Go With What You Know - Part III: My Existential Experience

Previously:

Parts I & II

Eden, the former Catholic, learned that experience in this religion lead to making informed decisions based on the knowledge gained from said experience. This simple concept was then applied to all the possible wonders of life – art, books, music, movies, food, travel, meditation, etc. He realised that if he wished to have knowledge of something, anything, then it must be experienced.

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Now I reached a fun time in my life by this point. The last two of the above examples came into their own with a trip to South America and a meditation camp. There was still all the music, movies and books to explore, but my natural curiosity wanted more. I had left my spiritual outlet years earlier and now I wanted something more to satiate my soul. This is where the meditation came in. I was fresh off of a ten day course and doing volunteer farm work at a Hare Krishna-run organic farm. The combination of organic vegetarian food, 2 hours of meditation a day, simple farm work, yoga, lack of drugs and plentiful spare time led me to go deeper.

Using my simple theory of experience I tried to define all existence with my own religion (I did have a lot of time on my hands), and a couple of days later I had the forgings of a theory. It was based on three levels of existence:

“All We Have is Now” – The Flaming Lips

Physical

Obviously we all exist in a physical sense. We have our five senses to constantly gauge the make up of our surroundings. Whether we look at it as a human being eating an apple or one mass of ever changing atoms interacting with another to sustain the life force within, it is all a physical existence.

Originally I summed up physical existence as the three dimensions of space, existing in the fourth dimension of time. I can’t however speculate as to the presence of a fifth dimension and beyond because I have not experienced it, and do not know if it can even be defined in a physical sense. Speaking of fourth dimensions, I keep saying that if I can’t experience something than it doesn’t exist. So what does that say of the past or the future?

So how do we define physical existence? My body experiencing a moment right Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now Now.

“Nice Dream” – Radiohead

Mental

On what plane does a thought exist? It seems as though thought can exist absent of actual physicality. When we dream, there is no denying that we believe everything that we experience within (until we return to the physical world and forget most of what ‘happened’). We can create anything in the world with our imaginations. If we try we can convert it into a book or a song or a movie, but where did it come from?

So how do we define mental existence? My mind being able to choose to exercise free will because it is free to do so.

“All You Need is Love” – The Beatles

Spiritual

Do we exist in a spiritual sense? I already abandoned the concept once. Choosing to not believe in God. Does God exist? Have I experienced God? The idea of spiritual existence is much less tangible yet I am equally assured that the soul exists in some form. How else can I explain the love I feel for George Harrison when he says we are all one, or for Wayne Coyne saying happiness makes you cry? What about our desire to find connectivity on this world through friends and loved ones?

I disagree with many things a church might say but when they say God is Love, I can’t argue. Love, to me, is a limitless power that I hardly understand and one of the few things I know exists.

So how do we define spiritual existence? The soul? Love? Infinity?

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I guess there has to be a point to all this, right? Don’t despair. There is. If you combine these three planes of existence there is one simple message which no religion could dispute:

Choose Love Now

- Eden (while listening to The Man Who Sold the World and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie)