We, people, love talking about the other kin, about entities of a different nature... Different from us, humans, in so many ways, from their physical appearance to their thinking capacity, their ability to feel, and their special powers. Why are humans so interested in the "other" whether it's a mere fantasy or a genuine belief in its actual existence? Why does our brain and our consciousness always want something more... more BREATHTAKING? 

We tell our children there is no boogieman in the closet. By age 6 or 7 most kids are aware that there is no Santa Claus, and children's imaginary friends from fairy-tales are by then gone forever... But deep inside every adult person, even the most pragmatic and logical one, secretly longs for the existence of something different. 

Is this craving just another program of our relentless mind that likes to trick and hypnotize itself?) But what if it isn't? Why did Tolkien spend all those years studying ancient stuff in the library? Did he do it just to write a fantasy story that he could've made up all on his own, without all this deep research and study of the ancient tongues? Did he write a fantasy novel or a piece of historical fiction of that other history that has been taken away from public eye, from official school books, from everything that we are to perceive as true and real? 

Are all schizophrenics (and other people who supposedly hallucinate what doesn't exist in reality) just sick? And are the rest of us, normal human beings who don't have visions and other weird things, healthy? How do we even define mental sickness and mental health? Are these criteria just as vague as our idea of real reality?

The world is big, and I think that there is just so much out there that not one of us can say for sure. It's interesting that the search for the mysterious, unusual, unearthly, and fantasy-like is pretty much universal in most human societies and cultures. On one hand, we tend to run away from the unknown, on the other we constantly feel drawn to it, and so we are stuck somewhere between our fear and curiosity of whatever is out there, and we have so many crutches to help us not lose our minds in the process... religion, tradition, and science being the main three of them. 

But what if we put all these crutches aside and try to experience the world as it is? What if we free our minds of all preconceived ideas, proofs, denials, theories, desires to believe or to reject? What if we become more empty to be able to face the world with all its wonders in a more clear way? 

I think it would be the greatest adventure of all.