Hello, stranger.
Have you ever had a thought that was so powerful that it completely changed the way you view the world? I do a lot of thinking about all kinds of shit, and sometimes it can feel like I’m just spinning my wheels, going over the same thoughts and problems over and over again looking for solutions. Then one day, out of nowhere the universe will send me the gift of a thought that changes the entire landscape forever. A clue that takes all of the perplexing pieces juggling around in my consciousness and guides them into a form that makes the great picture come into focus in a way I’ve never seen it before.
I’ve had precious few of these gifts in my life, but recently I had the strangest, and most powerful one yet.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to put it to words in a way that would make sense, and although I think I can get the general idea across, I’m not really sure if it’s there’s a way to completely describe the way it hit me.
It happened to me when I was in Hawaii riding in the back of a boat staring down at the beautiful clear blue water when a pod of dolphins started swimming beside us. Now, Hawaii always puts me in a special frame of mind because it’s such an unusual place, with it’s own very unique energy. We think of it as a beautiful chain of islands, which it is of course, but what it really is, is the peak of the world’s largest active volcano popping right out of the middle of the fucking Pacific Ocean. The volcano constantly pumps out lava into the surrounding waters, occasionally violently erupting, dissolving streets and houses under it’s wake, and reminding everyone living there that this state of existence, like everything else is very temporary.
They sleep on the side of this beautiful, benevolent god Pele, surrounded by incredibly deep water, never knowing when it’s all going to explode into an end and a new beginning.
To me it always feels both humbling, and incredibly inspirational.
It was a perfect day.
I was in a very unusual state of mind because this vacation had a very special significance for me; it was the last one I would go on before my girlfriend gave birth to our daughter. Just the reality of becoming a father alone has been an incredible catalyst for thought. My mind is always wondering and racing around as it is, but with this new chapter in my life approaching my consciousness and awareness have been at an all time high.
The magical influence of the sacred plant enhanced and illuminated everything around me, accentuating the colors and intensifying the feeling of the warm sun and gentle breeze to the point where it was like the whole fucking world was giving me a giant, loving hug. I couldn’t have felt any better.
I was taking it all in, trying to appreciate it as much as I could when the dolphins started swimming along side the boat.
Dolphins are really playful and they love putting on a show for people.
As we were moving they were swimming along side of us, and they would gather up speed and jump out of the water. They were reaching out and contacting us, and the more excited we screamed when they jumped out of the water, the more they did it. It was really fucking cool.
I just felt like we were sharing this really special moment of communication, and I was so blown away by these intelligent, playful creatures that wanted to contact us.
When you come into this kind of contact with dolphins it really hits you how smart they are, especially when you’re high as FUCK. They’re way smarter than anything on this planet other than us, and possibly smarter than us, they just can’t alter their environment the way we can. They’ve been here a lot longer than us, too. They don’t know exactly how long, but it’s thought that it’s millions of years. I’ve watched a bunch of documentaries on them, and I have a deep appreciation for them, so this encounter was extra exciting for me.
I started thinking while I was being treated to this amazing moment how incredible it was, and this led me to start thinking what it could possibly be like to be a dolphin, and what dolphin consciousness was like. I started thinking whether or not it’s different than ours, and whether they were more or less aware, and then I started thinking about the possibility that our consciousness was the same, but that just our biology and environments were different.
Then it hit me – what if that’s the case with people?
What if “me” is the same for everyone, just the physical circumstances differ.
The thought that hit me was that we are all the exact same thing, we’re just experiencing this existence through an infinite number of different biological filters that we call human bodies.
What if “me” at it’s core is always the same, it’s just the physical body and all the aspects of each particular life that are different?
Of course we all have different personalities, but how much of that is biological?
Human beings vary so much biologically- how much do these factors contribute to what you think of as “you?”
How much of your “personality” is a combination of your own personal, unique biochemistry? How much of who “you” are and the way “you” react to things is based on the levels of hormones your body produces, and the quality of your synaptic responses? How much of “you” is the genetic code that you function under?
How much is your accumulated reactions to life experiences?
How much is based on the alignment of the stars at the exact moment you were born?
Is that shit real? And if it is, why do so many people that are into astrology come off like such fucking loons?
What if the variations in humans can all be attributed to a combination of all of these variables, but what if the “me” at the very center of all of it is exactly the same for all of us?
If I lived your life, in your body, every second of every day of your life until the point where you’re at now, would I be you? What if we are all the exact same thing, but we’re just living out different lives? That’s the thought that hit me.
Right as I watched these dolphins leap out of the water to play with us, this epiphany burned itself into my consciousness and I haven’t thought about a single thing the same way since. One moment that changed my mind forever.
I thought of the struggle for peace and happiness that most of us are constantly engaged in. There’s an incredibly large amount of people in this country that are on antidepressants.
Do you know the numbers? Neither did I, so I just google searched it on my iphone in the middle of the fucking ocean. Bang! Just like that. Ain’t technology a motherfucker?
Strap yourself in for the answer, because it’s fucking insane…
In 2005 118,000,000 prescriptions were written for antidepressants.
One hundred and eighteen FUCKING MILLION.
That’s a staggering number. Are there really that many depressed people out there? I mean, I’m sure that some people really do have a biological imbalance that can be corrected chemically, and that antidepressants help those people, but 118,000,000?
Holy fuck.
How many people are happy?
I mean, if that many were so depressed that they went to the doctor for happy pills, how many people just dealt with it and don’t take the pills?
How many just drink instead? I mean, fuck… there’s only 300,000,000 people in this whole country, and doctors wrote 118,000,000 prescriptions? How many actual people is that taking all those pills?
Some people say these numbers are so high because doctors over prescribe the drugs.
Although I’m sure that’s true, there’s still got to be someone saying that they’re not happy for them to be treated for being depressed. It’s not like they’re handing that shit out at the laundry mat. Those people all sought out a doctor’s help for depression.
No matter how you look at it, that’s an incredible amount of unhappy people.
So really, what am I trying to say? I mean, so far, this sounds like some typical stoned, hippy bullshit about universal consciousness, right?
I’m well aware that to discuss anything as sensitive as happiness or consciousness you immediately run the risk of sounding ridiculous, but I really think I might be on to something with this line of thinking.
Something is very wrong, and very unnatural about the way most people live and think about this life, and I think it’s a major factor in why so many people are unhappy.
The way the majority of people in this country are living their lives is a sign of a sickness. We’re a group of people playing follow the leader, but there’s no fucking leader. Most of us will live our lives connected to a system that makes you labor all day for very little joy, pretending that somehow there’s a better life waiting when you’ve done your work.
This life flies by at a blinding pace, and often despite your best intentions it can take a turn for the miserable and just stay there until you drop.
You can read all the right books, take all the right yoga classes, but you never get happy.
Why is that? Why do so many of us fall into this trap?
My thought, while I was out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, high as giraffe pussy and trying to talk to dolphins – was that the way to really be happy is to view everyone you meet as you. Be as happy to meet them as you would be meeting another version of yourself living a completely different life.
Could this really work?
It’s certainly working for me, but is this an idea that a large number of people would accept? I honestly don’t know, but when I look at it objectively it doesn’t seem very likely to catch on in a grand scale anytime real soon, and that kinda sucks.
It just seems like there’s way too many broken people in this world. There are just so many people that have lived their entire life in a shitty direction, and have neither the will nor the inclination to change it now. There’s just so much momentum propelling so many people into a shitty direction that it would take an incredible amount of energy to turn it all around. A mass psychedelic movement where thinking was readdressed and the consciousness of the entire population were reprogrammed.
Realistically, even if we started teaching thinking like that in our schools tomorrow, it would probably take a long fucking time for it to be sorted out, if ever. I mean, in 1859 Darwin published “origin of the species,” and in 2008 a recent Gallop poll found that over 50% of Americans said they thought that evolution was fake, and that the earth is less than 10,000 years old.
There’s going to be a lot of people that aren’t going to come along on our little hippy love fest. There are also a lot of people that would probably try to take advantage of this new way of thinking. Crazy homeless people would especially become a real problem, “I’m you! Give me my money, bitch!”
Either way, I had this thought a few months ago, and I’ve been subscribing to that notion ever since. It gets a little slippery sometimes, but for the most part the idea has stuck, and in fact it seems to be strengthening and growing.
Sometimes I need to remind myself how beautiful that idea seemed on that boat in the middle of the water, and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to write this blog.
That, and if it’s possible to do the thought justice, I wanted to put it in a way that could spread this idea.
We as a race are clearly in some sort of an adolescent stage of evolution, and it certainly doesn’t help that we’re only alive in this life for a shockingly brief amount of time during which long before we ever get our own shit together, and develop a healthy perception of reality, we’re already trapped in the capitalist work grind and raising an entirely new batch of kids on the same dopey bullshit of the past.
I’ve been crazy, and I’ve been sane. I’ve been angry, and I’ve been happy, and a lot of what seems to make the difference for me is how much effort I put into positive patterns of thought and the proper biological maintenance. Positive thoughts attract more positive thoughts, and the more I focus on it the deeper and smoother the groove becomes.
Wring the stress out of your body in the gym so your mind can be free of the leftover chimpanzee rage.
Clean your mind of the foolish thoughts of the misguided souls that have lived before you and followed a blind path into the impossible jungle of consciousness.
Just because a bunch of other people are moving in the same direction, it doesn’t mean that any of them have any idea where they’re going, and just because they’re following one person, it doesn’t make him or her the leader.
A lot of people are just plain fucking scared of the dark, and they’ll follow anyone that’s holding a flashlight.
Where am I going with all this? I’m not exactly sure, but I really think I’m on to something. I know it sounds crazy, but try it, even if you keep what you’re doing to yourself. Try thinking of and treating everyone you meet as if they’re you.
You might be surprised at the results.
Mad love to you all.
Hey Joe,
Thanks for that, you have me thinking in a whole different way now. funny thing…
The other day I heard a quote “Every minute of every day you are a part of everyone”, weird to be reading your post now.
Thnx.
Dimitrio from South Africa
Awesome blog, Joe. I always find your social and philosophical observations very interesting. My buddies and I just saw you in Brea last weekend, and it’s safe to say you blew all of our minds in one way or another. Your blend of ideas and comedy sets you apart from most of the mainstream comedians out there. Anyone with an open-mind who watches you perform your stand up is going to gain insight about humans, life, and the world we live in.
Thanks for instigating new thought in others. That’s the only way anything will ever change.
Much respect to you.
Phil K.
P.S. My friends and I are all going floating at the end of August for my birthday!
Have you ever had a thought that was so powerful that it completely changed the way you view the world? ALL THE TIME
http://labyrinthofthepsychonaut.blogspot.com/ Check this guys video’s must see imo
also this site http://rundonotwalk.blogspot.com/ don’t sleep on these sites, check em out please.
I don’t think this is a far fetched idea, when you think about it we’re all pretty much born blank slates. It’s then the years of interactions and the way we grow up that changes us into individuals.
Much the way most really religious people are part of the religion they were brought up in. They never made a conscious choice that this was the correct religion, they were raised to believe that. By the time they could make their own thoughts it’s already drilled in that this is the right way. But that’s another topic.
Back on topic, if you grow up in a big family, are constantly around new people, and are relatively left to your own devices, you’re likely to become a more open minded person than someone who is forced into certain points of view and certain molds from an early age.
It’s more about how your environment painted your blank slate, than how you react to your environment.
[...] “Wring the stress out of your body in the gym…” “Wring the stress out of your body in the gym so your mind can be free of the leftover chimpanzee rage.” Joe Rogan [...]
Joe, I am so glad to hear that there are people like yourself out there that get what is really important in our exsistance on this planet. It sounds as if your had an awakening that others will never know no matter how many times they read the bible or attend church. You made a real connection with everything around you, i.e. the planet, nature, the dolphins, your friends, your family, everything…. all at once.
I feel bad for those people taking 1118,000,000 antidepressants and still cannon fathom what true happiness is. A few years ago in my life, I had a short stint where I was feeling “not well” and took my physicians adivce and got a brand new prescription for an antidepressant. After just a few months of taking them, I decided that the pills weren’t going to solve anything. The problem was with myself and what a fucked up sense of what I thought happiness was supposed to be.
A college professor once told me “If you have clothes on your back, someone put food in your belly, and there is a roo over your head when you sleep at night, then don’t ever fuckin complain about anything, because there are many people that struggle just to get these things,” And that was like my realization that there is so much more to life that I was missing, so many reasons to be greatful that I was passin up. I have felt the same way you have described in this blog just by sitting out in the grass and letting the sun beam on my face and listening to the world… bliss.
Reading your blog on this day inspired me to get out there in that world and appreciate the connection that we can make with it and one another. Thanks friend!
i’ve come upon a similar realization, though maybe worded a bit differently and with a few other addendums. i believe that the core of human experience is knowing that we are alive and not having the necessary explanations to parse that undeniable fact.
sometime in the womb the clump of cells becomes aware that its alive in a very primal manner. every human experiences this; our first realization is that we exist. we all have the same beginning, but our body-filters shape our individual perspectives as we go along.
however, in spite of our growing differences as time goes by, our experiences in the womb are extremely similar and 99% of our philosophical and metaphysical ideas/mysteries are developed there.
thus, the comfort of our mothers’ womb becomes our heaven. the fear and confusion of our birth becomes our hell. every emotion thereafter is bookended by these two extremes.
our ultimate happiness would be to experience that womb again. accordingly, every human endeavor is an attempt to reconstruct that comfort.
the underlying feeling of oneness and connection we have to the rest of the world isn’t god or a universal consciousness. that feeling is created by the fact that we were part of someone else before we were born.
though disappointing to the “i want to believe” junkie inside me, this notion is the simplest one i’ve been able to come up with about human nature.
bert
Joe, thanks for posting again and congrats to you and your girl =). Awesome to read another rant especially one about my home! Hawaii is effin’ rad, and no matter where you are here, it’s a good place to get inspired.
Like you and the previous comments I read, which I enjoyed very much, I think about this shit all the time too. I take an entire day every week to get stoned and sit on this beach where no one goes and just think! Though it’s no isolation tank, I swear I’ve gotten THIS CLOSE to having it all figured out at least a couple of times before my mind trails. OK, maybe not, but it’s fun to think.
I’m also on a sort of quest to treat everyone around me like they’re myself. I totally believe that my action creates ripples around me like a drop of water, spreading “hippy love” to everyone aware enough to catch it. And pretty soon they’re sending it back… totally cheesy but it works, I promise. And maybe because I grew up here, where everyone you meet is part of your ‘ohana (extended family), I think that the 118 million people on happy pills are living in a society where you fear your neighbor. If you think about it, the people that live around you, even the crackheads, are experiencing something pretty similar to you. It’s pretty awesome when you can share parts of that together rather than shutting the door and locking it all out. I think alot of depressed people feel lonely, and that’s hard to do when you’re open to all the people around you.
Dude, you do an awesome job opening people’s minds and making them realize it’s fun to think. Thanks
Gemma
i am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
man, i can’t believe you thought of this before me. this is awesome and more logical than most things in my life right now anyway
As Timothy Leary once said {To me, Objective opinion and relative application}; If you change the medium, You receive different effects, And, To be honest, I think that’s another biological program we run day-to-day: Communication and the innovation of it, Every day we associate sounds with images, Images with sounds, We tie both to feeling, And all three to smell to create perception, And we constantly develop new means of communicating the images, sounds, smells, touches in our mind to other people, We’ve invented language (Written and verbal) and we’ve extended it with telephones, Computers, Television, Movies, Books, Etc. Humanity has a strong desire to share it’s self with the universe at hand.
, Sorry I wrote a wall of text, Your philosophies just inspire thought in me,
Thinking: David.
Good shit Joe… good shit.
I feel a lot of people are opening their minds and consciousness and beginning to understand the nature of our reality and the world we live in. Most people are indeed slaves to the negative CULTure system… Working everyday, thinking American consumerism and materialism will make them happy, when it never just does…
All it takes is a change in our perception of the world we live in to realize our reality is nothing more then what we CHOOSE to experience. Isn’t it funny how people who are always exuding negativity always seem to be drawn more and more into a negative reality? And optimistic and positive people seem to fly through life… this is what its all about.
By approaching every problem in life with excitement and a positive attitude, the whole nature of the problem can change.
I’ve been doing a lot of research on this shit, it all correlates with quantum physics and all that shit… The Earth actually vibrates, we don’t realize it because we are vibrating with it. Negative thought patterns and feeling induce a lower vibrational state, dragging us down to a negative reality. Positive thoughts and emotions raise our vibration to a better more loving reality. Your absolutely right when you say its hard to not sound out of your fucking mind when talking about this stuff.
I knew you were on to something when I heard you talk about DMT. Could the 2012 end date of the Mayan calender be when we finally wake up and understand we have the ability to create a Utopian world through a change in mass consciousness to the loving, positive side of the spectrum?
One thing is for sure, if you feel your life is lacking something big, start exploring these topics. The information age has brought an amazing amount of information before us, utilizing the internet, like there has never been any point in time. Peace!
Yo Joe! *hits bubbler*
Thank you for putting that into words. I classify you as a translator on this planet and a damn good one. I’m 22 and I’ve kept my eyes & ears peeled for someone with the same views as my own and you nail it every time.
Please keep rockin on, I promise I’ll read.
- - p.s. does the year 2057 have any significance to you?
Sean Boone, ID
depression pills, they’re obviously making someone millions and being over prescribed, as you said.
but i dont think they sell because people are all that unhappy. happiness has been taken out of context in this society. happiness is money and other stupid shit, not deviant thought and enlightment.
happiness is treated like some mode you’re supposed to be in at all times. your supposed to be content, neutral. fulfilled.
they advertise this stuff as often as birth control, penis pills, cold medicines and antihistamines.
what other mental deficiency medicines do they advertise that often? depression is probably just as uncommon as the rest.
people get to thinking “this depression thing seems quite common and regular, and i do recall being sad more than i feel i should be about stupid shit that doesnt really matter, think ill see doctor sellout mcmoneybags who sees this all too often and knows exactly what to do”
money > morality
because one boosts survival while the other is easily ignorable.
Joe, what you talk about here is exactly what Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert, the famous LSD advocate in the 60s) talks about in this speech he gave in 1980:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9ZXEN-s1TU
Funny, one of the key things that put me on a deeply philosophical and spiritual path was hearing your infamous talk on DMT. Come a long way since and it wasn’t even that long ago…
If you dig that vid check out my ‘favorites’ list on youtube, all sorts of goodies
http://www.youtube.com/delerium2k
As I sit here and ponder how much better it could all be with a little Prozac candy…
You’re on to something. I’m implementing as we speak.
Pretty interesting stuff. I ended up here after a long string of clicks that started with a youtube search of the word ‘fight’. I had some laughs along the way, but didn’t anticipate this blog entry at any point.
Before I relate a similar notion that I’ve been entertaining, I’d like to thank, Joe, for the phrase “high as a giraffes pussy.”
Anyways, I had a life-altering realization a couple years ago, that forever changed my understanding. The details are beyond the scope of what I could stand to type, so here’s what I walked away with:
This is all metaphorically speaking, of course…
Consider forces in the world- gravity, wind, electricity, magnetism, etc… all acting on physical matter, changing it, rearranging it, maintaining a constant state of flux. We don’t think much about gravity, but it’s at play all around us, the same force, singular and undifferentiated, acting on all matter. When we watch two trees blowing in the wind, we don’t think of it as two different winds moving the trees. We think of it as the wind. When we see a static shock, lightening, or an arc welder, we see it as electricity, a different occurrence, but the same electricity. Life is a force in the same way. Conscious and self-aware, life is intelligent- learning, developing and adapting, dynamic. Each of us, all life, an expression or occurrence of the same, billions of windows in the same room, with a unique view of the world. Self-awareness is the basis by which life is developing, part of the feedback mechanism, the basis of learning. It’s also the basis of perspective, and the notion of individuality. All those faces pressed to the glass… some smiling, some stuffing pills in their mouths, self-interest a common expression. For 30yrs, I stared out my window, into other windows, and at the world, with all variety of expressions on my face. At a point, I walked away from my window. I stood behind other windows, looked through other eyes, both at myself and at the world until I understood the lines of others faces. It was tough, as I had been a pretty difficult person, but I understood other people differently, the world differently, and understood myself differently. It blew out so many grievances and misgivings I had with the world, as I saw for the first time that things already are exactly as they should be. That life is learning, and developing, by me and through me, through all of us. That each of us is an expression, a line in life’s face, part of a force, with the opportunity and responsibility to shape ourself(ves) and the world.
Damn… what do you just chill in my head and bathe in my thoughts…. I had an epiphany, something very similar to what you have just bestowed upon us. Mine was with the helpful edition of a bellyful of psilosybin, but none the less. I am one of those 118 million some odd people, but with me it has been a long standing battle with what i now know is bi-polar. I had no choice but to take the drugs handed to me, due to the irrational legislation that prevents me from using the medicine that works best for me… hmmm a chemical in pill form that comes from a factory in who knows where, or this wonderful plant that grows naturally in almost every climate and in almost every beautiful corner of this wonderful rotating hunk of rock… i digress. The point you made, talking about the trend to follow what the person in front is doing, is what I’ve dubbed as The Lemming Theory. It seems to be the driving force behind the shitty music you hear on the radio to the drivel that’s forced down your throat each night on TV. People need to wake from their twilight sleep that has been induced by repletion to the point of mental breaking. I am a crusader on a mission to rid the world of shitty music just as you are on the righteous path to stop comedic plagiarism. If one more person thinks a vocoder can hide the fact that they have no talent… I’m gonna snap. I have adopted this line of though you have posted a while back, but due to the fact that people started to dismiss me as a loon, I stopped looking at he world as a wonderful place, but a rather a cesspool of stagnant thought and archaic practices. Maybe, I thought, someday people will think like I do and the people around me would stop throwing me the ‘ol stink eye every time I let those ideas loose. With people like you, and by that I mean a recognizable figure in pop culture, thinking in a similar way and letting the world know. You might just be able to change a few more minds than I. Thank you for sharing.
CapricornOne said on: August 25th, 2008 at 4:31pm: “Maybe, I thought, someday people will think like I do,,,”
December 21, 2012?
=D
Joe,
I deeply respect your comedy and for your courageous blog. In regards to your thoughts on one’s consciousness being a purity that is affected by one’s own physical circumstances, a pure Cartesian mind–body distinction (although in this case almost like the seat of the soul holding its own pride of place) if ever there was one I suggest the following: as a reality I don’t know how much proof one could find for your case. But, to entertain it as a hypothetical as you do could have genuine real positive side effects. It reminds me of the idea of how in a totalitarian state if you “act like you’re free” then one can attain a much greater level of freedom than if you accept being unfree.
Cheers
Hey man, really enjoyed the post. I think you would really enjoy the book Gdel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, its pretty fucking heavy, but it provided me with a whole bunch of HOLY FUCKING SHIT moments. Your thoughts about the dolphin’s conciousness… this book makes you think the same thing about an ant colony. A fucking ant colony!
I always thought of religion and the bible etc. as a tool to help people try and be good people. Anyway my point is this, I have noticed over the years that I have always lived my life by “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. After reading what you said I thought, it doesn’t matter where we learn to treat others as if they are us, it just matters that we learn it. People get to caught up on who is right or wrong and instead of realizing the important part, that they have good ideas, they argue that their idea is the best idea. Just like you said when you talked on Rawdog with Jim about how one person can change the world, if that person doesn’t care if they get credit. Who created the idea doesn’t matter, what matters is the idea itself, and I really hope people catch on to exactly what you realized that day. We are “cut from the same cloth” we just grew up and experienced things differently, shaping us into who we are today. So, people stop treating others as if they aren’t as good as you, or like they don’t matter, because you could have been them.
absolutely fucking phenomenal… your a constant reminder to keep thinking keep digging your someone with a flashlight but your not leading your shining it all around and letting us explore our own metaphorical surroundings. Joe your an inspiration dude don’t stop speaking your mind.