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The Enchantment of the Human Mind

Posted 37 months ago|4 comments|570 views
Written by
AGoodMinute29
Havertown, PA
I believe that we can see regret over the loss of enchantment in most aspects of our popular culture. I see an attempt for a return to mystical and unknown forces in religion, television and literature. As recently secularized and rational creatures, there are still elements in our lives that yearn for the unknown and unexplainable.

In a completely rational world, religion would probably hold almost no bearing except as a study subject to be examined yet we still require religion for the fact that humans still don’t know what happens after death. Until that riddle is solved, religion will continue to be a vital spiritual resource, even though it has been recently been devalued by the disenchanting rationalization of its mystical aspects.

Myths are also an acceptable outlet because although they are mainly used now for sociological, anthropological, or psychological studies, it is because of their function as an imaginative source that studies of it arose in the first place. Humans are fascinated by myth not because of its truth but because of its timeless validity: human thought may have changed since classical times, human nature hasn’t, whether this nature is expressed by man or god. Especially the moral stories like Syspiphus, Prometheus and Arachne are still used to promote humility even though it is understood that they are not true. Myths don’t have to be actual truths to express a deeper truth which we all relate to.

Currently, we take the unrealistic and make it realistic. We use science to explain the previously unexplainable. Now science acts as our form of enchantment. We spend billions of dollars to rationally explain the unexplainable. Whether it is myth, religion, or science, human's attempt to explain the unexplainable and rationalize the unjust.
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COMMENTS
TheLegendTomWing
TheLegendTomWing
 Administrator
Philadelphia, PA
37 months ago: Rach,

I really enjoyed your comparison.

I especially like the picture and the last paragraph ;)

I think you're really onto something here, we need some sort of clarity in our lives whether it be religion or science. Its human nature to strive for understanding.
AGoodMinute29
AGoodMinute29
Havertown, PA
37 months ago: Yes, I wonder why... maybe because you made the picture for me? Not to mention you were the one who convinced me to post this. Thanks.
37 months ago: You are right. There is a general loss of wonder, at least in our society. I can still find it in religion--despite organized religions' best efforts. I find it rarely, but it is still there. How? I'm not sure how it happens, yet it mostly happens when I play with a particular ensemble. Before I choose the music, I read the scriptural readings for the day in question--sometimes song suggestions just pop into my head, sometimes I really have to agonize over my choices. Then, in performance perhaps once or twice a year, all of my stars seem to align. The readings, homily, music, vocal parts all blend into something transcendent--something far greater than the sum of it's parts. I often have a very viceral response--sometimes I get goosebumps, tear up, or have butterflies in my stomach. I'll come home and tell my husband, "The Holy Spirit must have whispered in my ear while I picked that music!" Is it the Holy Spirit? the gods? The God? the muses? the planets and stars properly aligned? Who knows--but it happens, it's real, it makes me feel more alive, but I can't define it or quantify it.
36 months ago: We got the physical. Like pick up the hammer and smash that nail into the wood, physical. And we got other things we can't see with our eyes and manipulate with our tools. Compassion, Love, Spirit and many ideas with no physical aspect to them. But these ideas are not new. We haven't developed tools that examine them, yet. We haven't even characterized such ideas very well, yet.

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