Assumption 1: Anything that can be imagined exists somewhere in the infinite (or near infinite) universes of the multiverse. (If there are an infinite number of universes, it is guaranteed that all possible places and characters of archetypal imagery (or any imagery from art, film, theater, etc.) exist in at least one of the infinite universes.)
Assumption 2: Higher dimensional information can be encoded into a lower dimensional substrate. (Holographic plates are an example of this principle at work, with 3d spatial information encoded into a 2d plate surface.)
Assumption 3: The brain can be such a substrate, and can assemble higher dimensional perceptions from lower dimensional perceptions. (Research on the structure of the brain suggests that information is stored in a manner similar to how a holographic plate stores information. Other research shows that the brain assembles the 3rd dimension of vision from information that is sent from the 2d surface of the retina.)
Myth as archetypal maps for subjective understanding of one’s own neural connections (experienced as the landscape of mind).
The human brain is hard-wired to work with myth – archetypal maps by which the internal landscape of mind can be navigated. When a psychonaut, shaman, bard, or other explorer of the inner world begins to work with myth, the archetypal characters and places are crude and undeveloped – not much can be understood or predicted using such simplistic mappings. As the explorer begins to create more elaborate details, interconnecting different elements of their mythos, their brain correspondingly becomes more interconnected. Myth becomes the language by which the internal world of the subconscious can engage in dialogue with the conscious mind, with archetypal imagery as the words, and events occurring within the mythos as the syntactical/grammatical contextualization. Archetypal characters and places become the means by which the explorer identifies and maps neural circuits of different parts of the brain, while events in the mythos symbolize the interconnections between the corresponding neural circuits that are represented by the characters and places. As the mythos develops, the overall story is the aggregate of all neural circuits and connections that have so far been mapped.
Archetypal/mythos mapping as encoding of higher dimensional geometries into the 3d neural substrate.
Holographic plates store information in such a way that the information of the whole plate is equally represented in each part, the entire image is stored in every point on the plate and arises through the interactions of the points, not through the points themselves. That is to say, if you cut a holographic plate in half, each half can still construct the entire image intact, though with less detail. The brain exhibits a similar property in that if large sections of the brain are destroyed, or become disconnected from each other, memories can still be retrieved, though with less detail. It could be said that a 4d spacetime image of events are stored into a 3d neural substrate; in other words, memory is a 4d hologram on a 3d substrate. As in a hologram where each point of the holographic plate is connected to every other point, it is as if each neuron has an “address book” for each other neuron that was activated during a particular experience. The memory is retrieved as the activation of a neuron’s “address book” for that particular experience. Thus, encoding of higher dimensions into a lower dimensional substrate is a function of interconnectedness of points on the substrate.
As the mythos develops, the brain becomes increasingly interconnected and the chasm between conscious and unconscious mind is bridged. Neurally speaking, archetypal imagery are “address books” of neurons, and are 4d informational encodings onto the 3d neural substrate. Extrapolating from what is known about holograms, it could be understood that higher dimensional information is encoded into a lower dimensional substrate by the interconnection of all points on the lower dimensional substrate to each other. Just as an archetypal image itself is an “address book“ of the different neurons involved in encoding the image, so would events in a mythos be an “address book” of the archetypal “address books”. In other words, the individual events in the explorer’s subjective mythos are the extension of neural holography into the next higher dimension, 5d. The overall story arc of individual events in the mythos would correspond to a 6d “address book” of 5d encoded information, and so on.
Inner mapping becomes outer mapping.
As the higher dimensional interconnections of the holographic neural network increase in density and number, consciousness can begin to create higher dimensional schema for modeling reality. As the schema develop, consciousness is able to see the world from a higher dimensional perspective, allowing for exploring other universes in the multiverse or even gaining information from the 3/4d universe in which an explorer’s body resides that would normally be inaccessible (for example, a person in 2d flatland would be amazed by how a 3d person standing above him could tell him what is outside the walls of the 2d flatlander’s rooms). Thus, when a shaman consults the “spirits” (archetypal images) for information about where a lost item is, divining the future, or some other prophetic act, the shaman is utilizing higher dimensional interconnections and schema about the world to gain information from the 3/4d world.
In some sense, the shaman mentioned above is simultaneously projecting his/her consciousness to the universe in which that spirit resides. By the assumptions listed above, anything that can be imagined exists in a universe somewhere in the multiverse. Thus art, theatre, film, etc. all can be conceived of as higher dimensional perceptions of other universes in the multiverse, with the information brought back to this universe. So, I propose that stories such as “Star Wars” actually did exist a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (in another universe). But the difference between George Lucas and the above mentioned shaman is that the shaman has a two-way dialogue with those other universes, and can request information from other hyperspatial, higher dimensional beings that is directly relevant to this universe.
Bringing it back full circle, images are not inherently real on their own, with respect to the explorer developing an archetypal mythos. When an explorer -begins- to develop their mythos, they are imagining things. But as the imaginings become more elaborate and interconnected, they begin to touch something real, as the explorer truly does peer with his/her own consciousness into other universes.