Chad Adams - Landscapes of the Sacred: Reflection #2

“A place can become anything its patrons conceive it to be" - This statement got me thinkin'. When some people see extraordinary people do extraordinary things, they automatically see it as a miracle, rather than a strong person achieving a great feat. The statement reminds me of those black and white blobs on paper that are used by psychologist. Most of the time those blobs are exactly that, just blobs. People’s imagination and thought patterns form figures or things that have meaning. It reminds me of an episode of my favorite television show It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. It’s a comedy about four friends that own a bar in the middle of Philadelphia. In this specific episode one of the four bar owner’s sees a water stain that resembles the typical figure of Jesus. The gang realizes that they could make money off of this and get their bar to be a sacred place. The gang indeed markets their bar by being marked by Jesus himself and sure enough people start to show up and worship this water stain on the wall. More and more people start to show up and the bar starts making money. One of the bar owners even starts to dress like a priest and preach to all of the believers in the bar. People believe it because they’re searching for an extra presence of the supernatural. If you look long enough for something and want to see whatever it is your looking for, your mind can make you see what you want. I think your mind is a powerful thing and controls you, which in turn controls things around you. Your brain controls everything, without it you wouldn’t be able to function, but the thing is your brain isn’t always right and can be tricked and deceived. It just shows how sometimes it’s extremely easy to convince yourself that something is true just because you want it to be.