Now that I reflect back on the past few years, I realise that one book was pivotal in shifting my awareness. I was locked into a certain way of thinking and a book was the first thing that started opening a crack in that vault. That book was Fantastic Voyage by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman. It introduced me to the amazing man, Ray Kurzweil, and to the importance of nutrition.
I’ve written quite a bit about my experience of the Fantastic Voyage book in a post that can be found in the resources section, so I won’t repeat all of that here.
The reason I actually started reading the book in the first place was because Ray Kurzweil was one of the authors. He is a very respected scientist, so I thought it was worth my time to read. That’s where I was at that time (in about 2004/2005). I was very closed to anything unless is was 100% scientifically verifiable.
Wow, how things have changed since then!
Ray Kurzweil
Ray certainly has an amazing brain. He’s an amazing thinker. I don’t agree with the direction he goes with some of his stuff, but I acknowledge how brilliant he is and I admire him for that. The subtitle to the Fantastic Voyage book is “live long enough to live forever” and I don’t agree with that goal. I believe that how we’re living right now, and in all of the “nows” is the important thing and not trying to make this lifetime last forever. Everything in nature changes and nothing lasts forever – it’s silly to think that we can, or should.
Here’s an old video of Ray Kurzweil as a teenager. This gives you a good idea of how brilliant he is.
Ray Kurzweil on “I’ve Got a Secret”
How Ray Kurzweil’s book kicked off my fantastic voyage
Reading Fantastic Voyage rattled my cage. It made me see things a little differently. I realised that nutrition was really important and I started on the “no bread, rice, pasta, potatoes & sugar” diet and I started to lose some weight for the first time in years. I also began taking some supplements as well and began monitoring things like my blood pressure and blood test results.
I lost quite a bit of weight, but I drifted back to my old ways and started putting weight back on again. The effect of the book was still there, in my mind, but I was allowing the outside pressures of the world to overtake me again (at least, at that time, I thought they were outside pressures).
The next steps in my fantastic voyage
I had to wait until March 2012 for my next major jolt in the direction of living a better life, of life in the right direction. This jolt was a course on emotional intelligence. You can read about this course in the post – Who wants to do one of those strange Emotional Intelligence courses?
This course continued what Ray Kurzweil’s book started and broke away huge chunks of the narrow thinking that I’d built up over the years and showed me that there is a different way. It was this course that made me realise that it is a good thing, and a necessary thing, to have deep respect for ourselves. After this course, I began reading all sorts of books, watching many documentaries, and researching on the internet. I wanted to learn as much as I could, as quickly as I could, about finding the right direction in life for body, mind and spirit. My personal fantastic voyage was underway.
Another major milestone on my fantastic voyage was the documentary Simply Raw. Scientific evidence that diet can cure. In fact, raw food can cure diabetes, or at least control it completely. If I also add the documentary Food Matters, then I’d say my eyes were becoming completely open and I was fully underway in my fantastic voyage and the quest to get my life going in the right direction.
But I must thank Ray Kurzweil
The ironic thing is that, if it wasn’t for Ray Kurzweil and his book Fantastic Voyage, I’m not sure my thinking would have ever begun to shift. For sure, back in 2004/2005, if someone had suggested that I watch the documentaries Simply Raw and Food Matters, I would have scoffed and called them bad science, or something along those lines. My veneer had to be cracked by Ray Kurzweil’s book to allow me to find this wonderful path I’ve been following over recent years.
Certainly, Ray Kurzweil’s book hit me with the right content at the right time in my life. It’s not a book that will work for everyone. It’s possible that each person needs to get a prompting from a source suitable to their own life situation and really only they can recognise that.
I believe that the universe (you can call it the universe, or nature, or god, as you wish) is constantly trying to get our attention and attract us in the direction that we know, deep down, that we want to go. It’s just a matter of us being open and noticing the messages that are right in front of us all the time.
When we’re ready and the time is right, all the help we need will be right in front of us.
Related Links – Ray Kurzweil and the beginning of my Fantastic Voyage
- Ray Kurzweil’s website – Accelerating Intelligence – http://www.kurzweilai.net
- The website of Kurzweil Technologies, the group of companies founded by Ray – http://www.kurzweiltech.com/
- A brief career summary of Ray Kurzweil
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