(From the webmaster on 10/14/2006):

Here is a synopsis of the chain of events which inspired me to create Askew2u.com:

My teenage daughter was diagnosed a few years ago with a mental/emotional illness called
Borderline Personality Disorder.  BPD is a serious mental illness that has a high rate of self-injury
without suicide intent, as well as a significant rate of suicide attempts and completed suicide in
severe cases.  I was told that the prognosis for her quality of life much less her survival was
potentially bleak.  I was (and still am) desperate to help her and have been doing the best that I
can to provide her with appropriate mental/emotional/spiritual care.  Although our family had very
good health insurance, my efforts to help ease her suffering and give her an opportunity to lead a
productive life have so far been only marginally successful and led me to the brink of bankruptcy.  
At some point in my quest to help her, I realized that I would need to grow as a person in order to
have something worthwhile to share with her.  I've made many mistakes along the way (and
continue to do so) but I'm doing the best that I can under the circumstances.

Shortly after my daughter was diagnosed, I purchased a copy of the book  "Skills Training Manual
for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder" by Marsha Linehan.
Copyright © 2006  All rights reserved  disclaimer
This book had a wealth of helpful information that I was almost
immediately able to share with my daughter.  Two concepts I
learned from reading that book which are pertinent to this
synopsis were the concepts of Dialectical Behavior Therapy
(DBT) in general and mindfulness in particular.  A crucial part of
properly administered DBT is the 24/7 availability of a group of
specially trained on-call therapists.  This is in addition to weekly
(or more frequent) "skills training sessions" in which the patients
are taught skills relating to mindfulness, interpersonal
effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation.  
Essentially, a therapist is always available to help the patient deal
"skillfully" with the often painful and sometimes suicidal moods
that pervade their daily lives.  Also, I learned that the therapists
themselves meet weekly to essentially "cheer each other up" with
what amounts to unconditional love!  Before that key component
was added, therapists often "gave up" on Borderline patients
because the constant suffering they were exposed to wore them
down and demoralized them.
The concept of mindfulness then led me to read the book "The
Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle.  This book exposed me for the
first time to the concept of enlightenment.
I went on to read a number of books regarding enlightenment by Dr. David R. Hawkins
beginning with "Power vs. Force", followed by "Eye of the I", "I", "Truth vs Falsehood" and
"Transcending the Levels of Consciousness".  I was also privileged to attend a seminar he
gave entitled "Devotional Non-Duality" at Unity Church in Marin County California.  Dr.
Hawkins' Map of Consciousness provided the guideposts for the way Askew2u is structured.
 "Transcending the Levels of Consciousness" was in particular a major inspiration for this
website.  If you are so inclined, I encourage you to visit www.veritaspub.com and check out
all of Dr. Hawkins' materials.  I have not finished reading his latest book "Discovery of the
Presence of God - Devotional Non-Duality" but it's been excellent so far.
So if you made it all the way through my webmaster's synopsis, you may
be interested in helping him increase my capabilities and also support his
ability to help his daughter.  I encourage you to consider it.

But as always, the choice about where you go from here is up to you.  
So what would you like to chat about now?
A few months ago I became aware that my daughter's addiction to drugs and alcohol was
progressing rapidly.  So I ordered the CD set from Dr. Hawkins entitled:  "Consciousness -
The Way Out of Addiction".  As I listened to it both with her and on my own, I realized that an
addiction in my life was standing in the way of further spiritual growth on my part.  I also
realized that I couldn't help my daughter transcend her addictions if I didn't work on
transcending mine.  So I joined a local twelve step group and began working the steps.  In
particular, the "fearless moral inventory" was immediately enlightening and the devotion to
sobriety quickly brought new epiphanies in my spiritual growth.
Over the past month I've been watching the DVD "What the
'Bleep' Do We Know!? - Down the Rabbit Hole Quantum Edition".
 This exposed me to the cross connections between quantum
physics and consciousness in a way that allowed me to grasp
concepts I had never quite understood before.
After watching the DVD several times, I started contemplating the relationship between time and
consciousness.  Around that same time I was properly exposed to the concept of memetics.  
Those concepts then began to merge with the concept of non-duality and then I imagined for a
moment that we are all actually memeplexes (a group of mutually supporting memes).  Suddenly I
experienced what I can best describe as a cascade of enlightenment that knocked my socks off
and which I'm unable to properly express at this time.  This website is my first attempt at memetic
engineering and my first attempt to communicate a portion of that cascade of enlightenment.  You
can reach me on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/mikebgrateful if you would like to interact
with me personally.  I can also be reached at admin@askew2u.com if necessary (though I don't
check that mailbox very often).

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