A Brave New Religion
“Academic religion is the killing jar of spirit.”[1]
The materialistic worldview, however safe, is woefully incomplete. It does not account for our deep yearning for connection, for love, friendship and community. In the intellectualizing of existence, we are compartmentalized, over-specialized and disassociated from our complete and whole beings. We are taught that to become an adult, we must let go of childish things, of the intangible, magical world of the imagination. Our creativity is valued, but only in so far as we can use it for practical means. Materialism’s creativity is called innovation, a word inextricable from marketability and industry. Our time is divided into seconds, milliseconds, nanoseconds of productivity and progress. Time spent simply being, not using our brains or our hands, but just existing is “wasted time.” Man hours, workdays, paid time off, overtime, salary, wages, business hours, time and a half, nine-eighty, and eventually two weeks vacation. These are the units by which we measure our lives.
[1] Ken Wilber, The Essential Ken Wilber: An Introductory Reader (Boston: Shambhala, 1998), 152.
I think it’s interesting that in many of literature’s most widely-read fantasy works, it’s only children who are able to move from a real world into magical, imaginative worlds. The literary world’s enchanted wardrobes, tornadoes, and dreams are strictly for those who are not yet adults. The story of Peter Pan draws the clearest line between imagination and adulthood; the imaginative land of Neverland is a place of arrested development; Peter cannot grow up until he abandons it.
Of course, there are a number of fantasy works featuring adults, but these are usually adults who are born into fantasy worlds and have no connection to our own.
I suppose this only illustrates that, even in fiction, it’s difficult to conceive of an adult character who can move from reality into a wholly imaginative world. Our society simply does not allow adults to engage in such nonsense.
What about Neil Gaiman’s Stardust? I think we are moving into a new era of expanded horizons and possibilities. While in the past, it may have been that the bars of the adult cage were too restrictive to access the broader world of the imaginal, but things are changing. Individuals are becoming empowered to create lives for themselves as they see fit. The only trick is having the courage, the strength of heart, to do so.