The Brezsny Survey

Please answer as many of the following questions as you can. Work with ferocious intensity and/or gentle reflection. Don't push on till you're exhausted, but try to come as close to total combustion as you can.

Be innocently truthful and spontaneously thoughtful, or else gratuitously sarcastic and recklessly flippant. If you find yourself responding with ideas that you used to believe but don't any more, abandon them and start over.

Take advantage of this rare opportunity to be creative and authentic for no reason. Don't save yourself for "something better."

1. What did you dream last night?
I dreamed I had a sphinx... Oh, wait, no... Actually, I had a weird dream that I was petting an animal that had been dead for quite some time. Also there were zombies. I blame that Breathers book that I've been reading. It's fun, though. If you like things like Fight Club, you'd probably enjoy this book.

2. What image or symbol represents the absolute of your desires?
A white fox carrying the Om symbol.

3. In what ways has your fate been affected by invisible forces you don't understand or are barely aware of?
This question always makes me boggle a little. If I don't understand it, and am barely aware of it, then how can I know how it affects my life? o_0

4. Tell a good lie.
I am always proud to be a human being.

5. What were the circumstances in which you were most dangerously alive?
Martial arts practice!

6. Are you a good listener? If so, describe how you listen. If not, explain why not.
"Keep yer mouth shut and pay attention" is one of my mantras. I suppose that would be why I tend to be better at listening than I am at always knowing what to say or when--particularly in situations where there's something wrong and I can't actually take some kind of action to fix things.

7. Compose an exciting prayer in which you ask for something you're not supposed to.
Bah, you can ask for anything. It just doesn't necessarily mean you'll get it.

8. What's the difference between right and wrong?
Largely, perception. As well as location, and what mores are in fashion at the time.

9. Name something you've done to undo, subvert, or neutralize the Battle of the Sexes.
I take the position of conscientious objector.

10. Have you ever witnessed a child being born? If so, describe how it changed you.
In fact, I haven't. I'm not sure it'd change me all that much. :-?

11. Compose a beautiful blasphemy that makes you feel like crying.
There is no blasphemy.

12. What do you do to make people like you?
I don't.

13. If you're not familiar with the Jungian concept of the shadow, find out about it. If you are, good. In either case, give a description of the nature of your personal shadow.
My personal shadow is a spoiled and wounded child. It wants what It wants, when It wants it, no matter who It hurts (including itself) or what the cost. It is often very angry, or frightened, and throws violent tantrums frequently.

14. Talk about three of your most interesting personalities. Give each one a name and a power animal.
Well, there's my shadow, up there. She looks a bit like Samara from The Ring movies. We'll call her Mara, after the Buddhist metaphore for doubt and temptation. Her power animal is a cross between Godzilla and a lemming. There's my creative drive; We'll call her Jenna. She has red, curly hair and wears second-hand clothing smeared with paint and clay. Her animal would be a magpie. There's my higher self; we'll call It Ai. It is an androgynous being that looks a bit like the aliens in Cocoon. All animals are its power animals.

15. Make up a dream in which you lose control and thereby attract a crowd of worshipers.
Okay. In this dream, I am fabulously wealthy. (It is a dream after all. ;-P) I become tired of seeing people protesting the LGBT community on the news and hire a small corps of pilots to fly planes over every protest of that type in the nation for the next five years and pelt the protestors with a righteous deluge of Skittles, thereby making them taste the rainbow.

16. Name your greatest unnecessary taboo and how you would violate it if it didn't hurt anyone.
Ignore the "keep her mouth shut" part of the listening mantra more often.

17. Give an example of how smart you are in the way you love.
I don't put conditions on my love for others, but I love myself enough that I do put conditions on what will keep me with a person.

18. What ignorance do you deserve to be forgiven for?
Any ignorance I'm open to losing.

19. What was the pain that healed you the most?
Any pain that strips an illusion away.

20. Make a prediction about yourself.
By this time next year I will be well-settled into a happy life with my siblings.

I know who the next companions should be!!!

Also, this!