Friedrich Nietzsche wrote "God is dead". Why do I ask "God is dead?" in the title of this article as a question, instead of writing it as a statement? Because there is much more to it than first meets the eye. The 'problems' of Philosophy are not always solved: They are news that stays news. Metaphysics never becomes irrelevant. It continuously asks us to reflect on the ultimate nature of reality and existence.
How do we know anything? Is there a God? I used to be a committed, fully subscribed atheist. Why? I have an Masters of Arts Degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, on the philosophy of science and medicine. I have been an academic surgeon and a scientist. I have a PhD in Natural Sciences. You can't be a doctor and a scientist and believe in God right? I was brought up as a Catholic. My experience of that as a child was of someone (a priest), who always seemed to me to be full of ego, claiming to be speaking on behalf of a God, who was described as the ultimate judge in condemning sin. Established religion was, for me, full of dogma: As though God were a critical parent or headmaster, and all the priests were the teachers in the school of judgement who were more than keen to pile shame, fear, and judgement on me, you, and on everyone else.
Yet I sensed something. A feeling of awe, of wonder, of connectedness. I felt it during still and quiet moments, like a soft, quiet, loving voice speaking to me. You will be familiar with that sense of awe and wonder: When you watch a sunset, view a limitless sea-scape, when you look up at the starry nighty sky, or stand atop a mountain looking around you. That sense of wonder is God. As a child I thought that the two options were either to be a believer or an atheist. There is another way. I don’t mean agnosticism. The other way is called spirituality: This means ‘waking up,’ looking inside of your Self, realising that “All is well” right now, and that you are worthy, unique, loved, loveable, innocent, powerful, and limitless. God then, for me, now, is simply a short word for the creative intelligence that is the ‘great unseen’ force that sets the path for every subatomic particle, all the way up in scale to every galaxy in the Universe. For convenience let's call this force God. God is unknowable. God cannot be put into words. So we use a word for what cannot be described. God is a feeling. A better word then, would be love. But it could equally be compassion or purpose. God is whatever you want them to be.
So why did we kill God in the Age of Enlightenment? Why did Nietzsche declare that "God is dead"? So what is at play here? What’s the underlying theme? The underlying theme is the ego. The ego is who we think we are. The ego is simply a negative thought pattern from your conscious mind, which is fast asleep, that wants to control everything out of fear.
We are terrified of not knowing what the future holds. Yet real power and limitless possibility consists of letting go of the ego and allowing the Universe to take over through some kind of inner higher power. This process requires us to take a journey of Self-discovery: A 'Hero's Journey'.
What is at stake if we don’t believe and study metaphysics? This branch of philosophy is the only thing that Artificial Intelligence can’t touch. If you want to be employed in five years time you will need to become creative and work in the arts or philosophy. The arts are a way of accessing the Truth about our higher power (who we truly are) as creativity is like a conversation with ‘God’, where they remind you of who you are. Madeleine L'Engle wrote "We seek God until He finds us." Neville Goddard wrote "And when you discover the true God, you will find that He is all within your own wonderful BEing as your own wonderful human imagination. You’ll walk in the consciousness of being God... Ideas are impressed on the subconscious through the medium of feeling. No idea can be impressed on the subconscious until it is felt, but once felt – be it good, bad (nothing is either good or bad) or indifferent – it must be expressed. Feeling is the one and only medium through which ideas are conveyed to the subconscious. Therefore, the man who does not control his feeling may easily impress the subconscious with undesirable states. By control of feeling is not meant restraint or suppression of your feeling, but rather the disciplining of Self to imagine and entertain only such feeling as contributes to your happiness. Control of your feeling is all important to a full and happy life." God, then, is simply man's awareness of BEing. Neville Goddard continued "If man would give up his belief in a God apart from himself, recognise his awareness of BEing to be God, this awareness fashions itself in the likeness and image of its conception of itself, he would transform his world from a barren waste to a fertile field of his own liking. The day man does this he will know that he and his father are one, but his father is greater than he. He will know that his consciousness of BEing is one with that which he is conscious of BEing, but that his unconditioned consciousness of BEing (your higher power or true Self) is greater than his conditioned state, or his conception of himself (your ego or false self). When man discovers his consciousness to be the impersonal power of expression, which power eternally personifies itself and his conceptions of himself, he will assume and appropriate that state of consciousness which he desires to express (your higher power or true Self). In so doing he will become that state in expression."
BEing is the immaculate conception through cocreation, like Mary, Jesus’ mother, of your saviour. Your saviour is you: The new you, your higher power. You were born with infinite possibility, and then the world came along and created fear and all your limiting beliefs by telling you that you are not good enough.
Neville Goddard wrote “Each person is born with an infinite power, against which no Earthly force is of the slightest significance.”But as we don't feel worthy we allow ourselves to forget who we are.
God is not dead - they never lived. As Jesus said "The Kingdom of God is inside you." The Bible, then, is a series of metaphors and parables for human psychology. You are what you have been looking for. We just needed some concept of God to tease us out of our ego...
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote "God is dead"
Rabbi Rosenberg said in 'Wish I Was Here' "God can be whatever you want him to be. You're getting tangled in semantics. Try not to get caught up in the God who wants you to be kosher, or the guy that wants you to study the Torah. Start with God as the infinite Universe, and imagine that force may be trying desperately to guide you through the most challenging part of your life."
The solution to a peaceful life full of joy is twofold: To find out who you are; and to get clarity on how life works. As Kurt said in 'Vice' "As the world becomes more and more confusing, we tend to focus on the things that are right there in front of us, while ignoring the massive forces that actually change and shape our lives." As Bob Harris said in 'Lost in Translation' "The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you."
Ego and the human psyche
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The Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and philosophical movement that occurred in Europe, especially Western Europe, in the 17th and 18th centuries, with global influences and effects. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centred on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as natural law, liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.
The Enlightenment was preceded by the Scientific Revolution and the work of Francis Bacon and John Locke, among others. Some date the beginning of the Enlightenment to the publication of René Descartes' Discourse on the Method in 1637, featuring his famous dictum, Cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"). From a philosophical viewpoint this is incorrect - as most of our conscious thoughts are not our own (they are the language of fear - otherwise known as the ego).
"I AM" is the result of dropping our of our fearful ego minds and connecting with a higher intelligence - our true Self, which is one with the Universe. The ego (the thinking mind) is characterised by separation. What Descartes should have said is "I free my mind from thinking, therefore I AM aware."
Others cite the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution and the beginning of the Enlightenment. European historians traditionally date its beginning with the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715 and its end with the 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution. Many historians now date the end of the Enlightenment as the start of the 19th century, with the latest proposed year being the death of Immanuel Kant in 1804.
The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the power of religious authorities. The Enlightenment was marked by an increasing awareness of the relationship between the mind and the everyday media of the world, and by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy - an attitude captured by Kant's essay Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?, where the phrase sapere aude ('dare to know') can be found.
Do you dare to know the Truth? What if the Truth was unknowable? What if Truth was a feeling? Is that why, as Albert Einstein declared, "Science without religion is lame?
The Real Age of Enlightenment
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Faith
Fear lies behind all our limiting beliefs. The antidote to fear is Faith. When I believe 100% in my higher power I am zero percent afraid. I am unconquerable. The converse is also true.
Faith is not blind, it's visionary. Saint Augustine said "Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this Faith is to see what you believe." Such beauty! "Faith can move mountains" (Matthew 17:20): It's the only real power that can. Thomas Aquinas wrote "To one who has Faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without Faith, no explanation is possible."
Victor Hugo wrote "A Faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing." Life was full of woe until I woke up to the Truth. Henry David Thoreau wrote "The smallest seed of Faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness." Faith is not linked to happiness, for happiness is ephemeral. Faith is linked to joy. Joy is the soul of happiness.
Sören Kierkegaard wrote "Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further... The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."
Bringing it back to science, almost, Albert Einstein wrote “I believe in intuitions and inspirations...I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am.”
To read my article about Faith click here:
Human evolution
Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, who studied natural sciences in Cambridge, wrote the book ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’. This book was the foundation of evolutionary biology in the scientific literature. Darwin wrote “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey, a holy place.
It is not 100% sure that Darwin wrote this particular quote. What is true is that Leon C. Megginson, Professor of Management at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, wrote in 1963 that “According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.” Significantly, Megginson was a prolific author of textbooks and a prominent teacher in management studies.
If we fail to evolve as a species in response to our changing world, we will not survive. Like the Terminator, in the iconic movie of the same name, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will replace us if we remain a knowledge economy underpinned by the limitations of the sciences. Philosophy, imagination, and creativity are the three interconnected characteristics that we possess as humans that machines will never be able to possess. We need to free ourselves by making AI machines our servants. Like the ego, AI is a terrible master, but a wonderful servant.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Elon Musk recently said with regards to Artificial Intelligence (AI) that: “We will have something that is, for the first time smarter than the smartest human... It’s hard to say exactly what that moment is, but there will come a point where no job is needed... You can have a job if you wanted to have a job for personal satisfaction. But AI would be able to do everything... AI will become the most disruptive force in history.” He seems to be capturing the zeitgeist of ours hopes but mostly that of our fears. Is Elon Musk correct?
In short, no.
In fact Musk is so far from the Truth: True creativity, imagination, consciousness, love, wisdom, and Truth are all uniquely human gifts, which all come from our ability to feel emotions, as feeling Truth, joy and love are our guides and come from the soul. Creativity is the intuitively guided action that one takes as a result of choosing to be our highest Self in every moment. Computers can never create anything new: The best that they can do is a pastiche of what we feed them with our creativity. These distinctly human attributes come from looking inwards, connecting with our deepest Selves and doing the inner work of remembering who we really are: Infinite beings. Have you forgotten who you truly are? No machine can replace us or those qualities that we possess, as computers do not have a soul, they cannot feel what the human heart feels, and as such can't connect with the immutable laws and infinite intelligence and consciousness of the Universe. These laws are no more trangressable than the laws of physics, which is in its infancy compared to what our understanding of the Universe may reveal when we are prepared to do the inner work and have simple, short daily practices. AI is intelligent and knowledegable but it is not smarter than an awakened soul: AI has no wisdom and does not know what Truth is as to do so would require computers to have feelings, which they don't and can't have. AI can not 'do everything', and to say so says more about the person that it says about AI. It shows a total lack of understanding of how the Universe works and what the true heights of expanded consciousness entail, look and feel like. Confucius wrote “He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.” Is anyone asking you the right questions Mr Musk? You seem so far off the mark and the Truth. Love, as Einstein suggests, is the most 'disruptive' and powerful force in human history: And it only disrupts fear and ignorance. Love explains everything and gives meaning to life.
Why do we keep putting our Faith in something 'other' or 'greater' than ourselves? First it was institutionalised religion. Then science. Then political doctrine. Now it's AI computing. Is it because don’t we have Faith in ourselves to save us? Truth is a great remembering of who we are: We are one with the Universe and when we remember this we become limitless BEings, without our limiting assumptions, who just don't need AI to give us the wisdom that we seek. AI, however, may be useful to do the dull jobs or those that don't require one to be 'smart'. AI may become a great servant but it would be a terrible master, as it just isn't smart enough to demonstrate true creativity, imagination, love, wisdom, and Truth. AI stops at the physics, and doesn't get to the end of the book shelf that is metaphysics. The origin of the word 'metaphysics', is from the Greek 'after the physics'. It has been suggested that the term might have been coined by first century BC Aristotelian editor who arranged the books about this discipline on the shelf after the books on physics.
The mistake that Elon Musk made is that he simply doesn't see the 'meta' (the power of the Universe channelled through us), only the matter (physics). That is why his comments are so offensive. Perhaps he doesn't believe in himself, coming from a place of lack rather than abundance, which is often the driving force in billionaires, but he should believe in us.
As Einstein wrote “Two things are infinite: the Universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the Universe.” By stupid he meant that we don't learn from timeless Truths. Why don't we learn? Because we are asleep to the lessons from the Universe that have been repeated by the great sages throughout human history. Einstein wrote “Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.” Computers don't have hearts, so they don't feel emotions. Emotions may sometimes be seen as a hindrance by those who live in fear, which is most of us, but they are actually essential guides to wisdom and Truth.
Computers can only reiterate what we have told them. As Einstein wrote “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world... The aim [of education] must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service to the community their highest life problem.” For this we need to feel, have intuitive thoughts, take action, and create. As Einstein wrote “Nothing happens until something moves.” Creativity is action.
So, the Truth is simple. Love is who we are. We have just forgotten. Our choices are simple - to ask ourselves in every moment "What would love choose?" Feelings are a channel for the Truth. Each of us has an inward feeling that guides us to Truth at the level of our higher Self (our higher power), when we can see past all the emotions that are not from real unconditonal love.
We have to come back to the state of BEing that is BEing love. Nothing matters apart from coming back to that. Truth is that which contains joy and love. The highest thought is always that thought which contains joy. The clearest words are those that contain Truth. The highest feeling is that which contains love. It is feeling that leads us to wisdom and Truth. This is how we will solve our interpersonal, social, interracial, religious and environmental problems. We can’t fall back into fear about the past and impending doom about the future. All the heroes are already in place. We just need to reconnect with our Universal guidance and intuition, lean away and start responding from wisdom and our open hearts, and not reacting to everything using mindless egoic Tweets à la Elon.
The potential quest to develop artificial wisdom has been a topic of interest in the field of AI for many years. Researchers have been working to create machines that can ‘think, learn, and make decisions’ like humans. They just can't do it: Truth, wisdom, love, creativity, and imagination are ours. They are gifts that only we can receive. We should not be so hasty to want to let them go, return them and get a refund.
Voltaire would warn us against this “The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.” This is the starting place of wisdom, Truth, and Faith.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Our 'civilised' Western Society expects us to demonstrate external measures of success to prove that we are worthy, adorning our ego. All our relationships are then ruined before they even start, as we grew up thinking that those that should have loved us the most (our parents and guardians) have betrayed us as they did not love us unconditionally, and that is confirmed by every person and situation that we ever encounter. So we seek relationships that re-enact our 'scripts' or 'toxic schemas' of our childhoods. We don't trust anyone. We are even betrayed by institutionalised religion as it involves so much toxic shame and guilt, condemning what it sees as sin, and creates punishing Gods who judge us and send us to hell, like many of our earthly dinosaur institutions. At some point in the non-too-distant future, our descendants and anthropologists will be astounded at our 'belittle, blame, and shame' culture.
Friedrich Nietzsche was appointed Professor of University of Basel at age 24, the youngest Professor ever at that University. Nietzsche later wrote that "God is dead", having a total lack of trust in the moralising (conditionally loving) God featured in much institutionalised religion. However, without God he felt that the future of man might spiral into a society of nihilism, devoid of any meaning. Nietzsche's father was a Lutherian Minister (Christian Faith), whom he was very close to, but who died after suffering from a brain tumour, when Nietzsche was 4 years old. His younger brother died a year later. He had a sombre, lonely childhood, effectively full of childhood trauma that no-one was cognisant of at the time. Many medical institutions have still not woken up to such truths. Incredible in 2023, but true.
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche's first book was called rather ominously 'The Birth of Tragedy.' He had to resign from his post at Basel University a decade after his appointment, then spending most of his time walking, thinking, and writing, finding solace in his pursuit of philosophy. He had a failed relationship and a complete nervous breakdown a decade after leaving the University. Through his writing, he loosened the constraining bolts of all contemporary philosophies along with all notions of Truth and falsity, writing "God is dead, and we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives. Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become Gods simply to appear worthy of it?" Perhaps he said this as he himself had killed God in his mind. This wasn't a celebration for him. It was a stark warning of what it meant. If you can't trust that your parents and loved ones won't abandon you because of your experience of childhood, then how can you trust in the unconditional love of a God or higher power that appears equally elusive and conditionally loving?
With his philosophy collapsed all of European morality and its values. He both predicted and feared that without the replacement of religion, humanity would be left to struggle with no clear system or human experience of meaning and devolve into widespread despair. He said "There are no facts, only interpretations." He did not believe in an Ultimate Truth.
Nietzsche felt that the creative arts could be used to create deeper Truths and fill the void of higher connection and meaning, especially where it could detach the individual from dependence on any collective experience or cultural mechanisms as these were stale and lacklustre, and focus on the individual pursuit of creative expression (I agree with this, and journalling or writing is often recommended by therapists for mental wellbeing) and subjective greatness, placing the creation of meaning squarely in the hands of each individual. There are two camps of people in this world: Those that create (writing, philosophy, coaching and service to awakening others is creation) and those that consume. In other words heaven or hell, respectively. I now know which camp I like living in.
The subjective greatness that Nietzsche describes was sometimes translated as the 'Superman', who follows their own desires unapologetically, exhibiting selfishness, lack of humility, aggressiveness, craving power and grandiosity (a pretty accurate description of the false self - the ego). Do you know anyone like this? Or rather, do you know of anyone not like this? So, his 'Superman' was a perfect description of the ego - the terrified 7-year old us that rules and ruins our lives unless we become conscious of it through psychotherapy. Our world is full of 7-year-olds fighting each other. Aristotle wrote “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” That man needs Superman to help him as he is only a frightened child. However, you do not. You just need to remember who you are.
Nietzsche set up this 'Superman' (the ego) as an idealised version of one's self - a perfect and powerful being, who has overcome all their fears. In therapy and recovery groups this is called 'King Baby' as it is really a 7-year old child's version of what saviour would look like. The "I want, I want , I want: Me, me me" way of being that has come to represent who most of us are today. He wrote "The world is will to power, and nothing besides."
Nietzsche on The Superman in 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'
I think that I know where Nietzsche got his idea of Superman from. When I was a child I tried to drown myself as I could not bear the overwhelming pain of my dysfunctional family dynamic. I was rescued by a passer by who appeared out of no-where. A strong man dived into the pool and pulled me up out of the water. He was my superman, as I didn't have a father figure. After trauma therapy I realised that the only Superman that I have been looking for is the adult me. We can learn to 'reparent our Selves'. We do this by cocreating and coparenting with God: That is with our higher power. We don't need Superman to swoop in. That's where Nietzsche got it most wrong - he was looking outside of himself for a hero. We can ask others to help us to search for the hero inside our selves - humanity is not unkind, despite popular opinion, which is force-fed like grain to geese in order to make foie gras, by the tabloid press. We are not geese!
Nietzche said that this ideal version of ourselves could never be reached, so it was insatiable: This insatiability is the basis of all addiction as described in the incredibly insightful and totally game-changing book by Dr Gabor Maté 'In the Realms of Hungry Ghosts.' The human condition that is the ubiquitous coping mechanism for the pain of the dysfunctionality of our current world. You are always left wanting more, until you destroy your self completely. You are an insatiable 'hungry ghost.' Dr Maté promotes Self understanding as the first key to healing and wellness. Gabor Maté says that 90 percent of us are addicts, and the other 10 percent are kidding themselves. You don't believe it? Try taking the ipad off your 3 year old and watch their response... Good luck with that! In his book 'The Myth of Normal' Dr Maté has said that virtually all disease is actually a natural reflection of life in an abnormal culture, as we grow further and further apart from our true Selves. The pathway to healing is reconnection. Why do we not all know this in 2023? Why do we have to crash before we open our eyes to Truth?
Nietzsche did say that it was power over one's self, with psychological and spiritual self-mastery and continuous growth that was where the answers would be. But he thought that the driving force was a continued self-dissatisfaction with a need for self-improvement. He thought that this was the answer to overcoming the problem of meaning and value in life. This seems like the worst of all worlds. It involved humans struggling towards, but never reaching an idealised version of themselves, which would make their lives worthwhile. Unlike his predecessor Arthur Schopenhauer, who proposed that suffering is best minimised, Nietzsche argued that suffering was a good thing and should be leaned into as it was fuel for amassing strength and power. In my recent article on 'Emotions' I suggest that while pain is essential to Self-discovery, suffering is optional. Suffering drove Nietzsche to insanity and the total collapse of his psyche. His fear drove him to a personal hell. He died shortly afterwards.
Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, considered one of his greatest books, outlines his theories of the will to power and the need to conquer fear. Here is my take on fear. His total mental breakdown after seeing a horse being flogged in the street by its owner and in his final moments of lucidity Nietzsche hugged and cried to the horse "I understand you, I understand you." His final moments appeared to be an act of complete contradiction to his own philosophy, expressing compassion for weakness. He fell into complete madness and catatonia. His mind had finally collapsed under the weight of itself. His mind had gone too far into itself, into his own ego, and he had become disconnected from other people, into an illusory world, just like a modern day internet troll or tabloid hack. According to his own standards, his life was a failure. He had made very little of himself after such a promising start. His work, after his death gained a massive following, some of which would lead to horrific misguided and ill-conceived applications. Sadly, the worst of these echo through modern culture every day both literally and symbolically. He suggested that we should overcome and sacrifice our Self, our health and our sanity in the hope of becoming something greater and more aesthetically pleasing and to become self-serving. His suffering, and the continual pursuit of desire and self-destruction in the insatiable pursuit of an unattainable end-goal are an excellent example of how not to live. And his tragic end was a testament to, and example of, that. His predictions of modern issues were accurate, but because of his philosophies not despite them. He saw life as negative and meaningless. Why would that be anyone's goal? That seems to be the modern human condition. Nothing is ever good, meaningful, valuable, beautiful, or strong enough! When will we see sense? We are doing it all wrong.
Nietzsche said in 'When Nietzsche Wept' “Is it my duty to impose a Truth on others that they wish not to know?… Sometimes teachers must be hard. Life is hard and dying is hard. The task is to reduce stress and enhance the bodies ability to heal. A prophet is: A teacher of bitter truths. An unpopular prophet. This is what I am. I am dedicated to making things difficult for my invisible body of students. I place myself in God’s hands. Who can say that this is not a form of the Truth.? I dare to say it. Such fervour for the Truth… It is not the Truth that is holy but he search for one’s own Truth. Can there be a more sacred act than self-inquiry? My philosophical work is built on sand. My views shift continually. But one of my granite sentences is “Become who you are” and how can one discover who and what one is without the Truth? True choice can blossom only in the sunshine of Truth. How can it be otherwise?.. I love that which makes us more than we are.”
Nietzsche tragically, and I believe mistakenly, only saw what one could not have as being the goal. He never got it, and he died as a result. If one does not agree that suffering is essential in the name of 'progress' then the rest is based on a false premise and is simply misdirection. He was clearly confused and his work was often self-contradictory despite his brilliant mind. He never 'thought with his heart.' I believe that here is such a thing as Truth. Nietzsche was his own nemesis. When you live in ego, you are behind enemy lines. The purpose of healing is daily ego deflation. Nietzsche did not love himself, as no-one had ever shown him how to love, and no-one loves your false self anyway. He had never heard of letting go, surrender, humility, or compassion. His philosophy and views were misappropriated, misread and exploited by his sister, the Nazis, Trump-ists, Jordan Peterson, and the like, and also it seems by internet trolls. He was totally misguided, as a result of his childhood trauma. As a result he couldn't see the Truth, despite his massive intellect. The mind is the very first stage of the Transformative Journey, but one needs to drop out of our mind and into our hearts to find real wisdom and Truth. His fear (ego) told him that he had to look outside to find Superman. This is why he ultimately had no real personal power. He never connected with his own real Self. The Kingdom of God is within. We are whole and perfect. Recovery is simply realising that and integrating our fractured parts - our wounded inner child, our shadow into our highest Self (right hand side of the table below).
Nietzsche needed an external Superman as he didn't have Faith in himself. He was living every day as his wounded inner child: His 7-year-old self instead of choosing to be his higher Self (higher power)...
As for the myths that have grown up around Nietzsche, the last word surely should belong to the man himself. “I am frightened,” he wrote, “By the thought of what unqualified and unsuitable people may invoke my authority one day. Yet that is the torment of every teacher… He knows that, given the circumstances and accidents, he can become a disaster as well as a blessing to mankind.” Thank you Nietzsche for challenging us to think and for this valuable lesson, and may your soul rest in peace. Everyone can become a blessing to mankind. We simply need to drop out of our minds and into our heart. The one thing that Nietzsche got right, other than creativity being a way of communing with something higher, is that he challenged us to pave a new direction for ourselves. Are you ready to start your Journey inside? Superman isn't real. You are the light that the world needs. I see you, I hear you. You are enough. It's time for you to step (again) into the light. It's time for you to chage the world.
Purpose
We have an inner purpose, which is to awaken. We also have an outer purpose. When our inner and outer purpose is aligned, all is well. For me, my outer purpose is to guide you to awaken to your true Self. The Masters of the ages have all said the same.
Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds in human history wrote "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."
Dr Wayne Dyer wrote "If you want to feel connected to your own purpose, know this for certain: Your purpose will only be found in service to others, and in being connected to the something far greater than your mind/body/ego." The question I ask the ego is "Why are you trying to be so big like Superman, you are not so small?"
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' I ask you the same question. Albert Schweitzer wrote "I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve."
Mahatma Gandhi said "The best way to find your Self is to lose yourself in the service of others." Florence Nightingale wrote "God spoke to me and called me to His Service. What form this service was to take the voice did not say." 'God' is simply the still inner voice inside you. If you follow it then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.
Florence Nightingale said “If I could give you information of my life it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I have never refused God anything.”
We need to use our superpowers - we don't need a 'Superman' to save us. Our superpowers are love, joy, peace, connection, humility, courage and service. Mahatma Gandhi said "I reduce my Self to zero... All other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.”
Tagore wrote “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
St Francis of Assisi wrote “Keep a clear eye toward life's end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God's creature. What you are in his sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this Earth, you can take nothing that you have received...but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.”
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote “So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.”
Jesus was a man: You have his personal power within you
Here is the secret: Jesus was simply a human being. The difference between him and us is that he came only from a place of love. We all have that potential but we don't see the path out of fear and into love. The path is here.
In Matthew 10:39 Jesus said “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”
In Mark 9:34 Jesus said "But [the disciples] kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
In Mark 10:45 Jesus said "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
In John 13:34 Jesus said “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you.”
In Matthew 23:11 Jesus said “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.”
Mother Teresa wrote “I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.”
Meet the soul walking upon your path
I have heard that the only difference between us and God is that we struggle to see that our path, our purpose, our blueprint of how we will serve is already set. As Einstein said "God does not play dice."
Kahlil Gibran wrote in The Prophet On Self-Knowledge:
For Self is a sea boundless and measureless...
Say not "I have found the path of the soul."
Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path"...
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.
Be Self-less
Confucius wrote "If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone else." Martin Luther King Jr. said “Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve... You only need a heart full of Grace. A soul generated by love.” Anne Frank wrote "No one has ever become poor by giving." Mother Teresa wrote “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”" She wrote these beautiful words:
“The Simple Path
Silence is Prayer
Prayer is Faith
Faith is Love
Love is Service
The Fruit of Service is Peace”
Conclusions
Trust that there is a plan for your life. An almighty power would not want us to be in service to them, but to serve each other. Meditate quietly on this and the answers will come. My gift will be to be in service to you, for your awakening to your highest Self, as your guide, with no expectation, with humility, infinite compassion and unconditional love. I see you, I hear you. You don't need 'Superman' to save you, you just need a gentle reminder of who you really are, without the limitations of fear. You are Clark Kent and Superman is inside YOU!
Nietzsche's philosophy was to “Become who you are.” This is why he left such an indelible imprint on the history of philosophical thought. God is simply man's awareness of BEing. BEing is the immaculate conception through cocreation, like Mary, Jesus’ mother, of your saviour. Your saviour is you: The new you: Your higher power. I told you that God can't be put into words, but you can feel it, can't you?
Neville Goddard wrote “Each person is born with an infinite power, against which no earthly force is of the slightest significance.”But as we don't feel worthy we allow ourselves to forget who we are. God is not dead - they never lived. As Jesus said "The Kingdom of God is inside you." The Bible, then, is a series of metaphors and parables for human psychology. You are what you have been looking for.
Neville Goddard wrote. “The one and only God is your awareness.“ He pretty much sums it up.
My conclusion is not that God is dead: They never lived. It is that we are 'dead' (or asleep), until we take the Hero's Journey, and awaken to who we truly are. Be Self-less, not self-obsessed, let go, and you will evolve into BEing your higher power as surely as day follows night. You are unconquerable. You are the master of your fate; you are the captain of your soul. 'If...' only you could change the world: Well guess what? You can! Let me be your guide...
My gift is to be your guide. Let me know if you would like to continue this conversation...
Email me: hello@transformativelifecoach.co.uk
“Transformative life coaching uniquely creates and holds the space for you to see your self afresh, with clarity, and step into new ways of BEing, which will transform how you perceive and intuitively create your world. My work is to guide you to raise your own conscious awareness to the level that you want to achieve.” Olly Alexander Branford
My coaching themes and services - I work 1:1 and in groups with men who are looking for: Transformative Life Coaching, Transformational Coaching, Life Coaching, Personal Coaching, Positive Psychology Coaching, Recovery Coaching, Trauma Informed Coaching, Work Addiction Coaching, Workaholism Coaching, Addiction Coaching, Mindfulness Coaching.
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Hello,
I am very pleased to meet you. Thank you for reading this far. I very much look forward to connecting with the highest version of you, to seeing your highest possibility, and to our conversations. Please do contact me via my website for a free connection call and a free experience of coaching. I am here to serve you.
See you soon,
Olly Alexander Branford MBBS, MA(Cantab), PhD
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I have a Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge; a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge; a PhD Doctorate in Scientific Research from University College London (UCL); a Medical Degree (MD/MBBS) from The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London and have been a doctor and reconstructive trauma and cancer surgeon in London for 20 years. I have published over 50 peer reviewed scientific journal articles, have been an associate editor and frequent scientific faculty member, and am the author of several scientific books. I have been awarded my Diploma in Transformative Life Coaching in London, which has International Coaching Federation (ICF) Accreditation, as well as the UK Association for Coaching (AC), and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). I have been on my own transformative journey full time for four years and I am ready to be your guide to you finding out who you really are and how the world works.