A Dangerous Taboo - by Robert Brezsney
A DANGEROUS TABOO
My book is a conversation, not a dictation. It's an inquiry, notdogma. We're explorers in search of the ever-evolving truth, notauthorities proclaiming doctrine from on high. We refuse to besalespeople intent on getting you to be like us or buy our ideas. Infact, let's look at the downsides of the perspectives we celebrate.The first thing you should consider before leaping into arelationship with pronoia is that it is utterly at odds withconventional wisdom. The 19th-century poet John Keats said that ifsomething is not beautiful, it is probably not true. But the vastmajority of modern storytellers--journalists, filmmakers, novelists,talk-show hosts, and poets--assert the opposite: If something is notugly, it is probably not true.In a world that equates pessimism with acumen and regards storiesabout things falling apart as having the highest entertainment value, pronoia is deviant. It is a taboo so taboo that it's not evenrecognized as a taboo.
The average American child sees 20,000 murders on TV before reachingage 18. This is considered normal. Every community has video rentalstores filled with hundreds of multimillion-dollar films that depictpeople doing terrible things to each other. If you read newspapers,you have every right to believe that Bad Nasty Things compose 90percent of the human experience. The authors of thousands of bookspublished this year will hope to lure you in through the glamour ofmurder, addiction, self-hatred, sexual pathology, shame, betrayal, extortion, robbery,cancer, arson, and torture.But you will be hard-pressed to find more than a few novels, films,news stories, and TV shows that dare to depict life as a gift whosepurpose is to enrich the human soul.If you cultivate an affinity for pronoia, people you respect maywonder if you have lost your way. You might appear to them as naive,eccentric, unrealistic, misguided, or even stupid. Your reputation could suffer and your social status could decline.
But that may be relatively easy to deal with compared to yourstruggle to create a new relationship with yourself. For starters,you will have to acknowledge that what you previously considered astrong-willed faculty--the ability to discern the weakness ineverything--might actually be a mark of cowardice and laziness. Farfrom being evidence of your power and uniqueness, your drive toproduce hard-edged opinions stoked by hostility is likely a sign thatyou've been brainwashed by the pedestrianinfluences of pop nihilism.Before the onset of pronoia, you may feel fine about the fact thatyou generate much of your dynamic energy through anger, agitation,discomfort, and judgmental scorn. But once the pronoia kicks in,you'll naturally want more positive feelings to be your high-octanefuel. That will require extensive retraining. The work could bearduous, delicate, and time-consuming. Are you truly ready to shed the values and self-images that keep youlocked into alignment with the dying civilization? Will you have the stamina and inspiration necessary to dream up bigger, better, more original sins and wilder, wetter, more interesting problems? Do you realize how demanding it will be to turn yourself into a wildly disciplined, radically curious, fiercely tender, ironically sincere, ingeniously loving, aggressively sensitive, blasphemously reverent, lustfully compassionate master of rowdy bliss?
*Try saying this aloud: "I die daily." It's one of our favorite formulas for success. Is it right for you? Say it again, using a different tone of voice this time. "I die daily." Chant it in a fakeforeign accent. Sing it to the tune of the nursery rhyme, "FrèreJacques." Play with it in the voice of the cartoon character youloved best as a child. Repeat it 10 times in a row, or try othervocal experiments. Then muse on these questions. What do you need to kill off in yourself in order to tune in to the beauty that's hiddenfrom you? What worn-out shticks are blinding you to the blessingsthat life is conspiring to give you? Which of your theories may havebeen useful and even brilliant in the past but are now keeping youfrom becoming aware of the ever-fresh creation that unfolds beforeyou?"I die daily" means that it's not enough to terminate your stalemental habits just once.
The price of admission into pronoia is acommitment to continual dying. You'll have to ask yourself rudequestions and kick your own ass again and again. Today's versions ofbeauty, truth, love, goodness, justice, and liberation will passaway. To keep abreast of the latest developments--to cultivatetomorrow's versions of pronoia--you will have to immerse yourselfregularly in the waters of chaos. Your relationship with pronoia willhave to be a never-ending improvisation.The dream of a steady-state utopia is anathema to Beauty and Truth Laboratory researchers. We're allergic to any paradise that resemblesa spotless shopping mall within the walls of a gated community inheaven.*Pronoia is fueled by a drive to cultivate happiness and adetermination to practice an aggressive form of gratitude thatsystematically identifies the things that are working well. But it is not a soothing diversion meant for timid Pollyannas strung out onoptimistic delusions. It's not a feel-good New Age fantasy used todeny the harsh facts about existence. Those ofus who perceive the world pronoiacally refuse to be polite shills forsentimental hopefulness.On the contrary, we build our optimism not through a repression ofdifficulty, but rather a vigorous engagement with it. We understandthat the best way to attract blessings is to grapple with theknottiest enigmas.Each fresh puzzle is a potential source of future bliss—an excitingteaching that may usher us to our next breakthrough.Do you want to be a pronoiac player? Blend anarchistic rebelliousnesswith open-hearted exuberance. Root your insurrectionary fervor inexpansive joy instead of withering hatred. Enjoy saying "no!" butdon't make it the wellspring of your vitality. Be fueled by blood-redyeses that rip against the grain of comfortable ugliness.
*A Spell to Commit Pronoia, by psychotherapist Jennifer Welwood:
Willing to experience aloneness,I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,I meet the warrior who lives within;
Opening to my loss,I am given unimaginable gifts;
Surrendering into emptiness,I find fullness without end.
Each condition I flee from pursues me.
Each condition I welcome transforms me
And becomes itself transformedInto its radiant jewel-like essence.
I bow to the one who has made it so,Who has crafted this Master Game;
To play it is pure delight,To honor it is true devotion.
My book is a conversation, not a dictation. It's an inquiry, notdogma. We're explorers in search of the ever-evolving truth, notauthorities proclaiming doctrine from on high. We refuse to besalespeople intent on getting you to be like us or buy our ideas. Infact, let's look at the downsides of the perspectives we celebrate.The first thing you should consider before leaping into arelationship with pronoia is that it is utterly at odds withconventional wisdom. The 19th-century poet John Keats said that ifsomething is not beautiful, it is probably not true. But the vastmajority of modern storytellers--journalists, filmmakers, novelists,talk-show hosts, and poets--assert the opposite: If something is notugly, it is probably not true.In a world that equates pessimism with acumen and regards storiesabout things falling apart as having the highest entertainment value, pronoia is deviant. It is a taboo so taboo that it's not evenrecognized as a taboo.
The average American child sees 20,000 murders on TV before reachingage 18. This is considered normal. Every community has video rentalstores filled with hundreds of multimillion-dollar films that depictpeople doing terrible things to each other. If you read newspapers,you have every right to believe that Bad Nasty Things compose 90percent of the human experience. The authors of thousands of bookspublished this year will hope to lure you in through the glamour ofmurder, addiction, self-hatred, sexual pathology, shame, betrayal, extortion, robbery,cancer, arson, and torture.But you will be hard-pressed to find more than a few novels, films,news stories, and TV shows that dare to depict life as a gift whosepurpose is to enrich the human soul.If you cultivate an affinity for pronoia, people you respect maywonder if you have lost your way. You might appear to them as naive,eccentric, unrealistic, misguided, or even stupid. Your reputation could suffer and your social status could decline.
But that may be relatively easy to deal with compared to yourstruggle to create a new relationship with yourself. For starters,you will have to acknowledge that what you previously considered astrong-willed faculty--the ability to discern the weakness ineverything--might actually be a mark of cowardice and laziness. Farfrom being evidence of your power and uniqueness, your drive toproduce hard-edged opinions stoked by hostility is likely a sign thatyou've been brainwashed by the pedestrianinfluences of pop nihilism.Before the onset of pronoia, you may feel fine about the fact thatyou generate much of your dynamic energy through anger, agitation,discomfort, and judgmental scorn. But once the pronoia kicks in,you'll naturally want more positive feelings to be your high-octanefuel. That will require extensive retraining. The work could bearduous, delicate, and time-consuming. Are you truly ready to shed the values and self-images that keep youlocked into alignment with the dying civilization? Will you have the stamina and inspiration necessary to dream up bigger, better, more original sins and wilder, wetter, more interesting problems? Do you realize how demanding it will be to turn yourself into a wildly disciplined, radically curious, fiercely tender, ironically sincere, ingeniously loving, aggressively sensitive, blasphemously reverent, lustfully compassionate master of rowdy bliss?
*Try saying this aloud: "I die daily." It's one of our favorite formulas for success. Is it right for you? Say it again, using a different tone of voice this time. "I die daily." Chant it in a fakeforeign accent. Sing it to the tune of the nursery rhyme, "FrèreJacques." Play with it in the voice of the cartoon character youloved best as a child. Repeat it 10 times in a row, or try othervocal experiments. Then muse on these questions. What do you need to kill off in yourself in order to tune in to the beauty that's hiddenfrom you? What worn-out shticks are blinding you to the blessingsthat life is conspiring to give you? Which of your theories may havebeen useful and even brilliant in the past but are now keeping youfrom becoming aware of the ever-fresh creation that unfolds beforeyou?"I die daily" means that it's not enough to terminate your stalemental habits just once.
The price of admission into pronoia is acommitment to continual dying. You'll have to ask yourself rudequestions and kick your own ass again and again. Today's versions ofbeauty, truth, love, goodness, justice, and liberation will passaway. To keep abreast of the latest developments--to cultivatetomorrow's versions of pronoia--you will have to immerse yourselfregularly in the waters of chaos. Your relationship with pronoia willhave to be a never-ending improvisation.The dream of a steady-state utopia is anathema to Beauty and Truth Laboratory researchers. We're allergic to any paradise that resemblesa spotless shopping mall within the walls of a gated community inheaven.*Pronoia is fueled by a drive to cultivate happiness and adetermination to practice an aggressive form of gratitude thatsystematically identifies the things that are working well. But it is not a soothing diversion meant for timid Pollyannas strung out onoptimistic delusions. It's not a feel-good New Age fantasy used todeny the harsh facts about existence. Those ofus who perceive the world pronoiacally refuse to be polite shills forsentimental hopefulness.On the contrary, we build our optimism not through a repression ofdifficulty, but rather a vigorous engagement with it. We understandthat the best way to attract blessings is to grapple with theknottiest enigmas.Each fresh puzzle is a potential source of future bliss—an excitingteaching that may usher us to our next breakthrough.Do you want to be a pronoiac player? Blend anarchistic rebelliousnesswith open-hearted exuberance. Root your insurrectionary fervor inexpansive joy instead of withering hatred. Enjoy saying "no!" butdon't make it the wellspring of your vitality. Be fueled by blood-redyeses that rip against the grain of comfortable ugliness.
*A Spell to Commit Pronoia, by psychotherapist Jennifer Welwood:
Willing to experience aloneness,I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,I meet the warrior who lives within;
Opening to my loss,I am given unimaginable gifts;
Surrendering into emptiness,I find fullness without end.
Each condition I flee from pursues me.
Each condition I welcome transforms me
And becomes itself transformedInto its radiant jewel-like essence.
I bow to the one who has made it so,Who has crafted this Master Game;
To play it is pure delight,To honor it is true devotion.
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