This is something I’ve read about, and been thinking about a lot recently. I was asking myself that if every single person on the planet died tonight would Europe exist tomorrow? Of course there’d still be a huge landmass where ‘Europe’ was but it wouldn’t be called Europe anymore because there’d be no people to call it that. I came to the conclusion that ‘Europe’ is just a mental construct or belief. Of course there’s a massive land mass out there made of atoms and molecules, water, plants trees and loads of other stuff that billions of people call or believe is Europe but we only believe it’s ‘Europe’ because some clown a long time ago drew a load of lines on a map and said ‘hey everyone, see this big shape I’ve drawn? It’s called Europe’ I thought from that point on that billions of people started to collectively believe that the shapes drawn on the map by the map bloke was Europe. It makes sense to me that Europe as everyone knows it is just a thought or a belief. Man! The place didn’t exist on a map until the late 15th/early 16th century, where was Europe before then? No where, it didn’t exist but the landmass did. I’ve concluded that ‘Europe’ is just a collective thought that exists in peoples heads. It only exists because we believe it so.
The more I think about the more it applies to, Christmas – just a thought, it doesn’t exist anywhere in realty, only in peoples heads. Days, months and years – more collective beliefs. Time, theres another…..birthdays, anniversaries – just thoughts. The whole calendar – more thoughts. It really is dawning on me that the whole shebang is just a wispy dream, a very solid seeming one but it’s just smoke and no substance, only thoughts. Of course all these labels, time and calendars and such are needed to organise society but it seems they’re just collective beliefs.
What would happen if I stopped believing?
If I turn this line of enquiry onto myself it would seem that ‘I’ don’t really exist either. Just more thoughts, beliefs, ideas, opinions, past memories, future projections that ‘I’ draw a sense of self from.
I saw a dream/vision a few years ago. it was really vivid, it occurred at that point just before sleep. Everything went deadly silent and I saw the void, or source or what ever it is. Nothingness. Into this void from all angles seeped smoke. The smoke represented thoughts, beliefs, ideas, memories, future projections – the ego structure. The smoke seeped into the black void and formed the three dimensional shape of a horse. The horse looked solid, so real as the smoke swirled around in its three dimensional form. But it wasn’t real at all, it was just smoke.
The cat’s meowing now for food, the rascal. Better feed him before he chews my foot off.
My ears have been ringing for months…
Truth Seeker 