Mystical experiences remind us that we are Reality “come alive”, that we are Reality’s experience of itself.

But what is the meaning behind it all?

Why is it just that when we think we “get it”, we “miss it”?

That, in our attempts at trying to pin down the “ineffable”, we fail?

Perhaps there’s a secondary meaning through it all, that transcends the original surface level meaning?

Allegory: Doubleness of Intention

In Allegory: Theory of a Symbolic Mode, professor of English Dr. Angus Fletcher describes how allegory “destroys the expectations we have about language, that our words ‘mean what they say’.” In allegory, he says, the “literal, surface level does not explicitly demand to be interpreted for hidden meanings, for it often makes ‘good enough’ sense by itself.” Yet, strangely, the literal, “coded,” surface level suggests “a peculiar doubleness of intention.” Thus, while the surface level could “get along without interpretation,” it becomes more meaningful and richer “once given its ‘[allegorical] interpretation’”.

And so it is with our life. There is a language in the events of our lives, whether literally or symbolically interpreted, but there is also a second, deeper, language that shifts our mind into another dimension. This double meaning plays out “between the lines.” While we can ignore this secondary meaning, it grants our life a larger sense of purpose.

In “writing” our lives then, the intelligence behind our minds can communicate through another language of what is “unsaid.” As characters inside our minds, we must “read” our lives intelligently as an allegory to grasp this “coded” secret….