We Cannot Go Beyond the Images in Our Brains

Since we've been using our five senses since the day we were born, we may never have thought that the "external" world could be different from what our senses show us.

Human knowledge is formed by the sensory perceptions we acquire through what we see with our eyes, what hear with our ears, and feel with our hands. In other words, each man lives in his "personal world." Thousands of times, we have met with millions of details like the stars in the firmament, the Earth we walk on, the billions who populate the world, every living creature in our environment, the furniture in our homes, house, the chair you are sitting on right now and the book you hold in our hand. But all of these are perceptions of your own personal world. No human being has ever been able to step outside the world he's experiencing. Whatever a man does, he cannot alter the fact that his entire life, even his body too, are perceptions and that he cannot deal with their originals.

The frames from the film shown opposite show Morpheus explaining to Neo what the Matrix is. During their dialogue, Morpheus compares this system to a screen that prevents Neo from seeing:

Morpheus : Let me tell you why you are here. You are here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, felt that something is wrong with the world. You don't know what, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Neo : The Matrix?

Morpheus : Do you want to know what it is? The Matrix is everywhere. It's all around us. Even now, even in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work . . . when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Until Neo is awakened and rescued from the capsule he was in, he remains unaware of the imaginary world that's been imposed on him. Every aspect of his life was part of this system; and feedback from all those around him suggested that this life was reality. For this reason, it takes Neo a while to become persuaded and comprehend that his life, which he thought real until then, was really a dream.

Today, the same is true for some of those who are made aware of the true nature of matter. People who believe in matter's absolute existence are positive that they are dealing with "real things" in the external world and dismiss this theory as illogical. But what has been revealed here is as certain as the laws of physics, regardless of the objections that other people may raise.

Some of our explanations are compatible with these scenes from The Matrix:

• All events and objects that we encounter in real life-buildings, people, cities, cars, places-in fact, everything we see, hold, touch, smell, taste and hear-come into existence as visions and feelings in our brains.

We are taught to think that these images and feelings are caused by a solid world outside, where material things exist. In reality, however, we never see or touch real, existing materials. In other words, every material entity in our lives that we believe exists is in fact, only a vision created in our brains. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.10)

• If you think heedfully, you can sense that the intelligent being that sees, hears, touches and thinks, reading this book at this moment, is only a soul who watches the perceptions called "matter" on a screen. One who comprehends this is considered to have moved away from the domain of the material world that deceives a major part of humanity, and to have entered the domain of true existence. . . . (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.247)

Our Eyes Cannot See- Vision Occurs in the Brain

In line with our lifelong conditioning, we believe that we regard the whole world through our eyes. We could say that our eyes are the windows that open up the world for us. But according to the scientific explanation for vision, the truth is not so! We do not see with our eyes. The millions of optic nerve cells only fulfill their role as a "cable," transmitting to our brain the signals which then become "vision."

The hero of The Matrix is misled to believe that he's living a truly vivid life, whereas he is really stretched out on a chair, his eyes closed, with wires connecting him to the machine. All the bright, colorful, vivid images he's ever seen were shown to him without the need for physical eyes. Likewise, he experiences the sensations of moving, running, and fighting without using any of his muscles. He just thinks he's doing so, while actually lying on his chair.

When Neo returns to real life, he is shocked to realize that until then, he's been living in a glass cylinder, albeit in an imaginary world created by electrical impulses to the brain. In that virtual world, he was a computer programmer, whereas he was actually sleeping in the room, as shown in the accompanying photographs. In other words, everything he thought to be real life was actually an illusion.

Neo : What are you doing?

Morpheus : Your muscles have atrophied. We're rebuilding them.

Neo : Why do my eyes hurt?

Morpheus : You've never used them before.

As this dialogue shows, Neo was under the impression of living a real life without his ever using his eyes or muscles, thanks to artificial signals being transmitted to his brain. In spite of never having used his vision, he experienced a truly bright and vivid and colorful world. Likewise, without ever using his muscles, he always thought himself to be on the move.

Both East and West belong to God, so wherever you turn, the Face of God is there. God is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing. (Qur(an,2:115)

This situation is more or less the same for every human being. For instance, when you watch people shopping in a supermarket, you do not see them or the supermarket with your eyes:This sight is formed not in front of your eyes, but in the vision center at the back of your brain. Therefore, it will be possible for you to see the same sight by stimulating the relevant area of your brain with artificial impulses, with no need for using your eyes.

Some passages from our books are relevant to the frames from the film shown above:

When you look out of the window, you think that you see an image with your eyes, as this is the way that you have been taught to think. However, in reality this is not how it works, because you do not see the world with your eyes. You see the image created in your brain. This is not a prediction, nor a philosophical speculation, but the scientific truth. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.12)

As we know, the electric signals coming from cells in our retinas are transformed into an image in our brains. For example, the brain interprets some electrical signals coming to the visual center in the brain as a field filled with sunflowers. In reality, it is not the eye that is "seeing."

Therefore, if we are not seeing with our eyes, what is it that does see the electrical signals as a sunflower field, at the back of our brain, in a pitch dark place, without any need for any eyes, retina, lens, visual nerves or pupil-and still enjoys the view?

. . . Who is it, then, that perceives the sights in a brain as if watching television, and becomes excited, happy, sad, nervous, or feels pleasure, anxiety or curiosity while watching them? Who is responsible for the consciousness that can interpret everything seen and everything felt?

. . . What is the entity in the brain that has consciousness and, throughout life, can see all the sights before him in a dark, quiet head; that can think, reach conclusions, and make final decisions?

It is obvious that the brain, made up of unconscious water, lipids, proteins and atoms, does not perceive all this and is responsible for consciousness. There must be a being beyond the brain.

. . . That entity inside the brain that says, "I am seeing" sights inside the brain, and "I am hearing" sounds inside the brain and aware of its own existence; and which says, "I am me," is the soul God has given to human beings. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion: 81-82)

All Flavors are Formed in the Brain

As with all the other senses, taste can be explained in a similar way. In the small bumps of the tongue are the taste receptors, which respond to the flavors of salty, sweet, sour and bitter. Following various processes, these stimuli are converted into electrical signals and transmitted to the brain, where they are perceived as tastes. The taste of cheese, an orange, or a cake you like to eat is in reality the brain's interpretation of electrical signals.

In The Matrix, this point is dramatized in a conversation taking place at the table:

Apoc : Breakfast of champions, Neo. (Neo is served a wheat-like food)

Mouse : Close your eyes, it feels like you're eating runny eggs. You know what it reminds me of? Tastee Wheat. Did you ever eat Tastee Wheat?

Switch : No, but technically neither did you.

Mouse : That's exactly my point. Exactly. Because you have to wonder how do the machines really know what Tastee Wheat tasted like? Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe what I think Tastee Wheat tasted like actually tasted like oatmeal or tuna fish. That makes you wonder. Take chicken, for example. Maybe they didn't know what to make it taste like which is why it tastes like everything.

Dozer : It's a single-celled protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins and minerals. Everything the body needs.

In another scene, one character who knows the reality-that the Matrix system keeps them in an artificially created world-describes the food he's eating:

Mr. Reagan : You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious.

If nerves connecting the taste buds to the brain were severed, a person would not taste anything at all.

He knows that a computer program makes his whole life appear to him as if it was real. Therefore, he says that the taste of the beefsteak he's eating doesn't exist in reality, that his brain only perceives this is so. But he also says that he enjoys it, just as if it was real. Some of the similar passages in our books are as follows:

• Everything we see, touch, hear, and perceive as "matter," "the world" or "the universe" is nothing but electrical signals occurring in our brain.

Someone eating a fruit, in fact confronts not the actual fruit but its perception in the brain. Actually, the object the person considers to be a "fruit" consists of an electrical impression in the brain concerning that fruit's shape, taste, smell, and texture. If the visual nerves to the brain were suddenly severed, the image of the fruit would suddenly disappear. Any disconnection in the nerves from the receptors in the nose to the brain would completely interrupt the sense of smell. Simply put, the fruit is nothing but the brain's interpretation of electrical signals. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.222)

• An image of a cake will be linked with the taste of the sugar, all of which occurs in the brain. Everything sensed is related to the cake you like so much. The taste you are conscious of after eating your cake, with a full appetite, is nothing more than an effect generated in your brain caused by electrical signals. You are aware of only what your brain interprets from the external stimuli, and can never reach the original object. For example you cannot see, smell, or taste the actual chocolate itself. If the nerves from your tongue to your brain were severed, it would be impossible for the taste of foods to reach your brain, and you would lose your sense of taste entirely. Certainly the tastes you are aware of seem extraordinarily real, but that should not deceive you. This is the scientific explanation of the matter. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, pp.40-41)
• In the same way, nobody has been able to taste original mint. The taste someone would sense as mint is only a perception which occurs in the brain. This is because the person cannot touch the original of the mint, see the original of the mint or smell or taste the actual mint. In conclusion, throughout our lives, we live with copy-perceptions that are shown to us. However, these copies are so realistic that we never realize that they are copies. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.48)

The taste you get when you eat fruit or a chocolate is the brain's interpretation of electrical signals. You can never reach the object outside; you can never see, smell or taste the chocolate itself. For instance, if nerves from your tongue that travel to your brain are cut, no flavors you eat will reach your brain; you will completely lose your sense of taste. At this point, we come across another point: We can never be sure that a food tastes the same to us as it does to another person, or that a voice we hear sounds the same as when another person hears it. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, pp.220-221)

All Smells Form in the Brain

The smells you perceive do not reach you from any distance. You mistake the effects taking place in your olfactory center are the smells of some external matter. Just as the sight of a rose occurs inside your vision center, likewise the rose's smell "happens" in the brain's center for smell. You cannot know the outside existence of a rose or its scent: The external world that our senses present to us is really nothing more than the totality of electrical signals reaching our brains. The brain interprets these signals throughout our lives, and so throughout our lives, we never realize that we're wrong to believe that we're interacting with actual matter "out there."

One scene of The Matrix questions the reality of smell, but on the other hand, notes its overpowering presence:

Agent : I hate this place, this zoo, this prison-this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer. It's the smell. If there is such a thing, I feel saturated by it.

From this statement from the Matrix system's agent, we can deduce that it's impossible to determine whether or not smell, just like all our other senses, has a reality all its own. Our books also explore this subject:

• Volatile molecules emitted by vanilla or roses reach the receptors in the epithelium of the nose and become involved in an interaction that is transmitted as electrical signals to the brain and perceived as smell. Everything we smell, be it nice or noxious, is nothing but the brain's perception of volatile molecules' interactions, transformed into electrical signals. You perceive the scent of perfume, a flower, a food that you like, the sea, as well as other odors you like or dislike in your brain. The molecules themselves never reach the brain. Just as with sound and vision, what reaches your brain is simply electrical signals. In other words, all the odors that you have assumed, since you were born, to belong to external objects are simply electrical signals that you feel through your sense organs. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.220)
• There is no need for any external source to form an image in your mind. This same situation holds true for the sense of smell. Just as in your dreams or imagination, you can become aware of a smell that doesn't really exist, you can't be sure whether the objects you smell in real life really do exist outside of you. Even if you do assume so, you can never deal with the original objects themselves. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.40)

How Can You Prove That You're Not Dreaming Right Now?

Smells from the external world, which we've known since birth, are simply electrical signals received through our nostrils.

When people awaken from a dream, straightaway they realize what they experienced was a dream, but never question what they call "real life," beginning with the "waking scene." They never consider that for some reason, it might possibly be a dream itself. We perceive what we call "real life'" identically as we do our dreams: Both are visions of the mind. As long as we are not awakened from a dream, we're not aware that it is one. Only on awakening can we say, "Ah, it was only a dream."

How can you ascertain that what you're seeing now is not a dream? Couldn't you be considering this moment as real simply because you haven't yet woken up? It's very possible that one day, we'll waken up following a longer dream than usual and have to face up to this reality. We have no evidence to the contrary!

In your dreams, you hold objects in your hands and see with your eyes, but there are really no hands or eyes, nor anything to behold or hold. There is no material basis for all this outside the brain; clearly you are being fooled. But what separates real life and the dream world? Is real life continuous, and dreams seen only in intervals? Or in the dream world, do perhaps a different set of cause-effect rules operate? Fundamentally, these differences are not significant, because in the end, both lives are lived in the brain. If we can perfectly live an unreal life in our dreams, couldn't the same be true for the so-called "real" world we live in? When we wake up from one dream, we can't be certain that another new, longer-lasting one called real life doesn't begin. Our only basis for concluding that dreams are imaginary and the world is real are habit and conditioning. One day, we might get woken from the life we think we're living in this world, just as when we're woken from a dream.

This important subject is explored in The Matrix, where Neo finds himself in an ongoing confusion between real life and a dream world. In one scene, he sees his face split three ways in a cracked mirror. But then the cracks in the mirror disappear, and he sees himself reflected whole, as he would expect. Still stunned from this experience, he turns and asks the others whether they also saw this transformation. To check the reality of his experience, he touches the mirror-which immediately turns into a sticky substance that starts to cover his body in a metallic coating. He even feels the coolness of this substance on his body. But even though he doesn't consider this to be possible, it's realistic enough for him to lose his equilibrium. The wise Morpheus asks him what the difference is between the real and the dream world, with the intention of helping Neo not be fooled by what he sees and experiences.

Morpheus : Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream, Neo? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?

Neo : This can't be . . .

Morpheus : Be what? Be real?

Below are some extracts from our previous books on this subject:

• A person falling in a dream feels it with all his body, even though he is lying immobile in bed. Even sleeping in a very hot room, one might dream of slipping in a puddle, getting soaked and feeling chilled by a cold wind. But in such a case, there is neither puddle nor wind: One experiences the wetness and cold as if one were awake. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.62)
• A person sleeping in his house can see himself on a rapidly turning wagon in a fair ground while dreaming. He can realistically sense the wind that he would experience on a fast-moving wagon in the real world. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.63)

Another Matrix scene draws attention to the similarity between dreams and the real life, in which Neo addresses customers coming to his front door to buy computer chips. In the adjoining stills, Neo just can't tell whether or not he has woken up. When he does wake up, he hears the alarm clock ringing. He is in his room and he sees his desk and his computer. But what he experienced in his dream was so realistic that he can't be sure it was only a dream. Customers coming to his door tell him that he doesn't look too good, because of Neo's confusion over his contradictory experiences. He tries to share this duality he witnessed by asking them, "Ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or dreaming?"

Actually, the duality Neo experiences is quite natural; every thinking person can become aware of it. Many passages in our books deal with this issue, of which the following are only a few:

• What would happen if we didn't wake up and kept on dreaming? Would we be able to realize that we weren't actually dealing with the originals of anything we lived and saw in our dream?

Of course not. Unless we wake up and discover that we have been sleeping, we can never realize that we have been dreaming, and will spend our entire dream supposing that this is our real life. So how can we prove that our real life is not a dream? Do we have any evidence to the contrary-that one day we'll depart from the currently visible life and find ourselves watching images of our present life from some different location? (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.67)

Morpheus, who is aware of the reality, repeatedly advises Neo not to believe everything he sees, because one must investigate reality in order to understand it. In the following dialogue from the film, Morpheus points out that Neo must question everything he perceives before believing in it:

Morpheus : I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth.

We too must question the reality of the world we live in. We must come to realize that we'll never be able reach the actual world that we believe exists outside ourselves and from "inside" here, we must find our true purpose in this world.

The reality-that we are not interacting with matter itself-is frequently brought to our attention in the film; below are some excerpts from our books on the subject:

• People usually do not include or rather, do not want to include everything in the concept of the "external world."

. . . If you think sincerely and boldly on this issue, you'll come to realize that in fact, your house and furniture in it, your car-perhaps recently bought, your office, your jewels, bank account, wardrobe, your spouse and children, your colleagues and all else that you possess are included in this imaginary external world projected to you. Everything around you that you perceive with your five senses is part of this "imaginary world"-the voice of your favorite singer, the hard chair you sit on, a perfume whose smell you like, the Sun that keeps you warm, a flower of beautiful colors, a bird flying past your window, a speedboat moving swiftly on the water, your fertile garden, the computer at your job, or your hi-fi with the world's most advanced technology. . .

This is the reality. The world is only a collection of images created to test man. All through their limited lives, people are tested with perceptions bearing no reality. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.232)

Think for a moment about those who are swept away by material greed: What do they value most? A fine house, luxurious things, ostentatious jewelry, the latest model car, big bank accounts, a yacht . . . These people are afraid that they might be observing on a screen in their brains all the things they possess, and that they will never actually possess these things.

Like it or not, they are living in a world of facsimiles composed in their brains and cannot possibly have any relationship with the external world. Sounds, light and smells cannot enter the skull; but only electrical impulses coming from the sense organs. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.106)

• Everything a person thinks he possesses-house, car, family, job and friends -all are composed of images and sensations that occur in the brain. Anyone who understands this will also understand that the One Who has created these images in his brain is God, to Whom all things belong. For that reason, those who are emotionally attached to the life of this world greatly fear this reality. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.105)

The Reality of Timelessness

Time is a relative concept, based on comparisons we make between the events we experience. For example, someone gets in a car, turns on the ignition and puts his foot on the gas pedal. After driving a certain distance, he parks at the curb. Making comparisons between these actions, he thinks that a certain amount of time has passed between them, and thus he obtains a sense of duration.

Because we perceive everything sequentially, in a certain order, we come to believe that time flows forward. For instance, a leaf always falls down, not up. And raindrops fall from the sky; we never see them moving upwards, drop by drop. In this scenario, a leaf still on the tree is the present. Its falling to the ground is the future.

But if the data in our memories were to be rewound like a film on tape, the future-in other words, the leaf on the ground-would be past, and its being still on the tree would lie in the future. As we can see from this example, time is relative, dependent on the viewer's perception. A great span of thousands of years in our view, can be less than an instant in another dimension.

The Matrix points out that alongside all other perceptions, time is relative too. Neo comes to realize that he was wrong about time. In the frames shown below, Neo finds himself inside an American-ship built in 2060 designed for land and air transport. The fashionable garb he wore in the Matrix is replaced with worn clothing, and the 20th-century world he lived in has made way for a derelict environment.

Neo : Morpheus, what's happened to me? What is this place?

Morpheus : More important than "what" is "when."

Neo : When?

Morpheus : You believe it's year 1999 when in fact, it's closer to 2199. I can't tell you exactly what year it is, because we honestly don't know. There's nothing I can say that will explain it for you.

As with everything else experienced with artificial stimuli, it is possible to alter someone's perception of time. From our books, here are some passages on the subject of timelessness:

• Since time consists of perception, it depends entirely on the perceiver and is therefore relative.

The speed at which time flows differs, according to the references we use to measure it, because the human body has no natural clock to indicate precisely how fast time passes . . .

Time's relativity is plainly experienced in dreams. Although a dream seems to last for hours, in fact it lasts for only a few minutes, or even a few seconds. (Timelessness and the Reality of Time, p.62)

• . . . that time is a relative notion; that it is not static and unchanging as materialists long believed; and that it is a changing form of perception were also discovered in this century. The relativity of time and space has been proven by Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which laid the basis of today's modern physics.

To sum up, time and space are not absolute concepts. They have a beginning, and God created them from nothing. God, Who has created time and space, is certainly not dependent on them. God has defined, determined and created every moment of time in timelessness . . . (Timelessness and the Reality of Time, p.10)

• . . . Being bound by time, such an incident seems impossible for man. Yet in the sight of God, time does not exist. As stressed earlier, past and present are all one single moment; just as a videotape cassette includes all the action, moment by moment, in a film. After watching a film, it is possible to rewind and re-watch it. The same is likewise true for daily events; by the will of God, it is possible to see past events again. We only need God's making us experience once more the same perceptions belonging to these events. (Eternity Has Already Begun, 95)

Our Memories are Also Imaginary

He will say, "How many years did you tarry on the earth?" They will say, "We tarried there for a day or part of a day. Ask those able to count!" He will say, "You only tarried there for a little while if you did but know!" (Qur'an, 23: 112-114)

Upon Neo's return to the virtual environment of the Matrix, after discovering that what he thought to be his life was only imagined, he is simply amazed by this environment. Throughout the car journey, Neo remembers events of his past, but is perplexed to consider that none of it was real. Everything he thought was a memory of his past, had been planted in his memory artificially.

Morpheus : Unbelievable, isn't it?

Neo : God . . .

Trinity : What?

Neo : used to eat there . . . Really good noodles. I have these memories, from my life. None of them happened.

Our books offer some explanations on this subject:

Because of suggestions we receive, we believe we live in separate divisions of time called past, present, and future. However, the only reason we have a concept of "past" (as we explained earlier) is that various things have been placed in our memories. For example, the moment we enrolled in primary school is a bit of information in our memory and therefore, we perceive it as an event in the past. Because future events are not in our memories, however, we regard things we don't yet know about as what we'll experience in the future. Just as the past has been experienced from our point of view, so has the future. But because these events have not been given to our memories, we cannot yet know them. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.141)

Similarly, the sweet taste you discovered in chocolate when you were only five years old, the anxiety you felt on the first day of the primary school, the boredom you felt in one of your high school classes, the difficult equations your physics teacher wrote on the blackboard, the grief you felt on losing a close friend in a traffic accident, the pride you took in your academic accomplishments, the glow of happiness you felt when you succeeded at something you had strived for-in brief, all your experiences and feelings remain just as they were; not simply kept in your memory. You perceive your memory as simply the past. Though these scenes exist right now, the brain does not perceive them… Believing them bound by a steady, unvarying time flow from the past to the future, people assume their lives are divided into distinct sections of past, present and future…However, knowing that every living thing, every event and object is created eternally, frame by frame-just like the frames making up a roll of film-and brought into being simultaneously, will make this easier to comprehend. (Eternity Has Already Begun, pp.79-80)

The Conclusion We Reach from This Reality

Outside the brain exists a world we call matter, evoking sensations of solidity and visibility. But you can never reach this world with your senses. Every human being watches a world that takes shape in his brain, touches this world in his brain and listens to its sounds in his brain.

God lets every human being watch this material world as a vision in his brain adding to it solidity and hardness, to the point that this vision is perceived as real. Imam Rabbani explained this reality, proven in the twentieth century by scientific evidence, in great detail. In one of his letters, he wrote:

Nothing exists in truth and on the outside except the Almighty God. With His power, He has displayed in the appearance of the beings He created the perfection of His names and attributes. That means that He created matter in the sphere of perception and illusion. Thus matter exists as an illusion and continues to exist in our imaginations. Therefore, matter exists because it appears to be so in the imagination. Because God Almighty allows these images to continue and gives substantiality to the structure of matter, which He keeps from vanishing. Because He made eternal processes dependent on these, illusonary beings continue to seem real. (Imam Rabbani, Maktubat-i Rabbani (Letters of Rabbani), vol. 2, letter 44)

Every human being must reflect most seriously upon the reality revealed here, because everyone who ignores it, is fooled for the duration of his life by a perception appearing on one small area of the brain, which he believes to be real. For example, a man becomes vain and arrogant to think that he owns the buildings appearing on one portion of his brain, forgetting that one day, he too will die. In the brain of someone else, the perception of being destitute leaves him hopeless and depressed. One who loses the visualization of money in his brain becomes instantly devastated. Someone else who sees-in his brain-his car's paintwork scratched becomes angry, and his love of property drives him frantic.

In reality, none of these people is any different, one from the other. Seeing one's self poor or rich, or seeing one's car being scratched, is an image forming in the brain. No one ever can see or know what lies outside his brain. Only God, Who creates the world inside-and also outside-our brains, knows this.

People who are ignorant or unaware of this reality or those do not want to acknowledge the very clear truth, will always live in error. They are comparable to someone watching a play or movie in the belief that it's real and therefore, wants to be part of it. No matter how much the audience around him try to persuade him or show him the truth, he will always pretend not to understand.

Without exception, every human being will understand this truth, comprehend, and acknowledge it one day. This moment will come to everyone upon his death, when his brain's perception of life in this world will give way to the perception of death, judgment day, and the hereafter. As God revealed in the Qur'an, death will be like awaking from sleep, like proceeding from a dream to reality. One will move on to the true, endless life; and the perception of this life will become much clearer too. God, the Lord of all the worlds, reveals this reality in the verses:

They will say, "Alas for us! Who has raised us from our resting-place? This is what the All-Merciful promised us. The Messengers were telling the truth." (Qur'an, 36: 52)

"You were heedless of this, so We have stripped you of your covering, and today your sight is sharp." (Qur'an, 50: 22)

In one of his hadith, our Prophet (peace be upon him)-a role model of trustworthiness, knowledge and wisdom-pointed out this reality when he said, "Humans are asleep, they are awakened ith death." (Imam Ghazali)

Reality is the life after death. Earth is an imaginary world shown to us on a little area of our brains, just like a dream. It is an enormous and heedless error to be misled by this imaginary world, forgetting to ponder the real, infinite life to come. Those who refuse to recognize this fact during this life will suffer great remorse in the hereafter. When they realize that the people, properties, ranks and offices-to which they were devotedly attached throughout their lives; which they blindly pursued by believing that they were real;which they associated with God by forgetting Him and the hereafter-are actually only imaginary and images in their minds. They will be devastated to see all the things they thought would exist forever falling, one by one, by the wayside. In the Qur'an, God reveals their confessions in the hereafter:

Then they will be asked, "Where are those besides God you associated with Him?" And they will reply, "They have forsaken us. Or rather, we were not calling to anything at all before." That is how God misguides the disbelievers. (Qur'an, 40: 73-74)

... Such people's portion of the Book will catch up with them, so that when Our messengers come to them to take them in death, saying, "Where are those you called upon besides God?" they will say, "They have left us in the lurch," testifying against themselves that they were disbelieving people. (Quran, 7: 37)

Every single person who refuses to acknowledge and ponder this reality in this life can well be saying these same things, experiencing this same irreversible regret in the hereafter. Those who lose themselves in this worldly life, which God shows us just like a dream; who think that this life is the only real one and that death is its end, will wake from their sleep of ignorance, leave their dreams behind with their death, and see the real truth. On the other hand, every sincere, carefully thinking person will realize the reality while still on Earth and make a genuine effort to win his life to come in the hereafter.