“Alph, my thought system is almost paralyzed! I have never encountered such complicated notions in my life! One cannot present a more complicated ‘solution’ to the problem of where and how the ‘real’ joins the ‘imagined’ and where they part..!”
“The real and the imagined are like two oceans, two oceans that are together, but are never allowed to mix, as they are separated by an ‘intermediary’ or an isthmus[1]… Try and understand these two oceans as best you can… The intermediary is a difference of dimension.”
“So, is my real self, denoted by the word ‘I’, real or imagined?”
“I told you everything you need to hear. Retrieve your answers from your own comprehension.”
“But I can’t think right now! My mind is confused. What you refer to as an ‘answer’ or ‘solution’ seems only to be a greater predicament to me! If my being is a dream, can a dream transgress the dream? If so, the transgressor will no longer be the dream but the reality itself, but then how did the real become a dream?”
“I am now leaving you to yourself, Jem… Try and solve it for yourself.”
“Wait! Where are you going? The knot in my mind has only grown! You can’t leave me now! Help me a little more, please..!”
“I told you everything I can about this. As I said, from now on, you have to consult your own comprehension… We will meet again later and discuss your findings if you like… As for now, In Essence!”
Jem knew his insisting wasn’t going to have any use, hopelessly he replied:
“In Essence…”
Then he thought to himself… But what kind of essence is this essence in, I wonder… A real essence or an imagined one..?