We are very fortunate to be living in the the third great leap forward in the history of mankind after the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, namely the information revolution. With the ongoing development of the microprocessor and the internet, vast quantities of information and multimedia are available to me sat at my desk at the touch of a button. I am old enough to remember having to rummage around in libraries to research school projects and degree modules.
With all this knowledge to hand, I am often astonished at the general level of ignorance amongst the population at large. If something is not of any immediate interest, the majority seem prepared to ignore it. People seem to just drift through life without ever reaching out to discover whether there is any more to it.
I have reluctantly concluded that adversity has an essential role not only in evolution but in human development. The reason there are still some tribes living a Stone Age existence in the Amazon Basin is not because they are somehow less intelligent, but because the jungle meets all their immediate needs for food, water, shelter and medicine - there is no incentive to develop. Civilisation is the result of adversity - a challenging environment that does not of itself allow survival.
My own struggle for self-development is the result of adversity - not fitting in to the environment I found myself in, either at home, at school or on the street. As a result, as a child I would seek refuge in the one safe place I knew of - the library! It was there that my thirst for knowledge was born. I have never had some guardian angel, wise uncle or mystical guru take me under their wing, show me what was wrong with me or where to find truth, so as a result I have always been my own best psychiatrist, doctor, mentor and spiritual guide, seeking out knowledge and instruction where it seemed right.
As human beings, we have in just 12 short millennia accrued a vast reservoir of knowledge that requires only for an individual to reach out and explore it, yet it seems to require adversity to push an individual to do so. My vocation as a hypnotherapist, public speaker and stress counsellor, and my personal spirituality was only realised after a long journey of discovery - no talent scout spotted me and no careers fair stall attracted me. I discovered it myself! I wonder how many other people out there simply drift through life never finding out what they're truly meant to be, experiencing only "quiet desperation" as the poet William Blake put it.
The bottom line is this - don't wait for opportunity to knock, it may do so when you're out! Rather, when you hear it, smell it or see it from your window, run out and grasp it, and get more information. We are here to undertake a journey of discovery not to just drift along with the current - it might end up in a backwater! Find out if other people feel what you feel, why this happens in that circumstance and the philosophy that fits your experience. Explore the very nature of reality itself while you still have the consciousness to do so!
