Some brief cogitations on reality and consciousness

Everything we see, smell, hear, taste, feel - everything that exists in the physical realm - is simply the collaboration of our five senses sending electrical impulses to our brain. And every tiny altering of those senses, whether it's being hit in the head with a brick, or a butterfly flapping it's wings in the jungles of South America, is going to make some profound difference on the world, directly or indirectly.

Our out level of thought is really just comprised of processing all of this information - comprehending the trillions of electrical impulses going through our brain every second, then reacting to them. It can be explained logically and physically, and continues on for several minutes after death. It's also present in sleep and our dreaming state, though to a much lesser extent. But dreams are unimaginably intricate - in the space of a minute you can have a dream that seems to last hours, with vibrant details, that sometimes even seem more realistic than life.

It makes the idea of a second level of thought much more tangible. Studies have been conducted where a person was placed in a large bath tub full of tepid water, in complete darkness and silence, and after some time in the state of physical detachment (all the senses having been almost completely cut off), the persons claimed to have seen visions, or engaged in experiences similar to dreams. Meditations, too, can produce these effects. So it becomes apparent that our physical reality, and another reality are two separate entities, the physical functioning off of the other.

So what does this say about the idea of time? Time is an idea linked to the ideas of our physical world, so when those ideas fall away as a "dream" or "imagination" so does time. And it makes sense in a more logical way as well. The past is comprised of memories, which are simply images and sounds stored away in our brain (as well as the more abstract "inner feelings" like love, anger, happiness, etc.). They're difficult to explain away scientifically, but essentially, the past does not exist now, so eventually it would cease to exist at all. Then there's the future, which is simply an abstract idea that makes no sense at all. So what we're left with is the present. This moment. This instant. We live in now, and we can never live anywhere else.

The "idea", I guess, is to become one with that moment, as some would call it "experiencing the holy moment." When we are consciously living in the present, instead of filling our heads with these other ideas, that's what Nirvana is, which I would think you think exists even if you're not a Buddhist or Hindu.