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Metaphysics: The Reality of Life as We Know It

February 10th, 2015
Sydney L Brooks
Dowagiac Union High School

Metaphysics: The Reality of Life as We Know It

Our reality of the world that we live in may be incorrect. Most people do not stop to
realize that their reality is not the only reality in the world and that every person experiences a

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different reality than the next. Maybe the world that we live in is not real and we are all just
experiencing an altered state of reality. The science of metaphysics is derived from our attempts
to understand what is real and what is not real as metaphysics is the philosophical attempt to
explain the basic nature of all reality, whether visible or invisible. I will attempt to understand
reality using supporting details from the Divine Comedy and the movie What Dreams May Come.
In the Divine Comedy, Dante gives his explanation of hell split into nine circles, or levels.
The most shallow circle is limbo, where the unbaptized reside, including Plato, Homer, and
Socrates. The second circle of hell is lust. People in this circle are blown around indefinitely
without the chance of rest. The third circle is where the gluttons are sent. They are forced to lay
on the freezing ground for eternity. Greedy people are sent to the fourth level of hell. They must
slam weights together over and over again. According to Dante, the fifth circle of hell is where
the wrathful fight each other on the surface of the Styx. Those who commit heresy are sent to the
sixth circle where they are trapped in fiery tombs. The seventh circle of hell contains the violent.
Those who commit acts of violence, blasphemy, or suicide go to the seventh level. Those who
commit fraud, seduction, dishonesty, or sorcery reside in the eighth circle where Diomedes and
Odysseus were sent. The deepest circle of hell is treachery. The people who commit the worst
acts of betrayal go to this level, including Brutus, Judas, and Satan.
In the movie What Dreams May Come, Dantes Inferno from the Dantes Divine Comedy
is referenced. The levels are not in the same linear order that Dante organized them, and the
characters only descend into the seventh level of hell, or violence. In the movie, examples of
limbo, lust, and anger are seen before Chris passes through the gates of hell, whereas in Dantes
Version, the gates come before any of the stages.

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For example, when Chris starts on his journey to the seventh level to find his wife, he
passes through limbo. This circle does not seem either good or bad, people just exist. When their
boat floats out of the limbo library, there are people being blown around. This shows the second
level of hell, or lust. After that, they proceed into a body of water filled with flailing zombie-like
souls that represent anger, the fifth circle of hell. Chris is then told that they are going through
the gates of hell. When they reach the shore, the ship that Chris first sees represents Cerberus, the
guardian of the gluttons. Chris sees two armies fighting in and around the boat, they are
competing and using violence to get to the prize. This represents the fourth circle of hell, greed.
Entering hell, he has to walk across a field of people who are stuck in the ground, buried up to
their heads. This scene represents the third circle of hell, gluttony. Chris accidentally breaks
through the ground of stuck bodies and falls through hell. On the way down, the audience sees a
burning cross in the background, representing heresy. Finally, Chris lands at the bottom and
stumbles upon his old house. He knows that he must be in the seventh circle, violence, because
his wife is there. At this time, he has descended all but the last two circles of hell.
The state of consciousness of the souls in heaven vary greatly from the consciousness of
the souls that are in hell. The souls in heaven are aware of themselves and their families and are
much more privileged than those in hell as they are allowed to enjoy their afterlives. In hell, the
souls spend their afterlives reliving their earthly wrongs. The seventh circle of hell, where the
suicides reside, is filled with souls that continuously deny reality. For example, when Chris first
finds Annie, she is moping around in their old destroyed house. Her suicidal mind-set caused the
wreckage of the house, the bitter cold of the air, and the huge spiders that creep around. Annie is
afraid of everything and believes nothing that Chris says to her. Suicidals are doomed to an
eternity of pain and denial.

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In the movie, What Dreams May Come, it is proposed that what happens on Earth is real,
but only temporary. What happens on Earth determines where one will go in the afterlife. Once
one reaches their place in the afterlife, it is suggested that reality is very volatile and perception
related because every soul has a different reality that they can change simply by wanting to make
a change. For example, when Chris is in his personal heaven, he is able to change the scenery
and make things happen. The souls in heaven can pretty much do whatever they wish. In hell,
reality is not relevant either because especially in the seventh circle of hell, souls create their
own realities and allow themselves to forever wade in misery. If they would change their
mindsets, those souls would have a totally different reality. At the end of the movie, the idea that
we can choose to be reincarnated is presented when Annie and Chris, as soul mates, decide to go
back into the cycle of life.
Reality is a tough concept for anyone to grasp. As humans, we would like to believe that
we are real. It comforts us to think that we are surrounded by people who are also real. In reality,
we may not really be here, we may all be plugged into some kind of matrix. Maybe all of our
lives have been a dream, and we will wake up to be five years old again. We could all already be
dead and we would not even know it like the characters in the tv show Lost. If our perception of
reality is wrong though, maybe we do not see the actual reality because we do not wish to.
Maybe one would wish to stay in the dream-like state and never awaken to find out what is real.
First, we need to consider whether our mind or body is more relevant. Indeed, our souls,
or minds, use our bodies and brains to make interactions on earth. Some question if our minds
and souls can continue on without our bodies. We know that our bodies cannot continue to
function without a mind or consciousness. For example, imagine if in the future someone died
and they were immediately replaced with a clone of themselves that had all of the same

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memories up until the point of their death. The consciousness of the original person dispersed at
the time of their death, but now there is an exact replica of that person walking the earth. To the
persons family, friends, and the whole world, the clone is the real person. There is no way for
any of them to tell a difference. Some say that there is no difference. They say that the clone is
now the person that died as they have all of the same memories and are the same in every other
way. We must take into consideration what happened to the person that died. That person is gone.
Their soul, or consciousness, is the one thing that the clone does not have. Even though the clone
has the same memories and appears to be the dead person, they are not the original person. The
original persons soul is either in an alternate reality or has otherwise been dispersed.
Earth could all be an illusion. If it is not, maybe what happens after we die is the illusion.
Maybe our soul, or consciousness, leaves our body and goes somewhere else. Maybe it is taken
through some kind of wormhole for the dead to a place where our perception of space and time is
no longer relevant. What most people refuse to even consider is that maybe when we die there is
nothing. Maybe our souls just die with our bodies, making death a truly sad thing. We would like
to believe that there is an afterlife, that our souls transcend from our earthly bodies and move on
to a better place where we all reside in our own personal heavens. But once again, everyone sees
the narrow reality that they wish to see.
Time is an aspect of reality that may be trivial. We have three hundred and sixty five days
in a year, twenty four hours in a day, and sixty seconds in a minute. Every year, every second, we
grow older. That is what society tells us. Imagine two people placed on an island where nothing
and no one changes. For ten earth years, they do nothing, make no progress, and neither their
bodies nor any of the scenery changes. Some would ask if any time passed at all. They are living
in a world that resembles a video game on pause. If the two people made no mental or physical

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progress and did not age in the ten years on the island, then they are no older than they were ten
years ago when they were dropped on the island. This concept is not so hard to grasp because
time is measured by change and changes are perceived by the mind which can alter reality.
Without change, measurable time is not possible.
Here is an example of a tougher concept to grasp. Imagine a group of astronauts who
travel into space and through a wormhole on a mission. The team must land on a planet, lets call
the planet Yazzle, where every year on earth is equal to half of an hour on planet. The mission is
estimated to take about twenty hours to complete. According to earthly time, they will be gone
for over forty years, supposing that nothing goes wrong. Lets say that the mission goes smoothly
and there are no interruptions. If one of the astronauts was thirty years old when he left on the
mission, a young astronaut I must say, then he would technically still be thirty some when he
lands back on earth. The unimaginable part of this situation is that everyone on earth is forty to
forty-five years older than when the astronaut left earth, while he is five years older at the most.
The astronauts grandparents and parents are long dead, his older sister is eighty-five years old,
and his son, who was born shortly after he left, is forty-five years old. The astronaut comes back
to a son who is ten years older than himself and a sister who is as old as his mother should be.
This concept is so confusing because, unlike the first scenario, this one is proposing that time is
always passing, but may run on different ratios in different places because of the changes in
gravitational pull.
From the above example, some would say that time does not exist at all, that it was a man
made concept. In truth, time is an idea proposed by man, so the laws that restrict time may be
wrong. For this reason time travel is possible. If the laws of time are not valid, then we are free
to break any of them. There would be no reason why we couldnt time travel, but it is not

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possible in our universe. One would have to somehow travel to a different universe before
having the ability to manipulate time in our own universe.
While we can perceive these concepts, we will never know for sure what is real and what
is not. It is a troubling thought to know that our view of reality may be wrong and many wonder
how we should live with that knowledge. I choose to be mindful of my reality, or non reality, and
live mostly for the future. I am future oriented because, in this universe at least, time travel is
impossible. I believe in learning from past failures and continuing forward, not dwelling on
them. Sometimes it is necessary to live in the present; technically we are always living in the
present. I try my best to make decisions that will positively affect me and everyone around me in
the future; that is how my brain works. Sometimes I make decisions that will benefit me in the
present, but most of my actions are for the betterment of the future. For this reason, I am one of
the people that plan ahead. I have elaborate calendars and schedules that I refer to each and every
day in order to stay on track. Maybe my success does not matter if our world is not real, but I try
hard everyday to feel accomplished. I do not believe that we should give up hope and have no
motivation just because our reality may not be real and our lives may have no purpose.
In the end, we must have knowledge of the uncertainties of reality and we must be able to
cope with them. This is why metaphysics is a truly intriguing topic that will flourish for years to
come. Some embrace it, some ignore it, and some are afraid of it, but it is what it is, just like
reality. To me, reality is the way that I perceive my life. To my neighbor, reality is how he views
his life. We must find the balance between questioning our realities and actually living our lives,
because our view of reality often does need to be questioned.
Every day I learn new things that help me discover myself and my spirit. My spirituality
allows me to accept the situations that I am put into. It allows me to persevere and keep going

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when I do not think I can any more. My spirituality lets me believe what I want to believe, but
also lets me put myself in other peoples shoes. My spirit that maybe I was born with, or that has
been shaped, lets me make connections with other people. Spirit makes life interesting, fun, and
worth living. Questioning reality is extremely tied to our spirits and is a skill that is crucial for
ones self awareness. Spirituality comes to a person through living and experiencing the trials
and tribulations of life. For this reason, I look forward to the rest of my life. I encourage people
to go out and live life knowing that every single person in the universe, every animal, and every
other living being has their own view of reality.

References
Durling, R. (1996). The divine comedy of Dante Alighieri. New York: Oxford University Press.
What Dreams May Come Dantes Inferno Fun Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2015, from
http://popehs.typepad.com/files/what-dreams-may-come-dantes-inferno-connections.pdf
What Dreams May Come [Motion picture]. (1999). Polygram Video :.