Re: virus: Imaginary Friends

Eva-Lise Carlstrom (eva-lise@efn.org)
Tue, 23 Mar 1999 11:59:03 -0800 (PST)

On Mon, 22 Mar 1999, KMO wrote:

> Heck, consciously and purposfully tailoring your imaginary friends to
> your specific needs and circumstances seems to be a vast improvement
> over playing host to a memetic-monster that has evolved over thousands
> of years to serve only it's own propagation and for which you are an
> utterly disposable receptical. You may think that you're better off with
> no imaginary friends at all, in which case I'd say, "Go your own speed,
> brother."
>
> -KMO

Well put.

I've experimented with meditation on a medicine wheel arrangement of personal fetishes (miniature animals of one sort and another, in this case), and received advice from each of them, some of it novel and surprising to my usual conscious mind. I understood throughout that these spirit guides were imaginary friends, but that didn't negate the value of their collective viewpoints to my coming to some decisions. Gods and spirits can be useful focuses for thinking about personal questions, whether or not one actually Believes in one's phetishes.

--Eva