So one of the prevailing motifs here on "Shots of Awe"
is as human beings-- as conscious agents--
how do we resolve the inherent tension between wanting
to realize-- to fully realize-- our potential,
to realize ourselves as individuals
who stand with dignity and resist the tug of conformity?
How do we avoid succumbing to a zombified trance
state of blindly following others in a herd-- as sheep,
as hamsters in a hamster wheel.
And [LAUGHS] it's funny.
Because I think that the way we resolve that
is by taking that plunge-- by answering
that call that Joseph Campbell talks about.
There is no one map for how to live our lives.
Reality is just a word.
And you're not supposed to use it
without quotation marks around it anyway,
as Joseph Campbell says.
We are all free to create our own reality.
But it's only when we are bold enough
to decondition our thinking-- to transcend what Robert Anton
Wilson calls the reality tunnel-- this linguistic,
and conceptual, and symbolic framework that constructs
your realities, and a matrix pulled in front of your eyes,
blinding you from ecstatic visions of what
might be behind those walls.
We are larvas who haven't turned ourselves into butterflies yet.
And there's that great line by Nietzsche that says,
"those who were seen dancing were called insane
by those who could not hear the music."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Never forget the words of Jack Kerouac. "The only people
for me are the mad ones-- mad to live,
mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything
at the same time.
Those who would never yawn or say a commonplace thing
but burn, burn, burn like yellow Roman candles
exploding like spiders across the sky."
[MUSIC PLAYING]