Zen: Compromise

I haven't blogged in weeks and weeks, after 3-4 posts/week for almost 2 years.

I haven't played online poker for weeks and weeks. After playing nearly DAILY for 5 years.

What's that about?

It all started with the arrival of a long-awaited week-off from work, after months and months of 7-day workweeks. I made solid plans to do exactly nothing during that week, and by the evening of the first night, I was transformed. Silence, emptiness, and timelessness all converged and allowed me to take one giant step inwards.

The single largest schism in my life up until then could be described as "attempting to do everything all at the same time." Instead of being a gourmet burger joint, carefully tending to the few most special customers in my life, I had become McDonald's. I was capable of giving 125% to anything, but was instead allocating that across 25 things, and giving them each 5%. Believe me, no one was satisfied, especially not me, and it wasn't because of the lack of effort on my part.

But, you may say, with the world we live in, and the technologies and social connections available to us, are we not capable of doing 25 things simultaneously, and doing them at 125% each?

It is possible, it is easy. The difference is in the choosing. How you choose your path in each moment.

There are two "flavors" of choosing, let me see if I can contrast them.

Abstract ('Mind') choices

1. Choosing to maintain grass in the front and back yard

2. Choosing to give one's child a good/great education

3. Loving one's wife

Specific ('Moment') choices

1. Choosing to cut the grass and water the shrubs now, or hire help to do it

2. Reading to one's child, tonight, and each night before bed

3. Writing a small note to one's wife and putting it in their wallet

Do you see that these are both sets of what we consider "good choices". Both may appear to lead us to the same conclusions, same destinations over time.

Let's look again at the first set. When I ask you how long it takes to do #1, or #2, or #3, in hours per week, you have no answer. When I ask you for the exact cost of #1 or #2 or #3, you have no answer. Any such question about the second set is easily answered.

Living life guided by abstract choices leads to compromise. By not choosing in each moment what to do, it's a subtle version of 'turning it over to a higher power'. And your time, your resources, your essence, you, will be divided up among the abstract choices and the commitments you have based on those choices. And if you are reading my blog, without ever meeting you, I can guess that you have over-allocated your time, energy, money and resources. Hey, it's the American way! It's something we poker players do best!

Choosing a set of abstract choices leads to an uneven amount of "choosing" to do in a given day, in a given moment. What to do if the lawn needs mowed AND the cat got sick AND the car needs an oil change? What to do when the next day none of these happen? To truly fulfill all your commitments and choices, does it take most or all of your waking hours? Do you still fall short? You see how every choice, every moment in this reality is choosing one compromise after another. Every time you choose to act in accordance with one "idea", you are neglecting the rest. And when nothing is pressing, you are bored. How can you possibly be bored, with the life that you live and the commitments you make and honor?

So, enough said, you're ready to make the change, ready to upgrade to the new view, the new way of choosing with me. Do you see the transformation you require making? Please feel free to pause here and answer this one for yourself. It's a skill you can develop, recognizing stories and their roots simply by going into them. When you are ready, proceed to the next paragraph.

It is about having your courage, your trust. You will have to trust that by doing each of your individual acts, it will lead towards the abstract goals that you are aiming for. Instead of starting from a destination and walking blindly towards it, you are looking at the step in front of you in each moment.

Trust that you will choose to read to your child, help him with his homework when he needs it. The courage to be present with him when necessary. Trust that by acting this way in each moment, his long-term education will meet all of your "abstract requirements" you may have set up at the beginning.

Do you see how living life by the abstractions is like a security blanket? It's creating process where none exists, and getting to the point in the most backward way possible. Deflecting the responsibility, and the blame, by allowing you external universe to make your choices for you.

You can start with a combination of your moral values, combined with your life experiences, to make a general judgement about how some "thing should be". "Should" is crap, believe me. "Should" could be defined as an antonym for "Zen". Anyways, so you've chosen that a certain thing should be a certain way. "My child should have a good education." Great.

Now you combine it with your own personal experiences, whether lived personally, or taken on from someone else through stories or parents or TV or other programming. So you come up with a basic set of ways to evaluate how this concept might be "accomplished". But, see already we don't have any tangible way to define whether it was actually "accomplished" or "not accomplished". Ignoring that and moving on, we take the "history", mix it with our "should", and out come the rules by which we can live our own lives. Take the kid to school every day, encourage extra-curricular activities, pay for soccer cleats, etc.

Rules? RULES you say? Why should we live our life by rules, even if they're supposedly our own? (They're not.)

Trust that you are aware, and capable of making the best choice in each moment. In this example, trust that your child is capable of handling his own education if he seems to be doing just that. By being aware in the moment, you will be there to help in the exact moments he needs it, which we all know will lead to the aforementioned "good education".

By making these choices, you are transcending the compromise that you had previously agreed with. It allows you to be complete in the activity you are doing, complete in each moment. If you are reading to your kid, you can be there fully while doing it. If you are instead "caring for his education", and "providing an income", and "figuring out that 'work thing' in your head" you will be complete in nothing. Never alone in one task, always spread out. Never complete in anything, never present in the true moment.

Courage, and trust. That if you act with completeness, in each moment, that your life will be exactly "as it should be". This is the Path of Zen, the ability to walk with courage one step at a time.

***

What does this mean for me personally? Blogging and poker were obviously two components of the giant compromise I was living. In my new reality, I do them when I choose to, instead of when I feel I "should", or when I was in the habit of doing it. I still enjoy both of them tremendously, and I will say that I am greatly transformed since taking the extended vacation from the tables. But I was tired of "5%" poker, I had proven time and again that I can be downright mediocre at poker without trying very hard. I would have had a tough time answering the "why are you playing poker, then?" question.

My energy flows outward now.

I feel joyful in each moment, because I am present with my choice to do whatever I happen to be doing. Incidentally, I am cooking more, and better than ever. I've started gardening a bit. I am excelling at work, and it's now fun while I do it. And while I've dipped my toe in poker a bit, I'm still mostly absent. Let's call that 'Expert Mode' for this new game, and I will upgrade that part when I am ready.

For now, I'm finding supreme pleasures in the simplest things.

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, Part I

(ed. Note) In the interest of getting this posted, I have broken this into two parts. Part II coming soon.

"Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth"
by T. Harv Eker

This is not a book review. It is not a book report. To do so would be ignoring the value of this book. Instead, imagine that this is a mini-seminar, teaching you the book. Yes, it's that important. The reason is simple, he could have named the book differently, Secrets of the Mind. He chose money, because that's what he chose to have first. Believe me, I get it. And the book is really about understanding Mind, recognizing how it has held you back in the past, and upgrading, allying with it to create your highest choices.

Financial Blueprint

The first concept addressed, in Part One of the book, is a person's "financial blueprint". This is the combined sum of everything you know, have heard, have learned, and have experienced about money in your lifetime. And there are several tools to help the reader discover his own blueprint. Some sources for this? Chime in if these apply to you, I've included if they apply to me in parentheses.

Phrases you've heard (yes)
Parental influences (yes)
Societal influences, such as church and school (yes)
Personal experiences (yes)

What else?

"Money is the root of all evil."
"More money, more problems."
"Money can buy you happiness."
"Money can't buy you happiness."

Money is a necessary part of a large society. It facilitates trade, by allowing the easy movement of goods, so nobody has to figure out how many goats are worth how many cows. Now, stop. Money is nothing else, certainly none of those things above. That is programming, specifically your programming, and I will get to that in a bit.

Everything in your life up until now can be combined to create a basic "blueprint" for your relationship with money. Now this is one place to be completely Zen. It makes no difference what your past is. What your previous experiences and influences were. In fact, remember this one thing: all of these things got you exactly here. If your blueprint is small, your finances are currently small. If your financial blueprint leads to financial abundance, your abundance has already happened.

Your financial blueprint is the exact blueprint that creates your current scenario. How clearly you see this is up to you. When you sit down to think about/draw up your financial blueprint, I invite you to leave any mental baggage at home. The more honest and accurate your assessment is, the more you will be able to change it.

Following is the first of several "warning flags", which I am giving you to help you understand when you are you, and when you are your Mind. In most cases, they will help you to notice and discern when your Mind is likely deceiving you, and how.

Warning flag: if you find yourself saying, "that's not me", "that doesn't apply to me", I invite you to redouble your efforts on that exact point. The fact that your Mind is so quick to dismiss something often means that it is shielding a delusion. Delusions fade in the light of truth, and your Mind knows that dismissing the idea quickly is the only way you can keep the delusion it has substituted for the truth. So really check in, especially on the points that seem to be "not you".

So, you have a financial blueprint. Does the fact that your parents handled their finances badly mean anything to you right now? Yes and no. Yes, it likely affected every choice you've made about money since you started getting an allowance and before. No, it need not affect a single choice you make starting right now. And here is where I leave it to you to drop everything "you know". If you bring any "knowledge", or "truths" to this discussion, you are probably shielding delusions, or programming at the very least. Drop everything that was given to you, you already have every answer you require.

Enough preaching for now. You are ready, willing, and excited to discover your own financial blueprint, and see it clearly and accurately, so that you can upgrade it with full effectiveness. How do you go about doing this? Well, here I will defer to T. Harv. This is one of the major exercises of this book, and it will be different for everyone. I've given you the basic idea, which is to honestly assess your programming and stories about money, and how they affect your views of money, and choices about money. If you would like more specific help, read (and reread as necessary) Part One of the book.

The Wealth Files

The second concept (Part Two) details how you can upgrade your blueprint. For example, your Mom made you get money from Dad when you were a child, so now you have a blueprint about how men are providers, and women are spenders. And simply by naming it, you can see that it's patently false. What now? How do you move forward, how can you upgrade that?

The answer? SURPRISE! Enlightenment, awareness, self-honesty, consciousness. Who was surprised? Raise your hand, then remember your coat on the way out. Of course it all comes down to awareness. Which begs the first obvious question. If awareness is all it takes, what else is there to do? With your fully accurate financial blueprint, you have a road map of awareness on the subject. But your roadmap can only help you navigate where you've been. In Part Two, T Harv describes how we can upgrade our existing road map, replacing it with the maps that are used by the wealthy.

This process can easily be separated into two stages:

One, take the advice and suggestions offered, whether you believe them, understand them, or even despise them. If you resist, remember again where you are, and exactly how you got here. Are you really going to cling to those things?

Two, move past the idea that you need programming to help make choices. Realize that you need neither the old stories or the new ones. That you can write your own rules, and that rules are an unnecessary crutch, which are only ever partially correct. Be careful here, and really check in. This is the whole enchilada, and you need to make sure you are fully present before attempting to move into this space.

Warning Flag: If you are inclined to skip from Step One to Step Two, you are most likely still coming from a place of "knowing". You may think you are moving from Mind into enlightenment, but in this case it's likely your Mind choosing NOT to reevaluate the things it "knows". Again, if you've never been a millionaire, how can your Mind know what it means to "know being a millionaire"? It's not just "wanting", or "imagining" that makes it all happen, or how many zillionaires would be wandering the Earth? If you resist the ideas he puts forward, then you are clinging to the past, "already knowing" the very thing you choose to clearly see. It's not important that you accept these ideas as gospel, ultimate truths. As I mentioned, no matter which outcome you choose, these concepts can be extremely useful landmarks, to help you understand the terrain. Once you can see the terrain, understand how you can move from one place to another, only then do I advise you to toss the map and move like an eagle, flying directly to your new choices.

Yes I'm Still Here

(He says, as he sets (shatters) the record for the longest time without posting). I've been busy, I'll leave it at that :)

I'm sure you've noticed the change in content from poker into more Zen. This is intentional, but not set in stone.

The larger picture is this:

Zen is something huge, true, universal, pervasive, useful, fun. It's the method through which I learned to truly celebrate my life, ALL PARTS of it. I intend to illuminate the sources, the reasons, the paths, the whole effing point of Zen.

Zen is not the whole answer, of course. But consider it the Algebra, the context from which we can graduate to Calculus. Now if that doesn't make Zen sound fun...

If you are interested in getting started on your own, email me and I'll gladly point you at some resources you can check out. In the meantime, please chime in and let me know what you enjoy reading the most, what you've been hoping I would write about. I love when that happens!

*******

Next post will be a full review of "Secrets of The Millionaire Mind" by T. Harv Eker. It's $11 and a truly revolutionary book, I will explain fully. Do yourself a favor, just order it from Amazon and start reading it right now. Seriously.

Seriously.

Quantum Physics: An Example

Family Guy this week was awesome. For once, it was more than just a clever story with jokes, it actually had a theme. AND the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I mean, come on, obvious Emmy.

As I watched the Christians throwing books on the fire, I laughed when one was Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time". Because that was arguably the first book I read that opened my eyes to existence. I devoured it and anything else I could find after that. I would (and still do) check the "Science" section at Borders every time I went in the store, for anything new. Why? Because Quantum Physics reads like an entire volume of "The Truth-Is-Stranger-Than-Fiction Files". Let me give you some examples, and if I butcher the content I apologize.

It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't understand [quantum physics]. You see my physics students don't understand it. ... That is because I don't understand it. Nobody does.
(Feynman, Richard P. Nobel Lecture, 1966, 1918-1988, QED, The Strange Theory of Light and Matter)

Quantum Electrodynamics (QED):

Straight from the horse's mouth at Wikipedia:

In classical optics, light travels over all allowed paths and their interference results in Fermat's principle. Similarly, in QED, light (or any other particle like an electron or a proton) passes over every possible path allowed by apertures or lenses. The observer (at a particular location) simply detects the mathematical result of all wave functions added up, as a sum of all line integrals.

Allow me to explain. :D When you turn over a CD/DVD to look at the recordable surface, you will see rainbow, or prismatic, lighting. Now, what you are actually looking at is a set of very tightly packed concentric circles. Like an old LP, but with grooves so small that it uses a laser to read/write data. When you see the prism effects, you'll notice that they aren't related to what is recorded on the disc. That is because they are caused by the physical shape of the disc, with its millions of concentric circles. They are actually effects explained by QED.

Light can be thought of as behaving as both a particle and a wave, as known from the most famous QM experiment, the double-slit experiment. In this case, think of it as a wave. Now, think about a beam of light, as it travels from a light source to your eye. It's oscillating along, like a slalom skiier, when it bounces off of the surface of the optical disc and is reflected towards your eye.

Since the data on the DVD is written in the visible-light spectrum, the following aspect of Quantum Physics becomes visibly apparent:

When light travels from point A to point B, it does not take the shortest path, or in fact any ONE path. It simultaneously takes all of the possible paths.

The evidence? The prisms you see when reflecting the light. The colors come from the fact that light takes on multiple paths. Some are directly reflected to your eye, some take a more roundabout way to get there, and interfere with nearby lightwaves which are also bouncing off the surface. What you end up seeing is a wave-addition of ALL the beams traveling ALL of the possible paths to get from the source to your eye.

It may seem like something simple is happening here, but trust me, it's far weirder than it first appears. It's not just that a bunch of light beams get blended to form constructive/destructive interference. If you take it down to one light particle or "photon", and fire one singular photon at an optical disc, it alone will travel ALL possible paths to get to your eye.

Now this is including the paths that take it to Mars and back, although those paths are of the "less likely" sort. Why does that matter? Because the light that reaches your eye isn't a sum of all of the paths of light treated equally, but rather, each path is weighted according to how likely it is. The most likely path in this case IS the shortest path. Paths very close to the shortest are the next most likely candidates. Very quickly as you get further from the shortest path, they become astronomically unlikely, and contribute virtually nothing to the end result.

But the close ones, the REALLY close ones, do count in the final result. And some of those really close ones bump into the adjacent walls of the grooves of the optical disc, causing them to take slightly altered paths, creating the prismatic intereference that we see.

*****

Quantum Physics is like that up-and-down. When Newtonian physics describes an object (apple) falling towards another object (the earth), it talks about some strange force that draws all bodies together. Einstein saw that instead, the universe, space itself is bent by gravity, so that "the apple falling" is actually just, if you'll excuse the hyperbole, "the universe settling into a more comfortable position." It's not that the apple and the ground are separate objects attracted to each other, but rather one giant mesh that shifts around. And did I mention that space and time are also the same thing? Think about it, you've heard of "space-time" before, but have you considered the ramifications? Space = time = space? Interchangable like currencies? The ramifications are huge, but I'll discuss those another day.

If you're looking for good reading choices to get started on your own, "A Brief History of Time" is a wonderfully accessible introduction to quantum physics and cosmology, by the guy who predicted the existence of black holes. Another great author, and the "discoverer" of QED, is quoted above, Richard Feynmann. He has a famous series of lectures among other materials, and is both brilliant and delightfully entertaining, especially for all of the non-physicists in the world.

Zen: Path (An Important Part of My Journey)

I have mentioned in the past my pseudo-Christian upbringing. And while I will never condone that as acceptable parenting, I forgive my parents for doing what they thought was in my best interest. I recently realized my gift from that, a starting point on my road of spirituality. Christianity is history, just like US History, it's a set of knowledge about a specific subset of Man. So when I started exploring sprituality on my own, I had a base reference to start from.

I went simply to what I knew to be true, reality. Specifically finding books like A Brief History of Time and Chaos. I went to read about cosmology, the history (and future) of the universe as we know it. And I went to the quantum physics world, to find out what we know about the physical universe in the present. There was no one epiphany, no one moment where I said, "AHA! It's Quantum Chromodynamics!" It just happens that some of these things interested me greatly.

I spent several years reading about the mind-bending world of quantum physics, reveling in the counterintuitive features, the mysteries, and its inherent confirmation of free will. So I reached the edges, where they explained string theory to me, but said it was neither consistent nor provable which, if any, of its solutions are correct. So they're sort of stumped there. Therefore, there isn't much more to read about on the subject, at the moment.

My progress took a few years' pause, coincidentally correlating to a time in my life when I was in a dead-end relationship. I was really in a place where I felt stuck with what life was dealing me. And that it was my burden to carry. At least I could feel like a martyr, fueling my own sadness, getting me through each day. And I loved sad music, and skipping class, and knowing my girlfriend was likely cheating on me, but just choosing to be delusional instead.

Again I'm just spitballing on the timing. But to be fair, those who know me best, know I think causality is a bit fishy, anyways. Regardless, I found this book titled The Physics of Consciousness. I guess I had progressed far enough into Physics to be looking for the Physics of Life, of Whatever This Is. And this book has a very unexpected thread holding the entire book together. The author lost a childhood love at 16. And he's been haunted by the question his entire life, "Does she still exist in some form?" So, and I will fully admit, that at the time it was in spite of this, I kept reading. (Gushy love story? Did I buy the wrong book?)

Chapter 8 (or 6, one of the middle ones) is Zen. Out of nowhere, put on the brakes after 7 chapters of physics, Zen. Why he found it. His best attempt at explaining it to you. And one way he does this is by taking an example, a good one, and pointing out why his teacher thought it meant one thing, and he thinks it means something different. His is not a very good example of Zen, but you can see what there is to work with. Mind, language, all that. Everything you encounter in your life is identified and understood by comparing it to things. Things in the present, things from your past, things you have and haven't yet imagined. So he's trying to compare Zen to something. Or one explanation of Zen to another explanation, to point out the contrast. And through this small window, the light of existence came pouring in on me.

Sometime later, I remember feeling very clearly "behind my eyes" for the first time. It was noon, I was on an offramp of a cross-town freeway in Des Moines, "the hole", Iowa. Maybe you've had a similar experience. I was staring out my car window, but really I was watching myself stare out of a car window. If you haven't yet, feel free to give it a try. But back to the book, for now.

This book was so groundbreaking for me that it was like reading two trilogies. Every new idea was astoundingly different, simple, far-reaching, historic. And maybe even true. He doesn't claim to know the truth, but when he says "I wonder" it's truly amazing stuff. Stuff about how the brain makes choices, whether there is a random element. Whether (and I'm obviously oversimplifying here) space is the infinite set of all possibilities, and time is chosen set of possibilities. Again, you see the dilemma, that didn't sound profound at all coming from me, really. But there is something there, trust me.

What I know about Quantum Physics: it is not the final generation of physics. There was Classical physics, Newton stuff. And while that's still "true", it's incomplete, and incorrect in some ways of viewing entire concepts. There will be a day, and within a couple decades, when they realize that quantum physics is well, quaint. It explains things very well, but it's just a big contrivance, created by the minds of men to explain further and further parts of the galaxy, and the cosmos. It works for now, but I think we will at some point soon say, "Duh."

It's also one of the fundamental mysteries of quantum physics that two particles can be "connected" over a distance too large for information to be traveling between them (at the speed of light, the current cosmic speed limit). So as they try to divide into smaller and smaller pieces, they find that these small pieces interact in new and unexpected, even undetectable ways. Just this year, someone probably sealed an eventual win the Nobel in Physics for discovering evidence of "dark energy." They are finding water, mud, on Mars. Possibly, increasingly probably, life exists in some form there, underground, RIGHT NOW. So, what does that do to your Garden of Eden?

Space and time are connected. Matter and energy are connected. These are not features of a monotheistic, omnipotent, omniscient God. These suggest a cosmic unity.

My Zen is truly different than organized religion. It's origins are in Zen Buddhism, but Buddhism is organized religion, and is polluted as such. We could go on all day about the details, but let me give you one quick example. Buddhism teaches that we are here on multiple lives, and that once we can break free of the cycle, we can live our last life and be at peace. And while the methods and teachings that lead to enlightenment are often valuable and good, they are not set in the right intent.

You are not here to live your current life for any other purpose. If you allow past lives, future lives, prospects of heaven and hell, or any "higher power" to influence your life, your choices, then you are not really here.

Be here, now. What else is there?

Full Tilt Withdrawal Woes

I am a profitable player.  Lifetime, I am up a significant amount.  Yet, even so, I have made significantly more deposits than withdrawals.  I have made very few withdrawals, because it seems like every time I dare, I get boned.  

Best case scenario, my money is nowhere for 3 weeks.  Exactly where I need it.

So this time, I withdraw into a bank account.  The exact same one I used to deposit before.  A major bank, national.  

3 weeks.  Nothing.  I email Full Tilt, they say they will check into it.  "It could take a week, or more"  just to complete their investigation.

1 more week passes.  Nothing from anyone.  Not FT, obviously not the money.

I make 3 withdrawals a year, I quit playing on Bodog because they did the same thing to me.  Now as I take out some from Full Tilt, I'm starting to feel the same way.

 Is this the standard, "jerk the player around", am I expecting too much to be able to withdraw some cash?

Zen: Projections

I would honestly love to write about this stuff every day. It's just so much "fun" to write about Zen because it's such an ethereal thing. And language is a product of Mind, but not just a small manufacturing. Language is the very thing that enabled us to move from primates to humans, to communicate and grow into a different type of animal. A society. But Zen is something altogether separate, transcendent to Mind, and therefore language.  Using language to describe no-mind is kind of like describing "black" as "the color inside a black hole".

So, while I sit here bubbling with ideas about how to share with you, I'm often staring at my keyboard in dismay. And as you can tell from reading, I generally am not stuck for verbage. But to say these things correctly, language is often insufficient. And I choose to give you the full impression, and not give you a small filtered version.

Projections refer to your very existence. To borrow an extremely useful metaphor from Osho, when you go to the movies, everyone looks at the screen. But the movie doesn't come from there, it's a blank white sheet. But nobody is looking back at the projector.

Your Mind is the projector. If you let it, it will show you infinite tales, of mystery, intrigue, dualities and drama like you've never seen before. But, there are as many worlds as there are minds. You can choose to live in any of them, including the real one. But it requires being separate from the projector. Stepping outside the movie, to see it from the outside.

Are you your thoughts? Are you what your senses tell you? Do you have a soul?

Remember this. Let's say you're on a vast, futuristic Star-Trek type ship, staring out into the gorgeous vastness of the galaxies. Picture it, the wonder of it all. Now, remember that while you feel like you're looking out a giant window pane, you're probably staring a viewscreen that has been specially designed to simulate the feel and appearance of the real window. But the picture is elsewhere, it's been processed by a computer, chewed up and spit out repeatedly. And maybe nothing happened to change it. Or maybe it's entirely fabricated.

You may feel like you're behind your eyes. It's possible, it happens, it's a choice you can make. I'll lay odds the size of Canada though you're looking at a viewscreen in your brain.

It's the natural condition that man has become used to. Your Mind is still the best movie software ever. The movie is always played on your eyes, and it seamlessly integrates into any imagined dream instantly. It's the ultimate in seamlessness, can you even catch the transitions? It's the ultimate episode of "Mr. Show", where you're watching the next skit before you realize, "Hey, what happened to that other thing they were doing?"

So, this is just true. So, we have the ultimate XBox360,000,000 for our movie projector. Well, that explains whey we are always using it. I mean, when Jean Luc Picard looks out the window, the captain of the ship, he chooses the fancy viewscreen. It's like a window, but with extra features, enhancements.

Your Mind is still the ultimate eye-candy tool on the planet. So use it! Enjoy it! Now that you are standing here, looking at the projector, do you see magic that it can do? Great, I love it. Love it.

Back to the original point.

If you've given control of the projector over to your mind, you are watching what it chooses for you. It is picking out your viewing selections 24-7 all week. :D  So, you have great programming to watch.  Hmmm...programming...where have I heard that word? 

But by relinquishing control, you've also signed a hidden, implied contract with your Mind. You've given it free reign to smudge or straight-up invent "reality". Think about how different someone can look to you, based purely on your feelings for that person. Do you have an ex, that was gorgeous to you when you were together, but is now repellent to your eyes? That's your mind, adding it's special effects to your movie. To give you, let's face it, a more thorough experience of the events. In Futurama, they invented the "smelloscope", to smell the regions of deep space. In this case, you are getting sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, but your brain is taking all of those and mixing it up with emotions, memories, hormones, and presenting you with the best concoction it can produce. In real-time.

I invite you simply to join me at the window sometimes. To watch your movie, and remember the projector.