I admire the ideas of George Berkeley. He’s probably misunderstood. He probably didn’t think what he was saying was the absolute nature of reality in it’s precise form. He merely brought to the surface that you can be completely sane and logical and believe that the physical doesn’t exist (or more accurately, that the material world is created in the immaterial mind foremost thus being a byproduct of immaterial and its existence being a collective perception). He isn’t a contemporary man with knowledge of today’s technology or advancements, but I think his ideas (whether true or not) still hold up fairly well. I don’t hold onto his philosophy as the elite definition of metaphysics, but I have certainly incorporated a similar mindset into my not-so-concrete conception of reality that is compatible with my outlook on life.

My Morning Jacket tapped on Berkeley’s shoulder by bringing up some of his ideas into song, this one being called “Steam Engine.”

So I do believe, none of this is physical
At least not to me
So, I do believe
That anywhere it goes
It’s always with me
It’s not the dream
That makes you weak
It’s not the night that makes you sleep
But it’s a voice, and it’s a choice
To call you out, or stay at home
So, I do believe
None of this is physical
At least not to me
So I do believe
That anywhere it goes
It’s always with me
It’s not the beast, it’s not the sheets
So soft and warm, all over me
But it’s the touch, you need so much
To move around on this green earth
Take your money and your drugs
Take your money and your drugs
To anyone who wondered
What old Jesus meant to me
Take him out to go diving
In Red Patoka sea
The brain melts in the twilight
With the boar and moving trees
Your skin looks good in moonlight
And Goddamn those shaky knees
The fact that my heart’s beating
Is all the proof you need

We got ’em
We got ’em
We got ’em
We got ’em
[ad infinitum]

What I get from this is money and drugs can be taken as unimportant as they are physical. It’s not the night that makes you sleep, as you could sleep with any physical surrounding. Anywhere you go, your mental perception is always with you. The brain melts in the twilight with the boar and moving trees because the vision of the “external world” is captivating because we can sense it.

We got ’em. We got the bits of the universe in our mind, but not necessarily in vivid consciousness [We are not the universe though; Pantheism isn’t what is meant here]. We are finite and imperfect, so we will never fully understand it all. But a greater perceiver can.