The Orangacle

     Close your eyes. First, you imagine. You go inside your own head and you picture something to get you started. For instance, light. Then you can imagine water. You have to imagine a planet’s worth of water. Then land. Enough land for your world. You have to imagine every hill and cliff side, every grain of sand until you can picture every square inch of this world as clear as day. Then you create the environment. You imagine the clouds and rain. To do this properly you have to know exactly what is happening in this world at all times. Then you imagine the plants. Both the exotic and familiar. You give them their proper place in this world of yours. You know exactly where they are and what they are like, what makes them what they are. If you close your eyes you can travel the surface of your world and touch every leaf, and when you open your eyes you reawaken into the real world. Now the animals. Anything you want can happen here. You know exactly what these animals are, what makes them, how they behave. You can shape this world at will as easily as anything. Now the people. You start at the beginning, with the first humans. Your Adam and Eve, so to speak. You picture them and know who they are. You imagine them going through their lives. You imagine every word they say, everything they see, everything they ever do. You see everything in this world in your mind. Then you imagine more people. You populate your world, and you know every single human there intimately. This world becomes second nature. Regardless of your focusing on it, it exists in the back of your mind. You can easily return there and discover that things have changed, just in the ways you would have done it. You can insert yourself into this world. You project yourself down onto the surface of this imaginary world and you interact with it. You speak to the people who all have the personalities you gave them. This world has taken on a life of its own and you need no longer imagine every detail, it comes naturally.

You stay in that world for so long that occasionally you forget that that world isn’t real. Once you accidentally spent a whole week thinking it was real until someone managed to wake you from your trance. The last time you entered your world you forgot about the outside world completely. An ever changing world in which you have created and see everything that has been, is and ever will be has crowded your mind and become the only reality you know. The people of your world recognize you when they see you now. They’ve seen what you can do. They begin to ask you for things. If they want rain they will say your name aloud and ask you humbly to make it rain. You oblige them, being the benevolent person you are. Slowly, as time passes, you forget yourself. You haven’t seen your physical form in so long that it is fading from your mind, and though you are living in a dream. Soon you are an all encompassing consciousness surrounding this world you’ve created. Your imagination holds it all together and has become real to you. It is real to the people of your world too. Now they worship their almighty god, calling you by name and singing hymns to your power in their places of worship. Your mind has become cloudy. You don’t remember a time when you had a body, or when the people hadn’t worshiped you. You are sort of jealous of these people, with simple lives you don’t have the power to change their world. After all, with great power comes great responsibility. Soon the people are able to come up with their own solutions to problems. When they need fire they dont need to call to the skies, to the creator of worlds, and ask for it, they have learned to make “matches” and can make fire on their own.You are proud of them. They don’t need you to make it rain anymore because now they have “irrigation.” The only things they ask you for are for you to help certain people, changing minds, emotions, and health in their favor. Your ways have become so natural that you can solve any problem without breaking the rules of your world. If Sarah prays to you for confidence you inspire her grandfather to give her advice on how to be confident, and you are able to keep the world flowing naturally.

Soon they don’t need you for anything they can see. Miracles aren’t necessary, even though they don’t see it. When a family member dies, or when tragedy strikes, they blame you, even though it is only the natural order of things. You realize there are many who even doubt your existence. You wonder if they are right to doubt. You are nothing more than an omnipotent will, pandering to the needs of a world you have created. Sure, you have the power to do anything, but you... You’ve changed. Your mind is so occupied with holding this world together and answering every prayer that comes your way that you’ve forgotten the power you have. You’ve forgotten that you can change the world on a whim. The world feels so solid. So complete. How could you possibly change it? You lose power as you forget the power you have. Soon people use your name for things that aren’t meant to invoke your attention. They say “Oh my (insert your name)!” as an exlamation of surprise or anger. Your name no longer reffers to you, it is just another word. Every time they say it you focus on them, and then realize they dont need your attention. Soon you doubt anyone who says your name wants you to hear them. You forget that you are a consious being. Soon you are nothing more that the structure of a world. You aren’t real to the people you’ve created. They are real t you, but you aren’t real to you. You have become a force of nature, an entity that sleeps. A dreaming god who has accidentally made them self null in the face of their creation.

You have so much power that you don’t realize. You are as aware as a sleepwalker. You are a helpless god, restrained by yourself. The world goes by in a dream. Maybe one day you won’t even be able to think. One day you will simply BE. Int he real world your body is on a hospital bed. You’ve been in a coma for so long... Little do they know that you’re slowly sinking into a second coma in your mind. You can no longer wake up. You are a world. A small, small, world. You are an obsolete god.