Being mindful, why readers are unaware of visitors to realms

McVale’s explanation of readers to Yas

McVale continued, switching topics again. “The human mind has a great ability to ignore things that don’t make sense. On some level readers do see everything, but they are expecting to see a particular story play out in their mind’s eye, and so they ignore anything else that doesn’t fit.” 

Yas heard children’s laughter somewhere above her and looked up, straining her eyes against the fog. She glimpsed children flying, holding hands, before they disappeared over a rooftop. 

 “We each imagine things slightly differently,” explained McVale. “To a reader, the realm offers Victorian London. Different stories, different paintings of scenes can be played out here, without a reader of one book consciously aware of what another is reading or seeing in their mind’s eye.” 

“Like theatre stages?” asked Yas, remembering something her grandpa had said to her a long time ago. “So, the realms are a collection of stages on which different stories can be played out by readers?” 

A quick reminder of ‘readers’

In the Word Guardians series, remember that readers unintentionally collaborate. What they each see in their mind’s eye powers the magical ink that creates and reshape the realms. 

As Yas realises above, the realms form theatre stages that play out a story in the mind’s eye of the readers, and they typically only see what fits with that storyline. It enables visitors to the realms, such as Yas and McVale in the excerpt, to move around undetected. They might be spotted, but because the reader is not expecting to see them, they are filtered out of the experience. 

What do you see when reading?

When you’re reading, what do you see in your mind’s eye? You probably see the storyline playing out, a scene and characters moving to match the description and action on the page. But do you ever notice anything you’re not expecting? I don’t know that I do, but it’s interesting to think about when you’re next sitting with a novel. 

What about in life?

In life too, we tend to look around us and see what we expect. We move through life with a particular set of goals and tasks to perform and only see what’s relevant to those and the settings that we travel through. If we’re driving, we notice other road users, pedestrians, road signs etc but whose to say what else might be there that we don’t notice? 

Mindfulness

Ultimately, I’m touching on mindfulness. I’m talking about how much we are fully present. We typically see what we expect to see given what we’re thinking about and imagining. But how much more is there, and how does that change our experience of life? 

I’m likely not doing enough justice to mindfulness by what I say here and it’s a worthwhile topic to dig into further. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about how The Word Guardians, buy Book 1 The Battle for the Peacekeepers. It’s available in both paperback and kindle editions. 

Enjoy reflecting.