To a New Guinea tribesman an event may surely be perceived as the work of an evil spirit because that fits into his paradigm or world view. To a modern American the same event might be considered swamp gas because that fits into ours. Now the event may actually BE the work of an evil spirit but because that doesn't fit into the world view of most modern Americans they wouldn't see it. One of our observers here perceives an illusion.
Our perception is a product of our awareness... When we learn a new word, for example, all the sudden we hear it everywhere. It was being used all along but in our selective awareness we missed it entirely. Once we become aware...the world becomes a little more complex...but a little more understandable too. We now perceive the new word. Before our perception changed we were illusional....we made the facts fit our view.
Illusion is a fact of human existence. It is an attempt to make what we perceive fit into our world view. As our awareness grows and we perceive more....we must either change our world view to fit the new facts...or make the facts fit our old world view and thus create a 'Procrustean bed'.
Making the facts 'fit' happens a great deal in religion... Our religion IS our world view ultimately...we tend to perceive facts that support it and to 'unconsciously' ignore those that don't. In a sense all religion has some element of illusion.
The analogy of a Jigsaw puzzle might be more clear... If we had to put together a 1000 piece puzzle without having seen the picture on the lid of the box we'd be working without an accurate world view. Anything our minds projected as the 'Big Picture' would be an illusion. The problems arise when we try to make the pieces fit 'our view' without having seen 'The View'... That would be delusional. When we get new pieces/facts and we alter our view to fit them we are being psychologically healthy because we are adapting to changes in a constructive way. We may still be perceiving an illusion but we're not holding onto it to the exclusion of new pieces/facts.
Applying this to people who don't perceive new facts as we may perceive new facts is tougher... We can't make someone see a truth or bigger picture they aren't ready for. We are all on a journey, in a sense, to continually grow in awareness and perceive bigger and bigger parts of the Big Picture. The only real problem is when we stop growing and try to make the facts fit our view. Psychologically that is unhealthy. Spiritually it is when we become dogmatic and the spirit stops being able to work in us because we no longer let it.
There is a kind of safety in the latter...it is known territory. The former doesn't feel quite so safe...but it allows us to grow. I'm comfortable living in an illusion because I'm willing to change it with new facts. I haven't seen the picture on the lid of the box yet...I've only imagined what it looks like!!
It all comes down to what one of my favorite bumper stickers says: "I'd know what to think if I knew who to believe!!"
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