"When I go to the doctor and say, 'I feel down,' the doctor never asks, 'Do you ever cry?' or 'Do you cry often?'"

Sometimes people say something like, “we are created in the image of a higher power.”

This is not something literal.

It means that we are a reflection of everything that ever was, and every decision we have made. It is more metaphorical, and more beautiful in my opinion.

When you grow up and learn to operate your own body, many people would describe this process as consciousness.

Faith and religion are about taking the time to understand this process.

I vividly remember the moment I suddenly became aware of my own sexuality. This happened in a single second, when I was sitting in the garden. This is often explained as eating the forbidden fruit. These are things that really happen when you grow up.

Another example: you move from simply thinking to being the one who is aware of their own thoughts and feelings.

Consciousness is literally the process of growing up and learning to know your own body. It is like moving from a continuous spectrum to discrete points (like a child doing potty training—this is the same idea). You become aware of something. You become aware that you have a body, that you are naked.

The beauty is that this happens very naturally. I am not religious, but the Bible explains these processes brilliantly, in my opinion. You can pinpoint different stories from the Bible in your own life.

Baseline

I don’t understand the problem with many psychiatric disorders.

Let’s say you have someone at work who is out of it half the day and just talks nonsense, and the other half of the day they’re fine.

If everyone knows that, then what does it matter? You can just think, “that person is in that phase right now.”

Then it becomes a much smaller problem.