How long before we begin to literally download ourselves into our computer, our phone, through a microchip we have had willingly implanted in our head? Another film about virtual reality, ‘Ready Player One’, directed by Steven Spielberg and released earlier this year, depicts this phenomenon very well.
Ultimately, with our creation of virtual worlds, and our attempt to understand our own, perhaps what is being tapped into is the very nature of how spirit brings matter into form; the metaphysical structure behind the physical substance. At the highest level, this could lead to a true understanding and concept within science of how such things as the higher self, and soul could exist. But at the lowest level, in attempting to learn the language of the Divine, we could also be creating our own Tower of Babel, with many of us merely falling even further into the matrix; a deeper sleep from which it would be even be more difficult to remember who we really are.
Photo by kind permission of Milan Lysak