A lot of these imaginings have been around for a long time in one form or another, which is why it's so easy to sue whoever came up with a recent version of the same form, isn't this the basis of fractals, for why should imagination that bubbles up from our subconscious be any different? Which fractal came first? Is any of it real? Sounds like the basis of that line of the Morpheus character in the Matrix films, in which, by the third film, we find that none of it really was.
It also reminds me of the third book in The Celestine Prophecy series, in which some people get stuck in their own desires, imaginations, etc... disassociated, which seems to happen a lot in the 'afterlife' (or so I've read) and a reason it takes 'time' to process each of us, as all the beliefs have to get weeded out of our personal gardens, cluttered with all the crap we've accumulated over the years, so much of which is based on everyone's collective imaginings, sort of like 'hope' in every election cycle. That was a lot of imagining recently wasn't it?
Wasn't it real while it lasted? And isn't it still real for some?
It seems that for the creator of these stories, especially those that linger in multiple writings such as with Rowling's Potterverse, these characters take on a life of their own(especially with the added on imaginings of its readers with all their musings on the same), which is usually the case, only with most, the end of the story is the end of their characters, but while active in the mind's imagination sector, they would seem real, wouldn't they? Depending upon how much energy is focused on it, and isn't that the case with the Potterverse? It's fading away since the story stopped and the fans slowly departed, like the end of a cycle or a vector in our space/time. It's only as real as the one imagining it allows it to be, individually and together as more join in or leave.
Not many really get lost in these imagined worlds do they? Like with any drug, it wears off like most states of dissociation, which seems to tie in with the development of empathy through sympathy etc? Remember that statement from Laura's C's about the chubrachakra or whatever, as well as the discovery of those WW2 airplanes on the seafloor, in that it is a collective combination that makes the interaction what it is? Perhaps the characters of these stories represent fractal energies that work through the archetypes of our subconscious in creating ourselves in their own imagination? Closing of the Grand Cycle brings it all to a collective consummation of completion in deciding whose story fractal will win out and start the next fractal? The battle of light vs dark as usual in which the collective count matters in the end, sort of like those singing contests on tv in which the audience calls in to vote for the winner. Their status as stars are 'real' and grow until they are voted off and they fall back to reality, whatever that is. And in some's imagination, perhaps they have remained stars as that reality continues in a different dimension, whose potential bleedthrough could be a factor of their own imagination, as well as a few hopeful friends, all of whom could be in a fantasy state of subjective imagination overload, or just a thinning of the veil. With all these potentials being played with by anyone seeking to mess with our minds, it's hard to stay on course and know what is or isn't real at times, but then that's what grounding is for, right? That's why the audience is allowed to vote? A reality check. It forces delusions to depart... at least this stage and this story, but the energies could remain elsewhere in different expressions, different fractals like meme's perhaps?
Keep hope alive? ;D Is anything ever really dead? Any story can be resurrected and restarted like the seed of any relationship, which so often seems to start in our imagination. The object of our affection then interacts with our 'reality' and cojoins the game with imaginings of its own... and the Child is born... perhaps in a manger, right? ;)