"The best general theory of magic we have yet in any literature" - Dr. Lawrence Hass
The Four Falls of Robert E. Neale
“For Bob Neale, illusions ‘go all the way down’ in human life—to the depths of our perceptions, our sense of self, certainly our notions of ‘God,’ and reality itself.”
Larry Hass*
The First Fall: We forget that stories are created out of our imagination. This was a big leap into lack of faith in the story. It was a dismissal of imagination and forfeit of responsibility for it. In place of acknowledging our creativity and the creativity of our social and cultural traditions, we claim that the products of imagination are delivered and received. In short, we claimed “revelation.” “Nobody made this up. Therefore, it must be true.”
“First we forget we made up the world we live in.”**
The Second Fall: We believe in only one specific revelation. “How can ultimate truths say different things?” So mine is valid while yours is not, mine is divine while yours is demonic, and, of course, mine is revealed truth while yours is imagination. The result was alienation from others.
“Then we start to think it’s the end of the line and nothing will really change anymore.”
Third Fall: The revelation must be fixed. There was a freeze on the natural act of change. We became alienated from ourselves.
“Then we think others should agree with us.”
Fourth Fall: We did all that we could to protect the single revealed, final truth from attack. Protection of the imagination itself from change was never necessary. When imagination functions, it changes, and this is what sustains i. But we swallowed the poison of purity. We tried to convert others. We tried to kill the products of others. Failing all else, we tried the ultimate solution of killing people.
“Then we remove those who don’t agree.”
The four falls have led to a single, revealed, final truth that is deemed superior to life itself. The disaster of forgetting our imagination leads to our bureaucratic terrorism of belief and disbelief. This is the first half of my story. There is more to the tale because, despite the fall, stories and storytellers remain. The imagination has been waylaid, but not defeated.
*The Magic of Celebrating Illusion, Robert E. Neale, 2013, pp. 17, 174-176.
**The Little Book of Creativity, George Parker, 2018, p. 5.