Truth in Plagiarism – Part One
“If you can’t take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it’s not for the timid.”
The Invitation
Those who want safety, stay under the bed.
Those who want wonder, step forward.
But stepping forward always costs blood.
Philosophy calls it the problem of comfort: ease breeds softness, and softness breaks at the first blow.
Science proves it—muscle only grows under resistance, the mind sharpens only under strain.
The old rites demanded it—desert wandering for the prophets, the hero’s trial by fire, blood on the temple steps before the veil could be lifted.
In the realm of the flesh and will, the edge is no different. The timid never arrive. The willing never return the same.
The Bloody Nose Principle
A little blood is the price of admission.
A bruise to the ego.
A scrape against the heart.
A mark burned into the skin.
The Greeks knew this. The Eleusinian initiates were broken before they were illuminated.
Shamans knew it—the shaking, the fever, the near-death before the vision comes.
In the chamber, the altar is leather and rope. The offering is trust. The trial is real.
Those who fold at the first sting were never meant to kneel here.
The Treasures
“Treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross.”
Subtle treasures:
The quiet ache after restraint.
The glance that confirms belonging.
The private knowledge of having crossed a personal limit and found it too small.
Gross treasures:
Humiliation that blooms into pleasure.
Pain that flowers into something sacred.
Loss of control so absolute it feels like rebirth.
Myth wrapped them in symbols—the golden apples, the pearl at the ocean’s floor, the stolen fire.
Biology floods the brain with endorphins and dopamine.
The soul calls it memory: the imprint of surrender that never fades.
Why the Timid Stay Behind
The timid want guarantees.
An escape clause.
One hand on the wall while pretending to swim.
But the mysteries have no handrails.
The temple door closes behind the initiate.
The hero’s journey allows no half-step.
Science calls it threshold adaptation: change only comes when the limit is surpassed.
In myth, it’s the first gate—guarded by the beast that must be faced before the kingdom is revealed.
Here, the beast is fear, and fear will either temper or send running home.
The Edge
The edge is where the decision is made.
Crawl back to the small and the safe…
…or step forward into the drop.
Mystics call it the veil—thin, shimmering, a divide between what is known and what cannot be unseen.
Step across, and the bed becomes too small. Safety becomes a cage.
The Wondrous and the Gross
Beauty and filth live here in union.
Tenderness and cruelty.
The kiss and the slap.
Tantra names it the marriage of opposites—Shiva and Shakti, ecstasy in death, fire embraced by water.
Alchemy calls it solve et coagula—dissolve and recombine, break and remake.
In the chamber, it is one hand caressing, the same hand striking—two truths in one act.
The Mystical Law of Return
Every step here alters the traveler.
Every trial writes itself into bone and nerve.
Neuroscience shows the brain’s pathways strengthen with repetition.
Faith says the soul keeps the record.
Myth warns the hero never comes home unchanged.
Once the divine has been tasted—whether through pain, through power, or through surrender—it calls again. And again. And again.
The Structure Beneath the Skin
The strongest bonds are invisible.
They are built in moments when more is given than planned.
The shift of breath at a certain tone.
The reflex that arrives before thought.
The recognition that reactions no longer belong to the one who feels them.
No ceremony required.
Once rewired, it never returns to the old pattern.
The Law of the Circle
Movement is never in straight lines—it bends, always, back toward the source.
The pull of something unshakable cannot be escaped.
Every drift is temporary.
The orbit reclaims what it marked.
The Contract Unseen
Some agreements are written.
Others are lived.
Each answered call signs it anew.
Each unquestioned command seals it tighter.
Psychology calls it conditioning.
Others call it loyalty.
Truth calls it ownership—without needing to speak the owner’s name.
The No-Exit Principle
Leaving is a fantasy.
The mind can picture the clean break, but reality does not cooperate.
Reality is a voice heard without sound.
A touch remembered in the absence of contact.
The phantom weight of control still pressing on the soul.
The circle closes. Every time.
The Final Truth
Some spend a lifetime seeking this.
Some find it by accident and are never the same.
The timid see the edge and retreat.
The rest step forward, knowing the return path will vanish behind them.
If a bloody nose is too much, the bed is still waiting.
But for those who can…
Step forward.
Just remember…. out here “It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it’s not for the timid.”