How Real Is Our Reality?

Question: You often talk about correcting the perception of reality. How should my perception of reality change and how will this affect my life?

Answer: When we study nature, we learn that different animals perceive reality in different ways. For example, a bee perceives reality in the form of a panorama with multiple fragments as if they were not connected with each other. Fish and birds have a completely unique perception of reality.

Right now, we are talking about sight, but there are animals that perceive the world through heat waves, like snakes. And dogs perceive the world mainly through smells, not through sight, like people. Therefore, it is obvious that everything is determined by the perception of reality.

It seems to us that we see reality as it is, but how do we know that this is true? In fact, we are just catching a few waves from an infinite number of other waves. If we could see in a different spectrum, we would see a completely different picture.

In essence, Kabbalah explains that the reality we see does not exist. If we would not hold onto today’s picture of reality and consider it unchangeable and objective but would rise above the limitations of the bodily organs of human perception, we would perceive reality outside our bodies. And then we could learn about a lot of phenomena around us that we do not see and do not notice yet.

But after all, these phenomena influence us even when we do not notice them. That is why we do not see what is going to happen tomorrow and do not understand why some things happen. Life gives us questions all the time and we do not have answers for them because we do not have enough information. Therefore, the perception of reality is the main question in the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From “Answers to Beginners’ Questions” 7/24/17