Actually, this idea's been around for thousands of years. Mystics throughout
the ages have been saying that we are living in Virtual Reality, in a world of
illusions. What do you think Jesus meant when he said, "My Father's house has
many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you." or "My kingdom is not of
this world."? He's talking about alternate VR worlds.
Read the book _Illusions_ by Richard Bach. The message is basically that the
world we see is only an illusion and that one can learn to manipulate it
however one wants to. The idea is that we create and enter these VR worlds to
learn various skills and knowledge and to have fun playing around. Some of us
like to get completely immersed in our fantasy worlds, and so we think they
are all there is.
There are many religions which teach this basic idea; that the world we are
experiencing is an illusion that our soul is experiencing. Even after we exit
the program (that is, die), our soul is unaffected, no more than we are when
we play video games and our character "dies". We come away having learned
some things, and we move on to other lessons.
I have no idea whether this world is an illusion or not, whether there is some
conscious entity outside this system, playing my life, like a very complex
video game. I have no evidence either way. I am open to many ideas. I just
keep working on improving my observational skills and my rational thinking
skills, and hopefully I'll get things figured out. But whether it's an
illusion or not, I can still have a lot of fun playing around with the reality
I am experiencing and I can learn a lot from my experiences. And that is the
real point, as far as I'm concerned -- to learn and enjoy.
- David Musick
-- Pay close attention to everything, and improve everything you
can. --