Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Of Illusion, Mystery and Delusion

Illusion cannot equal or be the same as mystery; nor, definitely, delusion. Probably, it may be the difference between real and unreal.

Illusion is mostly make-believe, and generally explainable by most or at least some. Mystery, on the other hand, may prevail symbiotically with ignorance. It is not illusory, visually or audibly: it is just something unexplainable to some, and easily understood by others, and treated with scepticism by the rest. Delusion, of course is being completely out of touch with reality, and has no relation to either illusion or mystery. Its closest ally is grandeur, gullibility, and punishment or exploitation.

Illusion fascinates mankind in myriads of ways, mostly visual.


(This illustration is from a Honda institutional ad, and is named by them Endless Flow. Note: the water seems to be flowing downward from one point; theoretically it should end at another point, which would be the bottom, but in the illustration it flows down continuously, as well as climbs up continuously.)

Among man-made illusions, two-dimensional art forms are the commonest, but most imaginative and creative. M.C. Escher, the Dutch artist, devoted a great deal of his work to creating such masterpieces, from which the above illustration has been directly derived. Here is the original (it is a march of soldiers, climbing up and down, up and down, endlessly):


Whether he himself was inspired by some Greek or ancient, definitely western, artistic, philosophical, concepts, I am at the moment not in a position to confirm. But he did a great deal of work, inevitably, because it is unavoidably obsessive. He has many followers, drawing equal amount of fascination.

Let me join others who have wondered, or those who are reading this blog, as to whether, given three-dimensional reality, can this illusion of endless march, or endless flow, or endless whatever, be physically produced, and therefore converted to non-illusion and three-dimensional shape conforming to existing laws of physics and science.

Of those who spend time on such speculation, most just show fascination and confusion, and do not traverse to convert the notion as illusory or physically possible. Some believe that, given means, models can be created in three-dimensions, with wood, steel, cardboard or other materials, or even bricks, to establish the concept of continuum.

I have not been casual on this matter, as I am obsessively seeking clarity in every sound and every sight. I have been able to prove that this illustration belongs totally to the concept of visual illusion made possible by elimination of third dimension, by drawing it on a flat surface. To prove this, the clinching argument that I have provided is that to produce this physically would require the knowledge of the highest and the lowest points in the illustration or drawing. If you observe the picture, you will find that all points are either the highest or the lowest, at the same time. It is therefore not manufacturable into a real object, and therefore scientifically unviable.

Einstein said 'God never plays dice.' Since, according to me, there is no God, only human beings play dice. Interestingly, they have no other choice because of the caprice of life itself. It is fun, therefore, to defy science and glimpse the unreal, and be pleasantly fascinated by one of the most harmless aspects of man's creative mind.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

WHY DID YOU MAKE ME GOD

UNCANNY, DON'T YOU THINK
THAT HE SHOULD REPLY
TO MY ASKING
WHY DID YOU NOT MAKE
ME A SQUIRREL INSTEAD OF A HUMAN

BY SAYING
BUT I DID
YOU WERE A SQUIRREL
BEFORE I MADE YOU A HUMAN
BUT YOU DID NOT KNOW
YOU WERE A SQUIRREL
WHEN YOU WERE A SQUIRREL
SO WHAT IS THE USE,
I ASKED: OKAY, WHY
NOT A BUTTERFLY

AND VERILY CAME HIS REPLY
I KNEW YOU WOULD
ASK THIS AND HOPED
YOU WOULD NOT
AND HE SIGHED: YOU WERE
A LITTLE BUTTERFLY BEFORE
YOU WERE A SQUIRREL
AND A FROG BEFORE THAT
AND A RAINBOW BEFORE
AND A ROACH
BEFORE YOU WERE A STREPTOCOCCUS

ENOUGH, I SAID, BUT
IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE

PRECISELY SAID HE
WHEN YOU ARE NOT A HUMAN
YOU DON'T KNOW THAT
YOU ARE NOT,
NOR WHAT YOU ARE;
AND YOU KNOW THAT
YOU ARE A HUMAN AND
NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO BE ONLY WHEN YOU ARE A HUMAN
AND YOU WANT
TO BE EVERYTHING ELSE BUT

CONFUSED I OPENED MY MOUTH
BUT BEFORE I COULD SAY
ANYTHING, HE SAID

ENOUGH, AND NOW IT
IS MY TURN TO ASK:
WHY DID YOU MAKE ME
A GOD

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

You Claim to Know Everything

You claim that you know everything that can be or that has to be known about life. Is there knowledge beyond what you claim to know about life?

No, because the knowledge that concerns us is only what happens or can happen or be experienced as we journey through our lives. Therefore, to know about life fully is for all practical purposes to know about everything, including death.

So, tell me something about life.

Well, life is transitory, capricious and in what we call the universal scheme of things, absolutely futile.

Is that all?

Yes.

So then, what are all these -- faith, ambition, achievement, yearning, lust, fulfillment, tenderness, joy, hurt, anger, despair...

Transitory, capricious and futile.

"Happiness must come from within," he said.

"Happiness must come from within," he said.

"But I am without within," I lamented.

"Then you must do without unhappiness, which would then create a within, in which thereafter happiness will dwell."

Lack of comprehension is a blessing for some and a problem for others. If the foregoing does not make you ecstatic, you are entitled to have a higher opinion of yourself. Making sense rarely makes sense.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

GODISNOWHERE

GODISNOWHERE

some read it as God Is Now Here

many read it as God Is No Where

most thought it was some joke that I was pulling, which could not be comprehended but was not worth trying either

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Reality and I

Reality and I are perpetually non-aligned. But then, what is reality? At best it is a variable notion. Since I am constantly unallied to a variable, does it make me the most realistic person? What an interesting, if disquieting, situation.