Tolle claims that presence can never be the way people “think” it will be because it can only be felt, not understood intellectually. He praises nature for helping people to be present since it is impossible to fully appreciate nature’s wonders while being preoccupied with one’s “personal baggage of problems” (96). Tolle feels that because people are “imprisoned in their minds,” they struggle to “truly see” nature beyond their mental processes (97). Even art, music, and architecture can be fueled by the mind alone, resulting in uninspired art. Tolle refers to modern “urban landscapes” and “industrial wastelands” as proof that mind-dominated people create “ugliness” (98).

Tolle believes that everything in the world—even inanimate objects—has consciousness and is “alive” in some way (99). Each material, animal, and person is a manifestation of “God-essence” that can be experienced as “pure consciousness” (99). Although consciousness can take many forms, it sometimes begins to identify with its “disguise,” such as when people become driven by the egoic mind (100). When people begin to observe their minds instead of identifying with them, Tolle claims that “consciousness is awakening out of its dream” (101). Tolle reiterates that he feels that most people are reliant on sleep, sex, alcohol, and drugs to escape their own minds.