Poem: "The Map and the Menu"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is today's freebie, prompted by my_partner_doug. It also fills the "Teaching / Learning" square in my 6-1-20 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest.


"The Map and the Menu"


Robert Anton Wilson
described reality tunnels
as a framework of the mind,
usually subconscious, that
shapes people's perspectives.

A reality tunnel is useful in
supporting stability, but it
tends to limit logical thought.

It is a construct, an illusion,
not the breadth of reality itself.

The map is not the territory.
The menu is not the meal.

To explore the totality of life
you must leave your reality tunnel
and venture out into the open.

Teach yourself to entertain
other possible interpretations;
learn to live without the limits
of a tunnel's curving walls.

You can select your own reality,
picking and choosing among
the pieces you have found.

Draw the map; write the menu.

The world is limitless until
humans begin to interpret it.

Only you can decide
what belongs in your mind.

* * *

Notes:

Robert Anton Wilson described reality tunnels in his essay "Creative Agnosticism." Try some exercises to explore different reality tunnels and select your own reality. Promethus Rising contains a lot of information about how the mind works and how to change it consciously. Warning: These exercises will tend to take you even farther outside the mainstream than you already are. Consider whether that is something you want.

Comments

[kellan_the_tabby]

I clicked these links, with some trepidation because I already have enough trouble with 'consensus reality' as practiced by the mainstream, only to discover that I basically do this anyway & just didn't have the words for it.

*wanders off, whistling*

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Much the same here. What the material did for me was explain more about how other people think and why they are so often stupid. Me, I have a reality tunnel matrix that makes Mammoth Cave look like a hole in the ground.