In the first half, scholar of occult and esoteric ideas, Mitch Horowitz outlined what it takes to revolutionize your life, sharing his new work on self-mastery. He revealed surprising methods, both metaphysical and practical, to raise one's personal power in the new year. He defined personal power as harnessing ethical means to accomplish whatever one genuinely wants in their life, including such things as improving health, appearance, and charisma. He advises people to distance themselves from those in their lives who attack them emotionally or are unsupportive as this can be one of the biggest drains on personal power.
Another step is not to denigrate or gossip about people-- exchanging negative stories about others for entertainment. "Anytime we do that," he explained, "we're reenacting those same traits in ourselves." He pointed out that "strong people have a definite aim in life." By having this tighter focus, especially if it's adhered to with passionate intensity, people can significantly reduce distractions and the frittering away of their time, he added. As a companion to honing in on one's definite aim, an individual should also identify their chief weakness, he cited, as this can help illuminate their overall situation. Horowitz also mentioned his upcoming article for the March/April issue of New Dawn magazine, which explores the interdimensional aspect of UFOs, aliens, and anomalous creatures.
-----------------------
Author of visionary speculative fiction, Alexander Weinstein, is the director of the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. In the latter half, he talked about his new collection of short stories, which explore what the next generation may face as technology advances, including human-machine interfaces, social media implants, memory manufacturers, and immersive virtual reality games. In one story, after a mother dies, she is replaced by a hologram to help the family cope with their grief. But in a surprising turn, the hologram turns out to be more interesting than the woman it replaced, he details.
In another of Weinstein's speculative tales, aliens use virtual reality interfaces to intrude into our world. A number of the ideas in his stories may come to pass, he cautioned, as the events are extrapolated just a few years into our future. One of his fictive pieces deals with children badgering their parents to be allowed to get brain implants. But after the parents agree, the kids turn monstrous. Speaking of our phones as well as current and future technologies, Weinstein lamented that with such hardware we become less connected to one another and more and more subsumed by our devices. A running theme in his stories is how we maintain the human connection.
News segment guests: Chuck Coppes, Lauren Weinstein