Sleep Versus Awake

The Dangers of Enlightenment Few Discuss

The Guinness Book of World’s Records removed the category of ‘person who has gone the longest without sleep’ because it was killing people. Is exploration of extremes the only way to know the self?

If we were to assume, for sake of an argument, a level of maturity for the whole of the human race, I suspect we might agree humanity is a child. The idea isn’t encapsulated in lacking the wisdom to be having nuclear weapons, but just evidenced by the fact we have nuclear weapons. We don’t just wage war on each other, but we wage it on ourselves and every living thing around us. We are encouraged by both spirituality and science to regard ourselves less, which is ironic because the champions of either domain typically display the very hubris they wish to diminish in others. Both science and religion seem disposed towards eliminating the self. What happens when humanity becomes anesthetized to life?

It’s 6am (ish) and most planes are huddled like wasps on a nest predawn.

The ego is not the enemy of the self. It is part of the personality construct which allows a human to navigate the physical and social landscape of our era. You can not live without it. Even robots need personality and boundaries.