More Than Allegory: Rethinking Reality Through the Lens of Mythmaking
Work Reviewed: Kastrup, Bernardo. More Than Allegory.* Iff Books, 2016.
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Introduction
More than Allegory will challenge your assumptions about reality, truth, and the value of storytelling. This is a challenging work, so see the text itself to gain your own understanding, and take my interpretation as just one of many possible.
Key Arguments from More than Allegory
The things we “sense” and the things we “think” actually come from the same place.
Yet we distinguish between the two experiences in ways that are not always accurate. Kastrup makes the point that “everything is mental…your physical body is inside your dreaming mind” (Kastrup 164-165). In sum, even our sense perceptions, no matter how external or objective they appear, are filtered by our brain’s responses to them. This explains how two people exposed to the same external stimuli can have such vastly different experiences.
Reality is the way it is because we have all agreed upon it.
One of the most difficult points for me in this text is the theory that our reality is constructed by an underlying agreement about the way things work. This shared dream is our consensus reality, in which, for example, gravity causes the apple to fall to the ground, germs can make us sick, and fire burns us. For Kastrup, these things are true not because of some external force or plan, but because all living things share the belief. Importantly, though, we do not always agree on the meaning behind what we share, and often feel very differently about the things that unfold around us.
Our separateness from each other and the environment is largely an illusion.
The author chooses the phrase “mind-at-large,” to convey the idea that we all exist in a shared dream (Kastrup 135). Each conscious being in Kastrup’s world, then, is a localization or concentration of this mind-at-large. These concentrations are still connected, but do not have the same access to the whole once they become localized. And importantly, they are temporary.
Our sense of an individual identity is formed by our perspectives and experiences.
This is significant, because as Kastrup points out, “images and thoughts are ephemeral” (Kastrup 167). It follows, then, that we ourselves are constantly changing. Yet there is a link between who I was as a child, for example, and who I am now. Each thought and experience gives birth to the next.
Creation myths detail our experience of becoming conscious, as opposed to the birth of the physical world.
Some comparative mythology reveals that many creation myths share a basic framework: “the notion that the world is a mental creation of a deity who dreams it into existence while lacking lucidity,” (Kastrup 29). Once the dreamer wakes up inside of the dream, the reality becomes fixed. This is an interesting pattern, as it suggests a creative flow state that is subconscious and limitless, followed by a more conscious experience of the dreamscape that is now constrained .
There’s a difference between stories that are literally true, and those that are emotionally true.
Kastrup cautions the reader against internalizing and enforces the granular details of our religions and mythologies. Instead, looking for the transcendent truth, or what resonates emotionally, can guide us towards a gut-level understanding of our existence.
Our current moment lacks myths that resonate.
More Than Allegory makes the case that part of the reason we are struggling in the modern world is a lack of transcendent myths. These have been inadequately replaced by “deprived” ones, such as those that focus on consumption, for example.
“A deprived myth is one that favors…interpretations that do not resonate with one’s deepest intuition.”
(Kastrup 19)
They feel somehow hollow or unfulfilling, which leads us to pursue feelings of transcendence in other ways. Some of these ways can even be harmful, or numbing and dissociative rather than connecting or inspiring.
Rituals can help us understand and connect to transcendent myths.
Kastrup highlights the importance of ritual in bringing life and meaning to stories. In the course of this discussion, the author is careful to distinguish between religion as an institution, and the larger concept of religious myths. Within this framework, there are a variety of ways to engage with myth and practice meaningful rituals, whether in the context of an organized religion, or through individual stories and experiences.
Myths can convey the truth more clearly than a “just the facts,” approach; and they are, as the title suggests, “more than allegory.”
The title More Than Allegory refers to this particular point. According to the author, myths are true in a way that goes beyond either a literal or an allegorical interpretation. As a quick refresher, a simple definition of allegory: “The expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence” (Merriam-Webster). Think Animal Farm.*
By contrast, the author argues that myths provide access to a transcendent truth that is more than the sum of the story’s parts. In other words, it’s more than a one-to-one comparison between symbols and their referents. In a testament to his point, the author includes a myth of his own in this work, which features a protagonist’s attempts to access transcendent truth. Through this story, we understand that ultimately, myths, and the languages we use to express them, give us a context through which to interpret the world, reason through problems, and determine what is possible within our reality.
This review of More than Allegory is part of the July 2024 Mythmaking Trio. Follow me on Patreon for access to discussion and study materials for a new trio of selections each month, including access to all previous materials. Or, sign up for emails to stay up on the latest content.
