"Power is like a drug. The need for either is unknown to anyone who has not tried them, but after the initiation the dependency and need for ever larger doses is born, as are the denial of reality and the return to childish dreams of omnipotence. The syndrome produced by protracted and undisputed power is clearly visible - a distorted view of the world, dogmatic arrogance, the need for adulation, convulsive clinging to the levers of command, and contempt for the law."

Primo Levi - The Drowned and the Saved

"There is a special quality of stillness in a person who encounters the shadow wholeheartedly. Your body may relax in their company because it understands, in the subtle communications of their presence, that nothing is excluded in themselves, therefore nothing in you can be rejected. Such a person, who has given up guarding against the shadow, who has come to wear their scars with dignity, no longer squirms from discomfort or bristles at suffering. They no longer brace in avoidance of conflict. They carry a deep willingness to dance with the inconstancy of life. They've given up distancing as a strategy, and made vulnerability their ally."

Excerpt from “Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home” by Toko-pa Turner

"It is hard to get enough of something that almost works."

Vincent Felitti, MD

"Nothing records the effects of a sad life so graphically as the human body."

Naguib Mahfouz - Palace of Desire

Wilhelm Reich once wrote that of course it is true that sex is not everything in life. we could even add the additional fact that, in healthy people, sex is not The subject for constant discussion and is not the prime centre of thought.

It goes without saying that the integrity of electric wiring in a factory is the prerequisite of its functioning well, says Reich by way of illustration. Yet, those who work in the factory never give a thought to the wiring itself. They are completely concentrated on their work. The electricity and its wiring are, indeed, not "everything". There are other more important matters such as producing what factory was set up to produce. But, for the sake of argument, let us assume that there is a short in the wiring, the flow of electricity is interfered with, the machines stop, and with that, the work.

Now, the worker´s attention becomes centered exclusively on the wiring and the short, and how it can be fixed. But what if the foreman or the union representative were to argue that this silly electrical theory exaaggerates the role of the wiring. It is true that the wiring is necessary, but that is not everything. We have other interests, there are other factors to be considered. In this case, argues Reich, the foreman et al. would be laughed at, for one´s first job would be to find and repair the short before one could "think of other things."

In such a situation, suggests Reich, is the sexual problem in our society. The flow of biological energy, of sexual energy, is disturbed in the vast majority of people. This is the reason why the bio-social mechanism of society does not function well or at all. Thus our irrational politics, irresponsibility of the masses of the people, biopathies, murder and manslaughter, in brief, the emotional plague. If everyone were able to fulfil his natural sexual needs without disturbance, there would be no talk about the sexual problem. The one would be correct in saying that there are other interests.

Many contemporary writers have written meaningfully that the sexual revolution of our time has been almost entirely abortive. Though society adopted more tolerant view, we would be naive to assume that this constitutes anything more than a superficial and mild liberal reform. In one way or another, the basic diseased attitude about sexuality still persists.

"It is useless to seek the soul of things beneath their surface, for their surface is their soul." (Aleister Crowley)

Somewhere in the writings of Swami Vivekananda, a beautiful anecdote is told about his own teacher Shri Ramakrishna, who had been accused of insanity. So far from defending himself against this slur, he agreed, adding however: "Of course I am insane. So are you! and everybody else! The only difference betweeen our insanities is that I am mad about God. It is the only thing I care about. You are mad about money, sex, possessions, prestige, etc. Mine is a divine insanity. What is yours? And which of the two do you really believe is best?

on se zbláznil z osamění....aha, tak to jsem tu knihu i film asi pochopil jinak :-)

CRS: Ten scénář psal Kubrick na základě stejnojmenného románu od Stephena Kinga, byly vněm drobné úpravy oproti knižní předloze, ale konkrétně psychologický vývoj postav se knihy celkem drží.

Taková špetka pátečního hnidopišství ;)

Když psal Stanley Kubrick scénář k filmu Osvícení, dospěl k závěru, že se hlavní postava, Jack, během několika měsíců v odloučení od ostatních, jen se svojí rodinou, z toho osamění musí zbláznit.
My jsme plus minus v jeho situaci už rok a držíme se. To mi, v dnešním šíleném světě, přijde jako dobrá zpráva.

Look for the flower to bloom in the silence that follows the storm, not till then. It shall grow, it will shoot up, it will make branches and leaves and form buds, while the storm continues, while the battle lasts. But not till the whole personality of the man is dissolved and melted - not until it is held by the divine fragment which has created it, as a mere subject for grave experiment and experience - not until the whole nature has yielded and become subject unto its higher Self, can the bloom open. Then will come a calm such as comes in a tropical country after the heavy rain, when Nature works so swiftly that one may see her action. And in the deep silence the mysterious event will occur which will prove that the way has been found. Call it by what name you will, it is a voice that speaks where there is none to speak - it is a messenger that comes, a messenger without form or substance, or it is the flower of the soul that opened.

(Mabel Collins - The Light on the Path)