The world beneath
This world, the “real” one, is just a curtain, an illusion created by other people in order to stop you from reaching your full potential. Pull back that curtain and you’ll see that the libraries are all filled with runaways writing novels, the highways are humming with escapees and sympathizers, and all the receptionists and sensible mothers are straining at the leash for a chance to show how alive they still are. . . all that talk of practicality and responsibility is just bluffing to limit your mind so that you can’t discover the world that lies beyond.
You can taste it in the in the blood in your mouth that instant after an accident, when you realize you’re still alive, or in the shock of a first, unexpected kiss. You hear and feel it in the magic of your favorite songs, you’ve seen evidence of it scratched into bathroom walls in a code without a key, or you’ve been able to make out a pale reflection of it in the movies that you saw.
It’s hiding between your own words, when you speak of your desires and aspirations; it’s lurking somewhere beneath the limitations that this society is creating.
When poets and radicals stay up until sunrise trying to discover the perfect sequence of words or deeds to fill hearts with fire, they’re trying to find a hidden entrance to that other world.
When late at night, children escape out the window to go wandering, they’re trying to sneak into it— they know better than us where its doors are hidden.
When teenagers vandalize a billboard to provoke all-night chases with the police, they’re trying to storm its gates and get in there by force.
No, it’s not a safer place than this world — on the contrary, it is the sensation of danger there that has the power to bring you back to life: the feeling that for once, there is something incredibly real at stake, and all else is eclipsed by that feeling.
Maybe you stumbled into it by accident and you were amazed at what you found. The old world you knew as real was splintered behind and inside you, and no one could ever put it back together again. Everything before became irrelevant, ridiculous as the environment suddenly changed around you and undreamt-of new paths opened to you. And perhaps you swore that you would never leave that place, that you would live out the rest of your life electrified by that urgency, by that thrill of discovery and transformation — but you came back…
Common sense dictates that this world can only be experienced temporarily, that it is just the shock of transition and nothing more than that.
But there are some myths. Myths that tell another story: stories of women and men who stayed there for years, who lived and died there as heroes.
You’re not the only one trying to find it’s entrance. I’m out there searching too… by this time, maybe I’m already there, waiting for you. And you should know that anything you’ve ever done or considered doing to get there is not crazy, but beautiful, noble and necessary.
Enter that secret world and never come back; or better, burn away this one, to reveal the one beneath in all it’s splendor.
Once you’re in the world beneath, burn the bridges that took you there, so that you could stay there for ever and live the life you wish to live, a life without artificial boundaries and limiting restrictions.
—
Photo: Vera Bing
If you're new here and have found useful information, please subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for free Email updates. There are daily updates and you should stay tuned. Thanks for visiting!
or
Subscribe to e-mail updates:
We are all searching for life, Life with all its glory, magnificence and abundance.
I enjoyed your thoughts here and I agree!
Hi Karen, welcome to Project Armannd!
It’s satisfying for me to see that my thoughts are enjoyed by others. Thank you for the feedback and I’m looking forward to seeing you around more often.
Yet another excellent post, Armand.
It can be very hard for people to understand that the “real” world is an illusion. Even a simple intellectual grasp can be hard, let alone a deeper understanding of the principle. You use some very effective sensory imagery to give people a taste of what you are talking about.
Thanks for coming by today, come back any time!…I had another one of those melons!!! how sad am I to blog about it!?
Hmmm, I’m not sure what I think. I agree that danger can be liberating but I’ve also experienced similar feelings of “breaking through” in moments of intense pleasure or even intense focus or concentration. I think danger is just one road to the place you are speaking of - at least that has been my experience.
* John: Thank you for the positive feedback. It’s great to see that my work is valued by others!
* Sylvied: Hey, it’s not sad to blog about that. It just looks like that those melons are your path to the hidden world that I am talking about in this post.
* Jenny: I totally agree with you. Knowing that we’re all unique in our own way, having different methods to break free from the shackles of “reality” is natural.
I’ve also experienced a liberation feeling in intense pleasure or concentration, but, at least in my case, that liberation was very short lived. The people around are always bringing me back… they have their anchors deeply set in this reality and they act accordingly, making it very difficult for me to enjoy my breakthrough reality for too long. With danger, it’s a different story. Even if sometimes it may also be short lived, it has a different intensity level. And the thing with danger is that it incorporates both intense pleasure and concentration.
As you said in your comment, danger is just one of the many possible paths to living in the -real- world.
That’s powerfully evocative. I’ve had brushes with that world, clung to the edges, and now I’m still trying to get there again.
Hi V.,
I think we all had a few brushes with it at some point or another. The difference is that some have felt the difference while being so close to it, while others didn’t… I’m glad you’re one of those who did and you want to go back there.
I’ve been in the middle of it many times, but I wasn’t able to stay there for as long as I wanted. Getting there is kinda easy, staying is what I find difficult.
Great post Armand. There is appeal in breaking through that barrier into “reality”; however there is so much fear associated with doing so. What if we go to far and can’t return? What if in doing so we create unrepairable damage? What if once we get there, the magic is gone, and then what’s left? Or is it all about transcending these fears, or maybe even embracing them?
Hi Erin, thanks for the positive feedback. Very good questions there.
The magic of breaking free into the (real) reality consists exactly in transcending those fears, forgetting about all the “what if’s”, embracing the energy rush that the danger creates. If one gets there, the magic doesn’t dissapear. If the magic is gone, it means that he’s no longer there…
Going too far and not being able to return is the ideal situation (very difficult to achieve). But for the ones that aren’t prepared to get out of their comfort zone and -live- their lives, it sounds like a monster story, scarier than the spookiest horror movies.
“What if?”, is common among people who get so used to living in a comfort zone, that they are afraid to even imagine the posibilities that exist outside of it. To quote Shakespeare: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. A while ago, I used to ask myself “what if” a million times. Now I just -do- things, less fears and questions. If I make mistakes, I learn from them; if I succeed, I enjoy the satisfaction.
In the end, we only live once. Why would we be afraid of anything?