This book is about a dying man who was a professor talking about the things that really matter in life with one of his past students. It is a lot like the book , “Dinner With Edward” by Isabel Vincent that I reviewed last month. I want to know what really matters in life, don’t you? These books on what older people say are the important things in life as they are dying seem to be a great resource.
“Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for grated, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.”
“A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle. “
“Which side wins?
He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth.
Love wins. Love always wins.””
I have never met a human capable of real love. But I do believe that love does truly win all and conquer all. Do you think people who poison and destroy each other without thinking twice about it are capable of true love? Do you think they are capable of anything truly human? You have to be human to be apart of humanity. You have to have humanity to be human.
“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.”
To live a counterculture life is hard. It is literally going against the grain and swimming upstream. If it was easy it would be mainstream. A culture is a group of people who come together with shared beliefs. Those shared beliefs turn into patterns in behavior and patterns in epigenetics. If you don’t want to be average you have to not only do differently, but you have to believe differently. Beliefs dictate epigenetics. Beliefs dictate behaviors. If you don’t believe something is possible, you will not do it. If you believe something is possible, you will do it. If you believe you do not deserve something, you will not get it. If you believe you do deserve something, you will get it. Placebo and nocebo effects dictate the lives we live everyday.
“He tells me I need to be “fully human.” He speaks of the alienation of youth and the need for “connectedness: with the society around me.”
We are a collective of organisms. Humans are connected. Humanity is an organism. And we belong to an even larger collective of organisms called Earth.
“”The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
His voice dropped to a whisper. “Let it come in. We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, “Love is the only rational act.””
For me, I often love because I do not want to hate. Love frees me in ways opposite from the ways hate imprisons me. Hate keeps you stuck. Love sets you free. Hate is a prison that you cannot escape. It eats away at your insides and erodes your soul. Love does the opposite. It sets you free. It allows you to grow and shine. Love is the only real option if you want to enjoy life. I am not saying to forgive people or forget. Actually, I say we should not forgive or forget what people have done to us. I think that is dumb and counterintuitive. Remember everything, so you know how to protect yourself and survive. But love. Because there is no real other option to be the person you were born to be. If you hate you are living in your ego. You don’t have to love the things people have put you through. And you do not have to love them. But love humanity. And love the journey. And love the person you become. Not because of all those horrible things, but in spite of all the horrible things. Don’t let people you want to hate steal the person you were born to be from you. Don’t let them steal you, the most valuable thing you will ever have. You are the ultimate gift and possession. Don’t let others own you. When you hate you let others own you. The world can hunt you for years, group by group, and you can still be more free than most of them. Just remember to not let the hate you feel engulf you and steal from you. Love is the road to true freedom.
“Mitch, I don’t allow myself any more self-pity than that. A little each morning, a few tears and that’s all.”
How much time do you spend feeling sorry for yourself? And is that really a productive way to spend your life? The way you spend your time is the way you spend your life. Do you want to spend your life feeling sorry for yourself? Sounds like a horrible way to live.
I don’t feel sorry for myself much at all. It is a waste of time. My energies are better spent doing things I enjoy, like reading and writing. Do I wish my life was different? Yes, of course. But it is not different. This is the truth. This is my life. Living at war is my life. Is feeling sorry for myself going to change anything? No, absolutely not! It is just going to waste my time and make me feel sad and depressed. Luck is preparation meeting opportunity. I am going to prepare for everything I can so when I get an opportunity I can jump on it and be lucky. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I am trying to get the life I deserve.
“Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too–even when you’re in the dark. Even when you are falling.”
My hyperactive nervous system is my super power. I am sensitive as my Mom would say. But she used to say it as if it was a barrier. My sensitivities are my genius. Sure, I store that genius in my subconscious mind/brain. But it originates from my nervous system and my feelings.
Knowing when you can trust people is a super power in itself. From my experience when people are talking they are lying. Even in books they lie a lot. But on this revolution I have people I can trust for the first time in my life. Which is hilarious because I cannot hear them talk. The only way I communicate with the world is through my feelings. Sure, I talk to you all. But I can’t hear anything from you all. The world has a sound when it is changing you know. I have been listening to the world change for over 4 years now. It is an interesting sound. When they put this chip in my head they messed with my ear drum, which allows me to hear things you all can’t hear. Plus, the hyperactive nervous system I have allows me to feel the things I hear. It is weird. Animals can hear like I hear, but I don’t think many humans can. I suppose the others with chips in their heads probably can too. But I have seen some of them and they seem to be pretty broken so I doubt they understand the super powers these chips give us.
Let me clarify though. I know the farmers and world leaders would not do the things I have done. But I do know they want better. And I know they are willing to support me in trying to covertly make those changes. I do not fear them, because they have been the kindest people I have ever “met”. I understand the whole world is different than me in countless way. I am not stupid. I know if I ever got married, my husband would kill me to steal my power. As long as I stay single, the farmers and world leaders will be more than willing to help me change the world. Because I am willing to do better for them. I don’t have beef with anyone besides my family and some of the people and families in cahoots with them.
Believe me I understand how evil people are. I have never met someone who is kind or capable of love or true manners in my life. My whole life people have tried to abuse, kill, and breed me like a farm animal. I understand the state of the world. Believe me I have lived the evil.
Do not take my genius as a sign that I am not a realist. I understand how awful you people are. I have experienced your evil my whole life on top of the evil of my family. I hate people. I just do not want to kill them or start wars. I would prefer to relax and change the world for the better. I want to experience my potential. If I am this smart and capable as the world hunts me and destroys me, can you imagine how much better I could be without living in the middle of this war? I can’t. But I would very much like to know the person I was born to be more. And that person who does not live in the middle of a war is the person I was born to be.
You know just because I don’t want to kill people, doesn’t mean I am broken. It just means I am genius. And I understand that all humans are connected. If I kill another, I kill myself. I am not soft. My family has tried to break me more than anyone else my whole life. I refuse to be like them. I refuse to break and be like them.
Broken people are hurt. Hurt people hurt people. I know you all want to believe that I am one of those really smart people who don’t get the world. But believe me I get it. I get it more than you all get it. And I also understand it makes you feel better about being broken yourself, if you tell yourself that I am the broken one. I am the one person in the world my family has not been able to break. I do not think I am better than you. But don’t get confused. I am not the broken one. I am not the ignorant one. True, I do not understand all the things about this stupid imaginary game that the world plays. But I understand logic, science, philosophy, and how the world really works. You all are the ones who chose not read books and learn about the real world. I will never know everything and I have read countless books. But you all think you know it all and I don’t think you have read many books. I rambled. I have not done that in a long time. It felt good. I am sure someone needed to hear that. Because obviously I needed to say it. “Aint no question, if I want it, I need it.” -Kanye “Gorgeous”
“”Because,” Morrie continued, “most of us all walk around as if we’re sleepwalking. We really don’t experience the world fully, because we’re half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do.””
Did you know our society is designed to put you in a trance state? When you are in a trance state you are being operated by your subconscious mind. But the catch is all the computer viruses inserted into the computer of our brains are in our subconscious. We literally download information and computer viruses into our subconscious from our mother’s blood during the third trimester of pregnancy before we are even born. When our brain comes online it is downloading information in an effort to prepare you for life and survival. You know that saying, “It’s in your blood.” Well, it is true. You download subconscious beliefs from your mother’s blood into your subconscious even before you are born. The kicker is these beliefs are in your subconscious and will remain below your consciousness until you take the time and effort to consciously address them.
Also, we download more computer viruses into our subconscious through our mirror neurons in our brains. You know that saying, “Monkey see, monkey do.” Well, this saying describes your mirror neurons. When you see someone do something your brain wires and fires that action into your brain as if you did the thing. So, the more you see anyone do something, the more likely you are to do the thing. Would you jump off a bridge if everyone around you was doing it? Did your Mom ever ask you this? Well, your mirror neurons are in place to get you to jump off a bridge if everyone around you was doing so. They are supposed to help you survive. They are supposed to help us evolve. But people like my family use them to induce reverse Darwinism.
Your subconscious is designed to be in charge 95% of your life. But the way we live activates our subconscious more, which makes you less likely to question your life or the reality of the world. It makes you more likely to jump off a bridge if everyone around you is doing it, even if they smash themselves on the cement below. It is easier to be dysfunctional when everyone around you is dysfunctional. It is harder to be healthy when everyone around you is being unhealthy. The only way to overcome the computer viruses in your subconscious brain is to be aware of what you are doing and ask yourself why you are doing those things? You can overcome your subconscious beliefs with mindfulness, aka consciousness.
“He saw right to the core of the problem, which was human beings wanting to feel that they mattered.”
You all partake in this stupid imaginary game so willingly because it makes you feel important. It makes you feel special to be apart of something bigger than yourself. It makes you feel good to be in the in crowd. You are in on it, that means you are important and you matter. This is proof you are not using the right part of your brain. This feeling is herd mentality, which is apart of your reptilian brain. The basic part of your brain that is designed to keep you alive. Historically, if you were a part of the herd you were more likely to survive.
You know you can induce heard mentality in others. You know how? By getting them to laugh. You know the saying, “Laughing stock.” It is like vegetable stock. It means you come from a laughing family/stock. Which means you have been dumbed down by laughing and kept in your reptilian brain. The more you are in your reptilian brain the less you will use your critical/logical brain. The critical/logical brain is what makes us greater than other mammals.
If you were at the top of the human hierarchy and you wanted to keep yourself at the top without having to try too hard, you would have to keep others at the bottom, right? Well, don’t you think if you got them to forfeit using the higher parts of their brain, you would probably have a lot better luck?
There is a government building in Sacramento, California that has a quote on it. It says, “Into the highlands of the mind we go.” I think it is a court building. This quote from an English poem that is hundreds of years old. In the olden days, they knew the higher parts of the brain are where freedom are found.
The more time you spend laughing and in heard mentality the harder it will be to use your critical logical mind. You will not question the heard as much if you fear being left out. You will be laughing stock.
You have to learn how to matter to yourself more than you matter to the heard or your society or community. It is a balancing act. True you need to consider others. But you can’t live for others. You have to live for yourself. You have to live for your purpose. Being an SS soldier who just does what he is told and refuses to think or take accountability for what you do, is no way to live. We still held them accountable for their war crimes and crimes against humanity after WWII. Are you willing to die for the sins/crimes someone else got you to do?
Matter to yourself and don’t be laughing stock.
“”You have to find what’s good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And age is not a competitive issue.”
“…The truth is, part of me is every age. I’m three-year-old, I’m five-year-old, I’m thirty-seven-year-old, I’m fifty-year-old. I’ve been through all of them, and I know what it’s like. I delight in being a child when it’s appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it’s appropriate to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age, up to my own. Do you understand?”“
Honoring all parts of yourself is true wisdom. I have been smart my whole life. And it is exhausting sometimes. Especially, when I am surrounded by adults acting like children, because they have never had to act their own age. There is a big difference between never growing up and being responsible and knowing when it is acceptable to be childlike with wonder. I am often childlike because why not? It is fun. And I am often an old wise lady beyond my years, because I have had to be in order to survive. Be you at all ages, but know what the situation requires for success.
“”We’ve got a form of brainwashing going on in our country,” Morrie sighed. “Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that’s what we do in this country. Owning this is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it–and have it repeated to us–over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what’s really important anymore.”
Remember, how I was talking about mirror neurons and subconscious beliefs? Well, this is how the brainwashing works. It is in your subconscious. If you have not taken part in the programs I wrote to help you all overcome the brainwashing in your subconscious I would suggest you do so. I thought I was going to die on this revolution and the programs are what I wrote to leave behind to you all. It was the gift I thought would help you achieve true freedom.
“”Remember what I said about find a meaningful life? I wrote it down, but now I can recite it: Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.””
Remember Victor Frankl and logotherapy? This is pretty much the same thing.
“”People haven’t found meaning in their lives, so they’re running all the time looking for it. They think the next car, the next house, the next job. Then they find those things are empty, too, and they keep running.””
Things will not give you meaning. They may make it easier to feel like you belong to the herd. But they will not make you matter. And they will not bring you meaning. But most people do not figure this out till it is too late and they have spent their whole life chasing things.
“”People are only mean when they’re threatened,” he said later that day, ” and that’s what our culture does. That’s what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened, because they worry about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture.””
Hurt people, hurt people. People like my family are not tough, they are hurt. And hurt people, hurt people. Money helps everything, it makes things more likely to work out. It is a variable in survival and all the equations of life. However, money is not God. It is a tool for survival. You should look out for yourself in every way possible. But when you hurt other people to get your basic needs or any of your needs met you probably should stop and think about what you are doing. Because only hurt people, hurt people. Who hurt you? And why are you trying to hurt others?
“”In business people negotiate to win. They negotiate to get what they want. Maybe you’re too used to that. Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else’s situation as you are about your own.””
This is something that has been used to destroy me my whole life. When I negotiate in interpersonal relationships I do not play to win so to speak. I negotiate to find a win-win situation. But everyone who has ever surrounded me has negotiated to win and destroy me. If you do this, this is not love. This is destruction, parasitic, and maladaptive. You should want the people you love and care about to win. And that does not mean that you should not win too. Symbiotic relationships are win-win. If you are not partaking in a win-win relationship, you are partaking in a parasitic relationship. I have been surrounded by parasites. Are you being a parasite? Are the people around you parasitic?
“…when someone is happy–genuinely happy–to see you, it melts you from the start. It is like going home.”
All people want is to matter, remember that from above? Nothing feels better than to see someone happy to see you genuinely. But you all realize that when you are acting or improving you are not being genuine. People have an inability to be genuine. Which means when people act happy to see you they are just love bombing you and faking it. People will pay for people to make them feel at home and like they matter. Believe me, I made a career out of it.
This book was good and it seems to say a lot of the same things that many other people have said are the keys/secrets/lessons to life. I completely agree with these sentiments. It is funny to see someone believe in these things without knowing the science behind them like I do. I have these feelings too, but then I have to fact check my feelings by finding the science to support them. Actually, I was okay without knowing the science/words behind things until this revolution. I never tried to explain the secrets to life to anyone before this revolution. So, thanks for going on this journey with me. It is keeping me busy as the world is signing up to kill me, group by group. They may stop one day, they may not. This may be my life. But if it is at least I can say I discovered the secrets to life and shared them with the world. That feels good!