I think that, within every person’s soul, there is a door that leads to limitless compassion and ecstasy and love.

Few people find this door, and fewer still are the people who have the courage to open it. To open that door to paradise would mean a very fundamental kind of change. Our entire system of earning love and deserving pleasure would collapse, and with it, our identities. Our whole world would change and we would no longer recognize ourselves.

And the deepest and truest definition of death is the destruction of our identities. On a deep animal level, death means “a world without us”, and the definition of “us” is always the person we are at that exact moment.

So big change seems like death to us, especially deep personal change. Certainly, when we contemplate big changes in ourselves, even ones which we truly believe we want, we shrink from the possibility as though it meant total destruction.

And in a sense, it does. To grow, sometimes we have to be willing to sacrifice all that we are now in order to embrace a newer, stronger, happier version of ourselves. A version so different, we will barely recognize our former selves.

Blessed are those who make such transformations. They are the ones who will find the renewal that makes a soul sing.

But most of us cling to our identities and adhere to rigid definitions of who we are and who we are not. We beat our heads against the wall by crying out for change while also resisting it with every fiber of our being. Anything that involves a change in oneself is treated like an invading virus.

We want the results of change without having to actually change. We want the happiness and renewal, but not if it means doing something difficult or frightening or painful. Often, even if the doors of Heaven were thrown open for us and we would be welcomed in and showered with lower and respect and attention, we linger at the gate and complain about how the angel’s wings look wrong, or how God’s love makes us feel weird, or how we just can’t risk entering because… what if we don’t like it?

And yes, I said God. I speak, of course, not of some nebulous cosmic patriarch but of the God within us all. I think what religions seek to do, in their purest form, is to access that door to joy and ecstasy within in and open it just a crack. Magic in all forms is a system for negotiating a change in the fundamental symbols of our mortal existence, and religion seeks to give people a way to access this inner joy without feeling like their whole identity is at risk.

So there are rules. There are rituals you need to perform, rules you have to abide, a specific state of mind you must enter before you can do something as dangerous as tamper with the fundamental code of your personality.

That way, we can feel safe in connecting to this well of Heaven within us. Going through religion unsures that we will not be presented with the unthinkable proposition of unlimited pleasure and happiness without any effort or work to earn it.

That idea, of completely unearned and unconditional joy, is so threatening to how we think and how our social instincts tell us we are supposed to behave that it even spills out into all forms of social conservatism, where the greatest fear is that if people are enjoying themselves too much, they won’t work as hard, and that means they will be “getting away with something”.

After all, if you have accepted that you have to do certain things in order to earn certain joys, what could be more galling and outrageous than someone getting them for free?

This is why such people have such a problem with sex. Sex is an amazing thing. It is a source of enormous pleasure and satisfaction and even contentment, and for so little investment of effort. The social conservative instinctively reacts to the idea of sexual pleasure as a threat, and wants to bind it up in rules and restrictions to make it safe.

But what if it’s true? What if sex and joy do not have to be earned? What if we all have the capacity to tap into an unlimited supply of everything we need : love, acceptance, forgiveness, solace, comfort, a feeling of safety… everything.

What if we can just throw out all the rules and restrictions and just be happy for no good reason?

The Captain Kirk crowd would tell you that this would immediately lead to people doing nothing but just sitting around with stupid grins on their faces, lacking the motivation to do anything any more.

But I consider that a narrow and provincial view. To me, it is at least equally possible that by giving people unlimited access to everything they need, people would finally become whole and healthy and happy, and they would be more capable than ever of doing the work of life, secure in the knowledge that they are, forever and ever, safe.

Unlimited, unearned pleasure is the most subversive idea in the world. It threatens not just the existing power structure but the very fundamental laws of how we think the universe works. Happiness isn’t something that just comes to you. You have to go get it. You have to gamble all the time on being able to find activities which are profitable : the reward is greater than the effort expended. Life demands that you work hard and sacrifice of yourself in order to even be considered a person.

But what if we all could be as innocent and free as children? What if we all decided that, from now on, we will be happy unless something forces us not to be? What if we make happiness the default?

The doors to Heaven are open inside all of us.

But do we have the courage to go through?

Talk to you tomorrow, you wonderful people you!