The L-Dopa of the Soul
Navigating Emergence and the Silence of the Ghost ✨🌀
In the 1990 film “Awakenings,” Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) administers the drug L-Dopa to Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro), a patient who has been catatonic for decades. 🎬 For a brief, transcendent window, Leonard returns to the world—fully present, articulate, and alive. But the miracle is fragile. The drug eventually loses its grip, the effect fades, and Leonard slowly slips back into his silent prison. 📉
This cinematic tragedy is a profound metaphor for the human drive toward self-empowerment. I often feel like Dr. Sayer when I attempt to inspire others to take their lives into their own hands. I see that “L-Dopa moment”: the person becomes super animated, high on the possibility of a new direction. But then, the energy leaks. The spark fades. Suddenly, there is only silence.
In the modern lexicon, we call this Ghosting. 👻
The Disappearance of Intent
Ghosting is the act of abruptly ending communication without explanation. While we usually discuss it in a romantic context, it is rampant in the world of personal growth. You light a fire in someone, they embrace their Purpose, and then—they vanish. 🔇
When this happens, it is vital not to take it personally. As this show on Emergence suggests, this silence is rarely about you; it is about the individual’s internal battle with the “unpreparedness” for their own awakening.
The Tyranny of the Guardrails 🚧😴
We live in a world obsessed with standardization. We use processes and “playbooks” as “safety blankets” to ensure we never fall off the rails. But these very guardrails eventually turn into a cage.
When we motivate someone toward self-empowerment, we are asking them to step out of their “ho-hum” routine. We are giving them a mental dose of L-Dopa. The older we get, the more we fear the “unplanned” and the “spontaneous”.
People often “ghost” their own progress because stagnation feels safer than the unknown. They find excuses to return to their catatonic comfort zone because true Emergence requires a level of vulnerability they aren’t ready to sustain. They retreat into the “Nothingness” to avoid the “shocking or unexpected”.
Serendipity as the Antidote 🌿✨
The transcript offers a way out through Serendipity—relishing in the joy of discovery. To combat the ghosting of one’s own purpose, we must weave a new approach into our lives:
Open the Window: Much like a room needs air, our “cerebral” ideas—ideas captured and festering within our brains—need to be tested in the analog world.
The Power of the Detour: We are obsessed with efficiency, but effectiveness is often found in “going to B via C”. We must allow ourselves to be “derailed” from predictability to see a different outcome.
Radical Forgiveness: We often ghost our goals because we fail at perfection. Boyle reminds us that we must learn to “forgive ourselves for being human” because we are not robots.
Our Challenge: Sowing Seeds in the Silence 🧭🔥
The greatest challenge is to not lose hope when people slip back into their old selves or vanish into silence.
We must realize that the “ghost” is often just someone who is “dumbfounded” by the present you gave them. They may need time to “digest” the impetus of their own awakening.
Your purpose is not to control their outcome—you can’t control it anyway. Your purpose is to continue providing the Spark. Even if the L-Dopa wears off today, the memory of what it felt like to be “awake” remains a trigger for a future emergence. 🪟🕊️
What do you think? Is the silence of ghosting actually a sign that someone is busy “digesting” a truth that was too big for their current guardrails?
Leave a comment below—I’d love to weave your perspective into our next exploration. 🤔💬