This is the idea that made me finally start a pay-gated section. The germ of it is really interesting to me, and like with all my other posts, it’s sort of scratching and burrowing at my insides and I really want to work it out by writing about it. But it’s a little… out there. I wanted to share it with an audience who had (literally) bought in to my deal.
I think I first heard the word “co-creation” while listening to my Dad’s favorite cassette tape, Wayne Dyer’s Your Sacred Self (abridged), read by the author. He doesn’t define it but it’s obvious what it is from context:
After dinner, we often take a blanket to lie down on, and we engage in what has come to be known as cloud making. The children start by creating an inner picture of a form they want to see in the clouds. Then they concentrate their energy on a particular cloud, attempting to influence it to design their inner picture. The neighborhood has gotten used to to hearing my kids shout, “I’m making a house, Daddy. Watch my cloud move. I’m moving it with my mind!”
I reacted violently to this, turning the tape off in disgust. Up until that point, I had been able to humor Dyer, but this was too far. This was straight-up talking about magic!
I didn’t bounce off it because it was absurd. On the contrary, it struck too close to home… I could do exactly as he said— lay down, look up, and feel like I was controlling the movements of the clouds. But that wasn’t something I wanted to nurture. I already knew it was just pareidolia from skeptic circles. I didn’t want to be a fool telling myself a happy story that the universe listens to what I want. I didn’t want believe I had control that I didn’t. I wanted to be valid and know the truth. Even hearing Dyer suggest that you should endorse the temptation to believe in cloud making magic was witheringly embarrassing to the part of me that had once had “conversations” with trees blowing in the wind.