What a marvelous collection of quotes, Guy. Thanks for sharing. They made me feel a little better about all the conflicting emotions, particularly ones brought on by the holidays, that I've been dealing with lately. And thank you for the nod, sir. I am super grateful to have made a connection with you here, and I appreciate you taking the time to read some of my drivel. I wish I could've made it to more of the Rilke meetings; I enjoyed interacting with you there. We should do it again this year! Also, I just downloaded Obsidian!
I feel the same way James, great to connect with you. You will enjoy Obsidian, hit me up if you'd like any tips for how to use it for writing. Probably just watch a beginner's tutorial or two first then start using it a bit. It grew on me like an addiction.
Thanks for the shoutout! I love this concept too! I totally keep a Notion doc called “Random quotes” and save little tidbit I hear. You’re inspiring me to maybe share it this year!
And I think my fav one from your list that I hadn’t heard before is “Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings.” - WH Auden.
Here is a quote for you, thanks for being someone who shows up to help us all flourish!
“All flourishing is mutual.”
"If one [pecan] tree fruits, they all fruit—there are no soloists. Not one tree in a grove, but the whole grove; not one grove in the forest, but every grove; all across the county and all across the state. The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together. All flourishing is mutual."
Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Thank you, you are also a shining gem. That's a great quote and that book is on my (very long) 'to read' list. Here's to more good grappling and mutual flourishing in 2025!
Ooh tanks for the recommendation.... Speaking of which have you listened to The Telepathy Tapes? The podcast (about non-verbal autistic children with telepathy) beat out Joe Rogan for number one!
We are not in Kansas any more Toto. Thank Fuck for that!
I am going to work on my psi shizz for 2025 because I am not losing out on the magic to appear 'normal' to a bunch of conformist Wetiko'd fools any longer!!!
I want to be more expansive dimensionally and then even more!
Yes I have listened to The Telepathy Tapes, I really enjoyed it. But having previously listened to another podcast about assisted communication with autistic people and how (in that particular case) it was a scam, I'm not 100% convinced that it isn't just wishful thinking on the part of their carers. I mean I totally get that it is possible for it all to be true, I'm not denying it on that basis, in fact I'm not denying it at all, I just want to practice a bit of discernment around it. But of course if it is true, holy moly it's a game changer for sure.
I suspect that it's a question of tuning in to a certain frequency, more than it's about really hard work and practice. For example I had a telepathic experience on acid once and it was just obvious in that moment that it's a capacity which is available to us. We maybe just need to find the bit of the brain which is suppressing it and turn it off (evolutionarily it might not always be an advantage because it's inconvenient to hear others' thoughts all the time of course).
I remember a guy I used to know at college telling me about his experience with belladonna (deadly nightshade, don't try this at home folks!). He and his friend took it together and had this long conversation about all kinds of things. The next day his friend said 'wow that was weird wasn't it?!' He said yes, it was a bit of a strange conversation. But his friend said 'don't you realise, I went home after we took the belladonna, and you stayed here. We had the conversation telepathically'. So this guy was obviously like 'holy fucking shit'.
So yes, the cosmic resonance is real. Looking forward to more of this. If you make a breakthrough, let me know.
BTW still on tenterhooks waiting for details about your podcast! ;)
I agree that tuning in feels right and it connects with all those wisdom traditions of letting go, undoing, and not doing as the path.
And of course, as my fake nemesis (who wore it better, me or Rumi - it is always bloody Rumi) says, "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it, and embrace them."
This is good news if only undoing were not harder than doing...which is why we choose doing time and time again, the addition, the advancement, the escape from the messiness of life.
I want to go to The Hill! & imagine how super deluxe it would be if we could really quit social media and go to The Hill when we wanted to connect, unmediated by the whack-job billionaires of social media. They want to control dominate and manipulate and because we keep showing up to their poisoned wells we have to let them poison us and do our best home remedies/workarounds to try to ameliorate the damage.
The part that really stuck out for me was the whole acceptance of other kinds of savant behavior which we know is real because we have the 'proof'.
& we have all had these kinds of experiences yet most of us have tucked them neatly away in the book of our life without much deep reckoning. I keep coming back to this idea, that if we have had an experience we have the capacity to have that kind of experience again. So far this is still just a jaunty hat, le chapeau de la connaissance, but I am trying to somatize it into me.
I already know how to be telepathic, I just don't trust that I know it. I even have 3 whole kittens worth of proof, yet I still feel like it was something that just happened to me and that I have no control over. Which is to say, holy fucking hot pockets does my learned helplessness have an all areas pass or what?
It is why I see it so clearly in the world, I Got It I Spot it style.
I have been going deeper into the millefiori of inherited intergenerational bleakness and stifled vitality and there are so many layers, so many Sneaky Petes until I get to peace. The peace is I see I am not being a lazy loafer but I am fighting against the big-time terror of multiple mother wounds using only tissue thin wafers of casual everyday altered states of dissociation to keep me from the void.
Wow, It is a whole thing when you see how deeply the invisible hand directing your cascading misfortunes is your own...Out of love yes, but there is also a fuck-ton of grief. It really feels like I am dealing with more than one mostly normal-ish life’s worth of trauma.
I keep auditioning to be my local loser, to make sure that everyone knows that I am lower than them, just in case I get too uppity. I have to seed all my relationships with my failures, make sure I have not deceived anyone into thinking more highly of me than they should. The neurodivergent need to tell the truth but coupled with 'life-saving' lies of self-hatred that create an unbearable life...Again I feel the need to appeal to us all - we are all crazy in the coconut and humans are too weird to not be weird! If that is how we do (and we do - I mean the shit show we are in is my proof), but hardly anyone admits it, telepathy (or tuning into the morphic field) seems rather normal in comparison.
Let’s play (as you know there are big prizes that can be won) . Why not join me as part of my new club* for Citizen Spiritual Scientists?
& how about this for the name of the club’s mission? The Miraculous Abounds!
Pop it in your thought pot and see what you stew up. Be curious about the mystical miraculous but all science-y like (science-y is very much the opposite of scientism btw)
Start collecting your miracles in a small satchel or sturdy notebook or wide-mouthed mason jar. And then get science-y and 'walk back the cat' (a real detective thing) and think about all the things that were happening to you and through you at the time.
I want more awe and wonder! So I am accepting the mission for The Miraculous Abounds! So much so that I am going to write my second longform post on it! Thank you for being such a good player and now my witness!
*I am a mad keen creator of clubs! There is no joining fee, and I often forget I have created said club because I am off creating other clubs. My clubs are very much like The Dectorists, both in the best of times and the worst of times. So there is not a lot of pressure to be in my clubs. All clubs straddle the divide betwix the imaginal stew and the 3D soup.
The Citizen Spiritual Scientist's Club is now in beta testing. .
Rumi was correct as always. We need to undo/love those layers. However one way to do it is to painstakingly feel each one as it comes up, yet alongside the 'bulk delete' option there's also the 'go straight to the wholeness' option and bypass the whole mess.
That way you're healing it from 'both directions', like making a tunnel from both sides which eventually join up. You're reminding yourself that you're already whole and perfect, which weakens the grip of 'still so much to do aggghh' energy, because of course that is part of the 'problem', the 'everything is not already fine' mentality.
Same thing with the telepathy, as you say, although that's maybe harder to somatise and it remains chapeau-adjacent without a lot of practice. The practice of 'reminding myself that I already know this'.
I know what you mean about 'auditioning to be my local loser' lol... I have done it SO MUCH in my life that it requires capital letters. And the hand directing the cascading misfortunes (love that btw) is your own. Yep.
And yes too to 'dealing with more than one llfe's worth of grief'. It definitely feels like that. If you read 'LSD And The Mind of the Universe' by Chris Bache I think he makes a very good case that we can, and do, deal with many generations of trauma in our lives.
One big bonus of 'reality' breaking down is that things which were genuinely impossible before are now becoming possible. But we need to sharpen our wizard-witch skills, in other words know that we live inside a myth and act accordingly. What is that like? I don't know, but I feel like some part of me does know.
I love your idea for Citizen Spiritual Scientists and The Miraculous Abounds mission! I am in, in fact I am in by default to any club you invite me to. I shall prepare my wide-mouthed mason jar. And btw I love The Detectorists!
One other thing: I am listening to The Little Shaman podcast now, thanks for the rec. It does very clearly break down what's going on with narcissists. In fact I had to interact with a low-level one today and I did notice particularly one thing that the Shaman said - that if you don't show constant enthusiasm for them and their ideas and are just neutral, in your own world, they assume you are angry with them and try to 'get you back' by pointing out some perceived deficiency you have. So you have literally done nothing at all, yet this is taken as a crime which needs to be redressed by scrutinising your behaviour for mistakes ad then pointing them out. I realised that part of me was constantly aware of this and was trying to appease them before they could take offence at literally nothing. Pretty exhausting, and part of why one wants to avoid narcs as much as possible and instead hang out with reality-abiders.
So, maybe see you on The Hill. Would be amazing. How will I recognise you? Will you go as yourself or as Lucid Zola?
I have thoroughly enjoyed your posts and our conversations, Guy. What a fabulous compilation of quotes here! Concise wisdom, some biting humor, and much food for thought. Thank you for expanding our worlds. Wishing you a very enriching, expansive, and healthy New Year 2025!
I love the book 'Maybe You Should Talk to Someone'. Thanks for the mention, and for our friendship. It is a delight to accompany your blossoming here on Substack. Looking forward to reading more.
Thanks Guy! Some things I found myself holding from your work in recent weeks was:
- on The Elevator ( https://wearetheelevator.substack.com/p/issue-26-focus-on-the-psychology ) "The trap of trying to confront fascism is that it grows stronger with polarity, and the problem with not confronting fascism is that it grows stronger when it is not met with resistance” -Nora Bateson
- and your previous post (https://guyjames.substack.com/p/it-takes-a-trickster-to-beat-a-trickster) on the tension and fears of the 'devouring mother' and 'tyrannical father': "To put this in Jungian terms: the CWL [culture war left] fears the “tyrannical father,” while the CWR [culture war right] fears the “devouring mother.” The former represents masculine authority gone wrong—unforgiving, cruel, and crushing their child’s spirit through control with an iron grip. The latter represents over-nurturing and overprotectiveness, smothering their child’s potential and creating perpetual dependence." - Peter Limberg
What a marvelous collection of quotes, Guy. Thanks for sharing. They made me feel a little better about all the conflicting emotions, particularly ones brought on by the holidays, that I've been dealing with lately. And thank you for the nod, sir. I am super grateful to have made a connection with you here, and I appreciate you taking the time to read some of my drivel. I wish I could've made it to more of the Rilke meetings; I enjoyed interacting with you there. We should do it again this year! Also, I just downloaded Obsidian!
I feel the same way James, great to connect with you. You will enjoy Obsidian, hit me up if you'd like any tips for how to use it for writing. Probably just watch a beginner's tutorial or two first then start using it a bit. It grew on me like an addiction.
Thanks for the shoutout! I love this concept too! I totally keep a Notion doc called “Random quotes” and save little tidbit I hear. You’re inspiring me to maybe share it this year!
And I think my fav one from your list that I hadn’t heard before is “Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings.” - WH Auden.
👏
yes, I’d love to see your quote list!
Bringing the gold with this list Guy! Thank you for your friendship and great conversation that have enriched the year. Here’s to Now!
Here's to Now bro! ;) Thank you for being you and helping me through a tricky time.
Loved this list. And thought I‘d share another Rumi quote which pairs so well with yours:
"As you live deeper in the heart, the mirror gets clearer and cleaner."
Yes, love that! Will be in my quotes of this year, thanks
Aww thanks friend, you are a gem!
Here is a quote for you, thanks for being someone who shows up to help us all flourish!
“All flourishing is mutual.”
"If one [pecan] tree fruits, they all fruit—there are no soloists. Not one tree in a grove, but the whole grove; not one grove in the forest, but every grove; all across the county and all across the state. The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together. All flourishing is mutual."
Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Thank you, you are also a shining gem. That's a great quote and that book is on my (very long) 'to read' list. Here's to more good grappling and mutual flourishing in 2025!
btw you should see the new Nosferatu film, it's proper gothic horror... I can't believe it's not narcissism!
Ooh tanks for the recommendation.... Speaking of which have you listened to The Telepathy Tapes? The podcast (about non-verbal autistic children with telepathy) beat out Joe Rogan for number one!
We are not in Kansas any more Toto. Thank Fuck for that!
I am going to work on my psi shizz for 2025 because I am not losing out on the magic to appear 'normal' to a bunch of conformist Wetiko'd fools any longer!!!
I want to be more expansive dimensionally and then even more!
The cosmic resonance is really real!
Let's play! Let's play! Let's play!
Yes I have listened to The Telepathy Tapes, I really enjoyed it. But having previously listened to another podcast about assisted communication with autistic people and how (in that particular case) it was a scam, I'm not 100% convinced that it isn't just wishful thinking on the part of their carers. I mean I totally get that it is possible for it all to be true, I'm not denying it on that basis, in fact I'm not denying it at all, I just want to practice a bit of discernment around it. But of course if it is true, holy moly it's a game changer for sure.
I suspect that it's a question of tuning in to a certain frequency, more than it's about really hard work and practice. For example I had a telepathic experience on acid once and it was just obvious in that moment that it's a capacity which is available to us. We maybe just need to find the bit of the brain which is suppressing it and turn it off (evolutionarily it might not always be an advantage because it's inconvenient to hear others' thoughts all the time of course).
I remember a guy I used to know at college telling me about his experience with belladonna (deadly nightshade, don't try this at home folks!). He and his friend took it together and had this long conversation about all kinds of things. The next day his friend said 'wow that was weird wasn't it?!' He said yes, it was a bit of a strange conversation. But his friend said 'don't you realise, I went home after we took the belladonna, and you stayed here. We had the conversation telepathically'. So this guy was obviously like 'holy fucking shit'.
So yes, the cosmic resonance is real. Looking forward to more of this. If you make a breakthrough, let me know.
BTW still on tenterhooks waiting for details about your podcast! ;)
I hope that your family member is doing better.
I agree that tuning in feels right and it connects with all those wisdom traditions of letting go, undoing, and not doing as the path.
And of course, as my fake nemesis (who wore it better, me or Rumi - it is always bloody Rumi) says, "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it, and embrace them."
This is good news if only undoing were not harder than doing...which is why we choose doing time and time again, the addition, the advancement, the escape from the messiness of life.
I want to go to The Hill! & imagine how super deluxe it would be if we could really quit social media and go to The Hill when we wanted to connect, unmediated by the whack-job billionaires of social media. They want to control dominate and manipulate and because we keep showing up to their poisoned wells we have to let them poison us and do our best home remedies/workarounds to try to ameliorate the damage.
The part that really stuck out for me was the whole acceptance of other kinds of savant behavior which we know is real because we have the 'proof'.
& we have all had these kinds of experiences yet most of us have tucked them neatly away in the book of our life without much deep reckoning. I keep coming back to this idea, that if we have had an experience we have the capacity to have that kind of experience again. So far this is still just a jaunty hat, le chapeau de la connaissance, but I am trying to somatize it into me.
I already know how to be telepathic, I just don't trust that I know it. I even have 3 whole kittens worth of proof, yet I still feel like it was something that just happened to me and that I have no control over. Which is to say, holy fucking hot pockets does my learned helplessness have an all areas pass or what?
It is why I see it so clearly in the world, I Got It I Spot it style.
I have been going deeper into the millefiori of inherited intergenerational bleakness and stifled vitality and there are so many layers, so many Sneaky Petes until I get to peace. The peace is I see I am not being a lazy loafer but I am fighting against the big-time terror of multiple mother wounds using only tissue thin wafers of casual everyday altered states of dissociation to keep me from the void.
Wow, It is a whole thing when you see how deeply the invisible hand directing your cascading misfortunes is your own...Out of love yes, but there is also a fuck-ton of grief. It really feels like I am dealing with more than one mostly normal-ish life’s worth of trauma.
I keep auditioning to be my local loser, to make sure that everyone knows that I am lower than them, just in case I get too uppity. I have to seed all my relationships with my failures, make sure I have not deceived anyone into thinking more highly of me than they should. The neurodivergent need to tell the truth but coupled with 'life-saving' lies of self-hatred that create an unbearable life...Again I feel the need to appeal to us all - we are all crazy in the coconut and humans are too weird to not be weird! If that is how we do (and we do - I mean the shit show we are in is my proof), but hardly anyone admits it, telepathy (or tuning into the morphic field) seems rather normal in comparison.
Let’s play (as you know there are big prizes that can be won) . Why not join me as part of my new club* for Citizen Spiritual Scientists?
& how about this for the name of the club’s mission? The Miraculous Abounds!
Pop it in your thought pot and see what you stew up. Be curious about the mystical miraculous but all science-y like (science-y is very much the opposite of scientism btw)
Start collecting your miracles in a small satchel or sturdy notebook or wide-mouthed mason jar. And then get science-y and 'walk back the cat' (a real detective thing) and think about all the things that were happening to you and through you at the time.
I want more awe and wonder! So I am accepting the mission for The Miraculous Abounds! So much so that I am going to write my second longform post on it! Thank you for being such a good player and now my witness!
*I am a mad keen creator of clubs! There is no joining fee, and I often forget I have created said club because I am off creating other clubs. My clubs are very much like The Dectorists, both in the best of times and the worst of times. So there is not a lot of pressure to be in my clubs. All clubs straddle the divide betwix the imaginal stew and the 3D soup.
The Citizen Spiritual Scientist's Club is now in beta testing. .
Thanks, yes they are out of hospital now.
So many gems in your reply hehe...
Rumi was correct as always. We need to undo/love those layers. However one way to do it is to painstakingly feel each one as it comes up, yet alongside the 'bulk delete' option there's also the 'go straight to the wholeness' option and bypass the whole mess.
The best way I've found to do that is Loch Kelly's 'glimpse' meditations, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQCa-_-g8TQ
That way you're healing it from 'both directions', like making a tunnel from both sides which eventually join up. You're reminding yourself that you're already whole and perfect, which weakens the grip of 'still so much to do aggghh' energy, because of course that is part of the 'problem', the 'everything is not already fine' mentality.
Same thing with the telepathy, as you say, although that's maybe harder to somatise and it remains chapeau-adjacent without a lot of practice. The practice of 'reminding myself that I already know this'.
I know what you mean about 'auditioning to be my local loser' lol... I have done it SO MUCH in my life that it requires capital letters. And the hand directing the cascading misfortunes (love that btw) is your own. Yep.
And yes too to 'dealing with more than one llfe's worth of grief'. It definitely feels like that. If you read 'LSD And The Mind of the Universe' by Chris Bache I think he makes a very good case that we can, and do, deal with many generations of trauma in our lives.
One big bonus of 'reality' breaking down is that things which were genuinely impossible before are now becoming possible. But we need to sharpen our wizard-witch skills, in other words know that we live inside a myth and act accordingly. What is that like? I don't know, but I feel like some part of me does know.
I love your idea for Citizen Spiritual Scientists and The Miraculous Abounds mission! I am in, in fact I am in by default to any club you invite me to. I shall prepare my wide-mouthed mason jar. And btw I love The Detectorists!
One other thing: I am listening to The Little Shaman podcast now, thanks for the rec. It does very clearly break down what's going on with narcissists. In fact I had to interact with a low-level one today and I did notice particularly one thing that the Shaman said - that if you don't show constant enthusiasm for them and their ideas and are just neutral, in your own world, they assume you are angry with them and try to 'get you back' by pointing out some perceived deficiency you have. So you have literally done nothing at all, yet this is taken as a crime which needs to be redressed by scrutinising your behaviour for mistakes ad then pointing them out. I realised that part of me was constantly aware of this and was trying to appease them before they could take offence at literally nothing. Pretty exhausting, and part of why one wants to avoid narcs as much as possible and instead hang out with reality-abiders.
So, maybe see you on The Hill. Would be amazing. How will I recognise you? Will you go as yourself or as Lucid Zola?
I have thoroughly enjoyed your posts and our conversations, Guy. What a fabulous compilation of quotes here! Concise wisdom, some biting humor, and much food for thought. Thank you for expanding our worlds. Wishing you a very enriching, expansive, and healthy New Year 2025!
Thanks Erin, I've also enjoyed our interactions! Have a great 2025 and here's to more of the same, and better.
Thank you for the mention! Been great to connect with you this year; look forward to more in 2025!
yes, also looking forward to more - wishing you a great rest of the year and 2025!
Proud to be part of this list!
I love the book 'Maybe You Should Talk to Someone'. Thanks for the mention, and for our friendship. It is a delight to accompany your blossoming here on Substack. Looking forward to reading more.
💖 🙏
Thanks Guy! Some things I found myself holding from your work in recent weeks was:
- on The Elevator ( https://wearetheelevator.substack.com/p/issue-26-focus-on-the-psychology ) "The trap of trying to confront fascism is that it grows stronger with polarity, and the problem with not confronting fascism is that it grows stronger when it is not met with resistance” -Nora Bateson
- and your previous post (https://guyjames.substack.com/p/it-takes-a-trickster-to-beat-a-trickster) on the tension and fears of the 'devouring mother' and 'tyrannical father': "To put this in Jungian terms: the CWL [culture war left] fears the “tyrannical father,” while the CWR [culture war right] fears the “devouring mother.” The former represents masculine authority gone wrong—unforgiving, cruel, and crushing their child’s spirit through control with an iron grip. The latter represents over-nurturing and overprotectiveness, smothering their child’s potential and creating perpetual dependence." - Peter Limberg
Thanks Vivek, yes those are great quotes! Glad you were paying attention ;)
Wishing you a most healthy and heartful start to the New Year!
you too Jessica! have a great 2025 :)
"you never know when you've had enough until you've had too much." william blake