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"Every choice you make is the death of a million
other possibilities." The bar is filled with excited patrons watching an array of high mounted flat screen TVs. Periodically the folks explode with whoops and hollers as the home team successfully completes critical plays in a championship football game. Many persons entering the room inadvertently would observe the whole scene but feel nothing. The unlikely visitor can understand the excitement - the connection that the viewers are making with the football action - but feels nothing. The event has no meaning. An intellectual understanding is clearly possible, but none other. That same inadvertent sports bar visitor feels the same excitement exhibited by the football fans on seeing a great view of the Triangulum galaxy on their backyard telescope and fully realizes that this event would mean nothing to the sports bar enthusiasts, especially in the chill night air. Everyone dynamically makes continuous connections such as these while failing to make other potential connections. The Open Mystic rubric assumes that all persons potentially are capable of an infinite array of connections as exemplified - if not precisely defined - above. Thus it is more useful to consider why connections can't be made. In other words, we look at why and how connection choices may tend to be restricted - in contravention of the main Open Mystic proposals: + Social and peer pressures + A personal identity that is landlocked by inertia + Broader knowledge brings on a sense of insecurity as conflicts must be resolved, such as those potentially between religion and science for example. + Influence of religious dogma + Background knowledge and skills + Disabilities and limitations It is clear that not everyone can "connect" with a concert grand piano and give acclaimed recitals, break high jump records, plan an outer space exploration, etc., but the essential Open Mystic core idea is that persons wishing to "optimize" themselves for the broadest array of possible connections must undergo a profound period of self-discovery and transformation. Hunting for the broadest and deepest array of potentials and actualizing them to the greatest extent possible is proposed to be a key to life fulfillment. That "hunt" is proposed to be an archetypal undertaking. In some psychological settings, this approach is labeled as "self actualization". Consider Earth-bound radio astronomy research facilities where a vast array of antenna dishes spread over large areas of land or even in other countries are all interconnected electronically to heighten the view resolution looking out at the Universe of stars and other distant objects. In a micro-sense, the person with a broad, deep array of connection possibilities is proposed to be able to view the broadest conception of a Universe in the highest possible resolution. Broader Implications An advanced country such as the US may increasingly develop into a fragmented society of specialists who may not interconnect well. The prime motive of individualism and personal freedom may help to assure an outcome where broad social interconnection becomes problematical. Already we've seen this in the political arena where fragmentation is nearly a full-out plague. To contravene this tendency, it is proposed that individuals should maximize the breadth and depth of their personal "connectivity" to the greatest extent possible so as to have a maximally inclusive outlook. The really fun part is proposed to be when that drive extends beyond the normal everyday 3D world to the esoteric. Only some individuals will choose to do that.
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