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*Forty Three

I've talked about charisma in my other posts, but haven't devoted a lotta time. Now I will. What is charisma? What does it do? How does it work? Can you see it? Can you get it? Are you born with it? Is it the same as confidence? 

Charisma is the ability of a person, a single person, to have and hold people's attention regardless of what they're doing and saying. It seems that whatever is happening, grating cheese or mowing a lawn or telling a story, we want to know what they're doing, why they're doing it like they're doing it. Can we help? Can we listen? Can we be close? The story could be one of the most pedestrian, long-winded tales and we still wanna sit in front of them, legs crossed in front of us, hands under our chins, waiting for the next word to tumble from their lips. If someone without charisma tells s shit story, we zone out quick. Try to get away. To look for a place to interject so we don't have to hear another asinine sentence poison the air. What is this power. Super power really. Anything not readily available, possessed by a few and sought after by all, that's a super power. They're like giant people magnets, these charismatic characters. Why them? Why do we listen? Why do we flock? Why do we try to make ourselves in their image?

I believe some people are born with charisma, that is innate in their make-up. I've been around kids who haven't had time to earn anything and they hold a room of children and adults wrapt as they muck about and be silly. They're magnets already! They haven't had time to learn a skill like that. Kids are good at manipulation, but this is beyond manipulation. We often just do what they say, without much question. Charismatic people are able to make us feel great about ourselves. They lift us up, make us levitate (there's that superpower again) and become powerful like them. While we're near. But we can still get knocked down easily. Charismatic people seem to have a force field around them. Impervious to what is happening around them. Like a pitcher alone with the ball on the mound, while 50,000 screaming opposition fans yell at him to fuck it up. Charisma can shut that off. Stick, stone, names calling, hate -- it bounces off harmlessly and thuds to the ground. The charismatic person standing there like Superman/Superwoman with their hands on their hips, chest out, chin in the air. It's a sight. They lift us up, so we flock and listen and try to be like them, hoping it'll rub off. But it doesn't. At all. When the person leaves, all the charisma leaves with them.

I used to believe that you either had charisma or you didn't. That is how most charisma exists. But, if you can work on yourself, slowly build your confidence, up, up, up, over a long period of time, you can begin to gain some. Earned charisma. This is not easy. You have to be willing to go deep inside yourself, all the way to the bottom. Love yourself unconditionally, forgive yourself and the others around you for any shortcomings or misdeeds. You have to have an amazing Imagination and the courage to be yourself always and everywhere. Do that and the seed of charisma can begin to grow. True charisma that cannot fade. I don't see confidence and charisma as the same thing, but they have a very close relationship. A cause and effect relationship. Like building a house. Confidence is all the lumber and nails and materials and labor that go in to building a house. Each alone have some confidence, but put together in a careful, thoughtful way will give you the house that will be there as long as any of us are alive. The house is charisma. And the materials to build it are hard to come by, despite being inside of all of us. We can all become charismatic, we only have to be willing to take the journey fraught with danger and things most of us would rather see stay hidden.

Charismatic people hold almost all the positions of power in our society. Which sounds great! But charisma is the ability to get people to do what you want them to do. That power is dangerous. Very dangerous. And even well meaning people can get sucked into it and themselves and begin to see people as things instead of human beings. Things, robots, sheep that will follow and wait on you, no matter how much of a prick/cunt you may be to them. That ugliness is everywhere around powerful people. We need to begin to see these people for sho they are. The people blessed with charisma, who are using their superpowers for evil. We need to extricate ourselves from them and move on, to people who care about us. People who will help us build our own true confidence and then charisma. If people are not treating you as an equal, get the fuck outta there. Get outta their tractor beam. We don't need them to be amazing. We all can be amazing if we focus on ourselves and our interior growth and acceptance. We could have a Universe filled with beautiful charismatic people, who use their superpowers to lift up those around them.

Look at yourself and the people in your life and if there are charismatic people or any people who are making you feel bad about yourself, treating you as a lesser person, being obstacles in your dreams and destiny, let them go. Let them go. It doesn't have to be an ugly divorce, but step away. Everyone deserves happiness, confidence and charisma of their own. Go find yours!

Philosophy of Imagination*Forty

I'm forty now and I've never felt so young. It's like a drug, that I've waited for on-line, for twenty years. Worth the wait, bet your ass. I didn't know so many neurons could fire so much goodness at once. Imagination is my drug, my juice, my love--trumped only by my wife and family and dogs. Imagination has given me everything and I can't wait to keep feeding it daily.

I read a recent article about 'Simulation Theory'. It's basically the plot of THE MATRIX, minus the evil human battery overtones. The theory posits that our whole Universe and existence is a computer simulation, a real life Sims. It's interesting to think about. After writing all the code, doing all the math, tinkering with algorithms, did they push the button (The Big Bang) and let us go? Are they constantly manipulating things? Who is it?

I find the theory interesting and fascinating to think about, as do most. The Matrix blew almost all minds and it's remained popular, because WOW! What the fuck? That could be true? Are we in a simulation? Well done Wachowskis! Nailed the jump, didn't stick the landing and I think for good reason. Because when they tried to explain the start and continued existence of us and our Universe, the theory gets too confusing and stupid. I believe mostly, because it's a fun theory, but untrue.

Computers want perfection. Without it, they don't work very well. Ever get a virus on your computer or run outta memory? Shit starts to go bad quick and fast. You're computer becomes a miracle to a pile of junk in no time. Complicated systems have lots of complicated problems and our Universe is most certainly complicated and the most complicated thing in this complex Universe is our complicated brains. 

If we lived in a computer simulation, things would be breaking down all the time. We would see behind the curtain, the wires, the smoke and mirrors of our creation. We would see the fuck ups. They'd be all over, all the time. But not one person has witnessed one or has any proof it. Kinda like God. God as computer programmer--I think not.

Our Universe is imperfection. That's what makes it beautiful. Computers work on perfection and perfection is dull and boring. We aren't a computer simulation. We are a fucked up, disorganized, cluttered mess of beautiful being.

Philosophy of Imagination*Thirty Seven

Who are you? Who who? Who who? It's a great question. Who are you? Not what you want. Not what you do for a job. Not where you live. Not your age. Not your gender. Not your color. Not how you dress. Who are you? Inside? The stuff that can't be seen. 

What do you believe? What are your morals and values? What is your philosophy on life? How do you treat people? Your family? Yourself? And if you're not who you are yet, who do you want to be?

THIS IS WHAT MATTERS MOST. However, you ask most these people and they don't have answers to these basic, simple questions. People have no idea who they are and what they stand for -- which doesn't include shit you don't like. We constantly make decisions based on what we DON'T want, instead of what we DO want. The lesser of two evils (Election 2016...). People are conforming, fitting in, two scared to go out on their own and be themselves. It's crippling. Their Imaginations have withered to nothing. They can no longer Imagine who they are, so they look around to see what they should do, the exact opposite of how you should be thinking and living. Never without, always within.

Who are you?

Philosophy of Imagination*Twenty Nine

I am an Imagination Salesman.

I sell the greatest and most powerful thing in the Universe. It's beautiful and sexy and exciting and I love sharing it with the World. I will be a great Imagination Salesman, one of the best ever. I'll sell happiness, empathy and oneness. 

I am not afraid of showing the Universe exactly who I am. I am not afraid of being told no. I am not afraid of rejection. I am not afraid to jump. I am not afraid to fall. I am not afraid of the unknown. I am not afraid to look silly. I am not afraid to chase. I am not afraid of being obnoxious. I am not afraid of money. I am not afraid of success. I am not afraid to work hard. I am not afraid to have a lotta people counting on me. I am not afraid of failure, because it doesn't exist if I keep trying. I am not afraid of fame and all of its trappings. I'm not afraid to be persistent. I'm not afraid to talk to anyone. I am not afraid to walk away if they're fucking with my vision. I am not afraid to walk away if they wanna go against my morals and values and life philosophy. I am not afraid to make people upset and angry. I am not afraid to have people hate me. I am not afraid to ask for help. I am not afraid to give much of myself to help the World. I am not afraid of pressure. I am not afraid to be broke in pursuit of writing and filmmaking. I am not afraid of pain. I am not afraid of darkness. I am not afraid of evil. I am not afraid of secrets. I am not afraid of power. I am not afraid of being super weird. I am not afraid to be ME!!!

I am an Imagination Salesman!!!