Our Skin is a wonderful thing. It is a barrier between us and the outside world that protects the more delicate parts of our bodies from being damaged. It is also a sensor with many capabilities, measuring heat, cold, dampness, texture and many other delicate nuances of these. Our skin also represents the demarcation between what is inside and us and what is outside or our environment.

We are all well aware that our physical bodies exist within our skin and that any sensations must arise from within it. This makes it all the more interesting when we consider our responses to sound and light. When we see and hear things we do not have an awareness of a sensor responding as we would if someone had touched our hand. This applies even though we know that the information comes from the response of a nerve to an image on our retina or cochlea. What we are aware of is a total image of our surroundings projected far beyond our skin. This image is so familiar to us that we seldom give it a thought. It is as if part of ourselves extended from our skin to the distant mountains on the horizon or even the farthest stars.

Occasionally this image slips when we encounter an optical illusion. The image suddenly corrects itself when we realise we have been tricked. We may be suffering from some form of illness where this information is disturbed. One of the most common of these is tinitus when we hear notes and noises that we know are only the product of disturbed nerves. We are then well aware that what we are seeing and hearing is only a model of reality built in our minds. These models fade at the limits of visibility, illumination and silence but perception persists and given some time we will find that our mind will fill the vacancy with its own images from our imagination.

Our imagination is less restricted. Our minds can easily form images of places and things based on memories or pure invention and we can fly through them without any visible means of support. We also have other sorts of images in our mind. Those showing the relationships with family and friends and an image of ourself and the things that we would like to achieve.

If we care to look deeper we will find the images of the things that make us what we are. The things that cause us to chose between vital options in our lives. The things that we love and hate. Go beyond that point and we have found our god. However atheist we may claim to be that basic driving force will be there for without it we would not be alive. Our god represents the aspects of life that we give the greatest respect and value. We can also perceive darker and less positive things there like the desire for domination and the fundamental fight for survival. To a large extent among those of us who are considered sane we can control the balance of positive and negative.

This deep inner image like normal sight is projected far beyond us and becomes the prime mover in our universe. We may then describe things that we see in the real world in terms of the action of our image of God.

I use the term our god and our universe advisedly because we are all individuals and they will all be slightly different. Fortunately we find that we can usually readily agree among ourselves in large groups a consensus of what we see in both an observational or scientific sense and an inner or religious sense. Our upbringing and our historical record have a lot to do with it but few would deny the individual the right to a free choice in these matters.

As truly modern Christians although we by choice have taken membership of a group we must remain aware that all other groups have a degree of validity and most other groups that respect certain basic individual freedoms may well contain wisdom from which we can learn.

All this does not mean that there will not be disputes but that is another story.

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