Today, after seven years of work, The Law of the Sublime is out in the world.
When I started this book, I had an ambitious plan. I would go down the Amazon, find chimpanzees in the wilds of Africa, and cross the Gobi Desert, then write about those experiences of awe.
Then, on a hot August afternoon in 2018, I had a stroke while driving in Los Angeles. A blood clot cut off oxygen to my brain, and within seconds I lost consciousness. When I woke up in the hospital, I learned how close I had come to the point of no return. My left hand was frozen into a claw, and I could barely feel my left leg, but something strange happened.
On the ambulance ride home, I looked out at the people on the street, and for a moment I felt I could be inside their bodies and hear their thoughts. It was marvelous and weird, and I knew it was time to write this book.
I couldn't type, so I wrote every page by hand, dictated it, printed it out, and edited it all over again. I couldn't take the long hikes that had carried me through my six previous books. Then one afternoon I woke from a nap in my backyard to find a grasshopper inches from my face, and I understood that this small backyard would have to be my Amazon jungle. The lizards, the hummingbirds, the insects became my teachers.
My limits turned out to be a blessing. They forced me to find the Sublime in the simplest things, and that is what this book is about.
Most of us live inside a circle: an everyday consciousness shaped by culture, convention, and, more and more, technology. That circle keeps shrinking, and we grow bored and restless. Just outside it is the Sublime, a realm that is frightening and exciting at once, pulling us out of our comfort zones and opening us to a much wider reality. The book maps 12 points outside that circle, and each one is a different face of the Sublime.
Inside, you'll find stories of near-death encounters, astonishing discoveries, and radical changes of consciousness, along with exercises and meditations so you can feel the Sublime yourself, not just read about it.
The Sublime doesn't require travel or exotic adventures. It only requires a new pair of eyes for the reality all around you.
The Law of the Sublime is available now in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.
Thank you for your support of my work. I hope you enjoy reading this book, and I look forward to hearing your feedback.
With gratitude,
Robert Greene
