Fiction and Fact
I’ve just started reading Joseph Campbell’s “Myths to Live By.” I was really excited to read the following:
“[N]ot only has it always been the way of multitudes to interpret their own symbols literally, but such literally read symbolic forms have always been – and still are, in fact – the supports of their civilizations, the supports of their moral orders, their cohesion, vitality and creative powers. With the loss of them there follows uncertainty, disequilibrium, since life, as both Nietzsche and Ibsen knew, requires life-supporting illusions.”
I am a great believer in fictions, myths, make-believe and the power of thought. It is awesome to hear Campbell’s introduction about the importance of myth. Thomas Moore, an author I am very fond of, is also a great fan of myth.
Believing in fictions is vital to so many aspects of our lives – not only our creativity, but also our health, our love, our playfulness and enjoyment of friendship, family and parenthood. I have been so inspired by the examples of people’s healing through belief and imagination – like the woman who was having major surgery and practiced creative visualisations for the days beforehand with unprecedented results: she lost less than a third of the blood usually lost during such surgery. There may be no scientific fact to back it up, but it is becoming more widely accepted that the mind and imagination can have amazing results on the body.
If this can happen in the realm of health and healing (and disease prevention), you can only imagine what happens to us every day through our creative thought and belief in fictions. I think it is absolutely possible to know fact from fiction, to be clear about what is proven, what is true and at the same time to entertain productive beliefs in fictions and to let ourselves be moved by the make-believe.
Practicing this can have so many interesting results in your life: viewing and responding to art, films and books with a deeper, fuller investment and interest; cultivating a soulful relationship with nature spirits and deeper engagement with the places you live, work and play; an open and empathetic listening to others’ stories and experiences; a creative processing of one’s own life experiences; the creation of a stimulating, rich and meaningful environment in which to live your life and so on.
