MONEY, POWER OR SELF-ACTUALIZATION?

PEOPLE are often generous in advice as to how to “get the most out of life,” humans being mortal and life being finite. But what is it that one should “get the most of” while alive? People who’ve lived in poverty would likely tend to say, “Money!” People whose lives have been determined by overwhelming events, like war survivors, would likely tend to say, “Power!” People who’ve lived their lives and never respected themselves or felt self-satisfaction, would likely say “Self-actualization!” So what should one “get the most of” while alive in order to “get the most out of life?”

While I don’t feel experienced enough to directly answer that question, I do have an indirect opinion based on the question, what happens when we die? We are born into a perplexing world that easily overwhelms all our newborn senses, making any “meaning” particularly difficult. It is only through years of experiences that we “make sense” of our lives, increasingly rewriting our collective experience as we age. At death, I believe, the mortal body is shed and our experience, our “sense” of this world, ends. What live on, in my opinion, is the soul. So, what is a soul? I hold that the soul is the collective experience of our mortal life, a sort of unfinished road map, that leads to another existence in another universe that “fits” our individual soul and continues the journey. So, for me, it’s not about money, power or self-actualization; it’s about the day-to-day journey and reflection on it. It’s about preparing the soul for the next journey.

In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.squ... — I begin to introduce this idea and what it means in terms of getting the most out of this and the whole of life, before and beyond this one. In the sequel which I’m completing tentatively called “Prophecy,” I go more into the human, relationship, environmental and global ramifications of this point-of-view, and, yes, they are great in amount, intensity and expectation. Won’t you try THE EDGE OF MADNESS and see for yourself?

The Edge of Madness

THE EDGE OF MADNESS is available in printed, digital and audiobook formats and has been purchased by K. Simmons Productions for manga, animation and cinematic treatment.