Updated August 4, 2023
On vacation in a foreign country, you pretend to be a tourist exploring a new world. Likewise, what you appear to be in a world defined by time and space is not that which is you but something you pretend to be. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
When an electric bulb breaks down, it cannot illuminate something. So if the bulb was identified with that, its life is over. But if the bulb did not believe but pretended to be an entity illuminating something, life goes on because you are not what you pretend to be. Thus it remains the power that made it possible to pretend to be someone lighting up something, namely electricity. Read more about electricity as a metaphor for life here.
Likewise, you do not last if believing in a world of duality because everything has an end in such a world. But, on the other hand, if you pretend to be there, it is only what you pretend to be that ends, like in roleplay.
However, you must be familiar with pretending before your role ends. Otherwise, you will hang onto the role when you sense it is about to finish.
So, in the context of the above metaphor, when a bulb cannot illuminate something anymore, it is as if life is over if it was identified as a bulb. But if it has acknowledged that it is not what it appears to be but what makes it possible to pretend it, nothing real ends when the bulb finishes pretending to be what it is not since the electricity that made it possible remains.
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Although electricity makes it possible to experience this article on electronic media, it is not in the article. Likewise, there is no life in a world defined by time and space, although life makes it possible to experience such a world.
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Whether you perceive yourself as mundane or spiritual, you cannot return to non-duality because it has no room for something specific. But if you pretend to be ordinary or spiritual, you do not need to return to non-dualitybecause what you pretend to be, you are not.
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When the body stops functioning, you fall apart as someone definitive. And if you do not fight it, what you believe in being is exposed as nothing. Hence there does not appear to be something hiding, there never was or will be anything but the formlessness of oneness. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
What you appear to think, feel, and act when you believe in being someone is the same as when you pretend it, except politically incorrect feelings are not suppressed. That is because when your feelings are pretence, they do not seem dangerous.
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When you do not believe in being in a world of duality, it is seen as a comedy in which you have fun pretending to be dual.
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Like the recording on a protected compact disc cannot be extended, oneness cannot be expanded into more than one. Not because oneness is protected but because it is formless, thus endless, so there is no more than that which is One.
That is why you deceive yourself when you believe in a world where there seems to be more than one. Fortunately, your mistake is easily corrected if you pretend to be there because where you pretend to be, you are not.
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Nobody in a computer game can touch you, regardless of how good the graphics are. So if you feel affected by a game, it happens within you. Forgetting this, the fastest way to return to reality is to turn off the game. But what is perceived as real is as virtual as a computer game. The experience of being someone, whether mundane or spiritual, is make-believe. If it scares you to turn off that belief, you can do it while you enjoy it by pretending to be someone because what you pretend to be, you are not.
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Scientists have not discovered the origin of the world because there is none. It does not exist. That is why they cannot find dark matter, which they claim is the missing link in proving the world’s existence. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
Interaction is the name of the game if a virtual world is to appear authentic. But communication is founded on what you imagine others think. Hence you interact with a fantasy made by you, and since what you believe in being is based on this, you are a fantasy as well. In other words, what you appear to be is make-believe.
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You stopped believing in the magic of Santa Claus when you grew up, but still think you are someone in a world defined by time and space, although it does not make you feel fabulous. Fortunately, not believing but pretending to be someone there feels as wondrous as when you get presents from Santa.
Having fun pretending to be what you are not, there is no need to be confirmed by others as genuine. Thus you can enjoy all the spectacular illusions of a world defined by time and space.
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The belief that you are someone definitive who experiences something specific seems to hide that there is nothing but the formlessness of oneness. However, this belief corrects itself the more you pretend to be someone definitive because that confirms you are nobody.
Fortunately, this is already so. What you appear to be is empty space. That is why nothing about your appearance in a world defined by time and space needs to be changed or transformed. On the contrary, changes enhance the belief that you are someone definitive.
Thus undoing this belief is not about opening up or surrendering to a higher power but being nobody, which you already are, and you confirm by pretending to be somebody because what you pretend to be, you are not.
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That which is casting a shadow is not in the shadow. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
Metaphorically, the universe is a shadow of oneness. But since a shadow cannot give you anything, what you believe in getting from the world is imagined. So why not accept that and have fun being what you are not, namely someone in a shadow world? You have nothing to lose because it is make-believe.
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In a virtual world, you cannot realise what is real. But you can realise being there is unreal, thus a pretence.
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If you revolt against your parents, the perception of yourself is founded on how you judge them. Therefore, since you become an anti-version of them, you and your parents are two sides of the same coin. The same applies to being detached from the world. Again, it is based on what you avoid.
In other words, you remain part of what you reject. But not if it is something you pretend because what you pretend to be, you are not.
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It is fun being chased when it is something you pretend. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
»When I was little, I thought the moon was following me when I was in the car.« From teenager Post #11156 (from the internet):
As a grown-up, we know the above experience is incorrect. Thus we automatically correct it and similar ones, like a street getting narrower at the end or the world looking flat. However, we cannot navigate the world if we have not become accustomed to fixing these deceptive experiences.
But in the above teenage post, another experience needs to be corrected. There is no ‘I’ which sees something. It is an experience constructed by the brain to make you feel that what you believe in being is real. Fortunately, this is corrected the more you pretend to be someone.
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Pretending to be a child when you are grown up is much more fun than believing to be one.
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You can have as many friends as you want because having them or not is something you pretend.
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Should your diet not go as planned, and you feel frustrated, you can solve it by pretending to be someone with a problem. Since what you pretend to have, you are without, there is no problem.
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Not believing but pretending to be someone, your conditioned behaviour for how to react falls apart. Thus you are free to enjoy the moment as it is instead of compulsively shaping your perception of it per your belief.
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Pretending to be someone who serves others in a restaurant can be fun. Then, you can go home and pretend you are lazy when it is over. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
If there is somebody you dislike, you can remind yourself it is something you pretend to do. Should you feel it is wrong to complain, you also remind yourself it is a pretence. Hence it does not feel flawed but good to judge others.
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When you meet someone you are attracted to, analysing the perceived external interaction is common to set up a personality the other person will love. But since most fear the other one will see through their masquerade, they build something into their new character they reckon the other one cannot live without, wherefore the relationship is built on dependency. Fortunately, this self-made prison is easy to escape. All you need is to acknowledge that your new personality is pretence.
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What you pretend to do often depends on what you imagine others expect and what is in it for you.
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As long as you do not try to conceal specific feelings to preserve your appearance as someone definitive, no feelings seem to have the power to hide, it is fun pretending to be someone specific because what you pretend to be, you are not.
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If you are black-haired, you cannot choose to be blond. But you can pretend it, thus feeling light-haired.
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You can compare linear time to the square pixels that make up one round dot on a computer screen. When the square pixels are separated from each other and extended into a line forming a spiral, it seems the round dot is no longer one perpetual present but a linear timeline. Fortunately, separating the square pixels making up the round dot is impossible because one perpetual present is inseparable. Thus it is not a matter of returning to oneness but stopping seeing the past, now and future as real. Consequently, linear time does not seem to conceal one perpetual present. One way to do this is to pretend to see the past, now and future because what you pretend to see is not real. The graphic is grabbed from the web.
That which is One can be compared to a dot on a computer screen, where there is nothing but that. The dot consists of innumerable amounts of square pixels so tightly together that they cannot be differentiated. Thus they look like one point.
But if you extend this point by spreading out its small pixels in a continuous line, they can be differentiated, thus perceived as separated appearances in space. The experience of time you get by making the line curved, like a spiral, so that from any point, it looks like there is an unknown future behind the next curve and a forgotten past behind the last one. Read more about that in Non-duality is non-dimensional.
But since there is no separation in oneness, extending it into a world where there seems to be more than one is impossible. However, when you believe in separation, it seems to take time to discover that a world where there seems to be more than one is a fantasy that covers oneness. Fortunately, you can speed up this discovery by pretending to be a separate being because what you pretend to be is not real. In this way, the belief in being separate is undone while having fun appearing to be that.
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Being someone definitive is like Karaoke. For example, being a mother or father is based on replicating collectively agreed-on ideas of how to be a family.
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When you have nothing to live up to, you are free to pretend to be someone who lives up to the world’s expectations.
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You cannot pretend to be that which is One because it is formless. But you can pretend to be someone definitive. Hence, you are nothing because what you pretend to be is not, so you do not appear to hide the formlessness of oneness.
NOTE: This article is part of Duality Hack #2 Pretending to be twofold undoes duality.
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