Religion isn't invented by man. Men are invented by religion. Men invent responses to Quality, and among these responses is an understanding of what they themselves are. You know something and then the Quality stimulus hits and then you try to define the Quality stimulus, but to define it all you've got to work with is what you know. So your definition is made up of what you know. It's an analogue to what you already know. It has to be. It can't be anything else. And the mythos grows this way. By analogies to what is known before. The mythos is a building of analogues upon analogues upon analogues. These fill the collective consciousness of all communicating mankind. Every last bit of it. The Quality is the track that directs the train. What is outside the train, to either side... that is the terra incognita of the insane. He knew that to understand Quality he would have to leave the mythos. That's why he felt that slippage. He knew something was about to happen.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Religion shapes humanity; humans respond to Quality by creating analogues that build the mythos, a layered structure of collective consciousness, while the unknown beyond it is insanity.
- In plain terms
- Religion and analogies construct our shared reality, but the unknown remains unsettling.
- What can you take from it?
- Recognize how cultural analogues shape perception and where they fall short.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What analogies shape your worldview?
- How do you handle the unknown?
Another view
Analogies can oversimplify complex phenomena.
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