Finding Our Authentic Self In the Butterfly Effect

Every minute of every day the storehouse of human knowledge grows bigger, and yet we still have so many questions. New theories are emerging from ancient beliefs that are changing the very foundations of our sciences. Specifically, progress is being made in mathematics, cosmology, and a new science that investigates something called the “Akashic Field” or “Akashic Record”, which may eventually evolve into a theory that explains everything. Mathematics, physics, medicine, and even history itself changes each day as new discoveries are made and ancient relics are uncovered. The truth is; what many people believe to be the truth about something may change radically with each new discovery. The truth is; as the collective body of human knowledge grows, the knowledge of what we don’t know grows even larger. Every question we answer raises more questions.  So this is the dilemma; the more we know the more we realize there is so much more we don’t know. Understanding the dynamic ratio of the known versus the unknown is the beginning of true wisdom, and the sign at the entrance to the rabbit hole.

Sometimes life is strange and unpredictable, and we aren’t so sure of our next move.  Maybe its chance or Karma, when life itself seems to takes us in directions we never considered.  It could be that we interpret everything based on an invisible set of rules from long ago. It is this dynamic reality of life, of a single, solitary life that has not been considered thoroughly. How is it possible to quantify the value of subjective human experience?  How can we share a single experience with everyone else? How can we ever know for sure if we’ve had a good life? How do you measure that?  How do we know what we know and know that we know it? These are questions for the theologians, for scientists, and psychologists.

Many of us have our own personal theory that explains what everything means and the truth is, each theory is a little different and a little bit the same.  How do we ever really know other people? How do we ever really know ourselves?  Some of us believe that we know who we are. We’ve already figured it out and found our authentic self, but we haven’t. We’ve only settled for who we think we are and fooled ourselves into believing the persona we created is our real self instead of discovering the true and authentic person we really are.

For most of my life, I felt there was something wrong with me. Something was broken, but I could never put my finger on it. I spent most of my spare time and effort studying and searching for “the system” that would define me, heal me, and help me find my exact spot in the world.  Searching and studying is what I do. Questioning everything is what I’ve learned to do.  I haven’t found anything outside Christianity that offers such a complete explanation of who I am and what my life means. Christianity helps me understand my place in the universe. I’ve studied Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, the western philosophers and many eastern philosophers, and while I appreciate what they teach, they never quite answered all the questions like Christianity does for me. What I now understand is that each one of us is a unique holographic fragment of the universe. It’s interesting to me that when I reconnected with my authentic self I gained a “legitimacy of self” to all the other belief systems, even agnostics and atheists! Through the lens of my authentic self I began to better understand the priceless value of each single human life in the story of our history. How is it possible that each of us plays such a critical role in the grand scheme of human history? This concept seems fantastic, unfathomable, and crystal clear at the same time! I am only one person and such a small part of humanity. How can I ever make a difference?  How can I matter at all in the history of the world? It becomes possible to understand when the perspective of the questioner changes from a general point of view to the experienced insight of a single life lived.

In The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo that all he could promise him was the truth. My hope has been to find truth and meaning in my own life and to “know myself” as Socrates challenged us to do. The truth is, many years ago, each of us very carefully and cleverly hid our real self someplace…a place we knew we would never ever return to willingly.  My prayer is that you can discover and recognize your own truth in my collection of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. My hope is that I can share with you how I found my way home and maybe that can help you do the same.  No one can do that for you, but we can help each other in our journey. We must each do the work for ourselves. With less than six degrees of separation between us it makes sense to say the whole world is depending upon you to find your authentic self. When you find your path in life, you will know what you were born to do. But the path will not appear until you are calm, clear, centered, and willing to accept what appears before you. Spend some time with yourself, examine what you believe to be true, and test it to see if it’s real.

In The Matrix, Neo was “the one”. Unlike the movie, each of us is “the one”.  We are all more interconnected than we imagine. Believe nothing you see, hear, or feel, but test everything to determine if it is real and true for you.  I hope my words and ideas will help challenge you as I have been challenged, and then, dig deep inside and find what is there and witness it. You must want to begin the journey and believe that at some point you will find your extraordinary self, or you will never make the effort. You are “the one” and we are waiting for you to show up. We only ask for you to share your real self with us and show us who you are.