Imagine that you are about to participate in an interactive roll-playing game. There are rules in this game that everyone agrees to: what goes up must come down, day is followed by night, if you touch a flame it will burn you, etc. etc. You get to choose the character you play beforehand; shall I be black or white, Australian or American, male or female? You might even choose to meet up with others in the game, which is tricky because you won't necessarily remember them when you see them.
To enter the game, you must be "born" and become completely helpless. You must forget everything you know and start all over again. You are given sets of rules by the "older" players that you learn as you go along. After a given time, you are declared an "adult" by the other players and are sent out on your own.
The thing is, you become so involved in this character that you are playing in this game, that you forget who you really are. Then you forget that you're even in a game, and you think the game is all there is. Now, you still get to decide everything that happens to this character, which you do constantly, but as a player you think everything is happening by "chance" or "fate".
When the character you play goes to sleep, you return to your real self. This is when you get the chance to plan ahead and manifest his/her desires and wishes; the character later wakes up and thinks he/she was "dreaming".
Some players, realizing that there has to be more than just this game will start searching for answers. Some conclude that someone must have invented this game, and probably all the players in it. They begin to worship this mysterious "someone" who obviously must be much smarter than they are, and invent more rules that they insist were made by the original game creator.
The only way to leave this game is called dying. You remember who you really are and you meet up with your other friends - some of whom were in the game with you, some who were involved with other games - and share your experiences. The game, you conclude was fun, adventurous and a great learning experience and you decide you'd like to play again; this time in a different setting.
Sound familiar?
Peace!
