Modern life can be dull. Or sad. Perhaps try something different? (You don't have to tell anyone.) Keep your day job, and no-one will notice you begin a new life of adventure... Enter the mysterious world of spycraft.
Why Spy?
Imagine that you've been commissioned by an intelligence agency to do a spy mission on the contents of your own mind. What kinds of findings would you have to report back to base? If you were to secretly stalk and investigate your own thoughts, feelings, desires, motives, interests, goals, hopes, plans, expectations — the deep and usually hidden things that go on inside you — what would be in your own dossier?
How pleased would you be with the contents of that document?
How pleased are you with what's happening in life around you right now?
How pleased are you with where your life is headed?
How much of your lifetime is directed to real things, that you like (or love), and how much of it is distracted in fantasy?
Have you noticed that in the most successful and materially prosperous civilisation in the history of the world, so many people are so unhappy with themselves, and their lives? And spend most of their time wishing their lives were different. And spend most of their time focused on the future, and how to make their life into something different.
Literally billions of hours (and countless billions of dollars) are spent on escapism. Things like video games and fictional movies (many of them featuring completely impossible characters like superheroes), and endless fantasies (of all kinds) dominate the thoughts of so many. These kinds of totally artificial things are the main interest in life of so many people that we have come to think of such a situation as normal.
Your Character
In days long, long gone by, developing your character was seen as one of the highest (if not the highest) pursuits of life. Character was a word that meant the overall totality of your self, your abilities, your personality, your morality... The various aspects of yourself that were gradually (and often very deliberately and intentionally) built up over the course of your life.
In modern times, the word "character" is far more likely to bring to mind the concept of a fictional character in some kind of fantasy — perhaps a movie, or a game, or a Netflix series, or some other story about something that doesn't really exist. Perhaps it even comes complete with matching merchandise.
There are some big reasons for this very large change. One is that, thanks largely to advances in entertainment technology (and the ease and availability of distribution), the appeal of these artificial things has become so great that it's very difficult for anything much about real life to compare with them.
Another reason, again due to modern technology (the internet, social media, and so on), is that everything that people do is compared with everyone else on a such a large scale now that it's hard to feel like you're good at anything. It always seems like there's a million other people so much better at things than you. Better looking, more successful, with more appealing looking lives... Basically just better.
But what can be done about this?
Enter the Spy
After years of careful and detailed research, thought, investigation, discussion, and consideration; the creators of this website have come up with a solution:
What we were looking for was a realistically possible bridge between the super-appealing fantasy lives that so many people live out on the inside (but don't really live out at all in real-life reality); and the real, plain, ordinary, average lives of so many people, that seem so less-than-average, so uninspiring, and often so completely hopeless that suicide is the leading cause of death for many demographic groups in our modern rich Western society.
What we were also looking for was a way that this bridge could be crossed, realistically, and without succumbing to the twin barriers that keep most people trapped within this maze-like problem: The ongoing thoughts of comparison with others which convince you that your own life (and self) amounts to nothing much; and the constant pull of a larger-than-life life (which would be great, if only it really existed, in your actual life).
What we found, was the idea of the spy.
(For the website address, this was shortened to eyeofthespy, because it sounds more catchy. And because eye of the tiger dot com was already taken.)
The concept of a spy (as understood by most people) solves the problem by a unique combination of three key points:
One — it's something you can really learn about, and really do, and really be. Really. In real life. (And since real-life spying involves a lot of modern technology, you can even do it on a computer for real in real life).
Two — it has aspects (both from reality and also from fictional entertainment culture) that come as close as it's possible in real life to live the exciting and amazing life of the fictional superhero.
And three — its inherent basis in secrecy (which is, of course, deeply embedded within the idea of a spy at the basic-concept level) means that you can embrace the lifestyle itself secretly. The really important point here is that this secrecy is what prevents your inner self-image from being thought of by others (and, most importantly of all, continually thinking about yourself being thought of by others) that you're actually just a boring average ordinary person, who amounts to nothing special. And constantly pulled back into that old thought-life of mediocrity, disappointment, and disillusion that drives the motive for escape into an ever-greater embrace of fantasy.
In short, this is something you can truly be, yourself.
Note that each word in at the end of the previous sentence sums up one of the three key points in the paragraphs above. As in "truly", and "be", and "yourself".
The Spy Mission Is a Secret Spy Mission
Further instructions about this will follow in due course. For starters, keep in mind the idea that it is a secret mission. The first rule of a secret mission is you don't talk about a secret mission.
You can't talk about a secret mission, other than in past tense. (Or, perhaps, with someone else who's on the same secret mission.) Because as soon as you talk about it, it ceases to exist. Once it's no longer a secret, it's no longer a secret mission. It's over. And you'd be back to your ordinary life, with your ordinary thoughts about what everyone else is thinking about your ordinary life.
You Can Begin Right Now
You can begin this mission right now — this very minute. It's not a qualification from a recognised institution. It's not a job description, or an actual job. (Though it could eventually become any or all of those things, as components within it).
It's a shift in focus that forms a new way of looking at life — viewing life with the eye of the spy. You don't need to sign up for it. Or give your email address.
You just begin the mission.
You're a spy.
More, More...
The rest of this website section about getting started is coming soon...
Here's a google search for learn spycraft which brings up some interesting results...
