You can’t know anything that you can’t imagine. But reality is what it is regardless of what you imagine or think it to be.
How do you know you are on the path? Reality checks you at every turn, informing you by crossing your path.
The psychologist Alexander Bain wrote in 1875 of belief that ‘it first shapes and forecasts the order of the world and then proceeds upon that, till a check occurs’ (quoted in Fisch 1986, 85-6). This ‘check’ may crack the shell of a brittle belief, creating space for imagination, abduction, inquiry, recycling and renewal of the belief system, the guidance system.