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Atlas Shrugged

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redfarmer

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I wanted to share with everybody an experience I had the other day after reading a chapter in Atlas Shrugged. I was wondering: has anyone ever had an experience like this where everything they've ever known but refused to admit suddenly becam crystal clear?

This is quoted from my online journal:

What's been going on in my life the last few days? Well, not much really. I stayed home and finished reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I watched some TV. I basically relaxed. I mean, truly relaxed. It's something I haven't done in a really long time. I needed it.

The funny thing is that I feel so different. You see, the other night I had an experience like none other I've ever had before. I now know what people mean when they say they have the rare experience of seeing everything in their life in crystal clarity. It all became so real to me and I realize who I've been fighting all of these years: myself.

That night, I had a dream that I was in Galt's Gulch in Atlas Shrugged. I felt so alive and so real for the first time in my life. I know it sounds silly but it was a life changing experience. That book was the most important book for me that I've ever read.

What's next? Now, I live for the first time in my life. It's not an easy thing to learn how to live and think all over again but it's one that needs to be done.

And I will do it.

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Atlas Shrugged is the most important book I have ever read.

It snapped my whole world into focus. It wasn't an instant thing, but a gradual, growing clarity as I came to understand more and more.

That was 2 years ago and I still go back and read Galt's speech for inspiration.

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What's next? Now, I live for the first time in my life.

That sentence right there proves that you got Rand's message. Sadly, I know many self-proclaimed Objectivists who've read every word she wrote and don't understood that much. Best of luck, with Objectivism, and in life.

Don Watkins III

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What's been going on in my life the last few days? Well, not much really. I stayed home and finished reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I watched some TV. I basically relaxed. I mean, truly relaxed. It's something I haven't done in a really long time. I needed it.

The funny thing is that I feel so different. You see, the other night I had an experience like none other I've ever had before. I now know what people mean when they say they have the rare experience of seeing everything in their life in crystal clarity. It all became so real to me and I realize who I've been fighting all of these years: myself.

That night, I had a dream that I was in Galt's Gulch in Atlas Shrugged. I felt so alive and so real for the first time in my life. I know it sounds silly but it was a life changing experience. That book was the most important book for me that I've ever read.

What's next? Now, I live for the first time in my life. It's not an easy thing to learn how to live and think all over again but it's one that needs to be done.

And I will do it.

"redfarmer," I have repeated the entirety of your words because what you wrote is deserving of being read again, and again. What you express is beautifully written, but many people have the sort of epiphany you describe in response to reading "Atlas Shrugged." What you should be particularly proud of, however, is your statement of personal resolve to live the sort of life that makes the fiction of the book, a reality for yourself.

You are right, it is hard work to live right, but living right is exactly what makes living a value. The best to you in your studies of the philosophy, and here is to your success in applying it. You have already taken the first major step towards accomplishing that.

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