Theory of the Boxed Reality: A Philosophical Proposition Chapter 1: Introduction
Before we begin, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this. Many hours have been dedicated to the planning, designing and writing of this theory. Theory of the Boxed Reality proposes a new way of looking at the world around us. It seeks to answer supposedly unanswerable questions, as well as questions science has posed to man for time immemorial.
I’m not a psychoanalyst nor a scientist. I don’t claim to be anything I’m not. I’m not a tin-foil hat wearing “flat Earther”. I’m not a dreamer. I’m a realist; this is the basis of the theory.
I’m not putting this idea forward for it to be ridiculed or savaged by what we consider to be the pillars of the universe: mathematics and science. To understand, to have an open mind about this theory; you must be able to detach yourself from what you were taught as fact. Einstein’s theories of relativity; Newton’s laws; Lemaȋtre’s theory of the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe. You must, for the sake of the pursuit of knowledge, question what the majority accepts as fact. My theory of a “Boxed Reality” presents not a solution, but a new, modified way of thinking about yourself, others, reality and your place in it. I was born into religion; and I’m not ashamed to say I saw through the
façade they berated us with in Church. However, during my stay at a Catholic school, I began exploring alternatives to what we had been taught during services of worship; an omnipotent, all-knowing, all-forgiving God that created the Universe in 6 days - it didn’t sit well with me. I explored
branches of philosophy: metaphysics; externalism; determinism; epistemology, then I stumbled upon solipsism. The idea of not being sure whether anything or anyone exists outside of your own mind is a hard one to wrap your head around. An early version of solipsism (solus, “alone”. ipse, “self”) was developed by Gorgias, an Ancient Greek philosopher. George Berkeley and Rene Descartes both made significant contributions to the philosophy from the 1600’s through to the 1700’s before it modernized into what we know it as today.

My theory (hereafter referred to as “TBR”) does not specifically call on
solipsism, but its mention here is important. Rather than solipsism; the
psychopath’s dream, TBR calls heavily on Idealism; the Subjective branch
in particular. Subjective Idealism is a very important branch of Idealism in regards to its stance on the mind and the world that it perceives. Subjective Idealism w
as an idea of George Berkeley’s, an Irish philosopher that did most of his work in the 1700’s. On Subjective Idealism’s most basic level, it states that only minds and mental contents exist. Berkeley then went on to deny the existence of the non-mental, an idea termed immaterialism. Idealism, though actually a broad group of closely related ideas, states that reality is a mental construct, or otherwise immaterial. Absolute Idealism draws on this idea, asserting that there is a single, all-mind encompassing reality. TBR builds on this idea, seeking to create a new way of looking at what we know as reality. If we were to hypothetically accept Berkeley’s theory that only minds exist,
we would have to question whether his theory supported the presence of a “soul”
. TBR states that the soul is a not a physical being, but an eternal mental companion. The existence of such a concept is absolutely fundamental to TBR. So instead of using Subjective Idealism in its most widely accepted modern form, we will draw lightly on its ideas and rules, using it as a foundation upon which to build TBR. The soul is what I term a “Cross -Life Identifier”. The term sounds fairly modern and technological but the soul is neither of these things. It is a non-physical, non-aging construct serving a main purpose of mental identification. To understand the concept of mental identification, we must delve deeper than simply a definition. TBR subscribes to the theory of reincarnation.
When one’s mind ceases to work, it ceases existing on a mental plane. Thus, you are dead. What next? Almost instantaneously, you are born. Possibly in this reality, perhaps in another. But that doesn’t matter – you have reincarnated, however with no actively accessible memory of your past lives. If we were to hypothetically take reincarnation as fact, it would explain the seemingly unanswerable question that has plagued the mind for millennia. What happens after death?

A good example of what I’m about to describe is this: have you ever had a strange dream? A dream
that didn’t make sense? Or even a dream you would assume was based on real life? Perhaps you saw a notable building, or you were at a beach. TBR states that some of these dreams are memories of a past life, either originating in this reality or another. These memories are stored not in the mind, but in the soul. At the point of death, the mind ceases to exist, but not the soul; keeping in mind it is non-aging, thus making it what we would term “immortal”. During the reincarnation process, the soul moves into its new mind (hence its definition as a mental companion), stockpiling memories of past lives. This concept does a good deal to explain mental phenomena such as déjà vu, pareidolia, and even false memory. In conclusion of this introductory chapter; I sincerely hope I have introduced the theory in such a way that others can understand. A summary of what we have learned so far according to TBR:
Only minds, mental contents, and the soul exist;
The soul is an eternal mental companion;
There is a single, all-mind encompassing reality;
When one “dies”, reincarnation is imminent.