Ponmala

We have heard of some holy men who had the power of bilocation. Bilocation attained a sort of scientific basis when quantum physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg proposed in the 1920s that two atomic particles could exist at two points at the same time. In 2012, Dr Haroche and Dr D. Worland received a Nobel Prize for experimentally proving that they were indeed right. That inspired the idea of parallel universes or multiverse, which has now become a scientific fad. Because the universe is fundamentally made up of atomic particles, some scientists conclude that, besides our universe, another universe or many universes parallel to ours can also exist. Such a parallel universe is also know as an alternate reality. We now realise that alternate reality exists also in the world we inhabit.
In the case of multiverses proposed by quantum physics, those alternate universes are completely separate and unable to intersect. So, while there may be innumerable alternate universes of every variety, they in no way matter to each other. Because people create alternate realities of their own liking, every thinking intellect could be thought of as an alternative universe or reality. In that sense, the earth itself is a multiverse containing around 8 billion parallel universes. But, unlike the parallel universes of the quantum world, these worlds of thinking individuals are all connected and can interact. On any one particular topic, these multiverses of human beings coalesce into two parallel universes or alternate realities that battle against each other. That is the inescapable reality that we face today.
While science has its basis in verifiable facts, in the realm of thought you have one world that has its basis in verified facts and its alternate world that has its basis in the very denial of those verified facts, either because they contradict its long held views or because they don’t suit its vested interests. For the former we have the example of Galileo’s verified heliocentric world that was initially denied by the Church because of her long held view of a geocentric world, and for the latter we have the example of the verified and court-certified election results of 2020 American presidential election that was denied by Trumpers because they did not suit their vested interests.
The manufacturing of alternate realities using the all-pervasive and all-encompassing media is the greatest danger looming over the human race today. The first step in that direction was taken by postmodernism, which made truth relative by disconnecting it from veracity: Truth is what an individual perceives as true, not what is verified as true. Postmodernism goes a step further and argues that truth cannot be verified and certified, because verification itself is subjective. Very confusing isn’t it. Ah, yes! We have created an extremely confusing world where all news, except those that we like to hear or are of use to us, is fake news. It is this environment of uncertainty and confusion that has made the job of manufacturing fake news dead easy.
Partisan media and the pliability of minds to what they dish out is today a matter of great concern. Fox News is a partisan TV channel that caters to Americans of the far right. At least 30% of Americans rely mostly on it for news. On the other end of the spectrum is CNN channel. A research was conducted in which some addicted to Fox News were paid to watch CNN for them to have a view of the other side. Although they did not doubt the veracity of the uncomfortable news provided by CNN, after a while they reverted to the partisan news dished out by Fox News, because that was what they liked, because that was what suited their ideological moorings.
Forget about clash of civilisations, we are now caught in the clash of truths – truth versus alternate truth. Caught in this clash, one starts to doubt one’s owns sanity, not knowing what is true and what is not true. Jesus said: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8: 32). When Jesus claims that he is a “witness to the truth” (John 18:37), Pilate asks, “What is truth?” This question is now reverberating throughout the world.
The term Americans use for manipulating people psychologically into accepting this deranged alternative reality is gaslighting. It is done with a purpose. As a preparation to invading a much weaker Ukraine, Putin gas lighted Russians into believing that it is a failed state that has become a haven for Nazis. He calls the war he is waging against Ukraine a de-nazification campaign. And eight in ten Russians believe that their peaceful existence is at stake if Ukraine, whose president is a Jew, is not overrun and cleansed of Nazis. Let alone disbelieving Putin’s alternate reality, they are not even willing to listen to anything that would debunk it. The net result is a war that could even end up as a nuclear holocaust engulfing the entire world.
For Christ the reality, we have anti-Christ the alternate reality. The anti-Christ substitutes himself in Christ’s place, negating all that Christ taught and died for. Christ was born poor, lived amidst the poor, stood for the poor and the marginalised, rode on a donkey as king of souls; the anti-Christ loves riches, pomp and power. Christ was a serving master; the anti-Christ is a ruling authority. Christ was not too fond of rituals. He wielded the whip against those who turned his Father’s house into a market place; The anti-Christ is fond of rituals and commercialises spirituality using them. For Gandhi the reality, we have printed money Gandhi the alternate reality, which is freely used as corruption-tool to demolish all that he stood for. Gandhi experimented with truth; the nation he created is experimenting with alternate truth.
To remain an independent thinker and seeker of truth – and thereby truly human – is the greatest challenge of our times.