* Desperately Adrift * in Just Stuff

Imagine yourself in a lifeboat with twenty other survivors from a storm that
sank your ocean liner.

There is no hope of immediate rescue since the ship sunk without a radio
message being sent out. Almost all travelers have been lost. The lifeboat
is almost filled with other people. You know it will be several days or
perhaps even much longer before help arrives.

There is drinking water and food for a week or two depending on the daily
allotment agreed upon. You’re soaking wet. Though not freezing, the
temperature has you huddling and uncomfortable. There is no overhead, and
everyone is exposed to rain, wind and sun.

Think about the sacrifices you would be willing to make. Think about the
psychological needs and desires and beliefs you would give up for physical
survival and harmony with the needs of the group. Think about personal
space and hygiene and the utter lack of privacy. Think about the danger of
the sea and sun. Think about the reactions to stress of the others and how
they might act in this dire situation. What might they do to you?

Daydream about this for five minutes.

Ask yourself,
When I am projecting myself into this imagined scenario that is fraught
with uncertainty, how do I feel? To what extent is my imagined travail a
real stress for my nervous system to handle? If I felt–all day long–like
I did during this exercise, what would be the long term effects on me?

Why was this so easy for me to imagine? Just how creative am I?

To what extent do the problems I imagined having with the other survivors
actually occur in my daily life when I deal with people? How many of these
problems that I see in others are, to some degree–no matter how
slightly–my personal problems too? Was this story somehow symbolic of my
life?

How did I feel, morally, about “creating” all those other people, the
challenging conditions, the behaviors? When daydreaming, as far as the
characters in my dreams are concerned, am I God? How is my relationship
with my “lifeboat universe” different from my relationship with the universe
I am in now?

If I could have “entered” my imagined lifeboat as “another character” and
approached the “me character” within that dream, how would I go about
explaining to that “me character” why “Everything’s okay. I’m the creator
of all this. You don’t need to worry. I’m just having a fun little
consciousness exercise, and after it’s over, you won’t even exist!”? How
would I make the “me character” feel perfectly happy about this?

Why did I follow the rules of this exercise? Why didn’t I have another
ship just happen upon the lifeboat within a few minutes?

Regards,
Rick