By Jon Handy

​So you think you have a good grip on reality!  Most people think reality is subject to absolute rules set in stone.  They feel that reality is something that just is – and we are destined to accept it and do the best we can with whatever the real world dictates.   The laws of gravity and motion are beyond our ability to negotiate the terms.  Sir Isaac Newton even studied their effects and spelled out all the rules that we will encounter and be unable to negate or modify.  If you jump off a 1000 feet high cliff onto a craggy shore below, it is unlikely you will have to guess the result.  Reality sets in and demands its consequence.  But can the consequence be controlled by you?  Does your belief affect your reality?  Can you alter your reality in any way?

​A 1999 movie called The Matrix posited that the life we experience is actually being played out on a matrix like a computer.  Our physical minds are in bodies that live in the REAL world where they are maintained by robots which cannot create their own energy and still need humans which generate energy through life alone.  Humans do not realize that their bodies are being artificially sustained by robots and that their minds are being directed by an intelligently created matrix program to believe that the experience is reality.  They are actually living vicarious lives portrayed on the grid.

​Oh, I know, this movie is only science fiction, but let’s look at the reality that we all know and understand.  We can be certain that schizophrenia still controls some people’s lives through delusions, disorganized speech and hallucinations.  People who suffer from this mental disorder do not realize that they are not seeing reality.  They tend to create people in their minds and interact with them as though they were real.  They do not understand why other people do not see them or hear what they are saying.  These imagined people are just as real to them as you and I.

​Science tells us that the humans cannot distinguish between schizophrenic delusions and reality.  Nor can they tell if a dream they are having is just a dream or reality itself.  Maybe the experience that you are living right now is just something you ate yesterday, or perhaps schizophrenia has been knocking at your door and the doctor just has not discovered it yet.  I don’t know about you, but my dreams are very real, and how would I know that I’m not schizophrenic if I am diagnosing myself?

​Suppose I told you that you create your own reality.  You would probably think I’m schizophrenic or at least delusionary.  But think about this: every decision that you make, every experience that you have and every sense that you go through effects your future reality.  If you were born in India you would certainly have an alternate reality today.  If you suddenly became a paraplegic reality would probably be apoplectically affected.  If I had chosen not to enlist in the Air Force or chosen some tour of duty other than Hawaii or decided not to join the Hickam Theater Guild, I would never have met Stevie and married her or fathered our children, and would certainly be experiencing an alternate reality today.  I “created” my earthly reality by the choices I made and by the experiences I’ve encountered.  Some of the experiences were not my own – I did not decide where I would be born or who my parents would be.  But every time I made a choice, my reality was changed.

​Jesus said in Matthew 17:20, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”  According to Him such faith makes all things possible – even altering reality.

God Bless.