Kindle Edition
Amazon
Larry Gottlieb, Author
Larry Gottlieb, Author
Amazon
Category:
Spirituality
Publisher: Larry Gottlieb
ISBN-10: B0BZ2SZF3Q
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 222
Copyright: Jun 23, 2021
ISBN-13: 9798521313990
Price: $6.95 (eBook)
Our culture has taught us to believe in many ideas which aren't actually real. Exposing these illusions allows us to recover the power to live our lives according to our deepest desires.
One day in 1974, the author had an experience which forever changed the way he looked at life. And now that he has gone through that door, he finds he can never go back.
Join him on his search for a deeper understanding of what it is to be a human being, the truth about our belief systems, the stories we’ve been hoodwinked into believing, and how, by uncovering our fundamental superstitions we can all, ultimately, open that door too.
This book is for seekers of truth and those who want to live authentically, reimagine the physical world and their emotional universe, and embrace the endless possibilities just waiting to be tapped.
It’s time to step out of our own way, and delve into the real, fundamental truths of our lives. Let Hoodwinked mark the start of your exciting, life-changing journey.
Excerpt
Imagine, if you will, that each of us is a newborn fish. In the few days since we were born, we’ve cautiously swum about some, but now Mom has gathered us together to teach us about our world.
She points out rocks, and that some good things to eat might be found around them. She tells us about the sand, and that there are some creatures that look like sand but might sting us. She lets us know about what’s good to eat and what might want to eat us, and eventually we come to feel as if we have this fish thing wired.
What she doesn’t tell us about, of course, is water, because she doesn’t know about water. She doesn’t know about water because water is all she has ever known. But imagine that one day something happens to you that takes you out of your well-understood reality. In this case, it comes in the form of feeling something sharp and foreign in your mouth. You’re jerked around and pulled upwards, and suddenly you cross some sort of boundary and you can’t breathe. You’ve been caught! Fortunately for you, you’re in a catch-and-release area and you’re gently put back where you belong. And now you know about the existence of water. You know about water by experiencing what we might call “not-water,” so that you can now distinguish water from everything else.
One day many years ago, I found out about the water I’d been swimming in. And that changed everything.
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For human beings of course, the water in this parable doesn’t represent a physical thing. Instead, it takes the form of an explanation of what we see and hear. It is a conventional understanding we have of the world and of our place in it.
However, like the fish in our parable, we look through, and not at, this understanding. It is transparent, like the water the fish swims in. We never think about our idea of the world, and for the most part we’re not even aware that we have one. It’s all we know. And the totality of how we look at ourselves, at life, at the world, our entire belief system, is based on this invisible understanding.
For us humans, this conventional explanation is rooted in one fundamental idea: that the world exists pretty much as we perceive it to be, whether or not we are around to perceive it. It’s a natural, intuitive assumption. We all “know” that when we look at something, we’re seeing it more or less the way it actually is.
However, it turns out that there is a completely different interpretation we can make of what we see with our physical eyes. And that understanding leads to a stunningly new vision of what it is to be a human being. Come along with me and we’ll discover it together!
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