Diffusing Smelling Salts

But Will It Wake People Up?

The air is thick with smoke, but no one stirs. A family sleeps soundly inside a house where flames creep up the walls, their dreams undisturbed by the acrid warning signs filling their lungs.

You stand outside, pounding on the door, your heart racing. Do they hear you? Do they even want to wake up?

This is where we are.

The world is on fire, yet so many remain asleep—lulled by the hum of endless distractions, the comforts of routine, the false assurances that someone else will sound the alarm.

But no one is coming.

The burden of awakening falls on you, on me, on those willing to shake themselves free of the trance and then turn to wake others.

Like the pre-flight safety message reminds us: Put on your oxygen mask first before assisting others. The same is true for spiritual awakening. You cannot rouse others if you remain unconscious yourself.

So take the first deep inhale of the spiritual smelling salts. Feel the sting, the shock, the jolt back to reality. The world is not as you once thought. Systems are unraveling. Truth is buried under layers of deception. Fear is wielded as a weapon. If you cannot see this—if you will not see this—then you are still asleep.

Knocking on the Door of the Unconscious

For some, waking up is a gradual process—an unsettling awareness creeping in like the first light of dawn. For others, it is abrupt and painful, like being shaken from a deep sleep only to realize the world they knew is gone.

The I Ching speaks to this moment in Hexagram 51, Shock (Thunder), where awakening comes like a sudden clap of thunder, jolting people out of their stupor.

“Shock brings success. Shock comes—oh, oh! Laughing words—ha, ha! The shock terrifies for a hundred miles, and he does not let fall the sacrificial spoon and chalice.”

The jarring nature of awakening is not meant to punish but to save. Like thunder cracking across the sky, it shakes us from complacency, reminding us that we cannot afford to sleep through the chaos.

And yet, so many resist. They slam the door in your face, pull the blankets tighter, turn up the volume on the lullabies of consumerism, nationalism, and technological sedation.

What do you do?

Do you keep knocking? Do you risk breaking the door down?

Or do you walk away, knowing that not everyone can be saved?

A Collective Awakening or a Collapse?

The I Ching also offers Hexagram 29, The Abysmal (Water), which speaks of navigating perilous depths. The image is of water flowing ceaselessly, adapting yet enduring. It teaches us that survival depends on inner clarity and the courage to face the truth.

“If you are sincere, you have success in your heart, and whatever you do succeeds.”

This is the choice before us: We either wake up and face reality, or we sink into the abyss.

The fire is real. The smoke is thick. But if we are alert—if we are truly awake—we can navigate through this chaos, not with fear, but with wisdom.

We can be the ones knocking on doors, the ones shaking people from their sleep, the ones who step inside the burning house to lead others out before it’s too late.

But it starts with you. With me. With the first deep breath of clarity.

Are you awake? Or are you still dreaming?

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