“Abracadabra to Zombies”

Abracadabra to Zombies

Disclaimer: Since I can’t magically obtain within a few weeks the knowledge to skillfully write a refined academic discourse about these ideas I’m fleshing out, I apologize in advance.

Somewhere in the space between temporal and the spiritual lays humanity and some more definitions and space having to do with ephemeral and perpetual. I could go on and on or I can tell you that I took this title from The Skeptic’s Dictionary an online database of terms redefined by “the skeptic.” Humorous skepticism has always kept me in smiles and before ever considering going back to school and taking a course in rhetoric, I toyed with the boundaries of fantasy, reality and self-actualization. In age of social networks, the shaping of our profiles on these websites muddies a boundary between reality and fantasy that is to me one huge bog with scattered sinkholes. Just in the last couple of weeks, have I begun to see some sort of connection to the Sophists.

Using this entertaining database of definitions, I looked up avatar. The following is the entire definition. Forgive me for not paraphrasing, but I just couldn’t leave any word out:

Avatar

An avatar is a variant phase or version of a continuing basic entity, such as the incarnation in human form of a divine being. Avatar is also the name of a New Age self-help course based upon changing a person's life by training the person to manage his or her beliefs. According to Jack Raso, "Avatar's fundamental doctrine is that people have a natural ability to create or 'discreate' any reality at will. This alleged ability stems from a hypothetical part of consciousness that proponents call 'SOURCE.'"

According to their promotional material,

Avatar awakens you to a natural ability you already have to create and discreate beliefs. With this skill, you can restructure your life according to the blueprint that you determine. One discovery many people on the Avatar course make is that what you are believing is less important than the fact that you are believing it. Avatar empowers you to realize that there aren't "good" beliefs and "bad" beliefs. There are only the beliefs that you wish to experience and the beliefs you prefer not to experience. Through the tools that the course presents you with, you create an experience of yourself as the source, or creator, of your beliefs. From that place, it's very natural and easy to create the beliefs that you prefer.

These notions seem so obviously a mixture of the true, the trivial and the false that one hesitates to comment on them. If there are no good or bad beliefs then how did the people at Avatar come upon the belief that their course has any value? And what difference does it make whether anyone believes in Avatar belief management techniques?

BWHAHAHAHAAAA!!... That’s my Facebook comment on The Skeptic’s definition. Then a “like” and I’ll move on to the next post. With that laugh and a like I’ve willingly given my friends some insight to who I am or have I? So what connections have I made? Well, I’m not entirely able to communicate that yet, however I am pondering these questions. Does the Sophists’ questioning of truth and the skepticism towards all truths allow for self- actualization or a reinventing of one’s self? Through fantasy, can one find a new reality or the reality one wants? A man is a measure of all things, what if one focuses, “likes,” or chooses to promote certain things all in the name of “This is ME.”?