By: Dr. Adnan Bouzan

Imagine for a moment that consciousness is not an intrinsic trait but merely an incidental phenomenon—an elaborate trick woven by nature into the fabric of time, as if we were characters in a dream that belongs to no one. What if there were no real "I" that perceives itself, but rather a layered illusion that merely claims to be aware? What if your entire existence were nothing more than a mirage shaped by physical laws that are indifferent to whether you are alive or just an ephemeral electronic reflection in a blind universe?

Philosophers have long sought to define consciousness—some have regarded it as the essence of the soul, while others have seen it as a mere biological superimposition. But what if consciousness itself is nothing more than a fleeting hallucination, a wave that rises for a moment and then vanishes? If we view it from a purely physical perspective, it is nothing but chemical interactions and electrical impulses in the brain. And yet, it generates a subjective experience that appears more real to us than anything else. But is this experience truly real, or is it just an elaborate illusion created by complex interactions whose purpose remains unknown to us?

What if free will is just another illusion? Not in the sense that your actions are predetermined by causal necessity, but in the sense that you are not actually the one making decisions. Imagine that you are merely a mirror reflecting the light of events, and that your mind, rather than being the center of command, is merely a receiver picking up signals from a deeper, unidentified entity. What if we are nothing more than tools governed by hidden laws, masquerading as our personal awareness?

All religions and philosophies have assumed that there is something essential within the human being—whether it be a soul, an essence, or a will. But let us be even more radical: what if there is nothing at all? What if you are merely a fleeting point dissolving between the past and the future, your existence nothing more than a momentary flash without any real impact?

Let’s take this even further: what if time itself is an illusion? We do not see the future, nor can we return to the past—we only ever exist in a transient present moment. It is as if we are not moving through time, but rather being continuously updated, much like images on a screen. Perhaps there is no "us" in time at all, but only independent, successive moments with no continuous entity moving through them.

If this assumption is correct, then death is nothing more than the cessation of an image update, and birth is merely the activation of a new file. Perhaps we are nothing but momentary flashes that mistakenly believe they extend through time, but in reality, all we have is "now"—and only now.

This leads us to a troubling question: if we are merely illusions that imagine themselves to be conscious, then who—or what—is experiencing these illusions? Is there something behind this cosmic theater, or is the entire universe just a simulation without an observer, a game without a player?

And if that is true, then we are nothing more than an echo of something that never existed in the first place.

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