Your Dream Psychic

John Healey

Some Old Guy In A Nursing Home

You can hear someone saying that something or other isn’t ‘rocket science’ every day of the week.  And yes, ‘though it’s one of the most overused and irritating expressions you’re likely to hear, it does contain a grain of truth all the same.  It’s a bit of a drag, but the reality is you can’t learn truth like you can learn another language, you’ve got to discover it fresh and new every time you come across it.  And I’m sorry, you can’t remember it, either.  It’s pristine, crystal clear, the whole-and-nothing-but.  So wearily claiming something ‘isn’t rocket science’ is just using a cliche, and that says as much about the person uttering it as it does about the one who didn’t understand.

A wonderful old cove called Douglas Harding who knew all this once wrote a book called On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious.  It’s still worth reading, and you can still get it – which is nice.  The book shows you the stark staring obvious in a way that allows you to see it as if for the very first time.  Think for a second about falling in love again after getting through the unhappiness of someone you really loved leaving you.  Maybe it’s already happened, maybe it’s going to.  The thing is, the deeper you fall down the well of love, the more the experience will seem like it’s never happened to you before.  Go all the way and whatever took place in the past will be blown away and scattered like Autumn leaves.

I never met Douglas Harding who died a couple of years ago in a nursing home.  But he was one of the individuals on a list I keep in a drawer of individuals I’m going to try to spend some time with.  On Monday’s Your Dream Psychic, do tell me who you need to get close to, and let’s find out the reason why together.