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Ordinary people feel most at ease when imitating;
the few -- most ill at.

Man has an imitation gland;
no one has seen it, but everyone is affected by it;
no one talks about it, but most of their talk is driven by it.
Man has an imitation gland;
no one has taken it apart -- but it holds everything together;
it infuriates real artists --- but keeps everyone else sane.

To fit in, nothing is more important than imitation;
not education, not sophistication, not good looks or talent;
in ordinary men’s civilized survival kit,
the significance of imitation is without equal;
it overstates not the affair to say that it is a necessity;
he who does not imitate -- does not get by.

If you would usefully see into the crevices of this matter,
first distinguish clearly in your mind between instinct & imitation,
for while all men share certain behavior, (such as eating & sleeping), they do so due to the same instincts being common to
all of a particular species,
but imitation picks up where instinct ends;
instinct drives you to eat, but imitation moves you to eat a specific dish because those around you do.

At its simplest level, imitation shows up in dress;
if the local cavemen are wearing leopard this year,
then leopard too shall be your mode of attire;
are they now tying their hair on top of their head,
then so will be your tonsorial style,
(though rarely given conscious note, the omnipresent reality of this is
too obvious to belabor, and is of no specific significance to the core of
our interest in this affair),
suffice it to mark: all cows in a herd look alike;
and all herds are constructed of cows who want to look alike,
and do so through their imitation of each other.

The work of the imitation gland that directly bears on the search for
fresh understanding has to do with how it affects man's collective mind -- -- and indeed, every herd has such, which exerts near total control over which thoughts each cow therein can meaningfully entertain,
in fact, those who have done advanced study in this area do not say that cows can think, they say instead that they, imitate
...(which fulfills their needs just the same).

When all around him are sporting beaver hats,
a normal man will don one himself,
and via the route that, “they are attractive” –
not: “I must wear one because everyone else is,” but rather:
“Everyone else is wearing them because they are so attractive.
Just shows how good taste amongst tasteful people, spreads,”
and when the imitation gland’s effects rise above the material level of fashion and into the realm of thought,
its manifestations are likewise justified:
“I do not believe that such-&-such idea is correct because
most everyone else believes it is -- contraire --
the proof that the idea is correct is in the fact that
so many people believe it is;”
you are then, in-fashion, and with no damage done to your mind’s
concept of it being independent and free to consider -- then choose --
the ideas proper for it to embrace.

In matters from fashion, to art to music, movies, literature, politics,
religion and social morality, imitation is the key to the game;
from top to bottom, back to front,
imitation is what holds civilization together, and presents to man
a sensation of comfortable continuity -- of predictability.
Within a group, if everyone is trying to imitate everyone else
this creates an atmosphere of safety;
each cowperson feels that he can depend on every day to be about like
the previous one,
and that if enough people begin to wear a new style of shoe he finds
off putting -- not to sweat:
“Soon everyone will be wearing them (including me),
and things will quickly be back to calm & normal.”
Nothing contributes more to the sustenance of civilized existence;
of peace and order, than imitation:
not laws, not threats, but mere imitation.
(Note that creatures without this gland have no civilizations).

Ordinary people feel most at ease when imitating;
the few -- most ill at.

Those born with that certain-hunger to see more clearly than others
never speak of what they perceive to be the primary impediment to increased vision as, “imitation” -- but nonetheless,
it is what is at the bottom of their vexation well;
they know they are dissatisfied with the way their consciousness operates in allowing only certain data in to be processed and accepted;
they know that they feel frustrated and trapped -- not physically,
for every creature is “trapped” physically in the world by
the laws of physics,
but trapped and confined to a small, all-too-familiar inner place.
The root of their frustration is that while a collateral affect of
the imitation gland is to keep most people from making any distinction between thinking, and imitation, in the few -- it fails;
even if they never say or think it in these exact words,
what so bothers them is that everything that naturally passes through their mind, and which everyone else in the rest of the world accepts as being, “their thoughts”the few recognize as an error in identification.

Generally, even they never get around to a
precise understanding of what they vaguely sense,
and thus flail about, taking half hearted swings at pushovers & tankers without ever getting in the ring with the real heavyweight champ --
-- imitation.

It is stupefying enough to have your mind dominated by its
imitation of other people’s thoughts,
but the near-brain-death condition for the few comes from
their acceptance of their mind’s imitation of the thoughts that
life sends through it, pretending that they are its freely chosen own,
(put more simply, [or perhaps not so], but nevertheless):
the frustration that drives that certain-hunger
comes from a man’s thoughts imitating themselves;
like The Invisible Man continually pointing to himself (we assume)
and constantly reaffirming:
“Yeah, this is me -- right here………..yeah -- me........right here!”

If you ever expect to see for yourself what is going on in life
then ignore completely what other people say about life:
what they say about things is neither correct nor incorrect --
it is worse -- it is useless -- totally meaningless for your aim.
It matters not the subject, the source nor the number of people
who insist it is correct or not, indeed, the more who support,
the more useless it is.

Abandoning that alone will free up the major portion of
most people’s lives, but the real REAL jackpot is in turning a deaf ear to what is normally said in your own head;
no one knows what (or who) they are,
but everyone knows that when they think about themselves,
at that moment there is undeniably the sensation of them having a self, and a self (real or conjured) that can think & feel itself separate from other intangible features of man’s inner life,
(that is): a man can think the sentence: “I have thoughts,”
(ignoring for an instant that it is a thought making the statement),
and he can go further with this certainly seemingly real sensation
and think the sentence:
“I did not select these particular thoughts to have” -- or:
“I did choose them” -- it makes no difference,
the point is that you can, at will, produce the immediate sensation in your head of there being a “you”
(doing the present thinking), separate from the thoughts you have
had in the past, and those you can have in the future,
and if you have the interest sufficient to doggedly pursue this,
and look coldly in its face,
its entire constitution of imitation will be revealed,
and all that is then left standing is:
what is actually going on.

Even life imitates; it imitates itself;
the continuity of its expansion is based on
graduations of imitations of its own condition,
but life is not thinking about what is going on in the way that humans do;
life thinks about what is going on,
then men imitate what life thought, but by then it is too late;
the original nourishment is gone from the thinking.

Life feeds men’s minds leftovers: its thinking from yesterday –
-- yestercentury -- yestermillionlightyears.

It won’t do -- it simply won’t do for our purpose;
if you want to discover how to use & enjoy the mind in a way
unknown to everyone around you,
stop giving any attention to the minds of those around you;
to learn liberation-thinking, ignore -- cut-your-mind-loose-from –
any & every thing that everyone else thinks & says.

There is no form of imitation which will open your eyes & clear your mind;
                          there is no room for imitation of any kind
                                on that great metaphysical road to
                                              Jacksonville Beach.