Have you noticed how everything in modern life is being “Gamified”
I discovered the term about seven years ago, at a cutting-edge exploration of the future of the web.
Everything was going to become a game and all the large IT companies would make a move into the banking sector (See Apple and Android Pay!)
It was pretty accurate!
But why “Gamify “our lives?
Man seems to have a built-in desire to move forward, it’s a natural imperative built into our deepest coding. We have a desire to invent, create and accumulate more…
Since the earliest of times, we have been competing. Take for example the Olympic games, stretching back (at least in our minds, if not in unbroken flow) all the way back to the ancient Greeks.
We love to accumulate; we hail the people who can make the most money, look at TV shows like Dragons Den! There’s a constantly paraded line-up of celebrities on our TV screens, the richest, the most famous, the most beautiful, and so it goes.
But what’s it all about?
Why does your watch or phone prompt you to take more steps, and then email you with a “Well Done” message after you hit the daily target? Why do your scales praise you (Or not!) when you step on them in the mornings? Why do you receive “points” when you shop, almost anywhere?
Well, the truth is that Life would be rather dull without it.
If you are old, you’ll no doubt remember Sunday afternoons. Sunday afternoons, if you lived in the countryside, were apt to be rather drab affairs, especially during winter. Picture this – my uncle and father, always happy to have their noses deep in a good book, and a cigarette on the go.. Myself and my cousin, in the back of a parked-up Rover or Woolsey car, somewhere in the Scottish Borders. We were all togged up for a walk, but it had come on to rain again, and again, and again. Our Dad’s would light up and read. We were left to amuse ourselves.
As you know, in this sort of situation, children either hurt each other, or find some way to play. We were really close friends, we rarely came to blows, so it would be some sort of invented game, no doubt with a Matchbox car each, produced from our pockets. This could last for a couple of VERY long hours, before our fathers finished smoking (Wind that window up, it’s getting freezing in here! Cough, cough, yes dad…)
There were times when we would say “Dad, I’m bored” – interestingly, something you don’t really hear kids say these days. There’s now the universal babysitter of the Internet. It’s much better to let your child research bomb-making, or watch some animal porn, rather than have to entertain them yourself!
We will do anything to stave off boredom, we’ll do anything to make ourselves feel that we are moving forward, anything to make ourselves feel like we have a purpose.
But what do you do, when you finally reach the edge of the Abyss and you realise that it’s all for naught?
The glaring truth is that you, my dear reader are going to pass on to the next realm, wherever that might be, like the billions before you, and the billions to come.. so what’s the point?
Did you ever stop to wonder what it’s all for? Why are we striving, fighting, accumulating and competing? Because to stop, and actually answer this question is too terrifying for most people.
What happens when you see that there actually IS a cliff? This is the first shocker!
Every structure in our lives is built to keep you from seeing the cliff. You will give up every piece of sovereignty to have “them” keep you from the edge of the precipice.
You freely give your power to Government, Doctors and Religion so that you don’t have to face this fact alone.
Plant yourself, for one second, suddenly transported by some Star Trek sort of beam, from your sunny happy life, to somewhere in Alaska, Borneo or The Atlas Mountains, no friends, no family, no money, no support systems of any sort. How would you fare?
It’s not difficult to see why Man has always stuck together, hunted together, farmed together and shared resources. It’s also not hard to see why we are so eager to have somebody else do things for us, anything for a comfortable life.
So now we have a structure to keep us safe and fed. But what happens if we have all we need, but nothing to occupy our time? We become bored! Take the Vikings for instance, as a race they were exceptionally successful, and the lands they farmed were very bountiful, but they seemed constantly interested in searching for more! And having a thrilling time plundering and raping as they went!
Mankind needs to do things to keep from thinking.
Thinking is the most dangerous thing a man can do.
There’s the Sri Ramana Maharshi process of asking yourself “Who am I” – I suggest you try it, it’s a fascinating process. Spoiler alert – when you finally unpeel the Onion of yourself, what do you find? Well you might hope that, and according to most religions and Spiritual schools, that there lies your “True self” like some pristine soul, or some beautiful shining babe in arms, but unfortunately you are just kidding yourself, if that’s what you think you’ve found. When the final layer of the Onion is unwrapped, there’s NOTHING left – just a big black hole. You are just a big black hole of nothing!
This is the truth that Consciousness can’t really have everybody discover, or this stunning wonderful 3D experiment would grind to a halt! What would be the point? What has EVER been the point?
(A. There never has been one from a human perspective! From the stance of Consciousness, All that there is, The One, then the show must go on! Consciousness, a 2D energy, expanding itself out in 3D through this, and no doubt other universes and therein, other worlds. This is the nature of Consciousness and what gives us our drive forward imperative!)
So, what’s all this religion and spirituality about then?
It’s the greatest sideshow on Earth, it’s about keeping you happy! The search for enlightenment is just as much Bullshit as the search for alien life, or the search for the cure to cancer, it’s all bullshit to keep you occupied.
We are exceptional at looking the other way! We are so good at lying to ourselves!
Let’s take the cure for cancer, we all know, somewhere deep inside that eating better, taking the stress off our lives, and living more harmoniously with our planet would see our rates of Cancer drop back the levels of the 1700’s. But there are too many people caught up in the Cancer game. So many scientists getting a really good pay cheque.
Get this, in the UK, one of the leading Cancer research organisations is encouraging people to create baked goods for sale, to raise money for cancer, when Obesity and Sugar, are some of the LARGEST causes of Cancer!! You’d think they were trying to drive MORE people down the Cancer road, to keep themselves in business!!
BUT, let’s all look the other way!!! Let’s try to have Science fix it – Remember Einstein? Yes, he was the one who said we couldn’t fix problems using the same thinking that took us there!! Ah well Science, do your worst..
So daily we search spirituality or religion for the answer. (Scientific Materialism is just another religion too) But all of these pursuits are just rigged games to keep us asleep.
Even the much vaunted Meditiation – just another way to stay asleep.
I think it works like this.
You can refine yourself in this Dreamstate to be the best possible human being you can be, the best meditator, the best guru, the best teacher, the best healer, but it’s ALL still part of the game.
What’s outside of the game?
Well look at the Yin / Yang symbol two shapes that meld one into the other, with their little dots of “Change” in the centres of each shape. But more importantly these shapes are kept together by a circle round them. Yin and Yang represent life in the dream state, and the circle round the outside represents Consciousness.
So, the burning question is, do you really want to get out of your head?
It seems to me that either you evolve to real Adulthood in this life – witness a day in Parliament or the Senate to see Adults who are still children!
Evolve yourself to true Adulthood, and live a happy life, or try to burst through the veil.
But what’s the point?
It seems that Enlightenment, as sold to you by Spirituality, Buddhism, (Insert here any number of paths…) is rather like a mini enlightenment. Enlightenment Lite if you will! It’s a glimpse of the Universe, some nice happiness, some nice stillness, some nice sleep.
Returning to consciousness, whilst still in this body, true enlightenment is much more akin to dousing your house, office, family and friends in petrol, and setting them all alight, or
transporting yourself to the lonely desert plains, taking up residence on the moon. It requires the total stripping of everything that was “you” back to your Black Hole self, total annihilation.
From everything I’ve read, this is not a great place to be, from a human perspective.
Let’s face it, you never die, but when this meaty bit of you finally gives up, this is where you’ll be anyway. Not “you” anymore, but the segregated slice of consciousness, returned to the field. You never die, but the drop of water returns to the sea.
The final question is, why would you bother burning it all down, just to get there early?
I guess I was one of the first people with a home computer, first with broadband, first with a website, what can I say, I’m an early adopter!
Maybe that’s what drives me.
I’m really interested to think that this is probably the biggest Ego trick of them all. The “striving for Enlightenment game.”
When you’ve been round the spiritual block as many times as I have, you see the Bullshit for what it is. (Yes, I’m currently part of that structure – but as you see, trying to keep it real!)
I’m really wondering if I’m just talking a good game, or if I’m really interested in burning it all down, and following a path that virtually none of the Gurus we so revere, even know exists.
How many Christians, Buddhists and Spiritual beings have ever really awakened from the Dreamstate? One estimate puts it at a handful every generation, and they don’t tend to be talking about it, or trying to sell it to others. It’s a very quiet path.
Unfortunately, all the aforementioned Spiritual paths will only lead you to the best possible Dreamstate version of you, not to who you really are – and who is that? Nothing, The Black Hole, an Chimera or Mirage!
The last observation is this. If you are going to end up back at the source anyway, why not just have a whale of a time!
Keep yourself happy, polish yourself till you burn brightly in the Dreamstate, be the best actor in your play. Have FUN!
Nothing actually matters! Do you remember the moment before you work up today? It’s nothing more scary than that, your return to the field. You might as well live the brightest version of yourself you can!
Just remember this, when you finally absorb this information – that you are Consciousness, playing a game, then KNOW that there’s nobody in the world who knows more than you do.
There my friends, behold the wonder… The Cliff at the end of The Game!
Much love to you all, whilst I try to figure out if I 100% absolutely HAVE to break out and jump off, or if I’ll be happy, just being happy!
