You Know What to Do & You Know How to Do It

My most recent book is
Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia. It's also available here.

Below is an excerpt. It's from the piece called "Subterranean Pronoia Therapy."

1. Declare amnesty for the part of you that you don't love very well. Forgive that poor sucker. Hold its hand and take it out to dinner and a movie. Tactfully offer it a chance to make amends for the dumb things it has done.

And then do a dramatic reading of this proclamation by the playwright Theodore Rubin: "I must learn to love the fool in me -- the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool."

2. The greatest gift you can give might be the gift that you yourself were never given. Give that gift.

The most valuable service you have to offer your fellow humans may be the service you have always wished were performed for you. Offer that service.

An experience that wounded you could move you to help people who've been similarly wounded. Heal yourself by healing others.

3. No matter how holy and good, everyone in the world has a portion of the world's sickness inside them. It's known by many names: neurosis, shadow, demon, devil. Many people try to deny that it inhabits them. Others acknowledge its power so readily that they allow themselves to be overwhelmed and distorted by it.

At the Beauty and Truth Lab, we take a position between those two positions. We accept the fact that the evil is part of us, but treat it with compassionate amusement and flexible vigilance. Our stance is partly that of loving parents and partly that of warriors.

Once you make a commitment to explore the mysteries of pronoia, your shadow will try to play tricks on you that it has never tried before. How will you respond? We recommend an aggressive, tender, improvisational approach. Be ready for anything. Avoid both blithe excesses of tolerance and grave fundamentalism.

4. Philosopher William James proposed that if our culture ever hoped to shed the deeply ingrained habit of going to war, we'd have to create a moral equivalent. It's not enough to preach the value of peace, he said. We have to find other ways to channel our aggressive instincts in order to accomplish what war does, like stimulate political unity and build civic virtue.

Astrology provides a complementary perspective. Each of us has the warrior energy of the planet Mars in our psychological makeup. We can't simply repress it, but must find a positive way to express it. How might you go about this project?

5. In his book The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World, psychologist James Hillman writes: "The question of evil refers primarily to the anaesthetized heart, the heart that has no reaction to what it faces, thereby turning the variegated sensuous face of the world into monotony, sameness, oneness."

What would you have to do in order to triumph over this kind of evil in yourself?

6. "The problem, if you love it, is as beautiful as the sunset," wrote J. Krishnamurti. "The obstacle is the path," says the Zen proverb. What frustrating puzzle do you love the best?



My book THE TELEVISIONARY ORACLE has been reprinted.

It's also available as an e-book.

Read the first four chapters.

"I've seen the future of American literature, and its name is Rob Brezsny." - novelist Tom Robbins

"I am deeply inspired by the illuminated words of Rob Brezsny. He is a word wizard for the soul." - SARK, author/artist, *Succulent Wild Woman*

"Brilliant! Absorbing! Wildly useful! Rob Brezsny gets my nomination for best prophet in a starring role. He's a script doctor for the soul."
- Marisa Tomei, actress

"Smart and insane, *The Televisionary Oracle* takes you on a wild inner journey that makes you ask the question, have I done any good in the world? It also makes you wonder, how does a man know so much about the psyche of a woman? A marvelous book. A must read." - Grainne Rhuad, reader

Here's an excerpt:

Hi, beauty and truth fans, and welcome to the end of your nightmares!

We're coming to you on location from your repressed memory of paradise . . .

Reminding you that you can have anything you want if you'll just ask for it in an unselfish tone of voice . . .

Helping you to help us prevent the global genocide of the imagination . . .

The world is young, your soul is free, and a naked celebrity is dying to talk to you about your most intimate secrets right now!

Just kidding. In actuality, the world is young, your soul is free, and at any moment you'll begin to feel horny for salamanders, clouds, toasters, oak trees -- and even the ocean itself!

Whoever you think you are, whatever friendly monsters you've tried to make into your guides, whatever media viruses you might have invited into your most private sanctuaries -- you can decide right now that your turning point has arrived. You can decide that you're ready to change your lives . . . and change your signs . . . and change your changing. Because when you tuned in to this, the Most Secret Spectacle on Earth, you tuned into your own purified, glorified, unified, and mystifying self.

We're inside your shadow, beauty and truth fans, helping you use your terror to become rich and famous -- if that's what you want.

We're percolating up from the ground beneath you, bringing you the Gnostic African Buddhist music of the ever-growing roots -- if that's what you want.

Like a tick in the navel of the seven-headed, ten-horned beast of the apocalypse, we're even riding on the underbelly of tonight's satellite transmission from CNN, NBC, UFO, and CIA, broadcasting to you on location from wherever we happen to be at the moment -- if that's what you want.

We're all around you -- if that's what you want -- or nowhere to be seen -- a secret keeping itself, like nature -- if that's what you want.

So. What do you want, anyway?

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Check out Match.com via Free Will Astrology's link.

Look for a Co-Pilot, Co-Conspirator, or Collaborator . . . an Agent to represent you or a Disciple to worship you . . . a Secret Sharer who'll listen better than anyone or an Amazing Accomplice with whom you can practice the Art of Liberation.