The World Is Not as We Think It Is

The world is not as we think it is. In life there is a persistent quality of misapprehension that is next to impossible to dispel. In Zen and certain mystical approaches it is dispelled by “enlightenment.” In our everyday lives it is dispelled occasionally by some sort of insight brought about by a confluence of events, usually something seemingly earth-shaking. The problem is that this enlightenment or insight is often just temporary and we forget the next day, or, like the thread of a dream dimly recalled, we lose the essence of the understanding that we had momentarily gained, and we are returned to the mundane world. The reason for this is surprising: the forces of society and the evolutionary mechanism conspire to return us to ignorance since they “want” us to do their bidding. They don’t want us to know too much otherwise we might act contrary to their needs. Consequently, the evolutionary mechanism uses hormones and brain chemistry to get you to do what it wants done. The society uses psychology, social pressure and various reward/punishment systems to get you to contribute to the success of society. The goal of this book is to help you to know NOW what I spent decades learning and to free yourself from the constraints of society and the evolutionary mechanism. My understanding comes primarily from science but also from religion, philosophy, and from personal experience.