a kind of optical delusion of consciousness

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us ‘the universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection of a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
~ Albert Einstein

We all went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on Sunday and watched a planetarium show called The Search for Life: Are We Alone? There was a sequence in it where over the course of a few minutes the perspective zoomed from our solar system, to the neighborhood of the Milky Way to the outside of the galaxy, to a view of hundreds of galaxies. It really gave me a better appreciation for how big the universe is. Yeah, we all know it’s big and infinite, but the visual zooming had an enlightening effect. I recommend it to anyone.

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