The alarm clock rings. “Wake up. Get up.”

No one excepted, including myself:  You can always wake up more, because if you are fully awake then you don’t have to sleepwalk around here.

This is about people who are all to some extent awake and to some extent still asleep. Nobody is fully awake and nobody is fully asleep. The funny thing is that people are mostly looking at each other and not rubbing the sleep out of their own eyes. The other person doesn’t understand it yet, but you do. I am more awake than everyone else. Just look how well my ego is functioning.

We have little patience with others waking up, as if we woke up so quickly. Waking up takes time. In fact, all of life is a process of waking up. And before we are fully awake we die. Or would the process just continue after that physical death of our body. Just to name something in that process of waking up.

Therefore

Headstrong children are a burden to society because they don’t want to listen. Parents, educators and teachers do tell them how to think and do things in order to fit in. The child who asks “Why?” gets the answer “Therefore.” Just go back to sleep. Of course this is exaggerated, but make no mistake about how society wants to keep us down. Well intentioned.

You have to be strong if you want to go against the group. By nature we want to be ourselves, but that takes courage and strength. When you behave differently, you are quickly bullied and ostracized. And what do you do toward those oddballs who don’t belong anywhere? Do you join the group or stay neutral? Would you actually like it to be yourself and be “different”?

Not true

At some point the penny drops. Something is not right here. I have always had faith in it, but here a so-called truth sinks through the ice. Never thought this was being lied about. Someone you trusted has deceived you. These will be the first moments when you start rubbing your eyes to wonder what is actually true and what is not. Never thought.

The incidents follow one another, but you don’t realize at first the extent of the lies. You think they are all unconnected. Life also goes on as usual and you are busy doing all sorts of things. However, the beginning of waking up has been made. Healthy distrust has come to you. You think you have everything under control and know exactly where you stand.

The rabbit hole

Arriving at the entrance to the rabbit hole, you are faced with the choice of going in or staying out. By now, so many lies have surfaced that you just know in every fiber of your being that the story is bigger than the many incidents. But going down the rabbit hole feels like the whole world could collapse. Everything you believed may be untrue, and can you bear it?

Many stay outside where it feels safe. Just turning yourself over again and forgetting the alarm clock for a moment. The bed is lovely, like a warm blanket around you. From the outside, that rabbit hole looks dark and cold. Who knows what you will encounter. What dangers are there. Nor is there anyone pushing you in or expecting you to go in. Indeed, most are outside it.

No turning back

After the usual hesitations, you have persevered and now there is no turning back. You have chosen to get out of bed and walk around in the real world. How strange that world looks. Actually, this looks like the same experience as when you were that stubborn child, born on an alien planet. You see how the world really is, no longer how others want you to see the world.

You see one lie after another. You puncture some lies more easily than others. Some lies you have not yet seen through because you cannot see through everything at once. You also unconsciously choose not to see some lies. It can be too intense. Pushing through a lie that puts so many of your loved ones on the wrong side of history is not easy to do.

In the pit

It’s also so much, there are so many lies. There are more lies than truth. Welcome to the human world. And you already felt so alone. So how can you descend even deeper into this bottomless pit? Does everything really have to be demolished? Will nothing at all remain of my faith in humanity? This is the time when many do not descend further into the pit, down the rabbit hole.

You have already come far, but it seems far enough. After all, you have already awakened so much further than so many others. You have seen enough. Why get any further ahead of the music. Because at the bottom of the well is probably someone who will say that you are not there yet. That above all, you still have to work with yourself. Because the world is not outside of you. Do you even feel like doing that?

The destination

Why do you think all these insights came your way? Was it a coincidence? Or has life laid out a particular plan for you? Is life asking you to become more awake? Opinionated. Insight. Persistence. Observing. Knowing. The process that every person and all humanity goes through. Waking up, becoming aware. We have no choice and will have to stand up one day.

Who are you? That is the question that goes beyond all lies. Seeing through the lies and being able to behold how the world really works is only the trigger to arrive at this question. Looking the monster in the mouth is necessary, but ultimately our challenge is to know ourselves. Don’t linger in the outer world, but enter your inner world.

Many awake people do not make this last step. They continue to name what is wrong in the world. On the one hand, this is good to help others wake up. But on the other hand, it is about so much more. The real awakening happens within yourself. If you really want to break free from the unreal world, you will have to go inward and hit bottom. Would you want to?

By Nico Cost for GlobalSouth.co