Ever since I was a little kid I've been interested in dreams and how strange they can be in comparison to my waking life. Although I've only had lucidEver since I was a little kid I've been interested in dreams and how strange they can be in comparison to my waking life. Although I've only had lucid dreams a few times but from reading this book I understand that the possibilities are endless once you learn to controll your dreams. You can time travel, shape shift, fly, have sex with anyone you want and create whatever you want to create (even a universe).
The authors intention is not only to show the reader how to master a dream but also that society at large has a somewhat fallacious view of the subject. Dreams tell us something about ourselves and if we have a recurring nightmare it says something about you as a person. Your unconscious (or subconscious if you want to use their terminology) is a large part of who you are and why not try to explore it in hopes of learning more about yourself? Why should we settle for anything less than the most exilarating experience of our lives? All it takes is a little patience and discipline. I am currently working as an account manager at an IT-firm and often times I feel pressured. In order to develop resilience I therefore try to do everything I can to find the calmness within me - meditation, self-help books (and now lucid dreaming as well). I strongly believe that we can become stronger people by seeing dreamworld as an unexplored gateway to yourself.
A bit uneven but some parts were brilliant. Even though it reads much like an adventure story (by the time he was 25 he had been in 4 different wars oA bit uneven but some parts were brilliant. Even though it reads much like an adventure story (by the time he was 25 he had been in 4 different wars on several continents), it also contains nuggets of wisdom. Churchill did not go to university (although he trained as an officer at Sandhurst); instead he decided to study by himself and try to reach conclusions which seems to accomodate his specific personality.
"The human brain cannot comprehend infinity, but the discovery of mathematics enables it to be handled quite easily. The idea that nothing is true except what we comprehend is silly, and that ideas which our minds cannot reconcile are mutually destructive, sillier still. Certainly nothing could be more repulsive to both our minds and feelings than the spectacle of thousands of millions of universes - for that is what they say it comes to now - all knocking about together for ever without any rational or good purpose behind them. I therefore adopted quite early in life a system of believing watever I wanted to believe, while at the same time leaving reason to pusure unfettered whatever paths she was capable of treading"
So much for the multiverse! I think about this when people discuss whether we are living in a simulation or not. How can we ever know? What use is it to ponder such things if they are ultimately unknowable? I was really inspired by his heroic worldview as shown in both of these quotes:
"It is that lure of youth - adventure, and adventure for adventure's sake. You might call it toomfoolery. To travel thousands of miles with money one could ill afford, and get up at four c'clock in the morning in the hope of getting into a scrape in the company of perfect strangers, is certainly hardly a rational proceeding."
And this one:
"When I look back upon them I cannot but return my sincere thanks to the high gods for the gift of existence. All the days were good and each day better than the other. Ups and downs risks and journeys, but always the sense of motion, and the illusion of hope. Come on now all you young men, all over the world. You are needed more than ever now to fill the gap of a generation shorn by the War. You have not an hour to lose. You must take your places in life's fighting line. Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don't be content with things as they are. The earth is yours and the fulness thereof. Raise the glorious flags again, advance them upon the new enemies, who contanstanyl gather upon the front of the human army, and have only to be assaulted to be overthrown. Don't take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed and won by youth. She has lived and thrived only by repeated subjugations"
I fully agree with you mr. Churchill. The sheer power of optimism and heroism in the proceeding paragraph is inspiring and perhaps much needed in today's cynical world....more
"My face is set. I got to make my destiny. May many another youth be by me inspired to leave the snug safety of his rut, and follow fortune to other l"My face is set. I got to make my destiny. May many another youth be by me inspired to leave the snug safety of his rut, and follow fortune to other lands"
As I have a tendency to become overworked by irrelevant (albeit it work-related) tasks, it is nice to every now and then try to get a fresh perspective on things. Evert Ruess was a young man who decided to determine his own destiny by traveling through the wilderness of Arizona and Utah. This book is a collection of letters he wrote to the people that he was close to (mostly his brother Waldo). Ruess has ambitions of becoming a painter and his letters show a certain literary aptitude as well. Although he is mostly accompanied by his burro on his adventures he also ends up meeting Indians as well as fellow travelers. It would seem however that Ruess often preferred solitude over the company of others.
He ask his parents to send him great works of literature such as the Magic mountain (Mann), Don Quixote etc. and always tries in his letters to explain the beauty of existence. While this often ends up either being pretentious or banal, he sometimes hits spot on: "Beauty and peace have been with me, wherever I have gone. At night I have watched pale granite towers in the dim starlight, aspiring to the powdered sky, tremulous and dreamlike, fantastical in the melting darkness. [...] These living dreams I wish to share with you, and I want you to know that I have not forgotten. " (p. 103).
Or this one:
"Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Arctic explorer, says that adventures are a sign of unpreparedness and incompetence. I think he is largely right, nevertheless I like adventure and enjoy taking chances when skill and fortitude play a part. If we never had any adventures, we would never know what "stuff" was in us" (p. 140)
While it never really reaches the level of high artistic expression (I was hoping for something more along the lines of Dag Hammarskjölds Markings), these expressions have an authentic feel to them which inspires me. I think that too seldom one is given time to really reflect over ones life. There is also something quite Zen-like about Ruess and his insistence of appreciating the beauty of life. ...more
Clear and concise advice on how to live as a vagabond. Potts provides great advice on what to avoid and how to think in order to make the most out of Clear and concise advice on how to live as a vagabond. Potts provides great advice on what to avoid and how to think in order to make the most out of a trip. ...more
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