Be eccentric as you drift soulfully into reality

Thomas Moore’s September-October 2013 column, Joyfully Adrift for Spirituality & Health magazine is now available. In this piece, Moore suggests, "Maybe, as we become more soulful, we drift into reality rather than away from it." He shares one of his own experiences early in his career:

"As many therapists discover, practicing therapy is being in therapy. As the people I worked with went off happily into their new eccentric lives, I began to shed my own inhibitions. In my early years especially, I lived two lives. Outwardly I was a conventional, quiet, unremarkable scholarly type, while inwardly I nurtured all kinds of weirdness and personal tastes and passions. Once in a while, the inner devils would creep out into the world, as when I published a thoughtful study of the Marquis de Sade, presenting him as a particularly sane and perceptive artist instead of the creepy, twisted, and psychotic figure that history portrays. One publisher rejected my idea, saying it was obscene to place de Sade in the context of serious theology and psychology. My book ended up receiving an award and an excellent review from a pornographic magazine. While surprised and pleased by that, I felt pushed further to the edge of polite society."

Near the end of this column Moore confirms, "In therapy I’ve learned that the world is often upside down: What you thought was right and reasonable turns out to be harmful and limiting. What you thought was crazy and maladjusted is revealed as the most sane and creative. As you become a more soulful person, you drift further from what most people would call reality."