Life is miraculous

At the heart of existence is a paradox so delightfully absurd that the merest whiff of it triggers an entire apparent reality to dance exuberantly into being. You are presently triggering such a dance. Coming to know this firsthand is the most marvelous experience imaginable. Indeed, some would say it's the very purpose of life.

I can't prove any of this, but if I can even get you to glance in its general direction, I'll die a happy man.

Part of you probably feels that life is in some way magical or miraculous. Another part believes that this cannot be literally true. One of these beliefs can be confirmed, while the other depends on faith. You will probably be surprised to learn which is which.

The first thing to understand is the reasoning of radical skepticism. In brief, it demonstrates that no amount of evidence or reasoning can ever confirm anything about the nature of reality. As an example, you cannot know whether reality is a simulation run by exceptionally clever simulators (that are always one step ahead of you). You cannot even put meaningful odds on this hypothesis. Similarly, as far as you can possibly know, all of reality suddenly popped into existence five seconds ago, with only the appearance of being old (including implanted "memories," such as having read the beginning of this very piece). The only way to estimate such probabilities is to make assumptions about the "outside" of reality—which are by definition untestable.

Now, turn your attention to the rich experiential tapestry you're engulfed in. This "sheer fact" is the one thing that's not susceptible to radical skepticism. Whatever it is, there it still is. Notice this clearly. Now: what's causing it?

It feels like the most rational answer involves a physical world and brain, but as we've just seen, that feeling of rationality is merely a compelling illusion. There's no way to calculate an unbiased probability of that answer—not now, and not ever. It will always depend on pure faith[1]. The reason we trust it anyway is that we believe that there's no better alternative: if all of the choices are faith-based, then we might as well pick a "sensible" one. But this reasoning is mistaken.

Notice that radical skepticism prevents you from using evidence and reasoning to determine the nature of reality. If physicalism were true, then those would be the only tools you have, and you would indeed be stuck. But not all possibilities suffer from this limitation. For example, suppose that what you ultimately are is pure love; the self-luminous self-aware ground of reality; weaving yourself into an unfathomably intricate dreamscape in which you seem to be a human navigating an external world. Being the very ground of reality, nothing could logically prevent you from confirming this with absolute certainty. To do so, you would need to avail yourself of tools that somehow transcend the intrinsic limitations of evidence and reasoning. That's what makes them so hard to find oneself or communicate to others—though we shall try to hint at them here.

Turn your attention back to the glorious tapestry of experience, in all its forms: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, thoughts, emotions, memories, etc. Bask in its magnificence while carefully recognizing the sense in which it is fundamentally mysterious. Notice that even if you were given a flawless neuroscientific explanation, you would still be unable to calculate the odds of it being a very clever trick. There's something (overwhelmingly marvelous) to explain, and nothing to explain it with. If you peer into this in just the right way, you will feel a shift toward awe, wonder, and gratitude. The tool you are looking for can be found by letting this knob go to eleven.

Your intuition may tell you that while the result of this might be enjoyable, it could not possibly prove anything. At most, it might make your (very real) brain generate a profound experience that fools you into believing that life is miraculous. If physicalism were true, then this criticism would be valid—but remember that you have no reason to believe that it is true. It surely feels compelling, but it would be unfortunate (if all too common) to let such compulsions prevent you from awakening. Now consider the alternative hypothesis: if this is a dream (of sorts), then one way to become lucid would be to look at it with completely fresh eyes; to notice something that's at once perfectly obvious and yet utterly astonishing, hidden in plain sight. To give all your attention to what you actually know while withdrawing it completely from what you only pretend to know. In other words, by following the instructions given earlier.

Remember, if you can't be sure that time is real, then you can't be sure that causality even applies to this "glorious tapestry." Similarly, you can't be sure that it is happening at any distance from you. Notice all this clearly. As you do this, you may feel a tinge of fear as you remember that you don't know what life is. If this happens, your default beliefs will sneak back in to provide a (false) sense of security. Instead of letting that happen, try to strongly evoke your intuition that life may indeed be genuinely miraculous. It will again begin to feel miraculous. And now that your rational mind can no longer refute this possibility, it has a better shot at revealing its authentic origin—which results in a kind of confirmation that transcends reason (and our ability to describe here).

The complete unfolding of this process can take a while, but it is profoundly worth it. Reality is radically alive. Discovering this is more profound than words can capture. And beyond its value to the individual, it has much broader implications. Humanity's perpetual search for happiness, our conviction that love matters most, our intuition that life is magical, that it is somehow alive and precious in a way that models can't capture... all of those instincts have their root in something that's true in a way that we can't fathom from "in here." And any civilization that foolishly convinces itself that reality is intrinsically lifeless is destined to make it lifeless, much as ours is doing now.

It's time to wake up.

So close you can't see it

So deep you can't fathom it

So simple you can't believe it

So good you can't accept it

- Tibetan Buddhist saying

Reverend Richard Elvee: Dr. Wheeler, who was there to observe the universe when it started? Were we there? Or does it only start with our observation? Is the big bang here?

Dr. Wheeler: A lovely way to put it—"is the big bang here?" I can imagine that we will someday have to answer your question with a "yes." [...] Have we had the mechanism of creation before our eyes all this time without recognizing the truth? That is the larger question implicit in your comment. Of all the deep questions of our time, I do not know one that is deeper, more exciting, more clearly pregnant with a great advance in our understanding.

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.” — Hafiz

Footnotes

[1] This isn't just rhetoric: even staunch materialists acknowledge that their view is pure faith:

• "There is no way to distinguish between the scenarios by collecting new data. What we’re left with is our choice of prior credences. We’re allowed to pick priors however we want. [...] We have every right to give high credence to views of the world that are productive and fruitful." —(Caltech physicist) Sean Carroll, The Big Picture (p.91)

Okay, if you've missed the aforementioned holes in this logic, it's fair enough to want to pin down a view you like. But having proven that your view unequivocally prevents you from knowing what may be "beyond," why go on to proselytize that you do?

• "In particular, there is no supernatural world -- no gods, no spirits, no transcendent meanings. [...] Facebook will allow you to declare [this] as your religion."—also Sean Carroll