EPISODE 13 PT 1: THE DESERT
Added 2025-02-28 05:15:54 +0000 UTCAfter the collapse of the tower, we find ourselves in the desert. This episode explores the nature of this borderland experience. Specifically, we take a close look at the nature of "the good" and what it takes to cultivate world esteem. The goal of this discussion is to lay the groundwork for a theory of how we come to perceive something as good. What does it mean to live a good life? What is required for us to see the beauty in the world again? We touch on the symbolism of the desert, the difference between self and world esteem, the role of anticipation and familiarity in our emotional experience, and how to change our values. We end by revisiting the "world puzzle" analogy from episode 6. My hope is that this episode will fundamentally alter how you think of "where" the good comes from—and what is required to experience more of it. This will also serve as the backbone for a more detailed look at the nature of the good, the garden, and Magic reality in coming episodes.
Intro (0:00)
Part 1: In the Desert (15:19)
Part 2: The Good (50:50)
Part 3: The World and its Borderlands (1:19:30)
PS: Thank you all so much for your patience with this episode. I encountered every hiccup imaginable while working on this (including the LA fires and about a million technical difficulties, some of which can be heard in variations in recording quality)—it is my goal to get Part 2 out ASAP! As always, I am deeply grateful for your support. :)
Comments
Really cool episode! I love this exploration of the good. And definitely needed! I’m reporting from inside of an OCD flare right now, and it is also an elsewhere here. It’s very difficult to hear the call of the good over here, but every fibre of my being is desperately grasping for it. There is atmosphere but it’s foreboding and full of dread. Today I went to a bakery with my friend and everyone was safe and calm, enjoying their treats, but I was in another world. In a war somewhere, and just knowing that couldn’t bring me back. It’s kind of impossible right now to find what is calling to me. I feel like if the tower collapsed, instead of feeling okay, I feel a sense of profound disorientation and a panic to erect another tower in its place. But, I can’t. I can’t lie to myself that I was happy in that job, for instance. I wonder if people with OCD wiring just have a harder time tolerating ambiguity? Probably that’s part of it. But I’m not giving up. I’m engaging with my fears on a more symbolic level and practicing seeing the themes as metaphors that I don’t need to further analyze or fix. I’m also committing to not making any major decisions until the flare passes and I can hear the call of the good again. I’m looking forward to being able to engage with this fulsomely once this flare tapers off!
Delani
2025-03-22 04:02:56 +0000 UTCAppreciate this last one a lot. The desert is real. The tower felt interconnected to all things and so the resulting anhedonia feels almost louder and more significant than it did when i was still writhing around resisting its collapse. Its as though jt was less of a singular tower and more of a complex system of towers and ive been buried under the rubble. I can find the good sometimes, and i keep relentlessly following it whenever i get enough juice in the tank to do so, but the nonlinear backsliding always seems to take me to a place where i simply cannot connect with the reality that it feels like i will find that again, so i am starting to become adverse to the good because in my low states they feel more like a mirage. Wondering if your next episode(s) will touch on those moments of what feels like total paralysis.
Sarah Steinhauer
2025-03-20 15:14:05 +0000 UTC
