To Believe: A Man’s Quest to Understand Reality

by M I A Harba

  What to believe? Glitches in the simulation program, or beings living in our world but invisible to us? What about science? Science has not even ventured into this area. It has opted to ignore such observations. To science, they are not real but part of the psyche of the observer.

  Sam didn't agree with science in this respect. There is something out there, which people still don't understand, and it needs to be investigated.

  What about this concept of consciousness? Where does it fit in with all this? Is consciousness the creator of this phenomena, or is this phenomenon the creator of consciousness? They sound like two conflicting theories. One is that consciousness is the creator of everything in this universe. Another is what the elusive visitor has postulated, that the creator of the world is beyond our understanding. Maybe consciousness is related to it, or maybe not.

  Should he go along with the Bedouin’s invitation? Was he sure that his mind would come to a mental comfort after it, or become more confused and less certain?

  He needed to believe, and he would do anything to achieve it. This opportunity presented by the elusive visitor was perhaps a great opportunity for a better understanding of this phenomenon. So it was decided. If the elusive visitor came, he would go along with his plan. Further, if the elusive visitor did come, then what he saw the night before was real, not imagined.

  The elusive visitor belonged to this phenomenal for sure, and Sam, if accepted the invitation, might experience other beings, too, to help him understand the phenomenon better. Humans have been searching for this for centuries but found nothing tangible. What they found was mostly philosophical conjectures and deductions, but never a piece of scientific evidence or experiment that could be repeated and verified by other people.

  Even paranormal activities don’t happen all the time. When one wants to record them or have many people to witness them, often they do not happen. When one is not planning it, and not recording it, it happens. If the beings in this accompanying world are behind the paranormal, then obviously, they don't want to give away the whole story. They give little here and there, without disclosing the entire picture. But why?

  Why do they give predictions that sometimes come true and at others, they don’t? Why don't they land in the garden of the White House and declare their presence as entities from this other undetectable world?

  If they belong to this phenomenon, then the latter, for whatever reason, does not want to be understood. Is it a malicious phenomenon? Sam didn't think they were malicious. He heard of no stories of humans getting killed by ghosts directly. Neither did he hear of stories of people getting killed by UFOs. Even those storeys of abductions by UFOs always ended in the abductees going back home safe eventually.

  Some have reported this phenomenon was responsible for the slaughter and dismemberment of livestock in the fields, although this has not been confirmed conclusively by science. If it is proven to be true, then this phenomenon can cause harm to animals, but not to humans. But why?

  There are too many questions to be answered, and it is total confusion. What is out there? Jon Kiel, in one of his books, has attributed revelations to prophets as contacts with this phenomenon. He argued whatever wisdom those prophets came down with was not but this phenomenon exhibiting itself in a different way. Religion is something people want to believe in. This is a convenient conduit for this phenomenon to exhibit itself in the form of religious revelations. So, religion, he asserted, is a manifestation of this phenomenon.

  Sam’s mind was totally confused. His thoughts could be considered heresy and anti-religion. He was not prepared to get into this realm at the moment. He needed to learn more before he got into the confusing explanation of the phenomenon.

  The next few days dragged on very slowly. He was torn apart between not wanting to pursue this theory, hoping for this elusive visitor not to appear again, and joining him on this ambiguous journey. He didn't know when the elusive visitor was likely to reappear because he only said in a few days. That disturbed him because it made him keep a watch out all the time. During the day, while he's reading, relaxing or cooking, he was looking out of the window to see if that elusive visitor had materialised. If that wasn't bad, the night-time was much worse. His mind remained awake, listening for any sound that came from outside, in expectation of this elusive visitor. He jumped up and looked outside whenever he heard any noise. Last time, this Bedouin scratched the tent’s canvas with his fingernails. He didn't call or make his presence felt in any sane way.

  He wished this elusive guest appeared right now because his brain was getting too tired of the sleepless nights and the expectations. He knew this guest would reappear, but at times, he believed it was wholly in his imagination.

  Over these few days, he went out to search for more fragments, the remnants of whoever lived there before. His mind was absent in expectation of the visitor. The days went on slow and sluggish, and it was no longer a decision to go with the Bedouin or not, it was a matter of getting it over with.

  It happened one evening while he was eating his dinner in his living room. There was a soft knock on the door, and indeed, it was the elusive visitor, dressed in exactly the same outfit. His facial complexions remained unchanged, too. Sam opened the door and started the greetings himself this time.

  ‘Welcome dear friend. I've been waiting for you,’ said Sam.

  ‘Thank you. May I come in,’ the guest requested politely.

  ‘Yes, absolutely. Do come in, please.’

  Sam invited him to sit on the sofa.

  ‘Can I offer you anything? coffee or tea?’ asked Sam.

  ‘I think you know by now that coffee or tea is this reality’s kind of thing. And I think you know now that I don't belong in this reality. So, these are completely unimportant to me. I took coffee when you offered before because I wanted to set up a comfortable environment, to make you feel safe and unthreatened,’ responded the guest.

  Sam smiled and said,

  ‘Absolutely. I am content now, and I don't think you pose any threat.’

  ‘I hope that you've had enough time to think about my intended plan and if you would like to go ahead with it,’ said the guest.

  ‘I have. Definitely, I would like to go ahead with it. I don't know whether I'm going to be convinced or not, though’ said Sam with a smile.

  ‘That's beside the point. Just come along, and I'll leave you to make up your own mind’ responded the guest in his usual vague manner.

  Sam took a few minutes to dress appropriately for the journey and escorted the visitor to the pickup. He drove following directions given by the guest, who apparently knew where to go. After about half an hour of travelling in the open terrain, they stopped. Sam took GPS coordinates immediately because he wanted to remember that it did actually happen and not in his imagination.

  ‘Walk with me, Sam,’ said the guest.

  Sam followed, not asking further questions. They walked for about 10 minutes, and they reached the place where these UFOs disappeared into the deep ground. While they were there, he witnessed one particular light blob shoot down into the earth in front of his eyes, leaving no mark whatsoever.

  ‘Are you ready,’ said the guest.

  ‘Ready for what?’

  ‘To enter,’ answered the guest with a smile.

  ‘Enter what? I'm sorry, I don't understand,’ said Sam, apologetically.

  ‘To enter where these UFOs have gone down into,’ answered the guest, keeping a friendly smile.

  ‘But I don't see any entrance,’ said Sam.

  Then in a moment of disbelief, there was this huge underground entrance, like a huge sinkhole leading into a huge abyss. Sam walked to the edge of this sinkhole and was taken aback with a jolt, totally scared out of his wits.

  ‘Do you want me to jump into this? There is no way I'm jumping,’ said Sam, alarmingly.

  ‘It's only in your brain and in your imagination. Look at it now.’

  Then immediately, that sinkhole disappeared
, and there was nothing but the normal desert ground in front of him.

  ‘What happened to this entrance? It was here a moment ago,’ said Sam, in complete bewilderment.

  ‘It's all in your brain, Sam.’

  ‘I'm sorry I don't understand it. It wasn't in my brain. It was something tangible. I saw it. I felt it. I smelled it,’ said Sam.

  ‘Well, that might be true but what's vision, taste or touch? You know they are only in the mind, and without the mind, they don't exist. Your mind made you believe these were true,’ answered the guest.

  ‘Alright. So how can I switch my mind to see the entrance again?’ asked Sam, still uncertain.

  ‘Look now,’ responded the guest.

  And the entrance reappeared again, deep, and scary.

  ‘You're playing with my mind. I'm not really sure whether this is all real or I'm going insane,’ said Sam.

  ‘It's in your mind. We can actually make you see and believe what your mind conjures up for you. Look at me now. Do you see me? Can you touch me?’ asked the guest.

  Sam extended his arm to touch him.

  ‘Yes, I can see you and I can feel you,’ answered Sam.

  ‘Try now. Feel me now,’ requested the guest.

  Sam extended his arm again and was petrified because his arm went right through the body of the elusive visitor. He pulled back his arm and screamed in terror,

  ‘No, no.’

  ‘Well, there you go. I just implanted in your mind my body is hollow. I'm all empty space. And the same thing goes with the entrance. I can play with your mind to make you see it, or I can play with your mind to see reality as you think you see it, pure desert.’

  Sam was full of fear and disbelief. How could this possibly happen? The next moment, the big entrance, dark, hollow, and petrifying, materialised again.

  ‘Do you want now to jump?’ asked the guest, with a big smile.

  ‘What do you mean jump? I'm absolutely petrified. It will kill me,’ responded Sam, with a panicky expression.

  ‘Trust me. It's not going to kill you. You will be alright, and you will see things that will amaze you and hopefully, make you believe,’ answered the guest.

  ‘Will you jump with me? Can we hold hands? I don't trust to do it by myself. It's too scary,’ said Sam.

  ‘Yes. That's fine. We can do it together. I have planned to do it together with you, anyway. I wasn't going to ask you to do it by yourself,’ answered the guest.

  They held hands and jumped. They fell for what appeared like an eternity before they reached whatever down there. It was a soft landing, gentle and warm. Sam heard the hum of engines and generators inside.

  ‘Are these the generators of your base-station here?’ asked Sam.

  The Bedouin smiled and said,

  ‘Well it is what we think you expected, and therefore, we made you hear it. What do you expect to find in this station?’ asked Sam.

  ‘I don't know, but perhaps big machines, very sophisticated technologies,’ answered Sam.

  ‘Indeed. What you’ll see is not real, but what we expect you to see by programming your brain to model the scene for you. You see it the way you expect to see it,’ said the guest.

  ‘That's not what I wanted. I don't want to see what I expect to see. I want to see the real thing. I want to see the reality of your own world,’ said Sam.

  ‘You'll never be able to see our reality. Your senses are incapable of this,’ said the guest.

  There was a big gate that opened into a huge hangar with a complex set of machinery that produced noises like those of huge generators. Sam knew this was not real, but what his mind modelled for him, presumably on instructions by the elusive guest.

  ‘You see with your own frame of mind what you expect to see in a base used for UFOs. This is what your brain is capable of. And this is what we built inside your brain, so it confirms what you see and feel,’ said the elusive guest.

  Sam was taken aback by the answer. He remembered the argument made by John keel in his books.

  ‘Are you saying that for every human, you present yourselves within the frame of mind he has? Does it mean that? In the old ages, people couldn't think of spaceships and UFOs, and stuff like that, but their brains were ready for the concept of a Creator, and the need to worship the Creator. Their frame of mind was ready to accept the worship of the supreme divine. Did you take advantage of this to introduce yourselves in the form of religion’ Sam explained and ended it with a question.

  ‘Indeed, we look at each generation of humanity differently, to judge what their brains are capable of believing. We look at the frame of mind and thoughts they have at that moment,’ said the elusive guest.

  ‘Are you saying God who was shown to the prophets is some aspect of you, presented to humans? Asked Sam, in disbelief and disgust.

  ‘Absolutely, this is the way it goes.’

  ‘What about ghosts, and what the spirits say to mediums in scenes?’ asked Sam.

  ‘It's the same. For those who would like to believe in ghosts, we present our world in the form of ghosts. Their frame of mind is ready to accept such a conception. For those believing in seances and contacts with beings from the other side, we present our world to them in this particular way.

  ‘You are confused, Sam. Your brain’s paradigm at the moment suggests you are willing to accept spaceships and aliens coming from outer space. We presented our world to you in this form. For those who believe in demons and jinnees, we present our world to them in the form of demons and Jinns. And the list goes on and on,’ said the elusive guest.

  ‘OK, I get it now. You are not presenting yourselves in full. You are only presenting it as something my brain is willing to accept. Is your world totally unknown to me? Who really are you?’ asked Sam.

  ‘You'll never be able to understand this. I can only say this, we occupy the same space you do, but our being and reality are different from yours. Your senses are incapable of understanding what we really are,’ explained the elusive visitor, still vaguely.

  They walked within the complex machinery, and he saw many people working on the machines, all exactly the same in shape and dress as his guide, the elusive Bedouin.

  ‘Obviously, these people are not real because they are exactly like you.’ Said Sam.

  ‘Yes, all are conjectures of your brain. They don't exist.’

  Then all of the sudden, what Sam saw was sand and gravel. He wasn't inside the machinery house anymore, but on the surface, where they were a few minutes ago.

  ‘Do you believe it now? It's all in your mind. You created this vision and my world facilitated it,’ said the elusive guest.

  ‘Okay, I think I get it. You have existed forever, and as far as I can tell, you presented your world in different ways over the millennia, whether in the form of Gods talking to humans, UFOs, jinnees, demons, or whatever. Each is an incomplete part of the picture. And you're saying that the full picture can never be fully seen or felt by us, mortal humans,’ Sam elaborated.

  ‘Yes, I think it's pretty much a good summary,’ replied the elusive visitor.

  ‘But why? Why do you bother with all this? If your reality belongs to you, and we humans are incapable of understanding your reality, why don't you leave us alone? Why do you bother creating visions and pictures of things to lead to you? Is it something intrinsic in your world that you need to show yourselves to us, but you are unwilling to show us the whole truth? How, and why? I don't understand this,’ said Sam, feeling frustrated.

  ‘Yes, I understand your frustration. Some might say that our world is not ready yet to show you the full picture because you are incapable of understanding it. But humans are evolving and developing all the time. Maybe our world is gradually preparing you for the ultimate truth when the time comes,’ explained the guest.

  ‘Very strange, very strange. You want me to believe this? Don't you see I'm experiencing what you are making me experience, because of my consciousness? Without it, I will not even be able to
experience and comprehend the little you're showing me of your world. You appear to me as a conscious being, at least in the form I see now, and our people are studying consciousness and they are getting nowhere’ explained Sam.

  ‘Consciousness and our reality are not too far apart,’ answered the elusive guest, in his usual vague manner.

  ‘This is a very vague answer. In fact, I'm sorry to say, all your answers have so far been vague and incomprehensible. I'm not even sure if you are real or not, or if I'm going to remember any of this tomorrow. You're playing with my mind. I take it you're equally capable of wiping these memories for my mind, if you so wished. It's something beyond my comprehension,’ responded Sam.

  ‘I know. You have a confused mind, and you came out here for clarity. Unfortunately, this is as clear as it can be for you. And it's up to you to formulate what hypothesis you'd like to believe in it,’ replied the elusive visitor, vaguely, again.

  ‘What about the Simulation Hypothesis? We, humans, are supposed to be nothing but code in a grand simulation algorithm. We have our own consciousness, but it is part of a huge external consciousness,’ Sam said, feeling extremely frustrated.

  ‘It is an interesting hypothesis and could be a very convenient way of looking at your reality. It's fine if people believed in it, but I wouldn't count it as the absolute truth. There are so many elements in it that approximate objective reality, but it is incomplete. It tries to explain reality by the level of technology you have at the moment, or the expected within decades. But it fails to appreciate that within decades, the nature of technology will be different, not only in the power of computers. There might be better forms of the Simulation Theory in future. If you want to believe in it, and your mind becomes content with it, this is good. Go for it. If it brings your mind to some kind of a convincing paradigm, then you've reached your goal,’ explained the elusive visitor, with a big smile.

  ‘What I'm hearing from you is that it is not necessarily true but only a very approximate interpretation of reality,’ said Sam.

  ‘I'm afraid you'll never be able to understand the reality within the constraints of your human senses. Even with the advent of your technology, you're still limited by your senses. This is a debilitating factor in your structures,’ replied the guest.