Old Souls Book Club discussion

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Share your thoughts > Is Reality real? What does REALITY mean to you?

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message 1: by Saiisha (new)

Saiisha | 544 comments Mod
I just realized that Reality is as squishy a word as Spirituality is - widely used, but very personal, completely depends on the lens I wear to view the world.

The only reality I can talk about is my reality, and no two people will have the same reality... so is reality real? :)


message 2: by Dewin (new)

Dewin Anguas Barnette | 37 comments I LOVE this question, Saiisha! I do a lot of reading on the unexplained, UFOs, cryptozoology, parallel universes, etc., so I believe that there is a lot more to reality than we realize. All of us live in our own self-made worlds that may not even take into account people who live right up the street in different circumstances, so I believe there probably is a gestalt reality but that no one is privy to it in this realm.


message 3: by Saiisha (new)

Saiisha | 544 comments Mod
Dewin wrote: "I LOVE this question, Saiisha! I do a lot of reading on the unexplained, UFOs, cryptozoology, parallel universes, etc., so I believe that there is a lot more to reality than we realize. All of us l..."

It's all so fascinating, isn't it Dewin? We think facts are real, science is real, solid is real, but in fact, nothing is real... or everything is only as real as we perceive it to be. Just because we don't perceive parallel universes doesn't mean that they're not real! Just because we don't see UFOs (yet) doesn't mean that they're not real. But I think, as we evolve, our experience of reality expands. In many ways, an older soul's reality is more expanded than a younger soul's. Ultimately that's our journey right? Of expanding into the universe, to become one with it?


message 4: by Barbara (new)

Barbara | 127 comments I agree with both of you - I think each of us lives our own reality, thinking everyone else sees the world similar to what we do. Every now and then we'll have someone react in a totally opposite way from us and express thoughts that show us they are perceiving something entirely different. I also think we only understand a small part of what actually exists and as we expand our awareness we expand our reality.


message 5: by [deleted user] (new)

Saiisha wrote: "I just realized that Reality is as squishy a word as Spirituality is - widely used, but very personal, completely depends on the lens I wear to view the world. "

I've recently come across a concept that makes a lot of sense to me: that every person's view is a fractal of the whole... If we were able to put them all together, then I suspect we'd have something approaching "reality".


message 6: by Saiisha (new)

Saiisha | 544 comments Mod
Barbara wrote: "I agree with both of you - I think each of us lives our own reality, thinking everyone else sees the world similar to what we do. Every now and then we'll have someone react in a totally opposite w..."

Agree Barbara - we only understand a tiny part of what actually exists (whatever that means! :)) and so we're all longing to know more, learn more, experience more... to expand more!


message 7: by Saiisha (new)

Saiisha | 544 comments Mod
Catherine wrote: "Saiisha wrote: "I just realized that Reality is as squishy a word as Spirituality is - widely used, but very personal, completely depends on the lens I wear to view the world. "

I've recently come..."


Love this reframe Catherine!! And maybe that's the point of connection, communication, and coming-togetherness... to value the part of the whole that we've been given to play!


message 8: by S.L. (last edited Jun 28, 2016 09:28AM) (new)

S.L. Northey | 40 comments Good Grieving, Narrative Perspectives of Loss and Bereavement

Reality is relative. You have a concrete and an abstract.

Concrete is the physical world we acknowledge that is subject to Physics. The Abstract is the frequency and energy that is weightless and very mutable.

Therefore other dimensions (time travel) is based on frequency.

Reality is therefore multidimensional.


message 9: by Saiisha (new)

Saiisha | 544 comments Mod
S.L. wrote: "Good Grieving, Narrative Perspectives of Loss and Bereavement

Reality is relative. You have a concrete and an abstract."


Welcome S.L... and thanks for adding to the conversation!


message 10: by S.L. (new)

S.L. Northey | 40 comments Thank you for taking the time to create it.


message 11: by S.L. (new)

S.L. Northey | 40 comments From my experience, to expand into the universe, it is with the soul. My working hypothesis is, the soul is the actual being not bound by the laws of physics. The greater the expansion of this energy, which is our actual being has the ability to bend and shape time. Not time in how we define it, that is a concept use to measure our physical world. The soul is able to step out side this and see beyond dimensions of time and therefore see a less finite reality. If you believe in a singular creator, God, then you can see how perhaps communication flows between this world and another. It depends on how you view the divine.


message 12: by S.L. (new)

S.L. Northey | 40 comments This is how I define my reality. Reality is subjective to a degree....and then the rest, still unknown.


message 13: by S.L. (new)

S.L. Northey | 40 comments Here is a question for you along the same lines, how do you define love?


message 14: by S.L. (new)

S.L. Northey | 40 comments I ask myself these questions all-the-time. How can I better understand the vastness of consciousness. These all can create rapturous states that evoke passions. You in the end are left searching and wondering through the finite reality of now, trying to bridge the infinite reality of the yet unknown. I write extensively about the soul, time, space, creation. I have endless questions. That is what makes me the eternal stargazer I suppose.


message 15: by Saiisha (new)

Saiisha | 544 comments Mod
S.L. wrote: "From my experience, to expand into the universe, it is with the soul. My working hypothesis is, the soul is the actual being not bound by the laws of physics. The greater the expansion of this ener..."

You're absolutely right SL - to expand into the universe, we must advance with the soul; we can't do it within the confines of the physical laws only!


message 16: by Saiisha (new)

Saiisha | 544 comments Mod
S.L. wrote: "I ask myself these questions all-the-time. How can I better understand the vastness of consciousness. These all can create rapturous states that evoke passions. You in the end are left searching an..."

Yes, a stargazer and a seeker :) We really do get a whole different perspective of ourselves and our place in the universe when we think in terms of soul, time, space and creation. And I believe it's an exciting journey to live this way, to live into these questions!


message 17: by Dewin (new)

Dewin Anguas Barnette | 37 comments Loving this whole conversation. I actually think about the question, What is love, all the time as well. I think about how would I answer someone who asks me why I love reading about the unexplained, the Civil Rights Movement, or the Holocaust. Why do I love my husband or my favorite band. Of course I can come up with answers, but they are all insignificant statements. The true answer is "I don't know". That is why I think the unexplained in general is so powerful to me. I find more closeness to Source from things I can't explain than those I can. I don't believe any love that can be explained is real love. I try to think too about what I will tell my daughter when she's older and asks me how do you know when you're in love. Maybe I will tell her it's when you don't know why you love the person. If it is because the person is smart, funny, successful, etc., than you are not truly in love. If you don't have a reason, it is love.


message 18: by S.L. (new)

S.L. Northey | 40 comments Good Grieving, Narrative Perspectives of Loss and Bereavement

Hi Dewin, love is hard to define. We usually feel what we say are signs of love in the physical sense, like qualities. To me it doesn't matter what the physical actually is, it is a sense that understand each other. You can agree to disagree, because understanding is a hard traveled path to respect. When you love someone, you never want to take away their dignity. You will hold them up just so they will never lose that one thing....self love. To me that's love.


message 19: by James (new)

James Allen (james_allen) | 73 comments S.L. wrote: "That is what makes me the eternal stargazer I suppose"

Great conversation.

Reality is difficult to pin down since it is, at least, partially created by our minds and the concepts of our minds; many of them false.

I love thinking about the deep questions and the Dao (Tao, Way) while looking at the stars but especially out in the beauty and peace of nature. The hills to the west of Portland are one of my favorite places.


message 20: by S.L. (new)

S.L. Northey | 40 comments Oh I love nature James. Wordsworth said, "to be in nature is to be in the presence of God"


message 21: by Saiisha (new)

Saiisha | 544 comments Mod
James wrote: "S.L. wrote: "That is what makes me the eternal stargazer I suppose"

Great conversation.

Reality is difficult to pin down since it is, at least, partially created by our minds and the concepts of ..."


Amazing perspective of the smallness of our lives in the bigness of the universe, when we're in the folds of nature, isn't it!?


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