Creatives Next on the Pop Psychology Hit List

  By Eleni | July 12, 2013 - 08:23 | ,
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The war against the individual is moving forward at full speed, and the creatives are next on the list of being targeted for having a mental deficit. As a creative, I see this as dangerous. Equating creative people as having any kind of deficit is the first step to inventing a new mental illness.

A study was conducted on creatives who were put through a series of tests. The creatives scored lower at identifying a large letter that was composed of   smaller ones that were  of a different letter. Creatives were deemed as having a deficit because there was no difference in the way both creatives and non-creatives shifted their focus from tree to forest level focus. The test doesn’t demonstrate any deficit. All it shows is that we’re all different in how we act and perceive things. Technically, the way I see it is that either letter answered would be correct as both are present. I can clearly now see why being  a big picture thinker made it harder for me to take tests at school. I saw too many variables at getting to the answer. This is a major reason why outlining and plotting is so important to me as a writer. I’d be all over the place without them!

I hyper-focus, easily missing things that are happening around me when I’m writing, including a very loud hurricane alarm! This actually happened during the last tsunami warning when I lived in Oahu. I heard it in the back of my mind. I knew what it was, but I didn’t process the information. The next morning, I told my family about it, and I was concerned as to how shut off I was from the outside world. After some reflection, I concluded that on a sub-conscious level, I must’ve known we weren’t in any immediate danger as we lived in an area that was not in the evacuation zone. Not that I trust human calculations and planning when it comes to surviving a natural catastrophe, but that’s a whole other topic, so I’ll end my digression here.

Just how intense is my hyper-focus? My husband told me when I work, I remind him of his autistic friend. Interestingly, the article states something similar by mentioning ADHD and autism.

“The general idea is that [people with ADHD] are not able to focus on anything. But really there are two different parts of the disorder, and one is that if they really get interested in something, they become almost like autistic people: really focused, so much so that they are not able to practice anything else.” 

I find it revealing that they’d mention ADHD and Autism in an article about creatives who supposedly have a mental deficit. The article also states that creatives achieve success by “stubbornly clinging to ideas.”

“The research may help explain why autistic people, who tend to focus obsessively, can often be highly creative. Paradoxically, it may also help explain the link between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and creative success.” Maia Szalavitz (from the linked article)

Apparently having drive and focusing on something until you find success is now a stubborn trait and a mental deficit. If that’s the case, I say, stubborn is great—which I did happen to tell my daughters a while back. I told them that if you’re going to be stubborn, be stubborn where it counts. Be stubborn when it comes to your art and to your interests because that’s what it will take to produce your best work.

From Quirky to ADHD

Before I even clicked on the article, I had a strong suspicion that ADHD was going to be mentioned. There was a book I read that was first printed in the seventies, The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People. Most of the ADHD traits were listed in there:

“Again and Again, the findings from psychological and vocational studies indicate interests in art, music and literature are associated with more neurotic problems.” Carol Eikleberry

If you’d like to read the review I wrote for the book at Amazon way back in 2007, click here. Flash forward to 2013, and we find the article like the one I linked to above. What does all this say about ADHD? Personally, I don’t believe it’s a disease. I’m not here to start a war against those who think it’s real. That’s my personal opinion, and as a person that would’ve been drugged to the max had I grown up at this time, I can state it with authority. I just choose not to label myself as having a mental deficit as I don’t feel that I have one. I prefer to say I have an over-abundance of creative energy, and when I’m not spending it, I certainly exhibit neurotic characteristics. I was also diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in my teens, and that’s another label I ignore now.

ADHD Characters in My Writing

In my stories, I champion the ADHD personality-type. My protagonist in Jessie’s Song deals with his creative energy through music. In Six Pack, which will be released in 2015, my protagonist, finds her focus through bodybuilding. That particular book is semi-autobiographical, and I hope that it will inspire women to nurture their own quirkiness. I struggled to fit in most of my life, but now I appreciate my quirkiness. I told my landlord that when I was a child, I felt like a freak. As an adult, I’m glad to exist outside of the fringe of perceived normality.No. I’m not “normal,” and I say that with pride. We’re all different, and that’s something to celebrate.

Love and light,

Eleni

Great news for Jessie’s Song!

  By Eleni | July 1, 2013 - 08:42 | ,
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Jessie’s Song is a finalist for the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards. The timing was fortuitous as I also made a new cover for the book. My mother received the proof and loved it, but she brought up how she would’ve preferred a different hair style for Jessie. When she mentioned cornrows, I knew I had to make the change as that’s what I had originally intended but had trouble finding the right image to work with. I finally did but then I had a bigger issue to deal with. I’d blended the hair with the original image and didn’t have the separate layers to work with. I usually leave duplicate copies, but for some reason I didn’t for this cover as I thought it was finished. As with my writing, my covers are never finished. Don’t know what I was thinking!

Rather than go through tweaking the original image, I took more shots of my daughter and worked on the skin tone. It looked good, but the original image captured the best mood, so I returned to it, spending almost two full days tweaking Jessie. It was worth the effort, so I’m not complaining. She’s the perfect Jessie. I can easily see her singing her song! I also threw in some inner-glow to further define the guitar-shaped shadow box.

In other news, I’m currently tweaking the book cover for Beyond Omegas’s Sunrise and editing Forever Valley. I’m also preparing for a book tour that will be starting on August 1st.

Love and light,

Eleni

Twist of Fate – Charity Anthology Published

  By Eleni | July 1, 2013 - 08:37 | ,
2 Comments

I’d like to mention a very special anthology I was a part of. The proceeds from Twist of Fate will go to help the victims of the destruction caused by the tornadoes in Oklahoma. Get your copy here.

From the back cover:

“Representing the Indies In Action group, 60 authors have combined to contribute 78 different writings in a charity anthology to help tornado victims in Oklahoma. The authors represent people from all around the globe. Nine countries are represented, and several of the contributors actually live in or have lived in “Tornado Alley.” It is a grassroots, group effort to help those who need it the most. The writing and photos mix to create an experience you will want to share.”

Spirituality, Madness and Valis

  By Eleni | June 19, 2013 - 09:11 | , ,
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I became intrigued by Philip K. Dick after hearing Dr. Jeff Kripal discuss his book Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal. It inspired a post and my fascination with finding other creatives who’ve had mystical experiences. I recently completed reading Philip K. Dick’s book, Valis, a semi-autobiographical account of his own spiritual experience. Dick’s terminology is different, but our experiences were similar. While reading the book, I felt as if  I were having a conversation with someone who understood me.

In Valis, we follow Horselover Fat, Dick’s alter ego that he calls his theophany. He describes it as being struck by a pink beam of light that downloaded information into his brain. He came to the realization that the entirety of the universe is, in essence, information. Afterward, he experiences a precognitive awareness about his son being sick, and it turns out to be true. PKD spends most of the book attempting to figure out the meaning of what had happened to him. Further complicating matters is that he has difficulty comprehending why he can save his son but can do nothing to save a friend who has terminal cancer. During his quest towards enlightenment, friends view him as having gone mad.

Spiritual insights pepper the story and flow through both the narration and entries in Horselover Fat’s exegesis. PDK’s use of both first and third-person narrative gives the narrator distance, allowing a more objective view about his spiritual experience. The inner dialogue between the two voices creates a Socratic feel, an odyssey about self-inquiry that forces out questions about previously held beliefs.

Birds of a Feather

Like Philip K. Dick, I spent years trying to understand what had happened to me. At times, I felt as though I were going crazy. After my kundalini awakening, a psychological torrent of fears and past hurts flooded my consciousness, forcing me to deal with them. I had to eventually accept that everything I held as truth my whole life was a myth. I then wondered what the point of life was.

Here are some of the questions I asked:

What does it mean? 

Was it God?

What is God? 

Are we living in a live organism?

Am I plugged into a giant hologram?

Is what I see every day reality?

Is this part of some clandestine psychological operation?

I had my kundalini awakening when I was thirty. I’m now forty-six. I haven’t answered any of the above questions with any certainty. This self-inquiry eventually led me to becoming a spiritual agnostic. Getting caught up in trying to find absolute answers to questions can drive you insane if you let it!

At first, Philip K. Dick believed that what had happened to him resulted from medication he’d taken for an impacted wisdom tooth. However, when his visions persisted, he knew the explanation was implausible. I don’t take drugs, and my experience happened while I was meditating, so I knew my experience wasn’t a reaction to any drug!

“I experienced an invasion of my mind by a transcendentally rational mind, as if I had been insane all my life and suddenly I had become sane.” Philip K. Dick

Looking back, it seems as though I’d lived my first thirty years in a delusional state. I now have clarity of mind, something I never had before as I suffered from clinical depression and a host of other psychological disturbances. Today, I’m no longer depressed and those other conditions that have plagued me have also faded. Meditation keeps me in balance.

“Alike and equal are not the same thing, you have to find your own beat.” Meg from Wrinkle In Time

I would’ve either been dead or on antidepressants if it weren’t for seeing the proverbial light. So dealing with a little madness along the way to spiritual recovery was worth it!

“Many claim to speak for god, but there is only one god and that god is man himself.” Phillip K. Dick

We can all connect to a greater reality without a guru to assist us. U.G. Krishnamurti made similar statements, which is why he referred to himself as an anti-guru. Through my own journey, I’ve reached a similar state of mind and don’t follow any gurus or religion.

“You are the authority.” Philip K. Dick

Being a skeptic is actually the safest way to experience life as I’m not easily led astray or manipulated. I emerged as a stronger person from my experience and that’s one statement I can make absolutely.

Love and light,

Eleni

Spiritual Objectivism – Part 5

  By Eleni | June 6, 2013 - 07:51 | , ,
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I discussed the spiritual side of objectivism in my last post and will tie it all together with my writing in this post. I wanted to begin with my birthday, which happened on July 19, 2007.

What is death? The completion of this current life cycle. The perceived “I” will exist no longer.

After I typed the last line, it really hit me for it led to the real death of the perception of “I.” What is called, “Eleni” cried. I mourned the loss of the “I.” Daphne came in and asked me. “Eleni, what’s wrong? It was odd…and fitting…that she called me by my first name. I told her, “I’m not real.” She laughed as well. This all relates to the “I’m not the meaning” quote sent to me by the Higher Self.

Daphne is my daughter, who’s now ten. She hasn’t called me by my first name before that date or ever since. That event was the proverbial icing on my cake. I completely detached from my self-perpetuated mythos. I’d rather leave the fiction for my stories. Writing my personal truth and being able to express myself authentically is what makes me love the craft of writing.

Connecting Spirituality to Objectivism

I appreciate the Tao Te Ching, and I think much of the philosophy included inside helps cultivate a spiritual/objectivist mindset.

Therefore the Sage is devoted to non-action

Manage the work of detached teaching,

Conduct the teaching of no words.

They work with myriad of things but do not control

(Excerpt from Verse 2)

When we seek to control, it does not allow us to grow. If we try to control others, we keep them from growing. That same mindset applies to those in power. Hence, a free society is conducive to personal and spiritual growth. It allows us to be authentic as opposed to existing to please and satisfy the state. I constantly work with these themes in my writing, on a societal and personal level, especially in Unison.

Stories that have always resonated with me have a protagonist who goes off alone to solve his or her problems. The hero’s journey is natural to humans, which is why these type of stories have been repeated for thousands of years. Epics that depict dystopias show us the horrors of what happens when we’re forced to submission, such as in the Hunger Games. Oddly, in our current reality, many people don’t notice we’re headed in that direction at lightning speed. It’s truly uncanny to watch history repeating yet again while most of the population goes about their day acting as though nothing is amiss.  It’s quite a surreal time to be alive.

Libertarian Science Fiction

I recently discovered the genre of Libertarian science fiction. I never knew such a genre existed, and it makes me wish Amazon had it listed as a sub genre under sci-fi because I relate to it strongly. If I were to define my fiction, the interior stories of my books are very spiritual in nature. The outer story—where all the action takes place, is pure objectivist, which works in harmony with the Libertarian perspective. I make clear that the power of the individual is above all governments and man-made institutions. After all, they’re only ideas. Why would we place ideas above the humans who created them? Never made sense to me.

My cover for Unison represents the release and circulation of knowledge through the ages. While we’re not mortal, the knowledge our mind creates is immortal. Even when governments try to suppress that knowledge, it always finds it’s way back in. Knowledge and invention constantly get reused and improved upon. This truth is comforting, especially at this historical crossroad we find ourselves in. Knowledge is suppressed, and fluff is presented as news and entertainment. That can’t go on forever, and I suppose that’s another major reason I’m motivated to write. I want my stories to show the reader who’s looking for an alternative to the mainstream that they’re not alone and maybe put a smile on their face while doing it.

 

The Tao verse comes from Derek Lins’s translation of the Tao Te Ching. I highly recommend his website, and you can get information on how to order his book. I highly recommend it as he also has some useful notes that accompany each verse.

Jessie’s Song is Ready to Go Live and Gets 5 Stars!

  By Eleni | June 5, 2013 - 09:37 | , , , ,
4 Comments

Before I begin the post, I wanted to mention that Unison has been reviewed by Fiction For A New Age.  You can read the review here.

As of this week, I’ve completed the final proof of Jessie’s Song, and I’m happy to announce that it will be published on June 20th in eBook format at Amazon. The paperback version will be released in the fall. If you’d like to read the first chapter, you can do so here. I had so much fun working with the protagonist, Markos Adams, that I decided to start a new series with him. I ended up deleting the prologue and epilogue, which I liked immensely. Nevertheless, I’m truly excited to keep Markos’s story going. I’ve already started to plot out the next book.

Jessie’s Song is completely different in setting and tone than Unison. It’s still visionary fiction but told with an urban fantasy flavor. My lead characters always tend to interact with some humor and with urban fantasy, it felt organic to the storytelling style.

The protagonist, Markos Adams, is a Greek-American jazz guitarist and poet who also happens to make a killer baklava. I had fun using my culture in this book, particularly with coffee ground reading. I’ve also included some of Markos’s poetry at the end of the book, some of which has his sense of humor and some that also depict his love for his ex-wife and first love. It was a surreal experience to write love poetry from a male perspective, but we women know what we’d love to hear written about us in a poem! One of the poems from the book is here, and it’s going to be part of a charity anthology, Twist of Fate, to benefit the victims of the tornados that recently ravaged Oklahoma. As soon as the book becomes available, I’ll post the information on where to purchase the book. Being a part of the project inspired me to write more poems, and I plan on releasing a poetry book in the future.

Jessie’s Song Gets 5 Stars!

When I woke up this morning, I got my first review back from Jessie’s Song. It’s always great to get a glowing review before publishing.

Markos Adams, a well-known Jazz musician, has just committed yet another suicide attempt and it is all over the news. A year later, he is back on stage while struggling to shape up, trying to straighten out his life. Through his ordeals to keep his sanity, he spends time with his daughter Jessie, and still loves his ex-wife Stella, although they are no longer together. A day after his return to the spotlight, his daughter is abducted and things go out of hand. He must determine the identity of his daughter’s kidnapper; otherwise he feels he must kill himself and he must do so within the next twenty-four hours. Will this finally be Markos’s last day on earth, and will he face death without seeing his daughter?

“Jessie’s Song” is a wonderfully crafted mystery novel that explores themes of life, love, art, sanity and death, in rather unusual ways. When reading the book, it is as if various items were neatly packed in a box for us to enjoy unraveling and perusing piece by piece. Many portions of the book give us insights into art, what with the author also being a songwriter, among others. Fast-paced and action-packed, it is a most uncommon, yet exciting case of abduction to read about, written with thrilling passages and sequences. Moreover, the love that Markos shares with his daughter, and the strong emotions he still holds for his wife are absolutely heart-wrenching, especially as Markos struggles with his possibly impending death to save his daughter. “Jessie’s Song” is definitely worth keeping in one’s collection. I really enjoyed reading this book! – Maria Beltran  of Reader’s Favorite

Spiritual Objectivism – Part 4

  By Eleni | June 1, 2013 - 10:06 | ,
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The topic of spiritual objectivism has blossomed into something that seems to keep evolving. In my previous post, I explained where I’d separated from a purely objectivist stance. However, I still resonate with the objectivist philosophy. From a surface perspective, it allows us to grow spiritually by championing ourselves as individuals.  It also frees us to be true visionaries where we can  nurture our talents without apology or guilt.

I’m now going to focus more on the spiritual angle of this series. This helps keep me grounded and humble. I’ll also demonstrate how a spiritual objectivist mindset keeps me free from forming new conditionings.

Authenticity

I strive for authenticity. For me, being truly authentic means to outwardly express my true nature, as opposed to compromising myself to appease someone else’s ideology or belief. It sounds simple, but it took me years to reach this point.

Through my own spiritual practice, I’d recognized that Ayn Rand was correct: morals come from within us when we make decisions based on reason. While religion may work for some people, it doesn’t for me. It tied me down and kept me form learning. I had to let it go to grow. We all have our own paths to follow. Mine is the rebel’s path; sometimes frightening, sometimes weird, oftentimes both, but always fulfilling.

“Each man must live as an end in himself.” Ayn Rand

Most individuals throughout history are remembered because they dared to set their own path.

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” The Buddha

Buddha was a Spiritual Objectivist!

The Buddha is a prime example of what it means to be an objectivist. He was quite the rebel! He found enlightenment only after he’d dared to break away from the religions of his time. He put himself through a lot of anguish to attain enlightenment, including depriving himself of food. In the end, he had some rice pudding, sat under the Bodhi tree and became enlightened. He had to detach from everything he was told to believe in to get there.

A Parallel Journey

I view my kundalini awakening as the beginning of my spiritual journey.  I only use the term because it’s faster than saying, “A fountain of light exploded inside my head and plugged me into something vast and seemingly borderless!” Being Greek, I’d like to mention that the Greeks call the light experience, Hesychasm. Whatever name you want to call the light experience, it has nothing to do with what happened to the Buddha under the Bodhi tree. In fact, he had transcendental experiences and never tied them to any greater knowledge.

Like Gopi Krishna, I see kundalini as part of a biological/evolutionary process, but since it’s nothing I can prove, I don’t commit to any theory. What I can say is that it did dump a lot of data into my brain. I started to have a lot of visions. Some were of geometric shapes, which were hard for me to understand. It was up to me to learn how to utilize what I was receiving and why I was receiving it. How I thought and perceived the world had become even more critical during this time in my life. It’s so easy to get swept up in visions and mystical experiences, and I kept myself grounded by not making any judgements about what I was seeing.

Kundalini forced me to ask questions and confront issues I’d refused to deal with in the past. It was as if something switched on inside me that refused to shut off. During the process, I felt that following an ideology—any ideology, kept me from growing spiritually. This happened when I realized gurus and spiritual masters merely stated opinions. They interpret their experiences subjectively. And politicians were mortals who were no better or smarter than myself. It moved beyond ideology when I realized I’d created belief systems about myself and the people in my life, all of which were mere opinions. It was an epidemic! I gave up all forms of belief. It was the act of belief, as opposed to the ideology, that kept me from traveling forward.

I should mention here that I read about the Buddha’s journey after I had gone through my ideological data dump. This had further demonstrated to me that the genuine truth is learned from within, irrespective of our location in either place or time. The truth is literally universal, and we can all be Buddhas if we so desire.

The Surreal Years

The early years after I gave up belief was surreal. The world my personal dogmatism created was so different from the reality I was waking up to. In a sense, I was deprogramming myself from many years of conditioning. With that came a lot of releasing of pain, the healing of emotional scars and a bout with cancer, which happened during the time I’d brushed aside my spiritual practice.  They were also years of learning. I read many books, even ones that would be considered blasphemous. At firs I was scared but then soon realized the topics were also ideologies. Today, I can read any topic without fear of damnation.

I was finally free from belief, or so I thought. Seeing how everything I ever believed in had been written by a subjective interpretation, stated by a subjective mindset and taught by a subjective individuals, I had become an atheist for a while…until I realized atheism was another form of belief. Belief will try to snag me every time!

And after all that, I was free from ideology. I could finally live free, as nature intended for us…as individuals that are born with an innate morality.

“It’s not about being right or wrong.  It’s all about the experience.”

I bring this phrase up again because it liberated me. It keeps me objective and allows me to take in and enjoy every experience. And for those experiences that are painful or difficult, I still immerse myself in them fully as all experiences in life teach us about ourselves. We can choose to ignore them or learn from them and evolve. The day I heard this phrase in my meditation is as important to me as my kundalini awakening and another event, which I’ll bring up in my next post. It goes to show you…the path to enlightenment is ongoing.

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

Love and light,

Eleni

Neuron Symphony

  By Eleni | May 30, 2013 - 08:38 | ,
2 Comments

 

Each night I play inside my dream.

I wake up somewhere in midstream.

I hear the music calling me.

Performed by a neuron symphony.

 

The ground is pulled from under my feet.

I land on a familiar city street.

A mystic realm where spirits roam free.

Performed by a neuron symphony.

 

Familiar faces shadow each day.

The remnants of a past today.

No hiding from this ghostly spree.

Performed by a neuron symphony.

 

Existing somewhere between two scenes.

My past projected on multiple screens.

Ending with a reborn version of me.

Performed by a neuron symphony.

 

©2013 Eleni Papanou

 

Spiritual Objectivism – Part 3

  By Eleni | May 23, 2013 - 17:44 | ,
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In my last post, I formed a connection between spirituality and objectivism linked together by morality that’s natural to humans. I want to focus this post on the aspect of reality that influences my writing.

 “Reality exists as an objective absolute. That man’s mind reason is his means of perceiving it. And that man needs a rational morality.” Ayn Rand

 This is where I splinter off with Rand. I hold a view similar to Robert Anton Wilson:

“Humans live through their myths and only endure their realities.”

I resonated with Robert Anton Wilson’s writing, but I was still tethered to my self-perceived reality…although I’d been aware of it at the time. After I’d detached from the collectively agreed upon notion of reality, I resonated to the truth behind his words. I don’t view reality as an absolute. I see it as highly subjective. What we all see and experience collectively is the reality we’ve all agreed upon. That doesn’t necessarily make it true. Therefore, I don’t view perceived reality as absolute, and I cannot make absolute judgements based on that which isn’t absolute.

“We did not fall because of a moral error; we fell because of an intellectual error: that of taking the phenomenal world as real.” Phillip K. Dick

All my stories are written from a non-absolutist stance. I’m about as non-absolutist as they come! While plots resolve, I find there’s always an unidentifiable beyond. I suppose I’m fascinated with storytelling because I see so many potentials, and writing fiction is my way of discovering them one possibility at a time. Life has certainly become more interesting…and weird, after I’d detached from ideology!

Mix Ayn Rand with Socrates and what do you get?

Ayn rand stated that the base of knowledge stems from three axioms:

1. We exist

2. We are conscious

3. Identity

I veer off at number three, which isn’t surprising as Ayn Rand was an atheist, and I’m not. Atheism is as absolute a term to me as believers of any religion.

“There is no complete theory of anything.” Robert Anton Wilson 

Total knowledge is impossible. Socrates realized the only advantage he had over most people was that he was aware of his own ignorance. That awareness hit me after the following message had come to me while meditating:

“It’s not about being right or wrong.  It’s all about the experience.”

I’d previously mentioned the above message in posts. However, this one simple phrase is what had detached from all forms of ideology. What I view as existence is going through life experiencing it through the senses. Labels and identities can limit our experiences when we attach to what the identity represents. This was demonstrated by Ayn Rand who became a victim of her own philosophy, after she’d become a cult-like figure. That was bound to happen because of her attachment to her own identity. Still, her philosophy is conducive to a free society where people are free to express themselves as individuals.

“Groups are grammatical fictions; only individuals exist, and each individual is different.” Robert Anton Wilson

Objectivism stands the test of time and should be taught in school, but society today shuns individualism in favor of the collective. We’re turning into the Borg, and I don’t say that to be funny. In order to grow, we must be able to think for ourselves and not be dictated to by bureaucracies and despots.

 There is no absolute knowing in an observable reality. I can only go by experiences as they occur. And since experiences aren’t static, it doesn’t make sense to me to attach to an ideology. Circumstances change, events happen, and opinions shift, especially when our knowledge increases. This is all very positive to me as I’ve been more creative since detaching from all forms of ideology. There’s no belief system within me that I must defend or argue over, so I find I’m more open to differing opinions that I would have either tuned out or refused to hear. I could’ve never written Unison with any residual dogma, as I held nothing sacred while writing it. I see the Spheral Series as my personal evolution. My protagonists tend to evolve to a higher level than my own current level of evolution.  I suppose that’s how I challenge myself to keep growing.

Tune in next week for my next installment on a subject that’s taking on a life of its own.

Love and light,

Eleni

Part 1  Part 2  

Spiritual Objectivism – Part 2

  By Eleni | May 17, 2013 - 09:18 | , ,
2 Comments

Last week, I began a series on Spiritual Objectivism. The subject ties into my writing, and why I’m more motivated and inspired than ever to be an author. This was all brought about by my recent discovery of Libertarian science fiction. These two subjects evolved into a series of posts. If you haven’t read part one, click here.

I never conceptualized the spiritual connection to objectivism until I’d let go of my belief systems and understood what it had meant to be authentic.  It wasn’t easy. Between my kundalini awakening and the present day, I’d experienced many traumas and almost lost the relationship with a person close to me because her belief system had clashed with mine. A few years ago, I would’ve brought up how she her cult brainwashed her. I don’t anymore. My shift in mindset happened after I’d realized almost everyone is brainwashed to some extent. And the first person I pointed my finger to was myself.

We’re a herd species. We form groups around politics, nationality, religion, race, culture, sexual preferences, etc. A select few serve as the spokespeople who are followed by the group. Join any group, and there will be some sort of dogma presented. If we dare stray away from what is deemed acceptable, we’re shunned, unless we can outshine the leaders and take their place. We may also get shunned if we’re not in the group or if we challenge the accepted worldview. The leaders establish themselves as experts who are deemed wiser than everyone in the group. Amazingly, many of us don’t bother to question whether or not that’s true. Robert Anton Wilson humorously touched upon these themes in the Illuminatus Trilogy and his non-fiction book, Cosmic Trigger. All hail Discordia!

On my own spiritual journey, I eventually trashed everything I’d held sacred and emerged an ideological agnostic. Since then, I became happier, and my interpersonal relationships grew stronger.  The less dogmatic I became, the more risks I was willing to take with my writing. I now write for the sake of the story. This shift gave me an authentic voice, which was important to me. It also made me fall in love with the craft of writing. When  I was writing only screenplays, I was told how even a great manuscript ends up getting rewritten. That’s how things work in Hollywood unless you’re George Lucas or Steven Spielberg. Compromising on a vision may work for some writers, but not for me. I was uninspired and knew the only way I could get my story out my way was by writing a novel, which I was reluctant to do because of my short attention span. But once I started, I was hooked because I was able to write according to my own personal vision.

Ayn Rand’s philosophy managed to survive my massive ideological data dump because there are certain truths to it, which are undeniable to me. On a personal level, it champions the importance of creating something from within ourselves as individuals, without compromise. That’s true art. On a societal level, I see objectivism not only as an effective blueprint to a free society where creativity is free to flourish, but also as an ideal way to embark on a spiritual path!

Before I continue, I should probably explain how I can call myself an ideological agnostic while I’m promoting objectivism.  The explanation is simple. I don’t view objectivism as my personal religion. It isn’t something I follow blindly or build my worldview around. I do have my own opinions that contradict the philosophy. And those aren’t fixed either! I have no intention of forming a new belief system!

Natural Morality

Ayn Rand’s view on morality is where I’d first spotted the connection between spirituality and objectivism. She postured that morality was natural to humans for the very fact that our survival depends on it. When a government attempts to force morality on us, that’s when we all start to lose. What surprised me within this last decade is that I’ve seen a steady increase in the number of people who identify governmental institutions as the arbiters of morality and compassion…an impossible ideal. Compassionate acts come only from us, as individuals. Morality cannot be forced. Some of my favorite science fiction books and movies also touch upon this theme. A Clockwork Orange depicts a society that used mind programming to cure criminals. Who can forget Alex’s signature smile at the end of the movie, which demonstrated that while his behavior had successfully been controlled, he remained unchanged.

 A limited government is ideal at our current level of societal evolution because it gives us the freedom to develop morality and compassion, as individuals. I touch upon this theme in Unison. It cannot be done by force. When a government tries to coerce people into compliance, the society ceases to evolve.

I don’t view government as a static entity. It’s forever evolving and always a reflection of who we are as a people. This is a major reason why friends won’t hear me whining and complaining about the government. I’ll put up posts in my Facebook page about causes I find important to our personal freedoms, which are under severe attack now. It’s up to us, not the government, to ensure that we’re a free people. The government is a mirror of who we are. If we want an honest and compassionate government, a higher number of us need to evolve towards being honest and compassionate individuals. And that isn’t an impossible ideal because:

Morality is natural to the human condition

“A morality not based on faith, not on arbitrary whim, not on emotion, not on arbitrary edict, mystical or social, but on reason. And morality, which can be demonstrated to be true and necessary.” Ayn Rand

The above quote I internalized after I’d detached from religion and belief. I felt more connected to all of humanity. This demonstrated to me, on a personal level, that morality is, in fact, natural to us as a means to our survival as a species. It’s all the conditionings we place on ourselves that separate us. Therefore, it is true and necessary. I find it remarkable that a self-proclaimed atheist like Ayn Rand can come off sounding spiritual!  Additionally, this serves as further proof that there is an underlying basis of wisdom that connects all of us, irrespective of belief or lack thereof.  We may be different in some respects, but deep down, we draw from the same fountain of inspiration.

So we are a naturally moral species and that’s something to celebrate. We only have to trust in ourselves more to bring it out.

Click here for part 3 where I’ll explain where I veer off of objectivism.

Love and light,

Eleni