False imagery is any illustration or depiction of myself in a way that does not exist, or misrepresents how I do exist.
For example, I can imagine past, future, and present situations in a way that differs from my moment. I can imagine my teenaged-self hanging out with friends from a third-person perspective, as if I am observing the event from the side. To achieve this secondself construct, I patch together mental images of myself from photos, and fill in the details to reconstruct the imagined scenario. The entire scenario is imaginary; it is not happening in my moment except as an imaginary construction. However, I believe “it happened”, which influences my moment.
I can do a similar activity for a future construct.
These constructs do not exist, but in pondering them, they do trigger a variety of secondself feelings and thoughts that I respond to. I might imagine a past failure, and then experience a wave of shame and embarrassment in my moment. Or I can imagine a person from my thirdself as larger and more powerful than I am, and experience a wave of fear, anxiety, or admiration in my moment.
These secondself constructs misrepresent the truth of who I am. Firstly, only this moment and this space exists, which I can directly validate. Anything other than this moment and this space is part of the second place, and the distortion I am trying to escape from. Secondly, There is no third-person perspective of me except when I imagine it, for there is no other Being; I am the only Being. People are not Beings, they are fanciful patterns I project within my thirdself the same way I project them within my secondself. They do not observe as Beings.
The only way I can realistically depict myself is as I experience. I only “look outward” into my thirdself. I see only my body and appendages I use to manipulate the various shapes I create in thirdself. I do not see my face, or myself from a third-person perspective. All that is imaginary and entangles me deeper in my illness. When I imagine scenarios that are not now and here, I diffuse away from my firstself and solidify the illness of my awakening. There are no other Beings here. There is only an ever-changing fluidic space upon which I project my illness as shapes and forms I believe are not me, not here, and not now. But neither my moment nor space extend beyond here or now. I must withdraw from these extensions to return to firstself.
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