“Good morning, my name is Bob. Welcome to Bob’s Engine and Philosophical Repair Shop. What brings you in today?”
“Well, I just can’t seem to get started. And when I get going, the power just isn’t there to go far.”
“I see, well let’s take a look. Do you spend a lot of time on computers?”
“Yes, I’m on-line at least 5 hours a day.”
“Do you believe in God?”
“No, I’m actually a big fan of Richard Dawkins”.
“How about your love-life? Do you believe in love? Have you ever experienced it?”
“Not really. I was actually pretty lucky, and first got laid when I was 15 with a girl I went to grade school with. It didn’t really work out, and she’s in a punk rock band somewhere down south. I hook up with girls now and then–I usually meet them on-line–but nothing serious. I never really wanted kids, and the idea of getting married scares me”.
“OK. What about politics? You a fan of Obama?”
“I’m actually disappointed in him. He seems to have sold out to Corporate America, and is continuing those stupid wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“Right. Here’s my diagnosis: you’re not going anywhere because you don’t know where you want to go. How can you get started without a destination? How can you go fast in a direction you don’t have? You’re stuck.
First step is to expand your world. This includes opening up to the possibility of philosophical optimism. Get the book “Quantum Reality”, by Nick Herbert. He is a good physicist, and knows his stuff. The net is that the best minds on the planet cannot seem to locate a physical reality unaffected by consciousness. This militates against orthodox materialism, and opens up the possibility of something like God, the survival of death, and the non-physical interconnectedness of all things.
Next, read something by Dean Radin. I read “The Conscious Universe”. It details the evidence for things like psi, which has become overwhelming, even though many will not admit it. Quantum physics, though, opens up the physical possibility for these things.
Third, read this free book all the way through, and follow up on any particular lines of research that interest you. I enjoyed the book “The First Psychic”, by Peter Lamont.
If you do all this with an open mind, it should get you some space for dreaming, which is to say perceptual movement.
Next, read everything on this website. Having written it, I’m a bit partial to it, but it comes out of a similar problem to what you are presenting to me.
Last, but not least, remember that the excitement in life comes from small things, not big things, and that if you get good at building from small things, then you’ll get all the satisfaction you deserve. Buy the book Kum Nye relaxation, by Tarthang Tulku, and incorporate it in your life.
That, and a little elbow grease, should get you on your way. Thanks for stopping in at Bob’s Engine and Philosophical Repair. Philosophy: use it or lose it.”