Hoodwinked
Exploring Our Culture’s Profound Illusions
Authored by Larry Gottlieb
Do you think you see the world clearly?
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying that one cannot solve problems with the same kind of thinking that created them in the first place. Why is that? If our understanding of life and of ourselves doesn’t give us the kind of leverage we need, it could be that we built that entire edifice of understanding on top of some faulty premises.
This book, Hoodwinked, will assist you in uncovering those faulty premises. It will help you find new premises that will provide a stable foundation for a new understanding of the world and of yourself. That new understanding will enable you to greatly increase your effectiveness in life.
Hoodwinked Reader comments
Hey Larry,
I want to thank you for writing this book. I will reread it as soon as I can. I cannot be more thankful for the words and the concepts in Hoodwinked. You have changed my life. You have changed the scope of my world, and I have found the keys [to] happiness as a result.
Ryan R., July 13, 2022
A sampler from the Hoodwinked book:
Imagine, if you will, that each of us is a newborn fish. In the few days since we were born, we’ve cautiously swum about some, but now Mom has gathered us together to teach us about our world.
She points out rocks, and that some good things to eat might be found around them. She tells us about the sand, and that there are some creatures that look like sand but might sting us. She lets us know about what’s good to eat and what might want to eat us, and eventually we come to feel as if we have this fish thing wired.
The conventional explanation of the world is never examined
What she doesn’t tell us about, of course, is water, because she doesn’t know about water. She doesn’t know about water because water is all she has ever known. But imagine that one day something happens to you that takes you out of your well-understood reality. In this case, it comes in the form of feeling something sharp and foreign in your mouth. You’re jerked around and pulled upwards, and suddenly you cross some sort of boundary and you can’t breathe. You’ve been caught! Fortunately for you, you’re in a catch-and-release area and you’re gently put back where you belong. And now you know about the existence of water. You know about water by experiencing what we might call “not-water,” so that you can now distinguish water from everything else.
One day many years ago, I found out about the water I’d been swimming in. And that changed everything. What I discovered is that we humans take for granted the idea that we see the world the way it is, and that the world would be that way whether or not we are here to perceive it. And that idea turns out to be a superstition.
Foreword
...and the Voice said, “Don’t worry Larry; we’ll get you home.”
Something happened to me one day in 1974 that would forever change the way I look at life. And I have since found that once you go through that door, you can never go back.
Hoodwinked
Book Discussion Guide
* How do we first acquire our idea of the world?
* How does that idea come to determine what we think is real?
* How does it limit what thoughts we are able to think?
* How we can free ourselves from its domination and truly come into our own as the free beings we were born to be?
* How does this new understanding enable us to utilize completely different and much more powerful strategies for living than those we have practiced all our lives?
Invite Larry Gottlieb to your book group:
Larry is available to meet online with your book group or organization for a discussion about Hoodwinked. For a group discount on purchasing books, or to invite Larry to your online discussion or for more information contact him here.