<curious>

[Guido Finucci]

if you could think of one book, movie, play, piece of literature (redundancy i know), radio show, interview, quote, reality grid, world model, musical piece, or whatever else you can think of that would change my (me=16 year old naive suburban white boy) view of the world in the most drastic way, what would you choose?

It is rumoured that the wind blowing at the time said, "Blow your own damn mind".

Slarti -- what do want to read?

Read that.

[agent compassion]

The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas. Very nice, straightforward book.

The Door Into Shadow by Diane Duane.

[Iron Sulfide]

Any tom robbins book, he constantly mixes new bizzare ideas into old and recent mythology without losing characters' development..

particularly Skinny Legs and All, by tom robbins. the "Epiphany" at the end
(Tom's kind of Climax, but more a philosophical than dramatic thing)
gets delivered* at just the rigt time, in just the right way to find a
sympathetic wind to blow your mind for you.

*[semantic side not: delivered = de - livered? loss of liver?]

i would also recommend reading anything you're opposed to; something
you conflict with ideologically. it's a damn hard thing to do sometimes,
but always well worth it in my experience.

[fluffy]

anything by kurt saxon
oh
and flopsy and mopsy are good

what?

[IntoxiChrist]

Quantum Psychology by R.A. Wilson. Go down to Mexico and read it on the beach. Try all the exercises, even if you can't put a group together. That's the most important part, really. The exercises are the thing, the book just puts the results into perspective.

If anything, it'll change your viewpoint on viewpoints.

[Zurtok Khan]

Hrrm, I'm going to be a poumpus(sp?) ass for a moment, bare with me.

While considering the different things that ultimately put my reality grid where it is currently, I begin to realize more and more that it is not any one experiance that does it.  They are all the small rocks that compose the mountain, and that is how you move it, one rock at a time.

Guido, was quite right of course.  But, I shall endeavor to say something that will get me given a bitchslap...or maybe not (I can never tell with you lot).  It's a secret, so you ought to tell everyone you know about it.  Blowing your own mind is more being in the state of mind in which your mind can be blown.  That made no sense.  Slap the sage silly please.  Or, take this: Don't go looking for mindblowing experiances, realize only that they are present everywhere you want them to be.  Expect them, don't wait for them.

Slap the sage silly!!!  NOW!

[IntoxiChrist]

Hrrm, I'm going to be a poumpus(sp?) ass for a moment, bare with me.

While considering the different things that ultimately put my reality grid where it is currently, I begin to realize more and more that it is not any one experiance that does it.  They are all the small rocks that compose the mountain, and that is how you move it, one rock at a time.

Guido, was quite right of course.  But, I shall endeavor to say something that will get me given a bitchslap...or maybe not (I can never tell with you lot).  It's a secret, so you ought to tell everyone you know about it.  Blowing your own mind is more being in the state of mind in which your mind can be blown.  That made no sense.  Slap the sage silly please.  Or, take this: Don't go looking for mindblowing experiances, realize only that they are present everywhere you want them to be.  Expect them, don't wait for them.

Slap the sage silly!!!  NOW!

Stop cowering. It made perfect sense.

[Zurtok Khan]

It did?

[IntoxiChrist]

It did?

It did. Or, at least, it did to me. Here's my intepretation:

Looking for "mindblowing experiences" is assuming that those experiences are different, somehow, from "normal experiences", which really aren't normal at all. Since every signal creates a neuroendocrine response, which in turn extracts (or invents) new information, every sensory impression has the capacity to be mind-blowing. It's just an issue of being interested and observant enough.

Of course, you could've meant none of this, but who cares? It's a good statement on its own.

[gnimbley]

I like teh chimp.

If you are looking for some books, here are some I recommend.
Remember a gnome recommends them, so be warned. Mind blowing
potential is present, but not guaranteed.

The Descent - Jeff Long; dark fantasy. Hell is a myth based on the real
subteranean world just below our feet. Scary.

Bloom - Wil McCarthy; sf. Nanotechnology has taken over the inner
planets. The remnants of humanity, living in bare subsistence among
the outer planets, sends an expedition to Earth to gather intelligence.
Creepy.

The Spike - Damien Broderick; science. I am currently reading this.
This is where I get the ideas trans-human and technological singularity.
(Which are cribbed, apparently, from Vernor Vinge)

A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick; sf. OOP. Good luck finding it. Twist after
twist after twist. Not like a mystery. More like, what is real?

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman, fantasy. I read it a while ago. Loved his use
of language and the characters and the setting and the idea... Won't
blow your mind, but who cares?

[BADGE OF HONOR]

Of course, truly mindblowing experiences sneak up from behind.  Like standing in the desert and realising just how far you are away from other human beings.  Or watching The Dark Crystal at a far too young-impressionable-malleable age.  Or seeing your own blood on the ground...

But still, there's no reason you can't go chasing after them.

[Malaul]

for me it was Neverwhere by neil gaimen
made me look at everyting as something other thanwhat it was...

[Bella]

Televisionary Oracle by Rob Brezsny

Another Roadside Attraction & Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

[LMNO]

Of course, truly mindblowing experiences sneak up from behind.  Like standing in the desert and realising just how far you are away from other human beings.  Or watching The Dark Crystal at a far too young-impressionable-malleable age.  Or seeing your own blood on the ground...
But still, there's no reason you can't go chasing after them.

I was going to reccomend either The Consumer by Michael Gira of the Swans, because every sentence in theis collection of short stories is written as if it had been dragged through the sewer, or Crash by JG Ballard for the way it can convince you of a post-modern connection between sex and car crashes, but for some reason, Rabid Badger's above answer is the correct one, for me.

I remember the first time I saw a large quantity of my own blood pooling on the ground...

Changes your perception in a big hurry.

[gnimbley]

Oh yeah. Forgot to mention Freakonomics. Listening to it on CD. Will
change your opinion about a lot of "convention wisdom."

Hey Bella! Did you know that if you look at the data for death in plane
crashes versus death in automobile crashes, and compare them on
the basis of the likelihood of dying per hour spent driving/flying,
that the chance of dying is the same. Sorry, but I won't be
flying anywhere anytime for the next half century.