Philosophy of Imagination*Forty Four

The Collective Conscious. What is it? Theories abound, so I will pull the pieces I believe to be the most valid to create my own theory. The most popular idea is that the collective conscious is, we'll call it Air, because it can be and permeate everywhere. Air is everywhere, except for in a vacuum, but there is still something there, the ether, is made up of something, we're just not sure what yet. Probably really tiny particles. Digression done.

The collective conscious is the Air that exists everywhere, that connects everything. The Air/Collective Conscious/Force, since it is everywhere contains ideas, morality, values -- floating around and a Imagination/sharp conscious is one that is better able to connect itself to this Air all around. There is no true form to all these things floating around. It's chaos. That's where your Imagination comes in. It's like your space suit for going out to explore this Air, to pull things from it and bring them back in to  your mind. There, in your own Imagination, separate from the Air is where you put together the things that you found. Just like I'm doing with this theory. Your Imagination creates order of the disparate pieces. That's the magic of you.

We're not pulling fully formed ideas from the Air. We're grabbing pieces, words, images, colors as they zip around. How we catch them and put them together is what makes each one of us (and our Imaginations) unique. After procuring the bits, our Imagination creates something beautiful out of the chaos. Being connected to your own Imagination and the Air/World around you is how you get better at  tuning into it all. It takes a lot of practice and time to get there, save the rare few geniuses who get spit out into this World. There are plenty of people who thing clear ideas and stories and art are flying around whole, but I believe that to be bullshit. Without our individual Imaginations, it's just chaotic stuff. You must learn how to harness and control the air and I don't mean superpowers or making objects move or some shit. Being receptive. Being present. Being you.

As a Public, as humanity, we try to capture as much of the collective conscious as we can and write it down into books, magazines, online articles, blogs, paintings, sculptures, architecture, speeches, so we can create understanding and discussion. This is what makes us people. Curiosity about the World. The desire to have it make sense. You can go as deep or as shallow as you want. I hope everyone wants to go deep, but that is not for me to decide. Everyone does that on their own and there should be no outside pressure. There are not many absolute truths in the Universe. Very few. But we must be open minded and empathetic, as to see the truths of others. Everyone has their own truths and we must respect that.

The trouble comes in lies. Where people say things they know to be untrue, even to themselves. This misinformation poisons and hurts all that it touches, to varying degrees. I recently heard a nice parable in the movie DOUBT. A woman confesses to her pastor that she has gossiped. She wanted forgiveness. The pastor said, first, take a feather pillow to the roof of your building and tear it open. The woman did and the wind began to catch the feathers. When she returned to the pastor, she told him that she had done what he told her to do. Now can I be forgiven. One more thing, he said. Now I need you to go gather up all the feathers that came out of the pillow. That's impossible -- they flew everywhere. That's gossip and lies. When these lies get repeated, they begin to look a lot like truth. We gotta be careful. We gotta be careful. Lies are poison and they can destroy even more completely and accurately than a missile. 

The Air is full of lies and we must learn to avoid them. It's hard, but we all have the ability and Imaginative power to stop, think and pull things apart. We all have the wherewithal to extract the truth. Don't forget you have that power. It is strong. You also have to have the courage to go into the Air and pull things out. There is a lot of scary, dark, evil shit out there and you will have to withstand it to find goodness and life. Often times, goodness and knowledge reside inside the evil and you have to be absurdly brave to go inside of it and extract the light.

We need as many Air/Collective Conscious explorers as we can get. We need the brave, courageous and intrepid. Find that in your true self and let's go journeying into the unknown!

Philosophy of Imagination*Twenty One

Why do we live in cities? Why do we pack and stack ourselves into small parcels of land that are dirty and polluted? Why do we pay exorbitant rents to live like a caged animal? There is plenty of land and opportunity other places. Look at fucking Montana! Wide open. I think they may still be giving land away free there. Sure, there is a lot more to do in New York City or Chicago or Boston. A lot more to see, but you can always travel there and see and do in chunks. Then return home to your beautiful, unadulterated, clean land, where the only thing crowding you is the trees. Why do millions stay crammed in the vacuum of the metropolis?

The better your Imagination you have, the more you use it to create beauty and art, the more gravity you will create. When you pack all those Imaginative, creative, charismatic people into a geographically small place, then the place will also have more gravity. As the gravity of a city grows, it pulls in more Imaginative/creative people, until you have a place filled with culture and beauty the these amazing people have created. And more come to bask. 

Sure there are many other factors. People are born there. A lot of them. Their families are there, so they stick around. A lot of people means a lot of jobs, so you have opportunity (despite popular belief, job pay is not commiserate with the cost of living for most professions, because there is a glut of talented workforce, drawn in by the Imagination gravity). There are a lot of things to do (but no one but the very rich (or kids of the very rich) move somewhere based solely on the fact that there's lots of things to do). It's cool to say you live in a big city, so it's a status symbol, mostly for people stuck back in hometowns across the country.

Cities are where things are happening, but most of this is predicated on art and culture and Imagination. It's where the Collective Imagination is thickest and you can feel the ideas swirling and dancing through the air if stop to feel them. But since there is so much other shit going on, people often get lost or overwhelmed or begin to feel inferior, as they were the only interesting creative outsider weirdo in their town and these cities are filled with people much like them from all over the World. Competition is high. If you can manage to not get sidetracked by drugs, alcohol and beautiful people, as well as not getting squished by the pressure or lack of money (which happens to most people first--and then they are ejected back him or to seedier livelihoods or they find themselves living on Long Island selling carpet). 

Cities are some of the most Imaginative places in the Universe. They are great places to be for the Imagineer, but the distractions are immense. Stay focused, tap into the Collective Imagination that is everywhere, pluck it from the sky and carve a place for yourself in the zeitgeist. Otherwise, you may as well move to Montana.

Philosophy of Imagination*Eighteen

Where's happy?

Hopefully all of them. Throw a rock and you'll hit happy. Have you ever been to an amazing concert? The band is playing the best song they've ever written, an energy and vitality like it was the first time they played it and crowd is going apeshit like it's the first time they've heard this musical genius!

What is that special feeling that everyone (except maybe the drunk people barfing in the port-potties) is experiencing? That euphoric happiness that is so strong, if a bomb was dropped on top of all of you, everyone would be fine with it. What is that connectedness that makes you lock eyes with a total sweaty stranger three rows down, while you dance and sing the lyrics to each other? Invisible, but palpable. Free, but invaluable. Strong, but fleeting. What makes this happen?

This can be said of all events where groups of people come together to share a joyous experience. Sports, movies, parades. It can also evaporate quickly and leave sad, anxious, angry feelings if something goes wrong. Like when your football team is winning big and the other team slowly comes back and that moment when they take the lead, its as if everyone was struck with depression and insecurities. They always use the term 'the air got sucked out of the stadium'. What is that? What sucks the collective exuberance out of a crowd? 

Imagination. Our Collective Imagination gets condensed, concentrated when we're all together, sharing an experience. Our Imaginations are working together toward a common idea -- how awesome this concert/game is going to continue to be. The best fucking concert ever! That's what the Collective Imagination is doing and it's so powerful, it can suck in everyone. 

If something goes wrong, someone gets hurt, the music stops, your team goes down late in the game, the same Collective Imagination that created the happiness hysteria, turns to Imagining the worst. The ripples encompassing everyone. Is the person gonna die? That might have been the last note my favorite band ever plays? Our season is over.

Overwhelmingly these events stay positive, fueling our happiness and love for each other without a word being spoken. How can we create more events and coming together moments where we tap into the beauty and power of our Collective Imagination? We should have huge coming togethers for no other reason than coming together.

For love alone.