Are we truly God’s children — or are we not? In any case, many species in the animal world (ours included) enjoy learning through play, even as adults. That is why I say that the “Sacred Game” exists!
No one is shouting. No one is crying. No one is raging. Why is there no outrage? Simply because I am not inventing anything. Indeed, paradoxical though it may seem, the “Sacred Game” has existed ever since man became man, and it can be observed in three main forms:
A)_ “The Major.” A master form, consisting in the founding of a religion, a sect, a movement, or a religious group, as well as in their operations. This takes place at the starting line... of what is proclaimed as absolute truth.
B)_ “The Minor.” An imposing form that appears during a split or schism within a religion, sect, movement, church, or any order rebelling against an authority in order to claim possession of a new absolute truth....
C)_ “The Marginal.” A sacred game, a fantasy game, a wandering spade with anarchic overtones. It resembles the precepts, but without the pretension to dominate. More simply, it is only a self-assertion, without any project of subjugation, expressed through declarations of opinion or new impressions about God—impressions that may compose Him... or replace Him.
All these versions result from recirculations, reflections, simple inspirations, or, with luck, convincing illuminations. But in the case of the marginal form, this humble and personal faith in the “absolute being” (whatever “image” individuals may give it) cannot be displayed within the following frameworks: the great religions and their extensions, sects, orders, movements, or other kinds of religious associations. For these structures, sincere though they may be—and often grave at their foundation—profess, in most cases, according to the principle of what has already been said, already written, and already fixed about the absolute being. Religions can comfort and structure the mind; but they can also prove harmful and disturbing to individuals.
Moreover, one of the causes—among others—of the existence of the sacred epic game is the fact that no religion demonstrates a willingness to sacrifice itself, that is to say, a genuine intention to collaborate in the worldwide establishment of an overarching religious organization uniting all churches and sects of every kind. (Don’t panic!.....) Once applied, such a hypothesis would lead to a vast and truly global social upheaval. And let us remember that this idea itself is the result of the marginal sacred game. (Now..., panic!)
Thus, the sacred game exists in order to grant us the right to imagine this “absolute truth,” or its nonexistence, beyond what is denied, concealed, or refused to us. The sacred game is not about creating new religious constitutions(*); it is about the everyday pleasure of loving this “absolute truth,” or “its absence,” in a way accessible to each and every one of us. This without limits, because one cannot define what has no known limits.
Nowhere, in the spheres of high knowledge, in those contexts of advanced and specialized learning, is there any mention of a prohibition against dreaming.... ? Is that not so?..... And that is a very good thing! (**)
So, being like you a child of One-knows-who, you will understand that I amuse myself with the sacred epic game: “the marginal.”
Do you wish to become a false prophet? All you need to do is make improbable or incomprehensible predictions. If you say, “I shall never die!” then you would unquestionably be a false prophet. And if the person you are trying to convince tells you that you are not one, but merely a little mad, you might answer: “If I am not one, it is because I am a fake. And to be a ‘false’ false prophet is, in a way, to be one!” In the end, your interlocutor might be right.
* Warning: it is preferable that all fools tempted by the sacred games, whether major or minor, and tired of the simplicity of their reflections within the sacred epic game, read the following: “Consciousness is a soul for two that sails with us until death.”
** God does not belong only to gurus. He also belongs to the people.