– updated October, 2026

In this hack, an eternal ocean represents the immeasurable, formless nature of Oneness. The ocean’s bubbles represent the emergence of uniqueness and the beginning of a world confined by time and space. At first, these bubbles seem like heavenly entities, each emitting its own light and colour, floating elegantly in and out of one another. However, as they further assert their individuality, their luminance fades, and they become solid entities separated by time and space.

From Duality Hack #2.4 in the free eBook Alexius’ Duality Hacks.

Time and space are constructs of thought. But thoughts are intangible, so they can’t shape a concrete world except in fantasy. Hence, if we believe the material world we experience is real, we’re mistaken. Alexius imaginatively explores this in the tale below.

Once upon a time …

… an endless, quiet ocean was content with being everything until it entertained itself with the idea of more. Yet, because the sea was infinite, there was no more.  Thus, it imagined a wave rising from itself to experience more. Although it knew this ‘more’ was an illusion, the ocean took pleasure in seeing the wave as separate until it returned. 

Enchanted by the mystery of something with a beginning and an end, the ocean imagined tiny, sparkling bubbles in the wave’s foam as a world of more than one. Fixated on the luminous bubbles, it was mesmerised, witnessing radiant bubbles that, like divine creatures, each emitted a distinct colour and gracefully moved within a world of countless hues and forms.

Even though the bubbles are as intangible as the ocean, the ocean sees them as substantial entities. Each bubble presents a distinct vision as it performs a mesmerising dance for the ocean’s delight, though it is not separate from the ocean.

In the dream state…

… the ocean, so deeply entangled in the bubble world, forgets that the world is destined to end when the wave returns to the sea. Yet, faintly aware of this, it keeps creating waves, each giving birth to new, shimmering bubbles through a flow of creation and destruction.

But as everything is water, seeing its bubbles as if there’s more than water is make-believe. Still, because the ocean yearns for a vision of more, it overlooks that everything is fundamentally the same, regardless of appearance. So, the illusion of more than one endures.

From god-like entities to compact beings

However, believing in separation is a solitary path, so the luminous ever-changing bubbles grow cold and freeze into distinct forms. They’re no longer lucid, godlike beings but opaque droplets shaped like humans.

In short, a world of light beings, gracefully hovering in and out of one another until they insist on being unique, marks the beginning of the downward spiral towards the present hallucination of dense beings, separated and formed by the burden of time and space.

Trancelike tranquillity music resembling Shangri-la

In the tale of the unbounded ocean, the bubble world reflects the first stage of a world with more than one, sometimes referred to as Shangri-la, Moksha or Nirvana (see Wikipedia). However, time is an illusion, so you can always tune into this world’s frequency and join the lucid world of godlike entities, floating lightly and quickly like dolphins yet going nowhere. Alexius has done this many times, for instance, to shapelessly dance with his deceived cats, Uma and Trylle.

Early ambient music, such as Pauline Anna Strom’s Energies (1982). Nowadays, the closest to her is probably H Takashi, for example, Body Trip (2016). But the present-day ambient music by Emily A. Sprague, such as Star Gazing (2020), also seems linked to the ancient world of transparent beings. The same holds for contemporary ambient pop, like Out There (2024) by Helado Negro. In a jazzy way, Sediment (2024) by Air Space, Beyond (2023) by Leo Takimi and Superkilen (2024) by Svaneborg Kardyb. As art rock, N.Y.C. (1994) by Bryan Ferry. And finally, as cosmic cabaret, A Sign (2022) by Sam Gendel and Antonia Cytrynowicz.

The fast rhythm, yet trance-like tranquillity, of the above music approaches the frequency of the ancient, godlike entities next to oneness. Nevertheless, the music is far from as fast as oneness, speedier than anything definable. See Duality Hack #9.9. That is why oneness is non-definable, and the world shaped by high-frequency godlike beings is make-believe.

Actually, believing you could see different light beings hovering in and out of each other was the first step on a downward spiral to the present world of compact beings, separated by time and space.

Everything with a beginning and an end is fictitious

The problem is not that we experience ourselves as substantial beings in a world governed by time and space, but that most regard this experience as a reflection of reality rather than as fantasy.

Thankfully, we can easily correct this mistake. When we pretend to be a heavenly drop of water turned into a dense teardrop, we are neither intangible nor substantial. Instead, we’re that which makes this pretence possible. Ergo, in the context of this adventure, we are the endless water, and since there’s nothing else, we are One.