You are the light of the world.
–Jesus (Matthew 5:14)
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
–Carl Sagan (Cosmos)
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.
–The Grateful Dead
A great word, featured in the classic 1979 film The Jerk:
Mr. Hartounian: Navin, this is my wife Lenore. Lenore, this is Navin.
Navin: Pleased to meet you.
Mr. Hartounian: Do you know why a woman of such pulchritude is married to me? ‘Cause I make very a comfortable living.
pul·chri·tude / PUL-kri-tood / noun
: physical beauty; comeliness
- pul·chri·tu·di·nous / pul-kri-TOO-di-nus / adjective
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Angela Chang
A few days ago, I was browsing a lucid dreaming forum, and one of the members posted this: “Who here thinks lucid dreaming is better than real life? Real life is just doing the same thing over and over again. It’s so boring.”
I thought about what he said. On the surface, he was right. You can fly, fight with monsters, be a superhero, swim underwater, and stop bullets in a lucid dream. You sit in a cubicle and pay bills in real life. Obviously, lucid dreaming is so much more awesome! But when I really thought about it carefully, it hit me: Why can’t we treat life like a lucid dream? Of course, there are differences such as :
- You can’t control the physical laws of the universe in real life.
- Real life usually lasts longer.
- You can’t control the reactions of other characters in real life.
But reality and lucid dreaming are also quite similar:
- You are your own creator. If you want to quit your job, you can just say the magic words. If you want to ask someone out, noone’s gonna stop you.
- You can choose what experiences you wish to have.
- You can choose which characters you want to connect with.
- You can choose when to end it.
Of course, I’m not suggesting we all go out, get drunk, and live a reckless life. Survival is important too! But viewing life as a lucid dream can be empowering and give clarity to what you desire from life. If you are confused about what you truly want in life, asking yourself these questions can be a good start:
- If reality were a lucid dream, what would I be doing?
- Would this endanger my survival or others in any way?
- If not, why can’t I do it? Is it because of a lack of time, money, or skills?
- If it’s because of a lack of time, money or skills, what steps can I take today to change that situation?
People will stop here and tell me: “Don’t be ridiculous! We need to pay bills, we can’t just quit our boring jobs, travel the world, and do things we love!”. And they do have a point. But this attitude is disempowering. Such people will never have a chance to do the things they love if they stick with that attitude. Adopting the attitude that you have the power to create your own reality is a more empowering choice. You may initially lack the resources to do what you love, but you’ll do whatever it takes if you adopt this positive “I create” attitude. A person with the first attitude simply has no chance. A person with the 2nd attitude might fail but will stand a far better chance to live a life of their own creation.
Adopting this attitude will also evaporate some of the fears you have. When people lucid dream, they often feel no fear when they connect with experiences. Yet in real life, we often are paralyzed by low-level fears that pose no danger to our survival such as asking for a raise, asking someone out, quitting our jobs, public speaking, talking to strangers, or starting our own business. If life were a lucid dream, why would you be embarrassed to ask an attractive person out on a date?
When we suddenly become lucid in our dreams, we often change the dream we were having to something else. Similarly, in real life, if you became more lucid and view yourself as a creator, you’ll often find yourself questioning your current life. You’ll start asking yourself questions such as: Do I really want to work in this job for the next 30 years? Do I really want to have a lifelong relationship with this person? Am I missing out on experiences I really want to have? Am I making pathetic excuses and wasting my life away? You may decide to change the path of your life completely.
With all the mixed messages in society, life can seem very complex. Our families tell us one thing. Society tells us another, and we constantly compare ourselves to our peers. But it’s all rather simple. We’re here to find out what we love to do, and cultivate the power and courage to connect with those experiences. Life is a giant sandbox, and we’re here to experiment, have experiences, have fun, enjoy ourselves, and be joyful. We’re not here to be wimpy creatures, victims of our circumstances. Just as we have the ability to control our dreams, we have the ability to create the reality we want to live in!
We’re powerful creators, writing our own dream every single day. It’s going to end someday, but while we’re here, why not have an experience of a lifetime?
What kind of dream do you want to live?
About Angela: Angela C. is writing a personal development book that will be coming out late next year. She is a yoga lover, personal development coach and an expert on candida albicans.
Thanks to the editorial efforts of some outstanding evolutionary biologists (including Blair Hedges at Penn State) we can now search the Time Tree of Life to find the time of divergence between nearly any two species.
2300 Million years (Myr) – Humans and Blue-Green Algae
1400 Myr – Humans and Broccoli
1400 Myr – Triceratops and Red Squirrels
1300 Myr – Humans and Magic Mushrooms
830 Myr – Rainbow Trout and Monarch Butterflies
275 Myr – Humans and Barn Owls
57 Myr – Cats and Dogs
The time tree gives an approximate date for the last common ancestor shared by two creatures based on the molecular clock hypothesis. This hypothesis assumes a constant rate of mutations across time, so that genetic differences between species can translate into a distance in time. Though somewhat contested, I haven’t come across any better way of calculating evolutionary timescales. If anything, it’s a good first-order approximation and a fun web database to play with.
Life is not a game because life has no rules, only consequences.
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