Locked in a Box

We are locked in a box. The box is the illusion that the serpent conjured up to deceive Adam and Eve and their children. The illusion separates us from God and God from us. 

In the box, our perception of reality is distorted. 

Let me make a few introductory remarks about reality before we continue.

Reality does not exist in a single layer. Reality has depth. Its depth comes from multiple layers. Different stories unfold on the different layers of reality. On the skin of reality, one story is unfolding. On subcutaneous layers of reality, other stories are unfolding. Moreover, words are our feeble attempt to approximate reality. Words and other symbols approximate reality. Words do not equal reality. Reality is often slippery. It evades capture by words. 

Let me give you an example of how the appearance of reality shifts depending on whether our vantage point is from the inside out or from the outside in.

Looking from the inside out, a lifetime appears to take place on a thick slice of time. However, in reality, a lifetime is an infinitesimally thin slice of time in comparison to the thickness of eternity. Other values are distorted when we look from the inside out as opposed to the outside in. What is important to us while we are locked in the box is unimportant to us when we are free of the box. 

Therefore, the only way to accurately perceive reality is to view it from the outside in, not the inside out. 

Furthermore, the illusion limits us. The illusion keeps us from fulfilling our potential. Padre Pio could biolocate because He managed, by the grace of God, to free himself from the box. Pio shattered the illusion. When we, by the grace of God, free ourselves from the box, watch the miracles we can perform too.

Prayer looks differently when we look from the outside in. The Mass looks differently when we look from the outside in. A proper perception of reality requires the proper vantage point.