Quotessence
Home / Authors / Sol Luckman

Sol Luckman Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

Famous Sol Luckman Quotes

“The observer effect puts our everyday perceptions and assumptions in a blender. It dictates—if we’re to be honest with ourselves, sober in our thinking, and not reactionary in our emotions—that the world we see is NOT the ultimate reality, but merely a projection of it. From this perspective the manifest world is revealed as what Hindu mystics referred to as maya, illusion, the imaginal outpourings of minds—like children naturally playing in magical constructs that seem eminently real—simply doing what minds do.”

“So it was a crossroads summer, when the universe seemed to stand perilously still like an egg wobbling on a precipice, a regular rite of passage summer that saw us traverse the hazardous divide between the illusions of boyhood and the far more pernicious deceptions of maturity, et cetera.”

“Atoms, the building blocks of so-called matter, however much they might seem to be physically circumscribed, aren’t actually like tiny billiard balls. That’s kindergarten science. From a shamanic or alchemical perspective, atoms are more like sentient waves, their intelligently responsive existence a blur of potential until they magically appear to materialize.”

“What is the nature of this confusing way station between birth and (usually) death accompanied by obliteration of identity we call home? Planet, plane, simulation, hallucination, hell, heaven on earth … The hypotheses as to this realm’s true character are as many as there are bored conspiracy theorists tapping away on crusty laptops in their parents’ basements. But what if the childishly simple answer to our conundrum is given away in this aphorism popularized in ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’: ‘Life is but a dream’?”

“The boundary between dreams and reality gets muddy indeed when we consider the nature of our perceptions. Our senses, those windows to the world, are far from perfect instruments that are extremely susceptible to manipulation and misinterpretation. What we perceive as unquestionably solid and real could be nothing more than smoke and mirrors, projections of our own psyches.”

“The very act of doubting our reality indicates a flicker of suspicion, a seed of uncertainty germinating in our subconscious. Perhaps this nagging sense of unease, this wondering if something isn’t altogether as it should be, is a clue, a whisper from the wellspring of our being that there’s more to this existence than meets the eye.”

“What if the world we inhabit—with all its confounding complexities and contradictions—is nothing more than an elaborate stage set, a grand illusion orchestrated by a poorly understood force? If this were true, how could we possibly know for certain? What signs or signals might betray the actual nature of our world and our place in it?”