Storyland

By Leo Gura - November 23, 2017

Imagine an alternative universe — Storyland — in which there is no matter, no time, no space. There are no laws of physics. Instead, there are just stories. Every being here has a story because stories are all there are. Here, you aren’t merely a being WITH a story, you ARE one of the stories, because stories are the only building blocks of reality. Here, if it’s not a story, it simply cannot be. So if you want to have matter, or time, or space, or physical laws, you must invent them — as stories!

In such a universe, the major preoccupation of all beings would be defending their stories, because, well… their life literally depends on it. After all, you don’t want to de-materialize, do you? In Storyland, the greatest danger to a being would be the unraveling of his story. That would be the definition of death: the end of my story. In such a universe, all beings would be deathly afraid of anything that might lead to the unraveling of their story. Such beings would gather together to co-create collective stories to make their individual stories seem more solid. These beings would form groups to fight one another, both ideologically and physically, in order to defend the “reality” of one collective story over another. In this universe, one town’s collective story would threaten the reality of the neighboring town’s collective story. And so they would go to war because their very sense of existence would hinge on it. Here, culture would be king. Culture wouldn’t merely be a collection of preferences and opinions, it would be a matter of life and death.

To such beings, stories wouldn’t appear as “merely stories”. Nor would be they be called “stories”. No, no, no. Stories would be considered, and called, REALITY! Such beings would never dare to speak or even think of the possibility that stories are anything but REALITY, because stories are the only kind of reality here. So, if ever a being came along who said, “Listen here, my fellow beings! What you call REALITY is just a story.” The first thing his fellow beings would want to do is kill him. Failing that, they would put him into an insane asylum. Failing that, they would gag him. Failing that, they would demonize him. Failing that, they would dismiss him as a nutcase. Failing that, they would agree with him by adopting a new story which says, “Our reality is a just a story, like that guys says.” But even so, they would continue running that story. Their minds simply could not bear to actually stop creating stories because to do so would be suicide.

Sound familiar??

Well… Ta-da! That is our universe!

It’s the only kind of universe that could possibly exist! Time, space, physics, brains, objective reality, mathematics, science, etc. are all just part of the story you’re defending, you see? And the notion that these are not a story but REALITY, is itself just another story! String a couple of stories together like that and you’ve literally got yourself a reality!

Now you object, “But Leo! Who is telling this story?”

The notion that there needs to be a “who” — a subject — is just another story!

So you object, “But Leo! Where is the story taking place?”

The notion that there needs to be a place — a where — is just another story!

So you object, “But Leo! How are these stories possible in the first place?”

The notion that there needs to be a “how”, is just another story!

So you object, “But Leo! Why is there something rather than nothing?”

The notion that there is something rather than nothing, is just another story!

So you object, “But Leo! What are these stories made out of?”

Nothing! A story is something which is not.

So you object, “But Leo! How come it feels so REAL?”

Because there is nothing else to contrast it with.

You see? It’s all a hallucination hallucinated by an infinite hallucination, all of it adding up to nothing — the only way anything can ever be.

And of course, all this is just another story

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