12/22/2018
This interview covers the progression to the point I am at, pointing to the destination I have reached although the true beauty belongs to the journey ahead. For this I invite all outreach in hopes for the integration of inspiration, progress acquires purpose when unity is the foundation.
Can I get an outline, or a short biography of your life, with which I can introduce you? (A brief history of your family of origin, where and how you grew up, what your mother and father and siblings were like.)
As the middle child growing up in a structured household I was met with constant love and discipline that fit well to the seemingly “normal” standard of living. My parents nurtured a marriage I now know to be a rarity amongst most adults, I was never involved in their arguments and they consistently expressed an unwavering love for their children. My older sister set the bar high for the expectations I would later find impossible to live up to. My younger brother, separated by a nine-year gap, was one for following the rules and maintaining the standard. I took a different path, constantly breaking the rules, sneaking out at night, refusing to apply myself in school and disregarding any parental law that was set. This caused the dynamic between my family and I to shift in a negative way. My father, still seen in my eyes as a great man, was very temperamental and threw hands with a heated anger that made it feel like boulders crashing upon me. It was my constant challenge of authority that fueled his rage, despite my respect for him; my inherent self-sabotage seemed to be the guiding light in my journey out of the nest.
What is your current age? What year were you born and where have you lived?
Since 1990, I have taken 28 extremely immersive trips around the sun which have brought me to residency in Florida, New Orleans, Hawaii, Iowa and now back home to Orange County, California.
What were the most important things you learned during your childhood and earlier years that helped you later in life?
Lessons from my father were plentiful in response to my rebellious ways. He taught me the power of respect and dignity and that without them your word means nothing, with them, your words hold the power to change the world. He taught me about strength and that helping another is important but can only be done efficiently once you’ve helped yourself. My mother, the most beautiful woman I’ve known taught me about love and critical thinking. She taught me that self-love is the foundation that must come before you are truly able to love anyone else. Also, that for every problem there is an answer, the trick is not to have all the answers but to know where and how to find them.
What were some challenges or disabilities you experienced and what did you gain or benefit from living with and through these?
My biggest challenge was independence. I left home at a relatively young age feeling like I simply could not live up to my parents’ expectations which drove me to seek solution on the opposite side of the country. Independence brought many lessons. The most rewarding lesson was learning that your problems, often seen as external forces, were simply a reflection of your inner world. You can run, try to change everything that makes up your material reality, but until you dive deep inside and fight your internal battle, the same problems with different faces will continue to consume you.
What were your biggest failures/mistakes in life, and what did you learn from them?
Drug use, I was a hardcore drug user for 12 years. I started with the use of meth finding the appeal to motivation more rewarding than the appeal of a wholesome life. I started shooting up, staying awake for more than a week at a time, dissecting the world around me, and writing philosophical interpretations of how I saw it. Despite its rewarding contribution to my knowledge and perspective, I ended up hating myself because of it. This led me to a new drug, one that would allow me to escape the whirlwind of thought that I constantly pursued. I started injecting heroin and paid the price for it multiple times. Over the course of four years I overdosed eight times, waking up in the hospital without any idea how I’d gotten there. I had two life threatening cases of sepsis and had to be resurrected twice with the use of a defibrillator. Despite my lack of concern with death there seemed to be some external force keeping me alive. The most severe instance is when I overdosed and was found four hours later ice cold, stiff and not breathing, the doctors undoubtedly perplexed called it a medical miracle when I was brought back to life unable to provide an explanation to how I am still alive. From this came a lot of lessons but the most important one is this, life can seem empty when simply trying to understand it, without a passionate mission to pull you forward and the ability to find happiness in the present moment we fall victim to the distractions and escapes found in abundance all around us.
Where is your favorite place you have ever been and why?
My own head, pardon the cliché nature of this answer but honestly, I have seen darkness unfathomable to the sane mind, without reaction, with a twisted sense of wonder seemingly impossible without psychotic break. That same mind that can find beauty and resolve in the infinite of quantum possibilities perceivable by the infatuation consistently pressed against the tainted lens I see the world through, it’s that mind that holds my favor. To see the pains of the world as the most beautiful gifts of transformation available allows an inherent complexity of positives, the path to understanding relies on the depths of perspective to mark the distance one has traveled down the endlessness of its length. Imagine how the light hits the eyes of this mind, the one that ascended the negatives of darkness, envision the purity of purpose found in its consistency. Knowing darkness is essential to appreciating light, how could this place of perpetual love and unwavering appreciation for all not be the only favorite you could claim.
What is your educational background?
Formal education is slim to none, I was kicked out of four high schools, completing none and pursued no college education. My education came from my personal commitment to bettering myself, I now read a book a week, attend seminars, review professionally structured teachings, and have committed myself to the development of an eternal love for knowledge. Although I hold no degree I research and find great interest in topics like neuroplasticity, neuromechanics, quantum mechanics, neuroimmunology, economics, theology, philosophy, government, psychology, sustainable energy, technology and multiple things having to do with engineering and computing.
What jobs/employment have you had? Which was the most fulfilling and why?
I have developed an indifferent outlook on the pursuit of a career. It seemed as though the more profitable the career path, the less I liked the person I would need to become. I have worked in the restaurant industry most of my life, flexibility, fast cash, and reliable opportunity paved the nomadic foundation I flourish upon while enjoying a non-commitment atmosphere. With this being said I have tended bars and waited tables across the country allowing the constant extraction of social insights. Being drastically empathic allows me to take on the perspectives of those I encountered. There is great wisdom in the un-biased observation of how others see the world. Also, as the socially addicted introvert that I am I needed some sort of social structure, seclusion benefits the building of ideas but collaboration is required for the expansion of them. With all of this considered my life as a waiter has been endlessly rewarding.
When you feel frustrated, angry, or out of control, what do you do to quickly and effectively return to your baseline emotion? (How do you, “Self-soothe”?)
It is hard to provide a solution to a problem I haven’t had in quite some time, I don’t think of this in terms of reaction. For example, when I get mad, I “react” by meditating or focusing on breath work. More so it is the concept of prevention. For example, if I hold a constant acceptance of all the world throws at me it will prevent me from reaching the debilitating mental state of anger. I achieve this through the separation of thought and thinker, these temporary thoughts of anger or hate, love or luck are momentary fragments of perception and should not be approached with attachment or any sense of solidarity.
What is a long-lasting, sustainable contribution you would like to make that lasts long after you are gone, and you do you want it to affect?
A new form of government that is not based on monetary motivations, through technological advancements allowing us to automate most physical labor positions we can allow people to focus on education and advancement. Education is the key. Currently we teach complacency and dependency. When imagining a world of thinkers, inventors, creators, artists, you can’t tell me we don’t have the resources or the capacity to do so. We simply lack the foundational concept that breathes light into progressive societies. The reason I study hours a day, the reason I don’t watch TV or play games, is because I am constantly envisioning what it would take to transform this world and its ruling parties into something sustainable, something beautiful. Democracy is a completely inefficient and ineffective way to run a government, the problem is, it’s the best thing anyone’s come up with so far.
What are the principles and core beliefs you base your decisions and your life upon? Are there any principles or core beliefs that you altered/improved over the years, as you grew, progressed, and improved? (Old beliefs that didn’t serve you/were harmful vs. new beliefs which benefited you and those around you a great deal.)
I used to believe happiness was the ultimate goal. I now realize that creation is. The correlation is that happiness breeds creativity so happiness isn’t the goal, it is the foundation in which all progress is achieved and all creation is inspired. I also used to be an existentialist, believing there were no contributing factors to life other than free will and science. After developing a fundamental understanding of how interconnected all energy and life is, I came to the realization that the universe is the unified force of one, lacking any sense of separation between itself. We simply perceive its subjective realities differently, but the more I learn the more I realize that it’s all simply one. I don’t identify that as God, for God holds intention. The universal power I speak of is malleable, yet equivocally powerful.
Do you have a morning routine which you adhere to in order to, “Prime your pump,” and empower yourself to be a better, more grounded, centered, focused version of yourself for the day?
Yes, meditation has been the most fundamental aspect to my transformation as an individual. I have taken multiple practices and tailored them to what I find most appealing. I start with entering an Alpha brain wave after about five minutes of focus on my breath and becoming the space around me. When Alpha state is entered, I reverse engineer something, sometimes a house, a remote control, or an auto mobile. I learn how things are built in order to do this effectively, then envision the mass production of whatever item it is. This confirms for me how efficient my brain is feeling and to be honest I find it fun. Next, I do some compassion and gratitude exercises gradually expanding the range of it, pretty common stuff. Then I do forgiveness, this is important because it is my gateway into theta level mindset, the deep meditative state we are most suggestible in. It is here that ascension and profound experiences take place (not necessarily often) but as thought disappears a sense of knowing takes its place. Here is where I cured my addiction, detached from the previous version of myself that I was held back by, and found the path my life is now guided by.
What are your favorite 3 quotes and why?
- “Intelligence means nothing without application.”
I actually said this in response to someone asking how I could be depressed if I was as intelligent as I seemed. Disregarding their question, this has been the guiding light to my commitment to a better world.
- “Never attribute to malice what can be identified as ignorance. People are far more stupid than they are evil.” I am one of those that believes in people to be inherently good, often confusing their selfish nature as ill intent towards another.
- “Words and thoughts can often point to the truth but never actually are the truth.” (Buddhist version) “the hand that points to the moon is not the moon.” This speaks wonders to me about the subjective and objective nature our “truths” hold. Even something as widely accepted as language is only so due to an objective truth. Subjectively we have all these personal beliefs and understandings that we believe to be true but on the grand scale of the universe these are mostly just fabricated, and then conditioned into our understanding, for life simply is.
Do you have a book list of your favorite, most helpful books? What are the books on your list and what were the most important points from each one?
A New Earth by: Eckhart Tolle. This book, along with his book: The Power of Now, were instrumental in my understanding of how awareness in the present moment is the only true form of living. Also, equally inspiring was his concept of the rise in collective consciousness and how it played a role in the future development of humanity.
Code of the Extraordinary Mind by: Vishen Lakhiani was also a beautifully written book in which I found two life-changing concepts. He introduces the word “brule”-a bullshit rule, talking about the conditioning of past generations and cultures and how these brules dictate most people’s lives, and also the steps needed to take them away and implement your own. Second was his concept of bending reality where he talks about the foundation of happiness found in the now partnered with a driving end goal to pull you forward, will seemingly make reality bend to your will.
Dalai Llama wrote a book Becoming Enlightened that was full of wisdom, talking about the worth of non-attachment, the natural degradation of all things since their birth and how there is as much beauty in death as there is in life, and the most profound to me personally was the concept of space and non-space and how it makes up everything, including our thoughts.
I read a lot so here are a few honorable mentions (only title) Autobiography of a Yogi, You are the Placebo Making Your Mind Matter, The Untethered Soul, When Things Fall Apart, The Alchemist, and Education Revolution, just to name a few.
Who were the most important influential people in your life so far? Who do you consider your mentors? (This can be someone in your life or someone you have never met.)
Siddhārtha Gautama (the Buddha). I know it might sound silly for I am not a Buddhist (I identify as humanist) but he proved that meditation is the access gate to immeasurable knowledge. Jacque Fresco, his brain child the Venus Project embodies his revolutionary vision of a resource-based economy, a fundamental approach to a global economy and sustainable future.
Who or what has been the biggest, most helpful contributors to your life?
This might shock you but I would have to say pain, not simply my pain, although it was undoubtedly my internal battle that opened my eyes to something much greater than myself, but more so the pain of others. Being naturally empathetic I have lived most of my life trying to understand the perspective of all those I encounter. The one consistency: everyone is broken. Not completely, and certainly not appearing so at all times but every single person has had to fight battles, receive emotional injury, and ascend their pain to improve their purpose. I find a poetic intricacy here that I can’t get enough of, and the pursuit of its understanding has been the single most rewarding experience of my life.
Is there anything I have not asked you that you would like to share that you believe could benefit others?
I would like to share the turning point of how I envisioned my future and why I feel everyone should do the same. It is the difference between end goals and means goals. Means goals are the means to an end. I need to get a job so I can have money. I need to find a partner to be happy. I want to travel to London so I can experience other cultures. Means goals often use the word “so” and are usually the means to an end, inadvertently placing our happiness on some distant future goal; if I finish school, I can get a job so I can make money so I can have a house so I can be independent so I can live life fully. This is a mental trap I urge you to get out of. Instead, set end goals for yourself: I will enjoy a life of abundance and happiness. I will have great worldly experiences. I will live a life of nourishment and exceptional health. The difference is the timeline. Don’t allow the future to be what holds your happiness or you will never hold it for yourself in the present. After all, it is a gift just waiting to be unwrapped.
What do you believe is the purpose of your life?
Without setting to many material or societal boundaries I see my life and my purpose as the constant pursuit of a better world. I find that my hearts purpose is the genuine caring for all living things and will continue to express that in all that I do. I feel like it is my minds purpose to constantly learn and grow, developing an eternal love for education and creativity. I find my souls purpose resides in nature and will continue to search deeper and deeper into the beautiful depths of my personal connection to it. My ultimate purpose is to help, and quite frankly that is the bottom line. That is why I continue to push myself to limits I once thought impossible.
What is your main wish/desire for the loved ones in your life?
To contribute to a common goal, to accept a policy of purpose, and get motivated behind the message of advancement and progress. Love and happiness create the foundation, but it is only that, the start. What we then build on top is the true measure of greatness.
Are there any questions in this interview you would re-word or are there any questions you would add to this interview to make it more helpful and effective?
I would ask, if presented with an opportunity to make a difference in this world, what would this offer look like, and how would you contribute to its advancement?
Do I have your permission to share/publish your interview?
Yes, and will only hope to connect with those touched by the words it contains.
Chrismc024@hotmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/chris.mcpherson.169
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