Before you read this put on your glasses.

I went to a TED conference last night which got my mind juju flowing. As I was running this morning, alone, out on the still quiet of the canal, I was thinking about reality. What exactly is "reality?"

William Burroughs, via Jack Kerouac, stated that reality is like a ‘naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.’

According to wikipedia it means "the state of things as they actually exist." As with 'Truth," "Reality is a subjective thing. Some schools of Buddhism hold that reality is something void of description, the formless which forms all illusions or maya. Buddhists hold that we can only discuss objects which are not reality itself and that nothing can be said of reality which is true in any absolute sense. Carlos Castenadas' Don Juan has a more active view on "reality." His view stated that almost all humans live their day to day lives in a dream world where they are influenced by invisible forces and powers, including sorcerers and spirits. Only by transcending this dream state could one know the "unknown realm" outside the realm of normal everyday consciousness. These people (Nagual) were called "seers." Castaneda often referred to this unknown realm as non-ordinary reality, which indicated that it was indeed a reality, but radically different from the ordinary reality experienced by human beings who are well engaged in everyday activities as part of their social conditioning. It's the part of perception which is in the arena of the unknown yet still reachable by man. Science Fiction writer Philip K. Dick’s stories typically focus on the fragile nature of what is "real" and the construction of personal identity. They often become surreal fantasies as the main characters slowly discover that their everyday world is actually an illusion constructed by powerful external entities (such as in Ubik), vast political conspiracies, or simply from the vicissitudes of an unreliable narrator. "All of his work starts with the basic assumption that there cannot be one, single, objective reality", writes science fiction author Charles Platt. "Everything is a matter of perception. The ground is liable to shift under your feet. A protagonist may find himself living out another person's dream, or he may enter a drug-induced state that actually makes better sense than the real world, or he may cross into a different universe completely." Shamanism, an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world, is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living. So, reality appears to be a subjective, flowing, flux of malleable energy that everyone and everything interprets differently. It can be so confusing.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Phlip K. Dick

I have this yearning to distill my "bought and paid for" reality down to the natural, true reality of my life. I want to see things as they exist in their most natural, primal state, the Naked Lunch. I want to know what happiness really is. I want to know what I really need. As I run through the fiber optic connected, cable TV molded neighborhoods and dirty chemical oozing warehouse districts, on paved streets with carefully manicured landscapes, I slowly realize that this is harder to accomplish than I thought. One must actually venture farther out into the wilderness to commune with this rare solitude of a moment than one thinks. Away from the omnipotent buzzing of the umbilical cord power control system and the beamed in tele-screen implanted messages of shame, fear and control. Away from the kamikaze screeching car wheels and the subsidized back door street deals. Away from the moving pictures of artificially inseminated, flat, dead pixels influencing me, trying to own who and what I am or should be. Away from the control machine spewing propaganda 24/7 from the electronic god power grid and the uber consumptive mega-convenience store bulimia banquets of greed and gluttony. OUT. AWAY. More and more I feel the need to peer outside of the bounds of my present "reality" to see the bigger picture. MY bigger picture. By getting away from these artificial voices in my head I find I slowly start to hear a faint, but growing voice. That voice is MY voice. My true voice. My true self speaking to my perceived self.

Perhaps the reason that mystics, hermits, or the wilderness recluse seem so crazy is that they are actually thinking their own thoughts. So, to those of us still plugged into our "realities" in the control grid, they seem insane. What if we are OK the way we are. We don't need a Playstation 3, an Xbox, a Wii, a cellphone, a blog (what?), Facebook updates, makeup or the latest hairdo or fashion trends. Make mistakes and look foolish, it's OK because it just who we are. All we really have right now is this very moment.

No eternal reward can forgive us now for wasting the dawn.

Can a question change my life? I think questions leading to action can change a life.

Ahhhh ... the politics of reality.
Peer pressure and social acceptance are powerful, subtle influences. I tend to view what happens to people who think for themselves (in extreme cases) and are in the public eye with caution. They usually end up six feet high on a cross and/or six feet down in the ground. Balance seems to be the key.
When I run I feel like I tend to disconnect from everything for a little bit. My mind wanders in and out of itself and I seem to unite with a purer level of thinking, like an unconscious consciousness, if that makes any sense. I am joining the collective consciousness of the world, a sort of universal consciousness that connects us all. This morning was one of those runs. Runs where this happens seem like they're over so quick. It is almost like I'm on auto pilot, in a deep meditative state, aware of my surroundings, but completely in the zone.

Some people run towards death. Some people wait. Some people worry.

I think reality is a friend of death, whispering into my ear compelling me to tempt it.

Hmmmm, Some heavy thoughts for a Friday morning.

Todays workout:
01:00 bike ride (about 17 miles)
01:00 run (6 miles)

There is no easy way. Just do it. Never give up!
E