Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life

by Roger-Pol Droit

Book Overview

Say your name aloud to yourself in a quiet room. Imagine peeling an apple in your mind. Take the subway without trying to get anywhere. The simple meditations in this book have the potential to shake us awake from our preconceived certainties: our own identity, the stability of the outside world, the meanings of words. At once entertaining and startling, irreverent and wise, this book will provoke moments of awareness for readers in any situation...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142003131
• ISBN13: 9780142003138
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.4" x 7.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A peculiar little book and we need more of them.

This book is so strange and esoteric that it almost borders on the occult. It reminds me of the wonderful book, "The Secret Life of Plants" for it's "out thereness". I tried a few of the experiments and one that was like a revelation to me was the one about channel surfing AM radio late at night in the dark. People don't believe that there is more of a Art Bell-type world out there than previously thought. There are so many books on the market pretending to be relevant and informative, when basically they are trivia rehashed or made to appeal to Gen X and fringe/cutting edge pop culture. This one hits a home run because some of the experiments are actually very interesting.

Shifting Awareness

This is a very strange book, but in the end, a useful one. Experts of the mind and human behaviour have proposed that most of us carry on throughout our lives on automatic pilot. Because of habit, daily routine and repetition, we inadvertently create mental machinery to do our tasks without too much effort. As we grow older, too, our perceptions of the world have a tendency to dull, our opinions on matters political and otherwise refuse to see other perspectives, we are less inclined to learn new things, in other words, we become set in our ways. As the old saying goes: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks". This text provides us with some absurd and interesting exercises designed to break down our mental machinery, shake up our preconceived notions of the world, our fixed ideas, and perhaps see the world from a clean slate. In some cases, as the title suggests, the outcomes can be astonishing. For example, number 15, "Walk in the Dark". The duration should only be a few minutes and the effect is that uncomfortable sensation of disorientation. Interestingly, the world actually changes when we attempt to orient ourselves in pitch-black conditions. We cannot depend on the light and must use our other senses to move around. This exercise hones your other senses, changing your views on "reality" and pushes you to move into present time. One of the exercises that I found most rewarding is number 67, "Watch someone Sleeping". Having been with my partner for some years now, I believed I knew everything about her from her eyebrows to that tiny mole on her left shoulder. Time and familiarity has a tendency to make one take for granted those things and people that we depend on the most. Watching her sleep, listening to her slow and rhythmic breathing, suddenly I perceive a kind of "innocence", a face that somehow appears different, more beautiful, much less familiar. I no longer take her for granted because I've seen her in a different way. A more banal exercise, and one most of us have experienced at one point or another is number 77, "Listen to your own voice". More often than not, our response is, "That doesn't sound like me!" If you are not used to hearing yourself, it can be a dislocating experience, which is the point. The exercise tends to impose an objective point of view on us, hearing yourself as possibly others see or hear you. It breaks up our preconceived notions, providing a fresh look at "I". As the author has stated, this book is about entertainment. These exercises can be fun, however, they also can shift your awareness slightly, creating astonishing feelings, seeing the world from different points of view. To my way of thinking, this can only be worthwhile.

Play

This book is like propaganda for the existentially playful. If you are neither existentially inclined nor playful, this book will do nothing for you. If, however, you are both, you will like it a lot. If you have read and enjoyed Walker Percy, that will probably help. This is not a self-help book. If you are odd, it will probably help to make you odder.

great book, but unfortunately not for everyone

everyone could benefit from this book, but since not everyone could appreciate or understand what this book is, i could not reccommend it for everyone. this book is 101 thought experiments that, if done properly, will change how you look at things and spark new ideas and thoughts. experiments range from following ants to randomly calling people to sitting and imagining various things. there are many people who will not see the point of the book, or feel foolish or feel it is a waste of time, but chances are those people arn't reading this review. as trite as this sounds, you get out of it what you put into it. if you want this book to change yourself or become "a fuller person", you have to want it to happen. this book is a great guide, but ultimately it is you who change yourself. this book will show you how but you have to put in the effort. so i would definately reccommend it if you are looking for a way to maximize your philisophicle life.

Fun and Enlightening!

This books provides you with 101 activities to try out that might just alter your experience of reality enough to cause you to discover entirely new questions to explore about yourself and the world. Excuse that awful sentence and then purchas this book.