An Indian Rope Trick

Imagining the Impossible

The dictionary defines animatism as … ' The attribution of consciousness and personality to natural phenomena such as thunderstorms and earthquakes and to objects such as plants and stones. ' I take it that … its a process of identification … by the individual to such objects. But does it also mean that the individual … can move such objects by his will? I seem to recall the odd moments as a child … when I thought I was moving the events … that took place around me. But then … I was taught to refer to that as … the laws of dharma.

The things that we come into contact with … like bending a spoon … or the spooky sense of ghosts … that seem to open and shut doors … and move objects in a room … intimates us into notions … that we have yet to learn to view the phenomenon accurately. Its as if we used to do that … a long time ago … and these days … we find ourselves reacting poorly to its loss … and hence toss things about in a contemptuous re-enactment. Its a statement about the will … particularly in relation to ambition … or a cause.

How does an individual respond to such notions in their experiences? By attributing it to desire … as in the desire to create something … and to experience the joy of relating to it. It appears that such notions of our abilities … eventually come to rest on the … the pride of our ability to do so. Thereafter it has little concern with causes … but seeks to express its ability … as a statement about itself. Its here that we go terribly wrong … and the world's experience of tyrants … despots … and fascist personalities … reminds us of its destructive nature.

Social initiatives … regarding animatism … brought to us delightful fairy tales … anima stories … and the incredible way in which … we named the stars and constellations … after personalities … we experienced in the earth's realm. It brought a little magic to our lives … with accounts of angels … and the suggestions it created about wish fulfillment. Its made an immeasurable addition to our lives … and helped us to manage the rigors of the mind … in relation to the … the mysteries of the creation faculty.

In these times … we encounter the complaint … that we can't do more with that. Instead we have to go to school … subscribe to social norms … laws … and in general to apply ourselves … to the orderly sense of a collective will … in which everyone it seems may apply themselves … with such wish fulfillment. At moments like this … it helps to ask … ' so what is it that's so important for everyone else?' Obviously … its a sense of continuing development … in an orderly manner … in search of the ultimate fulfillment of … the desires that arise from … the normal human disposition.

And in order to discover that … we undertake learning … as in a review of history … or in identifying social needs … that provides us with an understanding of our power to create … and to help us understand … how we may best optimize the ability … for our own individual enthusiasm. Its a pit stop … time out … to check on how well we are doing. And human history is dotted with such pit stops .. before we moved on. And each brought us to … a new epoch in our experiences in the world.

However like its older cousin … animism … that worshiped the sun and the moon … the practice of animating objects in the world … from our desires … produces an autistic rage … on the pleasure principle … when denied from its achievement. The dictionary defines … autism as … ' an abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people.' The operative expression is … ' abnormal self absorption ' … that is founded on the desires … like we are reliant on dreams … as the guide to reality.

The condition is experienced primarily … at the stage of youth … moving into pre-adult … and in a life lived … it is the responsibility of the adult to bring an education to his autistic perceptions … and … to guide it to … its goals for achievement. In engaging it … the adult realizes that … its almost like … the instrument that creates wave particles and ions … in his constitution … that may have created the universe in the beginning. It undertook that in relation to mind … and would today respond to the mind's understanding of itself.

Stories of the Indic rope trick … of which I am only familiar by reputation … seem to report on the possibility of recovering a part of that ability in man. The same may be said of the magician's acts of magic … the shaman's sorcery … and human ability to understand the moods of pets. This is certainly a grand advancement for managing the impulse … away from the … destructive ability … to toss objects in a mood of disorderly rage. With practice … it may be possible to close the gap between … reasoned knowledge … and the intuitive relation we have with matter.

Our experience of duality … and our gender relations … informs us of the unique properties … both of the passions and the mind. It acts to create a division between the two … that we relate to … like two sides of the coin of discourses … about issues. Quite often our lives … bring us to an experience of one … at the exclusion of the other … and paints a portrait of the individual personality … that shows one part active … while the other is inactive. In much the same way … the Indic believes that … an urban life supports the cause for learning … while a life reincarnated in the forests … emphasizes the development of the passionate appeals.

The issue comes into daily application … in the relations … between an older and younger brother. It provides the opportunity … in every life … to examine their roles … and for the individual to build his understanding … regarding it. Needless to say … if its true that the quality of animism … draws itself all the way from the beginning of creation … it makes for an edgy relations between the two. But its an opportunity to study the phenomenon of man … for the future … of which I'm sure … we will undertake.

I remember viewing a map of the constellations … one time … as I was simply fulfilling my role in the mind … when I felt an odd sensation of amusement rising within. So in a sub-conscious manner … I referred to the quality of animism … with the comment … ' I suppose I'll understand this better … simply by looking within.' And I received the reply … ' Of course!' And that is as far as I go with this narrative today!