Otter Thompson: Investigating the Real

Otter Thompson: Investigating the Real

I find the idea that the world as we perceive it is not really the world rather captivating. That the Matrix's thesis that it is an illusion designed to keep us emotionally enthralled reminds me of Otter Thompson's perspective in Walking Through Illusion. Her argument, as I understand it, is that the events that we experience are only mirrors created by our higher Selves to help us to grow and mature. What really matters is how we feel about what we experience and it is our feelings that will travel with us when we leave the physical plane. In one of her character sketches, the question arises: What do you remember 10 or 20 years on, after a significant event? Do you remember the event or do you remember how you felt about the events? What makes more of an impression?

So the basic argument is that what we feel is real, what we experience is an illusion. Further, we are called to awaken to this truth so that we can use our experiences for what they are meant – as a chance to learn about our true natures and rise above illusion.

There's only one teensy little problem for me in accepting this argument. I have a business. It's called Sacred Physicality. And the whole purpose of Sacred Physicality is to help people awaken to the magical, mystical miracle that is daily life. My mission is to help people really see and understand that the world and people we encounter from moment to moment, including ourselves, is sacred. My hope is that we will wake up and realize that we have the chance to experience the Divine in our daily lives and that it is our responsibility to do so. And our responsibility to care for the physical world as we would for our souls. To cherish it as part of ourselves.

When I really understood that Otter Thompson was calling us to realize that this world is an illusion, crafted for the purpose of helping us understand our emotions, I was a bit flummoxed. How could I reconcile her world of illusion with my world of sacred reality?

I finally decided was that the two could co-exist quite nicely with a bit of reinterpretation. Here's how I did it: in the conversations that Otter-Thompson has with Jesus, it becomes clear that for an awakened soul there is very little difference between living and 'death', the soul simply moves from within a physical body to without. There is a change in awareness but, as I understood it, there is no change in realm. That is, the earthly, physical realm is not cast aside as a toy that is no longer desired, instead, the soul shifts energetically into a new space of perception.

While the earthly experiences are perceived as illusion, with only the energy they created in the form of emotion being considered real, the illusions were soul-created to help awakening and therefore sacred. Not something unimportant to be transcended.

Which is the point of sacred physicality! This is our chance to realize that everything is sacred, what we feel, what we touch and perceive through our senses. Everything! We use this to learn that our perceptions need to be developed.

It isn't necessarily that the world is an illusion, but our perceptions of the world are. We perceive the world through our own particular filters, interpreting the actions of others in a way that makes sense to us and confirms our world views. And it is our job to slowly cleanse these filters so that we more and more perceive the world as it really is, a Divine dance of becoming where even the smallest mote is a sacred gift of enlightenment.