Why Some People Live in a Simulation and Some Don't

Living in a Simulation, and Not

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Living Ancestor podcast.
This is your host, Ramon Castellanos.

Today I want to speak with you about this whole idea of whether or not we are living in a simulation.

But more so, what I want to discuss with you is that some people actually are living in a simulation and some are not.

Now, if you are approaching this with a very materialistic, rational bent, then you might ask how that is possible. It might seem to present a kind of paradox, because as far as this theory is presented, people either are living in a simulation, that is, that this is a simulated universe and not a real world, or people are not.

From a very materialistic, physicalized perspective of this idea, you would be right. It really would not be possible that some people are and some people are not.

However, this whole notion that we are living in some kind of advanced piece of software is, in and of itself, an artifact of the machine mythos, which I have talked about a lot recently in various podcasts.

And it is something that, at the moment, I feel is really important to continue to point out. At some point, I will move on and start talking more deeply about other topics, but for now, we have to realize that we are living in a time and a place in which the superiority of machines is proposed, especially above biological life.

The Machine Mythos

We live in a time of the machine mythos.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term and might just be tuning into this podcast curious about the title, the machine mythos is the idea that we are machine-like.

That machines represent some underlying core architecture or structure of the universe, and that we are just now stumbling upon it.

So it places mechanics above biology.
It places the machine above the living.

It also points us toward the transhumanist current that I have spoken about, which is that the eventual goal of working with AI and advanced technology is to turn humans into cyborgs who eventually escape physicality.

Whether or not that is actually possible is up for debate, but it is what is currently happening, and it is a major theme, especially relevant now that people are engaging deeply with AI on a consistent basis.

Even I engage with AI.

But this notion that we live in some simulated universe, especially in the context of it being a physical reality, that we are actually inside of a machine right now, is an artifact of this materialistic perspective that sees the world as simply dead matter.

Simulation as a State of Being

What I want to propose to you is that this idea of living in a simulation is more of a state of being, a state of consciousness, and a state of embodied experience that a large part of the population is actually in right now.

And that there are many people who are actually not in a simulation.

We are going to talk about what differentiates these two states of being.

Because I can tell you this:

I do not live in a simulation.
And I know many people who also do not live in a simulation.

But I see many humans who do.

This simulation is one in which our embodied experience is very fragmented.

Why is that the case?

Disembodiment and the Upload Fantasy

The notion of a simulation is one in which someone’s mind has been uploaded into some kind of program.

It is speaking directly to consciousness, not to the body.

Because in this context, there is no body.
The body is some kind of illusory program.

The only thing that is real is the mind.

Somewhere else, in another universe, bodies exist, and consciousness has been injected into a program.

Kind of like The Matrix.

This state of being is reflected in how someone feels about the world.

Feeling, meaning whether or not they are embodied enough to be in touch with the reality that is here and now in a way that is palpable, visceral, and physical.

And this is reflective of the state of modern culture and modern people.

A Dead World and a Disembodied Culture

Our culture is very materialistic.

It perceives the physical world as all there is.
Simultaneously, it views the physical world as inanimate.

Dead matter.

Whereas indigenous and traditional cultures all around the world saw this world as a subset of a greater world, imbued with spiritual and soul forces.

They saw the world itself as animated and alive.

Everything in it imbued with a life force.

At the same time, we live in a very disembodied culture.

People are not truly in touch with their physicality.
They are not in touch with their senses.
They are not in touch with the subtle, nuanced currents of energy moving through the tiny channels of the body.

The toes.
The fingers.
The deep viscera and organs.

Instead, we have a culture oriented toward the head, toward the mind, toward abstraction.

Toward computers, cell phones, video games, software, coding.

Toward things that are not the physical world.

Living in Limbo

You encounter people who, from a consciousness perspective, are living in limbo.

There is an understanding that the physical world is all there is, and that it is empty.

At the same time, they cannot fully inhabit physicality.

So what does that leave people with?

A consciousness filled with simulated and virtual experiences.

It leads them to live in a simulation of the world.

The Ancestral Body

This is amplified by the fact that people are not connected to the things that inherently make a human body a human body.

The ancestral.

The human body is shaped, structured, and designed the way it is because of how our ancestors lived for eons of time.

At one level, we are still hunter-gatherers who evolved hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago to live in deep wilderness.

In that context, the human being is a very different creature.

Deeply attuned, like an animal, to the world around them.

Far more physicalized.

Encountering the natural world in its intensity, glory, and terror on a consistent basis.

A Lived Contrast

I lived in the wilderness at Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in the mountains of New Mexico for over a decade.

I had intense experiences with the natural world.

Blizzards.
Monsoons.
Broiling sun for hours doing construction.

Beautiful things too.

The wolves.
The frogs awakened by lightning.
The birds.
The relationships with wild animals.

The coyotes like banshees in the night.

A vivid time in my life.

And even that was nowhere near as intense as life for people steeped in the natural world 24/7 with no modern technology.

People who risk their lives hunting large game.
Butchering animals with blood and guts.
Cooking with fire.
Carrying water.
Living among predators.

This creates a very different kind of being.

Two Ways of Existing

Modern humans are missing many of the core elements that make people human.

They live in a mechanical universe perceived as dead.

In disembodied bodies.

Disconnected from ancestral patterns.

These humans are, in many ways, living in a simulation.

They are not fully at the level of felt experience in this world.

They live in a limbo state.

A virtual representation of reality.

An Animate Universe

What about the animals?

The rats.
The lizards.
The fish.
The elephants.
The trees.
The fungi.
The bacteria.

Are they in a simulation?

If not, are they simulated for us?

This leads back to the illusion of human superiority.

Animism tells us something else entirely.

That everything is alive.
Everything is conscious.
Everything is relational.

Joshua Schrei has said that animism is normative consciousness, the natural way humans evolved to perceive the world.

When we do not perceive this way, it is an evolutionary mismatch.

Sensory Reality Versus Abstraction

When a human being is deeply embodied and steeped in the natural world, what emerges is the opposite of the simulation hypothesis.

We encounter a universe that is living, breathing, and multidimensional.

A universe of sensing.

Not abstraction.

Not processing.

But sensing.

Entering the Flesh

Now I want to talk about moving in the opposite direction of this simulation at a practical level.

Our ability to fully enter into physicality, to enter as consciousness into the flesh, is one of the hallmarks of true embodiment.

I am currently studying a branch of Eastern Tantra that taught that the only vehicle to ultimate reality is direct sensory experience of the body.

Presence sinking deeper and deeper into the flesh.

Practical Orientation

If you do not want to live in a simulation, then my advice is to perpetually enter into the flesh and connect into your body in ways that are multiple and plentiful.

Ways that generate pleasure in your body.

Not just sexual pleasure.

Stretch.
Lounge on the ground like a cat.
Sip drinks slowly.
Smell your coffee.
Feel how it moves through your trachea and into your belly.

Feel the wind on your skin.
Notice the scintillations and oscillations.

Enter water.
Feel it against you at subtle levels.

Engage your body in ways that bring you into physicality.

Have sex with ecstatic abandon.

Breathe consciously.

Feel your breath for the sake of feeling your breath.

A Final Question

Ask yourself:

Is this moment, now, in your body, enough to be ultimate reality?

If not, why?

And what is missing from your lived experience?

If you appreciated this podcast, come and join me at my Substack:

eatingancientvirtue.substack.com

All right, my friends.
Be well.