We're in this world. It seems real to us, but it's not really real — it's an ingenious charade designed to make us think that it's real, act as if it's real, and thus allow it to feed on our reality (since we are the only things in it that are real, we are its sole source of vitality).

Because we are real and it isn't, we have the power to escape the illusion, to cross over into a realm where the truth is evident. There's a catch, however: as we exist in this realm of truth, we cannot have any effect on the illusion (since from the standpoint of the realm of truth, the illusion does not exist). The only way to liberate the world from its illusory existence is from within the illusion.

But if we enter into the illusion, do we not surrender ourselves to it? How could we liberate the world from the illusion, if we ourselves are its prisoners? The truth is that since we are real and the illusion is not, it does not, in essence, have any power over us. There's another catch, however: while the illusion is not real, its effect on us — how we think about it, feel about it, believe in it — is real (since we are real).

What all this means is that in order to liberate the world, we need to be both within it and outside of it at the same time. A part of ourselves (let's call it our "body") enters into the illusion and plays by its rules, battling it from within. Another part of ourselves (let's call it our "soul") remains aloof from it. The two selves are deeply connected — they are, in fact, two faces of the same self. If the self that is acting within the illusion succumbs to it, this not only affects the self that's within the illusion, but also the "real" self that remains outside of it. Conversely, the self that remains outside of the illusion empowers the self that's within the illusion to resist it, and ultimately defeat it.

So the success of the mission depends on the two selves remaining in communication with each other, attuned to each other. When the communication and cohesion are absolute — when the body looks at the world and sees right through the illusion as utterly as the soul does — no worldly force can have any power over it. Nothing can prevent it from exposing the fallacy of the illusion and liberating the entire world.

Didn't I see this in a movie somewhere?