Familiar Illusions

FRI., FEB. 12, 1999, 6:48 AM
FARM, STUDY

It is just about time to observe (even on a tree-filled horizon) one very familiar illusion, here in earth life. The sun, that great molten ball that makes life possible here on earth, will appear to rise. The horizon becomes brighter and brighter, and finally you’ll see the truly bright edge that shall then appear to rise (aha! there it is!) until the entire round orb is visible… and finally so bright you can’t look at it directly.

You see it now in its brightness, and it seems really quite genuine. The illusion, of course, is that this earth is set and still, and it is the sun that moves. The reality, that you have learned, academically, is that the sun is the center of the system, and it is the earth that “moves”. It is both moving in an orbit around the sun and is rotating on its axis. The former is responsible for the seasons, and the latter for day and night. And now you know, which was unknown to the folk responsible for writing what became Holy Scripture, that while you have winter in the northern hemisphere, those in the southern half experience summer… and as you experience sunrise and a new day those on the other side of this globe are seeing sunset and the onset of night.

This is a familiar illusion that you just take for granted, and accept, every day and as a year passes.

Another familiar illusion is that this desk, this house, the trees visible outside… all are of solid matter… wood, steel, stone, synthetic material… but solid. The academic reality is that everything that appears solid is, finally, energy. Energy manifests “itself” in many ways – solid, liquid, gas – and becomes quite useful in so doing. A piece of wood is solid, but it can burn, releasing energy as heat, and ending up as ashes, which can return to the earth and again can become part of some living solid, directly and indirectly.

But you know the major illusion to which I shall refer, the illusion of life and death. It is quite apparent that as human babies are born most of them are alive… have life… while a few, for various reasons, are born dead or die soon. Babies grown into children, children into adolescents, then on into adulthood, with some dying in each phase of life. Some survive into old age… and the psalmist’s affirmation of three score and ten is still about right for all humanity, on the average.

Then comes death, quickly, as in Michael’s experience (for it was an experience, supreme, for him), or slowly, even painfully, for others… with many variations in time and way of dying. When it is judged that there is no more life in the body it is buried, cremated, or disposed of in some way. That life is over. Life that was evident is now gone. But what an illusion! Certainly My best!

You know that physical dictum that energy is not lost or gained, but is merely transformed. So it is with life. Life in a body is like unto the solidness of a piece of wood. Apparent… but illusion. Life is fundamentally spirit. Spirit comes from Me, Holy Spirit… the One Great, Omniscient God. Energy comes from the sun, and it is manifested in o’ so many ways. I am quite lavish with spirit. It is the essence of all that there is, here in the earth.