Can Our Perception of Reality Be Expanded?

The most complicated, yet fascinating topic connected to The Book of Zohar, and indeed to life, is “the perception of reality.”

It is known that around us are numerous waves that we do not perceive. However, there is also a field of higher information called “the upper nature” or “the Creator.” We can come in contact with that field and receive everything from it—emotions, understanding, information, love, sensation of eternal life, and the sensation of wholeness that exists in that field, which fills everything around us.

The very purpose of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to teach us how to develop our own tools so we can perceive that field of higher information. This can be done only if we change within; hence, when we change, we ourselves become like that field, and thus like the Creator.

The Book of Zohar Is a Tool that Corrects and Broadens Perception

We are unaware of the Creator, of the actual reality, just as a person is dreaming, experiencing all sorts of events, believing oneself to be awake. This is how we are in this world.

In his “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Baal HaSulam compares this situation to a worm that hatched into a radish, believing that the entire world was the radish it was born in. This is how we are, living in our world, oblivious to the fact that there is a vast world around us, enlightened, expansive, and beautiful. This is where Kabbalists—those who have already awakened from the dream to reality—are found. According to them, what we now sense is called “an imaginary world,” and only when we rise above it will we be able to truly understand that previously, “We were as those who dream.”

The Book of Zohar is being revealed to explain to us how to perceive reality correctly, and it is not at all a coincidence that science is also signaling that reality is far broader and richer than we can currently perceive.

Why the Spiritual Reality Is Hidden From Us

Also, when we examine other animals, we see that their perception of reality is different from ours. Bees, flies, bears, frogs, snakes, and even cats and dogs, which live near us, perceive reality differently. A dog, for instance, perceives the world primarily as patches of scent. The world image of the bee is the sum of visions received by each of the numerous units that compose its eyes.

Different creatures perceive reality differently, but in the end, they are all perceiving the same reality. What reality? This is a good question. And here is another good question: If a person were to miss one of the senses, would that person perceive less of reality? And what if that person did not miss any senses, but instead had another, additional sense? Would he or she see a broader reality? Perhaps the only question is, “Which sense is that?”

With the world we perceive now, we can say that we need glasses or a hearing aid because we know what it means to see well or to hear well. However, if we did not know which additional sense we lacked, how could we acquire it? Just as we do not feel that we need a sixth finger, we cannot feel that we need a sixth sense. As a result, we are living in our world without a need to sense true reality.

The Desire to Know What Life Is for Gives Us a Need to Reveal a Higher Reality

Let us examine ourselves from the side for a moment. We exist in the world for several decades, yet we have no idea what happened before us or what will happen after we are gone. In truth, we have no idea what is happening during our lives. For example, do we know where our desires come from? Where our thoughts come from? It could be said that we are living in the dark, except that while we are in it, we have a false sensation that we understand and control our lives.

In previous generations, people’s lives were simple. They were concerned with food, tried to lead their lives as comfortably as they could, had children, and left for them the rewards of their work. Their children continued on the same route, generation after generation. When we lived in this way, there really was no need to know what was happening around us.

But today we are beginning to ask questions about life. These questions move us from within until we cannot be calm and continue with the flow of life as before. We are beginning to feel that without knowing what we are living for, life simply makes no sense. This is what requires us to discover the actual reality.

“Why Our Perception of Reality Is Limited and How We Can Change That” is based on the book, Unlocking the Zohar by Dr. Michael Laitman.