On imagination
Dialogues on Checkerism
- Wise man, you told us to look for signs of deity within our own feelings and mind. How do we know if what we sense is real or fake? How do we know if a sign is sparked by the divine or sparked by our own imagination?
- Everything is imagination.
- Deity is merely imagination? It isn't real?
- Imagination is as real as you and me, as real as the chair you sit on.
- Then deity is a figment of my imagination? Do we all share the same figment, like mass-hypnosis?
- Your imagination differs from mine. Thus your views of deity and divinity differ from mine. I can't say what your deity looks like unless you draw a picture, even when we discuss the same deity.
- But wise man, what does divinity have to do with imagination? Isn't a god an outside source, capable of influencing us? Where does imagination come in play?
- Think of any god. Think of the creator for instance. Do you have a clear picture? Now, is the creator actually present? I don't mean in creation, but as a person. Is the creator present amongst us? They aren't, are they? Then how did you create a picture?
- By using imagination?
- Exactly. The creator and other deity might not fit in our plane of existence. Thinking of (or praying to) a deity therefore forms a connection between you, the requestor, and the deity, the responder. Deity who don't fit in our plane use that connection to show themselves in such a way that you can understand them. They create a personalised view of themselves, that fits each individual's imagination.
- Thus I can see divinity in the chair, while you see divinity in the bramble bush, for instance?
- For instance.
- Then how do we know for sure, wise man, that deity guide our imagination? How can we tell that it isn't our own mind, depicting what we wish?
- By getting to know yourself. We will do some excercises to that effect when you are ready.