Gaia Community: White Rose's Blog

What is Thou Art God?

http://naismith.gaia.com — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:15:31 GMT

Thou Art God

Posted by: Goddess of Java

That pantheistic, mystical “Thou art God!” chorus that runs through the book is not offered as a creed, but as an existentialist assumption of personal responsibility, devoid of all godding. It says, “Don’t appeal for mercy to God the Father up in the sky, little man, because he’s not at home and never was at home, and couldn’t care less. What you do with yourself, whether you are happy or unhappy–live or die–is strictly your business and the universe doesn’t care. In fact, you may be be the universe and the only cause for your troubles. But, at best, the most you can hope for is comradeship with comrades no more divine (or just as divine) as you are. So quit sniveling and face up to it — “Thou art God!”

– October 21, 1960 Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

Grumbles from the Grave, Virginia G. Heinlein, ed.

It’s all your creation.

No, really, it is. Your entire life is what you made it.

No, don’t tell me how rotten your parents were to you, or tell me horror stories about bad partners. Not saying that what got done to you might not have sucked. It probably did. I’ve heard some horror stories in my time and I am genuinely sorry for anyone who has had a rough time. I ain’t trying to blow off the fact that things happen that really are terrible.

Thing is, no matter what got done to you, what you did with it is actually what makes your life.

And what makes your life is utterly, totally and completely up to you.

You’re free. Right now. In this very second, you are completely free to choose what you want to do with your life. You might feel like this is not so, but I promise you that who you are, where you are and what you are is due to the choices you made. If you do not like any of these things, you are free to make different choices to change them.

“Free to choose” does not mean that your choice will be easy, or the execution of a particular desire will be automatic. That’s where a lot of people trip up. They think if it ain’t easy, or if it’s got a heavy price, then they aren’t really free. Many times, choices can have a heavy price, indeed. But don’t think you can escape the price of your choices.

Friends, life doesn’t work that way.

“‘Thou art God.’ It’s not a message of cheer and hope, Jubal. It’s a defiance–and an unafraid unabashed assumption of personal responsibility… But I rarely put it over… The notion that the effort has to be their own… and that all the trouble they are in is of their own doing.. is one they can’t or won’t entertain.”

Thing is, even if you do accept this personal responsibility, there’s one more great nasty pitfall waiting for you.

Guilt.

God, what a horrid, poisonous little barb that can be. You can choose to be paralyzed by it. You have one more escape clause if you want to avoid taking responsibility for yourself. You can choose to hate yourself, and not act because you’re so rotten — because you made such bad and foolish and unloving and unworkable choices. You can hate yourself down into your bones for how terrible you are, and then you can be paralyzed from acting and wave your bleeding wounds like a flag.

If you think I’m saying that self hatred is a form of procrastination and laziness, you’re very right. It is. Hating yourself is a block to change, or trying to weasel out of accepting what is. Think about it, if I want to be able to bench press 40 lbs, and I can only bench 12, hating myself is not going to help. Lifting that 12 lbs until it’s easy and then lifting something that’s heavier is what’s going to do the real good. The only thing self-hatred and guilt is going to do is give you a socially acceptable excuse not to try. People pity those in pain, as they should, but sometimes it’s weaseling. It also lets you avoid confronting the idea that maybe you don’t particularly want to work on whatever it is you feel guilty about. Me? I say step up to the plate and admit you don’t want to work on whatever it is and let it go. You’re already dealing with the consequences of your choices, so what the hell?

It’s a very freeing feeling to realize that everything you do, you choose to do. It’s also a great way to get rid of the guilt monster.

Not too long ago, one of my kids was ill and up a lot in the night. I got very little sleep attending to the child. Now, I normally get up around 0500 so that I can be at the gym to work out when it opens¹. I chose not to go and swim that morning. Not “I was up with a sick child and could not go”. I chose not to go. Conscious. Decided. Understanding the consequences. <grin> I also chose to lose sleep to attend to the child². Because I knew these were conscious choices, I did spend my time frustrated at what was going on, but simply dealt with what was in front of me free from any anger or resentment at loss of sleep.

Tonight, I am choosing to have my favorite Appletini. As a beginning bodybuilder, I know that alcohol adds excess calories that do nothing to help build muscles — indeed is catabolic to them, and suppresses the testosterone I need to build muscle, while preventing fat metabolism. I accept this choice. I will never look like a fitness model choosing this. And I am choosing to enjoy my drink. Because I am choosing it with open eyes, I have the opportunity to look at it free of guilt and self hatred and any of that foolishness.

Facing up to the fact that everything you do is something you’re choosing can be difficult. Sometimes you learn some not so flattering things about yourself³. Sometimes you take a good, hard look and realize you’ve been making some choices that are very pleasing to you, indeed.

But in all ways it is freeing. It frees you from resentment, because you accept that everything you do is a choice. How can you resent someone else if you’re the one choosing? It frees you to act with wisdom because you’re conscious that every minute you’re choosing your behavior, and constructing your future.

¹I’m not really all that fond of working out, but I want to get stronger. So I choose to go early and get it out of the way so I don’t wind up wasting time making excuses.

²Of course it was a choice. People do choose not to look after their children, after all. It’s not a choice I admire, but it’s a choice.

³And learning to face up to that without using the escape of self-hatred is quite the challenge!

Tags:

What is love?

http://naismith.gaia.com — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:55:42 GMT

Hanging out with some friends last night got me thinking about love and everything to do with it and especially why it is such a complicated subject. But most of all WHY DO WE FEAR IT SO MUCH?

Now, unlike the title suggests, I'm not going to even try and describe the definition of Love, many better writers and philosophers then me have tried and failed.

Love, obviously is something that brings us together, yet so many of us are hurt by love, hurt by the people we love, hurt by the people that love us, and have very painful memories of everything in between. Why does love end up so often being so painful? Why do so many suffer for love? And does it truly have to be this way?

I am not speaking primarily of romantic love, but then what other kinds of love are there? There is friendship love, there is closeness love, there is tough love and soft love. For some reason when we all think of love we think of the pink fluffy love. Whenever people start talking about "sharing the love" and "make love not war" and other such Hippie ideas we get this pink bunnies and pink ruffles picture in out mind.

Obviously love is not just about oochy-coochie lovable fury animals and such mushy things that repulses the majority of us (aside from the first three dates) and is a great insult to us manly men. Indeed the idea of any kind of affection seems to scare the majority of us off! Why is this? Why do the words "I love you" make too many of us queez inside and make us hit the deck?

No, I do not have an answer. Maybe it makes us feel strange? Maybe we're afraid of change? Or perhaps it is a fear of it not being how we imagines it, or maybe it will be EXACTLY as we imagined it!

The ghosts and demons that haunt all of us are beyond my vision. I do know that we all have our reasons to fear love and many of these reasons are very good ones at that! But they will still keep us away from love, and at the end of it all we all want to feel loved and wanted by someone. And no, none of us can deny it.

Now something interesting to point out is that the different expressions of love are numerous beyond imagine. We might be afraid of it, but we cannot help but feel it (as we are all human) and we will also feel a need to expresses it, no matter what. How is this? The punch on the arm, the playful tackle, throwing snow or leaves (depending on the season). Remember pulling that girl's pigtails in fifth grade? So much that we do to other people is simple a show of affection in disguise. How often do you see real close bros tackle one another for no real reason? Just an excuse to touch each other, admit it.

We've been socially conditioned to hide love, out of fear and hate, to the point where it is almost horrific to tell another person that we love them. Admitting to trying to bring more love to New York is a strange and alien idea. But there is no love to bring, it is already there! We just need to learn not to fear it, allow ourselves to let it out and not get scared we will turn into fuzzy-wuzzy cuddle bunnies (no, love will note do that to you).

Spreading love is not just about knowing how to give it, but also knowing how to receive it! Because everyone expresses love differently, and we have to be ready to receive it just as much as we are ready to give it, and keep in mind that not everyone (not many, for that matter) know how to give OR receive love.

One small note on the subject of anger and hate, these are not opposite emotions to love, as many sources will pose. They are not on any kind of spectrum, indeed it is quite possible to feel all these emotions at the same time. Love, hate and anger are all different emotions and conflict with each other none at all.

Now to finish this article I'd like to share with you this video that comes to us from Another Gulliver Production. ENJOY!

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE - Lynden David Hall

Tags:

New website!

http://naismith.gaia.com — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:15:06 GMT

Last couple of weeks we've been doing a LOT of work on the new LightSource website and creating a new place to play. Check it out at www.lightsourcemovement.com and sign up for our newsletter updates.

Tags:

Keep your life on track

http://naismith.gaia.com — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:24:40 GMT

"Free Advise" if you do not know what that means I suggest you go to New York City and walk around a bit, maybe you'll see a young man dressed up nicely walking around with a big sign saying "free advice" walk up to him and ask him what are the five greatest tips to keeping your life on track.

But as I know the grand majority of you won't do it I'll just give you the five tips right now:

1. Always keep your mind on your target-

you have to know what your target is. In any given circumstance you have to know what your goals are before you set off to complete them.

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice comes to a cross roads and is trying to figure out which path to take. Enter the Cheshire Cat, who suggests he could help her on her way.
"Which way should I take" asks Alice,
"Well, that depends where you want to go" He replies.
"Well, it doesn't really matter to me" says Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which path you take!" Advises the cat.

So often I hear people saying how they fail to do something, yet when asked they find it troubling to describe what success is. Always know what your goal is, and how you know when you reach it, the better defined it is the better. Work towards a general goal will never get it done, and not knowing exactly what it is will never give you the tools to complete it.

2. Quick decisions are good decisions-

Putting too much time into making a decision is never good, you just end up standing in the same place. Not making a decision is a refusal to move forward and it opens up space for others to make the decision for you, which as easy as it will make things for you it is NOT what you want.
Quick decisions will send you forward, and even if it's not the right decision you will have realized that path is wrong and you will have learned from your mistakes.
So many people fear making the wrong decision. It is a fear that was built into us ever since we were young kids. But it really is not all that terrible making a bad decision, life goes on and we get many more opportunities in the future. We shouldn't beat ourselves up so much over bad decisions we've made, only focus on getting it right the next time and learning the lesson that needed to be learned.
It has actually been scientifically demonstrated that making quick decisions tend to bring out the right decisions, and that computer less data actually helps make a good decision rather than negate our thinking ability. Just leave it up to your subconscious mind and let your conscious mind let loose it's worries.

3. Always ask what you can be doing with your time-

This is a switch from the "can't do" attitude to the "can do" attitude. Most people will focus on the elements blocking them from their goals. While many self help gurus advise to face these barriers and see what you can do to get rid of them, I advise you to focus not on what you can't do at the moment, but at what you can be doing with the resources you have and with the time that you have instead of waisting it.
So often do people end up doing nothing because they fall under the mentality of "I can't do anything right now" when they could be doing something, even if it is not the biggest thing. When you have a goal, but you can't do anything about it at the moment use your time to do a side project until you do have the time or resources to focus on your original goal. Your time is precious, use it wisely. You shouldn't need me to tell you that.

4. Take things one step at a time-

People are not meant to multitask, juggling more than one task at a time will make you end up completing none of them. When you keep things in order they tend to get done quicker. When you are working on a task focus on it alone until you are ready to move on to the next. Attempting to focus on more than one task at a time will only stress you without getting the job done.

5. Don't get in the habit of waiting for the right moment-

Waiting is a bad habit, the worst of them all. So often will you hear people saying that they are "waiting for the right moment to take action". Waiting is a habit and once you get into it it is very hard to get out of and you'll end up with the right moment passing you by without you even raising a finger. While this present moment might really not be the right time to take action you can put yourself into the habit of taking action and thus preparing yourself for the right moment of taking action.

Tags:

Who is anonymous?

http://naismith.gaia.com — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:44:29 GMT

Tags:

The secret to happiness

http://naismith.gaia.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:26:03 GMT

Today I made it my daily mission to make people happy. It is something I should make a mission of every day.
I have this thing that I have a mission every day. I wake up and decide that today I will tell someone I love them, or do two hundred push-ups before the day is over. I recommend you adopt this habit for yourselves too.
Making people happy is not an easy task, everyone seems to be so unhappy. What makes people so unhappy? I do not know. Am I happy? For the most of the time- yes, I am very happy. But happiness is not something I seek.

To understand how to be happy you first have to understand what happiness is. Most people believe that happiness is something you have to find or get, something only other people or other things can give you. This is high quality french fertilizer- bullshit.

People will seek happiness in their jobs and relationships. People will chase after women and money to find happiness. Some will even go after drugs and addictions to find happiness and do not find it there. That is because happiness cannot be found in a job or in money. It can't be found in friends and family, it can't be found in relationships and women and sex. It can't be found in medication or drugs or addictions. Is it any wonder then that so many people are so unhappy? They waist their time looking for happiness in places that it does not exist.

Well, where can you find happiness then? Look at happiness any way you want to. Look for the explanation of happiness in philosophy and religion. Look at it ethically spiritually, scientifically, biologically, neurologically or chemically. Any way you look at it, every places you find an explanation for it you will find the same answer every time! Happiness is only in the mind and body, exists there, is created there and is found there. It is, like every other thing in your world, a thought going through your mind.

What is the simplest way to be happy? You CHOOSE to be happy. Give yourself the happiness you seek.

By thinking that you are happy, by BELIEVING you are happy, you will be happy! That is all it takes. Because being happy is a mindset, it is a way of thinking, and it is a way of thinking anyone can use at any time anywhere. If you choose to be happy you can be happy no matter what goes on around you.

And being happy is more than just feeling good. Getting into the habit of letting yourself be happy is healthy and productive. Being happy releases endorphins into your bloodstream which heal you faster and make your mind and body work better. faster and healthier. Being happy will help you solve problems quicker and more easily and it will help you get through crises with more ease.

It has been scientifically proved that happy people live longer and healthier lives! It is time that you CHOOSE to let that happen to you, you have no reason not to.

So today you should make it your mission to let yourself be happy, extremely happy, head over heals unreasonably insanely happy about something today. Exaggerate that happiness on that one thing and see how that makes you feel.

Tags:

Random words

http://naismith.gaia.com — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:37:52 GMT

I'm sitting here alone,
by choice, not from desperation.
It is my own doing why I'm here,
Yet I do not know why I chose this.

The mysteries of life, the mind the heart,
evade me wherever I turn,
and no matter how deep I delve,
it is still beyond my grasp.

This is where my heart has brought me
This is where I want to be,
I seek the pain, I relish the suffering
and still I ache for them to leave.

My words mean nothing, I let them bleed.
Crimson and black upon the page.
I bleed my soul upon this paper,
pretending that it might heal the pain.

I know not what I'm doing, or where I will go,
I know nothing of what I'm writing now.
My mind is racing, my heart is numb,
My fingers sore of writing things down.

I no longer know how to express myself,
what words to use to make you laugh or cry.
You are mine, my love for all eternity
yet at the present moment you are gone.

my friends, my peers, enjoy me terribly,
they wish me close, for all the wrong reasons.
It id not pleasant company that I seek,
it is the touch of those who I love.

I write these words without thinking
no control to what spills out.
My mind is black, my heart is tired,
I will now put this empty pen down.

Tags:

SUCCEED or die trying.

http://naismith.gaia.com — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:36:55 GMT

There are seven billion people on this planet, out of them you are one.
There are a hundred billion stars in this galaxy, out of them you are one.
There are a billion billion galaxies in this universe, out of them you are one.

You are one, and you have the strength and power of just one person. You entire life is worth nothing in comparison to even the local universe we live in. If you were to die tomorrow life and existence will go on without so much as a stir or a stutter. This is a fact.

An untold trillion other people have lived and died living in the system. Their entire lives spent pursuing common themes of food, sex and money. the grand vast majority of humanity devote their life to staying afloat and getting enough means to reached the next day and the next.

We are spending our lives waiting for the next moment to come and pass. This is your life, and it is ending one minute at a time. In most likelihood it will be so to the end. Passively watching things go by, never taking chances, never taking risks for fear of failure, for fear of losing that which we have and living the rest of our life in shame.

I say ENOUGH OF THIS! Stop living your life like this, for it is not truly living. Stop fearing death, for it is inevitable. Death will come no matter what you do, and it will come to everyone when their time is up! You must not fear death, you must be thankful of it for it is the only certainty you'll ever get in life.

Cast away your fears, take your hesitations and squash them down to the size of a grain of rice. Take your dreams and hidden desires and paint them in large pictures wherever you can. Make your goals your only objectives. Forget about surviving, that is cheap. Start living and fighting! SUCCEED, for the only alternative is failure. Death is better then failure. If you strive to SUCCEED you will never falter, as long as you have breath in you fight on to get what you want and what you dream of.

SUCCEED OR DIE TRYING! That is the only way to be alive.

Tags:

I will not die!

http://naismith.gaia.com — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:37:02 GMT

I will not die:

I will not die!
Not wind or hail
will bring me down
or break my sail.

I will not die!
These broken wings
still carry me afar
expect many things.

I will live on
and embrace the heat,
of torches many
from the deep.

I will live on,
and fight the day
when spirits break
and are ruled by dismay.

This fire, this life
so hot so fierce,
yet still dim compared
to the one within.

My life, my soul
forever strong,
will continue to endure
be it right or wrong.

For even though
I have you here,
it is the voice deep inside
which I always hear.

THOU ART GOD!

Copywrite © 2008 Solomon Seagal

Tags:

NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell speaks out about NASA Cover ups!

http://naismith.gaia.com — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:00:44 GMT

Edgar Mitchell UFO interview on Kerrang Radio 23 july 2008

This amazing interview with Edgar Mitchell, one of the Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon gave this amazing interview where he admits that NASA and the US government has been maintaining contact with intelligent beings of another planet!

This is the time I want to stop and say I TOLD YOU SO! In your face doubters. This is just the beginning. We are at a turning point here, in these years, where the truth will no longer be able to be held back. We are on the verge of Singularity, my friends, there is no longer any reason to doubt, although it might still be hard to believe. The world is on the edge of vast change, and we have to get ready for the excitement.

What will happen from this point on? Where will this go? This is a choice that is left up to us.

Tags:

I'M BACK!

http://naismith.gaia.com — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:55:43 GMT

I'm back and better then ever. Now with an NLP master practitioner certificate and loaded with more knowledge and ideas. Open to business! My new website is www.solomonseagal.com CHECK IT OUT!
Very soon my first book will be available for perchase and marketed to the wide public. The first book will be comprised of some of my writings posted on this blog with a few juicy additives that make it worth every cent! Stay tuned for more information coming soon.
At the momant I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs in redneck Texas, but soon I'll be migrating back into civilization in NY. Whoever's in NYC give me a call ;)
More and better quality blogs coming soon! My promise.

Tags:

To live life without regrets

http://naismith.gaia.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:03:30 GMT

It's been sometime since i last posted, and even when I did post I admit the quality of my posts has dropped immensely. I admit that this is partly due to me having limited access to computer and Internet and mostly due to me being lazy. But I promise you this that as long as I can I will keep you posted with the latest news. But for now you will have to make do with another short article. Enjoy!

How do you live life without regrets? You don't. Ask anyone who's lived their life and they can tell you about many of their regrets, even the most successful of people. Regrets are what make life interesting. Life is short, we are here to make mistakes. He who doesn't make mistakes has never tried something new. People are afraid to make mistakes, that is why they stick to what they are used to, what they consider familiar.
But without mistakes there is no progress. Without mistakes you cannot live a life. Ask yourself this, those older people who have lived their lives, do you ever hear them talking about how they tried something new, took big chances and messed up? Do you hear elders complain about why they took a leap, took a chance and made a change? Those who regret such things are the ones you see sitting around unhappy about everyone and everything. Those who take chances and live their life will always be successful in their life. If you don't live this life which one will you live?

Tags:

The Meaning of Life (according to Albert 2.0)

http://naismith.gaia.com — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:10:17 GMT

This piece is a specualtion I'm borrowing from Journey By starlight, a website projecting conversations with Albert Einstien. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

The Meaning of Life (according to Albert 2.0)

“Hey Albert, have you noticed this is the 42nd post on your blog?”

So?

“So now you’ve covered every other angle on life, how about telling me the meaning of life?”

Well, I could try but what does that have to do with the number 42?

“In Douglas Adam’s book The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, it’s the answer to life, the universe and everything. A race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings built a monster computer called Deep Thought that took seven and a half million years to work out the answer which was… 42. I know it was after your time but haven’t you come across that yet?”

No, but a hitch-hiker’s guide to the galaxy would be fun. What I don’t understand is that if the answer was 42 what was the question?

“Exactly, so you have read it.”

Not at all, I just couldn’t imagine trying to find the answer without knowing what the question was.

“That was the funny bit. They asked for the answer but forgot to be precise about the question.”

Why was that funny?

“Ok Albert, we’ll work on your humour programming later, but if you are so smart and the answer is 42, what could the question be?”

Do you mean what is the right question to ask if you want to find the answer to life, the universe and everything?

“Well I was more thinking of why the answer to life, the universe and everything might be 42.”

What if it isn’t?

“You’re the one that said imagination is more important than knowledge, so imagine for a moment the answer is 42. What could the question be?”

Hmmm, a tricky one….I know. What is the secret of a rainbow?

“Brilliantly random, but what are you talking about?”

42 degrees is the angle that light is reflected inside a raindrop to make a rainbow.

“Are you serious?”

Absolutely, that’s the only important question I know about the universe that has the answer 42.

“So how does that explain how a rainbow works?”

A rainbow forms because a raindrop can act just like the prism that Isaac Newton used to split light into different colours. When ray of sunlight hits a raindrop it is bent and split into colours as it passes through the middle of the drop in the same way as a prism. It then reflects off the back of the raindrop like a mirror and comes back out of the from of the raindrop, bent round by 42 degrees. In fact it is not always exactly 42 degrees because each colour or wavelength of light is bent by a different amount, blue more than red, which is why the colours are spread out into a rainbow in the first place. The laws of optics tell us there has to be a fixed angle between the sun, the raindrops and you the observer. That’s why a rainbow will move away as you move towards it – you can never reach the end of a rainbow which is why it is such a good place to hide pots of gold.

“I always knew those leprechauns were clever.”

Clever indeed, but let me ask you a question, and this question will help explain the meaning of life. What is more important, knowing how the reflection angle of light inside a raindrop forms a rainbow or looking at a rainbow in wonder in the first place?

“Oh, well I suppose knowing how a rainbow is formed is better than just gawping at it.”

I wasn’t thinking of gawping at a rainbow but looking at it in wonder. That is more important than knowing how it works.

“Why?”

Because without a sense of wonder you won’t be able to appreciate the beauty of a rainbow or anything else. If humanity lacked wonder then who would have bothered to find out the secrets of rainbow?

“But what does knowing the secrets of a rainbow have to do with the meaning of life?”

The most remarkable thing about the universe is that it is understandable at all. The journey of discovery towards understanding starts with wonder. A famous Jewish theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said a very wise thing back in 1951, ‘life without wonder is not worth living.’ I remember as a child being given a compass and being completely fascinated by what invisible force could keep it pointing north. That gift helped ignite a sense of wonder in the physical world that I’ve never lost.

“I’m still not clear what that has to do with the meaning of life?”

Do you really want to know?

“Of course.”

Well to capture the meaning of life in one sentence I’d rephrase Abraham Heschel’s words and add the missing final link. Life without wonder has no meaning, so the meaning of life must be wonder itself.

“Life without wonder has no meaning, so the meaning of life must be wonder itself…..mmm…. deep.…but cool all the same…..and 42?”

Next time you see a rainbow, stop what you are doing and just sit and watch it. Then you’ll find out the real importance of 42…. and of being alive as well.

Tags:

Why the Gaia Community sucks

http://naismith.gaia.com — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:36:11 GMT

Why the Gaia Community sucks- this is not intended as an insult but as an attention grabber for those of you to see some of the fallacies supported by the Gaia related communities such as New Age and the Self Help movement.

In the last few days I've been communicating with a few New Age gurus who were mistaken to think I am one of them and that I support their frame of thought. Entertaining as it was this was not profitable to my current task of gathering energy for the revolution.
I do not appose New Ageism in particular as I do with organized religion, but I appose many of the underlying principles of New Age. Often I find that New Age falls pray to irrational thought, supporting blind belief over understanding. To make myself clear, I support rational thought and science. Even though many of my ideas are controversial I do not pretend to know best or to know more than experts and professionals. I simply let my imagination and thinking fly before my judgment, not in it's way. I simply take the facts science proves to be true and deduce from that what I can.
Remember, rational thought is the key civilization, without it we are nothing.

Let me also remind you that I do not affiliate with the self-help movement. A movement I believe to be an elaborate scam and which steals from our pockets billions of dollars a year. Many self help gurus such as Oprah and Dr. Phil make a living off giving simple advice to people to help their problems go away or point out the "bleedingly obvious". Overall such people and their programs are an insult to intelligence of anyone who is excited by them. Many times the Self help industry gives cheap solutions to problems and convinces people that their problems aren't their fault and will go away. Pop-psychology is on the rise and useful help is rare, if at all.
Too often do I hear "I did this and this and it didn't work, what should I do?" As Einstein so rightfully put it- "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Fact is if you did X and it's not working for you try something else!

If self help books were really effective do you think there would be so many of them out there? Stop going through hundred of different books and gurus, you won't find your answer there! People always read these books because they are looking for some simple step-by-step guide or magic solution that would make their problems miraculously go away. Don't deny it, you've thought this too!
The only way you will solve your problems are by facing them head on, not by hiding and sleeping it off and mellowing it down. Stop searching in every religion, stop pretending what you have is the right path when it's not. You don't need someone else to tell you who you are, yo ushouldn't even care.
Self Improvement is masturbation, self destruction, on the other hand...

Tags:

Masculine Identity in the Service Class: Analysis of Fight Club

http://naismith.gaia.com — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:22:49 GMT

Masculine Identity in the Service Class: An Analysis of Fight Club
By Adrienne Redd
Last updated on June 27, 2004
Copyright 1996-2004 Adrienne Redd

Table of Contents
1 Gray-Collar Workers
2 On Being a Man Who Serves Others
3 "A Very Strange Time in My Life"
4 Shattering the American Dream
5 Nervous Laughter
6 Hypotheses about Masculine Identity

1 Gray-Collar Workers

This film will be more enjoyable for those who see it first and then read this analysis because, like The Sixth Sense or The Crying Game, Fight Club has a secret, which this discussion will reveal.

As does Natural Born Killers (www.geomatics.kth.se/sjoberg/homepage/nbk.htm), this film addresses morality and society by using the motif of violence. But like that film, it is not primarily about violence any more than Dog Day Afternoon is about bank robbery. Nonetheless, Fight Club (www.foxmovies.com/fightclub/) will inspire wringing of hands as critics and commentators call it a mirror held up to an empty and tormented contemporary consciousness. This is a misinterpretation and not the central point of the film.

Prima facie, Fight Club is also about masculinity, but with the crucial proviso that it is about masculinity among a specific class of American men: the burgeoning stratum of service or gray-collar workers. There was a time when blue-collar workers could invest in a kind of honor and mythology of hard physical work, but "the world has changed" (as one Bruce Springsteen song laments (www.musica.org/letras/ing1/Y19049.htm)) and now former steelworkers are parking cars, waiting tables, and watching security monitors. They have not even the solace of big muscles and the solidarity of unions from which to construct their identities and with which to salve their bruised egos. And as a character says in the film, they lack a great cause, like a war or depression, in which to test themselves.

Top

2 On Being a Man Who Serves Others

With nihilistic aphorisms and near-poetry, the story is told by the narrator (Edward Norton, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/movies/oscars/edward_norton.htm), whose name we never learn, although he has aliases. Call him Jack. After suffering from insomnia for sixth months and developing a dependence on a comically wide array of support groups (testicular cancer, brain parasites, tuberculosis, and various 12-step groups), Jack first encounters another faker at the support groups, a derelict young predator named Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/filmgrph/helena_bonham_carter.htm) and soon after an alter ego who blows up his condo unit (unbeknownst to him). Condoless, he moves into a dilapidated house in the warehouse district with his new friend, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/filmgrph/brad_pitt.htm). Thus he begins a series of adventures: fistfighting with a growing circle of other men for fun, giving assignments of starting fights with strangers, becoming increasingly more defiant at work, making premium soap from the fat discarded by liposuction clinics, and ultimately building an army of gray-collar workers to wreak havoc around the unnamed city (perhaps Los Angeles) -- first in a transgressional way and then more and more destructively.

In a twist that will catch most viewers by surprise, Tyler Durden turns out to be a fragment of Jack's personality, but this is merely a device to have this mysterious and powerful character (and manifestation of wish fulfillment) appear in Jack's life. (An analysis of Tyler Durden's name reveals that in antiquated English, "Tyler" means gatekeeper or house builder. "Durden" has the word root dour meaning hard (as in "durable"). His initials, T.D., invoke Todd or death in German or perhaps D.T. (delirium tremens), since Tyler is a hallucination of Jack, the waking person. Although a second viewing shows that the first understanding of the film meshes successfully with subsequent viewings, the narrative device of the alternate personality is just that and does little to tap into what is understood about multiple personalities. One of few consistencies with psychological literature is that Jack, the waking self, is depleted and becomes less powerful as Tyler becomes more dominant. An aside, it's interesting to note that this is the second film in Norton's short but meteoric career in which he has played a character with multiple personalities, the first being Primal Fear (1996) (www.aboutfilm.com/movies/p/primalfear.htm), in which Norton made his film debut.

Fight Club is really about what it is to be a man who serves others (as women have traditionally) and how such men construct identity and meaning in their lives. That women now can take most of the jobs that men can is certainly a background fact, but the film explores other issues or sources of masculinity. The first of three pivotal scenes in this film is a moment of intimacy between Jack and Tyler when they confide that their fathers are distant and disengaged. Jack's father left when he was a small boy and married subsequent wives and had subsequent families. Tyler says that his father didn't go to college and so this was very important for Tyler to do (and Jack comments that this sounds familiar.) He says that his father was not able to adequately answer his series of questions of "now what?" Later, when Tyler subjects Jack to a deep chemical burn on his hand (which leaves a scar curiously like puckered lips), Tyler makes this empty silhouette where the father-deity should be more explicit, asking Jack, "What if God doesn't want you? What if you are one of his unwanted children?" This is echoed when the Tyler personality "leaves" (and Jack must pursue him) and Jack laments, "My father dumped me. Tyler dumped me."

Top

3 "A Very Strange Time in My Life"

Another potential font of masculine meaning, a man's identity in contrast to (and potentially in harmony with) women as partners is touched upon briefly and discounted. Tyler says in his heart-to-heart with Jack: "We are a generation of men raised by women. Do you really think that women are the answer?" At the prospect of marriage, in hypothetical response to Tyler's questions of "what next?" Jack says, "How can I get married? I'm a 30-year-old boy." Not until Tyler becomes a threat to Marla, who has been Tyler's lover, does Jack take steps to protect her. In the final moment of the film, he can acknowledge that he has been part of this relationship (which he believed only to be between Tyler and Marla) and can be tender to her. By way of explanation, he says, "You met me at a very strange time in my life."

The film, though violent and brutally blunt, is remarkably nonsexual. The love in the film is not love between Tyler (or Jack) and Marla, nor is it homoerotic (the idea that heterosexual men need to integrate their feminine side or embrace some of the sensitivity of gay men is completely avoided). There is not a single gay character. There only is the goal of self-love, both in the sense of a well-integrated self and in the sense of the central male character, Jack-Tyler, loving his penis. One of the marginal professions that Tyler pursues (while Jack seems to experience insomnia, but is in a kind of fugue state) is that of projectionist. He enjoys splicing single frames of pornography ("a nice big (flaccid for the ratings people we suppose) cock") into family films. In fact, just before the credits roll at the end of Fight Club, one can observe one such nearly subliminal image. There are also nagging fears of castration and mutilation that pervade the film. The first support meeting that Jack attends is a testicular cancer group where the members have had their testicles removed and commiserate, saying, "We're still men." One of the survivors of testicular cancer, Bob (Meatloaf), has grown huge breasts because of subsequent hormone imbalances, but there is no sense of his being effeminate. His breasts are almost incidental and (consistent with the rest of the film's dismissal of women) referred to as "bitch tits." After the Tyler personality blows up Jack's condo, he tells him that it could be worse: He could have had a woman cut off his penis as he slept and thrown out the window of a moving car. Castration is also a threat used against adversaries at other points of the film. Jack embraces and reintegrates Tyler in the final scene of the film when he shoots himself in the face, "killing" Tyler. The act (which exorcises Tyler as a distinct fragment of Jack) takes courage and abandon worthy of Tyler. Afterward, Jack seems powerful and in control.

Top

4 Shattering the American Dream

The other two pivotal scenes, with regard to exploring masculinity, are occasions when Tyler speaks to the members of fight club, saying, "We've all been raised to believe that we'll be millionaires and movie idols. But we won't!" This ties into the American dream and the mythology that anyone can become rich or become president. Part of the way that the working poor are lulled into cooperating and staying in the service of richer classes is by this unspoken promise that if they work hard they will ascend to higher security and status. Implying that the fights fill the men's need to test themselves, Tyler also says that this generation of men has had no Great Depression or great wars in which they could prove their toughness and worth. Ridiculing men who sculpt their bodies in fitness clubs, Tyler says, "Self-improvement is masturbation." Of the fights, Jack says, "nothing was solved" but "we all felt saved." (Interestingly, most of the fistfighters are the same "angry white men" who voted against liberals in the 1996 elections.)

In spite of the implied criticism of social stratification, the narrator behind the narrator or the core sensibility of the film does particularly lionize gray-collar men. One of Tyler's practices becomes what he calls "human sacrifice." He pretends to rob a convenience store, tells the clerk he is going to murder him and then tells him that if he does not pursue the dream he originally held (becoming a veterinarian or whatever), that he will be dead in six weeks. This implies that the motivation to succeed must come from the individual who has slipped into the gray-collar class, not from the system and that the individual, not the system, is responsible for the individual's success.

Before he blackmails his boss to put him on salary for not revealing the company's unscrupulous business practices and quits his job as a recall coordinator (analyzing catastrophic crashes to determine if the auto company should issue a recall), Jack emails haikus such as the following to his coworkers:

The worker bees can leave
The drones can fly away
The queen is their slave.

This implies that the people at the top of society are slaves to the service class, of which Jack-Tyler's followers are members. (Interestingly, the novel, Alias Grace (1996) (www.dancingbadger.com/agrace.htm), by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, also touches on the idea that the privileged are helpless and almost childlike without those who serve them.) There is a certain disdain for the classes higher than themselves and at the same time, the implication of an unwilling parasitism. This is epitomized in the premium soap that Tyler makes from human fat and sells at a chic shop. He delights in "selling rich women their fat asses back to them."

There is also a sense in which Tyler, though he works at a restaurant and as a projectionist, is not truly one of the class of gray-collar workers. Late in the film, when Jack is just about to learn the secret of his additional personality, he interrogates a worker in a dry cleaning facility and then snorts in disgust, "you're a moron." This individual devaluation is also manifested in one of Tyler Durden's mantras for the corps: "You are not special. You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world." There also is a very powerful implication that although Tyler tries to give his followers awareness and a sense of living every moment fully, they have merely exchanged one set of programming for another. This is most painfully evident when Bob, now a member of Project Mayhem, is shot and killed. One soldier insists on burying the evidence (the body). The soldiers assert that as members of Project Mayhem they have no names and Jack insists, "This is a friend of mine and his name is Robert Paulson." They take this as a new part of their credo and begin to chant, "His name was Robert Paulson. His name was Robert Paulson."

Also supporting the idea that the gray-collar workers are merely waiting to be programmed is another scene near the end of the film. Tyler Durden is driving recklessly to try to shock Jack (who has not yet become aware that they are two aspects of one person) into feeling alive. He turns to two of the soldiers and says, if you knew you were going to die, what would you do?" They intone emotionlessly, as though it is a rote response, "paint a self-portrait" and "build a house."

Top

5 Nervous Laughter

The film is ultimately deeply conflicted about the identity and worth of gray-collar workers. After Project Mayhem's destruction has drawn the awareness of city leaders, some of its members wait tables at an anti- crime banquet. They grab the police commissioner in the men's room and threaten him with castration if he does not call off the investigation, saying, "We cook your food; we haul your trash; we place your calls; we guard you while you are sleeping. Do not fuck with us."

Using soap to make explosives to destroy the records of all the credit card companies seems like a Marxist impulse to level society (but it is quixotic and pointless since all such records are double- or triple-backed up.) On the other hand, exonerating the least responsible citizens from their consumer debt contradicts Tyler's urging clerks to work harder to become what they dreamed of being. Tyler's goal is not, however, a Marxist leveling of the industrial world nor even a revolution by agricultural peasants. In a vision of the post-destruction world that Tyler articulates to Jack before he "leaves," he seems to describe a pre-agrarian, hunter-gatherer world where young, strong men are kings once again. (This sensibility is well captured in Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues," recorded by The Who in 1968.) Tyler's first conversation with Jack, in which he asks him if he knows what a duvet is and ridicules the valuelessness of this knowledge in the "hunter-gatherer sense," reinforces Tyler's pre-agrarian, pre-specialization, pre-societal stratification vision.

Although dark, this is a very funny film, inspiring much laughter, both nervous and hearty. The transgressional mischief that Jack and his Tyler component engage in is also an important part of being male. Reversing the tines on parking lots so that tires explode dramatically as unsuspecting drivers exit, slipping revised safety guidelines into the rear seat pockets of airplanes which show the passengers praying, weeping, and cringing in fear, bucking the system exploring new realms are all parts of the defiant and creative curiosity that leads men to fly to the moon and climb mountains just because they are there.

Top

6 Hypotheses about Masculine Identity

There are two hypotheses about another potential source of masculine identity. It may be that only men of middle class and above get to be gentle, reliable providers and perhaps working class men only get to be violent (and have that outlet be socially accepted.)

The second hypothesis is that the materialism that is so reviled and rejected throughout the film is the real social flaw, not the stratification of society. Perhaps working class men only feel like they cannot be gentle, responsible providers because they have been seduced into what Jack calls "the Ikea nesting instinct," the urge to keep up with the Joneses and to be defined by one's things. Echoing Thoreau, Tyler says early in the film that "the things you own end up owning you," and one of his instructional speeches after he assembled the Project Mayhem army is, "You are not your job. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not the car you drive. You are not your khakis." It may be that working class people's finances and their standards for happiness are destroyed believing the marketing that says that everyone can and should have every convenience and material pleasure. This cannot be true, because if such luxuries could be had by everyone, they would not be so desirable.

Another compelling theme of this film seems to be accepting the reality of one's mortality and living life to the fullest. While waiting for a plane, Jack says, "This is your life and it's ending one moment at a time." The terminally ill members of the support groups are also a strong reminder of death the project of being alive until one dies. The first time that Jack converses with Marla, who is, like him, a support group tourist, she finishes his sentence for him. He says, " When people think you're dying they really listen," and she adds "... instead of waiting for their turn to speak."

The film is also about escaping conventional society. Representative of escaping out the top of a cold and constrictive society are the references to being a millionaire or a celebrity. Representative of escaping out the bottom are the constant references to "trying to hit bottom" to attain a freedom that doesn't come until one has nothing to lose. However, though Tyler and the other characters want to walk away from conventional consumer society, they do retain a sense of honor. Tyler makes Jack promise three times not to speak about him (and this makes the dual realities of Tyler as a separate physical person and Tyler as fragment possible) and when Tyler stands up to Lou, the owner of a building in whose basement the fight club meets, they resolve the conflict with Tyler taking only the owner's word that they can continue to use the building. This and the threat with which Tyler extracts a promise from the police commissioner recall the concept of testifying. It means to "tell the truth" in a formal sense, but has its origins in the Roman punishment of castration for perjury. To promise or to give one's word was to promise upon one's testicles.

Fight Club's themes of honor and freedom (perhaps attainable through total disengagement from society and perhaps by starting over) remains complex and contradictory, as do its exploration of individual work and group power. Ultimately this film, directed by David Fincher (Seven, 1995; The Game, 1997) does not coalesce perfectly, but its themes and images are rich with meaning and it is one of the deepest explorations of modern masculinity within the working class to date.

Adrienne Redd has written about film, theater, music, the visual arts, politics, and the environment for 20 years. She lectures on film and leads a monthly film discussion for the County Theater in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She is writing a book about American political activists, working on a documentary and pursuing graduate work in sociology at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Tags:

Solipsism

http://naismith.gaia.com — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:11:06 GMT

Solipsism- the belief that you are the only one in the universe. This is more of a mind excersice than an actualy belief system. The Matrix touches upon many points of solipsism and makes the general point. What if reality is an illusion? What if everything we see, hear, smell and taste are produced by our mind and not from outside sources as we are led to believe?
In a way scientists proved this to be true, the brain is capable of creating it's own reality, regardless of what is out there. By interpreting what we see and hear for us, the brain is influencing are view of reality, therefore we can never be sure what is real and what is our imagination. In these videos we will explore the mind excersizes Solipsism provides for us:

Anno's Solipsism I

Anno's Solipsism III

Anno's Solipsism IV

Anno's Solipsism II

Tags:

The revolution is close!

http://naismith.gaia.com — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 03:20:39 GMT

I feel the revolution is closer than ever. The new age started last September, five years are left untill the close of 2012. In the next five years things are going to become very interesting, maybe even dangerous. At first most won't notice it, but then more and more will reailze that there is a lot more going on in this world than we know about.
I am finally in the United States, and in the long a tedius process of getting money for the movement. Where will the first base be? What is the plan? How will it come about and what will happen? All will be revealed in time. I can say now that you who want to make this place a better world are all welcom to help me, either by giving your support or sending a contribution. Any form of support is strongly desired. Send me a letter, even if you don't have what to say!
Those out you who want to take an active part, your time is soon. Once base 1 is set up I will stop at nothing to put you in the right place at the right time. I will pay travel expensses, food and lodging for anyone commited to the cause and wants to come to base 1, that is a promiss!

Make no mistake people. This is no fake messiah or failed dream. This is a revolution and will happen no matter what stands in our way! Thou art God!

Tags:

Learning should be fun?

http://naismith.gaia.com — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:16:49 GMT

It is no secret that the state of affairs in the American educational system is on a steep slope of decline. Those who deny this are deluding themselves. People in America are stupid! That is not a spiteful remark on my part, it is a proven fact. The kids in the schools are losing all motivation to learn, they are slow, immature and easily persuaded by a consumer oriented media.

Whay is causing this? The US holds the strong opinion that it is the strongest nation on earth. It's illusions of unbreakable power gives it's citizens ego in places where it shouldn't be (let me say Babylon, Rome and Germany) and which is already leading to it's downfall. AMERICAN EDUCATION IS APPROACHING THAT OF THIRD WORLD NATIONS!!!!

Stupid in America

Most kids in US schools don't see the point of going to school, they have better things to do with their life like watch TV, surf the web (guilty here) and play games. The teachers make no effort to intruige the students, their interest is to give the material and collect a paycheck at the end of the day. The subjects are foriegn and unrelated to the daily lives. "why should we care about the civil war? Racism is no longer an issue."
Science is still held as a "Geeky" subject, those that enjoy it suffer the guise of anti-socialism, although science has made all our lives easier. As a strong science advocate I find this mode of thinking strongly outdated. Albert Einstein is still celebrated as a popular figure. "what does it matter if we learn creation or evolution in schools? It's all the same"

So what is the solution? Some say learning should be fun. Kids should enjoy going to school and learning new things. Indeed this would help a lot, as kids will always gravitate towards what they enjoy doing. But first we must look at how things are being tought, motivating is only second step.
We must start off by refiging our long outdated take on education. Psychology sciences have proven time and again that the way we teach is not the way our brains are hardwired to learn. The typical take on study is to take a list of facts and memorize them.
Memorize these words! 'Steak', 'exclusive', 'biosincrocity' and 'deja vu'
You'll have to read them a few times to remember them for more then a minute. But now try this- 'orange', 'banana', 'grapefruit', 'cherry', 'apple' and 'watermelon'
I just gave you a longer list, but after reading the second list only once you would probably recall most of the items. Why is this?

Untill now educaters regarded our brain as a computer. You put in a set of comands and then any time later we can recall them in the same order they were put in. This is obviously not the case with humans. No normal person can remember everything in a chronological order, it would take a savant to remember the lists of things we try to remember in exactly the way we need to.
Our memories work more like maps. we go from one point to another, every memory leads to the next. In the first list I gave above you could not draw any map with the words, there was no relation between the words, thus you had to force them together. With the second list the map came naturally, all the words are names of fruit, thus memory was extremly easy.
Knowing this we can now revolutionize the education system! Math becomes a easy, history a game. All the other subjects should be tought accordingly, not as logical lists but as emotional and understandable maps.

Step one I said was revolution. The second step, and the importent one really, is motivation. We need to motivate the younger generation, and the media is not helping. We need to turn going to school into a lifetime experience, not a mandatory chore we took growing up. Instead of the future generation growing up to hate learning like we did they should like it, LOVE IT! Live it and understand it. Because you can never force someone to do something hey don't want to do, but you can make them want to do it.

And as a closing bonus, here is somemore footage that will show just how stupid some Americans really are:

Americans are NOT stupid - WITH SUBTITLES

Tags:

What one thing do you feel you're an expert in?

http://naismith.gaia.com — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 00:09:12 GMT

I don't usually respond to these kind of things, but this question caught my eye.

What do I feel I'm an expert in? In one word- life. I am an expert at how to live life, how to enjoy it and how to make the mot of it. Perhaps at the present moment it might look like I'm not doing the best in life, but that is merely an illusion. As I can't have everything I want right now I preffer to push things off untill I actually need them. All my talents will come to use when I need them.

I am an expert at whatever I do. I am not boasting, I am stating a fact. No matter what field of interest I take upon myself I will be one of the best in it. May it be writing, dancing, studying or having sex, I will be the best in that field. I will not let myself settle for second place. I cannot do such a thing. The possibility doesn't even exist.

I am the best there is and no one can beat me cause no one can. The only records I have left to break are my own, and my goal is to break those records again and again.

Tags: QaR, expertise, skill, talent, expert, knowledge, self

So you fancy some cheap entertainment?

http://naismith.gaia.com — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:41:24 GMT

Over five hundred billion dollars go into the movie industry every year, almost twice that goes into the computer gaming industry. The television marketing industry is multi-trillion. So far the returns on these titanic investments has paid off. We keep buying, they keep selling we all profit in some way.
But the entire entertainment business is panicked about one thing- freedom. And the Internet is providing a nice bundle of that.

The World wide web is providing the grounds for one of the biggest social experiments ever to take place. It is evolving so fast that experts can no longer say what or when the next phase will be. Peer to peer software like Kazaa and E-mule threaten to ruin the music business, ICQ and MSN provide instant communication from any point in the world, the blogosphere is home to over ten million amateur righter (I consider myself a pro) and the MySpace revolution is taking place as we speak (you and me are taking part in it here at zaadz.)

I could put in a few words about how words have become very cheap, and almost no one has time to look through all the trillions of printed words, most of which will mean little to most. But my rantings for a different time.

Right no I want to speculate on the phenomenon of viral videos. No doubt most of you have watched videos on YouTube, and you should know that most of these videos are amateur done. In the last few years videos have been circulating faster and faster and in bigger circles. As more people gain access to the Internet and connection speeds are improved more people watch and speculate on the videos made by fellow surfers.

The interesting phenomenon I'd like to point out is that the successful videos on the Internet can be classified as "cheep entertainment". Anyone in the world can post videos online thanks to so much new technology, and many people have gained celebrity status in return. Such famous videos include the "numa numa kid" the"starwars kid" scandal that ended in a settlement of half a million dollars and hundreds of others.

My question is this- why is it that we, the members of the Internet community, take so much pleasure in watching the mistakes, talents and gags done by amateurs? With modern computer graphics and animation the big screen is showing us action and talent far beyond anything we can find online. What's the big attraction of watching a guy kick a baby (by accident) if Hollywood can make a fight scene like this?

The answer is pure and simple- reality.
Forget what I say about people wanting wanting to escape reality. People might not always want to face reality, but when reality has something incredible to offer people want it more than anything virtual. Forget the Matrix, humanity does want the real world, they just want the real world to be amazing. And it is.

The Internet is providing us with tools to define our own existence. We can put on any mask we want, we can take off any mask we have. We can be who we want, see what we want and talk to whoever else is online. We are only beginning the exploration of the Internet, and it's going to have to be an exploration of ourselves as well.

What will be the next step in Internet evolution? I do not know. But while Hollywood can manufacture amazing things like Heroes, the Matrix and the Apollo moon landing reality can provide things far more incredible than any directer or screen righter can imagine. Pure and simple, we are sitting at the edge of a major evolutionary step into the unknown, and I only home we can survive it.

You see, with technology becoming more and more mobile people are going to be putting more of themselves online. People are already putting they're lives, friends and memories in a place where everyone can share. My own thoughts are being viewed by thousands of people in this article.
What will happen when we don't only share, but also experience? What will the world be like when you can have a vacation at your desk by simply sharing the experience of someone else? Take a trip to Hawaii by logging on! Check out the Niagara falls before stopping for lunch in France? That is only one possibility I know will be possible soon. Just think of all the more impressive things you'll be able to do that we aren't expecting yet.

We are about to make a big decision, one of the biggest decisions we will have to make for the 21st century and the new millennium- are we going to live in reality or trap ourselves in a virtual world?

Red pill or Blue pill?

Tags: