On Seeking Danger in Extreme Sports: Underlying it may be the oppression of a soul searching for meaning
"I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top. They don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn't impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die," Hillary was quoted as saying. ...
"I think David was number seven of at least 13 who died this year. Some people a lot closer to me have died on Everest this year . . . the tragedy of climbing Everest, especially these days, is that so often you're stepping over bodies," Inglis said.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
Uploaded by katherinesmithton434 on 30 Jul 09, 11.44AM PST on flickr
I was struck by a brief reference made by Peter Khan in a talk given on July 3, 2009 reflecting on the Ridvan Message. It was an observation on extreme sports. I thought about the crush of climbers wanting to climb Mt Everest. -gw
Today we see the desperation of the search for truth and meaning. It takes its form in adherence to a variety of substitutes for true religion. ...
Indulging in extreme behavior to fill the spiritual vacuum, and maybe absorption in alcohol, involvement in narcotics or in promiscuity, or even deliberately seeking dangers in extreme sports, underlying that I see the oppression of a soul searching for meaning, looking for the truth, exactly as Baha’u’llah describes in Kitab-i-Iqan, and being driven by the desperation of that search to become involved in things we know are self destructive as well as unsatisfying to that need.
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