by Sharda Patasar

Created on: July 28, 2008

Twoflower, the believer in dragons, resident of the Counterweight Continent (C.C.), a country said to be made of gold. But myth has a habit of creating dragons in hallways where lizards are better off due to their size. El Dorado and its people suffered the same reputation. Although not made of gold, C.C. was however abundant in it. El Dorado wasn't so fortunate.

Rincewind: the "magician", a school failure. The -wind' pretty much sums up the fellow. One spell however has a soporific existence somewhere in his consciousness. How to awaken it, was another matter. Not even its possessor knew!

This is Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic'. The picture that I'm interested in here is that of Rincewind attempting to conjure a dragon. He strains to do it, "any dragon" he says, trying magic almighty to create it and then a voice intrudes mockingly "IT WON'T WORKYOU DON'T BELIEVE IN THEM". Darn! That's the problem with life. You can't conjure them if you don't believe. And that's why Twoflower is the one commanding and riding the dragon.
His sense of wonder injects into his vision the element of the fantastic. Even when he is captured and thrown into a dark cell where he loses all track of time, he decides it is useless thinking about how much time has passed and he begins to think of dragons! And his thoughts remain there. And suddenly the dragon is his to command-

"In your mind. You called me up in your mind", the dragon says patiently.

"But I've been thinking of dragon all my life!" he replies.

It is in this place "the frontier between thought and reality" that magic happens you see. It's when we let go of that nagging vision of time and just approach with the eyes of a traveller, with a sense of curiosity and wonder that the mind begins to lose its hold on boundaries. Anything is possible then.

From philosophers like James Allen "As a Man Thinketh" to "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne to meditation courses like The Silva Mind Method the central lesson is "Whatever the mind can conceive we can achieve".

Twoflower filled with wonder and hopes of enchantment comes to a land where all he meets from his arrival is misfortune. But all he can see are things of wonder. After all he did come to see those things that he had only heard by way of stories. And stories after all are created by the imagination aren't they? And imagination is all we need.

Tavern brawls. Real ones! And barbarians! It is the possession of a mind that has no sense of boundaries that makes his mind different to

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