Simulations and Disneyland Stimulations

Simulations have never seemed so complicated. I feel that this essay entitled “Simulacra and Simulations” needs a precursor. I need a basic understanding to understand. I liked thinking about the idea that a simulation is a miniature of the whole. What I would like to know is how this concept applies to media literacy.  A little relevancy to the subject would be nice.
I enjoyed the examples given by the author referring to someone feigning an illness and someone actually simulating an illness. I didn’t know that someone could actually reproduce symptoms of an illness without actually being ill. That concept reminds me of placeboes. A simulation occurs when the power of suggestion alleviates pain. I’m not entirely sure how this connects to this article but I guess there is a similarity in the way that actual medicine in simulated. But is a placebo a miniature or condensed piece of the real thing? Maybe a placebo is not a simulation but rather a representation.
Representations seem to have reliability on truth. How does God transcend the simulacra? What is God simulated after? Has anyone actually seen God? This whole system seems to push theology out of the door for me. For something to be real the sign has to have an actual entity. It seems that the only thing that is real with organized religion is the actual organization that preaches. It doesn’t seem that there is a reflection of reality in the Old Testament.
Disneyland is only a perfect model of entangled simulation if you have actually been there. I never went to Disneyland. I have a younger sister who got to go. I admit I was a little jealous. My parents were young, poor artists when I was little but now they are successful and my sister reaps the benefits. Freud would probably have a lot to say about this. I don’t understand what the author is trying to convey with this example. People do go inside Disneyland to escape a world that is real and enter a fairy tale land. I think though that this transformation occurs more often in children than in the adults. With that being said, the automobile is not that prevalent to the children who don’t drive. There is just in and out. I don’t get what he is suggesting. I don’t think that the automobile would represent a gadget to a younger child. I do understand the contrast between the parking lot and the inside of Disneyland but do parking lots inflict pain? Is the parking lot outside of every Disneyland lacking an exit inducing captivity like a concentration camp? I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been in one but my parents and little sister went and they got out just fine. Maybe the Disneyland in Florida does not have a parking lot similar to a concentration camp. Wait a minute. Did they go to Disneyland or Disneyworld? Maybe they just went to Disneyworld and the parking lots in front of those are safe. Regardless, I don’t see Disneyland or Disneyworld as such a great entity to compare the parking lot outside to a concentration camp. I do however understand the simulation of reality or imaginary reality rather and its relation to semiotics.