We are all Transitioning
A companion to John Eisenhauer's online novel, the motivation to realize authentic self (including gender dysphoria)
The term 'gender dysphoria' refers to the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between gender identity (a personal sense of gender) and the sex assigned at birth. In 2013, this term replaced the previous diagnostic label of 'gender identity disorder’ in the DSM-5. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term ‘disorder’.
I accept the reality of gender dysphoria. Human sexuality - the software not the hardware - is a complex phenomenon.
While I never experienced this specific aspect of human sexuality, I know about my bisexuality. I've personally known gays, lesbians, and straights. I've known straight guys who couldn’t imagine being attracted to a dude: I've known gay guys who couldn’t imagine being attracted to a dame. I’m down with both. Having experienced the variety sexual attraction - both in my personal experiences and in observing others - I simply don't have any difficulty in accepting that gender identity - like sexual attraction - is part of the matrix.
The type of transitioning typified by media figures like Elliot Page, Josie Totah, Dylan Mulvaney, and others is viewed as outrageous and controversial. I maintain that the opposite is true. While admittedly provocative, it is a representative of a commonplace human phenomenon. A person – with a nominal degree of self-awareness – strives to connect to his or her Primordial Essence.
It’s my bottom line that by connecting to one’s Primordial Essence a person connects to the One or Divine (my terminology and …hey…you should make up your own terminology as well – it’s kinda cool). This is the transcendent reality where the Creative Essence (the genesis of physical reality) lies. This reality cannot be understood by linear thought.
Ultimately, my deal is ‘non-metaphysical mysticism’. No story gods or absurd myths. A bunch of stars – perceived to look like something – are each separated by trillions of miles: this arbitrary group of gaseous giants does not describe a person’s personality or destiny. Honestly, I think that a lot of people believe a lot of BS. People will read what I have to say and think that I’m full of it. And I’m fine with that.
By ‘non-metaphysical mysticism’., I mean that there is an overarching reality that ties everything together. The Five W’s - Who, What, When, Where and Why - are the questions whose answers are needed to gather basic information about a mystery: like existence. According to the principle of the Five W’s, a report can only be considered complete if it answers these five questions: each one starting with one of the interrogatives. The big questions – ‘How did we get here?’ or ‘Why are we here?’ – can not be answered by the five W’s. We live in amazing times – sadly, way too many people are way too stupid to appreciate it – and science answers much: the deep answers elude it. So, we make up – and believe in – gods, myths, and magic stars.
The deep answers are Unknowable – not unknown – but UNKNOWABLE. (see my substack The Intellectual & the Sexual ). We’re down with the unknown: that can become known. But not down with the Unknowable. Some fear the truth that human intellect has it’s limits. Others simply fear and they make up gods, myths, and magic stars: then they use the detritus – the rubble from their frustrated attempt to develop actual understanding – to control others.
Thought is wholly inappropriate when attempting to connect to overarching reality. A light meter (or illuminometer) is a device used to measure the amount of light. It cannot, however, measure temperature. While an amazing piece of technology, an illuminometer cannot do everything. Thought is a wonder: it gives us science, philosophy and so much more. The One can only be experienced. This experience is only possible by connecting to one’s Authentic Self. The Divine is not found in myths or gods as such things are fictions.
The Tao-te Ching - the earliest document in the history of Taoism - emphasizes that individuality and freedom is found through simplicity and a wordless connection to nature. The Tao is all encompassing. The apparent differences in the world distract one from this truth: all is one (The Tao or - my preference - The One). The Tao - or The One - is unnamed and unknowable.
Decades ago, I went through a jag where I read a bunch of books on Philosophical Taoism. One described the word ‘Tao’ as a placeholder word. Since we are talking about something that eludes precise definition (due to the limitations of the intellect). Yes…exactly.
The Tao - The One - is not found in knowledge. I'm not dissing knowledge - a huge booster, in fact - but it's simply not the connection to transcendent reality.
In my philosophy – not Taoism – the connection is realized by knowing self in the purest terms: that realization is an uncorrupted experience. That experience connects one to the Primordial. The Primordial is only accessed by knowing one’s Authentic Self.
This brings me back to gender dysphoria: I maintain that this is an objective reality.
There appears to be many kinds of dysphoria. But that appearance is an illusion. The appearance is cosmetic…surfacy. Dysphoria is the result of a person being separated from his or her Authentic Self by other people.
If you shame a guy for being gay, you separate him from his Authentic Self. That separates him from the Primordial Essence. And that separates him from The One. Because only when free from the clutter of extraneous – and controlling – thought is The One realized. It isn’t only the judgement of others that sullies the purity of Authentic Self. While a guy’s homosexuality is inherently honorable, he would frustrate his connection to the Divine if he used it dishonorably. For example, he promises his partner to be monogamous but sleeps around. As I alluded to in my second substack Self, Ethics and Your Sexual Essence , a person is inherently good. However, this goodness is only realized when one is separate from the moment. Deceit and deception – and the resultant guilt – binds a person to his or her transitory reality…and the transitory’s inherent delusion.
Another variant of dysphoria is being denied the need to express oneself creatively. While I simply never have had an issue with gender dysphoria, I have experienced creative dysphoria.
I experience The One by writing. In writing this substack. I am experiencing it. While the ideas that I’m discussing are valuable, it is the act of creating them that connect me to The One. The written words attempt to describe the experience but are only placeholders.
As I discuss in the ‘Prologue’ – an autobiographical section before the novel portion of Brandon Gets His Big Break– I was kept from being my Authentic Self by external actors (my parents and the medical establishment). I’ll just quickly recap. The messed-up influence of these external actors both turned me into a raging alcoholic and caused the overprescription of a needed – but indescribably dangerous – drug. The overprescription caused numerous profound side effects (both physical and psychological). This situation bedeviled me from my teens to my mid-fifties. So, external actors denied me my Authentic Self. Expressing myself creatively – by writing – is an aspect of my Authentic Self. While torn by the madness that was created by the alcoholism and the severe emotional and psychological maladaptation caused by the overprescription of an unbelievably potent drug, I was being denied my Authentic Self by others (my parents and the medical establishment). Past tense.
I don’t know Elliot Page. But – having read his book and listened to his interviews – I’ve reached a conclusion about him. He was denied being his Authentic Self by others. He had the focus and strength to break free of the external control. He’s now happy. And good for him.
These essays discuss the ideas behind ‘Brandon’. In the substack The Intellectual and the Sexual, I talk about how the characters Amy and Jane were each kept from being their respective Authentic Self by others. But external actors can help a person in that realization. In Chapter 10, I briefly introduced (but did not name) a secondary character. I am currently writing Chapter 12 – today being 22 January 2024 – and have not posted it yet.
We learn that the character is named ‘Ilhan’. Her immediate family were Cultural Muslims. Her parents, brothers, and sisters are atheists and free thinkers. They maintain a secular connection to Islam. Her parents – both doctors – were irreligious. They were hostile to the supernatural interpretation of the faith. They reinterpreted the tenets in a secular way.
They reworked the Five Pillars - the foundation of Islam - to be a framework for social justice and human rights. For example, Shahada - one of the Pillars - was normally defined as a declaration of faith in one God and the prophethood of Muhammad: it represented the right to freedom of belief to her parents.
Her parents knew that Ilhan was a lesbian and assured her that they did not love her any less for it. They further assured her that there was no shame. They did counsel her to be ethical in all of her dealings…that included sexual liaisons.
While Elliot Page and I had to fight to overcome the dank control of external actors to realize Authentic Self, Ilhan was given the tools to realize hers.
I hope that you give that gift to those in your life.
I’ll soon post Chapter 12 (my plan is a total of twenty chapters). I’ll keep posting new chapters and these commentaries on their meaning.
Namaste & Shalom,
John