Life Changing Event. Have You Ever Had One?

erifdekciw

erifdekciw

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May 3, 2008
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Getting tired of all the political shit. Why not talk about something different for once. I've been thinking about this topic for awhile...

Have you ever had something happen to you that caused you to 'wake up' and change your life?

I'm not talking about losing your job or your girlfriend dumping you. I'm talking about real life changing events.

You know how you hear about people who become 'awakened' after something traumatic happens? Like almost dying or getting cancer? They stop giving a fuck about anyone or anything and their motivation factor goes up 1000%. They start living life to the fullest.

Of course not all people are like this. Some people turn into a hermit and hide themselves away from the world when something terrible happens. But whats the determining factor that makes someone 'wake up' and escape from this mental prison we are all born into?

It seems to be a strong characteristic of successful people. Most rags to riches stories have this moment where everything changes. The outlook on life is changed forever and they literally become a different person.

Have you ever had something like this happen to you?

Do you think it's possible to reach this next level of 'enlightenment' without a traumatic experience?
 


I wish I did but unfortunately not. Interested in hearing about people's stories though, good idea for a thread.
 
Moving to Texas just before I turned 16 is the reason I ended up working for myself, if that helps any. No specific defining moment / night though.
 
The death of a girlfriend was a big deal when I was a teenager, but in comparison, it seems petty now.

I've taken mushrooms three times, and two of those three times I was left with a permanently adjusted perspective about the world. This effect would probably fall in line with a quote floating around these boards. "The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

I've spent the last 4 years in the Marine Corps, have given birth to two of my children during two separate deployments, experienced and participated in a primitive way of living for a prolonged period of time, been shot at, witnessed the death of strangers, shot a rifle at (but never killed) enemies, pulled a buddy's body out of the Helmand River. And this sounds petty, but everytime I flew on a helo in Afghanistan, I pretty much came to terms with dying and developed a phobia that everytime I jumped on board, we would get shot down. Each deployment I went on, we had at least one bird shot down in our Area of Operations and as a radio operator for our TACP, this started to compound in my head.

All of that nonsense gave me a lot of perspective.

But if you aren't in a position to visit a third world country, feel war, give birth, or have someone close to you die, I'd say the next two best things for developing perspective are taking drugs (dependent on quantity and type), or read a lot of books (not as effective, but still very enriching).

My two cents.
 
boatBurner said:
The death of a girlfriend was a big deal when I was a teenager, but in comparison, it seems petty now.

I've taken mushrooms three times, and two of those three times I was left with a permanently adjusted perspective about the world. This effect would probably fall in line with a quote floating around these boards. "The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

I've spent the last 4 years in the Marine Corps, have given birth to two of my children during two separate deployments, experienced and participated in a primitive way of living for a prolonged period of time, been shot at, witnessed the death of strangers, shot a rifle at (but never killed) enemies, pulled a buddy's body out of the Helmand River. And this sounds petty, but everytime I flew on a helo in Afghanistan, I pretty much came to terms with dying and developed a phobia that everytime I jumped on board, we would get shot down. Each deployment I went on, we had at least one bird shot down in our Area of Operations and as a radio operator for our TACP, this started to compound in my head.

All of that nonsense gave me a lot of perspective.

But if you aren't in a position to visit a third world country, feel war, give birth, or have someone close to you die, I'd say the next two best things for developing perspective are taking drugs (dependent on quantity and type), or read a lot of books (not as effective, but still very enriching).

My two cents.
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You know I felt the same way after doing shrooms. It's sounds so cliche but it really did change the way I looked at things. The feeling didn't last very long, but what I do remember is feeling like I had answers to questions about my life. All my anxiety would disappear for days after. It felt like I flushed out all the crap that was building up in my head. A colon cleansing for your brain lol. It definitely helped me think outside of the box and see things differently.

I'd love to take shrooms again, but it's just one of those drugs where you need a chill place to be for a good 6-8 hours even though all you wanna do is explore.
 
erifdekciw said:
You know I felt the same way after doing shrooms. It's sounds so cliche but it really did change the way I looked at things. The feeling didn't last very long, but what I do remember is feeling like I had answers to questions about my life. All my anxiety would disappear for days after. It felt like I flushed out all the crap that was building up in my head. A colon cleansing for your brain lol. It definitely helped me think outside of the box and see things differently.

I'd love to take shrooms again, but it's just one of those drugs where you need a chill place to be for a good 6-8 hours even though all you wanna do is explore.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. The amount of clarity you actually walk away with versus the amount you're actually opened to is significantly lower, but for me a small but significant piece stuck with me from two out of three times, and I only took an eighth (or just under) so I wasn't losing my shit. The first time was experimenting with friends, and was just fun and being messed up.

I'm considering taking a small amount in the near future due to the number of decisions I'm going to be making soon.
 
when I was 11 and 12 years old I would always have wet dreams and I couldnt figure out what was going on with my body.

I would always see a program in the Tv guide called real sex, on HBO.

when I was thirteen years old I remember being so compelled to stay up late at night to finally watch that program.

everyone was sleeping as I sneaked out into the tv room.

what happened next at 12:30am blew my mind,
- my hand touched the power button on the tv
- my hand touched the remote and turned it to HBO
- My hand touched the volume button to turn it down
- my throat did a 7-11 big gulp
- my hand did a "knock-knock-whos-there" at the little guy standing up between my legs
- my hand did a "hello sir" how are you doing today!
...spank.....spank.....
straight to the shower.


life has never been innocent since then.
 
erifdekciw said:
Have you ever had something happen to you that caused you to 'wake up' and change your life?
Click to expand...

No. I'm a reasonable, rational, logic driven adult and therefore don't suffer knee-jerk reactions. Well, I do, but I identify them and refrain from decisions until the moment has passed and I can approach things reasonably again.
 
On a much smaller level than what you're talking about I find that certain kinds of pain wake me up out of my daily stupor and make me appreciate life again.

Like when I get sick and have a high fever.. I almost like it cause the world seems a bit different. Likewise working out really harshly wakes you up.

I'm probably not the only one on these forums whose life is far too comfortable. Right now I'm sitting back on a recliner drinking coffee typing on my wireless keyboard with my monitor hovering right in front of my face on a monitor arm. You need sharp spikes of pain now and again to wake you up and appreciate what you have.
 
I've had a life changing event, but the reverse of what you describe happened to me. I had an accident, spent 10 months in hospital and since then I'm very laid-back, happy and simply don't give a fuck about much to be honest. A friend once said life washes over me in my cloud of indifference.

I neither work hard, nor fast. I neither expect results nor care. Shit just happens and sometimes I get involved, sometimes I don't. Life is just a laugh in my mind.
 
-God- said:
I've had a life changing event, but the reverse of what you describe happened to me. I had an accident, spent 10 months in hospital and since then I'm very laid-back, happy and simply don't give a fuck about much to be honest. A friend once said life washes over me in my cloud of indifference.

I neither work hard, nor fast. I neither expect results nor care. Shit just happens and sometimes I get involved, sometimes I don't. Life is just a laugh in my mind.
Click to expand...

Universe in a few days is pretty impressive, yo.
 
Dad died when I was 10, hippy uncle started taking me on trips to central america with him, picked peyote, bathed in rivers, drove to costa rica in a f-250 with a grandby camper.

At 27 got an extremely painful and rare brain tumor, somewhere between watching whatever you have made get sucked away in the medical system and not being able to pursue my biggest passions in life really was hard to cope with. Really opened my eyes up to what other people go through, the magnitude of desperation. Also money became irrelevant, now I do what I want, grow weed, smoke cigars, take more risks, more empathetic, more brutally honest, don't spend time thinking of how to rack up huge wealth, live more in the present.
 
Here, maybe something like this is what you're after...

Just before I turned 16 moved to Texas for a year, then UK for a year. Unfortunately I hated Texas, and decided I was going back to Canada, which is what started me towards making money online. With about 2 months left in the UK I had $20k saved, flight booked, and appointments with landlords in Canada arranged. My parents had no idea I was even making money until the day of my flight, but that morning they talked me into sticking it out for the last 2 months though.

After that, left home, and went back with my friends. Spent the next couple years being young and stupid -- partying, smoking weed everyday, other drugs, etc. I come from a small redneck logging / oil patch town, so although it sounds stupid, hanging out behind a computer wasn't really socially acceptable. So even though I had a desktop in the place, it never got turned on during that 2 years.

Worked landscaping, and after the second season had a decision to make. Stick with the same path my friends are on and get a job in construction or at a warehouse, or breakaway into the online world and give myself a shot. Obviously I chose the latter, but there's no way I could do it from home, because nobody would have understood, and it just simpy wouldn't work. That, and I knew by doing so, I would basically be breaking away from all my friends permanently.

So I took my banked hours check of $1400, grabbed the desktop, and disappeared. Rented a cheap, rundown apartment in one of the worst areas of Edmonton. Thankfully the landlord took a liking to me, and there were a couple pieces of old furniture in the place that he left for free. heh, so I setup the desktop in the kitchen pantry, put one of the sofa chairs infront of it, and that was my office. Just slept on a deflated air mattress with holes in it, as that's all I had.

Sat in that place for the next 6 weeks, typing code day-in day-out. Let my family know I was alive and there's nothing to worry about, but that was it. Didn't tell them where I was, or what I was doing. That was actually pretty selfish of me, because my two nephews were just little guys at the time, and I generally seen them several times a week, so especially the older one was pretty worried about me. Shouldn't have done that to him.

I didn't think my family would have understood though, and I knew I couldn't reappear until money was coming in. After 6 weeks, business was launched, and the first order or two came in. So I contacted the family again, and ended up staying with my brother and sister-in-law for a few months, while I worked on getting cashflow up. A few months later moved out into my own place, and a few months after that was up to a good $40k/month. Broke away from my friends completely, and hooked up with them again a few times over the years, but never reconnected. They all ended up down the same path I expected them to, and it wasn't for me.
 
I had a life changing even that was self-induced.

About 6 years ago or so I decided to go on a fast where I didn't eat any food and only drank water. I had heard many spiritual people talk about how it takes away physical aspects of life and leaves you open to great wisdom without any distractions. So I decided to spend the whole weekend fasting and go without food until something happened. I have the experience documented on my blog, but I basically connected to the universe and realized how much greater we really are and how we hold ourselves down through petty physical things.

I think there are few people in the world who are capable of changing their ways or becoming enlightened through philosophy alone. The vast majority of people learn the hard way and consequently need to have something force them to change. Most people are incapable of change on their own. It reminds me of a great quote:

Wise men are instructed by reason;
Men of less understanding, by experience;
The most ignorant, by necessity;
The beasts by nature.
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
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Worked at a corporate job for 5 years and was set to follow my step-dad's footsteps into upper management after 10+ yrs with the company.

Well during that 5th yr (little over 2 years ago), I was asked by the COO to take a job in some little Oklahoma town or some other crap corporate job. I declined both. Little did I know, when the big boss offers you a job...you take it. Committed corporate suicide and I was a black-sheep from then on.

A few months after that, I started a web dev company with some friends and 6 months later quit the corporate life. Those events completely restructured my outlook on life and what I want out of it.

I am still in the pursuit of making a load of money, but I want to do it on my terms. I'm still willing to take a corporate job, but it will need to offer the freedom and benefits that I want.
 
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