Ray experiences a calling and no one notices, or if they do notice, it doesn't make sense to them. We distrust the imagination and our own Voice. Ray takes the risk. He plows under his corn and builds the Playing Field, a place where Shoeless Joe Jackson can come back and play baseball again. The Field is a metaphor for the protected space where the imagination can come to life, where the imagination is as real as everyday life.
Creativity is integral to good psychotherapy and to our attempts to heal old wounds.
We cannot be creative, however, without feeling safe. The therapeutic relationship, like the Playing Field, safeguards definite boundaries within which we are free to remember, imagine, feel, and think absolutely anything. These boundaries are essential. There's a moment when Shoeless Joe comes to meet Annie and Karin. Without explanation we know that he can't cross the line, nor can anyone but Ray enter the Field.