In my childhood home there used to be a trifoliate orange branch right above the front door. It was hanging horizontally, armoured with sharp, tough thorns. My grandmother gave it to my family for it was supposed to protect our home from evil spirits. She was a temple-goer. I don’t know if that makes her buddhist or not because it is not always easy to differentiate buddhist culture from other superstitious customs in Korea. Grandmother had a friend called ‘Jeju granny’, who was a kind of a shaman. Back then, there used to be one like her in small villages. I still don’t know what exactly her role in the community was, but I remember that she used to read signs from people’s dreams and also dream herself about other people and then tell them her interpretation of what it means. I guess it might be her who prepared orange branches or drew paper talismans for my granny so she could give them to my family.
Religion, superstition, belief, whatever you call it, how people act as a result of what they believe always fascinates me. The many deep bows my granny used to make in front of the statue of Buddha, a respectful kiss to Maria given by an old couple in a monastery on a Catalonian rocky mountain. They have left such a profound impression of how belief can make its bearer beautiful and, to a degree, holy. So I come to believe in everything from God to fantasy. Later I came to meet people who question how you could believe in God when you cannot actually see him. Although perhaps you could be willing to believe in something exactly because you have never seen it or you are never going to see it. Even science might be compared to the trail of a pilgrim, discovering incomprehensible mysteries bit by bit. It might sound absurd and irrational, but maybe some aspects of human nature are reflected better by this belief in unexamined or unexaminables.
Some explain religion as a coping mechanism for fear and anxiety that we happen to have. Now most things have their own proper explanation, and there are plenty go things to replace religion. Dream, wish and illusion would be rather foolish and blind, whereas unbelief and scepticism would be a smarter choice. What matters and what’s ‘real’ is political and economic information, properties and health. All-powerful religion is long gone, but if asked I’m sure that everyone could come up with a good number of commandments. They dominate the everyday so strictly that fearing the wrath of God (in form of a solar eclipse or a natural disaster) is no longer an issue. People do not pray or wish upon anything anymore.

Westerosi believe in both old and new gods, Ancient Greeks believed in and worshipped a great number of gods and goddesses, children have no doubts in Father Christmas. Some dedicate their belief to scientific principles or to a fitness regime. But no one would consider their belief delusional. It is simply different reasons for different beliefs. Most people would be convinced that their belief is reasonably justifiable and also true. When a belief is judged as false, that is because it lacks justification or, even if it doesn’t, does not correspond to facts, and therefore is untrue. Criticism of superstitions or religion is usually formed likewise.
Religion is not the only domain where a belief is not easily justified. From time to time artists confront responses saying that their work is incomprehensible and does not make sense. This is because the audience, critics, co-artists and even artists themselves have a hard time understanding the belief behind the work. This belief is the origin of an artist’s unique perspective, the process and the result of the artwork. One thing that makes it difficult to grasp this belief is that the artist does not explain it sufficiently. In other words, the artist does not provide enough ‘justification’ for their belief which is the source of the artistic process. Some artists even confess that they themselves have constant doubts and insecurities about their own belief. But they just keep on going, even though their belief is not justified to themselves.
What’s more, some artists just start from things that are completely wrong: false information, misunderstanding or a misperception. The thing is that here, in contrast to in other subject fields, false belief formed by misconception and misunderstanding can instead draw something new. If there is something wrong with someone’s knowledge about the world, it should be dealt with as a problem, simply because it is false. However, when false belief brings about creation, it collides with knowledge, causing surprise and chaos and can sometimes be appreciated as something new, significant or even beautiful.

Creating is unjustified false belief; and when+if you adjust a perspective even a little bit, it is no wonder that creating does not have to be justified. It is not necessary to justify creating, or rather, being unjustified is its nature. In the same way, you cannot argue whether creating is true or false. Truth and falsehood depends on correspondence with facts, however creating does not need to be true, rather not corresponding with facts is what makes creating creating. Creating collides with the ongoing world ceaselessly, from its beginning to its result. When creating crashes into knowledge, when unjustified false belief crashes into justified true belief, meaning, emotion, desire, experience and a whole new universe is born. Therefore even if creating is made up of unjustified false belief, it becomes what matters, it becomes real. It is real.
Life really depends on what you decide to believe. Proverbs stating that: ‘what we believe becomes real’ say more than at first glance. Creating is a belief. It is a belief which is not adequately explainable or provable, thus unjustifiable and sometimes completely false. Creating begins by withdrawing the necessity to justify and verify, deciding to keep belief and act upon it. By doing that, all delusion that an artist believes becomes real, here and now.