The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts

The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts is a bit hard to digest, especially if you have a certain view of yourself, your life, the universe and religion. Being a philosophical concept, it took me several reads of certain paragraphs in order to fully comprehend the ideas proposed here. If you are religious, this book might not be for you because it tends to destroy your already programmed vision of a deity, thus it might offend you or shift your beliefs. 

As hard as it may be, the author suggest that you're IT. Let's go with the generic term of GOD. So he says that you're GOD and you have absolute power of the universe by pure existence. The concept is simple, yet hard to swallow: you are part of this whole, thus you are not an individual. Your reality is based on your actions and observations and they change the world around you through your own perception. I liked the analogy with the rainbow: in a certain position, where air humidity is optimal and light pends at an optimal angle you see a rainbow, but others might not if they are not in that same place or not looking in that direction.

Through this book the author tries to say that we have been educated to live within a box a tiny box of consciousness that was imposed by society in order for us to become obedient by giving us double standards: you should be independent, but you cannot do this or that. We see ourselves as individuals through our material form, even though we are better defined through our actions and thoughts. He goes beyond this by trying to say that we define the universe with our existence, even though we are just mayflies in a larger scale. This theory is somewhat full of contradictions, but so fun to play with it and see it evolve.

I would say this is one of the most interesting books I have come across lately. As long as you manage to read it while leaving your beliefs at the door, you would probably enjoy it a lot. I was expecting a self-improvement book with dos and don'ts  but this came as a big surprise and a good workout for my intellect. Read it at your own risk.