“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” — Albert Einstein

This has always been one of my favorite quotes. And recently, it captured something I experienced so perfectly that I had to write about it—though thankfully I took notes in my journal, because life has been… a lot.

A couple of weeks ago, I was staring at a photo resting on my fireplace mantel—a photo I’m pretty sure I picked up in Bass Lake, a small village tucked into the California mountains. It shows a serene forest canopy with sunlight streaming through the leaves, those soft “fingers of God” reaching toward the viewer. The quote on it reads:

“There is no Wi-Fi in the forest, but you will find a better connection.”

For most of my life, I would have wholeheartedly agreed. I’ve been an outdoorsman and avid hiker for years. Nature has always been a sanctuary.

Until recently.

Over the past six months, my perception of… well, everything—reality, self, consciousness, connection—has shifted dramatically. I’m still finding my new footing. That story deserves its own post.

But in that moment, looking at the forest picture, something inside me questioned a truth I’ve held for years.

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Do We Really Need the Forest to “Connect”?

As I looked at the photo, the first question that bubbled up was:

“Why does someone need to go to the forest to find connection?”

If everything is ultimately consciousness—if nothing is separate from anything else—then what does it even mean to say connection exists “over there” but not “here”?

Isn’t space itself part of the illusion?

What if the idea of “me over here” and “me over there” doesn’t actually exist?
What if space and time are simply frameworks consciousness uses to experience itself?

If that’s true, then connection isn’t something you find.
It’s something you create.

And if you lack connection in your everyday environment—your home, your work, your relationships—you won’t magically gain it in the forest, because the forest doesn’t exist outside of you. Nothing does.

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Everything Exists Inside the Observer

Every “location”—past, present, future—is inside the consciousness that perceives it.

As the old saying goes:
“As above, so below. As without, so within.”

So if connection isn’t external, what is it?

Connection is a deliberate act of awareness.
A conscious choice.
A creation, not a discovery.

Your physical location can’t give you something that only your inner world can generate.

Isn’t it fascinating to think that our senses aren’t showing us “reality,” but acting as a kind of internal diagnostic system, reflecting our inner state back at us? What we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel are messages—feedback loops meant to guide us toward the version of life our consciousness chose to experience.

So yes… long story short:

There is no forest.
There is no city.
There is no Wi-Fi.
There is only the connection you choose.

Does this idea stretch your perception a bit? Good. I think it’s supposed to.

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Oprah and the “Moving Pendulum”: A Hint at How Reality Works?

A few days later, I saw an old clip from Oprah’s talk show that illustrated this perfectly.

A guest had her hold a pendulum and instructed her to move it using only her mind—her intention. And she did. The audience reacted with the typical wide-eyed amazement.

The assumption was obvious:
Her mind must have influenced the physical pendulum.

But what if something deeper was happening?

What if there is no pendulum?

What if Oprah and the pendulum exist within the same field of consciousness, and the “movement” wasn’t her mind affecting an external object, but her inner reality reshaping the part of itself she was holding in her hand?

In other words…
Is our outer experience simply a hologram of our inner state?

It’s a delicious question to sit with.

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“There Is No Spoon”: The Matrix Explains It Best

One of my favorite movie scenes of all time comes from The Matrix. Neo meets the spoon-bending boy who tells him:

“There is no spoon.”

The spoon isn’t bending—he is.

This line offers one of the most profound truths I’ve ever heard expressed in a film. And while it’s hard to hold this awareness throughout the chaos of daily life, the principle still shines through:

The more chaotic your inner world is, the more chaotic the external world appears.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the forest or downtown at rush hour—your inner state determines your outer experience.

This is why practices like mindfulness and breathwork feel so powerful. It’s not because they change the outside world.
It’s because they change the inside one.

And the outside rearranges itself accordingly.

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If Our Inner World Shapes Reality, What Does That Mean for Our Power?

Imagine the implications:

• What if we actually have complete control over the reality we experience?
• What if this control doesn’t come from manipulating physical matter, but from altering the state of our consciousness?
• What if peace, clarity, and balance come not from fixing “out there,” but “in here”?

How much suffering could we avoid if we took full accountability for our inner state—mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually?

Not because it’s easy.
Not because it’s one-size-fits-all.
But because each “observer” experiences a unique reality shaped by their own consciousness.

And just like particles in quantum physics, we are nowhere and everywhere at once—waves and matter—until consciousness chooses to perceive us as something specific.

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So What’s Real? Maybe That’s the Wrong Question

I won’t pretend to have it all figured out.
(Who does?)

But I love exploring these ideas—looking at the world with fresh eyes every day, open to the clues and whispers hiding in plain sight. Reality may be persistent, but it’s also playful… and far more flexible than we think.

If nothing else, I hope this concept tickles your brain the way it tickles mine.

Cheers. Stay curious. Stay classy. And thanks for stopping by.