21st September 2010
The human capacity for delusion is limitless. But where does imagination step off and delusion climb on board? Or is it a matter of perception? Is it my imagination that I ‘see’ Jemima sitting next to me on the train or running alongside as I ride my Boris Bike or is that delusion? Does it make me a whacko nut job or is it merely that I can perceive that she is, actually, right ‘there’. That my connection to Jemima’s spirit is so strong that I can indeed see her as she walks alongside me. I don’t profess to hold a particular set of beliefs or to have faith in an afterlife in the religious sense but I certainly do have a belief that, as we don’t and cannot know the answer to the god versus science conundrum, it is logical that the true explanation for the physical world may contain elements that we perceive as inconceivable. This includes what at first thought is either my imagination or a delusion. There is also a fourth argument which is that I want to see her so I invoke old memories and project them into the here and now. Which is true and does either explanation really matter? I suspect the answer to that question resides with whom you ask the question of. I suspect a Pyschologist or Doctor would be concerned from a mental and physical health perspective. A Scientist or Mathematician would perhaps offer the best logical view while a practising Theologian and a Hippy could provide the spiritual view. Still does it matter if I’m not harming either myself or others? I imagine not.
