I've often asked myself "What is real? What does 'real' even mean?" This world is a world of illusions, or
perceptions, if you will. No one sees
the world exactly as another does, and now Quantum Physics tells us that the
world is recreated every moment as new quantum particles pop in and out of
existence. They have also observed that
the outcome of their experiments is affected by expectation and observation. What we think is solid, then, is an
illusion. Put solid things under an electron
microscope and we see the vastness of space between the particles we see, and
quantum particles cannot be seen at all, merely evidenced by their behavior.
In Genesis it says that God put Adam in a deep sleep. Nowhere does it say he awoke from it. We are in the world to be tried and tested, but what is this world,
really? Is it Adam’s dream? Is it our
own? I sometimes compare this life to Luke
Skywalker’s test on the planet with Yoda, where he is told to confront his own
fears and told that nothing in the test is real, but that if he believes it is real
he will die. He is able to overcome the
awful monster he encounters only when he remembers and trusts Yoda’s words and
stops battling the illusion.
Back to Genesis. What is the fruit
of the Tree of Knowledge? It is the
experience of good and evil, all the experiences of mortality. The Tree of Life is the experience of God’s
pure love. Many think God punished Adam
and Eve for eating the “apple”, but suppose it was not a punishment at all, but
merely a consequence, one they were told of at the beginning. “Here is what will happen if you eat the fruit
of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
You will have chosen to leave the garden, you will have chosen to make
your own decisions. I will still be with
you and give you direction, but from afar, you will not see me daily as you do
now. You will learn for yourself firsthand the difference between good and
evil. This is your choice.”
Okay, so they think about it and the dream proceeds. Perhaps the dream is
originally a waking dream, perhaps it is not.
At any rate, a new character comes into the Garden (and What is the
Garden? Is just another question we could ask, but will put away for later),
and convinces Eve that the there is no other way to become like God except to
experience good and evil. She convinces
Adam that they must leave the Garden in order to learn. Certainly in a state of
innocence they could not procreate, and they had been commanded to do so. Perhaps the lie which deceived her was “there is no other way.”
Was Lucifer lying when he said “you will not die, but be as the gods,
knowing good and evil”? Death does not
really exist, but we think it does because it is part of this existence. There
are lies of omission as well as commission and Lucifer is a master of deceit. If this is all illusion (and I think it is),
then he didn’t lie…exactly…he just neglected to mention that death was part of
the mortal existence. Too, there are two
kinds of death, mortal and spiritual.
Separation from God is spiritual death and we experience separation
during this lifetime. I wonder if Adam
and Eve realized the depth of that separation.
Another thought. The mortal body
can be tempted, hurt, destroyed, but in the Resurrection we will be reunited
with our bodies. Jesus’ resurrected body
could not be hurt or destroyed. Suppose,
as Intelligences we were clothed with Spirit, so also as resurrected beings we
are clothed with another layer which we call the body but which, we know, is
not anything like a mortal body. We know
that Jesus as a resurrected being could appear and disappear, sometimes
appearing at the same time in two different places, walls had no meaning, place
and time has no meaning. He was not
constrained by temporal laws. Since God lives in the Eternal Now, perhaps after
resurrection we are no longer in the dream, and we have returned to our Father’s
perfect love, clothed with that layer of perfection that we call our
resurrected body. The Prophet Joseph
Smith said the soul is the spirit and body combined. Though we think of the body as solid, it is
not. Then the resurrected soul is not solid, but is the spirit clothed with the
next layer in the journey to eternal perfection.
Of course, all these musings are part of the illusion, too.