EP • genie records

  [Google Images]episode 4: The Lamp Mystery    In our genie metier, we are often asked many Qs…some at the point of magical contact, still others after the fact. More often than not, folks are [a] dazzled, [b] supersize surprised, [c] overwhelmed, [d] excited, and, even on some occasions, [e] humbled. And sometimes, on rare occasions, all of the above.My hope is—in sharing some of these question here—to debunk some of the myths around the Genieverse, and also to give readers a window into the complexity of our work. Many of the asked questions are predictable—how DO you get in and out of that lamp?—is definitely a favourite, so I thought I would start in this question basement and work my way up to the more esoteric penthouse questions.So…how do we get in and out of the lamp?   Interestingly [or so it would appear to this genie], most folks want their reality to look exactly like it appears…something forged out of the crucible of realism. A chair should look like a chair. A flower a flower, and so on. A lamp should look like…well, a lamp. The kind of lamp that Disney portrayed in a recent biopic. And there should be an accompanying wisp of  sensual smoke emanating from the lamp from the special effects department, and, perhaps on good days, a thunderous clap.   However, other folks like their reality with a side dish of magic.   In point of fiction, we don’t actually:[a] squeeze in and out of the lamp[b]shrink ourselves at warp-genie-speed to fit back into the lamp[c] answer every rubbed request [we can smell greed a thousand Genie furlongs away].Rather, we exist in the idea of the lamp., appearing and disappearing without smoke and mirrors. Some folks, for gombeen reasons [I learned that word from blogger Micheal], find it hard to wrap their minds around that concept. The idea of a lamp is a relic of the philosophy, Idealism, one that much of the world has deserted, some time ago. Folks much prefer pragmatism and realism with their morning bowl of Cheerios!The closest answer I can summon, comes from the worlds of Paul Reps, aka Mr. ZenFlesh, ZenBones. In his remarkable mind expanding little book he includes the problem of The Goose in the Bottle:“A woman raised a goose in a bottle. When the goose had grown, she wanted to get it out without harming the goose or breaking the bottle. How do you get the goose out of the bottle?”   So, if you are serious about the question, and equally serious about an answer, you must find yourself a small child who hasn’t been properly socialized [and hasn’t been tainted by realism] and ask him or her that aforesaid Question.The answer[s] will astonish you, and hopefully, lift you out of your rationally ordered universe into the realm of belief—where you used to live, lo these many moons ago…