Have you ever noticed how easy it is to . . . well, do what’s easy?
It’s easier to surf the net than it is to study or work. It’s easier to watch my latest Netflix movie than it is to clean the house. It’s easier to read what entertains me rather than what will challenge me to think more deeply or to consider ideas outside my comfort zone. It’s easier to be selfish than to meet the needs of others. It’s easier to eat whatever I want than to maintain a healthy diet. I have found that, even though I’ve been a regular exerciser for years, even there it’s easy to slip into easy, to stay at a comfortable pace rather than push myself to go faster, to lift more.
The problem with that is, easy doesn’t get me where I want to go. It’s settling. It’s lost potential. And it’s a denial of all of life’s possibilities. As the poet Mary Oliver said, “For what is life but a reaching for answers? / And what is death but a refusal to grow?”
It’s easier to surf the net than it is to study or work. It’s easier to watch my latest Netflix movie than it is to clean the house. It’s easier to read what entertains me rather than what will challenge me to think more deeply or to consider ideas outside my comfort zone. It’s easier to be selfish than to meet the needs of others. It’s easier to eat whatever I want than to maintain a healthy diet. I have found that, even though I’ve been a regular exerciser for years, even there it’s easy to slip into easy, to stay at a comfortable pace rather than push myself to go faster, to lift more.
The problem with that is, easy doesn’t get me where I want to go. It’s settling. It’s lost potential. And it’s a denial of all of life’s possibilities. As the poet Mary Oliver said, “For what is life but a reaching for answers? / And what is death but a refusal to grow?”
6 comments:
I know precisely what you speak of, because that seems to be my mode of life currently.
You see, when I was in my mid-teens and latter teens, I was reading profusely on economics and political theory. By my latter teens, I was a hardcore atheist.
By my nature I question everything, and take nothing on faith. My mind is very analytical as it concerns society and existence itself.
I came to the conclusion that if God exists, then he does not desire mankind to think so, given that he had not revealed himself in a manner which reason could support.
I even posted on usenet regarding this under the nom de plume of Alex, which you can read below:
From: alexopex@my-dejanews.com
Subject: Only Atheists Go to Heaven
Date: 1998/08/10
Message-ID: <6qm02o$10q$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>#1/1
Newsgroups: humanities.philosophy.objectivism
http://groups.google.com/group/humanities.philosophy.objectivism/browse_thread/thread/3c5313157441fcda/
I continued in this manner for some time. But my natural curiosity got the better of me in my early 20s.
I loved taking huge doses of L.S.D. I had been doing so since I was age 14.
I had always been pretty good at blowing-off the psychedelic experience as simply being a testament to the amazing power of the human mind, but otherwise nothing more. What started me taking the concept of God seriously are the following events. In one of my psychonautical voyages I was conveyed detailed information of which I had no prior knowledge of, the likes of which I considered not believable because it was (I thought) too fantastical. It was only much later, after all of it was confirmed, did I have to reassess my Weltanschauung, and consider that there is much more going on than meets the eye. After that I was also lead to check out the world's leading quantum physicist Prof. David Deutsch's book The Fabric of Reality from the library (the first book I had checked out in many years--all without even knowing what it was to be about, other than physics), wherein my suspicions of how it could all be possible were confirmed in Prof. Deutsch's chapter on Prof. Frank Tipler's Omega Point Theory.
What had happened was that during one of my last psychonautical voyages I received direct revelation from Jesus Christ, conveyed to me in what can best be described as "instantaneous knowing." Afterwards I was very disbelieving of it because I was at the time a convinced atheist, and also because I thought the message that was conveyed to me was too fantastical to be true (if not actually blasphemous were God to really exist). Basically what it amounted to was that I am God--although not just me, but everything--that we are all gods, that we live inside of God, and that God is light. Now understand that I had never been much of a Bible-reader or churchgoer (I had never even been in a church since I was five years of age). But when I did some research on it everything that was conveyed to me was independently confirmed, even though I had never heard anything like it before. For example, I found that everything was confirmed in the Bible--thus:
- We are gods: John 10:34 (Jesus is quoting Psalm 82:6).
- We are God and God is us: Matthew 25:31-46.
- We live inside of God: Acts 17:24-28.
- God is everything and inside of everything: Colossians 3:11; Jeremiah 23:24.
- God is light: 1 John 1:5; John 8:12.
- We are members in the body of Christ: Romans 12:4,5; 1 Corinthians 6:15-19; 12:12-27; Ephesians 4:25.
- We are one in Christ: Galatians 3:28.
- God is all: Ephesians 1:23; 4:4-6.
Now, needless to say, the notion that we are all gods, that we are God and God is us, that we live inside of God, that God is everything and inside of everything, and that God is literally light (i.e., pure energy, or elementary particles), is not something you ever hear regular Christians saying, nor had I ever heard anything remotely like it before. But I now understand how it is all possible on physical grounds, and it makes perfect, rational sense.
It was after all this that I had no honest choice except to acknowledge the reality of God's existence. Not only that, but after studying Prof. Tipler's Omega Point Theory further, I realized that acceptance of the known laws of physics (i.e., the Second Law of Thermodynamics, general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the Standard Model of particle physics) logically requires that one accept the Omega Point Theory: for if those physical laws are correct, then the Omega Point is an unavoidable result of them.
So now I'm basically left spinning my wheels. I answered the big question of life. That itch we can never scratch: well, I scratched it.
So I know wherefrom we come and where we're going.
Now I'm in the mode of watching it all play out, and believe me, it is a horror show.
That's another detail about my direct revelation from Jesus Christ. As well, I had a number of things showed to me besides the above. Besides catching a glimpse of Armageddon, I also saw him on the cross. I was also on a cross, to his right side.
I've had knowledge of the fundamental nature of existence imparted to me in a manner which would be dishonest for me to deny. Where does a person go from there? What more is there to do in life?
Well, now I inform others. Of course, many are very hostile to this message. I expected resistance, but the hate people can show is at times remarkable.
I can understand where they're coming from. Even though I never held their views, I witnessed enough people holding their views and I heard their remarks. For many of them attribute the problems of the world to Christianity. Few of them have actually studied the New Testament. They associate it with the Pentateuch, which indeed is quite evil in many places (this has to do with man's evolution from ignorance into knowledge: early Judaism is a take-off from prior paganism; some forms of human-sacrifice for purely religious purposes were retained within Pentateuch Judaism [i.e., human sacrifice rituals can actually be found in the Pentateuch, supposedly sanctified by God], though most of it was, thankfully, set aside). But then, the prophets spoke out against it, and a number of them were murdered for doing so.
It's not called the New Testament for nothing.
At any rate, read my below post for more on this matter:
"Existential Truth," TetrahedronOmega, March 14, 2007 http://www.armleg.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=118&mforum=libertyandtruth
For the political ethics of God, see my below article:
"Jesus Is an Anarchist," James Redford, revised and expanded edition, June 1, 2006 (first published at Anti-State.com on December 19, 2001) http://praxeology.net/anarchist-jesus.pdf
http://geocities.com/jrredford/anarchist-jesus.html
The above matters bring up another issue. For Jesus Christ's ministry itself necessitates the involvement of a super-intelligence, since mankind to this date is of a barbaric and primitive nature, and still a long way (morally speaking) from catching up with him.
Although I've already provided you with this, Stephanie, the below link is presented so that others can follow what I speak of in the above:
"God Proven to Exist According to Mainline Physics," TetrahedronOmega, May 6, 2008 http://www.armleg.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=122&mforum=libertyandtruth
Unfortunately, the inversion of that organization popularly calling itself the Christian church occured with the pagan Roman government's takeover of said group under Constantine I, himself a lifelong pagan, bloodthirsty tyrant, and unrepentant murderer of his eldest son Crispus and his wife Fausta, to say nothing of all the plebeians he murdered. Since that time, the organizations commonly calling themselves "Christian" have typically acted in the role of intellectual and spiritual bodyguards of the state, and hence have been hostilely opposed to actually applying Jesus Christ's teachings, since said teachings are incompatible with government and its frequent activities (e.g., taxes, war, the inversion of genuine moral understanding, the sowing of needless discord and strife among the populace [i.e., divide and rule], etc.).
For much more on the above, see the following article in addition to the above-cited articles:
"A Military Chaplain Repents," an interview of Rev. George B. Zabelka, the Catholic chaplain who blessed the pilots who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, conducted circa 1984, published on LewRockwell.com on April 13, 2007 http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/mccarthy5.html
How very . . . interesting. This must be the first man to ever take mulitple trips on LSD and receive a direct revelation from God. I have NEVER heard of that happening before. By the way, when did taxes fall into the category of things that do not mesh between government and Christ's teachings? Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars?
Oh well, interesting to say the least. When was the last time we all took a trip on LSD? Possibly right before this post?
Hi, Travis. Yes, the nature of the psychedelic experience is inherently spiritual.
Everyone I've spoken to who has experienced a psychedelic peak relates that they have reached a stage wherein everything makes total sense, where everything is connected, and whereby they have access to unlimited information.
That experience seems to be universal for those who have taken an entheogenic dose of a psychedelic.
But as I myself experienced (for a time), and as everyone I've talked to on this matter has said, one can't take it back down with one. That is, once one comes down, one is left with the knowledge that one fundamentally "got" what existence is about, yet once the experience has passed one cannot fathom what in the world it is that one "got" that was so fundamentally important and spiritual.
Yet I eventually managed to bring that knowledge back with me. The knowledge which everyone on an entheogenic dose of a psychedelic experiences.
Below is my relation of these experiences:
In the first major watershed I had, I understood that everything in the universe is connected, and how wonderful the universe is. Although this particular trip also had its dark side at times. Visually what stands out the most about this trip was that at times everything and everybody that I was looking at would swirl around upon itself as if being mixed together and then un-swirl back to the way it was before. But this is one that I would classify as a typical so-called "entheogenic"-level trip, i.e., it was what I call a God-trip: i.e., where one finally "gets it" (during the actual experience, at any rate) as to the information that the psychedelic experience has always been trying to impart (at least during almost all so-called "entheogenic"-level experiences) but which very few indeed ever "get," i.e., that oneself is God. How I made that particular breakthrough had probably as much to due with the very odd circumstances surrounding the event as it did with the dosage level.
Although to be more precise in my terminology, I should distinguish between two different types of "God-trips": Level Alpha God-Trip and Level Omega God-Trip. The one I mentioned in the previous paragraph is Level Omega God-Trip, i.e., it's the ultimate realization of the reality of the nature of existence. Before I had a Level Omega God-Trip I had a Level Alpha God-Trip. Level Alpha God-Trip is contact with Deity whom one perceives to be separate from oneself.
I've had four God-trips:
The first was Level Alpha. But I was at the time a convinced atheist and so I blew it off as being my mind on LSD.
The second was Level Omega--this is the event I was referring to in the seventh paragraph above. But I was still a convinced atheist, so after I came down I blew it off as before--even though in looking back now I consider it to be a remarkable breakthrough.
The third was Level Alpha at first but then went into Level Omega. It is this event which I have written about in my previous post above, as it was during this experience that I was conveyed detailed and astounding information from Jesus Christ the likes of which I had before never in my life even heard anything like (and which I thought would be blasphemous were God to actually exist), but all of which turned out to be verified in my subsequent investigations (i.e., such as into the Bible and other sources). This is the event which really got me to start thinking seriously about the possibility of God's existence, although I still remained an atheist until some time later when I had been able to confirm all of the information which had been conveyed to me, and it was only then that I had to abandon atheism as being an untenable position given that I had no previous knowledge of the information which had been conveyed to me (i.e., things which I had never heard Christians talk about--or anybody for that matter).
My fourth God-trip was Level Omega, but almost trivially so, because by this time I already thoroughly "got it" even though I was still holding onto my atheism, of which only later had to be discarded upon verification of the information conveyed to me in my third God-trip, as detailed in the previous paragraph.
Additionally, Travis, you ask the following questions: "By the way, when did taxes fall into the category of things that do not mesh between government and Christ's teachings? Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars?"
Please try to follow the discussion. I already provided the answer to your question in my previous post above. For a detailed answer to this question of yours, see my following article:
"Jesus Is an Anarchist," James Redford, revised and expanded edition, June 1, 2006 (first published at Anti-State.com on December 19, 2001) http://praxeology.net/anarchist-jesus.pdf
http://geocities.com/jrredford/anarchist-jesus.html
Concerning the last time I did L.S.D., that was in 2000. Although I did do a powerful entheogenic dose of Psilocybe cubensis in 2004.
I am very sorry for failing to cross reference one of your many blog posts that appear profusely online. I must have missed that hyperlink as I eagerly tried to absorb every bit of knowledge that I could about your experience with God, or maybe it was your realization that you were God. Who knows? The situation still interests me in that you found God in the midst of illegal activities that have led to the death of untold numbers of people. I find it interesting that you believe that those who use illegal halluciongenics share a "universal" experience similar to or exactly mirroring yours.
I suppose that James Greenwood was right in the middle of discovering God in the midst of his LSD trip when he decided to bludgeon and stab his girlfriend to death in Colorado? Likewise, Felix Valenzuela Jr. was probably just beginning to experience God as he wrestled a female police officer in Los Angeles to the ground and attempted to kill her with her own service weapon before she was forced to shoot Valenzuela multiple times to halt his attack. No doubt in my mind, EVERY person who chooses to experiment with psychedelic drugs has the same experience you had. It is obviously the police officers that rudely intervene in the midst of these revealing, murderous rampages and halt the deified information flow thereby preventing them from "getting" the empowering knowledge of which you so readily boast.
I'd like to end with a quote from John Stossel, one of my favorite news correspondents. "Give me a break!"
Hi, Travis. Actually, no documented death has occured due to any of the achetype entheogens, e.g., L.S.D., D.M.T., mescaline, psilocybin, etc. Their therapeutic index is monolithically high, hence making death--or even physical damage--due to their use an exceedingly laborious task, well out of the range of what anyone who is not quite rich and singularly determined would be able to muster.
I looked up the case of James Greenwood which you mentioned. So rare were the mentions I found pertaining to it that one may wonder if you're reading off of police promotional material, intended to scare them as much as anyone (after all, they need psychological justifications for all the innocents which they murder and brutalize, so such scare-stories are as important for keeping them in line as anyone, save for the elites who ship in the drugs).
So let's grant for this discussion that James Greenwood was actually on L.S.D. when he committed the acts which are attributed to him. By this logic of yours, alcohol is a mind-blowingly hazardous wrecker of humanity, since certainly far more tyranny-enforcement officers have been executed by people under the influence of alcohol than any other drug, save for perhaps caffeine or nicotine.
Add to that all the family members who attribute alcohol as being the cause of destroying their family and their lives. I've personally heard of interesting and entertaining first-hand eyewitness stories of those on entheogens, but never have I in that context been regaled of the stories of beatings, molestation, and general despicabable behavior brought on by alcohol. And that day after day after day, and so on. Such actions by men and women who were responsible and caring when they were sober, but who become monsters when on the drink.
Further add to that all the murders of the spouses, children, friends, and strangers committed under the influence of alcohol, of which many of those murders would not have occured had their murderer not been under the influence of alcohol.
You are one who is railing against the destructive wind-power of a fart in the midst of a hurricane, Travis.
Beyond the many and ancient horrors of alcohol, there exists no literary peans to alcohol such as Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception. Alcohol is an intellectual dead-end.
Whereas the entheogens are for the thinkers. Many of the greatest minds of our era are psychedelic users, and many of their number have attributed their experiences with psychedelics for their discoveries.
Not to mention all the beautiful and boundary-breaking music which this world has been blessed with due to psychedelics, such as the The Beatles during their acid-eating days. Indeed, most popular '60s-and-latter rock bands which one may care to mention have consumed large quantities of L.S.D.
In addition, the following are a few more acid-heads who are either instrumental in shaping our world or who are icons of our world:
Bill Gates
Cary Grant
Richard Feynman
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Steve Jobs
I kept the above list small. To it can be added many more of the most so-called "successful" and iconic people this world has ever known. For one such instrumentally important example, see the following article:
"Nobel Prize genius Crick was high on LSD when he discovered the secret of life," Alun Rees, Mail on Sunday, August 8, 2004 http://www.serendipity.li/dmt/crick_lsd.htm
Acid-head Francis Crick received the Nobel Prize for his discovery, due to his acid-imbued thinking.
I could go on. There are many, many, many more such very well-known people to add to the list. But before I leave you, this needs to be said: how dare you disparage entheogens. You owe a lot to them and to their users. If you think entheogens are in some manner bad or improper, then here is the non-hypocritical course for you to take: stop posting on the internet. Indeed, disconnect from the internet. We don't need you. The internet as we know it owes its existence due to entheogenic users.
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