Something More: A Challenge on Reality

Get up, go to work or school, eat, do chores, go to sleep and start the whole process over again. A few things may change here and there, but generally every day is the same, day in, day out. We live in a world full of monotony, ruled by logic and order. Often we miss the chaos that lies behind everything that is really in control. We close ourselves off from that chaos. People don’t want to see those things that don’t really make sense and can’t easily be explained.

That world of chaos is the world I live in, the world I love, where things don’t quite make sense and they don’t really have to. It sounds a bit odd to say I believe in ghosts and fairies and dragons, but that is the truth. But how is that really all that different from someone saying they believe in God? Neither can be proved with any solid evidence. Does it really matter if I can’t convince a complete skeptic if I believe?

Superstition is so ingrained in humanity. Every culture has its higher powers and its beliefs. Don’t break a mirror. Don’t walk under a ladder. Don’t open an umbrella in the house. These things are almost instinct anymore. And things go beyond such simple rules and acts. Creatures show up in mythology around the world, the same creatures, in cultures that have no interaction with each other. Dragons make an appearance in just about every culture in some form or other. According to science, dragons could not have existed. There are simply no six limbed creatures on Earth. Yet humanity includes them in so many stories, almost as if it is a memory. The Aztecs worshipped the feathered serpent god Quetzacoatl. Hoarding, maiden-devouring beasts roamed Britain and Western Europe. The emperors of the Orient were said to be descend of dragons. While there are differences between how they appear in different cultures, but there are enough similarities for them to all fall under the name ‘dragon.’ Is it really possible that these things that show up repeatedly never existed and could never have existed?

I deal with ghosts on a regular basis. There are several that inhabit the Dojo, a martial arts training hall, I attend. They open and close doors. They make noises. They make the punching bag swing. Everyone that spends much time there knows about them, and believes in them. It is hard to deny such evident proof, even if it can’t really be proved scientifically.

And really, what is the good of denying such things? All it does is take the wonder out of the world. If everything is explainable is there really any use in looking for new things? It will just be the same thing over again. I greatly prefer to live in a world where magic still exists. I don’t mean the fireballs and the lightning bolts, the movie special effects and great magic battles. It is the little things. The shimmer of wings caught out of the corner of the eye. The social work that pulls off the most incredible charity acts. A deck of tarot cards that always seems just a little too accurate. It is those little things that keep the world truly alive.

Most of the magic in the world has lost its influence. People have shut themselves off from it. They don’t want to believe in fairies. They don’t want to see the amazing things that can be brought about with just a single person’s directed will. They don’t want to be hurt. They don’t want to be disappointed. It is fear above all else that makes people draw back from the supernatural. Makes them cling to their normal life where nothing extraordinary happens. I can’t live that way. I have to seek out the things that may not be real. Even if I am delusional and the things I’ve seen and felt aren’t real, at least I experienced them. At least I helped keep alive that spark in the world that science is trying to stomp out.

The human perception of reality is very limited. We only experience things in five senses, and perhaps a sixth if you choose to believe in it. Yet that sense can’t be used to explain anything to someone who doesn’t have that it. Our hearing range is smaller than a cat’s. Our sense of smell is much diminished compared to that of a wolf. Our eyesight is not as effective as many animals. Most animals have better night vision, and birds of prey can see farther. Our senses fall short of ultimate capability, so why is it so hard for most to believe that things lie beyond our perception?

As children we are privy to this secret world, but most loose it as they become adults. Those that wish to return must then fight their way back through all the blocks that have been set up. Because it isn’t generally acceptable to see spirits, or play with energy, or talk to trees, we don’t. Some say that imaginary friends aren’t really imaginary, and it is simply society telling us these things don’t exist that stops them from being real. We loose the abilities we had as children, and those that want to reclaim them must often work hard to accomplish this. And even as those of us who wish to do so, we must still fight humanity’s view. Every person that doesn’t believe in the magical, that can’t even accept its possibility of existing, pushes all those things a little farther out of the world. It lets a little more of the wonder die.

This world had become so very cold and bitter. We can’t trust the person standing next to us. We don’t even trust half the people we would call friends. From a young age we are shown that the world is an evil place full of darkness and horrible people and things. This makes us shut ourselves off. Most people in a city haven’t even spoken to the neighbors they’ve lived next to for years. We’ve lost the light, the wonder, the glory, the magic. It is slipping more and more away from us as each day goes by. Happiness is sliding away just as much as the realms of the Fae. We are closed off and drawn into ourselves away from the world and those things we can’t explain. It may keep out some of the darkness, but that darkness lies inside each of us also. It is only natural, and must exist in order to balance the world. Keeping ourselves closed in lets it fester. What good is closing out the penetrating darkness if we close out the light as well?