We humans like to think we have life all figured out. But in fact we are still a young species, and we are still not exactly sure what this being alive stuff is all about.

Ontology Press publishes books on the being in each of us—which is also called the realself—and everything it influences. This influence spans almost all areas of human life:

• Amazingly, almost all of us are unconscious of our own realself’s existence, even though our unknown being truly is the engine of human existence: it is responsible for the self we are being, for most of our beliefs and values, and even for how we experience human existence.
• The very best in us and the very best in life come from our realself, but the very worst in us and the very worst in life also come, indirectly, from our realself.
• The more we understand the realself in us and what is involved with becoming it, the more we see that most of the problems of most of us and of societies are ontological—they are caused by our misunderstanding of or by our alienation from our realself. But we almost always blame the cause of these problems on something else.

Ontology Press’s first book on this subject—realself ontology—is Being and Life.

Being and Life: On Becoming One’s Being

The first of four books in the Being and Life Series by Scott K. Smith, Being and Life: On Becoming One’s Being (Description, Excerpt) examines the ontological quest and path people must take to become all their realself. Men and women have been walking down this path for thousands of years, but for a wide variety of reasons no one has ever made it to the end and become all his or her realself. Being and Life explains scores of questions about this quest:

• Why is it so difficult to become all one’s realself?
• What do men and women experience as they increase their degrees of realself?
• Why do those who are aware of their realself never want to settle for anything less?
• What is a realself-to-realself relationship, and why do couples want to develop one?

The Being and Life Series also explains why many emotional states that were previously thought to be wrong may actually be the normal and expected ontological emotions and thoughts of men and women who are increasing their degrees of realself. A few of the more important of these ontologically generated emotions include the following:

• Shyness
• Anxiety
• Guilt
• Depression
• Loss of Self

As men and women who are experiencing these emotions become more their realself, they will leave these unpleasant emotions behind and will live human life as it has always been meant to be lived: being all their realself and having realself-to-realself relationships with everyone else.

“Everything lies in being.”
         —D. H. Lawrence

“Ontology, or the study of being, is hardly a household term, but Smith’s work may broaden its reach. ...

Those seeking to better understand themselves, to clarify why some people don’t ‘fit in,’ and psychologists and social scientists willing to consider an alternative perspective regarding guilt, depression, schizophrenia, and other common disorders, all will be well served to ponder the possibilities Smith outlines.”

“ForeWord Magazine,” May/June 2005 (Full review).

Being and Life’s reviews

Realself ontology has the surprising quality of making most people mute while discussing it, which is certainly odd considering that its subject is who we are before everything else.

Ontologically and intellectually, most people would rather travel 100 miles horizontally—that is, above the surface—than 1/100 of an inch vertically, meaning inwardly.

The two main reasons for this fear is that we are afraid of what’s within us, and we are afraid of being the self we sense deep within us. Both of these misunderstood fears have then been turned around in our minds, and we have fooled ourselves into thinking that nothing of importance exists within us and that it is better to avoid who we truly are.

But inwardly is where everything important in life is taking place. We think we are making the best decision by staying on the surface, but in fact we are diminishing our lives profoundly.

Members of the media may wish to visit the media pages for Being and Life and for Ontology Press.

Please go to our Ontological Glossary page for the meanings of several of the terms used on this web site.