Thought I’d do a little survey on what are the three most transformative media in our lives to date.   For me, this is an evolving list, as I have always been a voracious media consumer.  Movies were my diet of choice when a youth and were a treat consumed weekly with Dad followed by a bowl of yummy sticky rice.  A bit older, I moved on to TV.   TV and more TV.  Dad removed the TV.   I started to read books, magazines, soup labels, you get the picture.

Books have  through life been friends providing much of my outside fodder for thought.  More recently, these include a greater mix of books on tape as well as the written variety.

The three most transformative media for me as of today have been “Real Love“, by Greg Bear, “No More Mr. Nice Guy“, by Robert Glover, and “What The Bleep Do We Know“, a movie slash documentary starring Marlee Matlin.

I started these three with “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”  What I learned here was that if I’m in a bad relationship, it was somehow a mirror of myself, and so change had to be made inside me.  There went my Mr. FixHer mode….

Then I believe came “Real Love,” from which I learned further about being responsible for myself and allowing others their choices as I was also ALWAYS allowed, and in fact responsible for my choices.  I also learned a whole host of other things from participating in Real Love meetings and phone calls and still attend them regularly.

“What the Bleep…,”  was transformative in that before “What the Bleep…” I was an atheist.  After, I started diving into spirituality. 

I took two key things I took away from “Bleep.”

The first of these is that we have an universe with laws that behaviors of fundamental particles, like electrons, can change their character on a quantum level, in some cases acting like a wave, in others acting like a particle, depending on whether we watch them or not….

This answered for me a question I had for some years:  “What were a possible set of laws of the universe, like gravity etcetera, which would allow for true free will, instead of just the semblance of free will?” 

If by our focus, we can effect the universe on a quantum level, this made it plausible, to me, that we are each little god creatures, able by our focus, our choice, to effect the world.  In effect free will.  And, a whole lot more.

The second thing I got, was from an interview of a Buddhist monk.  He said, pleasure leads to suffering.  Either because of fear of loss of pleasure or actual loss of pleasure.  Suffering can lead to more suffering, or to the search for enlightenment.  Enlightenment provides inner peace.  I feel I was suffering fairly greatly right around this time.  And, this suffering lead to my search and journey.  Today, I am the happiest I have ever  been, regardless of the mundane challenges I face.  True inner peace is a choice, regardless of outer peace.

Please share your current list of  the three most transformative media in your life to date and briefly share how?

Two of my three were recommendations from friends.  Always on the look out for good ideas.

Peace and gratitude,

Yucel