The Atman has been empirically discovered to be subject to what Atmanologists have come to call the Houdini Drive. Houdini was a famous performer who was driven to create more and more extreme situations—situations of impossible difficulty—in which he was constrained, for example, by ropes, handcuffs, straitjackets, inside locked trunks, thrown into ice-cold water and in danger of drowning, with only seconds to escape before the onset of fatality. His challenge to imminent death kept his audiences on the edge of their seats. They were thrilled and amazed when he succeeded in appearing, unexpectedly, outside the trunk, free of all constraints, and triumphant against all odds.

This same trick, based on the same drive, describes the performance of the Atman. The Atman creates an ego and places it in a situation of impossible constraints, including the constraint of ignorance, and forces itself to cope with unbearable suffering of every sort. Egos also love to play two-handed versions of this game. Politicians sometimes call it brinksmanship. In fact, they are willing to go over the brink, initiating wars. Teenage drivers call it ‘playing chicken’. At the collective level, the human ego-system even faces itself with imminent death on a planetary scale. It creates conditions of utter hopelessness and despair—only to miraculously find the way out, at the last moment, and emerge victorious over all obstacles. But can we do it this time? We are in suspense. It can only happen if the trunk we are trapped in becomes a magic cocoon, in which our ego dies and our immortal spirit reveals itself in all its power. (more…)