Pushing Ultimates

Pushing Ultimates
Lew Paz
Plumbell Publishing
ISBN: 0-9773733-9-8
Non-Fiction, Self Knowledge
Reviewed by Dr. Tami Brady

The road to authentic self-knowledge is probably the most challenging and worthwhile journey that a human being will ever explore. This journey is often riddled with good intentions, trying to ignore shadows of the self, and a desire to find some sort of meaning to one’s own suffering. It is so very easy to take the easy path, to believe someone else’s truth as our own, or to seek comfort in beliefs that we’ve never really questioned.
Pushing Ultimates takes a candid look at the most common obstacles to authentic self knowledge. Probably the biggest challenge in this process is beginning a line of questioning and really trying to find the answers. It takes quite a bit of courage to question why you believe something, why you react in a certain way, or why you make certain choices. The average person does most things so automatically that they don’t even think about what they do so getting to the why takes some work.
The process of questioning also usually means exploring taboo-like subjects such as science and religion. Does science actually explain the phenomena you are looking at in detail or does it just describe it? Does religion actually address the specifics of your question or does it serve primarily as a moral guideline and sense of comfort? Are science and religion polar opposites or are they both ways to explore our world that often gets tangled up in dogmatism?

Pushing Ultimates reminds us that despite our intense need to fit in and to go with the crowds that if we as individuals truly want authentic self-knowledge that we have to dig a lot deeper than that. We have to be willing to question anything and everything. We also have to be willing to listen to the answers. While this is definitely not an easy task, it is likely the most important undertaking we’ll ever start.