Reinhard Zaiser

Reinhard Zaiser, M.A., M.Div., M.S., M.O.M., Ph.D., Th.D.
Philosophy / Theology / Applied Work Science / Organizational Management
Philosophical Counselor, Logotherapist & Existential Analyst
Clinical Philosopher/Theologian/Ethicist & Humanist Chaplain
Philosophical Adult Educator, Change Agent & Manager Trainer

Vivere vis: scis enim?
You want to live? For do you know how?
– Seneca

Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems
and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.
– Viktor E. Frankl

The unexamined life is unlivable for a human being.
– Socrates

My favorite chess saying is very simple: You can play without a plan, but you’ll probably lose.
– Kristen Perrin

You can become a master in chess only if you see your mistakes and short-comings.
Exactly the same as in life itself.
– Alexander Alekhine

That one can truly manage other people is by no means adequately proven.
But one can always manage oneself.
– Peter Drucker

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.
– Edmund Hillary

I believe that, not only in chess, but in life in general, people place too much stock in ratings – they pay
attention to which TV shows have the highest ratings, how many friends they have on Facebook, and it’s funny.
The best shows often have low ratings and it is impossible to have thousands of real friends.
– Boris Gelfand

Climate crisis and social injustice are inextricably linked. Our economic system must work not only for the few,
but for all nations and all people, especially communities that are impacted first and worst by the climate crisis.
– Jerome Foster II

Philosophy of liberation can be exercised in all places and situations where there is oppression
of person by person, class by class, racial minority by racial majority. Depending on
the "space" where the discourse arises, diverse topics will be relevant.
– Enrique Dussel

I. The Doctor is in, the Artist present: Dr. Reinhard Zaiser, a.k.a. Dr. Z, who studied at universities in Europe and the United States and, being slightly older (and wiser), has to offer sophisticated insights into almost everything lifeworldly (German: lebensweltlich), both the exhilaration and inevitable darkness of life, is a very practical philosopher, theologian & ethicist, a continental "lebensphilosopher" ("philosopher of life") and philosophical practitioner for whom the objective of philosophical practice, also called philosophical counseling, is, to use a term by philosopher Gerd B. Achenbach, "Lebenskönnerschaft" ("life mastery") or practical wisdom (quite understandable, given the translation of the Greek word philosophia as love of wisdom) and, therefore, helping adults toward a new level of maturity, practical wisdom, and authentic meaning, the knowledge of what's really important in how they live and work, and an ongoing liberation toward an authentic well-lived life (not causing deathbed regrets) by jointly reflecting on their lived experiences and existential challenges, correcting fallacious pre- and misconceptions, eliminating personally held false dogmas and irrational beliefs, and – supporting philosopher Karl Popper's thesis: "All life is problem solving" – addressing and solving life's problems by connecting the dots, – because, so philosopher Robert Nozick: "Wisdom is practical; it helps. Wisdom is what you need to understand in order to live well and cope with the central problems and avoid the dangers in the predicament(s) human beings find themselves in" ("The Examined Life," 1989, 267) –, and as philosophical change agent facilitating deep change, inner transformation, personal growth, and continuing liberation toward an examined / fuller / ethical / more meaningful life, a clinical philosopher & ethicist (knowing, while having published, for example, on topics within the field of bioethics, that medical ethics is everywhere and business ethics as important) trained in phenomenology and Existential Phenomenological Psychotherapy (EPP), and a clinical theologian & humanist healthcare chaplain trained in Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) promoting spiritual-philosophical integration and deep health, a spiritual-philosophical care professional practicing the ancient art of intently listening by effectively applying reflective and empathic listening, responding, and interpreting skills as well as spiritual and phenomenological assessment skills, who stays open, reflective, and receptive by ethically and phenomenologically bracketing out, or suspending, his own assumptions, biases, judgements, prejudices, and stereotypes to become more aware of others and their voices, to assist and empower others, to voice their deepest, existential ultimate concerns (death, isolation, meaninglessness, liberation, etc.) in the midst of the "cruel radiance of what is" (James Agee), to help them to articulate their existential narratives and passion stories, to seek and find a new understanding of themselves, their circumstances / situations / options and decisions including far-reaching, radical consequences, their everyday lifeworlds (German: Lebenswelten), their social systems, a sense of the possible, the really important, to newly learn to see / to hear / to feel, to find new connections and define their ways to meaning, to reorient / reinvent / become / define themselves (by courageously moving toward emancipation expressed in very personal liberation stories including coming outs, divorces, and deconversions from inherited book religions, etc.), to live more freely and authentically, to continuously liberate themselves and others, to decide the right things to do, to stand their ground, to get straight, to come clean, to come to terms, to come to grips, and to find closure, by providing philosophical, spiritual, existential, and emotional care to adult individuals: (1) managers and adult guests in his private Philosophical Practice "Theta Pi Consulting" in Brookfield and (2) adult patients, families, and staff at an academic teaching hospital in Milwaukee. Dr. Z did his Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) residency at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, in Manhattan. Having gotten a rigorous Jesuit education and earned two doctorates (Ph.D., Th.D.) plus four master’s degrees (philosophy, theology, organizational management, and applied work science, helping, by seeing the bigger picture, guests, supervisors, managers, and executives (in fact, everyone in need; and, after all, aren't we all managers?) as both a personal philosophical & corporate change agent, transformation and high ethics company consultant (holistic clinical and corporate philosopher & business ethicist), and manager trainer to manage themselves and transform both their lives and departments / units / clinics / companies toward social, economic, and environmental sustainability by, for example, appealing to the intrinsic motivation of employees, keeping a framework, where employees don't get demotivated and other stakeholders frustrated, where employee turnover stays low, where, by becoming carbon-neutral, net-zero, or even climate positive, the environment and the planet isn't getting abused and destroyed anymore, and where the dignity of work and a healthy workplace are honored (by going beyond traditional capitalist and Marxist definitions of work by also considering and respecting, as a starting point, the work of mothers and fathers raising kids and taking care of the elderly, crucial and meaningful work that is not reflected in the GDP), and conducting the will to ethics (high ethics & sustainability management), the will to quality (high quality management), the will to innovation (creativity & innovation management), the will to change (continuing change management), the will to safety, workflow efficiency, and interoperability via focus on ISO 9001:2015, Total Quality Management (TQM), Quality Management Ontology (QMO), and Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) ISO/ESO 21838-2 first developed by one of Dr. Z's philosophy professors, the ontologist Barry Smith, who knows, like corporations, starting with Palantir alongside big tech companies, governments, surveillance, espionage, the military, that gaining and organizing information is fundamental and life-saving and who introduced Dr. Z to ontology and phenomenology, with the consequence that Dr. Z soon verified philosopher Raymond Aron's dictum that "if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this [sc. apricot] cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"), Dr. Z, who, by taking philosopher, medievalist, semiotician, culture critic, and novelist Umberto Eco's advice "You have to invent your own job" (as well as "How to spot a fascist") seriously by becoming a very practical, even clinical philosopher, without ever becoming clinical (cold, unemotional), and who can, as such, never be overqualified, additionally studied – interested in holistic wellbeing and deep health, the philosophical idea of the good life, a sublime life, as well as ueber-influencer Friedrich Nietzsche's enforced Delphic-Socratic imperative "Know yourself!" famously known as "Become who you are!" – complementary and alternative medicine in Germany, became cross-trained in different disciplines, for example: a certified logotherapist & existential analyst (5 years training in logotherapy & existential analysis, the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy" founded by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl, M.D., Ph.D., a physician-philosopher, prisoner #119,104 and Holocaust survivor, and author of "Man's Search for Meaning," who kept his logotherapy open for believers and non-believers, and suggested, following philosopher Immanuel Kant, to apply philosophy as a medicine); a certified philosophical counselor by the American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA), considering practical philosophy in form of Philosophical Practice an integral part of people's ongoing self-care and liberation process, an implement not just to interpret the world, but to work towards a better world, to show that a different world is possible and sustainable, and a branch of medicine like any other without becoming part of the reductionist medical model that, instead of perceiving the whole person and her social reality, is labeling patients as "the diabetic," "the kidney stone," or "the liver in room 18" or leads on occasion to helplessly prescribing drugs and pain-killers to stressed-out patients, often of underserved communities, despite the fact that other interventions are needed, because such bandages for the pain, only treating symptoms, can't solve the underlying root problems, today's economic, societal, and spiritual ills and quandaries including the cult of continuous and unsustainable economic growth that can't keep coal and oil in the ground and destroys our biosphere and health (with "Earth Overshoot Days" arriving earlier every year) as well as the warped cult of stimulus (via all kinds of "brain crash saga dopamine games") and superficiality (culminating in TikTok and other internet platforms that are using / abusing "users" by creating depressed dopamine junkies via the tyranny of the "Like" and infinite browsing and constantly comparing oneself to others and their virtual facades of perfection and faked happiness, destroying people's attention spans, minds, the brain, the human spirit, plus mining and using data by their "users" to further manipulate and sell them in an era where data is considered a more valuable resource than oil); a certified adult educator (Munich School of Philosophy) helping adults to better understand themselves, their social systems, and their world, and to live and act according to this understanding (going along with Brazilian philosopher and educator Paulo Freire's thesis that "liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it") to liberate their existence from top to bottom; a trained crisis counselor (telephone emergency services: helping people to overcome crisis situations and to save their lives, which gave Dr. Z, who worked – standing on the shoulders of giants such as physician-philosopher Viktor E. Frankl or clinical philosopher and ethicist Richard M. Zaner, who are both in their patient-centered care, in the context of Zaner's ethics of listening, itself very logotherapeutic, and Frankl's method of the Socratic Dialogue, asking their patients crucial questions – in contrast to classical Freudian psychoanalysis, where mainly the patient is talking – by considering in authentic empathy the existential and phenomenological aspects in their patient encounters – in five hospitals including two psychiatric hospitals and a children's hospital, another window into what's wrong, rigged, and broken in our highly materialistic, deeply wronged, late capitalist society and escalating, explosive late modernity with all its systemic failures, oppressions, limitations, and stagnations: reduced economic growth globally / massive transfer of knowledge from an arrogant West, counting on mass-produced MBAs, to China, focusing on blue collar manufacturing, hands-on applied work science, and becoming leader in green technology, electric batteries and vehicles, 5G, AI, advanced robotics, and quantum computing, making China possibly the first to seize Q-Day by winning the quantum computer race, an upcoming historical event and striking cybersecurity nightmare when everything starts hitting the fan, etc. / footnote for Apple caught by China: shortly before the end of World War II, the Americans captured a trophy, namely leading German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and his top aerospace engineers, whereas the Russians took the leftovers, supervisors with technical "know how" from the Nazi rocket shop floors, and soon after successful knowledge transfer the Soviets initiated another remarkable historical event, the "Sputnik moment"! Frustrated by Russia's success, and about to lose the space race, von Braun was saying: "We could have done it with our Redstone [sc. rocket] two years ago!" / seemingly less breakthroughs in science including, the second time in 100 years, "the end of physics" / the point where our human understanding of the universe, the micro- / meso- / and macrocosm, stuck with the Standard Model of particle physics, seems to reach everlasting limits, an epoch, where everything, nature, things, people, the human body, is commercialized, where your worth, against Kantian ethics, is your net worth, where the question arises whether liberal democracy, internet platform and surveillance capitalism, and human rights, gender equality, and personal freedom are still compatible, not to mention white ethnonationalism as well as women globally oppressed by a patriarchy baptized into a misogynistic "red pill" manosphere, where "blue pill" liberal democracy, supporting discourse / equal and women rights / feminism, is considered the enslaving Matrix by the opposers and enemies of self-determined and increasingly well-educated women standing for the open society, on their own feet, and less and less in a kitchen, while the majority of people on our planet are not white males but females of color, who just started "decolonizing their bodies" [Afua Hirsch] by reclaiming their ethnic beauty through learning and relearning how to understand their bodies and liberating themselves from Eurocentric body and beauty images still celebrated by too many beauty magazines and fashion photographers caught in the bubble of white Eurocentric beauty standards as the global default; well, the world is still a bad place for females and non-binary individuals, not just in Afghanistan or Iran, but also in the West); a United States Chess Federation (USCF) certified chess coach running his own "Dr. Z's Genius Chess Academy" enlightening young minds (because chess teaches you valuable life lessons, to think before you act, to follow rules, to respect others, to make decisions, to manage your emotions, to learn how to lose through philosophically dealing with setbacks – following Nelson Mandela's stance "I never lose. I either win or learn" – and coming back smarter and stronger, and so much more plus having lots of fun, so that Bobby Fischer, having lived the agonal principle of chess, convincingly summarized: "Chess is life"); and a certified clinical medical assistant (CCMA, NHA) in preparation of a possibly inevitable climate "tipping point", the point of no return, where, sliding into climate apocalypse, our fragile global civilization is about failing the stress test and hospitals should get ready dealing with mass casualties (just check the predictions of climate science, that, due to global heating, an ever increasing number of people will suffer and die from extreme heat waves, heat domes, wildfires, floods, tornadoes, and steadily bigger and stronger getting hurricanes and cyclones), as well as an always possible doomsday apocalypse (visualized through the ticking "Doomsday Clock" by the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists"), not to forget Dr. Z's mnemonic rhyme for the essential 9 Rights of Medication Administration: "My Ducklings Ran To Parador Escaping Rex The Dinosaur" (right Medication – right Dose – right Route – right Time – right Patient – right Education – right to Refuse – right Technique – right Documentation), or Dr. Z's critical review of one of his medical assisting courses, where people came to realize that Dr. Z, as an academic and very practical philosopher, is used to talk openly, beyond dogma and taboo, about everything and anything, politics, religion, and sex, including the scandal that most people, instead of being cliterate, are ignorant about the basic anatomy of the vulva, even erroneously considering vulva and vagina the same thing: "Our Anatomy & Physiology course identified the anatomical characteristics in each of the organ systems very well, except, with focus on our unit 'Reproductive System and Pregnancy,' the clitoris. The clitoris deserves more than a tiny footnote, especially in a 21st century Anatomy & Physiology class populated dominantly by women. Because not all women, not to mention men, already have an understanding of the real dimensions of this extremely sensitive female sex organ, dimensions still missed by many anatomy textbooks, a knowledge all medical assistants, moreover, all females and males, should have. The term clitoris derives from the ancient Greek word 'kleitoris,' that translates 'key' (to female sexuality), but was also translated 'little hill,' an already misleading label for two millennia, because it's not just about a small nugget located just above the urethral opening, but, as finally discovered, about a much larger organ the size of the human penis. Without understanding the clit, her anatomy and functioning, women stay ignorant about their full potential for orgasmic pleasure. Accurately pointing toward a for way too long male-centric medicine, that overlooked the clitoris for the last 2,000 years, female activists from the 'Gang du Clito' erected during the International Women's Day 2018 a five-meter-tall inflatable clitoris at the 'Human Rights Square' in Paris, facing the Eiffel Tower, itself the most famous phallus in Paris." As Dr. Z, convinced the good life, including a healthy sex life, deep intimacy, and honest pleasure, is an examined and liberated life – by transcending the theological liberation story ("Deliver us from evil!") preaching the old dualism, the punishment of the flesh, and the liberation from metaphysical evil –, loves to say: "It's all a liberation story!" (where your body, your bodily sense, can become the starting point toward sex positivity, your ongoing personal transformation and liberation through, for instance, sports, jogging, hiking, swimming, dancing, martial arts, working out, cross-training, gymnastics, yoga, sauna sessions, massages, and a loving, satisfying sex life) – overcoming the repression story, where, for example, due to patriarchal ideology including male-dominated theology, women were, not very long ago, not allowed to vote, to wear pants, to wear bikinis, to participate in the Olympics, run marathons, having workplace equality, be sexually autonomous (way beyond the default missionary or man-on-top position or – from "Nipplegate" [2004] to "Free the Nipple!" [2014] – going topless in public baths), having reproductive rights, etc. Kant, famously addressing the comfort in a lack of freedom, warned us: "It's so convenient to be immature!" ("Es ist so bequem, unmündig zu sein"). What would, for example, a Kantian or enlightened (= woke) philosopher of liberation, and every female and male feminist out there, say confronted with today's rise of the white subservient "tradwife," an ideology based upon racist and discriminatory elements and glorifying the, for mostly white Americans, affluent Fifties?

II. The Doctor will see you now: Dr. Z, who, hard to believe, didn't talk until he was four years old and due to the lack of social interaction and communication skills (that later highly improved) never attended kindergarten, despite an intrinsic desire to be left alone, somehow opened up his autistic epoché, re-bracketing his autistic lifeworld (Lebenswelt), discovered, by re-learning to see, a way out of his Platonic autism cave, or, at least, found the exit of the cave, the GAP, where the beaming light gets in – reverberated on the Platonic cover photo above showing Dr. Z, wearing sunglasses (as Plato would have strongly recommended) and a GAP (sic!) baseball hat, riding a wave on a surfboard out the dark tube towards the brightening, blinding light –, and began considering (Dr. Z read in his teens Popper's "The Open Society and Its Enemies," starting out with "The Spell of Plato," and soon after "The Master Thinkers" by André Glucksmann) proto-fascist Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" one of the preeminent philosophical texts generating multiple intriguing interpretations (Examine yourself: "What [autistic, euro-centric, oppressive, fascist, misogynistic. male-toxic, etc.] cave / corset / crypt / bubble / fabric / framework / manosphere are you living in?"), obtained to begin of his extensive humanist studies the Great Latinum, Graecum, and Hebraicum, itself a remarkable development considering little Reinhard on the spectrum, all day long ("Noli me tangere!") driving on the kitchen floor in a small circle a motorized 1966 LEGO train and organizing old Matchbox cars from a wooden box (and still loves 18+ LEGO sets and collecting stylish Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars today), finally starting to respond to questions by using single nouns only, never verbs: once, as his mom remembered a sunny afternoon in their family's big garden, he pooped into his lederhosen and threw the heavy stinky leather trousers into a tree. As his mom later asked him "Reinhard, wo ist Deine Lederhose? – Reinhard, where is your lederhosen?", he plainly responded "Baum," which translates "tree" – case closed. Much later classified under the simplistic label "high functioning autistic" or better: an autistic person, who has very low support needs and, by embracing his neurodivergence along the growing autistic rhizome, accepting associated congenital injustice and childhood trauma, considering being autistic part of his identity (and minor genius), a way of being, not something pathological (after having read George Canguilhem's classic "The Normal and the Pathological") or a condition to be medically treated (and, though being boringly normal or neurotypical means slight madness, no psychiatrist or neurologist ever treated people for boring normality, whereas some scientists consider autism important for human evolution, another thinker even considered Asperger's the next step of human evolution; please note: Asperger's is no longer an official medical diagnosis!), Dr. Z, who became highly verbal, even more outgoing, extroverted, and empathic (and comparing his neurodiverse development to Ludwig Wittgenstein's early philosophical self of the static-systematic, dead-ended "Tractatus" transitioning to Wittgenstein's later philosophical self of the dynamic, anti-systematic "Philosophical Investigations" that are notably comparing words to chess pieces, language games to the game of chess), disagrees with the stereotype or prejudice that all autistic people lack empathy, even learned that autistic persons can be not only strong chess players (many chess grandmasters and problemists are on the autism spectrum), but also excellent actors, coaches, teachers, psychotherapists, and philosophical practitioners. Dr. Z, a self-taught chess player, fell himself early in love with chess, a great activity for children including kids with ADHD, on the spectrum, or both, and all things classic, sophisticated, liberating, and alluring, not to forget good books (mostly non-fiction to read for pleasure) and fascinating people (young and old), working with texts (ancient and modern), livelong learning and reading (literature as a liberation), and obviously philosophy (from Greek, via Latin, philosophia, "love of wisdom") that is itself driven by love and desire, literally an erotic enterprise, practically an authentic way of life, a way to be, and great adventure. He is known as a polymath and puzzling personality, a renowned chess problemist, whose chess compositions, from checkmates in two to mates in ten moves, are to be found in Russian and other internet chess problem databases such as YACPDB and MESON as well as on the server of the German Chess Problem Society "Die Schwalbe." His books and articles are to be found in Ivy Plus school libraries such as the famous Widener Library of Harvard University, at Yale, Princeton, and MIT. Dr. Z, who also wrote the classic management book "Management by Meaning" (LIT 2004) and together with his brilliant son Aramis Zaiser, an Ivy Leaguer, Dartmouth College, their prodigious, during the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide as free PDF file distributed 528 pages thick scholastic "Pandemic Chess Activity Book (with 2,500 Diagrams and Chess Puzzles from Gioachino Greco to Magnus Carlsen) for Absolute Beginners to Super Advanced Players," lives in Brookfield, Wisconsin, his secular retreat. There, Dr. Z runs his private Philosophical Practice "Theta Pi Consulting," named after ancient Roman philosopher-theologian Boethius's holistic definition of philosophy as both theory and practice – Theta (Θ) and Pi (Π) are an abbreviation by Boethius for the ancient Greek term "theoretike kai praktike philosophia," which translates "theoretical and practical philosophy" –, and where Dr. Z – engaging in phenomenology both pure and applied – not only identifies Lady Philosophy in Boethius's classic work "De Consolatione Philosophiae" ("Consolation of Philosophy") as Lady Logotherapy, a wise female logotherapist, in "Socratic dialogue" with the imprisoned Boethius himself, whom she is touching both metaphorically and physically, or proto-philosopher Socrates ("The unexamined life is not worth living," perhaps better translated as "The unexamined life is unlivable for a human being") as the first logo(s)therapist & existential analyst, but also the return of many spiritual exercises by our ancient Western philosophers as the methods of contemporary logotherapy: "Socratic dialogue", "modification of attitudes", "dereflection", "paradoxical intention", "existential analysis of dreams", and "mystagogy." Interestingly, "paradoxical intention," as Viktor E. Frankl calls it, was already known to ancient philosophers as "paradoxical suggestion therapy" (featured in German classicist Paul Rabbow's book "Seelenführung," 1954, 287-89) whereas "dereflection" has nowadays become known, for example, as a treatment for anxiety disorders or for women having difficulties reaching an orgasm. It's not surprising that Dr. Z considers Frankl, who came "from psychotherapy to logotherapy" (so the subtitle of his book "The Doctor and the Soul") by focusing on the spiritual (also called the noetic, noological, or philosophical) dimension of man and renewing the philosophical tradition by applying ancient spiritual exercises as his methods of logotherapy, a pioneer of modern Philosophical Praxis. In Dr. Z's opinion will Frankl's logotherapy always be most important to philosophical practitioners, more than to psychotherapists, who are favoring other schools today, or theologians using logotherapy as a quarry. Nevertheless, logotherapy (and its diagnoses of "unemployment neurosis" and "retirement neurosis") will be most important in near future when, caused by automation and an omnipotent, omniscicent, omnipresent AI, an unemployable "useless class" (Yuval Noah Harari), a new post-proletariat receiving a universal basic income while not working (work as still defined by capitalism or Marxism), is on its search for meaning. The devastating consequences of not finding authentic meaning in the long run, so Frankl, are addiction (not just substance abuse), aggression (violence, riots), and depression (suicide), not to forget porn and sex addiction when "the sexual libido becomes rampant in the existential vacuum" (Frankl).

III. What brings you here today? Dr. Z's liberatory project of his private Philosophical Praxis, an institution for philosophical care and of post-metaphysical culture (and soon ISO 9001 certified; initial sessions last an hour; follow-up appointments are generally 45 minutes), is a safe space, a space of confidentiality, hospitality, and compassion, a space of freedom, openness, healing, and intellectual honesty, a space to tell your story, to let the visitor share what's going on and the philosopher carefully interpret what's being said, where you can find time to share anything about your life, this mix of comedies and tragedies, and what's important to you, to think about your life, to think things through, to work things out by talking about them, to find yourself where you already are, what you want from life, how to live it, how to spend your time, about the elementary things, to understand and how to manage your complicated life, how to deal with the problems, obstacles, disillusionments, compromises, painful choices, turning points, losses and failures as well as the successes and blessings in your life, where you can find space and time to reflect on things that really matter, where you can get self-assurance, perspective, and practical wisdom, build resilience, even learn to apply the “defiant power of the spirit” (German: "Trotzmacht des Geistes," Frankl), a place that helps to keep you centered and grounded, to cultivate the good life, a liberated life, an inner life, even to meditate, where you get assistance to put things back together, to shape your lifeworldly existence, to reveal the meaning(s) in your life and to live it authentically, where you can get unstuck and become liberated from irrational beliefs that can define a whole, dubious, irrational, dysfunctional philosophy of life, liberated to be yourself by thinking and feeling together with a well studied philosopher-theologian, who is fully present as "philosophia incarnata," an attending phenomenologist of deep loving presence – who shares French philosopher Simone Weil's insight that "attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity" by giving visitors and patients his full focus by being present and deeply paying attention, by focusing on the "here-and-now" (Irvin D. Yalom), on the immediate experience within the encounter, by being receptive to circumstances, phenomena, to what people are saying and doing (or not saying, not doing), to their tone of voice and body language, by being open not just as a "fellow thinker" but also a "fellow feeler" (Achenbach) to his own personal emotions in the "here-and-now," emotions understood as antennas and in the process of the phenomenological-philosophical relationship to being openly shared with the visitor, and being surprised by the other (Emmanuel Levinas) by ethically-phenomenologically bracketing out, or suspending, all his assumptions to allow himself and the other to find her voice and an understanding –, deeply interested in wisdom traditions and human affairs as well as in people's self-discovery and personal growth. All this in accordance with Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero's view that philosophy is essentially care of the soul or "the cultivation of the mind" ("cultura autem animi philosophia est"). In other words, philosophy is both a therapy and a rehabilitation approach (because, so Cicero in the very same sentence from his "Tusculan Disputations" ["Tusculanae Disputationes"]: "[philosophia] extrahit vitia radicitis et praeparat animos ad satus accipiendos" – "Philosophy pulls out vices by the roots and prepares the minds to receive proper seed"). Dr. Z is helping you to discover the reasons for your existential problems, including for your "healthy pain" (Frankl), by treating you with the utmost care, actively, closely, intently listening to you. It's about your human experience, your existential story and despair including your difference experiences (making one to realize not to fit in anymore, making one a disturbing element, making one to leave and move on), chapter by chapter, your search for connectedness and meaningfulness, about your (sometimes) jammed, shitty, fucked-up, hustled, drama-filled life, about your conflicts, miseries, and suffering through life, your disappointments and frustrations, your triggers and existential struggles, your isolation and alienation, the fragmentation, and oppressive deconstruction of your life, when your usual lifestyle is disrupted (be assured, Dr. Z always has a box of Kleenex tissues handy), and where you can make sense of what's going on in your days, your nights, your life in general and life itself, and where you can put everything on the table and feel heard ("Please, tell me!"), where you can talk, philosophize, and contemplate with a philosophical practitioner openly and comfortably about absolutely everything and anything of importance in your life, about the things that matter most to you, your priorities and loves, your personal and relationship issues – more precisely: your intrapersonal relationships (mind-body relationship; physical relationships of your body parts, organs, physiological and biochemical processes) and extrapersonal relationships (relationships with your physical environment and interpersonal environment made up of your social systems, family, friends, community, political realities) –, your desires and fantasies, your social, emotional, and sexual needs and wants, your coming out story, your gender identity (once again: Examine yourself! – Become and define who you are!), your personal liberation story from the binary dogma (the old Adam and Eve binary defended by contemporary culture warriors and traditionalists believing in an all too straight jus naturale [Naturrecht]) that only wants to know two genders, male and female (overlooking the sexuality spectrum and the fact that nature is complex and much more queer and fluid), toward finding yourself on a spectrum of many more genders, sexual identities, and sexual orientations, your sacrifices, your ideas, your sense of meaning, your purpose, what keeps you moving forward or holds you back, your values, your belonging, about your social systems and your contribution to society (your interpersonal and existential mattering), your boundaries and how to set them, about your major existential questions ("Tell me more!"), the uncertainties and complexities of our human condition, the brokenness and ruptures of our adult existence, but also about life's biggest questions (in case such questions are brought up by awestruck visitors), such as the question of facticity already asked by philosophers Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, called the "last universal genius," Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Ludwig Wittgenstein, who was autistic himself, and Martin Heidegger, who called it "das nackte Daß" ("the naked That"): "Why is there something and not nothing at all? – Warum ist überhaupt Seiendes und nicht vielmehr Nichts?," or – although in a Philosophical Practice it's not primarily about philosophical instruction (though, following philosophical practitioner Dr. Gerd B. Achenbach's decades-long tradition of his philosophical Friday seminars, philosophical adult education is also offered in certified adult educator Dr. Z's Philosophical Practice under the umbrella "Dr. Z's Philosopher's School") –, thinking about the answer to life, the multiverse, and everything in between (should a visitor not be completely satisfied with the final fictional answer "42" given by computer science, she might prefer chess composer Dr. Z's preliminary reply "64," fully aware that almost all philosophers today realize the limits of empirical knowledge and are convinced our human faculties or senses give us neither access to the Kantian "Ding an sich" – "thing in itself" nor, even by using modern computer science or future super quantum computers in combination with artificial intelligence, by strictly scientifically following down the path of physicalism to our physical or quantum world's natural reality, the nature of reality including the physical reality beyond the known subatomic particle zoo, beyond virtual particles, and beyond underlying quantum fields, where the ontological difference, the difference between being and beings, as famously introduced by Martin Heidegger, sub-quantum-mechanically evanesces), about your being and becoming, about your feelings and emotions instead of suppressing them, about finding hope, meaning, purpose, reconciliation, and ways to cope, about finding your match, your calling, for what you're good at personally and professionally, for what you have the faculty for, your career planning and changes, your work situation, goal setting, and professional objectives, your personal development and growth, big life decisions to make, your life transitions, your quarterlife crisis (met with a philosophy of quarterlife), midlife crisis (met with a philosophy of midlife), and other existential crises (understood as opportunities and chances), your loneliness, your choice of partners, whom you want to be with, your relationships (delete your Facebook account together with your 900 Facebook friends, invest in a few close high-quality relationships instead!), even about your (examined) sex life (realizing, for example, that great frequent sex just can't solve all your relationship problems; and good sex should never be the one and only thing that works in a relationship), about long-lost loves and whether to reconnect with an ex or not (reconnecting is usually a bad idea, not just because of the warning by bell hooks: "The fear of being alone, or of being unloved, had caused women of all races to passively accept sexism and sexist oppression"), the choice getting a life partner or not, getting married or not, getting divorced or not (when partners realize they used to give each other everything until they gave each other up completely), about the fallacious soulmate ("twin flames") myth famously introduced in Plato's "Symposium" (realizing that romance alone is not enough to enter a stable and happy high-quality relationship/marriage; instead of focusing too much on being in love and having sex, focus on a meaningful non-transactional relationship characterized by deeply caring for each other and even raising kids together! In a perfect, holistic, meaningful relationship, itself a pretty rare thing, love would be present, an unfolding dialog, in all three dimensions of man: in the physical / biological dimension: erotic / sexual love; the psychological / emotional dimension: "the shoulder to cry on" / "to feel understood"; and the spiritual / philosophical / noological dimension (common interests, shared activities / hobbies / political views / passion for art, music, movies, sports, travel, cooking, etc.); the privation of love on one, two, or all three levels usually means the end of a relationship that didn't transform from a romantic relationship into a loving friendship at the center of our private lives, where Eros is still present (Nietzsche has his point by writing: "It's is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages"), losing your religion (for intellectual or traumatic reasons), about art, intimacy, life and love, dealing with life itself, with all of its ups and downs, its pleasures and pains, your mortal and vulnerable existence including self-destructive behavior (avoid being your worst enemy! Stay clean! Don't get abused by drugs and alcohol! Be honest to yourself and about your methods of self-destruction!), your meanderings, your aging and mortality, when decades and years are running out, when one's world is shifting, your medical and other existential struggles, the fragility of life, the existential fallout from your confrontation with an irreverent, chaotic, absurd universe, and, above all, about Michel de Montaigne's question how to live, and, nevertheless, to find an authentic, meaningful existence. The decision to visit a Philosophical Practice is usually made by a person struggling with life's questions, challenges, and disruptions, out of the desire to make sense of yourself and your life, to get an idea what to do with your life, where you're finally going, out of curiosity, to realize what's really important to you, what your goals should be, to understand what you're actually doing, what gives you fulfilment in life, what really makes you happy, to fully see the light of day that many people already see breaking through small gaps into their dark bubbles, caves, and tunnels, or just knowing that one needs help, a philosophical rehab, out of a feeling of meaninglessness, out of existential problems, concerns, difficulties, confusions, or existential regrets, out of quiet desperation, an existential frustration or existential vacuum, problems connected to the aforementioned spiritual, philosophical, or noetic dimension of man, or might just start with the idea to have in addition to an "annual physical" an "annual philosophical" as part of an ongoing self-care process, or motivated by the desire to get a fresh perspective and a new outlook on life or by the notion of British philosopher, mathematician, educational and sexual reformer Bertrand Russell: "The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense." Consulting a philosophical practitioner can also be prompted by a sudden awakening or meaning crisis such as the one of Lynn Shelton, who, in a grave self-reflective life-review, revealed: "You wake up one day and you realize that all these years have gone by and I have this mortgage and I have this couch and I have this life and ... is this going to be my prison?" Or by an inner impetus as described by Elizabeth Appell: "And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful then the risk it took to blossom." The philosopher does not give up the principle of hope, because, as Sara Grant rightly pointed out: "Yeah, as long as we know we're trapped, we still have a chance to escape." In short, anyone could be in Philosophical Practice; we could all use it.

IV. What do you want to tell me today? Witnessing Dr. Z in his essential role of a highly practical, thoughtful, empathic, compassionate philosopher-theologian, who understands that "if there's anything worth calling theology, it is listening to people's stories, listening to them and cherishing them" (Mary Pellauer), in his role of a practical phenomenologist, rhizomatic philosopher, philosopher of liberation, and unorthodox Franklian (standing on the shoulders of Frankl, who himself is standing on the shoulders of Freud and others), even, like many contemporary therapists without anymore realizing it, a neo-Freudian ("Freud wasn't always wrong," so existential psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom), who is caring for the human spirit, the spiritual / philosophical dimension of man, helping others with their search for authentic meaning in a complex world, and as such working in one of the oldest professions on the planet, the vertical profession, namely practical philosophy / theology, contrary to the horizontal profession, prostitution / sex work, and inviting guests, who are searching for understanding, for orientation, interpretation, clarification, belonging, connection, consolation, hope, outlets, gateways, creative wisdom, purpose, and personal meaning, to contemplate and reflect on their lives, we see that in his emancipatory, transformative Philosophical Practice the guests, managers, and the philosopher and, by the same token, in his academic hospital the patients and the humanist chaplain, meet as equals. In both settings (1) Dr. Z, the philosophical practitioner, who perceives himself as the "freed slave" from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," returning back to the underground cave, this time to the cave systems of the visitors of his Philosophical Practice and his hospital patients to liberate them, who are chained at the bottom of their caverns, still deceived and manipulated, guiding them like Apollo musagetes (Apollo, the leader of the Muses) out of their dark spots and shadows up into the light, and (2) Dr. Z, the humanist healthcare chaplain – who recognizes himself as the "wounded healer," as described by theologian Henri Nouwen, going outright, feeling, sensing, and perceiving, into the suffering of his adult patients and guests, together with them into their deepest depths and darkness, their lightless shadow realms, and making his own existential-ontological woundedness accessible as a source of healing, understand themselves, to use a phrase by Dr. Gerd B. Achenbach, founder of the worldwide first Philosophical Practice and an old friend and former chess partner of Dr. Z, as a "fellow thinker and fellow feeler." In essence, "fellow thinker and fellow feeler" Dr. Z, who is assisting others to voice their deepest concerns and to help and encourage them to become and define who they are, lives Irvin D. Yalom's definition of love, namely "to love means to be actively concerned for the life and the growth of another" by having internalized and following the ethical, life-affirming, liberating principle of personal biophilia that was promoted by an outcast Jesuit, Dr. Z's late philosophy professor Dr. Rupert Lay SJ, a distinguished management and ethics guru: "Act and decide always in a way that your acting and deciding does your personal (social, spiritual, emotional, ethical, creative, artistic, intellectual, political, physical, sexual) life as well as the personal life of others rather enhance than reduce!" (one of Father Rupert Lay's biophilic advices given in one of his philosophy lectures to young Reinhard Zaiser and his fellow philosophy students is clearly remembered by Dr. Z still today: "Improve your sexual techniques!" – "Verbessere Deine Sexualtechniken!"); one of the seismic objectives: "I swear I won’t stop until your legs are shaking and every hotel guest on this floor knows my name" (Kim Karr). To love, if it means anything of significance, means to care for the good of the other. And it's true what British pop duo Climie Fischer expressed in their 1987 hit single "Love changes everything." Love, so Climie Fischer's correct warning, changes everything including you, from the inside out, or, as the duo warned, you'll "never be the same" including that love "shakes ya, makes ya, breaks ya," even takes everything away from you. Indeed, love exposes you to extremely high risk, makes you highly vulnerable, and does not just change everything, love also lets you become who you really are if you voluntarily sacrifice (part of) your own happiness and wellbeing for your loved one(s), itself the most beautiful thing to do. "Live dangerously!", so ueber-influencer Nietzsche, especially by learning how to love – first we love with all its consequences, most probably fail, separate, divorce, then we philosophize (or, as Maurice Riseling said: "Sooner or later, life makes philosophers of us all") – and this way becoming who we really are! And, yes, fuck all the labels! Just be (and become) who you are! Fuck mainstream porn, do what you (solo sex, you both, you three, you all) sexually situationally want, and close the orgasm gap! It's okay and better for all, as long as it's safe, informed consensual, and pleasurable to everyone involved.

V. I'm noticing some anger in you: is that something you want to talk about? The focus, sharpened by Dr. Z, a secular humanist and post-God philosopher-theologian – still a cultural (others say fallen) Catholic, who stopped grieving the death of God – whereas many "thoughts and prayers" conservatives including right-wing politicians, caught in different stages of grief, commonly in denial, anger, or depression, are still grieving their deceased God (Freud is right by writing "the dead are powerful rulers") – after he first lost his faith in a self-referential clericalist church in denial with its global, structural sex abuse crisis, later in God, an irrational omni-God-construct (not to mention the faulty Christian doctrines of original sin, theodicy, the virgin birth, or Jesus having attributed two consciousnesses, a divine and a human mind), unbelievable after Auschwitz, endless wars, and mass shootings, leading to his deconversion from Christianity – a philosophical practitioner, logotherapist & existential analyst, humanist healthcare chaplain, clinical philosopher & clinical ethicist, who taught both business- and bioethics, a committed lover of wisdom and compassionate carer for people, who can read their emotions and take the emotional temperature in a room, especially in end-of-life situations, noticing the rapid dissolution of traditional religion and old metaphysics, playing into the crisis of pastoral / theological care and Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), is on meaning(s) in life, not the meaning of life, respectively. Interestingly, looking at the signs of the times such as "transcendental homelessness" (German: transzendentale Obdachlosigkeit), a term coined by literary theorist and philosopher Georg Lukács, most philosophers are atheists or agnostics today, but not many chaplains and CPE supervisors are secular humanists yet. Nowadays, so the paradox, the vast majority of hospital chaplains is ordained and many more ordained chaplains are hired, despite the fact that the number of patients in medical centers identifying themselves as religious "nones" steadily increased (today one in four hospital patients in the United States is a "none"). More seasoned chaplains told Dr. Z that once most hospital chaplains were not ordained or were so-called lay people. And a former ACPE supervisor once told Dr. Z something that isn't true anymore, namely that you need an ordination to become an ACPE supervisor or manager in spiritual care. Today, one of the spiritual care managers in the hospital, where Dr. Z did his CPE two decades ago, is a humanist chaplain and, yes, not ordained. Today's healthcare chaplains, trying to keep up with the times, where churches and theological seminars are declining and closing, already renamed their departments from "pastoral care" to "spiritual care" even though, as just mentioned, most hospital chaplains are now ordained pastors and ministers. Looking at this army of ordained hospital chaplains and their pastoral / theological care, and regarding the future of healthcare provision and practice, much needed humanist healthcare chaplains and clinical philosophers providing spiritual / philosophical care remain a tiny minority. New research shows there are "nones" – an increasing number of non-religious patients –, who decline pastoral care from religious chaplains, many of those chaplains visibly dressed as rabbis, priests, and ministers (and in our hospital software EPIC charted by using the phrase "visit declined" whereas successful visits of religious "nones" are charted, in a sense of deviating from the norm, as "non-religious use of spiritual care"). The "nones" might already be the spiritually most underserved patient population today. Hospitals usually have Catholic priests hired for their Catholic patient body and consults in a consult-based chaplaincy seemed mainly to be posted for religious patients. It happens that Dr. Z is visiting non-religious patients, who instantly decline the visit by saying things like "I'm not religious!" because of the old understanding that chaplains are religious, clergy, or both. This said, to highlight this haunting issue seemingly overlooked by the Quality Management of Spiritual Care, George F. Handzo's thesis sounds like an understatement: "The spiritual needs of many patients in healthcare institutions are not being met" brought up in an article for the clergy / chaplaincy handbook "Professional Spiritual & Pastoral Care. A Practical Clergy and Chaplain's Handbook," p. 23. This handbook, identified by religious theologian-chaplains as "the book," whose first two chapters, setting the tone and revealing its traditional intention, have both the same title, namely "Creating a Personal Theology to Do Spiritual / Pastoral Care," completely forgot to consider the "nones" – not just non-religious patients, but also secular philosophers the first time invited to become humanist chaplains – and is still answering to a "normative" higher, postulated, and imperiled theological dimension of man by dogmatically putting "pastoral care" above all, seemingly following the model by Viktor E. Frankl showing the biological dimension of man overarched by the psychological dimension that is itself overarched by the spiritual / philosophical / noological dimension, the dimension of philosophy and logotherapy, where spiritual / philosophical care is rooted, a dimension that is dogmatically overarched by an increasingly endangered theological dimension of man still addressed by traditional pastoral / theological care. Frankl suggests, following his personal opinion as a believer, in his preface to the first English edition of "Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning", by defining in clear distinction, that "biology is overarched by psychology, psychology by noology, and noology by theology," though Frankl officially wanted to keep his logotherapy open to believers and non-believers. Dr. Z is very well aware that the terms "pastoral care" and "spiritual care" – better: "pastoral / theological" and "spiritual / philosophical" care – are still being used interchangeably in chaplaincy without clear definitions leading, following 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (the late Peter Dschulnigg, one of Dr. Z's New Testament professors, considered this "spirit, soul, and body" passage a later addition to Paul's original letter), to an improper religious contamination of the term "spiritual care." As an atheist hospital patient was explicitly requesting spiritual / philosophical care by a "no-bullshit chaplain" as she called it, not pastoral / theological care by an ordained religious chaplain, humanist healthcare chaplain Dr. Z was the chaplain able to took her request and worldview seriously and best met the spiritual / philosophical care needs of this patient, who was explicitly asking for a humanist chaplain, not an ordained placebo chaplain, the same way, for example, other female patients, who suffered sexual abuse by males, are asking for a female chaplain only.

VI. What are you passionate about? What do you love to do in life? Renouncing ultimate meaning and supernatural beliefs, as secular humanists do, believing that there's no transcendent, supernaturalistic reality, doesn't necessarily mean to despair, because there are still countless smaller meanings in our lives to discover that fulfill us and make us happy. Viktor E. Frankl calls these small meanings "experiential" and "creative values" that we have to realize toward philosophical health. Frankl recommends (1) realizing "experiential values" by experiencing something or someone. Examples may include sensual pleasures appealing to our libido, such as tasting delicate food, drinking a capuccino, singing in the shower, dancing in the rain, smiling, laughing, surfing, swimming, inline skating, working out, going out with friends, listening to your music collection, reading novels, playing board games (chess, yes!), jamming in the car, traveling, stargazing, marveling a piece of art, falling in love, sex, and intimacy. Such experiences give your life a boost of meaning and are an important part of your self-care. Frankl also suggests (2) realizing "creative values" by creating, cooking, baking, decorating, designing, gardening, painting, writing, composing, knitting, crocheting, repairing, or remodeling something plus countless other "useless" human activities that make you feel alive. Dr. Z bolsters self-care and mental health by encouraging the guests of his philosophical practice as well as hospital patients to take time to do something meaningful to them, something they enjoy and gives them pleasure, being aware that sex, understood as powerful energy and motivation to live, is not the only way to experience pleasure. It's not just about having more sex, but more pleasure in all areas of life. For example, Dr. Z, by reaffirming life, his love for life beyond individual self-interest, loves, as already mentioned, composing chess problems; he also loves bonding with Coco, his miniature pincher, playing his 40-year-old Getzen jazz trumpet (and considering jazz trumpeter Miles Davis an existentialist), watching the European culture channel ARTE with his Amazon Fire TV Sticks 4K and listening to NPR, doing 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles, sophisticated 18+ LEGO sets, lots of reading, many other meaningful and pleasurable activities and things to him including philosophical counseling and providing philosophical, spiritual, existential, and emotional care to others. Find the meaning of meanings, the things you love doing and experiencing that let you and others flourish and drive – Carpe diem! (Enjoy / seize / use the day!) –, if needed with assistance of a philosophical practitioner or logotherapist & existential analyst (following philosopher Martha Nussbaum's distinction: "The whole point of medical research is cure. So, too, the whole point of philosophy is human flourishing")!

VII. Why is this so important to you? Dr. Z, as a phenomenological philosopher and philosophical practitioner, who agrees with Ludwig Wittgenstein that "philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity" (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 4.112) – and, above all, in form of modern philosophical counseling itself a way of life –, and as a humanist healthcare chaplain, better / deeper: clinical philosopher, and as a logotherapist & existential analyst, who is embodying sensitivity and openness, encourages the adult guests of his Philosophical Practice as well as adult patients (from any religion or no religion) in his hospital to take Frankl's practical philosophical advice seriously, namely to realize mentioned "experiential" and "creative values," plus, as shown further down, Frankl's instruction to realize "attitudinal values." Because realizing "experiential" and "creative values" is an antidote against boredom, an inner existential vacuum, and a feeling of meaninglessness, by millions of people experienced on weekends. Or do you think, for example, that people who are living for the weekend and, therefore, routinely cheer "Thank God, it's Friday!" as the weekend approaches, feel most wretched on Mondays? Because isn't it on Mondays, after a long-awaited weekend break, when we must return to work for another five rough days? No wonder, people identify Monday as the week's most "blue day." But is it true? Is Monday really the worst day of the week? Research shows that Sundays might be worse. What's needed is a "Sunday Warning Meditation," an existential-analytical reflection on something that, sadly enough, too many people experience on their Sundays: "New York was cold and damp / TV is just a blank / Looks like another dead-end Sunday" – begins the rock 'n' roll song "She Was Hot" by the Rolling Stones from their 1983 album "Undercover." The lyrics describe it quite accurately. Aforementioned "dead-end Sunday" is a paralyzing experience psychoanalyst Sándor Ferenczi calls "Sunday neurosis" and neuropsychiatrist and philosopher Viktor E. Frankl considers a widespread phenomenon. And so does author Susan Ertz, who accurately wrote in her novel "Anger in the Sky:" "Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." Frequently suffering from "Sunday neuroses," from "dead-end Sundays," are people, who lack meaningful projects, contents, and structures in their lives after their busy work week has finally ended. How to avoid "dead-end Sundays"? How to make your next Sunday, all your Sundays and weekends, even your retirement, meaningful, fulfilling, and pleasurable? Find some meaningful tasks, activities, or hobbies you and your loved ones can do! The examples of "experiential" and "creative values" to be discovered are endless. Once again, discover and realize the things you love doing, starting next Sunday!

VIII. Why are you living? Or asked with Viktor E. Frankl (to discover what gave his patients, even in the midst of suffering, meaning to their life): "Why do you not commit suicide?" and likewise clinical philosopher and ethicist Richard M. Zaner: "When you're dead anyway, what's to live for?" You might not want to wait too long, not even until next Sunday, with visiting a Philosophical Practice, an institution accompanying your self-care process and grouped under the label adult education, not psychotherapy, and consulting a philosopher to examine your personal life, to analyze it like a chess position, to understand what's happening in your life, to analyze and reflect your assumptions and your philosophy of life, to reveal the meaning(s) in your life, while the chess clock, your biological clock, is ticking – by Socrates, it's about your examined, your analyzed life! –, to calculate your candidate moves, to improve your position, to make your life better, to break even and beyond, because life is short, as Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca pointed out in his work "De Brevitate Vitae" ("On the Shortness of Life"), where he also, with reference to lifelong learning, wrote: "Vivere tota vita discendum est" ("Your entire life you must learn how to live," ibid., 7.3). Dr. Z's former chess partner, Dr. Gerd B. Achenbach, is also using chess as a metaphor to make clear it's the visitor of the Philosophical Practice, who plays with the white pieces. The visitor playing white makes the first move whereas the philosophical practitioner by playing black reacts. In other words, Achenbach emphasizes it's not philosophy that makes the first move, it's the individual, who starts the encounter with his problems and questions directed towards philosophy. It's about taking time for both the visitors of his Philosophical Practice and the patients at his medical center, who are human beings, not cases to be solved. It's not bullet chess, Philosophical Practice isn't scheduling individuals in 15 minutes slots, but takes time for every single visitor and patient, even offering visitors of his Philosophical Practice tea and coffee. More precisely, Philosophical Practice means a pause, a break to start to think, even re-think your life, to think about how to live your life, what's really important in your life, what you want in your life, and if you're happy, because: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it" – is perhaps the most profound quote from John Hughes's 1986 cult movie "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off," a teen comedy, where high schooler Ferris Bueller shares some of his deep philosophical insights about life. Ferris, too, is aware that life is short and he warns us not to rush through life, not to live our lives on autopilot. Instead, we should press "pause" during our days, by occasionally looking around, spending more time in the present moment, even taking a day off with friends, as Ferris himself does in the movie, because it’s all about the journey. Ferris's journey leads him and his buddies Sloane and Cameron to Chicago, where they watch a Cubs game, have lunch at a luxurious restaurant, singing "Twist and Shout" on the German parade, and back home are accidentally trashing the red Ferrari by Cameron’s dad. Much more serious than our Ferris Bueller movie is a quote by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer that Dr. Z translated from the original German to make Ferris's warning perfectly clear: "When looking back on their life, most people will find they had been living all life ad interim, and they will be surprised to see that what they unconsciously and unaware let pass by was precisely their life. And so, the usual course of man's life is that he, fooled by hope, is dancing death into its arms." Will you occasionally look around yourself today, this week, this season, even take a day or two off, moreover, thinking of Ferris Bueller (and Friedrich Nietzsche: "Live dangerously!"), get that red collector's Ferrari finally out of its tomb and take it for a liberating ride to downtown Chicago?

IX. What do I do now? The challenge of remaining present: "You're not old, you're not young, you're in the moment!", so novelist, essayist, and critic Frederic Tuten. Philosophers of the East and West, Buddhists, Stoics, Epicureans, German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, French existentialist Albert Camus, Indian philosopher and guru Osho, and, today, Eckhart Tolle, just to name a few, mentioned the importance of living in the present moment, not to forget American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who beautifully wrote: "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment." Or Ludwig Wittgenstein on 07/08/1916 in his diaries: "Only a man who lives not in time, but in the present, is happy" ("Nur wer nicht in der Zeit, sondern in der Gegenwart lebt, ist glücklich"). They all know that living in the present is key to happiness. In her novel "Perfect Chemistry" Simone Elkeles reminds us: "If there's one thing I learned, it's that nobody is here forever. You have to live for the moment, each and every day … the here, the now." The more you live in the here and now, the more aware and happier you become. On the contrary, choosing to live in the past by continuously regretting poor life choices and things that previously happened to you, such as a painful breakup or loss, can cause depression. And worrying about things that might – or might not – happen in your future, such as not finding a new partner, can lead to anxiety. Hence, stop regretting the past and fearing the future, instead start living in the present! But how to live in the present moment? Here just three personal but universal examples by Dr. Z: (1) Breathe: each time you feel sorrow about the past or anxiety about the future, just breathe! Breathe in, breathe out, let go! Repeat! Dr. Z was once taught by his Jesuit spiritual teachers to ruminate in a christocentric context "You in me" while breathing in, and "Me in you" while breathing out. Alternatively, and fully aware that "we are stardust brought to life" (Neil deGrasse Tyson), you could reasonably ruminate in a secular-spiritual context "The universe in me" while breathing in, and "Me in the universe" while breathing out. (2) Chant: use a mantra, such as the mantra of all mantras "Om" (or "Aum")! Interestingly, as Dr. Z realized on his trips to Asia, you can efficiently chant "Om" in or without a religious context. The sound and vibrations in your upper body from chanting "AaaaaUuuuuMmmm" will directly put your mind into the present moment. (3) Touch: one of Dr. Z's ACPE supervisors told his chaplain colleagues and him during their Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) residency to find a little stone, put it in their pockets, and in difficult situations feel the stone with their fingers in order to stand their ground fully present in the here and now. How will you live in the present moment, going forward by consciously using your five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch? Why not start with breathing, chanting, and to find yourself a touchstone?

X. How is that working out for you? Dr. Z, a philosophical change agent, transformation consultant, spiritual caregiver, active, attentive, close, and empathic listener knowing it's all a liberation story and, therefore, offering a safe space for personal evolution, transformation, and liberation, helps managers and other guests in his Philosophical Practice – who might feel trapped in an empty life, in a bland and static existence, in an accelerating envious status competition game, pushing the wheel of pain, who need to share their very personal and existential passion stories, their problems and compromises, their existential frustrations, disorienting situations, ongoing relationship issues, significant experiences, big and complex questions, their losses of key relationships, their deepest concerns, challenges, doubts, confusions, worries, sorrows, troubling diagnoses and fear of death, their heartache, pain, grief, setbacks, failures, crises, projects, dreams, projections, and desires – to not just become as comfortable as possible and more real, more authentic, but, to put it in Nietzschean terms, "becoming what one is" (and please, to become more real and authentic, avoid being another one of those million Facebook / Instagram selfie / performance artists showing themselves in the best light possible, and stay away from comparing yourself to those shiny, happy, pimped-up people! Instead, contemplate what philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, even once within himself, diagnosed, namely that "happiness is despair's greatest hiding place"!). Once upon a time, metaphysicians called it connecting with your "inner man" (Plato, Paul the Apostle, Augustine of Hippo), your "inner self" (Plotinus), your "inner Buddha" (Buddha nature), or your "unconscious God" (Frankl). Today, Dr. Z, the post-meta philosopher and after-God-theologian, recognizing the secular turn from the immortal soul to the mortal mind, the philosophical practitioner and nonreligious chaplain, is assisting adult visitors of his Philosophical Practice and his adult hospital patients to improve their self-transcendence – philosophers Franz Brentano and Edmund Husserl spoke of intentionality (all consciousness is always consciousness of something) – to connect with their "inner spiritual space" or, to use an expression by philosophy professor and philosophical practitioner Lou Marinoff, who once invited Dr. Z to a meeting in the City College of New York, with their "inner philosopher." Dr. Z is not just reminiscing with individuals about certain happy events in their lives, but also contemplating and rethinking together with human beings their lives including (necessary) painful experiences, personal Waterloos, tragedies, and other individual blows and defeats by making sure individuals are not getting retraumatized. All this in a free, mature, and meaningful conversation and a nonjudgmental manner (following Thomas Hobbes's genuine understanding "Primum vivere, deinde philosophari," meaning "First we live, then we philosophize", or Samuel Beckett's "Dance first, think afterwards" from his play "Waiting for Godot," in accordance with Søren Kierkegaard's insight that "life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards") along with people's personal, often constraining, life-hindering philosophies and theologies, including rethinking narrow, destructive convictions, opinions, assumptions, beliefs, doctrines, ideologies, mindsets, constructs, and biases, and then helping individuals to evolve and "becoming what one is" by authentically living their thoughts toward authentic solutions, self-actualization through actualization of meaning, and liberating transformation. Kilroy J. Oldster fathomed this by saying: "When a person understands the problem that vexes them, and comprehends the choices that created them, they begin a journey of the mind seeking personal liberation from suffering."

XI. How does that make you feel? In the case circumstances cannot be changed, Dr. Z assists both the managers and guests in his Philosophical Practice and his hospital patients in the context of Friedrich Nietzsche's "Amor fati" ("the love of one's fate"), a philosophical concept to overcome themselves with a "modification of attitudes." It's, as a matter of fact, an old spiritual exercise, where individuals choose their attitudes, realize, as Viktor E. Frankl calls it, "attitudinal values" to find the silver lining, to enhance their capacity to adapt, already applied – as Nietzsche appreciated it – by ancient Stoics such as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, and later by Boethius with the assistance of Lady Philosophy in his "Consolation of Philosophy," and by Frankl and contemporary logotherapists & existential analysts. Not surprisingly, thinking again of Boethius's Lady Philosophy identified by Dr. Z as Lady Logotherapy spending consolation, the principle of Frankl's "medical ministry" ("ärztliche Seelsorge") is nothing else but consolation. Dr. Z, who knows as a humanist healthcare chaplain very well that humans not just need consolation but also rituals of all kinds, from, for example, chanting litanies to playing pop songs, is providing non-religious spiritual care to visitors of his private practice as well as to the growing number of patients identifying themselves as religious "nones" (and electronically charting corresponding patient visits in EPIC, his hospital software, by frequently pressing the "non-religious use of spiritual care" button). Dr. Z is also very well aware that sometimes all activism, even with best intentions, is counterproductive. What's needed is, as healthcare and hospice chaplains very well know, "ministry of presence." In the context of his public healthcare chaplaincy, where he is visiting hospital patients, and his private Philosophical Practice, where he is visited by individuals, Dr. Z, the secular philosophical practitioner and humanist healthcare chaplain, who is living a secular spirituality, is informed by the spiritual and personal-biophilic teaching by his late Jesuit professor, the philosopher, theologian, ethicist, theoretical physicist, psychotherapist, manager trainer, and church critic Father Dr. Rupert Lay SJ, who was removed from his philosophy chair and not allowed to publish or give interviews to the media anymore, as well as an esteemed lecture "Pastoral Medicine" ("Pastoralmedizin") by the late Jesuit physician Ulrich Niemann SJ, a neurologist and psychiatrist and an expert on possession and exorcism, that Dr. Z attended as a young student at the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology, Frankfurt, Germany (and where Father Dr. med. Ulrich Niemann SJ also taught him Autogenic Training; in one memorable exercise led by Fr. Niemann, one might think of Foucault's pendulum, Dr. Z, sitting on a wooden chair, feeling himself rotating with the Earth), developed his own "theology of the visit" to be with those in pain (by considering, for example, the patient room a sacred or spiritual space, even the patient's room as her tent or chapel), confirms theologian Henri Nouwen's observation "when we honestly asked ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares." Being there with the other is oftentimes all that's necessary.

XII. What am I actually doing? Why am I doing any of this? But if circumstances can and, following existential and situation ethics as well as personal-biophilic ethics promoted by Dr. Z's late philosophy professor, the "unholy" Jesuit Dr. Rupert Lay SJ, author of books such as "The Heretics" ("Die Ketzer"), "Ethics for Managers", and "Post-Church Christianity", should be altered, changed, if there are paths or portals leading managers and guests in Dr. Z's Philosophical Practice – who might feel lost or trapped, feel they're wandering in the dark or in circles – out of their Platonic caves, out of their fly bottles, mental caverns, social media accounts, dating trenches, social vaults, and various dead-end streets, away from their questionable philosophical beliefs, useless philosophies of life, God constructs and deceptive and life-obstructing theologies, – even to this day repeatedly rooted in a tyrannical, white, male, old-testamentarian uberfather God construct (gods are man-made constructs; many white Christians still imagine God as a cultural "whitemalegod"), or think of credos opposing Eurocentric theology such as "my Jesus is black" or "God is a black lesbian woman," constructs that are also overdue to be deconstructed and thrown out –, away from long-held, biased, unorthodox opinions, traditions, meaning and belief systems visitors are expressing doubts in, and even suffering from, and if guests are considering some liberating change management by consulting a trained philosophical practitioner and have the courage to actively free and to become themselves, Dr. Z is honored to assist via existential interventions. He knows all too well that "it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are" (E. E. Cummings). And that's exactly the objective, Nietzsche's personal-biophilic maxim, that many others like author Steven Pressfield are highlighting: "Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it." Dr. Z, who doesn't want people to be inauthentic or morph into cartoon characters, assists by classifying together with unique individuals their particular caves and collapsed trenches, their outdated paradigms and places from the past, dead ends, same daily routines ("same story, different day"), submissions, negative peer pressure and opinions of others (instead, for example: "Boldly refuse to act your age!" – William James, American philosopher and psychologist), cast systems, conundrums, existential abysses, and ethical dilemmas in which they find themselves trapped without having an exit strategy. Dr. Z holds the idea that life is about testing us, not breaking us, but making us, including making us wiser and becoming who we are. He is helping his visitors as well as hospital patients with a change of perspective to see their life through new eyes, to adjust their thinking, to help with their philosophical metanoia, literally with their "change of mind," defined as making the decision to turn around, to face a new direction, toward a new mindset, toward themselves, and toward the light that penetrates their caves, pointing out to them an observation by the late Leonard Cohen: "There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." It's the firm Socratic belief by Dr. Z, the Socratic midwife and maieutician, the maieutic philosophical practitioner and spiritually independent healthcare chaplain, that the guests of his private Philosophical Practice and the adult patients in his academic hospital are capable, against and despite all odds, to find the answers and existential solutions, their own wisdom, within themselves, to make their own choices and tough decisions such as coming out or unmasking their autism – it always has to be your free personal decision because it's you, who has to live with this decision and its far-reaching consequences – including to bring into play modified attitudes, and so to become who they really are.

XIII. Here is life: More precisely, Dr. Z is helping managers and guests in his private practice as well as hospital patients, many already dechurched, to meet their spiritual needs, to find together with them sources of peace and joy in their lives as well as a greater understanding of themselves, to contribute not just to their spiritual and emotional but to their holistic well-being and self-care (that's why it is, by the way, so important that healthcare chaplains work together with physicians and all other members of the healthcare team to the benefit of the patient). Knowing that active, reflective, and empathic listening is most important, but itself not enough, Dr. Z helps individuals, who not just want to be understood, but also to understand, starting out with a "logical clarification of thoughts" (Wittgenstein, Tractatus 4.112) going well beyond empathic and reflective listening, next to examine and analyze their life to uncover "the life that is worth living" (Socrates), a meaningful existence that demonstrates that "the solution of the problem of life is the vanishing of the problem" (Tractatus 6.521). Frankl once recommended to a patient, who was suffering from both a stroke and a meaning crisis, to read a philosophy book: "The patient ultimately achieved philosophical perspective, stoic tranquility, and a wise serenity in the following manner. The doctor had recommended that he practice reading aloud in order to improve his speech, which had been impaired by the stroke. The book which the patient used for his practice was Seneca's 'On the Happy Life'" (The Doctor and the Soul, 279). It's about mastering your life, to unfuck it, by lightening up paths leading out of meaning crises, "dead-end Sundays," out of boring, stuck, jammed, meaningless, missed, wasted, empty, shitty, fucked-up, dead-end lives, out of unfulfilling careers and routines, out of golden and other cages individuals are locked up in, out of closets they're still hiding in, out of abusive relationships and loveless, sexless marriages they're staying in for way too long (knowing that we humans not just have sexuality, but that we are sexuality; that sexual desire is a life force to be enjoyed, not suppressed; and that time, including making enough time for sexual foreplay, matters more than size; after her personal and sexual liberation author Helen Edwards, who had to learn to embrace her desires and sexuality, openly confessed reclaiming joy: "I was that woman who once felt ashamed for my dreams, fantasies, and desires until I realized this is my one and only conscious experience to feel and breathe life and everything that is included"), out of toxic stress, the rat race, internalized hamster wheels and treadmills programmed with varied degrees of self-exploitation (where a stressed-out, over-pressured visitor / patient, lost in her "vita activa", stuck in the grind, appears as both master and slave in one and the same person), even, as a liberator (toward a "vita lente" and solitude), a post-meta philosopher and after-God theologian thinking deconstructively together with his guests, who are losing their mental and physical well-being together with their orientation, their faith in their Gods and in the grand narratives (-isms, religions and political ideologies), realizing, long after the medieval ordo was broken up, that there are no great truths and no norms anymore, that nowadays everything seems recycled and newly puzzled together (as seen, for example, when watching contemporary movies), and accordingly assisting visitors with navigating them out of imprisoning Platonic caves, entire cave and belief systems, out of futile philosophical and theological beliefs that should at least be questioned, worthless philosophies and coercive theologies that define, limit, and detain them, out of organized religion, necrophilic meaning systems, institutionalized burial chambers, dying churches and congregations they're growing out of, false beliefs and illusions they're having problems to believe in any longer, out of repressive conservative ordos and bible belts, oppressive toxic bubbles and mental rabbit holes (conspiracy theories or party platforms endangering civility, democracy, and the planet), and religious and political sects and cults (practicing distortion of reality, by spreading "alternative facts," as well as religious and political brainwashing). It was Shannon L. Alder, who accurately stated that "your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in."

XIV. How deep / empty is your life? / Do you want another life? The objective for the – distinct to the classical philosopher – secular, transformational Nietzschean philosopher of the future, who knows there's actually nothing new in philosophy, is clear, namely, as a philosophical change agent, helping a confined visitor or, by avoiding excessive demands, a particular patient not just to make sense of her life but, by realizing the idea of change and liberation, – and to paraphrase a sentence from Friedrich Nietzsche's book "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" –, "to leave her cave, glowing and strong, like a morning sun, that comes out of dark mountains." It's about assisting individuals with their liberating ascents by reimagining together with them – guests of the Philosophical Practice and hospital patients alike, who are feeling a lack of authentic meaning and purpose, who are feeling, to emphasize it, stuck in their lives, within themselves, in their illness, on waitlists, in limbo, in their careers, not knowing what they really want from life or how to move forward, trapped in their social systems, in the friend zone, in unhappy, abusive, toxic relationships, in quiet desperation (Henry David Thoreau), in thoughts, in questions, in expectations, by circumstances, and life-limiting viewpoints, being neither happy nor fulfilled nor satisfied, nor really challenged nor reaching their full potential and purpose, even, by becoming aware of the high cost of being inauthentic, apprehending German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno's insight that "there is no right life in the wrong one" ("Es gibt kein richtiges Leben im falschen") – different perspectives, and new possibilities for their thinking, living, and being. It's about cultivating a positive, humane, philosophical mindset resulting in the good life that is essentially an examined, analyzed, authentic, meaningful, informed, fully human, flourishing, enjoyable, liberated, liberating, ethical, virtuous, and mastered life, with happiness as a byproduct, free of capital vices and callous, the lives of both themselves and – "Who am I to judge?" (the late Pope Francis) – others limiting and restricting, extremist, fundamentalist, proto-fascist, racist, sexist, chauvinist, misogynist, anti-science, anti-global-heating, strict puritanical, anti-LGBTQIA+, etc. opinions, ideologies, flawed and lost paradigms that need, together with one's all too human construct of God or one's social construct of race, and irrational conspiracy theories, to be philosophically, ethically, epistemologically, existentially, and politically addressed, not to forget addressing past or current relationships for which individuals desire forgiveness or reconciliation. Already in possession of the spiritual and moral potential to become better and shine, to surpass yourself both spiritually and morally to become who you are, a process that can take decades, you begin to understand what poet Rainer Maria Rilke, influenced by Nietzsche, meant with his spiritual and moral imperative "You must change your life" that ends his prominent poem "Archaic Torso of Apollo."

XV. "What if some day or night, a demon sneaks up into your loneliest loneliness and is saying to you: 'This life, how you're living it now and have already lived it, you will once again relive and must relive again innumerable times; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every pleasure and every thought and sigh and everything unspeakable small and great in your life must return to you, and all in the same succession and sequence – and even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of being will again and again be turned over – and you with it!'" – You just read Dr. Z's translation of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's famous spiritual exercise called the eternal return (or eternal recurrence) from his work "The Gay Science" (aphorism 341). Here, Nietzsche confronts you with your own life repeating itself in an infinite loop of the exact same events, again and again, for eternity. What, Nietzsche is asking you, is your reaction? You might already feel how every single one of your actions and life choices instantly becomes grave, almost heavy like a supermassive black hole. In case you feel the gravitational pull of your bad habits and poor life choices, and wouldn't want to live your current life repeatedly, you might decide to change things to the better. Confronted with reliving the very same life for eternity, you almost certainly, if not urgently, want to choose the right things to do. You might instantly follow Rilke's spiritual-moral imperative "You must change your life!" and finally, as Nietzsche famously demands of all of us, "Become who you are!" (before regretting your life on your deathbed). A more modern example would be Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, in the movie "Groundhog Day" trapped in his crappy life, finally realizing the terrible things he doesn't like about himself and his life, and that he is about to change. Like Phil you simply want to daily follow the existential-analytical and logotherapeutic imperative, in fact an affiliated Nietzschean spiritual exercise, phrased by Viktor E. Frankl in his bestseller "Man's Search for Meaning:" "Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!"

XVI. What happened to you? We see, under the rubric philosophy in film and fiction, another powerful, liberating ascent, a great example of a transforming hero's journey, leading an individual literally out of a cave in the cult movie "Conan the Barbarian" (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) that Dr. Z watched as a high school student in a movie theater in Germany: "Still today, forty years later, I freshly and totally recall four things. First, a famous quote by Friedrich Nietzsche that appeared to the start of the movie on the silver screen, together with the sound of heavy drums setting the tone: 'That what not kills us makes us stronger' (knowing that Nietzsche keeps this thesis in his original German version in the singular: 'What does not kill me makes me stronger' – 'Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker'). Second, the cave scene, when Conan, who, in his youth, while still held in bondage, for years powering the "Wheel of Pain," then utilized as a deadly gladiator and human fighting machine climbing the ranks, was by the best teachers trained in martial arts and educated in Eastern philosophy, is, after his release, chased by a bunch of wild dogs, running alone, bare feet, in foot shackles, unarmed, crashing and plunging into an underground cave. The cave turns out to be a crypt, a burial chamber holding a mummified warrior king sitting in full armor on a throne. Conan, after having regained full consciousness and lightened up the cavern, seizes the filthy, mighty steel sword, in its making and design looking familiar to him, out of the king's right skeleton hand, and identifies the dead king with Crom, the god of his ancestors, who were trying to keep the knowledge of steelcraft to themselves. It appears to be a transition of power from god to man, from Crom to Conan, before Crom's skeleton abruptly falls apart, returning to dust. I never forget the moment when, shortly after, Conan is ascending out of the cave, standing on its top, by one powerful swing with this heavy steel sword, without even looking down, breaking his chains, and as free man, "glowing and strong," looking toward the morning sun, then all of a sudden out of the screen, full face, fully determined directly at me sitting in the audience, we both aware he became what he is. Third, later in the movie, Conan's only ever prayer to Crom, an invocation of the divine ending with Conan's words characteristically for an emerging Übermensch, the liberated overman, marking another integral part of self-creation, becoming what one is, and self-actualization through actualization of meaning, abandoning his prayer-hearing god: 'And if you do not listen to me then to hell with you!' Fourth, the end of the movie, where Conan, by overcoming an oppressive belief system, the snake cult, is beheading its evil high priest Thulsa Doom, setting free the followers of the cult, and burning down the empty, godless temple. It seems that Conan, after he got his triumphant vengeance, a revenge that kept him going all those years and let him, on his search for the snakes, transform and become who he is, needs a short moment while standing on the stairs of the burning temple before able to move on, a minute to readjust, to find a new direction in life (something celebrities in meaning crisis such as chess player Bobby Fischer, tennis player Björn Borg, footballer Brett Favre, and many young tech-millionaires, to name a few, did struggle with after having celebrated their biggest triumphs, having won all the gold medals, trophies, cups, grand slams, and championships, or having started successful billion dollar companies; they better should have visited a philosophical practitioner or logotherapist & existential analyst helping them to find new meaningful projects and directions in life). Looking at Conan's hero journey of survival, becoming who he is, liberation, and fulfilling his revenge and destiny, Nietzsche is correct by saying in his 'Twilight of the Idols' (a quote favored by Viktor E. Frankl): 'He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how' ('Hat man sein warum des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie')."

XVII. Let's talk about awakening – mystagogy: One Friday night in the eighties, still a high school student in the pre-internet and pre-smartphone era without YouTube, Google, and ChatGPT and long before people became "information giants" and "knowledge dwarfs" – if you desired to acquire new knowledge, you couldn't just youtube or google something, but had to go to the library –, Dr. Z had his first profound spiritual experience. He didn't interpret it as a religious or transcendental God experience (in the manner, for example, of Jesuit theologian and philosopher of religion Karl Rahner SJ or philosopher and Christian apologist Richard Swinburne), but nonetheless as a spiritual or mystical experience in nature shifting him from an everyday mode to the ontological mode (Heidegger) and beyond: "As I gradually realized in retrospective by looking things up in books by German Jesuit and Zen master Hugo M. Enomiya Lassalle SJ, Alan Watts, and other authors – I wasn't choosy, I eagerly read everything I could find about Zen Buddhism, Zen master Dogen, and Eastern philosophy to make sense of what happened that night –, I had my first awakening experience. My awakening meant a new understanding. Another tag in literature is enlightenment, spiritual breakthrough, and I'm convinced everyone can experience satori, as it is also called. My awakening occurred spontaneously, unexpected. It brought everything together, was peaceful, liberating, transcending all caves, widening, life changing, transforming me into a more joyful and serene human being with an ever-expanding interest in philosophy and theology; modern multidisciplinary neuroscience wasn't on my radar yet. Like every Friday night, I was playing chess at the Café Dorsch, a small coffeehouse located on main street in the city of Weinsberg, Germany. We were usually up to eight chess players, mostly older gentlemen and me, by far the youngest, playing casually without chess clocks. There was never trash talk, nor was it noisy, nor were there other guests than the ones playing coffeehouse chess until long after midnight; a quiet, cultivated environment. For hours I was sitting on the hard wooden bench that was covered by a thin cushion, playing chess, and then watching the vinyl board with a few remaining wooden pieces. I found myself in another endgame, deeply focused on the position, when abruptly chess became sort of Wittgenstein's ladder you throw away after having climbed up on it (Tractatus 6.54). In an instant, with my eyes open, the chess pieces disappearing, the green of the dark squares vanishing, time slowing, stopped, I felt myself expanding into the space around, experiencing stillness, calmness way beyond the sacred silence of chess. Consciousness experiencing consciousness itself – trying to put it into words –, experiencing pure consciousness, pure intentionality towards existence, the essence of reality, absolute interconnectedness, oneness of all things, or, with an expression by German philosopher-theologian, polymath, and mystic Nicholas Cardinal of Cusa (1401-64), 'coincidentia oppositorum' ('coincidence of opposites' – 'Zusammenfall der Gegensätze'). I remained in this absolute positive, peaceful void, way beyond the old dualism mirrored in chess, way beyond any dualism, beyond suffering, beyond good and evil. That night, experiencing awakening, the game of chess, itself a window to infinity, became for me so much more, a great meditation, like Zen Buddhism and its Buddhist mystagogy a vehicle to awakening, and still today I have a chessboard set up at my places in remembrance of my first satori."

XVIII. Let's talk about the mystical: Philosophical ("Post-Meta" / "After-God") Excursion – Ludwig Wittgenstein: Dr. Z perceived and interprets this very experience as well as his other satori experiences as transcategorical, still understood in the realm of nature though transcending or surpassing our human epistemological capabilities, and not as otherworldly or transcendent, i.e., misunderstood as supernaturalistic; experiences for which Dr. Z, without becoming religious or even a monk or monastic, had not the mental capacities for grasping "it" and, consequently, no words for as, by the way, expressed by Wittgenstein, who once seriously contemplated to become a monk himself, namely in his Tractatus "6.522 There is indeed the inexpressible. This shows itself, it is the mystical" – "6.522 Es gibt allerdings Unaussprechliches. Dies zeigt sich, es ist das Mystische." Wittgenstein's distinguished exposure of "the inexpressible," for having no words for something that is transcending our limited categorical understanding (as stated both in his diaries on 05/23/1915 and the Tractatus 5.6: "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world" – "Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt"), attests the etymology of the noun "mystical" ("das Mystische") that derives from the ancient Greek verb "muo," translated as "I press my lips together / I close my mouth." God, mentioned by Wittgenstein several times in his diaries and apparently for the early Wittgenstein part of "the inexpressible" while the philosopher was still contemplating to follow "the call," seemed to be the main player located beyond the limits of Wittgenstein's world (famously defined in the first proposition of the Tractatus: "The world is all that is the case"). But why, as the early Wittgenstein seemed to have intended, placing "the inexpressible" into a supernaturalistic realm? Experiencing the mystical seems to Dr. Z, who propagates not a devout theocentrism, where the center of all natural and supernatural reality is a god, but a naturalistic anthropocentrism that stands by its limitations without becoming religious, to be essentially nothing more than a deeply felt epistemological-ontological reaction to something still located in the material realm. The "inexpressible" or the mystical is something that our brains simply lack the faculties to fully comprehend and that is indeed causing some kind of muteness. We might also contemplate with Wittgenstein in the context of the question of facticity, an unfathomable question for humans, who can neither think eternity nor existence "in itself," a mental limitation that indirectly evokes awe – and, epistemologically limited as we are, we seemed forever awed by the existence and vastness of the universe or, as Heidegger called it, by "das nackte Daß" ("the naked That") –, or, as Wittgenstein writes in his Tractatus "6.44 Not how the world is, is the mystical, but that it is." – "Nicht wie die Welt ist, ist das Mystische, sondern dass sie ist" (similarly Lao Tzu, who wrote: "Tao is impossible to talk about. It is mystical.") Soon after having identified in his Tractatus "the inexpressible" with "the mystical," Wittgenstein ends the book, he has written to find the limits of world, thought, and language, with the strong advice "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen" – "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" (Tractatus 7). Wittgenstein's counsel makes perfect sense to avoid meaningless sentences, not just in ordinary language, but also in theology and philosophy of religion. Frankl, however, might (or might not) have a point by elegantly turning Wittgenstein's suggestion around. In a footnote to the end of his book "Ärztliche Seelsorge," written in German, Frankl writes: "Von dem man nicht sprechen kann, zu dem muss man beten" – "Whereof one cannot speak, to whom one must pray." Post-meta philosopher and after-God theologian Dr. Z, trained in Frankl's logotherapy & existential analysis, knows very well that Frankl considers God an "unconscious God," "deeply rooted in each and every person's unconscious depths," and also that Frankl contemplates prayers as "intrapersonal dialogues, inner dialogues, dialogues within ourselves," so that, in last consequence, Frankl's "unconscious God" is in fact me, is the human being, is man, we are the "unconscious gods", and at the same instant Dr. Z's "height-psychological" starting point for re-thinking religious pluralism, pluralistic religion, and "coexist theology" from the bottom up and middle out, not top down.

XIX. Let's talk about the old metaphysical God: Theological ("Post-Meta" / "After-God") Excursion – John Hick: Dr. Z experienced through his satoris "something" that, as it seems, philosopher of religion and theologian John Hick postulated as "the Real" (for Hick a proper noun starting with a capital letter) by negatively-theologically clarifying, so Hick, that "the Real" ("an sich" – "in itself") "cannot be said to be one or many, person or thing, substance or process, good or evil, purposive or non-purposive" ("An Interpretation of Religion," 1989, 246); a seemingly negative-theological experience that needed, if even possible, sufficient reflection: Dr. Z would have no problem to agree with philosopher John Hick's definition of "the Real" as just transcategorical (transcending Aristotle's and Kant's human epistemological categories) if still remaining located in the mere natural-philosophical realm of a reality that consists, just ask theoretical physicists, of many more dimensions than just the three well-known, plus time, still grasped by humans). However, Dr. Z, telling the categorical difference between (natural) "transcategorical" and (supernatural) "transcendent," strongly disagrees with theologian and metaphysician Hick's speculative, inside the imperiled paradigm of traditional metaphysics and religion, covered by rotten layers of theological debris, scholastically postulated, supernaturalistic understanding of "the Real" as transcendent. This paradigm, that locates us back into a shadow world, is itself a shady, indoctrinating Platonic cave existing for millennia. In this very paradigmatic context the fact that Plato himself once studied for more than 10 years in ancient Egypt metaphysics, astronomy, and geometry is still noteworthy together with philosopher Alfred North Whitehead's well-known opinion that our Western philosophical tradition "consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." With our limited human capacities, that open us only to a small spectrum of reality, we might see much less than 1% of all there is. But that doesn't mean it's sanctioned, along a fervent "God is beyond our understanding" ("deus semper maior – God is always greater") theology, to postulate part of the remaining >99% of hidden, absconditus reality surpassing our restricted human epistemological and ontological understanding, as transcendent-supernatural or, as Hick postulates – by adding just another controversial footnote to Plato and his speculative distinction between a material world (created by a demiurge) and a concealed hyper-reality (Plato's "hyperouranion" or "heaven of ideas") – as the transcendent "Real" or, as Hick, standing in the old metaphysical tradition, could have called more precisely "the Hyper-Real." Only metaphysicians such as Hick and other religious philosophers and theologians, trapped in their endangered paradigm of old metaphysics and religion, and not even applying Occam's razor, will bluntly conject where nature, physical reality, ends and their hypothesized supernatural or metaphysical starts out. Dr. Z doesn't share such a grave category mistake. A transcendent supernatural "Real" just can't, by miraculously trickling down into our material world, inform a plurality of religions (plus, let's say, taking the same direction, ultimately informing all kinds of political and religious sects and cults, including cults of personality as well as the devotion by the masses to almighty-God-like party rulers in communist countries, "dear leaders" cunningly installed to replace the God of scripture – some might remember two lines by Boris Slutskii about an encounter with Stalin: "One day I was walking along the Arbat / and God drove by in five limousines – "Eines Tages ging in den Arbat entlang / und Gott fuhr vorbei in fünf Wagen") that Hick tries to ratify with his "coexist theology," joyfully supported by many, who are hoping for more tolerance between religions, and, on the other side, vehemently rejected by hardliners of organized religion, who are fearing relativism and the end of their monopoly, the erosion of their "only true religion(s)." In other words, a transcendent, immaterial, supernatural "Real," that Hick suggests with a metaphysical smile, just can't have a causal footprint in the material world (there are no transcendent connections, there are only projections. And neither can any heavenly "holy spirit" that is originating from postulated supernatural spheres perform any miracle nor inform any worldly religion). Such a supernatural "Real" just can't be received by natural human antennas, our brains and bodies, whereas, staying down-to-earth, our in the physical realm located transcategorical "Real" in all its naturalistic multidimensionality – again, ask theoretical physicists, especially string theoreticians, for the number of possible dimensions of reality – might, under certain circumstances, be fractually perceived by the human brain understood as a physical interface. It's still a possibility based on experiences generally interpreted as spiritual or mystical. Different modern naturalistic philosophies and theories of consciousness – one of the next objectives is to discover a brain marker for consciousness – as well as a quantum brain chemistry approach – to find a possible relationship between quantum mechanics and (1) higher brain functions including consciousness and (2) mystical or satori experiences – might offer explanations.

XX. Let's talk about sex and politics: Political-Theological ("Post-Meta" / "After-God") Excursion – Politics, not sex, porn, shopping, or fitness, is the new religion since everything became theology today, as revealed in the eschatological concept of the looming Antichrist by Carl Schmitt, bought by, for example, Peter Thiel, who, being caught in a contrarian Straussian-Schmittean-Girardian fabric, is trying, as the katechon (2 Thessalonians 2:7), seen in the problematic eschatological context of an unexpected delay of the parousia, would do (please note: today, the majority of Biblical scholars does not consider the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians an original letter by Paul), to keep the enemy / the Light Bearer / the Enlightenment from the distance in perpetual check delaying the end of days): Jacob Taubes and Carl Schmitt: Dr. Z, the philosophical practitioner, logotherapist & existential analyst, the post-meta philosopher & after-God theologian, agrees with the shared thesis by philosopher of religion and politics, ordained rabbi Jacob Taubes, as well as legal theorist, political philosopher, and Nazi enabler Carl Schmitt that "today everything is theology, except that which theologians speak about." Indeed, everything, especially in the political realm, is theology today, from – to go beyond examples of traditional and contemporary forms of worship and very diverse rituals (and, so not just Dr. Z's understanding as healthcare chaplain frequently dealing with end-of-life situations, we all, including tennis players on the court before they serve or soccer players after they scored, seem to need rituals) –, to secularized theological concepts of the modern theory of the state (where, for instance, the old omnipotent God became the omnipotent lawgiver); the liturgy of pop and rock concerts (where thousands of spectators, singing and flashing their smartphones in the dark, watching their stars and idols performing in the light); the music and liturgy of porn (from oral to penetration sex to the final cumshot; usually starting out with delicate and skilled, but scripted and stereotypical cunnilingual and fellatious worship services of vulva and penis, including 69, leading, following general liturgical playscript of phallocentric mainstream porn that shaped sexuality of an entire generation and feeds our sexual fantasies via algorithms, to a vivacious sequence of varieties of penetration sex, the missionary, then, for example, where everything is scripted, the cowgirl (classical and reverse, where the female is controlling man and movements), the face-off sex position (deeply intimate; moaning, eye contact, and dirty talking), the captain (again: moaning, eye contact, and domination, displays of power and powerlessness, with, now, mirroring patriarchal society with the male in charge and sex-machine-mode, and women's legs, widely open, pointing toward the heavens of desire, assuring sufficient room for stimulation of the clit), to hot doggy style, and more sizzling penetrating sex positions toward all-consuming female ekstasis ("Give it to me!"), female multiple orgasms ("Oh, God, I'm still coming!"), and fast-forward, as the closure of common porn scenes/clips/movies (produced for the biggest consumer of porn, the heterosexual male viewer, whose sexual needs are no longer defined by original fantasies but porn clips), an intense male orgasm, the male ejaculation ("I'm cumming!"), the money shot, as climax and main objective, the load of sperm gracefully and passionately received, even, like consuming holy communion, devoutly swallowed by females as sacred gift (going way beyond Georges Bataille's tamed thesis: "All eroticism has a sacramental character"). Santa Fellatia, we come to realize that oral sex, long taboo outside professional sex work, became a new standard of care causing girls and young women watching mainstream porn to learn how to perform a perfect blowjob to keep their boyfriends; the military liturgy with its music (from goose step marching, eyes to the right, to honoring the tombs of the "unknown soldier", thundering "fly over" blessings, to multi-million-dollar military parades, etc.); even the liturgy of chess, a game revealing the old dualism of good and evil, where life is a war, the army of light fighting the army of darkness (the ritual of touching and adjusting all your pieces, of inspecting the troops, before the game starts, which is played in "sacred" silence, the ritual of the peaceful handshake before the game, the ritual of following the "sacred" touch-move ritual, or the "sacred" rule never to remove a checkmated king from the board, and when you lose, you mourn, etc.); or – back into the political realm –, the liturgy of past Democratic party national conventions climaxing in messianic ("Send This Man!") presidential nomination speeches toward, fast-forward, beyond a president considered by followers as well as himself, after two failed assassination attempts, as “ordained by God” performing the blessing of the poor, the left-behind Americans, among them many young "red pill" right-wing males without a college degree, shut out from the American dream and bad husband material, the losers of globalization, by installing physical and ideological walls such as steep tariffs for salvation. Mentioned in the context of prophetic political art and American civil religion be also a fresco, painted in 1865 by Constantino Brumidi, called the "Apotheosis of Washington" and located in the eye of the U.S. Capitol building's rotunda showing President George Washington rising in glory to Heaven. Down to Earth, citizens should be vigilant ("Vigila!, so the Latin imperative once used as a warning towards a medieval pope) to keep our Republic and "woke" Constitution declaring the separation of powers or, as "woke" Martin Luther King commanded, "to stay awake" and "to remain vigilant" during the metastasis of racist, fascist, and authoritarian thought.

XXI. Let's talk about underlying reality: Taoist ("Post-Meta" / "After-God") Excursion – the Tao as eternal Intentionality or ultimate and universal Will to Meaning: Knowing, again, Lao Tzu's philosophical insight that the "Tao is impossible to talk about. It is mystical" and intrigued by one of the philosophical tenets of Viktor E. Frankl's logotherapy & existential analysis, "the will to meaning" (German: "der Wille zum Sinn"), including Frankl's theological notion of "the will to ultimate meaning" ("der Wille zum Über-Sinn"), and aware that Frankl, a theist, understands "ultimate meaning" as personal, as the God of his fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Dr. Z, the unorthodox Franklian, positively influenced by Taoism, understood as a philosophy, not a religion, and by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's work "The World as Will and Representation" ("Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung"), offers his own speculative philosophical – now expanded from anthropology to cosmology: anthropo-meso-cosmological – interpretation of the begin of the well-known Taoist (Daoist) text, the "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu, that reads in an English translation: "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. / The name that can be named is not the eternal name. / Nameless, it is the origin of Heaven and Earth. / Named, it is the mother of all things." In one of the best German translations of the "Tao Te Ching", the translation by sinologist and theologian Richard Wilhelm, a translation known to philosopher Martin Heidegger: "Der SINN, der sich aussprechen läßt, ist nicht der ewige SINN / Der Name, der sich nennen läßt, ist nicht der ewige Name. / 'Nichtsein' nenne ich den Anfang von Himmel und Erde. / 'Sein' nenne ich die Mutter der Einzelwesen." Dr. Z translates "Tao" not just statically with the German noun "Weg" (way, path; the way of the world) or with other related German nouns such as "SINN" (meaning), as done by Richard Wilhelm in capital letters, or "Wille" (will) – some theologians and logotherapists & existential analysts, who are trying to grasp the bigger picture of logos and existence, might even translate "Tao" with the Greek word "logos", a word that can stand for many and very different things –, but, by considering the Tao, that is underlying everything, as ultimate reality, dynamically with the ultimate intentionality, an ultimate string in becoming, or the universal "will to meaning" ("Wille zum Sinn") understood as cosmic liberation story. According to Dr. Z, the ultimate intentionality or eternal universal "will to meaning" already contains the "will to existence" ("Wille zur Existenz"; again, as asked by Martin Heidegger and other philosophers: "Why is there something and not nothing at all? – Warum ist überhaupt Seiendes und nicht vielmehr Nichts?"), a universal dynamic that, in its initial singularity, overcomes Heidegger's ontological difference, the difference between being (Sein) and beings, and, therefore, between being (Sein) and time (Zeit). This "will to existence" mirrors itself, to put up an idea by Schopenhauer and to keep things in context, in the sex drive, itself a vigorous expression by all living beings including humans and, consequently, aliens, by the overarching ultimate "will to meaning." This eternal "will to meaning", which establishes time and "all things" (= beings) into existence (= being) until, possibly, reverting "all things", a universe, back into non-existence and timelessness in an eternal cycle, or in other words, a "will to meaning" that is, out of a cosmic incubator, restarting a universe – matter, space-time, and energy – and with it the cosmic liberation story, out of every single "nameless" singularity, which is itself every single time a newly set "origin of Heaven and Earth," leading to Big Bangs and Big Bounces, and, thinking of the self-organization of matter (even including cold "dark matter") – succeeding, against metaphysical thinking, a self-organized Big Bang following intrinsic universal intentionality –, observed from the nanoscale of quantum fields and the subatomic particle zoo (= quantum-mechanical physics) to the macroscale of galaxy superclusters (= relativistic physics), over and over, again and again, for eternity, to "all things", bringing into existence expanding universes until (not yet understanding the nature of dark matter and dark energy, the "Big Freeze" might not mean the very end) future contractions, the next Big Bounce, an, again, ever repeating cycle from universal contraction to universal expansion, and back again – Friedrich Nietzsche's eternal return (or eternal recurrence) on a cosmic scale, so to speak –, including humans and intelligent aliens as part of the universe and already ontologically informed and intrinsically motivated by the Tao, understood as the ultimate intentionality or "will to meaning", that mirrors itself not just, as recognized by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and today bang on rephrased by English singer and songwriter Bryan Ferry in his song "Slave to Love" ("Slave to love and I can't escape / I'm a slave to love"), in the sex drive (sexual desire, Eros – because, again, "we don't have sexuality, we are sexuality" and, ergo, are "slaves to love" –, leading to carnal love, Aphrodite, as an expression of the ultimate "will to existence" and, consequently, an explanation why millions of individuals, every single one a searching "slave to love," [s]existentially motivated by the "Tao," are crowding discos, dance clubs, party zones on the weekends, looking for love, partners, fuck buddies, resulting in one-night-stands and new intimate relationships). The same is true for the will to think – "Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed," so French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal –, the will to understand, to rationalize, and to realize authentic meaning (or what Frankl understands as "will to meaning"). More precisely, the Tao, as intentionality, the ultimate string, and, in this very context, Taoism understood as the ultimate string theory, manifests itself not just in an expanding universe leading to human and alien life forms and civilizations located (between micro- and macrocosm) in the mesocosm (between two eternities of darkness / nothingness), but intrinsically in man's own thinking and search for meaning. The search for meaning is also expressed in art and science via man's ability that Franz Brentano and Edmund Husserl, to not forget to mention these two all-important philosophers, called intentionality, and that Frankl called self-transcendence or existential and transcendental "will to meaning", giving "all things" names, starting with planets, gods, and constellations, plus Higgs bosons that seem to keep the universe together, keep it in existence and from bouncing back, at least for now. Dr. Z, understanding, as Lao Tzu does, the eternal Tao, the ultimate string that is built into all reality, as, once again, inexpressible by humans (and, therefore, mystical to them and still worth to meditate about), tries, nevertheless, to paraphrase the begin of the "Tao Te Ching" as follow: "The Will to Meaning / the Intentionality (the Tao) that can be told (by logotherapists & existential analysts, et al.) is not the ultimate Will to Meaning / the eternal Intentionality (namely the hidden, 'mystical' Tao, that keeps 'all things' in existence, dynamical, and in transformation, including the will to ethics / ethics management, the will to quality / quality management, the will to innovation / innovation management, and the will to change / change management)." Dr. Z agrees with a thesis by his late philosophy professor Dr. Rupert Lay S.J., who, as a theoretical physicist, considered the Big Bang, be it now a unique event or not, a transfer of information (something Lay asked us philosophy students to meditate; though after every cosmic bounce all information from a previous universe seemed totally lost). Lastly, Dr. Z, philosophizing about the begin and the end of the universe he's an amused part of and also aware that between the (latest) big banging and Dr. Z's birthday already around 14 billion years have passed and many more billions of years (and perhaps an infinite number of Big Bangs and Big Bounces) will follow, resonates with Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov's reflection that "our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness" and another critic of organized religion, Mark Twain, who said by finding himself living between those two eternities of darkness: "I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

XXII. What will your verse be (without regretting too much at the end of your life by having lived your life authentically, having lived a life true to yourself, not having down-lived a life others, your parents, teachers, priests, social media influencers, your autocratic government, did expect from you)? Dr. Z, for whom it makes perfect sense that "education" derives from the Latin verb "educare" ("to teach") and is itself related to "educere" ("to lead out"), namely, again – still keeping Immanuel Kant's liberating enlightenment project in mind (and that not a god, as Martin Heidegger once said to the end of a "Spiegel" interview, but reason, as Jürgen Habermas is still convinced, can save us) as well as Dr. Z's verse that it's all a liberation story, an ever ongoing liberation, itself a very liberating thought and conviction that surveillance states, starting with proto-fascist Plato's "ideal" city state, governed by autocratic philosopher kings, and modern fragile empires and theocracies, resembling inhumane prisons forever threatened by revolts and revolutions, instead of philosopher kings and dictators soon governed by AI, have no future (and that our open societies in the West, Europa and America, need to reconsider their core values, rooted in, so the accusation, woke "blue pill" enlightenment philosophy, such as fundamental rights and equality for all with the need of a separation of powers and a free press, not as woke stumbling blocks but as an advantage) –, out of multifarious Platonic caves, cages, crypts, ideological bubbles, religious tombs, misogynistic manospheres, shells, corsets, oysters, tubes, tunnels, fabrics, circles, rabbit holes, closed societies, virtual realities, sponsored online content lands and other fake worlds generated by manipulative AI chatbots and algorithms, false and anti-science narratives and dogmas such as the dogmatic binary Adam and Eve code, unscientific lies and reductionisms, anti-woke distortions, strangling bible belts, fly bottles, wrong tracks, dead-end streets, dead-end jobs and careers, deserts of the mind, doctrines, biases, closed intolerant, repetitive, repressive patterns, torturous paths, delusions (fed by filtered and partisan TV, multimedia, and YouTube prophesy channels), self-deceptions, comfortable ignorance, virtual and alternate realities, conspiracy theories, limiting "flat Earth" worldviews, outdated paradigms, islands of the day before, inner mental prisons, "natural" and "universally desirable" Christian normativity (in principle still based on an exclusive dogmatic misunderstanding of "extra ecclesiam nulla salus – outside church there is no salvation") and other biased religious normative constructions, oppressive social, religious, and racist cast and cult systems, oppressive political and religious belief and inauthentic meaning and value systems, the list goes on and on, received 2 Golden Apple nominations by the Elmbrook School District for running scholastic chess and Latin clubs. He was also a championship coach of Elmbrook's legendary FTC (First Tech Challenge) Robotics Team 13201 Hazmat, the FTC Wisconsin State Champion 2021 and 2022. Dr. Z, who gave numerous talks in Europe, America, and Asia, started his academic teaching career at the International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein, Europe, and also taught – by, once again, living and teaching the ethical, life-affirming, liberating principle of personal biophilia that was fostered by his late outcast Jesuit philosophy professor Dr. Rupert Lay SJ. Lay pointed out the biophilic teaching of Jesus, including the universal Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31), itself much older than the New Testament, and who programmatically, following the principle of personal biophilia in the context of a divine liberation story, said: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10; a Bible verse materialistically misinterpreted in the context of the false prosperity gospel). Lay, however, considers Jesus a human teacher, not the son of God or the messiah, and Christianity essentially nothing more than the attempt thoroughly following the biophilic example of Jesus, who dined with prostitutes and tax collectors, by trying to live up to the liberating biophilic ideal: "Act and decide always in a way that your acting and deciding does your personal (social, spiritual, emotional, ethical, creative, artistic, intellectual, political, physical, sexual) life as well as the personal life of others rather enhance than reduce!" – for many years at Marian University, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, traditional and online, THE 100 Foundations of Christian Experience, THE 101 Introduction to Christian Theology, THE 218 World Religions, THE 221 Theology of Love, THE 310 Women and Religion, THE 350 Christian Spiritual Traditions, PHI 130 Philosophy and Values, PHI 132 The Examined Life, PHI 220 Bioethics, PHI 231 Business Ethics, PHI 305 Philosophy of Love and Friendship, IDS 201/202 Aesthetics, Values and Culture I/II, BUS 245 Managerial and Professional Ethics, MGT 304 International Organizational Behavior, and OLQ 607 Leadership and Social Responsibility.

XXIII. This is what Marian University students wrote about Dr. Z:

Dr. Z is the best instructor I've had here so far, actually ever.

Dr. Z is the most inspirational, motivating instructor I ever had. Marian is so lucky to have him. I wish he would teach more classes.

Dr. Z is an outstanding teacher. He relates well with all students and makes subject matter easy to understand.

Dr. Z is the most amazing instructor that I ever had. His joy of life is something everyone can learn from.

Dr. Z was always prepared for class, taught us things using a variety of teaching methods and made his lessons interesting and enlightening all the time.

Dr. Z was such an amazing instructor. I've never had an instructor who gave quick responses, was excited about not only teaching, but also the students, and did all with a sense of humor.

One of my best classes to date.

He is great!

Great instructor!

Fantastic!

Outstanding!

Thank you!

A super professor!

I had fun learning!

Teacher is very good! Makes classes easy to looking forward to.

Excellent instructor! Very enjoyable!

Dr. Zaiser is a very good instructor.

Very nice instructor.

Dr. Z is a great teacher. At first, I thought the course was going to be dull and boring. This was not the case with the class. Thanks!

He is great! He responded with an upbeat attitude.

The teacher made the class very fun and inviting. Great atmosphere to learn in.

Instructor's knowledge of subject is outstanding! Good personality!

The instructor is very interesting. Smart, and a lot of fun.

Awesome teacher, never boring.

The instructor is very entertaining and knowledgeable on the subject.

Very nice and respectful teacher.

Excellent class! Awesome teacher!

Great diversity of information and very stimulating.

Dr. Z is a very enjoyable instructor with great information. I hope to have him again in the future.

Love Dr. Z’s teaching methods! Wish more instructors were teaching the way he does!

I liked the way Dr. Z is teaching. He isn't a bored teacher. He is teaching like he liked his job.

I like instructor's insight to life.

Great class, great instructor!

Great professor!

The class allowed me to really believe again!

The best online responses for any class taken!

He should help teach other instructors how to run a good online course.

The most interaction & feedback of any course I have taken.

You need more instructors that care about teaching as much as Dr. Z.

Dr. Z is a great instructor! I really enjoyed this class and felt that I gained a lot from it that will be extremely useful.

The teacher has great character, apparent even though this was an online class.

Very positive instructor, gave lots of good feedback and positive reinforcement!

Well organized.

I love this professor.

The instructor related the topics to real life situations.

Professor Zaiser's sense of humor!

Dr. Zaiser is a great teacher. I wish I could have taken a traditional class with him. He has a lot of knowledge and a unique way of presenting it!

Instructor made the class very interesting, and he was very knowledgeable.

The professor was great at getting back to me when I had questions, and he always grades in a timely manner. That was much appreciated!

Dr. Z is a wonderful teacher who contributes a lot of his knowledge to the class.

Dr. Z was a wonderful instructor. He was extremely positive and upbeat. It was apparent that he was extremely comfortable with the subject matter and very open to questions and feedback. He was the best online instructor I've had so far.

This is the first class I had with Reinhard Zaiser and I really enjoyed his class. I would definitely take another class with him and would recommend him to other students. I love his creative way of teaching the class and made it enjoyable as well as being able to use a lot of concepts in my work and everyday life.

This was the best online course I've had. Dr. Z is a terrific teacher. He gave constructive feedback to my questions and exams. It was evident he had an immense understanding of the subject matter. The use of videos and movies to supplement the learning material was wonderful. They brought an added dimension to the class and learning experience. It was evident he was prepared to teach the course and that he put a great deal of effort not only in his preparation but also teaching the course. The way Dr. Z teaches an online course should be the model for all Marian online courses.

Make sure Dr. Reinhard teaches it!

I would definitely sign up for another class with Dr. Z.

He is a lot of fun. He made a very boring topic interesting and enjoyable.

The instructor was very passionate about his work. This made the material more exciting and easier to understand.

The instructor was very knowledgeable and made the class interesting and enjoyable.

Amazing presentation and contextual relation of a subject that can be influential and revelatory on many levels.

Instructor was very knowledgeable and taught the information in a way that was easy to understand and how it applies to you.

How the instructor used the class material to real world situations.

Dr. Z's humor and teaching style.

Dr. Z was amazing! He brought the class to life with his teaching experiences.

Very interesting, enjoyed this class and instructor.

Open forum and discussions.

The teacher, he was awesome.

The teacher! Dr. Z made this class very fun and interesting – the exact opposite of what I was expecting.

The teacher had a wide scope of knowledge.

I enjoyed Dr. Z's personality and knowledge of the topic.

Knowledge and topics applied to real life.

Class is great – keep it the way it is!

Everything was great!

More class sessions. I'm bummed it's over already!

Thank you, Dr. Z,

Thank you for a wonderful experience. I can truly say it was evolutionary for me. I appreciate your knowledge and zeal for learning and the subject matter.

Great class!

I would recommend Dr. Z to anyone – He was great, inspirational and instructional.

Dr. Z made the class interesting and enjoyable even online. What a great instructor.

I truly enjoyed the class and materials of this course. It has opened my eyes.

Best class I've ever taken! Dr. Z was positive, helpful and encouraging. I'd take every class he teaches!

I think this instructor is excellent. I really looked forward to class.

Best online class I have taken. Thanks!

This class completely changed my view. Dr. Z is an excellent online instructor and is one of the most engaged instructors I have had ... including in classroom setting.

Dr. Zaiser's personality comes thru online. Great learning experience.

Great class. Great instructor.

Overall Dr. Z was the best and most informative instructor I have had at Marian University to date.

Dr. Zaiser was the best instructor that I had over the past couple of years at Marian. His command of the subject was amazing. So much that I hope to someday get a degree in philosophy too.

I understand philosophy better now thanks to Dr. Z.

The instructor was awesome and I'm going to take my next theology class with him and only him!

He was the 1st teacher who really went all out to let me know I was personally doing a good job.

The professor!! He was extremely funny and was one of the best teachers I've ever had.

He made the class fun and exciting. Very excited about teaching. He cared about how we did as well.

He is funny and easy listen to.

Positive thinking. Able to get the true meaning of God and the message.

Good pace and very thorough with information.

Simple and to the point.

I loved the enthusiasm of my professor, and the PowerPoints were easy to understand.

Positive attitude and great connections.

Knowledge of subject and enthusiasm of instructor.

Loved the instructor. Very well taught course.

The teacher, made it fun and relatively simple for a theology class. Wanted to come to class every day.

The professor's positive attitude!

No pressure, nobody is wrong for stating their opinion.

Very open and made class comfortable to share.

Dr. Z was very fun and kept class lively and interesting.

The use of pictures and real-life examples made things easier to understand.

This class was exceptional! Dr. Z has so much experience in this field. Truly one of the best classes I've taken. Dr. Z is a true asset to Marian - Best of luck in all you do!

He taught me a new outlook on religion. God is love and this class was beautiful. Dr. Z is an awesome professor!!

The instructor made the class very interesting – he is very passionate about theology and the study of God.

Dr. Z's teaching style and passion for the subject.

Wide variety of knowledge.

He provided insight into my faith and the faith of other religions.

Great class, great learning experience. Should be teacher for the rest of the courses.

Great class – very much enjoyed!

I really enjoyed this class!

I enjoyed this class even it was 8:30 in the morning. The professor was very lovely.

I liked how current, real-world situations were discussed in class.

The instructor was very personable and related stories/examples to the topics we learned about.

I enjoyed Dr. Z's real-life experiences he shared with us. He is a worldly man bringing many thought-provoking discussions to class.

Excellent class! Great instructor!

Great class – Awesome Teacher!

Actually kept the students involved, made the class interesting. Keep this guy! Great teacher, Marian needs more like him.

Dr. Z always came to class with an upbeat attitude, he really cared about each of us as students. He made us feel very comfortable to ask questions. Just an all-around great guy.

The instructor really encouraged you to express yourself and was willing to help or advise in any way.

Again, I loved the instructor, his knowledge second to none. His energy after class to talk and philosophize further was such an unselfish act toward the students.

My sincerest thanks to you for an amazing seven weeks of insightful and value-added Monday evenings. Your class has been the highlight of this semester for me at Marian.

Great class!! Great instructor!!

Open discussion format. Allows for us relate to ideas & expand upon.

Thank you, Dr. Z! I enjoyed your class and learned a lot.

It was a motivating experience and encouraged me to succeed in the future.

The encouragement to think outside the box, thinking of things from all angles.

His energy, he explained everything about and beyond, many examples.

Very fun class. Dr. Z encourages creative thinking and a zest to enjoy your life.

I liked the class and worth the money.

Keep Dr. Z teaching this class.

The instructor was excellent!! No complaints.

Would gladly take a class directed by Dr. Z in the future.

I think he would be great for management courses.

I liked the excitement of the instructor.

Great class & great teacher/prof.

Keep Dr. Zaiser!

Great job!

Had a great class, thanks!

Dr. Z was fun – made me want to come to class.

Dr. Z! He is Awesome!

Dr. Z is the man!

Dr. Z is simply the best!

Liked the format, good use of different teaching tools!

The instructor – He made it real – I've already applied what I learned to my job.

Very interesting instructor, very knowledgeable with course content.

Incorporating our learned concepts to papers to movies we watched.

The open environment – I really liked the self-reflection. It was great to be encouraged to study bioethics in the future. Great class!

Easy going open forum. Open discussion of all ideas.

Dr. Z made this class very innovative. He is very knowledgeable in every field. Knows how to keep the class interesting without making students fall asleep.

The professor's love for philosophy shines through him during lecture & made it interesting & fun to learn.

The instructor was knowledgeable and made class really fun to learn.

The way everything was a group discussion.

It was a great class, learned a lot!

Longer than 7 weeks because I would love to continue learning about this!!

Best class ever!!

Enjoyed listening to Dr. Z

Dr. Z & his enthusiasm!

Dr. Z is great!

He was a great teacher, very understanding.

He does a great job.

I would definitely recommend this class to other students, and I would take other classes if he teaches it. I would give Dr. Z an A+.

He made the learning enjoyable.

Great enthusiasm – loved the class.

Dr. Z truly made learning fun. His style of teaching is magnificent and makes the students want to come to class and engage.

One of the best teachers I have had at Marian so far! I would definitely take classes with Dr. Z again. Feedback was excellent and you can tell he loves to teach and is excited when we learn and do well on assignments.

It was confusing at first, but he had made me think outside my scope which helped me learn some things about myself and I appreciate it!

This was my first online class and I thought it was great! Dr. Z and Marian Online 2 system made it easy and clear to know what was expected and deadlines.

Dr. Z replied quickly to emails and was always kind enough to offer comments to our homework. I wish I could've met him; he was great!

The subject was so interesting, and the homework was manageable with having a busy work/travel schedule.

Dr. Z was by far the best professor I have ever had - very funny & made things very interesting! Thank you for everything Dr. Z!

Thanks – I learned a lot!

Best class & professor I've ever had!

The course gave me a new sense of meaning related to this field of study. I wouldn't have gained this knowledge without taking the class. Dr. Z was an excellent teacher. His real-life experiences and sense of humor made this class fun to attend.

Interesting course work, very good instruction with instructor.

Knowledge of instructor.

The way he related the course into everyday life.

Dr. Z had a lot of knowledge about the items he taught. He also had a lot of energy and was a good instructor for this course.

Dr. Z is phenomenal in his real-life stories & interactions with the course. He truly makes class interesting and well worth it!

Class made me think more about the past and how it has led us where we are today. Enjoyed all the art, history, literature and music examples. This teacher is one of the best instructors I have ever had!

I appreciated the history lesson. The instructor was extremely knowledgeable and able to relate what we learned to modern life. Good sense of humor on the part of the instructor also.

Dr. Zaiser was available for questions. Dr. Zaiser was very knowledgable on this subject. Thank you.

Dr. Z is an exceptional teacher. He has a gift with teaching students and making the learning environment fun & relaxed.

Dr. Zaiser is one of the best (if not the best) instructors I've had at Marian. He makes the subject matter easy to understand and follow. I've had him for two online courses now, and out of all the courses I've taken, I feel I learned the most from him. EXCELLENT instructor!

Dr. Z is by far the best instructor I have had thus far at Marian! I look forward to more classes with him!!!

Dr. Z was awesome.

Dr. Z is the best!!!

Continue what you are doing Dr. Z!

Thank you for all of the knowledge!

I was able to use my creativity & intellect to discuss topics relevant to today's current events.

Dr. Z shared a lot of great knowledge & pictures – really made it interesting.

I liked that the instructor provided plenty of information in the weekly course schedule as well as powerpoints and videos. It made the concepts easier to understand.

I really appreciate Dr. Zaiser's positive attitude and encouraging comments and emails. This being my first college class in over 10 years, and my first ever online course I really appreciated that!!! I also did enjoy the course materials and how he related to our modern day.

Awesome class, fantastic instructor!

I love taking courses with Dr. Z. He is my favorite instructor and wish he was able to teach more courses that I have taken or have yet to take. He is very thoughtful and thorough with all material and ensures your understanding.

I really liked how Dr. Z didn't make us post 6+ times on discussion boards. This helped me focus on making sure I had time to do the required works/papers. Great class Dr. Z!!

The instructor was very knowledgeable. Enjoyed the course.

His in-depth knowledge & diversification.

I liked that he was involved in my papers and that he gave good feedback.

Instructor was great. Let us think and apply knowledge in the real world!

Easy to talk, outgoing & fun.

Great teacher, very nice!

Friendly, outgoing, personable instructor. Did not have unrealistic goals for students' achievement.

Open discussions.

Please have Dr. Z teach more classes!

This course has already forced me to contemplate many life concepts and beliefs. The instructor is phenomenal at what he does and how he explains things.

Small class, so nice to discuss philosophies.

The instructor explains the material well and keeps the class interesting!

These are fast classes, and I will probably go back and try to re-read some of the chapters, but I wouldn't change anything!

It was fun, I learned real life concepts to put in practice and the instructor was courteous, insightful, and provided me with a broad concept of the topic.

He was adding positive feedback to my papers. He had great questions to help write papers.

I have a new appreciation for the field of philosophy due to Dr. Z. Keep up the great work!

Great class and instructor.

Overall, I really like this instructor and would welcome him as an instructor in another class.

Flexibility, Feedback and Coursework – very enjoyable.

I liked the online course. The instructor gave prompt feedback.

I want to thank you for an enjoyable course. From the textbook questions and the clips associated with the assignments to the "Examine Yourself" questions and postings, I have come to realize the value in "the examined life". Over the years I have formed thoughts and opinions on certain subjects but haven't paused to examine how I came to these conclusions and if they still make sense to me today (or even if they did back then).

Combining learning and personal reflection was really amazing. Instructor was very positive, thought provoking and encouraging.

Dr. Z was my first online course instructor for a philosophy class I took last summer, and I really liked it. He credits PowerPoints for each week to replace what an in-person lecture would be, and he provides links to useful videos, etc. I love to get his comments.

Dr. Z is a very knowledgeable instructor. Also makes the class fun while learning.

Dr. Z is a great and lively instructor. He kept things interesting.

The freedom to express my views without criticism as no answer was really wrong.

Great teacher, positive feedback. Made homework easy to understand.

The instructor is fantastic! I love his style of teaching and would take more classes he teaches. This course was beneficial to my core as a being. Super satisfied!

He was very knowledgeable in this field and made class very interesting. Gave great real-life examples.

Professor Zaiser was very generous with his comments and grades. Theology is very abstract and difficult for me to understand. I imagine all responses to the course work questions can be varied and difficult to grade, i.e., no right or wrong answer. I appreciated that he considers in grading how much work and effort was put forth by the student.

The approach used by the instructor was very helpful to learn the subject matter in the short period of time. The feedback provided by the instructor was extremely timely and balanced.

Great class! Magnificent instructor with expertise in all areas!

As a working mother, I felt the instructor made the online class flexible enough for my busy schedule and was easy to contact and always gave feedback right away.

Continue to hold classes like this at the West Bend campus location, Dr. Z.

Thanks Dr. Z!

I really enjoy learning with Dr. Z. He is one of Marian's BEST!

Thanks for your class!

I just wanted to let you know I really enjoyed your class. Thank you for being such a great instructor. I hope all of my instructors are like you. You set the bar high!!

Thank you for facilitating a great experience for me with the PHI 130 class. I hope to have you as an instructor in a future class.

Wish Marian had more on-line instructors like Dr. Z.

Thank you for the class! I certainly learned a ton I never would have thought about previously. I wish I could have taken your class live! It was a pleasure to have you as an instructor.

Great instructor who is very active with his students. Would recommend to anyone interested in learning about philosophy.

Thank you for a great experience.

I found this course challenging and philosophy is a course reflects on who you really are, pertaining to your inner belief and perceptions of life. This was a course that allowed me a completeness in understanding myself, others, and most definitely the subject of life a being more than a generality! It not only meant reading the material and book but thinking hard (meditating) on concepts. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity towards gaining greater insight.

Excellent course and instructor!

Dr. Z was animated and passionate about what he was teaching. He made me become excited about philosophical and ethical concepts and the want to learn more on my own.

I would not change anything; this was the most enjoyable class that I have taken so far, and I am looking forward to hopefully having him as an instructor in future classes.

I loved Dr. Z as an instructor! Very knowledgeable and encouraging in the subject matter.

Dr. Reinhard Zaiser was an excellent instructor. He continuously gave feedback and was very encouraging! Great job and thank you! You are very appreciated!!

Helped to develop my own way of thinking for myself and I learned why I choose to think a certain way and what my values mean in a structured way.

I enjoyed this class! Dr. Zaiser was a great instructor, and I would love to take more of his classes! He really sets the bar high for my next instructors!

Dr. Z was awesome. He was very organized and provided the most timely feedback I have seen than in any other course. He has such a positive attitude throughout the course too!

Dr. Z was very personable and a great teacher.

Excellent instructor, excellent final class at Marian, so happy I ended my schooling with this teacher.

Hope to have you again, Dr. Z

[...]

= All life is problem solving. – Karl Popper

= Man sucht im Labyrinth nicht sichere Erkenntnis, sondern den Ausgang. – Peter Sloterdijk

Your path you must decide. – Yoda

Show the slave the way out of the cave. – Plato

Show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle. – Ludwig Wittgenstein

I can only show you the door. You're the one who have to walk through. – Morpheus

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. – John Calvin Maxwell

= "the fellow traveler" (Yalom) / = "the fellow thinker and fellow feeler" (Achenbach) / = "the wounded healer" (Jung / Nouwen)

= Similarities! – Zennnnnnnnnnnnn

The master does not care where the game begins but where it ends. – Saminu Kanti

Just keep your eye on the endgame! Everything will fall into place. – Searcy, Life of a King (2013)

Just feel what the wave is doing, then accept its energy, get in sync, then charge with it. – Bodhi, Point Break (1991)

I am not the piece, I am not of the piece, I am not in the piece. I am the move. – Niranjan Navalgund

= It's all a liberation story. – Dr. Z, surfing out of Plato's cave

https://www.drz.one/

= You find me if you need me:
https://appa.edu/practitioners/reinhard-zaiser/

= Red Fish / Blue Fish / Red Pill / Blue Pill Warning:
When leaving my praxis you might either think about going home or starting a new life!

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