2018-10-01_Reader_s_Digest_AUNZ

October• 2018 | 35

READER’S DIGEST

you get your bearings and decide

whether you’re on the right path or

not,”hesays.

Schulz thought,What advice would

the 90-year-old me give me right now?

Hewasatechnologyconsultantwho

dabbledinphotography.“Isaidto

myselfthatifIdon’ttakethepathof

beingafull-timephotographer,Iwill

regret it,” he recalls.

Sohewentforit.Hisbackground

interestelboweditswaytothefront,

and he became a successful portrait

and commercial photographer.

“I’veoftenwondered,ifIhadn’t

hitthemoose,wouldIbeafull-time

photographer right now?” he relects.

“I don’t think so.” Schulz believes that

the collision changed his biochemis-

try, unlocking something in his brain

that prompted his shift in perspective.

W

ILLIAM MILLER,apsy-

cholog y and psychiatry

professor, interviewed

people who had experienced sud-

den realisations that led to life

transformations for his co-authored

bookQuantum Change.Mostofthe

triggerswerenotsodramatic,he

reported. People experienced mo-

ments of sudden realisations and life

transformationswhilewalkingtoa

nightclub, cleaning a toilet, watch-

ingTV,lyinginbedandpreparing

to shower.

Theyreportedastrikingsimilar-

ity, however, in how the moments

felt: more like a message revealed to

relationshipor,asLovelldid,redi-
rect your moral compass.hey can
also be creative, generating a bril-
liantstart-upidea,theperfectplot
pointofanovelortheanswertoan
engineeringquandary.Inallcases,
youapprehendsomethingthatyou
wereblindtobefore.
In his bookThe Varieties of Reli-
gious Experience,the early-20th-cen-
tury psychologist William James
describedsuchmomentsofclarity
as‘snapresolutions’ofthe‘divided
self’. It’s as if a whole lifetime’s worth
of growth is compressed into a single
instantasdenseasacollapsedstar.
That’s how it felt to Leroy Schulz.
Driving home from a wedding in Can-
ada late one night, Schulz glimpsed a
ghostly form surging from the highway
median towards his headlights. He
didn’t have time to brake. He barely
had time to turn his face away from
the flying glass as the moose’s head
hit the windshield.
“HadIbeenahalf-secondslower,
the whole mass of it would have come
intothecar,”saysSchulz.“Ihaveno
doubt I’d have been decapitated.”
Severalmotoristswhowitnessed
theaccidentapproachedthewreck
in shock. “I can’t believe you’re
alive,”onegasped.Therewasno
life-changing epiphany at that pre-
cise moment or in the immediate
aftermath. But Schulz’s near-fatal
experience seeded something. What
followed weeks later “was one of
those panoramic moments when