The image above inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s THE RAVEN.
There is the world that we usually live in. This is the world of tables and chairs and cell phones and concrete. But we sense that there is more. We always have. It turns out that our consciousness is not confined to the present. We are aware of both what was before and what will come later, although we can be certain of neither.
We also can “reach’ beyond the range of our five senses. Consider how our mathematics can represent all sorts of reality that lies beyond our direct senses. More than that, consider how human beings throughout history have intuited other realms, other entities, other possibilities – Divine energy, heaven, hell, ghosts, angels, goblins, fairies, and on an on. We are intuitive truth-trackers who don’t always get the story exactly right but get the gist of quite a bit.
Human beings sense the presence of other realities. This is a fact of human consciousness.
This brings me to Halloween, the night where the veil between the living and the dead, between our ordinary world and the world of strange entities, is said to be at its thinnest. This is a profound idea that is a little overwhelming when one considers it, although most of us know the feeling. We know the feeling of a lost, loved one who seems so near sometimes. We know the spine-tingling sensation of the presence of evil or unseen danger or a strong premonition about what’s going to happen.
I find it amazing that we turn the underlying and unsettling idea of Halloween a celebration for children. When reality gets too big, we make it childish and scary. Hmmm.
My son Paul asked a couple of amazing questions. I didn’t get to hear them directly. Paul is in tenth grade and we had conferences this week. His mom and I were visiting with his English teacher. His class is currently studying the Romantic Age of art and literature. This period in the 19th century emphasized the individual’s emotions and imagination as a means to intuit the truth. It was the direct reaction to the preceding Enlightenment Age where rational thinking was believed to be the best way to find the truth. Paul’s class was reading Edgar Allen Poe, a serious spookster if there ever was one. Considered a classic Romantic writer, Poe wrote mostly about death, fear, and the macabre.
In a Socratic seminar, which is basically an oral discussion graded as an exam, I guess Paul asked the questions, “Is fear a necessary emotion?” and “If so, is it something we should practice?”
This brings me back to Halloween and why we make it scary. I wonder if fear of the unknown, of the thin veil between the living and the dead, of the possibility of other realms is an ingenious human response. By utilizing fear, we both acknowledge ‘other worlds’ and we keep them at a safe distance. We use fear to both open and close simultaneously.
I personally love the idea of other realms, but I don’t like to feel fear. My choice instead is: keep my feet grounded and allow that the Universe is a very big place.
What do you do?