In the case of the tree the object is before our eyes, and the word refers to the tree by universal agreement. Now with the word god there is nothing to which it refers, so each man can create his own image of that for which there is no reference. The theologian does it in one way, the intellectual in another, and the believer and the non-believer in their own different ways. Hope generates this belief, and then seeking. This hope is the outcome of despair — the despair of all we see around us in the world. From despair hope is born, they also are two sides of the same coin. When there is no hope there is hell, and this fear of hell gives us the vitality of hope. Then illusion begins. So the word has led us to illusion and not to god at all. God is the illusion which we worship; and the non-believer creates the illusion of another god which he worships - the State, or some utopia, or some book which he thinks contains all truth. So we are asking you whether you can be free of the word with its illusion.

My perspective developed only a few years ago. Explaining it in words is difficult for me and requires reference.

Let’s start with sight. It appears continuous, but it isn’t. The brain’s tendency to smooth its discontinuities is well-documented. For example, where the optic nerve meets the retina our “blind spot” is masked reflexively by assumptions from our mind. To preserve visual continuity and help us survive, it fills in the data gaps.

In all things it similarly drives its own need for completion. Our mind has evolved this way to compensate for the body’s imperfection. And without calibration, it will create a story all its own — but based on what does the mind interpolate?

The answer is embedded in life itself. We begin as an empty dictionary whose definitions must be addressed. There are only two possible sources, either the outside or the inside of our mind. Experience does some work, but given we observe far more than we encounter, mostly the outside world teaches us how to approach living.

By adolescence the world has taught us so much that we are comfortable with the source. Often by then the habit is so engrained that we never question it: without a reason, we will continue life having inherited outside conventions.

But, sometimes we get hurt. Our brain does not like pain, so when we feel it our mind teaches us to avoid the source or it forces us to abandon passive decisions. In the absence of intervention or insight, we may on our own learn to evade the suffering because it often appears our world has no troubles — and why should we.

So, how then do humans develop intentionally? If by our ceaseless brains the mind is constantly influenced by reality, the only way to control the flow of information and its influence over us is to be aware of the input and to isolate ourselves, from reality, from society, or from both.

These were my conclusions six years ago when I was alone for two weeks at our home in the woods, on the side of a mountain in eastern Washington. That’s when my freedom began — but at the time I didn’t know it.