Before you read this, you should know that this may strain the edges of what you find feasible; it will test your open-mindedness. This is not for the faint of heart, nor the faint of mind, and this is most definitely not fiction. What I'm about to tell you is completely true in a way that can reshape how you see the world. I trust you to take this seriously. I trust you not to brush this off as a fairytale or fantasy simply because it is so controversial, or throw it back in my face because you can't handle what this means.

I trust you to consider this letter without strings attached -- with an open mind.

Humans have, over time, developed a detrimental habit of relying on senses which are both limited and limiting. If you cannot hear something, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It means that it is silent. If you cannot see something, that also doesn't mean it isn't there. It means that it is invisible, or intangible. We cannot see animosity, love, or dark matter, yet these three things have inarguable existence. We know they exist, even though there is no visual proof. Similarly, if something is beyond the range of our vision, it still exists. We may smell the ocean, or hear it's crashing waves, and yet not be in a position to see it, yet still know it is there. We may not hear the noise of an orchid as it photosynthesizes, yet we can see, smell, and touch it, though it is silent and "invisible" to our ears.

All around us are invisible things, whether they are orchids which are invisible to our ears, an ocean which is just out of sight, or something as bewilderingly intangible and mysterious as dark matter.

There are also a lot of unknown or unexplained things in this world.

How do these two things connect? Well, just like dark matter in a mathematical equation, unknown or unexplained things or events are invariably caused by "invisible" factors. Magnetism is an invisible force, yet we can see it in action, and similarly, we see other "invisible" things through their effects. Wind itself cannot be perceived by vision, yet we can see it bend trees and branches, or even blow down houses and cause tsunamis. Wind, however, can be sensed in ways other than vision. It can be heard and felt. But, is there something out there even more invisible? What about love? We have no way to sense love, or any feeling, physically. It is unseen, unheard, and does not produce sensation along the skin. How is it that, upon seeing another person in pain, we ourselves wince? Obviously we are not physically wounded.

When you close your eyes, the world around you still exists, though it goes unseen. When you plug your ears, a sparrows song does not stop, even if it goes unheard. In this same way, there are many things going on within this world, and within the multiverse, which are "invisible" to such shallow senses; sight, hearing, and touch only allow us to perceive the world at its most basic level. With these tools, we are only able to define the very outermost facade of what is immediately around us. We can only break away to see what lies past the facade when we let go of our dependence, and let our minds take more assertive control. In the same way that we can perceive such invisible things as love or animosity, we can perceive a great many other things using the same tools which originally allow us to sense those "invisible" feelings: intelligence, and a certain amount of empathy.

Here are some of the definitions of "empathy", according to various sources --

1. ...More than feeling compassion or sympathy "for" another person, empathy puts you in their shoes to feel "with" them or "as one" with them. First used in English in the early twentieth century to translate the German psychoanalytic term Einfuhlung, meaning "to feel as one with", though in practice more closely translating the German Mitgefuhl, "to feel with" someone. (www.jansen.com.au/Dictionary_DF.html)

2. ...is interpreted as the ability to take oneself out of oneself and put oneself into another person's world. (www.mountainquestinstitute.com/definitions.htm)

Using empathy, we can "feel" someone else's pain or joy, almost as if we ourselves are feeling it. Everyone has experienced this at some point or another. After all, this is generally the driving force behind compassion. You act out of compassion towards a pained love one because you sense their pain, even if it has no value to your superficial senses, like vision, hearing, or touch. Things like love only leave subtle effects which can be witnessed using these senses, usually expressions. Rather than rely on these three primary senses, the ability to sense love relies heavily on empathy.

Also, empathy is completely independent from vision, hearing, touch, or any "physical" senses. You do not need to see someone to empathize with them, nor do you need to touch or hear them. Many times, simply hearing about a person is enough to spark empathy into action. We are empathizing all of the time, with our best friend, with a murder victim on the news (why else would we feel so bad about it?), and even with characters in books. We feel the protagonist's pain, and endure the journey almost as if it were our own.

There is more to empathy than simply sensing emotions, however, as the second definition would infer. Using empathy, we can understand another person's perspective, whether or not they are available to our superficial senses, which is why we bond so closely to characters we read about in books or see in movies. With empathy, we can "feel as one" or "feel with" any person. Even ones which are "invisible" to our physical senses. Our ability to relate to and with a person opens up doors of knowledge which vision, sound, and touch could not ever imagine.

Vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell show us the details of the world around us, but may only penetrate so deep, and therefore only interpret the veneer around us, while things like knowledge, empathy, and instinct allow us to understand how things are, underneath the surface. The physical senses show us how things appear to be, but knowledge, empathy, and instinct show us how things are.

Throughout this site, aptly named "The Realm of Awakening", I've offered my own observations of how things are, rather than how they appear. The next explanation I would recommend reading, should you be interested, is Dark Matter. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope, by exposing you to the things I've written, to open you up to your own enlightenment.

Rynthae