Original link: https://www.camelliayang.com/blog/tom-morgan-collection
My acquaintance with Tom was amazing. Two years ago, I participated in a Zoom online lecture about “Rick and Morty”. Among more than a hundred participants, Tom’s and my avatars were next to each other. Later, I saw that he recommended a lot of books that I was very interested in in the comment area, so I wanted to send a private message to get to know him. Just when I was about to introduce myself, he had something to do and went offline early. Not long after, he actually appeared as a guest on a podcast program [Infinite Loops] that I often listen to , and I learned his name and Twitter , which opened up the connection between us as both teachers and friends.
In the past two years, Tom’s thoughts and words have had a great impact on my outlook on life and world view. I have also twice invited him to be a guest on my English podcast [Chiwi Journal] to talk about topics we are interested in, such as mythology . Enlightenment, the division of labor between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and Jordan Peterson’s psychological analysis.
This article will summarize the articles by Tom Morgan that I have translated over the years, a total of four articles.
- Article 1: Twenty-one Laws of Life 21 Useful Ideas. 1 Big One
- Article 2: The Mystery of Curiosity
- Article 3: Summary of Paul Graham’s “How to Do Great Work”
- Article 4: Summary of golden quotes from podcast interviews
Twenty-One Laws of Life 21 Useful Ideas. 1 Big One
1. Reality filter.
Humans did not evolve to experience everything, but to experience what matters most. Our consciousness will consciously filter out many things, so we only experience one millionth, or even one trillionth, of the “real world”. We do not live entirely in the real world, but on a map of the world.
Our ability to balance this disconnect from the real world will largely determine whether we can have a thriving life. If we are completely disconnected from the real world, we will easily fall into depression; if we fully accept the real world, we will be overwhelmed by the overwhelming amount of information. The key is to get just the right information to enable us to react quickly and appropriately when faced with reality.
The optimal cognitive state is a balance between the rational expectations of the mind and the sensory signals received by the body.
2. Reality defeats maps.
If we accept a large number of external stimuli that exceed the scope of our brain’s understanding, then the influence of hidden forces on us in real life will move from the mysterious behind the scenes to the inevitable front.
The Matter with Things, a masterpiece by psychiatrist and author Dr. Iain McGilchrist, can help us fundamentally understand this interaction. He made an important point: the right hemisphere of the brain, which emphasizes integrity, has the obligation to take care of the left hemisphere, which is full of restrictions and competition. The right hemisphere of the brain is less capable of language but connects to the body and the world in more meaningful ways. The left hemisphere of the brain sees the specific classification of things, while the right hemisphere sees the overall flow state, so that unlimited data can be obtained directly from the realm of reality.
Dr. Ian McIlchrist’s core argument in his book is that the left hemisphere of the human brain has usurped the right hemisphere, and we need to correct this imbalance immediately.
3. Search my heart
Our exploratory attention, that is, what we are easily attracted to without realizing it, is the best indicator of our future development, and it is also a basic quality of the right hemisphere of the brain.
The brain acquires more information without conscious awareness than with conscious attention. Therefore, humans should pursue things that can attract and keep our attention, and do more things that can bring us energy and make us feel good afterwards. matter. At this time, we need to cultivate an attitude of conscious surrender. This paradox is reflected in the passage of the Tao Te Ching: “The sage does nothing but does everything.”
We need to be strong enough to make the effort, but not so persistent that our willpower overwhelms favorable external influences. The coincidences that happen in your life are signs that you are on the right path: it is how the outside world responds to your “doing nothing and doing nothing”.
4. Love is the Force.
Love is not a sentimental thought, but a force that drives us to embrace the complexity of the universe and embrace a sense of well-being. We feel this hidden power through our bodies, especially our hearts.
Our heart is not just an oxygen supply organ, but also a very sensitive transmitter and receiver of electromagnetic signals. A large number of scientific studies have confirmed that the invisible power of the electromagnetic spectrum in the universe is profoundly affecting every aspect of biological regulation. A meta-analysis shows that the right hemisphere of the brain is dominant in receiving and interpreting information from the heart, which is where unconscious forces meet conscious cognition.
5. Cultivating vitality requires vulnerability.
If we remain mentally or ideologically closed to the constant flow of outside ideas, we risk stagnation. Courage is defined by the vulnerability we expose ourselves to. Seeking security is inversely proportional to staying active.
If you seek control over life, be prepared to sacrifice life; if you seek vitality, be prepared to give up control. Or as mentioned above, we need to find a balance between the two and lean towards the side that seeks vitality.
6. Compile and collect clues.
If you consciously list the things that appeal to you (i.e., the things you “love”), these clues will provide you with instructions for what is meaningful to you and guide your attention. Focus them in the right direction.
You need to sort out these big and small clues in life, then think and summarize their commonalities, and finally achieve the unity of knowledge and action.
7. Simplify => Separate => Integrate.
Dr. Ian McIlchrist said that when we gain experience in the real world, we start from the right hemisphere of the brain, then move to the left hemisphere for dissection and analysis, and then return to the right hemisphere to integrate it.
When a musician hears a beautiful piece of music, he breaks it down into notes and practices hard, eventually performing intuitively. This process is the secret sauce of our lives in the real world. It is also the “hero’s journey” mentioned by Joseph Campbell and the path to optimal knowledge.
Modern science often tends to stop at the reductionist stage, that is, after things are decomposed, there is no context, and they fail to finally return to the right hemisphere of the brain for integration and creation.
8. Good use of metaphors is a sign of genius.
The creative act of ensembling brings together different perspectives and ideas. The results of this can reveal patterns, generate new breakthroughs, and give you a clearer understanding of reality. If you can use metaphors well, it means that you have successfully found the correct connection between various ideas.
9. Develop the ability to unite mind and body.
When our brains are busy relaying signals and sensations from the outside world to us, it’s easy to get lost in the abstract concepts our brains form. If you can consciously move your consciousness from the brain to the body for perception at this time, you can have a real feeling of being grounded, thereby reducing anxiety. The purpose of this is to help us unify our body and mind and promote communication between the conscious and unconscious.
10. Develop emotional granularity.
There is a close relationship between our ability to effectively interpret and articulate bodily sensations and emotions and the achievement of good physical and mental health. This means you are consciously learning the unconscious language of your brain. If you can interpret the signals your body is giving you early on, it won’t need to yell at you. This is a skill I am trying to teach my children above all else.
11. You can be a butterfly.
As we all know, we live in an environment that is inherently unpredictable and infinitely complex. However, it is possible for us to achieve a state of “unity between man and nature” and even have a series of positive impacts on the entire system of the universe. This is a process that requires adjustment, action and surrender, and it is also the only way to become a “Taoist saint”.
12. Understand your Hero’s Journey.
Throughout history, we find the same story structures recurring, providing guidance for humanity’s evolution toward balance. The most popular stories not only reflect the human psychological state, but also reveal the direction of social development. The Hero’s Journey is the most central story in human history because it provides precise operating instructions for the evolution of individuals and cultures, while also revealing the process by which control of the brain is transferred from the left to the right hemisphere.
13. Subvert and reconstruct life patterns through innovation.
Destroying the old model of reality does not mean that a new model can be rebuilt. Consciously crafted models are often replaced by unconscious solutions. We need to use games, simulators or strategic exercises to find quick and safe solutions.
14. Intuition is built on rapid repetition.
The wider the field we cover, the greater our reliance on intuition. Intuition is a combination of our accumulated experience and unconscious reasoning based on that experience. “Experience” is not necessarily linked to the length of time you do something, but to the number of repetitions to build a pattern database. We can think of experience as a large database of unconsciously relevant signals that the brain has conscious access to.
15. Achieve flow state.
Achieving a state of flow requires three things: clear information, tightly coupled feedback, and constant trial and error.
The flow state is not only the best experience achievable by humans, but it also creates the conditions for people to develop new insights in their lives. Achieving flow requires establishing a challenging goal. The process of pursuing the goal may feel like a game to you, but to others it may be work and drudgery. Along the way, you need to match what only you can do with what the world needs. It’s easier for us to develop intuition when we’re in a flow state.
16. Cultivate boundary periods.
For me personally, borderline periods are the period between sleep and wakefulness, or can be found during moderate runs, massages, and cold baths. Borderline periods allow the brain to shift between conscious and unconscious states, with the most critical step being to integrate and respond to the signals received during this state.
17. Learn to live in discordant situations.
Tolerating contradictions and paradoxes is an important ability of genius. Contradictions and paradoxes often arise because of cognitive conflicts between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m smarter, it’s just that I stay at the problem longer.” Achieving breakthroughs appears to be the result of the brain consciously gathering the right signals, which are then subconsciously integrated to produce a solution.
18. Pursue living things, not dead concepts.
When you optimize for a single, abstract variable, your entire life becomes fragile and vulnerable. The ideal approach is to focus on balancing the creativity and quality of life itself. Star businesspeople often have an intuitive sense of balance in life and know where they can relax.
19. Tell the truth.
The left hemisphere of our brains makes up lies when it doesn’t know the answer, but the right hemisphere doesn’t. Michael Gazzaniga, one of the leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience, calls this the most startling finding in split-brain research. This means that lying creates a dissonance in the brain that creates a disconnect between our dealings with the real world and a disconnect between the conscious and unconscious reception of information from the outside world.
20. The dramatic evolution seems irrational.
In 1932, American geneticist Sewall Wright proposed for the first time in his classic paper that the relationship between genotype and biological survival ability be described by a fitness landscape. .
Fitness terrain is a great visual metaphor for depicting the abstract concept of evolution. The goal of any species is to reach the highest possible “fitness” peak. Self-awareness and action in the left hemisphere of the brain takes you up the mountain, and exploratory attention in the right hemisphere takes you down. If reason or a specific pattern of behavior has taken you to a peak, then you need to use your super-rational spirit of exploration to get down from the mountain in order to climb a higher mountain. But this process is not acceptable to everyone. Most people are unwilling to sacrifice their physical fitness and achievements to return to the bottom. When you’re in a difficult situation, figure out what you need to sacrifice in order to reach your peak of “adaptability.”
21. During times of confusion, focus on the binary choice before you.
The larger your time frame, the less control you have and the greater the anxiety that will result.
Jungian analyst Robert Johnson proposed the concept of “Slender Threads”, which depicts an invisible force in the universe that exceeds human cognition and controls our destiny. All we can do is to do good things in the present, such as developing good habits, and for the future, we should surrender to higher powers instead of using our limited cognition to set and chase illusory abstract concepts.
Summary: Balance, Boundaries and Tao
What does the above have to do with business investment? In my most recent email subscription, I mentioned William Green’s interview with investor Arnold Van Den Berg.
If I had to choose just one role model from all the great investors I’ve interviewed over the past quarter century, it would be Arnold Vandenberg.
Holocaust survivor and renowned investor Arnold Vandenberg has spent the past 50 years studying the nature of the subconscious mind. As one of the most well-known investors, he emphasizes consciousness and unconsciousness. Should you also pay attention to this area?
The ideal balance is when the “conscious” left hemisphere of our brain willingly serves the “unconscious” right hemisphere. In this way we gain the sensitivity to act spontaneously and accurately on the right stimulus at the right time.
Dr Ian McIlchrist’s argument is that our society is severely out of touch with reality due to its over-reliance on the left hemisphere of the brain. Our culture is divorced from nature, dominated by digital simulations and grid-like cities, and overly reliant on inductive analysis. The doctor believes that we need to correct this imbalance. The left hemisphere of the brain can maintain a competitive state, but only under the supervision of the right hemisphere. This transition needs to be achieved through a series of laws mentioned above.
This continuously flowing state of balance can be called “Tao.” Sadly, this state of balance can never be expressed in precise terms, because once we do so, the Tao becomes static, which goes against the definition of the Tao. The best description I can offer is a state of flowing with life: the closer you are to it and the more aligned you are with it, the better your life will tend to be.
According to Dr. Ian McIlchrist, our world is too biased toward the left hemisphere of the brain. This provides us with an optimistic and meaningful way to think about: How do we make the transition to the right hemisphere of the brain in the real world? This is also an issue that I have been thinking about in recent years. I call it “phase change”.
Reconciling these tensions and contradictions will determine how we live the rest of our lives. Taoists believe that the pursuit of a balanced state of the golden mean is the cornerstone of prosperity for human beings and the entire world to coexist harmoniously. As sinologist Edward Slingerland wrote in his best-selling book Trying Not to Try:
“All these thinkers were elaborating on one concept: If we could enter a state of completely spontaneous unconsciousness, everything else would fall into place. We would be in harmony with the universe, and we would have virtue, a kind of virtue that enables social and political success. The power of seduction, allowing all things to pass through you, to live in the material world with supernatural ease.”
The Mystery of Curiosity
I once wrote: “The measure of wisdom is the ability to pursue the things you love and ignore the things you don’t like. Wealth provides us with this freedom.” It can even be said that our goal of pursuing wealth is to achieve this. There is a very strong connection between curiosity, success, and happiness, both scientifically and from personal experience. The richest legacy we can leave to future generations is the ability to follow their own path in life with complete freedom.
If I could do anything to the world, it would be to make people believe more in the power of their own curiosity. Making the decision to embark on a new path in life almost always requires some kind of sacrifice. Especially when you are burdened with family burdens, this belief in changing your life trajectory is even more difficult to implement. Although many people know that they don’t want the life they live now, they don’t know where they should “escape” to. One huge obstacle is that we don’t even know what curiosity is, so how can we follow it?
The dictionary definition of curiosity gives us almost no information: “Curiosity (noun): a strong desire to know or learn something.” But we don’t know where that “desire” comes from, or what determines the “something” it points to.
In 2017, the controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson gave a talk on “Jacob’s Ladder” that was one of the most impressive talks I’ve ever heard. There was a passage in it: deeply imprinted in my mind:
According to Carl Jung, your interests are dominated by an unseen force related to the development of your personality, which is the process of self-revelation. Therefore, we can say that self is your potential. The way it works in the moment is by grabbing your interest and directing it in a specific direction. This is part of realizing your instinct. The idea is hard to believe, but I think it’s right. I can’t imagine how it could be wrong. Although I don’t fully understand it, from a phenomenological perspective it seems correct. What I mean is that the potential you have has to manifest itself in the present in some way. What better way than to direct your attention?
Since then, exploring these hidden powers that direct your attention has been a cornerstone of my life. Six years on, I think this concept has the potential to revolutionize the world.
Abnormality reshapes the world
My friend Dr. Mona Sobhani was a rationalist neuroscientist until her mother accurately predicted the murder of one of her professors by reading coffee grounds. This shocked Mona’s scientific worldview, leading her to devote herself to researching “telepathy” in the past few years. Through a large number of studies and experiments, she found that there is countless evidence supporting the existence of “telepathy”. But this evidence is often rejected and even stigmatized by mainstream scientific circles. After all, our current scientific models cannot explain these anomalies and therefore often refuse to include them. I’ve experienced some anomalies myself.
One morning in October 2017, I was putting the final touches on a book manuscript about the “Hero’s Journey.” Suddenly something happened inside me. A feeling of ecstasy penetrated every pore of my body, as if I had reached a state of nirvana. As I walk down Sixth Avenue in New York, the trees seem to emit a faint orange glow. All of my sensory abilities were greatly heightened.
Meanwhile, I experienced a series of strange coincidences. I called my sister and told her I was going through an “awakening experience.” I rambled on about the concept of the entire world being made of a delicate balance of order and chaos, and then she sent me a photo of a pair of cufflinks she’d bought me a few days earlier: One cufflink said “Order,” Another said “chaos.”
It was during that week, when I felt like I was in an awakening state, like floating in the atmosphere, that the news showed that a British man with the same name as me had tied himself to a bunch of helium balloons and was floating in the sky. 8,000 feet above the South African continent. One of the strangest feelings is that time is no longer linear for me. If I say or do things that are inconsistent with the future I am meant to achieve, I get a painful feeling in the area around my heart. I suddenly had a vague vision of my future path. Everything I once thought about how time and space worked was turned upside down.
My psychiatrist told me I was suffering from a breakdown, and spiritual friends told me I was experiencing a spiritual awakening. I was finally able to briefly let my right brain take control of my life, which meant that my communication with the world was more direct and closer than before. After some mental struggle, I gradually incorporated this anomaly into my life with incredibly positive results.
What’s the next anomaly?
As a curious generalist, I’m attracted to grand “theories of everything.” Nature doesn’t compartmentalize biology, physics, or chemistry, so why do we humans compartmentalize our interests? Furthermore, a good theory of everything should be able to explain our individual place within it.
I’ve never had a particular interest in quantum physics. Not only was it beyond my intellectual ability, but I had never felt that quantum mechanics was relevant to my life. One of the unsolved mysteries of quantum physics is how entangled particles can violate the known laws of time and space and interact instantaneously over large distances. This is an anomaly that goes against our existing worldview.
Recently, I read a theory of everything from Hungarian systems theorist Ervin Lazlo, who introduced us to the concept of “Akashic Field” . Like many ancient spiritual traditions, the Akashic Field describes a universal field of information that is not bound by time and space. It’s like an infinite library in which everything that has happened and can happen is “preserved”. Under certain conditions, we can access all information resources.
If the information itself was not strictly bound to time or space, that would help explain quantum entanglement, simultaneity, and the telepathic phenomena that Dr. Mona and I have experienced. This may sound ridiculous (as any anomaly does) until you think about where does our inspiration come from? We obviously get information by reading a book or using our physical senses, but sometimes ideas just pop into our heads: a flash of inspiration. Many of the world’s greatest scientific breakthroughs have occurred unexpectedly and unexpectedly. I suspect that workload (the amount of time and effort spent thinking about an idea) determines whether you get the answer to your question.
Recall Richard Feynman’s advice on how to become a genius: “Keep a dozen of your favorite problems in your mind at all times and wait for inspiration to strike.” Like most moments of inspiration, I personally often receive them in unusual states of consciousness, such as when I first wake up. In these not yet fully awake states, we may be more susceptible to penetration by the information field. Historically, shamans and psychic healers would intentionally induce people into these states to obtain information that they would not normally receive. I believe this anomaly has the potential to lead us into a new world.
Quantum physics has been around for more than a century, and the theory Laszlo mentions in his book has been published for 20 years. While it’s unrealistic to predict turning points for society, I firmly believe that we are collectively experiencing an involuntary paradigm shift . The past five years have seen an explosion of movies about time travel and the multiverse (Marvel movies, as well as this year’s Best Picture Oscars). All this seems to reveal the direction of our collective consciousness.
Towards coherence and complexity
“Simply put, the universe is going in a direction and we should be part of it. Not because it’s the right thing to do from an abstract moral perspective, but because it’s the best solution for humanity from an evolutionary and cognitive perspective. .”
–Brett Andersen
Science and spirituality are reuniting to bring magic and meaning to the world. This may sound crazy, but Laszlo’s Akashic Field (or a similar theory) might help explain it all in a scientific way. When these theories are combined with the psychological insights of Peterson and Jung, they really reveal something about humanity’s potential for excellence.
There is a dominant idea in current science that the universe has a sense of direction that tends toward complexity. Complex things are integrated from different parts. A healthy system puts everything in it into a state of righteousness, so that each individual can maximize their different talents and serve the whole. Laszlo calls it “systematic coherence.” Although each part of a coherent brain has different divisions of labor, it overall has an integrated goal.
Both Peterson and Jung believed that this goal was to realize one’s potential. Psychotherapy can be replaced by a moral pursuit of the supreme good. The “goodness” you pursue is similar to what you will be like when you realize your full potential. You will have a subtle perception of the self that realizes your full potential, which is the “you in the future.”
Jung viewed humans as four-dimensional entities, essentially expressing that we are a species that transcends time, and that the past, present, and future (your potential) can all manifest in the here and now. Your potential manifests in the present moment a bit like conscience or intuition. This is an amazing idea because it represents your future self calling out to your present self to help you distinguish the difference between good and evil; it is also an incredible idea, but it is a reality we must face.
The right hemisphere of our brain communicates with us nonverbally because it is more intuitively connected to the universe at large. Our right hemisphere also directs our attention, which means our potential to realize our future can be realized by pursuing our curiosity.
Laszlo’s theory also suggests that we are pulled toward complexity and coherence by a force that is somewhat independent of time. This inherent potential exists within the Akashic Field, and each of us has the freedom to pursue the best path. Our “future selves” may indeed use our attention and passion to guide us to reveal our unique potential and align our curiosity with “the most valuable things” to unite each other.
The main problem we face now is that we rely on our limited individual intelligence to try to control the world around us. Laszlo’s theory is that we should more widely accept and use the power of the Akashic field, so that everyone will be more empathetic and cooperative. It will also give us the confidence to rely on science to achieve a paradigm shift, allowing us to unleash our potential and embark on the path that best suits us.
Summary of Paul Graham’s “How to Do Great Work”
- Your curiosity will never deceive you and will lead you to focus on things that deserve your attention. Curiosity is your best guide.
- There are four steps to producing great work: choose a field; delve into it; recognize gaps in it; and explore and expand the field. This is the approach taken by almost everyone who has done great work, whether a painter or a physicist.
- Curiosity is the key to the above four steps: it will choose the field for you, guide you to deepen your exploration, let you notice the gaps, and drive you to explore and innovate. The entire process of achieving great work is a dance with curiosity.
- The job you choose needs to have three qualities: it must be an area in which you are naturally good; you have a deep interest in it; and the job must provide you with the opportunity to do great projects.
- There are three most powerful human motivations: curiosity, pleasure, and the desire to do impressive things. Sometimes they converge and combine, and that’s when the momentum is strongest.
- Following your interests may sound like a rather passive strategy, but in reality, it often means overcoming various obstacles to follow them.
- There’s something very powerful about the kind of aimless thinking you engage in when you’re taking a walk, taking a bath, or lying in bed. By letting your mind wander, you’ll solve problems that you can’t solve by responding head-on.
- Curiosity is both the driving force and the helmsman of great work. Not only does it drive you to do things, but if you let it run free, it also gives you directions on what problems to start solving.
- What are you so curious about that it would bore most people? That’s what you’re looking for. So try asking yourself: If you were to take a break from your regular job and do something really fun, what would you do? The answer may be more important than it seems.
- Unanswered questions always make people uncomfortable. But the more you think about it, the better your chances of solving the problem. Even more exciting is the discovery that the answers to two unanswered questions are actually the same.
Podcast interview quotes summary
- Superheroes wear masks to better embody an idea without letting personal identity interfere.
- The madman has not lost his mind, but has lost everything but his mind.
- Sometimes it makes more sense to make mistakes than to move forward smoothly, because mistakes provide us with the space to create experience and insight. Just like a wounded heart, when there are cracks, the sun can take the opportunity to penetrate deep into the heart.
- The materialist scientific view has almost collapsed under the influence of quantum physics, but we have not yet found a better way to explain the weird phenomena that are currently incomprehensible to realize our understanding of space and time.
- Science and spirituality are reuniting to bring magic and meaning to the world. Referring to the movie “Arrival”, maybe a revolution in scientific language can save us from the fire.
- Whether we ask good questions determines whether we can get the right answers.
- Jung once said, “We need reason, but we need complete reason.” Incomplete reason will only prevent us from connecting with higher wisdom and preventing us from perceiving life.
- In The Divine Comedy, Dante tells the protagonist’s journey through hell, purgatory and heaven. Hell is the first part of it, describing the punishments and consequences of different sins. The ninth level of hell is called the “Land of the Betrayer/Ice”. Here Dante encountered Satan trapped in the ice. His six wings were struggling in the ice, and his legs were stuck in the ice, leaving only Chest. This image symbolizes the betrayer trapped in coldness and loneliness, never able to escape the consequences of his sin. There is a Satan within each of us that has not yet been released. We are also betraying higher wisdom, betraying life.
- Jung’s work and ideas remain powerfully revelatory to this day. He foresees some of the challenges we currently face, particularly regarding the balance between rationality and meaning. His views have been thought-provoking and challenged the way we think and behave. After Jung, we need a new prophet or group of new prophets. These prophets need to master the comprehensive skills of multiple disciplines and be able to understand and translate knowledge from different fields. They also need to have an open mind to contact and accept new wisdom. They need to blend old rationality with new consciousness to lead us to a more far-reaching path to the future. The new prophet is not necessarily an individual figure, but more likely a group of prophets who come together. They may come from different fields and have different expertise and experience, but their common goal is to pursue wisdom and meaning and apply it to solve today’s challenges. These prophets may be scientists, philosophers, artists, engineers, sociologists, and psychologists, among others in various disciplines and fields. Their strength lies in their diversity and open-mindedness, as well as their expertise in their fields. They can learn from and collaborate with each other to create a more integrated and comprehensive intelligence. What we need is open thinking and cooperation, not a closed environment and fighting. We need to learn from past mistakes rather than wallow in fear and ignorance.
- The human brain is composed of the left hemisphere, which controls intelligence/rationality, and the right hemisphere, which controls creativity/intuition. We may only be aware of 60 bits of information, but there are 11 million bits of potential information around us for us to use. What’s even more terrifying is that there are 1 trillion bits of information in the outside world that we are not aware of at all. . For example: when we are chatting with others at a cocktail party, the conversation with the person we are communicating with face to face is the first type of information we consciously collect, and the noisy environment around us is the second type of information, but there are other things in the world outside the cocktail party. The 1 trillion pieces of information we would miss right now.
- The story of “Interstellar” is far from simple as it seems. The character played by Anne Hathaway mentioned in the movie “Love is something that can exist across time and space”**. Each of us has a different understanding of the word “love”, which means that language limits our understanding of things. There are 96 interpretations of “love” in ancient Sanskrit. And “love” will guide us to find and experience the 1 trillion information in the vast world. That is information that transcends our rational brain and is also the best source for our future growth. Therefore, the male protagonist in “Interstellar” can use “love” to go back to the past, pass the watch to his daughter, and let her find the information to save the world.
- If you want to predict the future, then go back to history and see what kind of narratives people were telling the stories of the times at that time, and those timeless stories will continue to reappear in human society. The American writer Joseph Campbell is a person who is very good at summarizing stories. He spent 5 years reading 9 hours a day, and went to Europe to learn Sanskrit, study myths and legends from ancient times to the present, and then wrote an influential book The “Star Wars” books “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” and “The Power of Myth” summarized the characteristics of stories widely circulated in human society, that is, following the “Hero’s Journey”: refusing at the beginning will bring great consequences to the world. Responsibilities → Being summoned by the mentor → Embark on the journey → Fight demons and monsters all the way → Finally return home to tell the story along the way and share the experience learned. **Campbell mentioned that mythological stories are full of metaphors. We need to go beyond the limitations of words and pictures to experience their connotations. Some things can only be understood but not expressed.
- Our own interests and passion for things can predict our future direction. This shows the limitations of the left hemisphere of the brain, which only knows those 60 bits of information. Joseph Campbell mentioned that Follow your bliss encourages us to use the right hemisphere of the brain to feel and collect the 1 trillion pieces of information we have missed. It sounds like a cliché to follow your passion or follow your dreams, but the left hemisphere of our brains never gives up control easily. You need to be brave enough to resist it and face the fear of the unknown. This is also Joseph ·The “dragon slaying” metaphor mentioned by Campbell. When we follow the guidance of our right brain, life becomes more beautiful than we imagined.
- Michael Singer, who holds a master’s degree in economics, began to live in seclusion while studying for his doctorate. He tried yoga and meditation, which were popular at the time, but made little progress. So he “gives up on himself” and begins to surrender to life. If someone asks him to do anything, he will do it. As a result, he “accidentally” becomes the founder of a medical management company with a valuation of US$1 billion. He also relies on the power of surrender to become one of the world’s most powerful people. The spiritual mentor of millions of readers.
- The “hero’s journey” mentioned by Joseph Campbell is not a literal story of us facing difficulties and then overcoming them to achieve success, but a journey of transition between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. If everyone could achieve this paradigm shift, the entire world would be a better place for it. One thing worth noting is that when you follow your heart, you will also get a signal from the universe. It is a signal that the entire universe is helping you realize your dreams, and you can completely feel it. We must give up the obsession to control life and let life lead the way for us. Life is like walking through a long tunnel with no end in sight and accompanied by anxiety. What we can do is to regard the actions of moving forward bravely and fearlessly as A voluntary act to participate in and experience the entire process.
- Returning to the current society, our problem is that we cannot feel connected to anything, because we are busy making money, hijacked by illusory concepts, and have no time to calm down and see what our Bliss is. If we look back in history and look at ancient civilizations, we will find that there are such people (prophets, priests, mediums or shamans) in society to guide individuals to achieve spiritual time travel, but contemporary society has cut off all of these. The current society gives us a sense of security and tells us that as long as we follow the path given by society, we will have everything. But “everything” isn’t something that everyone wants or is right for them. If we want to have a “security”, we need to give up the “life we deserve”. This is a choice process in which we cannot have our cake and eat it too. The biggest question we need to answer is whether we have the courage to embark on a journey into the unknown.
- People need an information filter. After all, when we receive information at will, we cannot completely digest all the information. This is the difference between “knowledge” and “wisdom.” American financial tycoon George Soros once said in an interview that he always gets back pain when his investment portfolio is wrongly positioned. Soros obtained a large amount of information when studying the financial market, but this inconspicuous physical sign is often the information we are most likely to ignore, but it is also a signal from the universe to you.
- People need to be careful about spiritual worship. Buddha and Jesus did not leave any words. Their disciples compiled their experiences and churches into books, but those disciples were too busy collecting information to achieve the final transcendence. This is not to criticize their approach, because their collecting process is also a process of self-discovery. The famous Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto once said, “Start by imitating what you like.” People need to collect a large number of fragments in the process of imitation, constantly copy, and constantly reorganize to find what they are really interested in. It’s a process that requires paying attention, jumping into this bottomless pit, and discovering your own inner drive.
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