Did you ever realize that if no one looks at a rainbow, it stops existing? That is because rainbows are a function of perception, and derive their existence from the interaction between the diffractive properties of light through a prism (in this case, water) and optic equipment like our eyes... equipment which really varies in how well it functions.

Some folks are colorblind and can't see rainbows as well as most, while others are blind and can't see them all. There are even some animals, like pigeons, that can see rainbows better than the average human because their eyes perceive ultraviolet wavelengths that humans cannot. Even though no human can see the entire rainbow, however, and some humans can see even less than most, we all end up knowing what rainbows are and believing that they have an actual existence.

That is because in some circumstances, our perceptions are all that matters. Because of our general shared experience of rainbows, we all agree that they are real; even if the only evidence we have is a transitory perception and an unexplainable feeling.

As a result, we invest them with a variety of corporately agreed-upon meanings, and rainbows come to symbolize hope, joy, childhood, mythological creatures, breakfast cereal, and even gay pride. We take a shared perception that is relatively universally experienced and then together we agree, conditionally and for a while, that for all intents and purposes the thing really is all these associations we place on it.

This principle applies to other essentially unreal things. Like cold. Cold does not exist. It is not a thing. It is a state of being that is entirely contingent on the perceiver. Cold is a state in which there is relatively less heat energy. Once you get to absolute zero, you can't have less heat energy. Cold is merely the word we apply to states in which we, personally, feel that there is just a scoach less heat than we are comfortable with - and even on that there is a variety of experience for humans!

There are some lunatics who will swim in polar waters that would instantly kill old one-percent-body-fat me. On the other hand, I knew an African gentleman who would wear multiple sweaters, long johns and a fleece hat to do manual labor in ninety degree Fahrenheit weather - and he'd barely break a sweat!

Yet even with this range of experience and even with the cold, hard fact that cold doesn't exist, we all act and talk as though cold were real. We build up multiple layers of meaning and a variety of mythologies around cold. We personify it, fear it, hate it, and love feeling proof against it. But above all else, we believe in it.

The questions is, does our shared experience of it and heartfelt belief in it give it an actual, real physical presence? I would say "yes", because at the point of belief something tangible is happening within the human brain, and because I believe that to a limited degree people create their own reality.

You may read that statement and assume I'm leading towards talking about another, bigger Entity whose physical presence as actual matter is not readily apparent, and that I might be about ready to suggest that that Entity really exists, but only in our minds. I am not. That is neither a responsibility I want to take, nor a conclusion that I feel is justified by evidence or experience.

I know that if you're not starting from that faith position, you're liable to poo-poo this next bit, but here's the gist of it, anyways: I think I'm made in such a way that I bear in a small way the imago of an Entity that actually exists apart from my perception of it - a boundlessly creative Entity I like to call "God". I believe that this creative Entity is capable of creating real, physical stuff, ex nihilo, just by imagining it to be real. And I believe that as a nature-bearer, I inherit some tiny amount (but probably more than I know) of that capacity to make things become real just by perceiving or imagining them to be so.

I do realize that the "rainbow" and "cold" examples are really abstract and illusory, and probably won't convince you of my point, but what about racism? If enough people believe for long enough that a group of people different from them is in some capacity inferior, then eventually all that belief will create that reality, as even the members of the demeaned group will come in some ways to believe it and act as though it were true. The implications and applications of this "perception to reality" movement are really endless.

Now, I know that it does seem to be more of an artistic, mytho-poeic concept than a "scientific" one, but I gotta tell you, I'm getting a little tired of the idea that science is the only way we can arrive at real, actual truth and real, actual knowledge. This is the reality that that corporate belief will create: it will build a world without mystery, hope, joy or grace. In short, hell. That belief system does not create, it destroys.

It is perhaps even more foolish than the worldview that in fear takes up a big stick and tries through force to banish science to a corner. Again, in the words of the pot-addled Rastafarian: "everything is everything". Faith, art, science and belief are just different sides of the same infinite-planed, polygonal Reality-shape.

Besides, science at its best is all about reveling in mysteries and exploring new methods of creation. I've been reading a book on quantum mechanics, and it's astounding the stuff these Priests of the Experiment are saying is happening on the quantum level. There are "worlds on worlds", they say, and we actually create their physical reality just by paying them attention. That's right, some of the best minds in the world say that on an atomic level, things happen just because we think they will. Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance".

It is possible that since the book I'm reading was published over ten years ago, the faith-killers have gotten ahold of the science and explained it all away. I don't care. I believe there are "mysteries on mysteries", and that they can dissect infinitely without cutting away the power of human belief. Even if you do not believe, as I do, that there is an infinite Entity who constantly sustains the parameters and minutiae of our reality just by believing in them, it is awe-inspiring to think of the sort of freedom and power that we all have as sub creators.

Shake the limb I'm on if you'd like, but while I'm on it I would add as well that I think this works best and most permanently if what we are trying to sub-create is actually good, and worth creating. Lies are destructive, and even if they are about things we're supposed to think of as "pleasant", they still will not create goodness and are therefore not worth our time.

The key to really creating something is to do it with your entire being, not just your emotions or your pheremones. Something deep in your holistic self yearns for re-creation into the goodness for which it has been intended and believed by God. This is hard to allow in a world where everyone wants to cut us up into bits and sell the parts; but maybe, I think, it is what existing is all about.