We live in a state of mind in which we tend to think that only what can be perceived by our senses, and only what our mind is able to understand logically, is accepted as valid.
A magic trick, for instance, is an optic illusion that deceives our senses; our brain, however, is able to tell us that it is not true, and that there is a logical explanation behind it.
But we like to go to magic shows anyways, because we like to be deceived, if only for a few minutes. We like to suspend our disbelief and think that something is possible, even when our brain tells us that it can not be so. Isn´t that why we read novels, or go to a movie?
It almost feels like the world that we cal “real” is simply not sufficient enough for our human desires.
We recreate these illusions because we want to expand our capacity to live. To believe is to extend reality, and to exist in a universe that goes beyond what our senses can perceive.
Whether we call it Santa Claus, or magic, or even Heaven and Hell, we are always using our minds to go beyond that threshold of reality (of what can be perceived). And in every single one of these cases, we also have our rational brain bugging us about it.
The mathematician inside us likes to solve the riddles that we pose to ourselves. There is a certain part of us that will always look at the deck of cards carefully trying to figure out how the magician knew what card it was. When we stop believing in Santa Claus in our childhood we think that we are so smart because we figured the system out. Or if we don´t believe in God, we feel so much smarter than those who do.
But do we really want to figure out what the magic behind everything in life is? Do we really want to understand the rational explanation behind everything, and build the walls of the logical structure of life?
I believe there is a very tiny part of us that doesn’t. It is the part of us that cries for a character in a film; the one that prays desperately for a miracle, and the very same one that frowns when we wake up after a wonderful dream.
When we allow ourselves to believe then, we are not deceiving ourselves; we are only breaking the walls of rational understanding and living to the fullest of our ability. It is scary to do so, and particularly to be led in life by something that we are not certain of. But who says that our rationality always has the right answer? What is the right answer anyways?
What is truly terrifying in that case is to spend our life without daring to go beyond these borders. To think that we’ve won because we figured out what the logical explanation behind everything was. And then we realize, that there is no point in life at all.
