We live in a phantasma we think is real.

————

             This is What’s Up radio broadcasting from big, beautiful, clear-channel WALTZ. 

I’m Tuck Avery. My co-conspirator is Buzz Belton. Let me say first, this show's gonna' be different. Buzz: Very different. 

          Tuck: Well it all started last night with Buzz and me goin' over todays broadcast when Buzz said, "Why don't we change-out the talk show with a conversation show - just for one day, or maybe once a week - if it works out. 

          Tuck: I kind'a liked the idea. I thought we should make it a three-way conversation with  a different guest for each show. Buzz: I thought so too, and told Tuck's his oddball friend from high school, Clayton Dia, should be our first guest. Tuck: We had to run it past management. 

We did. Oddly enough, they agreed, "Why not? Not sure anybody's listening, anyway".

          Tuck: I let that slide. Anyway, without further ado, let me introduce Mr. Clayton Dia.

          Just call me Clay. (canned applause) Buzz: Ok! I hope you don't take offence at my calling you an oddball. Clay: Naw, a lot of people think I'm an oddball. I know why, but 

I don't think they do. Tuck: Please explain. 

          Clay: Guys like Buzz, no offense intended, live in a phantasma they think is real. Nearly every soul in this world lives in this same phantasma. I understand. The world around us does seem very real. We get bruises when we're hit, steak is so delicious, the smell of spring is so intoxicating. It all vibrates of reality. 

          Buzz: Yeah, because it is reality. 

          Tuck: The radio audience can't see it, but Clay is smiling.

          Clay: Yes, it seems incontrovertibly real, but it isn't. It does vibrate of reality, literally. Vibrations of energy create an astonishing illusion of solid stuff interacting with other solid stuff. Impenetrable fields of energy keep hands from passing through tables and create the illusion of mountains, rain, and everything else. 

          Tuck: Wow, that sounds deep. 

          Buzz: Yeah, well, It sounds completely nuts to me. Tuck: Buzz has a point, why should anybody think otherwise? How do you know this? Why should anyone believe you?"

          Clay: I don't expect anyone to believe me. I'm not trying to convince anyone. I don't believe it myself - I know it. 

          Tuck asked how I know. The answer is a mystery. Some years ago, at no special time, 

I knew that I knew. There was no flash of light, no voice from above, nothing at all like that. 

It was much more like a recognition of something I'd always known. 

          I, you, all of us - know all sorts of things we manage to not think about.

          Buzz: Well . . .  I hear the music. Tuck: We'll be right back. Don't touch that dial.

          We're back. This is What’s Up radio broadcasting from big, beautiful clear-channel WALTZ. I’m Tuck Avery. My partner in blab is Buzz Belton. Our guest talker today is, Clayton Dia. In the previous segment, Clay laid-out some mind-blowing thoughts. 

          Buzz: Yes he did. I know we weren’t planning on taking any call-ins today, but I think we should open this segment with some audience feedback. 

          Tuck: Think you're right. I've got Grace, from Lyndale on the line. What's up, Grace?

          Grace: Well, I'm not sure what to make of it. Clay said this world isn't real. It made me wonder. Maybe it isn't. I want to hear what else Clay has to say. Tuck; Thanks, Grace. Now we got, Raul, from Southside on the horn. Watta ya think Raul?

          Raul: That's the craziest sh,BEEEEEP. . . I ever heard. Buzz: Sorry Raul, we can't use that word on radio, but I think you got your idea across. Next up, we're gonna hear what, Tom, from Circle City, has to say. You're up, Tom.

          Tom: It sound crazy to me too. Clay says it "came" into his head. What nonsense! Nothin' comes to dreamers but dreams. There's no scientific basis for anything Clay said. 

          Tuck: Let's hear what Clay has to say about that.

          Clay: Grace seems like a very nice thoughtful lady. I don't think Raul is much interested in thinking about anything at all. Tom wants scientific evidence. I don't have any scientific evidence. I do know some current science from sub-atomic physics that may relate:

          Physicists have long been trying to find the smallest particle. As they've probed deeper and deeper inside the atom, they've discovered smaller and smaller particles. They've named, these particles, leptons, quarks, bosons, and so on: possibly 12 to 17 in all. Curiously, none 

of these "particles" are really particles. 

          Instead, they're vibrating strands of energy. The frequencies of their individual vibrations creates an illusion of solidness. The energetic force-field of each vibrational pattern keeps them from passing through each other, and reinforces their individual "realness". Thats why you can't walk through doors or sink into the ground. Force-fields mimic solid stuff. 

          Since the entire universe is composed of atoms this may mean that nothing in the entire universe truly exists. At least not in terms of hard stuff, like matter. 

          It all seems convincingly real, but it's really just energetic force-fields.

          Buzz: Whaaaaat! Tuck: Are you sure that's science?  

          Clay: I'm no scientist. I read about it in a book by a writer on physics - Anthony Zee. I'd have been as surprised as both of you if I didn't already know much the same. Sub-atomic physics doesn't prove anything I've said, but it does harmonize. 

          Buzz: That's quite a tune! Tuck: Tell us more.

          Clay: I said this world is a phantasma. I didn't say nothing is real. Souls are real. God 

is real. Satan is real. Satan's demons, and God's angels are real. Everything else isn't. 

          This world is an elaborate stage show designed to reveal the talent of each actor - that is, each soul. 

          Tuck: Hey, isn't that what Shakespeare said, "All the worlds a stage and all the players actors". Clay: Yes he did, poets often see truly what others can't imagine. Buzz: I don't know, Shakespeare was just writin' a play, he was just making a metaphor. Clay: Yes, He made 

a metaphor of reality. 

          Tuck: Well, what do you mean by, "talent"? 

          Clay: Talent means how well performed. In this World-Play, it means how closely each soul acts-out the role God hoped they would play with nothing to go on but their knowledge of good and evil.  

          Buzz: You're startin' to sound like a religious nut. 

          Clay; No, I'm not a nut of any sort. I can understand why you might think I am. If you could see as I see, your world would never be the same. Everything changes when you understand we live in a phantasma. The World isn't real, but how you act is real. 

          Your performance is being constantly evaluated. Do you act as God hoped you would, or do you try to revise the script, improvise, maybe a dance with the Devil would be perfectly appropriate for this part of the show. Maybe you ask yourself, "Isn't what's right or wrong only 

a matter of opinion? No, it isn't, and you know it isn't. 

          Each of us is born into this phantasma with full knowledge of good and evil. We may be fooled about what's happening around us. We're never fooled about what's good and what isn't.

          The World can't fool you. Only you can do that. You have Free-Will. 

          The performance of some will get them a leading role in Heaven. For others, this play will be their last performance. 

           Buzz: Well, there’s the music. I don't have much Free-Will about that. I guess a lot of listeners will be callin' in tomorrow with their own take on what Clay was saying. We'll spend the whole show talkin' about how each of you think about reality. Thanks for joining us.

          Tuck: Tune-in tomorrow; we’ll WALTZ again and talk about . . . What’s Up . . . Really.

          Fade to commercial. 

          Tuck: Good show, huh? Buzz: Gave me a headache. Let's get a beer. Tuck: You know there's nothing really here. Buzz: Yeah, well, then let's get an imaginary beer.

By K. L. Shipley

Website: https://www.eclecticessays.com