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(This essay is the result of a lovely back and forth I had with my best student, Dr. Jeffrey J. Kripal.
I want to honor him, that he reminded me of these words, which are part of a vast river of similar
words, that irrigate endless beautiful vistas, full of delight and much reduced suffering.
This world is not one of Those places, but IT COULD BE, if we want it badly enough.)
Religion is one of those words that feels heavy, almost toxic, to many of us—especially those who have spent years dismantling its idols and illusions. Platonic Surrealism (PS) has traditionally “hated religion,” seeing it as the great thief of human sovereignty, the system that convinces us to give away our power to false gods and hollow hierarchies. But here’s the paradox: PS itself is a religion—albeit of a radically different kind.
Why? Because words are always products of fractured consciousness. They are never pure. They carry history, bias, and baggage. And yet, if we strip religion down to its essence, what do we find? Not dogma. Not priests. Not commandments. We find the desire to dream—to imagine something beyond the given, to reach for the superhuman, to dare to believe that reality is more than the gray walls of consensus.
That desire can take two forms:
- Toxic Religion: The standard human version, where we surrender our POTENTIALITY and AWARENESS to idols, systems, and saviors. Here, the dream becomes a prison. We forget that we are the makers of dreams, not the dream itself. We fall headfirst into “hell worlds,” mistaking temporary play for ultimate truth.
- Non-Toxic Religion: A disposable scaffolding, like Zen’s raft or PS’s “wagon sparkle.” It exists only to point the finger at the moon. Once you realize you are the moon, you throw away the finger. PS is perfectly happy to be discarded. It knows it is a tool, not a cage.
This is where my conversation with Jeff comes alive. Jeff argues that humans are afraid of their supernature. They look away from UFOs, ghosts, and gods, calling them demons or delusions. He says: “Don’t do that. Talk about it. Look up. And around.” He wants us to revel in the miracle tale, to embrace the divine play.
I agree—but with a caveat. The superhuman is seductive. If you dive in incomplete, it will swallow you whole. The end goal of religion, for me, is not endless obsession with the miraculous. It is the freedom to become Superman whenever you want—and still enjoy being Clark Kent. To play with gods without forgetting that you are POTENTIALITY and AWARENESS, the source of all gods and games.
Platonic Surrealism calls this reverse path integration: using the empowered human will to grab “god” by the testicles and make him squeal—not in blasphemy, but in creative delight. Because “god” is not offended. “god” is a very bad boy who loves the game. This is divine play at its best: building new interfaces in the infinite playground of being.
So yes, PS is a religion. But it is a religion that knows it is a mere toolkit you choose to live as if true, until you no longer need it. It is a dream scaffold, a disposable mythology, a shimmering wagon sparkle that gets the job done and then dissolves back into the ocean of AWARENESS.
Religion, then, is not about temples or texts. It is about daring to dream. The question is not whether you are religious. It is how you are religious. Toxic religion clings. Non-toxic religion lets go. And the greatest letting go is this: to realize that you are the dreamer, not the dream.
Kevin Cann
Public Domain
11/25/2025