⚡️ Enlightening Bolts

📈How To Be (Reasonably) Hard On Yourself: Be critical enough to drive improvement but compassionate enough to recognize and celebrate progress. Read it here.

❤️‍🔥 David Hawkins’ Scale of Consciousness Explained In Terms of Love: Think of consciousness like a giant kaleidoscope: each turn reveals a new pattern, a different perspective on the same beautiful light of love. Watch it here.

👁️ A Landscape of Consciousness: Explore the vast array of theories on consciousness, from materialism to idealism, and their profound implications on AI, immortality, and the meaning of life. Dive into this comprehensive taxonomy to understand the diverse perspectives and the ongoing quest to unravel the essence of consciousness Read it here.

🎇 Image of The Week

“The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a mesmerizing image of the "Penguin and Egg" galaxies, officially known as Arp 142, to commemorate its two-year anniversary of first light. Located approximately 326 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra, this cosmic duo showcases the dramatic effects of galactic interaction. The larger "Penguin" galaxy, NGC 2936, once a spiral galaxy, has been dramatically reshaped by gravitational forces, with its structure now resembling a penguin's distinctive form - complete with an eye-like core and stretched arms forming a beak and tail. Its companion, the "Egg" galaxy NGC 2937, maintains a compact elliptical shape. This infrared image, combining data from JWST's advanced instruments, not only highlights the beauty of cosmic collisions but also provides astronomers with valuable insights into galaxy evolution, star formation processes, and the intricate dance of interacting celestial bodies. The Penguin and Egg, separated by about 100,000 light-years, serve as a stunning testament to the ongoing drama of the universe and the power of JWST to reveal it in unprecedented detail.”

👂 The Power of Listening

"Generous listening is powered by curiosity, a virtue we can invite and nurture in ourselves to render it instinctive. It involves a kind of vulnerability - a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. The listener wants to understand the humanity behind the words of the other, and patiently summons one's own best self and one's own best words and questions."

-Krista Tippett

​I came across this Krista Tippett quote via David Perrell and find it nicely underscores the importance and power of deep listening. Every day we're afforded opportunities to listen with greater openness and acuity. This can be difficult to muster in a world where a smartphone with endless distractions is always within arms reach.

But if we can make space to practice deep listening in the moments when someone in our life is sharing, we can cultivate a skill that nourishes and fortifies the vital relationships in our lives.

Deep listening often serves as a humbling antidote to our false perceptions of others. As we shake loose preconceived notions and outdated viewpoints of our loved ones, we're invited into a deeper understanding of who they actually are.

It's a beautiful notion to consider that there is so much more to discover in those we hold dear. If only we could open our ears to hear it. How can you listen more deeply today?

🙌 This Is Our Crew

Consider this call for connection from Uncle Pappy:

“Y'all ever see those videos of New York City in like 1912, and everyone's bustling, hurrying around on the street? And I think, God damn, they were stressed back then too, man. And now look, they're all gone. And I know that's depressing to think about, but it reminds me of a quote from, I think Anne Lamotte said it, I heard Pete Holmes say it:

“Every hundred years, There's all new people, baby. Every hundred years, all new people.” The people we're on Earth with right now, this is our crew, okay? In the same way you can't pick your family, but you gotta get along with them, we can't pick the people we're on Earth with, but we gotta get along, man. In the whole grand scheme of the universe, all the time, all the space, the people on Earth right now, this is a tiny little group.

Man, and we get to be a part of it, man. I'm in the grocery store, I see a fella, I think, Goddamn, I'm on Earth at the same time as that guy. Man, I see a cool lady, I think, Man, we're alive at the same time? Man, that is freakin sick, man. Be kind to your neighbor, man. This is what it's all about. I'm glad I'm on Earth at the same time as y'all.”

This is a transcript. I recommend you watch him speak it.

🤓 Learn This Word

Zooeyia: the health benefits and positive impact that animals, especially pets, have on human health and well-being.

⏳ From The Archives

A hand-picked classic HighExistence article.

Aldous Huxley’s Prophetic Letter to George Orwell Regarding His Frightening Visions of The Future

By Martijn Schirp

At the time when Aldous Huxley received George Orwell’s iconic book 1984, Huxley’s eye-sight was already deteriorating quickly. But because he concerned himself with the monumental importance of the subject of the book, he took the arduous effort to finish it.

What follows is an exploration of Huxley’s thoughts on the haunting future envisioned in the totalitarian world of 1984.

Huxley starts by praising Orwell’s vision of dystopia and the accuracy with which Orwell highlights the ruling elite’s deep-rooted belief that they can and should control the entire human organism, their perception, thoughts, and feelings. Huxley believed when we can all become critical of these agenda’s we will have  “the Ultimate Revolution.”

Yet, Huxley believed one single determining factor would in the end prove Orwell wrong: namely, efficiency.

“The policy of boot-on-the-face,” as Huxley called it, is wasteful. It takes too much energy to sustain itself. Because of Huxley’s intimate knowledge of mind-altering drugs, psychological conditioning, and the sedating effects narcotics, he knew there was something far more powerful to manipulate the masses. And he was right.

Read this: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Huxley vs Orwell

But the fact that we don’t see the “boot” regularly doesn’t make Orwell wrong. You only have to look at the truth of our situation today to see that both of their radical insights act perfectly in conjunction.

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