⚡️ Enlightening Bolts

👁 Recapture The Boundless Wonder You Had As A Child: “We Love You” is my new favorite Instagram page. They express poignant wisdom in a conversational style blended with gorgeous natural scenery. Watch them here.

🐍The Snake Cult of Consciousness: Giving the Stoned Ape Theory fangs. Read it here.

🌶 The Chili Game: Leave behind bland small talk and spice up getting to know each other. Try it here.

🎇 Image of The Week

Recently many in Finland were treated to the rare sight of these vibrant polar stratospheric clouds filling the skies. This photo was taken by @hannele_rautio. See more of her work by checking out her page.

 🐶 The Dogs I Have Loved

I was petting my dog a few days ago.

Couldn't help reflecting on the relative shortness of their lives.

It sent me back a few years to a dear friend's Bachelor party in the mountains outside of my hometown in Pennsylvania.

On the last night of our cabin shenanigans, I received a call from my mother.

"Star's not doing well. I think we need to put her down. We'll wait for you to get home tomorrow."

She was an old dog so it wasn't blindsiding but still put a damper on things.

It was the end of an era. She was the last remaining dog that was present for my childhood.

It was a blessing I was even near home at this time. I live a thousands of miles away now.

I returned to my parent's the next day and my father made the call.

We drove to the vet together and stayed in the room with her.

I stood with my arms around my parents as her life left the room.

It was a strange feeling. She was just here. Couldn't she come back for just one more pet, one more tail wag?

This all flashed across my mind and heart as I was petting my pup in present day.

It brought to mind that this would one day be a bridge I'd have to walk with him.

Or perhaps more precisely, let him walk across as I stood on the other side.

This knowledge is tempting to look away from. To pretend it isn't so.

But in looking the hard fact square in the face, I felt like it gave me the opportunity to arrive at deep appreciation for that simple moment.

I could pet him a hundred times a day. It just becomes a normal thing.

But by acknowledging future grief, I felt like I was doing the love I have today justice.

So that when that heartbreaking day comes I'll know I really did savor these simple moments.

It's one of the many gifts Star has given me in her death.

And the love I have for all the dogs I've lost isn't gone.

It's resurrected in the form of the dogs I have in my life today.

A living and breathing love I have for Dog itself.

An affection a pantheon of beautiful K-9 souls have contributed to.

These sentiments extend beyond dogs. Beyond pets.

This piece of writing is about loss and how the cleaving away of something heartwrenchingly significant can render us sensitive enough to appreciate the things we have before they become things we once had.

Big love to my great teachers: Snowflake, Lady, Bandit, Molly, and Star.

🎇 Looking Forward To 2024

A Note From Friend of DTRH, Eric Brown:

“The desire to have perfect clarity before taking action is one of the biggest inhibitors to personal progress.

There’s a famous quote that goes “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Yet here we are, once again entering into new years resolution season. But 80% of resolutions fail.

The vast majority of resolutions don’t survive until the end of January. It’s insane! While the intention to grow and develop is pure, the success rate is atrocious.

Resolutions are almost perfectly designed to fail. Why?

They’re done (1) alone, (2) without accountability, (3) inconsistently, (4) with unclear requirements, and (5) without reward or celebration.

We’ve got a FREE workshop happening on Jan 2, 5, or 7 to kick things off to a proper start and address all of these setbacks.

But this coming year, I invite you to join something that works.

That delivers on its singular promise to create profound momentum in your life, and facilitate the growth and change you’re after.

The HERO100, our 100-day self-mastery experience, begins on January 14.

It’s intentionally designed as the antidote to every problem that handicaps resolutions.

The HERO100 is done (1) in community, (2) with layers of accountability, (3) every single day, (4) with clear success metrics and visible progress, and (5) celebrated every step of the way.

Instead of starting your year off with a quick BANG and a long whimper, let’s try something different.

💀 Excessive Vanity & High Expectations

Ponder these confronting words from Fyodor Dostoevsky:

“Isn't it funny how when I stop caring about everything, then all my problems begin to vanish? Now, I understand that due to my excessive vanity and the high expectations I held for myself, I frequently view myself with intense dissatisfaction.

Everyone feels like they should be on a different path, a more ambitious one. They feel like they were meant for greater things, but no one has a clue how to reach them. In their misery, they begin to hate everything around them. Don't lie. Most importantly, don't lie to yourself. A person who lies to themselves and buys into their own falsehood reaches a point where they can't discern the truth within or around them.

Consequently, they lose respect for themselves and others. Without respect, love fades away, paving the way for indulgence in base pleasures and vices as a means to fill the void left by the absence of love. It all stems from constant deception of others and oneself.”

🤓 Learn This Word

Chrysalism: An amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.

⏳ From The Archives

A hand-picked classic HighExistence article.

57 Terence McKenna Quotes to Upgrade Your Grey Matter

Terence McKenna was something of a modern wizard.

An American philosopher, ethnobotanist, and psychonaut, McKenna’s entrancing lectures covered everything from shamanism, language, imagination, the Internet, and consciousness to religion, dreams, the origins and evolution of life, culture, alchemy, alienation, chemistry, sex, art, and literature.

Terence McKenna was an astonishingly polymathic mind, and at the center of his dazzling web of interests was the psychedelic experience, specifically the effects of psilocybin and DMT.

Perhaps the most stunning thing about McKenna was his masterful facility with language and vocabulary; I daresay he was one of the most poetic and eloquent orators ever to walk this Earth.

One of the few individuals capable of ‘effing the ineffable’, these Terence McKenna quotes capture the interests, imaginations, and identities of all who listen. Similar to a feeling of kensho, listening to Terence talk was an experience that would change the way your inner universe worked.

The master orator of legendary phrases like “nature loves courage,” and “dream the impossible dream,” he could light a fire in our hearts. And though he thought our world was in crisis, he helped us find our light, love, and deep appreciation for this incredible gift of existence.

If you’re prepared to pour rocket fuel on the embers of your soul and venture out into the extremities of the knowable, we’ve got 57 of his best ideas, ponderings, and quotes for you to sample.

Hold on, this is going to be a whirly, dizzying ride.

​[Continue Reading]

🎬 Endnote

I hope you enjoyed this issue of Down The Rabbit Hole. Feel free to reply and tell me what you think.

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With Wonder,

Mike Slavin