The visceral reality that Steve Jobs evokes in his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University might be recognized by those who have had near death experiences or been diagnosed with terminal illness. It is exactly those stark, utterly naked moments of impending demise in which one is truly awakened to the wonder of life and the infinite possibilities that lie before every one.
So many times it is easy to become muddled in the everyday worries and continual bombardment of media but underneath there is some deeper realm of understanding and connectedness. There have been countless references to this phenomenon in popular culture over the years but so many times the true nature of the experience becomes clouded by gross misrepresentations and the preconceived notions of the interpreter. The impression of the near death, or psychedelic, or mystical, experience or whatever term one uses to describe that fleeting frame of mind, is clearly visible in the stories Jobs chose to tell at the Stanford ceremony.
Steve Jobs brings us as close as he can to understanding the impermanence of life and the primal desire to fulfill one's greatest potential. At the perceived end of life, each person asks how he will be remembered. Jobs likely first posed that question to himself in a serious manner after his first psychedelic experience. He answered the question with a life dedicated to his visions in which he never lost faith. In the depths of the psychedelic experience it is possible to see through limitless frames of mind and what Steve Jobs saw, he brought to us as best he could.
It is the hope that one day the mystical experience will not be perceived as witchcraft for degenerates, and punished so brutally, but rather an essential part of the human experience. Alas. If Steve Jobs can drop acid and be a productive individual, why can no one else?
