The Illusion of Duality

Ajouté : 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hello friends and welcome back. Today we're going to be discussing the illusion of duality. And this is loosely going to be based on a Substack article I wrote. So if you want to check that out, I'll pop the link underneath in the description. But anyways, let's jump straight into it. Because something that I've always been fascinated by is this idea that we live as though we are separate to the world. And yet nothing that we know about it actually suggests that we are. Your body is made up of the exact same matter that everything else is. The oxygen that you breathe in was once a part of something else before it reached you. And the ecosystems that we live within are so delicately balanced that we are quite literally watching the consequences of its disruption. And yet we still experience ourselves as this separate contained entity. And now in my fascination around this idea, I started doing a lot of heavy research. And if you're new here, I'd highly recommend you go check out my everything we know is a lie series because all of those videos essentially entail the research that was done. But the more that I looked into it, the more I saw the exact same ideas being presented across fields, whether that be physics, neuroscience, or even ancient spiritual traditions. And even though they might have used different language, the underlying pattern remained the same with the core idea being that maybe reality is not divided in the ways in which we experience it. Now, physics tells us that matter is not nearly as solid or singular as it appears to be.

[00:01:20]And that the more that you zoom in, the more particles actually begin to look like information. Because at a certain level, things stop looking like solid independent objects and more like different expressions of the same underlying system. And listen, I'm not saying that that proves any of the metaphysical aspects of non-dualism, but it does kind of make the idea of clear separation, clear boundaries a little less stable. And then to draw parallels to that, we see this in neuroscience as well. The idea that there really is a separate self seems to just be a construction of the default mode network, which is a network in the brain that is responsible for all of your self-referential thinking. So it is your sense of me, of how you relate to other people and also how you relate to the world. And without it, that sense of I or me begins to dissolve, which is what we see with people who use psychedelics or enter transcendental states through meditation. I've also done another video on that, so go check it out if you're interested. But what this means is that rather than the separate self being something that you are, it's actually more so something that your brain is actively constructing. And this in a nutshell is where the idea of non-dualism comes in. And this term is derived from the Sanskrit advita. I probably butchered that, I'm sorry. But to define it, it is the philosophical and experiential understanding that reality is this sort of seamless whole rather than a collection of separate entities. And before we even had the science to suggest it, this idea has been around for millennia. Whether you look at Buddhism, Taoism, indigenous wisdom, they all kind of echo this idea of interconnectedness, focusing on our relationships to one another and to the world around us rather than the separation between them. and the fact that human beings we are not outside of the system as we tend to act or like to believe. We are an active part of that system. And there are also levels to this idea of duality which include but are not limited to masculine versus feminine, self versus world, you versus me, mind versus body, subjective versus objective, and even right versus wrong.

[00:03:23]And now you might be seeing how a lot of this ties into nihilism or at least ethical and epistemological nihilism.

[00:03:30]And I think in some way, shape or form perhaps that is necessary if we think about individual purpose, self-fulfillment, and self-actualization to have a good and grounded idea of who that self really is often plays a large hand in our own pursuit of peace and happiness. However, I think when taken too far, it ends up just creating division and disconnect because it is in the very moment that we begin to consider something as other that we find it easier to disregard and devalue it.

[00:04:00]And to be honest, I think a lot of what we're seeing socially and environmentally is a direct byproduct of that or this overemphasis on separation.

[00:04:09]And when I started coming to this conclusion, my next question was, well, if this perhaps is the true nature of reality, and again, I'm not saying that it is. I'm just asking questions here.

[00:04:21]But if it is, then why do we experience it this way? And now, even though I've been mulling over this question for months now, I still don't have a direct answer to that. But I do have a concept of why that might be, or at least my idea. And that is that maybe duality exists so that subjective experience may too. So that perspective may be formed, contrasted, and interpreted through the lens of each being. or maybe, just maybe, so that consciousness, if you want to call it that, you can call it whatever you want to, may experience itself from a variety of different angles, which kind of ties into this idea of fractal monism, which I think is going to be my next video. And again, this difference in perspective is a vital part of experience. However, I think where things can get lost and dangerous is when we start using these boundaries as absolute truths and fixed identities. specifically when we begin to build hierarchies and ideas of moral superiority based on the minute distinctions between us because that's when we begin to exaggerate our separation from one another and from the world around us and ignore everything that connects us and that's where I think that the idea of dualism begins to show up psychologically because separation it fuels the ego it feeds identity and in doing so creates comparison and often tries to control.

[00:05:46]It gives you something to define yourself against rather than connect with. And the irony is the more tightly you define yourself, the more separate you feel. However, I just want to restate that I'm not saying that identity is bad. You need it. It helps you function and it serves its own purpose as your own lens through which you view experience. But I think when we begin to treat it as something that is fixed, that is rigid, and that is, I guess, a point of comparison to others, that's when we begin to cut ourselves off from everything outside of it. And also, I think that when we hold too tightly to this idea of one fixed identity, we actually exclude the possibility for being multiplicitous.

[00:06:26]Because to experience true joy and happiness and overwhelming amounts of peace, you really do have to loosen those boundaries. experiencing those emotions is to let go of the labels and boxes and titles we are so quick to attach ourselves to because we remember that we are not defined by those things.

[00:06:47]We are but experiencing them. And I know for me personally, even though I have always been a very deeply empathetic person, coming to this realization allowed me to have a lot more empathy for other people, for their experiences and what they may be going through. It even allowed me to forgive and come to terms with people who had hurt me in the past. And not in the sense where I'd let them do it again, but more so in the sense that I no longer hold on to any of the hate, I guess, I might have once felt because even they are not separate from me. I also think that coming to this realization vastly increased my overall quality of life and kind of duly contrasts against nihilism because it allowed me to find this recurring sense of wonder in everything that was happening all around me of all of the things that exist within our world that do so within this deeply intricate balance, this web of relationships that have spanned time and space. realizing that each person is offering me a mirror into parts of myself that I may have never seen before. That the oxygen I breathe in was once exhaled by the stamata of a tree.

[00:07:52]That nothing exists in isolation and that I get to be a part of that. And I think that it's within these moments of wonder and awe that we remember our place in the world. But anyways, if that resonated with you, let me know. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. And I love you guys. Bye.