Thinking & Proving Homework

Alright. Wilson calls them Exercizes. But this is graduate school and I'm a student, so I assign myself what I call homework. This program is an experience-based program. Reading is preparation and actual learning is wading through the cosmic soup and reporting back. Rogue schooling, if you will.

The Exercizes at the end of Chapter One are easy-peasy and also probably take a lifetime to master. First, vividly visualize something you desire. Wilson gives the example of finding a quarter on the sidewalk. Then, go looking for it with the frame of mind that you can find rewards through selective attention, and later, go looking with the frame of mind that your mind manifests what it desires. Little anecdote below.

An Example of Awesomeness and a Push in the Right Direction:

When I first read this chapter, I was sitting in a cafe in Bella Vista on a summer afternoon drinking coffee. When I got to the Exercize, I stopped reading and took a moment to vividly imagine meeting a person with expertise on the subject matter in Prometheus Rising. Fifteen minutes later, of course, a guy sits down next to me and asks me what I'm reading. When I show him the book, he excitedly tells me he's read Robert Anton Wilson and his teachers extensively, etc, all this sort of business.

Let me say that these sort of "strange coincidence" stories found in New Age materials are what I deplore(d). Because I never believe them, or they seem like the author has an agenda, and the whole thing is distorted idealism, and I don't have time for it. It's like being hypnotized-- you don't buy it unless you're the one being hypnotized.

But this guy I met after that one act of setting aside my skepticism, this guy and I have had crazy coincidences going on ever since. Moments of synchronicity. The best advice from this Exercize is #6:

6. Avoid coming to any strong conclusions prematurely. At the end of a month, re-read this chapter, think it over again, and still postpone coming to any dogmatic conclusion. Believe it possible that you do not know everything yet, and that you might have something still to learn.

In the spirit of this idea of undoing mental rigidities, I am going to do two things. I'm going to sit and still my mind for at least fifteen minutes each day. Probably in the late morning before I go to work. The other thing I'm going to do, which is a BFD, is I'm going to take Cognitive Behavior Therapy. CBT is a BFD, and I'll tell you why after I have my first session. I'm going to go call the Beck Institute right now.