What’s real?
Seems like a simple enough question. Years ago, I thought I knew the answer. I was real. The physical world was real. Even the parts I could not sense (as long as science devised a way to measure them).
Dreams were not real. Ghosts were not real. Bigfoot was not real. Santa Claus was not real. Neither were fairies, witches or aliens. God was not real.
Like so many other people in this world, I was completely insane.
Some part of me was unsatisfied with the situation however. In some small, secret way, I wanted the unreal things to be real. I wanted to believe. I seemed to be faced with a thoroughly unpalatable choice; the logical but ultimately meaningless world that was real and true or the more comforting imaginary world inhabited by the believers. The make-believers.
So I studied the situation and eventually figured out that the assumption of a binary model was incorrect. “Realness” is a position within a gradient. A point on a scale that is only meaningful relative to other points on that same scale.
Later in life, after I was free, I was able to fold my mind around this concept and see that my previous dilemma was simply the product of an insufficiently prepared mind. Once I could see that everything is completely real as well as completely imaginary, I gave myself permission to take control and shape reality to reflect my every desire.
And that’s when I realized that I already had.
As have you.