The Illusion of Illusion

Where the Mystical and the Material Dance

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien

For years, I was inspired by Mike Dooley’s uplifting teachings. His mantra - Thoughts become things - felt like rocket fuel for the soul. He reminded us that we are “God-beings in time and space,” creators, not victims, with the power to shape our lives through imagination, joy, and bold, loving intention. I believed then, and still do, in the power of thought and the primacy of consciousness.

Dooley often says that time, space, and matter are illusions. He doesn’t mean they’re fake, exactly - but that they’re not ultimately real. Like many in the New Thought and Law of Attraction traditions, he draws from ancient spiritual ideas and pop-science interpretations of quantum physics to suggest that the physical world is a kind of dream, projected by consciousness. In this view, we’re not passive bodies in a random universe - we are artists, painting with thought, energy, and focus.

He encourages us to imagine the end result of what we want, to feel loving intention, and to take baby steps - any steps - in that direction. Knock on every door, turn over every stone, and feel an explosion of gratitude and joy as our vision has already come true - because in our minds, it has. And that, he teaches, is enough to engage the gears of the Universe. “Let the greater intelligence handle the heavy lifting,” he often says. Four minutes of visualization a day is all it takes. The rest is allowing, trusting, acting with love.

There’s a beauty in this vision. It breaks the chains of victimhood. It says we are not defined by circumstance. But there’s also a risk - when “illusion” becomes a license to look away from the very real suffering around us.

Dooley encourages personal responsibility: to own our thoughts, our patterns, even our role in the broader world. So it struck me as a deep contradiction when, after years of my participating in his community - offering plant-based resources, sharing scientific and spiritual reasons for compassionate living - I was told, essentially, to stop. That my advocacy for animals and the planet was “too much,” that bringing up the horrors of industrialized cruelty disrupted the harmony of the group.

When I asked him gently about dairy and eggs - how those industries are built on confinement, mutilation, theft, and killing - he said he didn’t believe the animals “suffer that much.” As if the only measure of harm were how loudly someone screams. As if using and exploiting another being for our pleasure were not itself a form of violence.

But suffering isn’t just physical pain. It’s captivity. It’s betrayal of trust. It’s living a life that’s not our own.

And here’s the deeper irony: Dooley teaches that we are the creators of the universe. That we’re here to joyfully shape this illusion with love. If that’s true - if we are god-beings in time and space - then our daily choices, even our breakfasts, are acts of creation. What we normalize becomes the world.

We didn’t always live this way. Our natural state was gentle, cooperative, herbivorous. But somewhere along the way - when men began hunting, dominating, herding, and finally industrializing the suffering of other animals - we detoured from our empathic nature. That detour became a system. And now that system is threatening all life on Earth.

To heal the world, we don’t need to abandon Dooley’s vision. We need to expand it.

Yes, we are creators. But true creators don’t ignore the cries of those they share the stage with. True gods act with reverence, not domination. And if time, space, and matter are illusions, let us be lucid dreamers - ones who choose love, justice, and alignment with all life.

The world is not “just an illusion” to dismiss. It is a sacred projection of our collective mind - and a mirror reflecting our choices. Let’s make it beautiful.

Author’s Note
I'm Nancy Kogel, lifelong activist, writer, and founder of ROAR (Reaching Out for Animal Rights). You can sign up for our monthly newsletter - featuring events, articles, and resources for compassionate living - at www.veganlove.life. Check out and subscribe to my Youtube channel Reaching Out for Animal Rights (ROAR)

Call to Action
Join the movement for peace, justice, and liberation - for humans and animals. The time is now to reject systems of domination and exploitation and co-create a world rooted in empathy and respect. Going vegan is not just a diet - it's the Swiss Army Knife solution to war, climate collapse, detachment from nature, pandemics, starvation, and violence.

Spread the message. Live the vision. And dream a better world into being - with every thought, step, bite and word joyfully breathed into being.