ABSTRACT
The previous chapter looked at how language shapes what can be said and what can be thought. Belief and illusion are constructions of a meaning-making mind confronted with experiences beyond words. Aged nine, Belfast-born boy Clive Lewis had such an experience when his mother died of breast cancer. With his elder brother Warren, the orphans invented imaginary worlds based on Norse and Greek mythology. They needed to create meaning in a world suddenly made meaningless by mother’s death and father’s abandonment of them to his grief (Lancelyn Green and Hooper 1974:19-49).
