On January 1st 2016, author Jerry Hyde - ‘the most dangerous therapist in the world’ - set out on a year-long adventure into the murky underworld of Sin with one objective in mind…to save the world. Join Hyde on an exhilarating journey through hope, despair, love and loss made all the more twisted by daily microdoses of psilocybin mushrooms. Listen in on conversations with such disparate and at times desperate characters as national treasure Grayson Perry, tantric chieftain Shivam O’Brien, Mem the Mad Sufi and LSD blotter designer Kevin Barron. The Book of Sin is not a self-help book. It’s a do-it-yourself-help book. Read on if you want a better understanding of how to live life by your own rules, and how to make the world a better, safer, richer and more peaceful place. Jerry Hyde has worked in film, theatre, TV and the music business. After retraining as a psychotherapist he had a fairly conventional career until losing the plot and rebranding himself in the somewhat out-there style for which he's become known. He lives in London, UK. The Book of Sin How to Save the World A Practical Guide By Jerry Hyde John Hunt Publishing Ltd. Copyright © 2017 Jerry Hyde All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-78535-693-3 Contents Foreword, Prologue, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, Epilogue, CHAPTER 1 January In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The Book of Genesis And so, before we set forth, let's talk some more about you. Yeah ... You. Despite my gossamer-thin promise that if you read this you'll know how to live life by your own rulebook, and indeed save the planet, why would you accompany me on this trek? Why would you choose to leave the comfort of the fireside and venture out into the wasteland in the full knowledge that this journey is at best unpredictable and at worst liable to drive us to the edge of madness or beyond? Two reasons: First, the world we live in is fucked. Our terrorist governments and corrupt, self-serving politicians have propagated a vast disparity in the division of wealth; a semi-visible and perpetual World War III rages above and below ground, and we need to find a whole new value system if we are to survive as a species. Then there's the second reason and that is all about you. Because, like it or not, you are a Sinner. And look, I know you try your best, OK? I know you're one of the good guys. I know you subscribe to Avaaz and you've got a standing order to the World Wildlife Fund. I applaud you for that, I really do. But way, way back, when you were born, when you were fresh and pure and new, you had no notion of mortal Sin, or even morality; and unless your mother had experienced some kind of trauma when you were in the womb, the chances are you were largely a blank canvas, secure in the innate knowledge that you were loveable. And you had no concept of Sin. My belief, after working as some kind of therapist for over two decades now, is that there is essentially only one core wound that any of us have and that all presenting issues are but symptoms of that wound: Do I belong? Am I accepted? And most of all ... Am I loveable? As soon as you are admonished, bullied or shamed, you run naked in your humiliation from the Garden and do whatever you possibly can to cover your arse. And so it goes on. You develop an inner radar like a soldier on sentry duty, peering into the darkness, eyes on stalks in a fixed 1000-yard stare; hyper-vigilant to any perceived attack, your armour becomes thicker and thicker. But still the messages penetrate, at first from your family: 'big boys don't cry, little girls should never get angry, children should be seen and not heard, you wait until your father gets home, don't be naughty or the sandman will get you, mummy won't love you if you do that, you'll never go to heaven if you do that ...' Then comes school: 'you're too short, too tall, too fat, too thin, you wear glasses, you smell, you have greasy hair, you're stupid, you don't have the right clothes to be in the gang, you're shit at maths ...' As you grow older, maybe you realise that all of this was nonsense. Maybe you get over it or maybe you get some therapy, but inside you're wounded and deep down uncertain as to whether anyone will ever really love you. And still the messages come: 'you're too slow, too fast, too short, too tall, too bald, too hairy, not sexy enough, too sexual, you're arrogant, you're a failure, you're brash, you're under-confident, too bullish, too weak. ...' And by the time you're fully-grown, you're going to have ingested a whole library of data that says, in essence ... You're just no good. And from that position you are very susceptible to the idea that you are a Sinner, not because of what you do or wh