Imagination is the Linchpin of Reality Creation
Been holding the word “imagination” up to the light for a few months now.
It’s coincided with a journey I’m undertaking into the realm of Shamanism, and as the list of “can’t be explained by the rational mind” occurrences is growing longer, I’m exploring the distinction between what’s “real”, and what’s “made-up” by the mind. Turns out they’re not opposites—they’re inseparable and highly interactive.
This conversation picked up in the middle of a thread that I’ve been pulling on for the past couple of weeks:
Last week I asked, “Do we create fear with our thinking or is it real independent of us?”
Meaning: Is it a benign energetic frequency that we make into fear with our mental narrative, or is it fear before it gets to us? And you said:
"Nothing is real independant of you."
I find this concept challenging.
For example, let’s take one of my beloved trees that I commune with each morning.
If I died, that tree would still exist.
Yes, and it would continue to carry your awareness of it, within it. It's changed by you as much as you're changed by it.
Didn’t see that coming.
Wow, that’s gonna require further reflection… But for now, I’d like to continue with inquiry A. How about we work with something that I’ve never been aware of.
Good luck finding that.
Okay I get that the moment I find it, I’m aware of it, and then we’re back to inquiry B. But I’m still noodling this original idea, that ‘nothing is real independent of us’.
So, there are people, plants, animals, buildings, places that I’ve never met.
That I am unaware of.
How do you know that? That they are.
Hmmm. Okay every way I try to answer that (I’ve heard of them, seen them on TV, read about them in books, been taught about them, etc.) leads me back to my awareness of them, which leads back to (as yet unexplored) inquiry B.
So let’s go another way.
There are things, experiences and energies that I’ve never had direct contact with.
For example: A woman with 5 children living in India.
You just had direct contact with her. You imagined her, and in doing so brought her here.
That's direct contact.
Jesus! Now we’re headed down the biggest rabbit hole opening up in my world right now.
Shamanism.
Shamanism…
But can we stay focused on inquiry A?
Let’s just take a rock in the forest across the road that I know is there because it’s a natural deduction—based on all the other rocks I’ve seen there, and the fact that I’m walking on earth that is in part composed of rocks.
That rock, that I will never come into contact with, exists as a natural consequence of the material world.
And if I die it still exists.
Independent of me.
Therefore, fear exists independent of me.
But is it real? Independant of you?
If it exists, it’s real.
How do you know? If there's no you there to know?
Sure would like an answer to this question…
Why?
So I know what’s real, and what isn’t.
What will that give you?
Solid ground. A direction to move in.
You're always moving. The direction is now. And solid ground is right here beneath you.
Okay fabulous, deep, wow. And can we just do this thing?
If you're in touch with something, it's real in that moment.
So if I’m in touch with fear, it’s real?
Yes.
And if I’m in touch with evil (defined by me in a previous conversation as ‘a threat to my well-being that I’m powerless to stop’)—it’s real?
Yes.
Well that’s scary as fuck.
Only if you think that's the only thing that's real for you.
You're connected to the whole Universe. Courage, creativity, allies, resourcefulness...
All also real.
Oh… This is where imagination comes in.
This is where imagination is access. To everything.
Ok I see it:
If what’s real is limited to what I can knock on, what I have direct evidence for in the moment (evil, fear, whatever)—then I’m not harnessing the power of all that is real by using my imagination to become aware of and come into contact with it.
If I’m in touch with fear (or manifestations of it like scarcity, constriction, limitation, shame, powerlessness, etc)—it’s real. And it’s up to me to conjure something that is not that, when that is all I can perceive.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
*While insight is illuminating, real life practice is where integration happens. I got the chance to test drive this wisdom in real life that very day.
Reporting back in from the field: It checks out.
*Conversations With Consciousness: What exactly are they?
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