Outside of me, there is nothing

This might seem counterintuitive at first but bear with me. Everything that you have ever experienced, you have experienced in your body, in your mind or in your energy. None of your experiences have ever been outside of those realms. I can even add that ego dissolution if you have experienced it still happened from your perspective.

I do not have direct access to your mind. It is impossible for me to truly know if a banana tastes the same for me as it does for you. We can talk about it until the end of time and we still couldn’t be certain. Not having direct access to your mind also means I don’t know you. I know a version of you that lives in my mind. A version that is filtered by my sensory perception. A sensory perception that is altogether different than yours. I am missing key information about you when you talk, your emotional state, the sensation of your heart beating in your chest, the fact that you might be sweating as you talk to me (to name a few, but this list is endless).

This means that in any given situation. I only have access to my experience of the situation, just as you do. To take this a step further, I can say that I have only ever experienced myself. This concept is not readily available to most people. You have to question your experience of the world in order to get there. Clearly I am having feelings when I am in the presence of other people. I experience different emotions, sensations and they change based on the fact that different people are present. I think we can all agree on that.

That being said, in those situations, I am not feeling you. I am feeling my sensory organs, my emotional body, my energetic body. I am feeling parts of myself that come alive in your presence. Sensations that are mistakenly attributed to the other person. It is normal to do so. They are there, I feel this way, therefore I am feeling them. It seems impossible for it to be otherwise.

This is where our body-mind tricks us. It creates a very compelling illusion. An illusion that is very hard to pierce through. The sensations I am feeling in your presence are inside of me, not you. Therefore, all that I have ever felt throughout my life is myself. Outside of me, there is nothing… Outside of you, there is nothing. 

All we will ever experience is ourselves. I believe this is the basis for seeing others as extensions of ourselves: mirrors. The Mayans used the expression: “ In Lak'ech Ala K'in” “ I am another you, you are another me ”. Recognizing this as a fundamental part of reality is one of the steps I had to take in order to  fully own my experience in life.