Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. - Edgar Allan Poe, "Eleonora"
Ever stop to think, and sometimes realize, that some things are real when you've always thought they weren't? Mainstream media and modern science are used to teach us, condition us, that some things just aren't possible because they haven't been proven, yet they won't accept the fact that it hasn't been disproven. Instead, the media and sciences seek to label things they don't fully understand. They make assumptions influenced by the monotheistic society they are surrounded by and, together, work to convince others that their assumptions are facts. More often than not, their partnership succeeds in perpetuating a false truth, which the public eagerly embraces because we are taught not to question science, not to question our textbooks, not to question authority, those who do, are the outcasts, the minority who will never have a voice nor be taken seriously.
Is what you perceive to be "evil" really evil? Or has your perception been twisted and molded to that of the mainstream? Do you do your own research, taking the word and experiences of the minority into account, or do you just allow the "moral majority" to determine what is true and what is false for you?
Obviously, we know that not all Natives wear feathers in their hair and have names like "Stands with a Fist". I can say this here because of the people who have access to this blog. This is something you are familiar with, and balk at when confronted with such imagery. If one culture can be misrepresented, how many others have been treated the same way?
Who's job is it to determine the fantasy from the reality? By who's influence must we judge the difference? Or could it just be fear? We always hear the phrase "Fear of the Unknown". I perceive this to mean fear of that which we do not know. Naturally, that would be the consensus. That's what it means. So why not know about it? Why not research and educate yourself about it? Why not throw your preconceptions out the window and start as if you've never heard of the topic before? But even then, do you choose to go with the majority, made up of people who have no, or very little, real experience in the area, or do you go with the minority who have nothing but personal experience and have lived through it?
Some people believe in ghosts, others don't. Those who do, believe what they have experienced, not what science tries to explain away and label. Some people are fearful (thanks to media and the primitive stories our parents used to make us behave) and look for any excuse to alleviate their fear, others ignore the situation and others willingly accept that there may be more to our existance than everyday living and our petty relationships with the people around us. If ghosts are real, what else could be real?
How much credibility do you give to the media and sciences for teaching you about a certain subject? What about personal experiences? Does someone with personal experience have more truth to say than someone who's merely observed? How do you determine credibility? References? What makes those references credible? A degree? Can a degree from an educational institution be deemed credible if it's influenced by the beliefs of a religious majority?
Over and over again you hear that someone's imagination has run wild. For someone to have an imagination, it must have been influenced and/or experienced. Take for instance illustrations of monsters. You see a movie that uses a monster you've never seen before and chalk it up to someone's creative imagination. That monster didn't come from out of nowhere, it was influenced by what the creator has seen. The creator takes bits and parts of other monsters and animals to create something new. Hence, there is no such thing as an original concept. Everything is influenced by something else.
So we come to legends and myths. We're told these are nothing more than stories, primitive beliefs in world where science didn't have much of a foothold. But who's to say the Sun really isn't the god Ra, or Apollo? Science says it a huge mass of gasses that illuminates and warms our earth. Sure, that's what it is on the outside, but do we know what a god looks like? I walk down the street and see a woman walking with two children. So am I to say, "there goes a woman who doesn't have a car or a husband to help her with her children"? That's what I see, so obviously that must be the truth. Nevermind that those might not be her kids at all, that her husband may be a work, that her husband is another female, or that she may just be on a daily walk or her car is in the shop. There could be many reasons as to why this woman is walking alone with two children.
So the question is, how much do we allow others to tell us what to believe and what not to believe? And do we break our conditioning to explore the subject further and form our own opinions or merely let others do the work for us?
- Elathan's Muse
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