Reality has gone into a strange, dark place -- quite literally. Historically, quantum physics and the theory of relativity are responsible for demolishing the familiar world presented to us by the five senses.

Our compromise with the five senses keeps in place a wrap-around, twenty-four seven, three-dimensional illusion. This is the real Matrix.

We forget. We forget that there is something greater that dwells amidst the accolades, the trips and the fancy meals -- the every day of life. This understanding has become lost as social networking sites become our primary source of communication. We deliberately try to set ourselves apart, to be seen, to be happier than the update before us.

Because there has been not the slightest success in discovering how consciousness is created from atoms and molecules, our hypothesis is that consciousness came first; it is the source of evolution, life, creativity in nature and the emergence of intelligence.

A rose has no color until the visual cortex of the brain processes the information from photons striking the retina. That is indisputable. But nobody can spot how a neuron in the visual cortex suddenly "sees" red.

Perception, as Deepak says, is mind-made. Perhaps no two sets of eyes will see exactly the same rose, and it may be frustrating when our experiences don't align perfectly with someone else's.

No philosopher using deduction or researcher using brain scans has been able to prove with certainty that our perception of the world matches "reality as it is out there."

In a modern global world that increasingly encourages a 24/7 connected lifestyle, it is important that each of us manages to find balance, harmony, and coherence within our inner states.

Even when an old, heavy redwood tree falls terminally to the ground, its seeds are already on their way to producing another life. And now, as we look to the year 2013, we can discuss the importance of realizing that the ending of year 2012 is merely prepping us for what's to come.

We saw played out on the national stage how seductive it is to believe our own fabrications about the way it is, and we saw the prices we'll pay as a result of our unwillingness to look beyond what we think we already know.

Our awareness of the presence of spirit in our lives is governed by five laws of spiritual consciousness. As we become able to comprehend and align ourselves with them, we gain access to the treasures they guard.