The Universal Doors

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Many people reading this may be living in an emotional coma. Their minds are free, so they assume nothing is wrong, but in reality, they are sleepwalking through life, disconnected from the natural joy they were born with. These feelings — what I call the “constant kick” of true inner happiness—are blocked by childhood fears and societal conditioning. From an early age, the world instills fear in us, shutting down our ability
to fully experience life. As a result, we lose touch with the deep well of love, energy, and joy that resides within us.

Through my poetry and persona, I try to offer a glimpse of this lost connection. Modern society locks away the heart’s “doors of perception,” making it difficult for us to access our most profound emotions. However, simply being aware of this disconnection is the first step toward healing. Feeling truly alive begins with recognizing what has been suppressed.

One possible solution is embracing a more tribal way of living — forming deeper, local communities where social interactions become meaningful rather than superficial. In today’s fast-paced world, people rush past one another, missing out on real human connection. The slower you live, the more you absorb life, both within yourself and in the world around you. Living at a deeper level allows you to experience contentment
rather than constantly running from uncomfortable emotions. In a supportive community, good feelings can flourish, naturally overshadowing and healing negative emotions. If we all became one another’s “therapists” — offering support, understanding, and connection—many mental health struggles could be lessened.

Another key to awakening inner joy is adopting a spiritual perspective — whether or not you believe in God. Life itself is an overwhelming miracle, and treating it as such with both your heart and mind can reignite the wonder and gratitude that modern life often suppresses.

By slowing down, embracing deeper human connections, and recognizing life as the miracle it is, perhaps happiness is within reach. Just some thoughts.

With love,
Robert Moritz-Olsen

 

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One of the ugliest traits embedded in human nature is an instinctive tendency to mistreat those we perceive as weak. What’s truly unsettling is how often we fail to recognize this disrespectful behavior in ourselves. Only a rare few are conscious of this flaw, and even they may act on it subtly, unnoticed by others. If you become aware of this trait, you gain the power to resist it — to curb your baser instincts and prevent yourself from being cruel or unkind. Many people insist they don’t exhibit this behavior, but the sad truth is that most do, often unconsciously, even those who consider themselves “good.” Stay vigilant, like an eagle, in your thoughts. Treat everyone with respect, knowing that one day you too will face weakness. Think beyond the impulses of a mere animal; take a longer view, gather your resolve, and remain mindful of this trait every day. Live by your human values and recognize this dark impulse woven into our DNA. Don’t simply label yourself as “good”— instead, strive to avoid being bad, and in that effort, you’ll find a truer sense of goodness.

 

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My entire philosophy can be summed up in one simple sentence: “Life is full of problems, but it’s still beautiful.” To truly be alive is to recognize that life and death are always intertwined — one inevitably follows the other. Don’t live like a zombie; embrace the reality that life and death are constant companions in your everyday existence.

The more you truly live, the more aware you become of your own mortality — and that awareness can inspire you, pushing you to appreciate life more deeply. You don’t need to chase danger to feel alive; the mere fact that death can come at any moment is enough to remind you of life’s urgency. So be present. Be alive. You only live once — make it count.

 

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It’s natural to be skeptical of others, and in many ways, it makes sense. But remember — we are nothing without each other. Human connection is what makes life meaningful. Imagine living alone on the planet — no one to talk to, laugh with, or share special moments. That would be a kind of hell in itself.

Yes, people can be difficult, and the world can be chaotic, but we need one another. Instead of seeing only the flaws in humanity, try to appreciate and love people despite their imperfections. We’re all navigating this crazy world together. True self-discovery isn’t found in solitude, Zen, or yoga — those are only temporary comforts. The deepest understanding of ourselves comes from the connections we build with others.

Of course, trust should be given wisely, and precautions are necessary, but that doesn’t mean we should close ourselves off. Open your heart to others, and you’ll find that love and kindness create a ripple effect. When you radiate love, you receive it in return.

If we learn to love one another so deeply that doubt and negativity fade away, perhaps we can create a world where healing and trust replace fear and skepticism. That is possible.

 

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All humans are inherently evil, selfish, and narcissistic. That’s human nature. People don’t like being called animals, but that’s exactly what they are — and it’s time to face that harsh truth. The only real way to rise above your base instincts is to do what Jesus taught: admit you are a sinner and ask God for forgiveness. But let’s be clear — “sinner” isn’t some vague, gentle word. Sin is the selfishness, the narcissism, the cruelty that lives in every person and that most people act on without a second thought. That’s the sin. Not some sugarcoated concept.

You need to wake up and recognize your animalistic nature — and fight it. Stop blindly following every selfish urge, because when you do, you hurt others, destroy relationships, and contribute to the mess this world is in. I’m not saying things like sex are inherently wrong — sex is good — but don’t let your life be ruled by every base instinct.

You are ruled by instincts that, left unchecked, turn you into something destructive. Take control. Be the master over those urges instead of being dragged around by them. That’s the only way you’re going to make your life — and this world — a better place. Otherwise, you’re just another selfish animal pretending you’re more than that.

 

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The most important art to master is the art of struggle.

Many people try to escape reality — they numb themselves, avoiding both pain and joy. As David Bowie once said, they don’t feel anything at all. But we should do the opposite: lean into reality. Yes, reality can be harsh — it bites — but it’s also a blessing.

Real life is difficult. But the key is to stay in it. The beginning and end of a meaningful life — the alpha and the omega — is learning how to find joy even when you’re sad. Jim Morrison captured this feeling when he said, “I’ve been down so goddamn long, that it looks like up to me.” It’s raw, but it’s real. So fight.

Don’t buy into the fantasy that some yoga gurus or influencers sell — that life is only about bliss, peace, and endless positivity. That’s a utopian lie. Life is struggle. But the secret is this: paint your struggles with love. That’s what makes the hard parts bearable. It’s what creates a kind of “happy-sad” harmony.

Escaping means feeling nothing, and feeling nothing means not living. Like Bowie said, escape leads to emotional deadness. Real life means facing the chaos—and growing from it.

When you finally accept that life is a fight, you begin to learn how to handle it. David Lee Roth nailed it in Van Halen’s “Jump”:
“You got to roll with the punches to get to what’s real.”

Life is a boxing match. But once you learn the rhythm, the technique, and the mindset, it gets easier. Maybe not easy — but more beautiful.

 

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The most important thing in life — above money, power, or ambition — is to lift up our elders. They have lived. They have seen. They have carried knowledge through storms and struggles to pass it on to us. And like it or not, you will be in their shoes sooner than you think. Time doesn’t ask your permission — it just pushes you forward.

That’s why we must never rush our elders into a nursing home unless their condition leaves us no other choice. Even then, they should never be exiled far away. No elder should be more than a short walk — no more than 1,000 meters — from the arms of their family and the laughter of familiar voices.

We need to live like tribes again, where generations live close, love close, and stand close. We waste too much believing the state should do it all for us. Most of what elders need — care, conversation, companionship — can and should come from family, neighbors, and friends.

What we are doing now… the cold neglect, the casual cruelty… it’s unconscious evil. We just go along with it, blindly. Elders are not burdens — they are the heartbeat of history, the living libraries of our people. The Indigenous knew this. They treated elders like sacred wells of wisdom.

Young and old must share the same spaces, the same streets, the same stories. Without that, the young stumble into mistakes they could have avoided if they had only listened to those who have walked the road before them.

So wake up. Love your elders. Learn from them. Protect them. This is the only way out of the mess we’ve made of the world. And deep down, you know it. Period.

 

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My Indian Summer of Love, 1991
How can I put into words my “Indian Summer of Love” in 1991, and how it changed my life forever?

In the autumn of 1989, I started a rock band called Max Uflax, with me as the vocalist. A few months later, though, I became ill with ME. On August 22, 1990, I began attending Follo Folkehøgskole (a Norwegian “people’s high school”) after finishing regular high school. I went there to see if I could write lyrics — because I felt there was no point in being a vocalist if I wasn’t also a poet.

The band kept improving, but I grew sicker and sicker. At Follo, I had to live slowly, almost in a kind of “tribal” way. The very first poem I wrote there summed up that feeling:

“Come in, sit down,
let’s travel without leaving the town.”

I realized that the journeys we make in social gatherings are the greatest journeys in life. That was the spirit of Follo — we all felt it. But for me it cut even deeper, because my illness forced me to stay still. That stillness woke me up emotionally. It was both a blessing and a sadness, because I couldn’t join fully in the life around me.

By February 1991, I was too sick to continue and had to return home. I was devastated. But by summer, as I began to heal, I left the sadness behind and felt as if life itself had become Eden. Inside me was pure joy, pure love — without drugs, without meditation — just life itself.

That was the beginning of my Indian Summer of Love in 1991. It was a constant rush, yet peaceful. That memory has sustained me through three decades of hardship. Even today, I think of it ten times a day.

At Follo I discovered something deep — something I can only call the soul. Life is more than ordinary. It can be divine. And if we are close to each other, like we were at Follo, we may all wake up to it.

That was my Indian Summer of Love, 1991.

 

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We’ve tried everything—salvation, yoga, religion, exercise, careers, wealth, meditation, and politics—yet the world keeps moving in the wrong direction, almost sleepwalking toward something worse. But there’s one thing we haven’t truly tried: psychology.

Many people resist it because, in the West, we’re accustomed to keeping conversations shallow. Most of us grow uncomfortable or exhausted when discussions turn deeply personal or emotional. Yet a basic understanding of psychology could hold the key to many of the problems that come from living superficially.

Religion can be transformative—it changes lives—but to truly heal our inner struggles, we also need the mental tools that psychology provides. There are proven techniques that can help us confront even our biggest challenges by approaching them with insight and self-awareness.

If modern society learned to talk more deeply, to share and understand each other on a psychological level, we could solve more of our problems together—without the fatigue that comes from avoiding depth. We could even teach the basics of great psychological thinkers early in school, giving future generations the tools to navigate life’s rougher paths.

We’ve tried nearly everything else. Maybe it’s time to rediscover the power of psychology—to speak deeply again, as people once did around ancient fires, when honest conversation helped shape the very values we’re now in danger of losing to a shallow way of life.

 

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When it comes to wise men and gurus, I once read a brilliant piece of advice on how to approach them: “Take the best and leave the rest.” In other words, listen carefully to the parts that are sensible and helpful when you read their philosophies.

The reason this advice matters is that even the wisest people often include ideas that are strange, extreme, or simply wrong alongside their brilliance. I have always been puzzled by how great thinkers can offer profound insight while also mixing in ideas that weaken their message. Too often, those odd or careless statements pollute the value of their otherwise sound wisdom and cause their entire philosophy to come across poorly.

That is why we must read critically. Before accepting what anyone says, we should “taste” it thoughtfully — no matter how intelligent, charismatic, or inspiring the person may seem. You should even apply this standard to me. Decide for yourself whether what I say is reasonable and healthy.

Most creative minds are a little bit eccentric. They generate many ideas, both wise and misguided. This is part of creativity itself. But it is your responsibility to separate what is valuable from what is not.

So be critical of everyone’s words. In this jungle of philosophies, use a grounded, common-sense mindset. “Take the best, leave the rest” may be the most important principle to remember when approaching philosophers, gurus, and thinkers of every kind.

 

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If we are to survive as a species, we must more or less return to inner and outer nature — living tribally, breathing life. Soon there will be no more oil and no more minerals for computers. It is suicide to continue the way we do now. Modern man lives 5 percent right but 95 percent wrong. The Indians lived 95 percent right and 5 percent wrong.

The Earth will be empty before long because of the Babylon towers we have built in every area of life. We think we are gods. Modern society is suicide. Every person with common sense can see that, in a perspective of a thousand years, all will be empty and gone. Yet people want money, even though the Bible says money is the root of all problems.

This is God’s Garden of Eden — do we treat it like that? Does it feel like that to you? People are emotionally blind, all of us. I have seen a flash of Eden. I know what it means to be alive. As Jim Morrison says in the songs of The Doors, we have to feel alive so we don’t consume money and materialism as a drug to compensate for not feeling fully alive.

We all escape in our own individual ways. We are all drug addicts in every way there is. We have to replace the drug with the kick of existing in Eden — waking up feelings. If we stop consuming things, we must replace them with the drug we were born with: the soul, which we have all lost.

Intelligent and famous people should find a way to save the world, looking into the future to return to tribal living while preserving and using the most important things from modern life. This is the only way. This is Eden — treat it like Eden. Live like it is Eden.

 

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We all have an inner loneliness, even when we are surrounded by people. We do not dare to show or share this vulnerable space with anyone.

In the lyrics of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, these popular artists write desperately about how alone they felt, even when crowded by friends. That loneliness killed them. They had many people around them, yet they still felt deeply alone. Most people share that same feeling, and because of their honesty, their art resonates so powerfully.

The horror of loneliness is clear in Jim Morrison’s lyrics in “Hyacinth House,” Jimi Hendrix’s “Burning of the Midnight Lamp,” and Janis Joplin’s “Little Girl Blue.” They all speak of being lonely in the middle of crowds — of friends, family, and fellow artists. As I have mentioned several times, the only place we truly feel comfort is in other people’s hearts. Yet for a long time, people have hidden their inner dreams, love, and true personalities from those around them. We all do this — but that has to change.

Knowing another person’s true soul is the magic of life. Life itself is a miracle, but other people’s souls are what make it magical. Many avoid diving into this magic because of social barriers that prevent deep connection from the very first step — being one with one another. People are afraid, because we often think and feel dark due to the world we live in. We don’t dare to take the first step and admit this, and so we remain lonely in crowds.

We have to admit the darkness and shine a light on it so it can disappear. Life is incredibly magical when we create open spaces for free souls to thrive and support one another — in love and in dark moments too. Most people are lighthearted deep inside when they allow themselves to flourish. Everyone has a light that has not been turned on, out of fear of merging their inner being with others and facing the consequences.

We should talk more about Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain — about why they did what they did. They owned the world, yet felt they had nothing because of the universal loneliness they carried, the same loneliness we feel today. These people are leaders— guides for the soul. Listen to them. Dare to be kind, open, and loving.

I dare to do that. Of course, you cannot be too strange or too crazy — but be yourself. Feel free. You will see that people love you anyway, and they bond more deeply with you because you become a social pioneer. You are okay. Be strong. I have bonded extremely deeply with people because of my openness. People may be afraid of it, but they also trust it. Have no fear. Love your fellow man and woman — they are the bearers of your treasures and the magic of life. Love people.

 

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Basically, I don’t want to give anybody my thoughts, but I want to give them their feelings back through my poetry and persona. There are too many thoughts in the world and far too few feelings. Therefore, I focus on healing feelings.

The reason divine feelings are lost is because the crazy world has scared, directly and indirectly, the life out of you — no matter how good you had it at home. To take an example: imagine a child, six years old, who has just learned how to read and goes to the local store to buy a Donald Duck magazine. The first thing the child reads is a newspaper full of insanity. All the time, it’s just insanity. That child will be traumatized by these repeated readings of the news.

He becomes traumatized enough that he loses the divine feelings he was born with. Therefore, the rest of the child’s life will, at best, be moderately numb — but for most, much worse. This void, this lack of divinity, will be filled with all sorts of things, and the child will go through life more or less unlived. How he was created to be is lost for a lifetime.

That’s the truth for all of us. This miracle of life passes by because we are emotionally crippled by experiences that should have overwhelmed us with life and divinity. That could have been the fate of all of us. It still could be. But this evil world has closed the doors of perception.

When you are honest and aware of this, half the healing is already done. Try to come back to life. Bloom in your heart by knowing Eden is outside you — it is there to be felt and reborn into. Be careful doing it, but also trust that you can feel strong and emotional in this cold world. That is possible.

Protect yourself, but bloom. Life is Eden for a person with an open inner eye and heart. “Wake up a thousand times,” as Jim Morrison, poet and singer of The Doors, said. Do it. Listen to what he says.

 

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When it comes to belief, have faith at least in life itself — that life is a religious experience. Life is Eden whether you believe in God or not. Even if you do not believe in Jesus Christ as God’s Son, try this: in difficult situations, think of him — that he was kind and forgiving. Simply thinking about a good person can make hard moments better.

No matter what you believe about him, one thing is certain: he was kind and very wise, especially in barbaric times. Back then the world was even harsher than the one we live in now. You do not have to pray to him, but thinking of him in difficult moments has helped me many times. You become kinder when you think about one of the kindest people in human history. As I say in my poetry, do a little as Jesus did — it helps a lot. Kindness breeds kindness.

We can all drift into dark thinking in this world. Even Jim Morrison cried out for Jesus in The Doors’ song “When the Music’s Over.” Morrison said, “Everybody wants a Jesus, but no one wants to give it to him.” Even doing a small act of goodness is like giving something to Jesus.

We must find goodness in our hearts. The world has grown cold, and people withdraw from deep love, life, and friendship. Negativity takes hold of them — the world has them; they do not have the world.

Even though we are small in the big picture, we should each be a little like queens and kings of life. We own this experience. Live it as fully as you can. Love deeply. Do not be superficial, and do not let life pass you by.

The Swedish singer Thomas Di Leva sings in “I Morgon” (“Tomorrow”): “Even those who do not dare to live will also die one day.” Be brave but cautious. Balance it.

Feeling alive is not about doing great or crazy things. It is about doing your best to honor, for example, your mother and father who gave you life. If possible, love them deeply. I know this can be hard, but do your best.

Forgive people as best you can. We are all products of a crazy world — see the bigger picture. But if people hurt you too deeply, you must also protect yourself.

The main point in this messy world: think of Jesus in difficult situations. It helps, even just to think of him as a kind person. If everyone becomes a little kinder, the world will be better. That is simple logic.

All people are good, but they must dare to be good a little more. Goodness lies deep inside everyone, but it has been locked away by a frightening world. Open the door to life.

As I say in a poem on my website: “The world is a dark place with your eyes closed.” Open your inner eyes to Eden. We have so much goodness and potential within us. Trust me — it is true.

I have been mad, bad, and sad. Now I am a little glad. If I can do it, maybe you can too — even just a little. Be a tiny bit better, and you have made the world better than you realize.

Love.

 

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I believe we all have a soul. If we didn’t, we would walk through life scared all the time. But people are generally at ease, even those who say they don’t believe in the soul. Maybe the body and mind, deep down, are connected to the soul, so even people who don’t believe in it can feel that connection unconsciously.

They may say they don’t believe in the soul, but they still have a soul that helps them function. Very few people truly feel their soul fully, because the world can be frightening when we are children, and that fear can block our connection with it. Still, somewhere deep inside we know it is there. That may be why even people who have been hurt can still function and live their lives.

If we didn’t have a soul, we would probably live in constant fear, like an antelope on the savanna surrounded by predators. But people are usually able to live with some sense of calm and stability. Because of that, I believe we all know, somewhere deep inside, that we have a soul within us.

 

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God’s presence, the inspiring actions of Jesus, the wonder of Eden, and the safe haven of Heaven have been almost completely forgotten. As Bob Dylan sings in “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming” — as if there is no God anymore. That is exactly what has happened to modern society: no real life, just “surface surfing,” no contact with the divine within us or around us.

People who believe in God, Jesus, Eden, and Heaven are often looked upon as if their faith is a “naive interest” or just a “naive hobby.” We have almost completely lost contact with the universe in every sense. Jim Morrison says in his poetry on An American Prayer, “Have you been born yet, and are you alive? Let’s reinvent the gods, all the myths of the ages.” That connection has been lost.

In today’s modern, lifeless society, many no longer feel anything divine — and that is why belief in God fades. We are like the living dead. When you truly experience something divine, belief in God comes naturally as part of how you understand the universe.

Reconnect with your soul — wake up. The tools are already there to be used, giving you a meaningful life and a faith grounded in reality. God is real, and so is His creation. As Jim Morrison also says in An American Prayer, “Wake up! You can’t remember where it was. Has this dream stopped?” Listen to those words.

Faith is not naive — it is our nature.

 

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I live in one of the best welfare states in the world, here in Norway. But the right-wing elder politician Carl I. Hagen once said that foreigners often take care of their elders themselves, instead of leaving them in nursing homes. This raises an important point. The biggest problem in a rich, modern welfare state is that people no longer take care of each other as much as they could. Instead, they leave everything to the state.

When all responsibility is placed on the system, the state becomes unnecessarily drained of resources, spending money on things people could do for free for one another. This creates waste, because people rely too much on the system instead of helping those they are close to. In some ways, this can be seen as a kind of laziness — not in a harsh sense, but as a loss of responsibility and connection.

If people took more care of those they socialize with and feel a sense of belonging toward — more like a modern tribal community — then society would be stronger. We shall feel loved and cared for by other people, not throwing all at the state that should be used in crisis only.

If people supported each other more in everyday life, instead of depending entirely on the welfare system, then the welfare state itself would become stronger. It could even grow into something like a modern paradise. It becomes obvious when you think about it: science would boom, everything would boom, and resources would be used fully on science, education, and progress. Joy and meaningful living, as life is meant to be, would grow stronger.

And in the end, love will boom too.

 

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How shall we relate to daily life when we can die at any time — suddenly or much later as elders? It’s important not to live too much in a “neurotic now,” as mediators teach, where you stress yourself to live only in the moment. Flow through life; don’t stress about living too much in the present. But at any time, anybody can die—we all know that. So try to balance living as a mortal being. Be aware that you can die at any moment, but also take it easy with that awareness. You also have to think and plan for the near or distant future. The golden middle path is the way to go — I think Buddha said that.

Being aware of death is a tender pain, knowing that all this beauty will end, with only losses in the end. But as I say in my poem on YouTube and Spotify, “The Universal Doors – Indian Summer”: “Why shall this end? But rather, imagine it has happened.” Embrace this gift of life; try it a little bit. It’s brief, but eternal too. Maybe Heaven exists — I hope so.

Being aware of death, you take better care of others and yourself, knowing any moment can rip the loves of your life from you. But “some are born to the endless night,” as Jim Morrison says in The Doors song “End of the Night.” For all of you living in utter darkness: try, try, fight to see some tiny light in your lives. I know many haven’t been dealt the best cards in life. But close your eyes and feel the miracle even you are blessed with. A miracle happens every second — your heart beating. In your pain, feel that you exist. I hope the world will be generally better by the time for you — a small Paradise where we can embrace life and accept death as well as we can.

Love.

 

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I shake my head in despair when it comes to people. All the people who gossip about me gossip about one another too. Is it strange that they close up and do not dare to be themselves? People are literally scared of one another. People are open to me because I do not judge and I look up to my fellow man. They all say they do not trust other people but themselves. Here we are, 8 billion people, all of them alone in a crowd?

All people act — it’s easy to see. All people see others and themselves acting a role, therefore they get afraid of one another. I’m not the only one that is aware of that; all people see we fake it with each other. Jim Morrison said, “People trade their feelings for a mask.” People do not dare to laugh or cry on a large scale. They are keeping a cool mask, but deep inside their feelings, it is boiling.

We have one life, one chance, one world. Are we not going to live, realize dreams, or preserve and treat the world nicely? Jim Morrison’s quote is crucial wisdom. Get out of the role people expect from you and get into your feelings. The feelings you escape and trade for a mask are the core of life itself. Don’t throw away the “ocean” of feelings that are alive and divine.

When people gossip about one another, that makes people close up and isolate their inner feelings. They become afraid of being gossiped about too. “Be like children,” says Jesus Christ. What he means is do not wear a mask; be a natural child, not a conditioned “grown-up,” but going with the flow, with an adult intellectual guidance of being grown up, but also a child of God. Be true. Be a natural child of God, as Jim Morrison sings in the Doors’ song “Wild Child.”

The wisdom of Jim Morrison should be praised much more. I rate him as among the smartest ever. The reason he wasted his life was because no one listened to his divine “Eden-like” poetry. He saw that no one wanted God; they just wanted money and status and falseness. Jim Morrison poured his money into art. The rest of the world pours it into more materialistic stuff to compensate for the feelings inside they do not dare to realize.

Listen to Jim Morrison. What I talk about in this essay you find a poetic example of in Jim Morrison’s lyrics of The Doors’ “Hyacinth House.” It’s a song about having friends you do not really trust. Humanity should take off their masks and become one. God is one, and so are you. Amen.

 

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