AMERICAN IDOLS ARE SECOND HAND IMAGES

IMAGES ARE NOT 'IMAGINATION'

This culture falsely equates imagination with images. We are so inundated by images in the media that we assume we understand imagination. That may not be the case. Imagination is not the plethora of images bombarding us via billboards, magazines, television, video games, computers and movies. Those are from the imaginations of others. They are frozen idols, American Idols, paraded before us as second hand imagination. They are fine images and often entertaining, but they are not perceived by your sense organ of imagination. They are the re-cycled dreams and fantasies of others.

Idolatry is bowing down to the images created by others instead of peering into the imaginal realm for yourself. Both Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and The Door's Jim Morrison recognized this when they were on stage. Both musicians began to despise their fans that lived vicariously through the images of the artists. Roger Waters speaks of his meltdown in a concert in Vancouver, Canada. He said an adoring fan came crashing onto the stage, and Waters spit in his face. He couldn't stand to be the priest serving the new imaginal Mass to 15,000 fans each night. Morrison quit The Doors because of this. At first he fancied the role of the Lizard King, the Dionysian Shaman transporting adoring followers into the imaginal realms. But as time went on, Morrison was sickened by the blind devotees who rode into eternity on his back. He could barley sustain himself.

Each of us must learn to use and trust our imaginal sense organ just as we learn to trust the other sense organs. You must see and know (gnosis) for yourself. "Taste and see if the LORD is good," said the Pslamist. The imaginal sense of tasting invites a gourmet experience that has moved poets, painters and philosophers to feast on the food of eternity. Jesus called it living water and heavenly bread, encouraging his followers to seek this daily imaginal bread in what is called The Lord's Prayer.

FOR AN IN DEPTH VIEW OF THIS ESSAY, GO TO METAPHYSICS CANNOT SEPARATED FROM PHYSICS