The Arrow That Broke Reality
I couldn’t draw a simple arrow.
Not a fancy 3D arrow. Just a basic flowchart arrow. I’m a 50-year-old data scientist who builds ML models and debugs complex algorithms. But I couldn’t draw a curved line pointing from Box A to Box B.
That failure haunted me. Not because I wanted to be an artist—but because it revealed something disturbing about how my brain actually worked.
If I couldn’t perceive and reproduce something as simple as a curved line, what else was I missing?
What I Discovered in Six Weeks
I spent six weeks systematically training perception through drawing exercises. Not to become an artist—to debug my own limitations.
What emerged was far bigger than I expected.
I discovered what was really blocking me
Not lack of talent. Psychological patterns I’d built over 30 years.
Perfectionism. Fixed identity (“I’m not creative”). Need to understand everything before trying. Fear of looking foolish.
I had to debug my own psychology before I could see clearly.
I discovered systematic protocols that worked
Drawing exercises weren’t mystical—they were precision instruments.
- Upside-down drawing disabled my categorization
- Negative space revealed relationships I’d never seen
- Contour drawing forced sustained attention I’d lost
- Each one targeted specific perceptual limitations
I discovered it’s all measurable
Everything I experienced matched neuroscience. Theta waves. Hemispheric shifts. Default mode network suppression. Flow states.
Not mystical—measurable. My subjective transformation had objective correlates.
And then I discovered the wonder
Three months in, I was reading Buddhist texts on śūnyatā (emptiness). I stopped cold.
They were describing EXACTLY what I’d experienced during negative space drawing.
Not poetically. Precisely.
I pulled out Christian mystical texts. Same shock. Meister Eckhart describing the ego dissolution I’d felt during the self-portrait.
Yogic sutras. Taoist classics. Sufi poetry.
Every contemplative tradition for three millennia had documented the exact states I was stumbling into.
What felt like my personal discovery was a well-mapped territory. The “mystical” wasn’t mystical—it was reproducible phenomenology with ancient field reports and modern brain scans.
The joy, the pure excitement, the sheer happiness of these discoveries—this is what I want to share with you.
Not just the protocols. Not just the science. But the aliveness of discovering that:
- Your limitations aren’t permanent—they’re trainable
- Your frustrations are doorways—not dead ends
- Ancient wisdom isn’t mystical belief—it’s validated phenomenology
- Your brain can change—at 50, at any age
- The wonder is real—and it’s waiting for you
This book isn’t a manual. It’s an invitation to the joy of transformation, the excitement of discovery, the delight of finding that what seemed impossible is actually systematic.
I’m sharing the journey—and the learnings embedded in every breakthrough, every frustration, every moment of wonder.
This book is my attempt to share that journey—and invite you into your own.
What’s YOUR Arrow?
Maybe yours isn’t drawing. Maybe it’s:
- A presentation revealing you can’t actually listen without planning your response
- A conversation showing you’re not really present with the people you love
- A calendar revealing you can’t remember where the last month went
- A moment recognizing you’re living in abstractions, missing reality itself
Whatever your arrow is, it’s an invitation.
An invitation to discover:
What psychological patterns are actually limiting you
What systematic protocols can transform perception
What neuroscience reveals about your brain’s plasticity
What wonder awaits when consciousness exploration is systematic
This Book Offers
My Journey
(documented, honest, n=1 with theoretical backing)
- What I discovered about my psychological blocks
- What drawing protocols revealed about perception
- How neuroscience explained it all
- How contemplative traditions validated the experience
Your Invitation
(systematic, testable, six weeks)
- Frameworks to work with your own resistance
- Protocols to train your own perception
- Measurements to track your own transformation
- Freedom to discover what emerges for YOU
Not faith. Not guaranteed transformation.
Just a well-documented journey and systematic protocols for testing whether your brain can access the same states.
Your results will vary. That’s why you test.
But I suspect many analytical minds will find what I found:
The limitations that frustrate you are doorways.
Your “arrow” is waiting to reveal what you’ve been missing.
Three Pathways to Explore
For Practical Minds
The six-week protocol, measurement frameworks, and expected outcomes.
If you want systematic methodology, measurable results, and professional capability enhancement.
For Analytical Minds
Working with resistance, debugging psychological patterns, navigating the journey.
If you struggle with perfectionism, fixed identity, or need frameworks to understand what’s happening.
For Philosophical Explorers
How ancient contemplative traditions validate these discoveries across millennia.
If you’re curious about consciousness exploration, wisdom traditions, and the bridge between rigor and insight.
Or explore all three pathways together →
Begin Your Own Journey
Read my complete transformation story, get the systematic protocols, or start with exploring the three pathways.
The Arrow That Broke Reality: What Drawing Teaches About How We Actually See
Six-week protocol with exercises, measurement frameworks, and contemplative maps
What wonder awaits you?