The World of Illusion

By Steve Bailey

There's nothing wrong with illusion, as long as you know its illusion. Illusion is something the mind makes up to support itself in what it is up to. It can be a picture, a sound, including spoken language, or a sensation in the body. The main function of the mind or consciousness was supposed to be entertainment, but in practice it turns out to be something less delightful.

There's the old story about the mother and grown daughter. The mother is helping in the daughter's kitchen as they prepare a meal for a family gathering. The mother watches perplexed as the daughter takes a large roast out of the fridge and proceeds to lop off both ends of the main course, discarding them before placing the remainder in the cooking pan. Mom can't resist asking, "What did you do that for?"

To which the daughter replies, "Do what?"

"Why did you throw away all that meat?"

"That's how you taught me to do it. When I was about seven, I was helping you cook dinner and I remember you did it that way."

Mom is nonplussed for a moment, then recalls, "I know, I was in a huge hurry and couldn't find a roasting pan big enough, so I trimmed off the ends so it would fit!"

The daughter made up a rule that was based on one unusual event and contrary to common sense, continued in this illusion for years. The discovery of this illusion is an opportunity to be entertained, to observe ourselves making something important over and over again with no data from the outside to support it. Let's explore more of what the mind has actually been up to and then we'll also talk more about entertainment.

The mind has the ability to perceive what is not there or to not perceive what is there. An illusion. Young children (about age two and older) exhibit this all the time in the form of imaginary friends, monsters in the closet, or a dust mop seen as a dragon. Creative, playful thought. Harmless, right? As we grow up this sort of thing is often belittled or coaxed away. It goes underground and continues to be practiced, but on an unconscious level. Because we have consciousness, we know how to create an illusion and that's very useful when we don't like what is happening outside of ourselves, outside of our control. It's a way of coping. We say, "I don't like that, things should be some way other that what they are. I think I'll make it this way." However, if we forget that we made up some illusion to help us cope with a specific situation and it becomes "true" for us underneath our awareness. We will then tend to generalize and protect the illusion so that we feel safe. To keep one illusion in place over time tends to have us generate more illusions to support it. Almost all of what we defend against using illusion (exceptions include violent acts of nature, speeding trains, and mother bears with cubs) is harmless. The mind is busy trying to correlate the illusions it has made up and stored to see if any of them match the current situation. In the meantime, we have lost the present moment as consciousness is being misused as a defense system instead of attending to what is going on now. Shutting out the limitless possibilities in each moment drastically decreases our quality of life.

We have made predictability, consistency, and control the cornerstones of our world. Control is what the mind is mainly up to instead of being the source of profound entertainment. Control is simply an attempt to make the next moment be a particular way or as much like the last moment as possible. How much fun is that? Think about how little it takes to entertain a young child, let's say under two. When you open their birthday gifts, what do they often play with instead of the toy? The box, the wrapping paper, the bow -- anything that is less complicated and contains more possibilities. This is basic human nature. We look at something and use our mind to imagine it being different or having other possibilities or uses. The child might taste the gift box, or wear it as a hat, or hit the dog with it, just to explore the possibilities. The child is building useful distinctions, through actual experience, about the properties of the pasteboard box. The trouble is, as we grow up we do less tinkering and gradually more "thinkering." In turn, the illusion and the process of exploration of what is real in the present moment move farther apart, and without a consistently long enough attention span to bridge the gap, we frequently cannot distinguish between the illusion and the process. We miss what could entertain and energize us.

So how is your world built? What do you make important? What possibilities do you see?

This article is based on the work of Jerry Stocking. Steve Bailey is an experienced student, elementary and secondary teacher, and free-lance writer who's been on the road to himself for the last ten years. If you are curious about how you can make a shift toward play and lightness, you can contact Steve at steveslake@bellsouth.net.