A real rabbit hole, or a “warren” as it is known, is a
very elaborate and seemingly endless branching tunnel underground connecting
different rabbit burrows and often more tunnels. It is a vast network, a labyrinth that the
rabbits understand very well because they built it, but which completely
mystifies and stymies mankind because we are not rabbits and we do not think
like them. Perhaps we could take a
lesson.
A “rabbit hole” as used in today’s popular vernacular is
(or appears to be) a secret entrance to a vast network of hidden information
for which one must dig deeper and deeper.
Rabbit holes can be interesting and fun, and they can oftentimes provide
information or at least entertainment.
They also have a knack for providing disinformation as well, all wrapped
up in a pretty bow with the actual information.
If you consume one, you often consume the other. The builders of the rabbit hole have designed
it this way on purpose.
As implied, you can go further and further down the
rabbit hole. The more you dig, the more
interesting and often more bizarre information you will find. Some of it is true; some of it is not. There are also connecting tunnels to other
rabbit holes. Sometimes you can go
further and further until you cannot remember which rabbit hole you entered in
the first place. Each piece of
information is designed to lead you to the next piece, like the crumbs of
Hansel from the Hansel and Gretel fairytale.
And if you do come to the end of the rabbit hole, which doesn’t happen
often, you find that the delicious pieces you have gleaned are often ambiguous and
curtly dead-ended. . . so down another rabbit hole you go.
It is all so enticing because, as I said, there is real
and true information available, but it is so hard to decide which is
which. To make things more interesting,
you will find a wizard in every rabbit hole.
He or she guards a great deal of information, but like the Wizard of Oz,
he cannot give you anything that you do not already possess. You can think of the wizard as one who
illuminates things. If he is a good
wizard, he will illuminate what you already know—he will lead you to
remembrance. If he is a bad wizard, he
will douse the light and cast enticing shadows down sumptuous tunnels that will
lead nowhere but will sap a great deal of your time and energy in the process
of navigating them.
For those of you who are uncomfortable with the idea of a
“wizard,” let me put it in simpler terms.
The wizard is like a Maine guide—those hardy, very strong, and cunning
men (and a few women) in Maine who know the backwoods like the back of their
hands. You can hire them to take you on
an exploration through the woods that you will never forget—a trip of a
lifetime. However, the Maine guide can
only show you the vast network of the woods.
He cannot tell you how to think or feel about it, how to enjoy it, and
what you should get out of the experience.
He can only illuminate the way through a woods that is and always has
been your primal inheritance.
The Wizard of Oz could not give the scarecrow a brain,
the tinman a heart, the cowardly lion courage, or Dorothy an appreciation for
home. He could only illuminate what
already existed within each of the travelers walking down the Yellow Brick Road
as they opened their souls to one another.
Their selfless actions led them to display that which they thought they
did not possess, and the wizard showed them the truth of the matter. And he also showed them that not only did
they already possess what they were looking for, but the place in which they
were looking ought to have been their own minds and hearts and not some pot of
gold at the end of a rainbow.
Was he a good wizard or a bad wizard? Well, he was good in that he helped them to
see what was hidden but in plain sight.
He was bad in that he rushed them out of Oz as quickly as he could
before they had time to think about why he said, “Pay no attention to that man
behind the curtain.” Pay no attention to
the wizard. He is a figment of your
imagination. Now here is your prize,
your compensation, your costly gift.
Behave and be good and forget what you have learned, and all will be
well, he says.
Always remember this:
The wizard is not Oz. He is the
wizard OF. And what shall we say about
Oz itself? What, indeed.
In our search for knowledge, how can we know which is
which and who is who? A few guiding
thoughts:
1. Always ask, who
benefits?
2. Nature never
breaks Her own laws.
3. Energy is the
currency of the Universe, and patterns are the guides.
So if you find yourself tumbling down yet another confusing
rabbit hole deliberately filled with scintillating information and
disinformation designed to enthrall and hypnotize you, or if you are already
helplessly lost within such a rabbit hole, remember the Illuminator. Not only do you already possess what you are
looking for, but you also possess the Light that shows the way. Any other Light by any other wizard pales in
comparison.
