Custom Search

The Realist vs. The Artist

Jon Rappoport

4-8-2`1

"You say reality is invented. I say it’s THERE already..."

by Jon Rappoport

(To read about Jon's mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)

“All human accomplishment has the same origin, identically. Imagination is a force of nature. Is this not enough to make a person full of ecstasy? Imagination, imagination, imagination. It converts to actual. It sustains, it alters, it redeems!” (Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King)

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” (Albert Einstein)

---You say reality is invented. I say it’s THERE already, and we have to deal with it.

What does “deal with it” mean?

Accept it.

What do you do after that?

Not my concern. Outside my realm of control.

You’re denying you can create something better than reality.

What do YOU do? You just write plays and put characters on a stage. It’s fake reality.

I should just take a camera out into the street and shoot what’s in front of me? That’s my limit? You think consciousness is a steady-state THING. It’s dynamic and alive. No matter how high you go, there’s always something more. Something new that can be created. There is no final state of consciousness.

Consciousness is: what I see. It’s what I think and react to, when I see what I see. That’s all.

So you have no choice. You’re in prison.

I didn’t say that.

That’s what you mean. ---But imagination is the key that unlocks the prison cell.

Really? I say there’s no such thing as imagination. It’s a reconstruction of what already exists. You rearrange pieces. Realism makes sense. Everything else is fluff.

Translation: you accept What Is. You might complain, but you accept. You end up creating nothing.

What happens to the characters in one of your plays? They all have limits. Each consciousness is limited. They’re chess pieces on a board.

That’s what you see when you sit and watch a stage play?

What else is there to see?

Life. A different kind of life.

I doubt that. On one end, you have a very imperfect person. He’s making all the mistakes he can possibly make, and he damages his own life. On the other end, you have a perfect person, however you want to define that. And that’s what he is. Perfect. And so what?

Again, you think consciousness is a given---“it is what it is.” It doesn’t change. At best, it just solves problems. I see a stage play as a different universe. It sends clues to the audience. “Reality isn’t fixed.” “Look what can be done to reality.”

No. We’re all in this reality called Life on Earth. That’s what we’ve got. We have to deal with it in the best way we can.

So according to you, all the artists who’ve ever lived were just amusing themselves, distracting themselves.

Pretty much, yes.

And all the mystics who’ve ever had visions were just deluded.

Right.

Reality is something that’s stamped on all our minds.

Correct.

What happens when you change your mind, when you rebel against the stamp?

You find out you can’t move the mountain.

That’s your bottom line?

It’s everybody’s bottom line.

Or…you just lack the courage to make your best vision into fact in the world.

I don’t have a vision.

Why not?

I’m not built to have a vision.

How do you know that?

Through experience. I live, and live some more, and no vision shows up.

You have to imagine a vision.

Imagination is delusion.

You’re imagining yourself as you are, over and over. You’re constantly imagining an image of yourself as you think you are.

That’s an interesting statement, but I don’t believe it.

What would happen if you did believe it?

I’d be forced to go on a whole new voyage.

And?

You want me to give up what I have, on the chance that if I go out into the sea, I’ll find something better.

Yes---something more ALIVE.

And what would that be?

I don’t know. It would be your vision.

You want me to throw caution to the wind.

Yes.

That’s asking for a lot. In return for something highly doubtful.

Forget doubt. Doubt is easy.

I guess, if I have a vision, that’s what it is: Doubt.

What are you going to build on that foundation?

You want me to become a character in a play?

A larger character. Or the playwright.

Sounds like cheap pie in the sky.

You can’t build much on cheap pie in the sky. Or any cheap idea.

You think I’m being cheap.

Absolutely.

I’m “writing a bad play called Reality.”

Yes.

And there are better plays I could write.

Potentially, an infinite number.

The sky’s the limit?

Even the sky is a limit. If great, great sages are sitting there, in their illumined states of mind, sooner or later it occurs to them they can create something MORE. Buddha is sitting there, and one morning he says: I can create something more. And he does.

And in that scenario, if painters like Degas and Rembrandt and Piero della Francesca are still somewhere, painting, they’re going further than they’ve ever gone before.

Yes.

Why?

Because they imagine more, they want to keep inventing. They want to see more.

Whereas I’m busy deciding whether to order a salami sandwich or a pastrami sandwich.

Right.

I’m getting tested twice a month and taking the vaccine.

Right.

I closed my store and went out of business because the governor said I had to.

Right.

I could reinvent my future as a “champion for freedom.” Or whatever.

Right.

Suppose I believe in God?

Yes? And? Did God say STOP? Is that one of His Commandments? Did he say ACCEPT REALITY? Did he say DON’T IMAGINE SOMETHING BETTER? DON’T CREATE IT? Did he say LEAVE THE MONEY CHANGERS IN THE TEMPLE TO THEIR OWN DEVICES?

I don’t know.

I think you do know.

Imagining is just pretending.

If that’s the way you see it, then pretend.

What?

Pretend you have a vision of what you really want to create. Pretend you’ve imagined it.

Really?

Yes. If you think imagining is lying, then lie. Lie to yourself that you have a vision of a better future. If you think imagining is making up illusions, then make up an illusion of a vision, and follow it no matter what.

And if I think I have no imagination, then imagine I DO?

Yes. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes to overthrow your idea that realism is all you have. Break the chains.

Suppose I can’t?

That’s what you keep imagining: “I can’t.” That’s your vision: “I can’t.”

So out of nowhere, I should just overthrow reality?

Yes, and shove in all your chips on that move.

Why did you show up at my door?

That’s what I do.

(The link to this article posted on my blog is here.)

(Follow me on Gab at @jonrappoport)

Use this link to order Jon's Matrix Collections.

Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.

You can find this article and more at NoMoreFakeNews.

Go Back

Four Winds 10 - News