Being and Life

Description and Table of Contents

Being and Life: On Becoming One’s Being
  Publication Date: May 2005
  320 pages, 6" x 9" trade paperback
  ISBN: 0-9718379-5-3
  $19.95 USD

A note to visitors entering this web site at this page: Several of the words and terms used in the descriptions and excerpts from the books in the Being and Life Series have special meanings. Everyone should read the Ontological Glossary page to get a sense of what these words and terms mean.

Description

Most people believe they know what the normal and natural self of humans is, and they believe they are being that self. But throughout history a few people have sensed that the self they are being is not who they sense or know themselves truly to be. Because of this insight, these people have strived, with varying degrees of success, to become all the self or being they sense they are before everything else. Being and Life explores this insight and explains why these people’s belief that they are not being all their realselves is correct.

At first, most people do not like hearing that the self they are being is not who they truly are. But as men and women continue increasing their degrees of realself a “teeter-totter” effect occurs. As they become more aware of and more their realselves, they eventually reach a point where the knowledge that they are not being who they truly are becomes liberating, since theyalso sense that they do have a realself and they can become it fully. With this knowledge also comes the awareness of how amazingly pleasurable life will be once they become all their realself and are being it in a relationship with the realself of someone they love.

Table of Contents

Part One: Striving for One’s Being

Chapter 1: Ontological Selves
  “Glorious Worlds” and “Horrible, Most Horrible Cages”
  The Socialself and the Realself
  The Transition
  More on the Ideas in This Book
  About “the Realself” and “the Socialself”
  The Ontological Pool

Chapter 2: Ontological Selves
  The Socialself World and the Realself World
  Reality
  Hub and Multileveled Emotions and Ideas
  The Transition: Past and Future

Chapter 3: Ontological States and Consciousness
  Ontological States
  Consciousness
  Ontological States and Their Beliefs and Values
  The Intellect Versus the Emotions

Chapter 4: The Beginning and Early Transitions
  Striving for One’s Being
  The Early Awareness of Realself Life
  “Search for a Breakthrough”
  The Beginning Transition
  D. H. Lawrence
  “The Good, the Beautiful, the True”
  Classic Ontological Metaphors
  “Returning” to the Realself World

Part Two: Insights and Ideas of the Beginning Transition

Chapter 5: Ontological Alienation
  Theories of Alienation
  The Four Kinds Of Ontological Alienation
  Alienation and the Increasing Realself Person

Chapter 6: Striving for Realself Life
  Mysticism
  Strivers for Realself Life
  Why Does a Person Increase His Degree of Realself?
  Consciousness Lags Behind Being
  The Ebb and Flow of the Transition
  Ontological Happiness and Unhappiness

Chapter 7: Psychology and Ontological States
  Psychological Deflections
  Biochemical Imbalance
  Psychopathology
  Schizophrenia
  The Increasing Realself Person Is Not a Phony
  The World Outside the Socialself World

Part Three: Good and Evil

Chapter 8: The Evil Within
  “Vile,” “Polluted,” and “Loathsome”
  “In the Air” Ideas
  The Awareness of Bad Qualities
  Good, Evil, and Human Nature
  Going Beyond the Bad Qualities
  Self-Esteem

Chapter 9: Guilt, Hate, and Depression
  Increasing Realself Guilt
  “No Right to Occupy Space” or “No Right to Exist”
  Ontological Hatred and Self-Loathing
  Ontological Depression

Chapter 10: Human Nature and the Unconscious
  Perceptions of Human Nature
  The Realself and the Unconscious
  The Realself Beyond
  The Unconscious: Badness, Madness, and Nothingness
  Alternate Worlds

Chapter 11: Responses to the Evil Within
  The Myth of the Unified Personality
  Socialself Good
  Reaction Formation
  Balancing Out the Bad Qualities

Chapter 12: The Sea of Being and the Sea of Life
Water: Metaphor for the Unconscious and for Realself Life
Ontological Inundation

Part Four: The Ego Boundary

Chapter 13: The Ego Boundary: Its Strength and Opacity
  The Thinning of the Ego Boundary
  Two Walled Towns
  Ontological Dexterity
  Realself Vulnerability

Chapter 14: The Realself in the Ego Boundary
  “Seeing” the Realself
  Boundaries and Barriers: Invisible Walls and Glass Balls
  The Realself’s Size and Location
  The Eyes: Openings in the Ego Boundary
  “I’m Behind the Bridge of My Nose.”
  Windows, Doors, and Walls

Chapter 15: Thinning Ego Boundary Anxieties
  Physical and Ontological Touching
  Intrusion of the Ego Boundary
  Protecting One’s Realself

‹-- Back to the graphic page

A Societal and Not
an Individual Change

Ontological changes are difficult and complicated. Because of this, men and women should not rush forward ontologically toward their realselves. Instead, they should change slowly with their societies. By doing this, they will make their forward movement much easier, and they will never feel lost along the way.

Being and Life
Reviews

“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

The Essence of It All

Realself ontology is much more than the sum of its parts. Overall, it is not the seemingly countless number of emotions and ideas increasing realself people experience and think about along the Transition that are important, but who these men and women become because of their experiences and insights. A woman who is consciously in a realself-to-realself relationship is considerably removed from most of the emotions and ideas discussed in this series. They are in her past. It is her being her realself with someone after reaching out her hand in a realself-to-realself way that is truly important.

Media Info:
Reviews and News Releases

Being and Life’s media information is available on its own page, which includes links to reviews and news releases.

Being and Life
Discussion Group

Being and Life is starting its own discussion group at
groups.yahoo.com/group/beingandlife.

Technical Information

For Being and Life’s technical information, see its Fact Sheet.

Freebies with Purchases
from Ontology Press

We include freebies (including a 28-page, 5.5" x 8.5" booklet on a variety of ontological subjects) with all books in the Being and Life Series purchased by individuals directly from us.

Page Location

www.ontologypress.com/
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