Wednesday, January 13, 2010

drift, and the palpability of reality



"I drift, half awake, half asleep. Moving through the city I recall but have never been to."

I don't know what exactly the creator of this magnificent little video, a sort of psychedelified Koyaanisqatsi, intended to show or have people experience, but I would like it to illustrate the plasticity of what we think of as reality.

Have you ever played Guitar Hero and found the world drifting upwards afterwards, because the graphics on the screen had been previously moving downwards? You probably know of a similar experience that you maybe didn't really think about, but shows you something very fundamental: that there is no static, absolute reality outside of you, but that it's always your body and mind that are inextricably intertwined with it too, in every moment of your life. Static reality then, is only a concept we hold on to in order to seemingly simplify our lives, i.e. make them more predictable and controllable. You could even see the whole concept of reality as a bed of comfort. Throw it away and the cosmos shows you what more incredible things are there to be found and lived.

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