KEEPING IT REAL IN AN UNREAL WORLD
STAYING AS REAL AS POSSIBLE IN A WORLD OF ILLUSION
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
When we were still little people
(before we got all grown up, that is) it didn’t take
much for many of us to become convinced that the skies above us were filled in
general with cloud-men, cloud-animals and cloud-things. While in one sense we
were “just” seeing clouds, the activities in those clouds, to us as children,
were thrilling manifestations to behold.
Sometimes we were encouraged by
our early teachers, as they even helped to point out to us the comings and
goings in those big popcorn fluffs, and it seemed to stimulate our
already-active imaginations to see all of what there was to see in them. Then a
day came when we stopped looking up. We never got into the habit again, having
abandoned it in favor more of reason...too bad for us.
Recently I was a passenger on a
long international flight. After a prolonged period of time spent in staring
out of the window I asked the flight attendant if she would please look out and
tell me what she saw. I had noted many things and people out there, in the
midst of some unbelievable cloud formations at 35,000 feet, all moving about,
and going to and fro, and I wanted to know if she
could see what I saw.
Without a moment’s hesitation,
she leaned down and peered out the window…then turned to me, winked, and said,
yes, of course she could see them too.
She even pointed out one that I
had missed!
Having suspended my imagination
for many years on the childhood possibilities that abound, I am starting to
come around to seeing them re-emerge in this modern, new version of my
existence--maybe she was doing the same thing as me?
The matter of reality is a tricky
one, to be sure. Just as it could be argued that everything we
see-feel-touch-encounter in our physical world is real, we might likewise, and
just as easily, make the case for everything in it being not so real,
too. Do you, after all, really think that all of what you are
experiencing in this life is really what it appears to be? It is both naïve and
weird to imagine such things, and yet, much of what appears to be real seems to
turn out to be verifiably so. It’s all somewhat of a paradox, for both
everything and nothing are real, and all of this is playing itself out at the
very same time.
A philosophy of fence straddling
seems to be a safe way to assess the invisible divisions between reality and
illusion. Can you manage that? The reason for this is that truth and
spirituality are so closely tied to the rather delicate matters of paradox. The
extremities of opposites can both be true in this world, as we can know
reality in an unreal world just as frequently as we can know unreality in a
real world. With the wizardry of paradox, then, reality is both real, and not
real, at the very same time.
A tree might thus be viewed upon
as a tree, or as a swarming mass of atoms. When we look at it, what do we see?
When we look at it, do we see it with our eyes only, or with our total mind and
intellect?
A dog is a dog, and also a rather
sophisticated collection of molecular chains. When we behold the dog, we can
just make out the outline, and process the barking, and note a few colors, and
patterns. Or, we can think deeper thoughts about the dog that reflect more of
the reality that little Spot really represents?
We humans are physical beings, can there be any doubt that we are spiritual beings
at the very same time? When we are simply viewed with eyes, what is it that we
see? The mass of humanity may just be clumps of passing form to us, or we can
look deeper, and see more. We know for a fact, living with ourselves as we do, that
we ourselves are somewhat complex. Can we not then superimpose that same
complexity, and even more of it, onto the body of humanity? When we do, we see
so much more than mere physical form. We see all kinds of things happening, not
the least among them being what is going on in the deeper, spiritual and
metaphysical aspects of human existence.
We mortals are physical mass, yet
near-invisible energy, and invisible spirit, going on at once. So what are we,
really? And what is everything else in our world as we penetrate the outlines
of what they only seem to represent? It is all just what it seems to be. And it
is all not what it seems to be; it is both real, and not real.
A cloud is a cloud. A cloud is
also precisely whatever else we want to see it to be. What is a cloud to you?
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
…In
this book, Keeping it Real in an Unreal World, Michael Jean Nystrom-Schut
examines the reality of illusion (or the illusion of reality?). He talks about
how we can come to pursue our best efforts at finding something that resembles
a path through the foggy haze of an earth-dwellers life, and the fuzzy twists
and turns and convolutions of existence.
If
our voyage is one of expectation, our reality will become just that. It’s a
perceptual thing; how we each perceive it is a highly individual matter. If you
keep an open mind, Michael's promise is that rewards will come out of your
enthusiastic reading participation.
Don’t
assume you know anything whatsoever about real life; it goes better for us when
we think of it like that. In reality, each day we start out new, and each new
day presents itself with an entirely new set of illusions.
In
sorting out the illusions, we have the chance to make things happen in our
lives.
The
book is presented in five sections. To begin with, in Section One the whole
matter of reality and illusion is examined. The next section talks about the
individual self, and what reality means to him.
The
third section explores reality close to home, in the lives of our mind, and
with our friends and family.
Section
Four moves into the outer world, where a global view of reality is addressed.
Finally,
in the last section (Five), Michael takes on the great and perennial
metaphysical questions, doing his best to apply the human notions of “God” and
“Universe” to the world of the thinking self.
Michael
admits he is only sharing thoughts on how he narrowly see things. You will
hopefully have your own spin on reality, different from everyone else in the
world. Keeping it real comes in many shapes, sizes and colors. Each of us looks
at it uniquely, and what you are about to experience in this book is merely one
tiny sliver of reality perspective.
When
you are finished reading the book, it is Michael's hope that you will have
given more consideration to the matter of what’s real and not real for
yourself. And that you will take valuable living information from it.
Reality.
It’s a funny thing. How we negotiate our way through it goes a long ways
towards whether we adapt or fail in our experiences and encounters with life.
Enjoy
your journey, both through the book, and through life!
About the Author
Michael Jean Nystrom-Schut has been writing/publishing for many years, but trying
to figure out the meaning to life’s deepest questions for much longer than
that. With several decades of experience in education, business and real-life
circumstances behind him, the questions, in his mind, still far outweigh the
answers.
Michael
has spent several decades piecing together a worldview that, to him, is both
effective and reasonable. Failing to find this from the religious and cultural
communities, he set out on his own private eclectic path of personal
enlightenment.
A
philosophy of everyday life is important for everyone. Michael understands
that, and has written nearly 30 unpublished manuscripts in an effort to create
a pattern of anthological thought that will eventually provide his readers with
all they need to encounter life in a successful way.
Michael
divides his time between homes in the United States and the rain forests of
Central America. His quest to leave a comprehensive written legacy of life, is,
by his own admission, and endless one.