⚡️ Enlightening Bolts

🙉 5 Regrets Trapping People From A Life Of Purpose & Meaning: An Interview with Dr. Gabor Mate. Watch it here.

🪐 Powers of 10: This famous film transports us to the outer edges of the universe. Watch it here.

🤔 How Wonder Works: One emotion inspired our greatest achievements in science, art and religion. We can manipulate it – but why do we have it? Read it here.

🎇 Image of The Week

“Sicily’s Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, drew attention last week, but not because of a volcanic eruption—it’s blowing circular rings of vapor from its top.

These “smoke rings," which are called volcanic vortex rings by scientists, are made up of gas and water vapor shot from a newly formed crater, writes the Washington Post’s Leo Sands.

Researchers have previously observed volcanic vortex rings at a number of different volcanoes, according to a 2023 study on the rings’ dynamics in the journal Scientific Reports. Etna’s new rings were first spotted last Wednesday.

The cold atmosphere above the hot volcano causes the water vapor to condense, making the rings visible, per the study.” Read more.

⛅️ Watch The Clouds

Carve out some time to find a patch of grass and lean up against a tree.

Leave your phone behind. All the messages and notifications will be there when you return.

Let your mind wander as you immerse yourself in the original screensaver: the sky.

Watch the clouds pass on by.

Notice the different shapes they can take.

Notice the various meanings you can derive from these temporary forms.

A dragon. A flower. An elephant.

Notice the moments where the clouds look just like balls of cotton and nothing more.

Our lives can sometimes feel like this.

We see crystalized meaning. Things make sense.

Other times we see pure potential or nothing at all. Something that has yet to take a discernable form.

Sometimes events in our lives won't make sense until some time has passed.

It's okay to be a in state of not-knowing.

Even if things seem ominous, the dark storm clouds eventually pass on through.

All of life moves in seasons and cycles.

There is so much wisdom in the phrase "This too shall pass."

It's a reminder to appreciate our blessings while we have them.

It's a flame of hope that all suffering is temporary.

And sometimes watching the clouds is enough to gain a seed of this perspective.

To put down our chronic worries and petty grievances.

To discover the beauty that is here and now.

 🌻 Ode To A Flower

Enjoy this riff from scientist Richard Feynman:

“I have a friend who’s an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say “look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree. Then he says “I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing,” and I think that he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe…

I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts.”

🤓 Learn This Word

Wunderkammer: A german word that describes a cabinet of curiosities. These are real rooms of wonders where, in an undifferentiated mix of art and science, of naturalia and artificialia, the most unusual finds are associated with all sorts of man-made works, rarities, and wonders.

⏳ From The Archives

A hand-picked classic HighExistence article.

Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Ultimate Guide to the Human Dark Side

By Jack E Othon

“How well do you know yourself?

If you’re like most people, you probably have a decent idea about your own desires, values, beliefs, and opinions.

You have a personal code that you choose to follow that dictates whether you are being a “good” person.

If there is any one thing you can know in this universe, surely it is who you are.

But what if you’re wrong?

What if much of what you have come to believe about yourself, your morality, and what drives you is not an accurate reflection of who you truly are?

Now, before you launch into a, “Hey, you don’t know me, you don’t know my life, you don’t know what I’ve been through!”-style defence, ponder this for a second:

Have you ever said or done something really shitty, mostly on an impulse, that you later regretted?

After the damage was done and the other person involved was hurt, you couldn’t bury your shame fast enough. “Why did I say that?” you might have asked yourself in frustration.

It’s that “Why?” question that indicates the presence of a blind spot. And though the reason for your reaction may have been obvious (perhaps even “justified”), the lack of control you had over yourself betrays the existence of a different person lurking beneath your carefully constructed idea of who you are.

If this person is coming into focus for you, congratulations—you’ve just met your shadow self.”

[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