Manual for the personal crisis

or

How to become a genius in three simple-to-understand steps

illustrations: Adrian Bogdan Ciprian (Ciupa) / text: Bogdan Octav Rakolcza Welcome to the crisis - Your crisis. Crisis time is the best time to start new things, as you know the old ones are collapsing for the simple fact that they were not good. So frolic, because the right time has come for you to start your path towards geniality. People usually have certain questions at the very beginning; well just pick out a few, and give some short straight-ahead answers: Q: Will I become really famous? A: If its your strong desire to become so, were afraid youll end up as a side-note in history. Really famous people didnt really care for being famous. And we should keep in mind that many people became highly popular only after they had already died. These are the risks. Q: Will I become incredibly rich? Are fortunes waiting for me? A: We could rather promise you that you wont die starving, unless youre really unlucky about this, just as in the case of Daniil Charms. Q: Will a workout of 30 minutes a day do? A: Unfortunately it will end up being a 24h/day job called life. After we have cleared these main arguable points, let us start straight ahead. The sooner you start, the more time you have left, before death will eventually take its toll, genius or not.

Step one: The solid foundation Start learning the things you really enjoy. Stop caring for concerns like does this particular study offer jobs with good incomes? or are the career chances in that branch very good?... nonsense. Three years ago everybody would have told you that becoming a banker is top notch, becoming head of an investment bank is even better. Now those people are being hunted down like rabbits, or are killing themselves, as illustrated example Alex Widmer, head of the Julius Br Bank in Switzerland, shows. Start learning full time the things you really like. University, or real life, diploma or not, dont matter. Or: How do you think you could ever become a genius without investing yourself 100%? Youre right! Its not possible. So better be passionate about the things youre really interested in and learn everything you think could help on the way. However, if youre compelled by any circumstances to do things you dont believe you like, see what you could learn for yourself out of these things. In that way it can be as useful to have profound knowledge about how people are being degraded to 2nd degree machines in big factories, as it would be to have incomparable insight about the psycho-sociological typology of the average secretary. Great poems have been made out of such situations. But this is just the first step. Choose wisely!

Step II: Connect to the unconscious You think you have some ingenious ideas? But who are you really, and how can you point out, how a particular good idea has arisen and why this idea should be your property? Lets face it: even the most advanced neurobiology is far from being able to produce a coherent explanation on how those myriads of neuronal impulses result in a musical masterpiece. Because if it could wed be already wearing those press-the-switch-for-enlightenment-devices. Fulltime. Rather get inspired by role models like Einstein, who, quoted by congenial contemporary composer Philip Glass, said to have developed mathematics in order to explain his own dreams. Why should you do this unconscious stuff? Well, lets say the unconscious is sort of the infinite well in the darkness, where the really good ideas arise from. You wont be able to measure it nor really control its way of acting. But you can always draw fresh inspiration from a good connection to it. So, how to do this? Methods are many. They all start with the work towards total awareness of the present moment of a state where unconsciousness reveals itself in a very pure form. Rather rudimentary methods to do this include awareness and/or analysis of dreams, little advanced methods include for example the conscious not abusive use of psychotropic substances, like hemp, psylocibae or LSD1, creative methods like surrealistic approach automatic writing or drawing, and the turbo-methods including Vipassana or Zen meditation, which have the great advantages to be (unlike dreams) always accessible and to have (unlike drugs) an emergency exit. But finally again it wont matter. Choose one method and start the practice. Get your line to the unconscious done, and try to make it broadband.

Avoid doing it on weekends just for the joy of it. This is serious stuff. There are certain reasons why ceremonial use of psychotropic substances in native American cultures included a severe mental and physical preparation like fasting, and long discussions with the medicine man.

III. Work to make it real Tune in to the wise words A dream you dream alone is just a dream. A dream you dream together is reality and start working right ahead. You feel you got rhythm in your heart? Then make your buttocks move or make the drums sound. You got a good idea like writing an article called Manual for the personal crisis or How to become a genius in three simple-to-understand steps? Great! But you have to get your ass-cheeks on a chair, prepare a glass of hot theobroma (food of the Gods also called cocoa) if you feel like it, and to start writing. You feel like becoming a painter? Than paint, for Gods sake! Time is short, works a lot. Get out and play! Daniil Charms said The right word for infinity is today. He wasnt entirely right. The right word for infinity is now.