Our condition as They-selves is one of dispersal, distraction and forgetfulness. But this “downward plunge” captures only one aspect of Dasein, Heidegger says. In order to be able to realize the capacity for authenticity, one must undergo a personal transformation, one that tears us away from falling. This is possible only given certain fundamental insights arising in a life. The first major shift can occur when one experiences an intense bout of anxiety. In anxiety, the familiar world that seemed to assure one’s security suddenly breaks down, and in this world-collapse one finds that the significance of things is “completely lacking” (1962 [1927]: 186).  One finds oneself alone, with no worldly supports for one’s existence. In anxiety, Dasein encounters itself as an individual, ultimately alone. In Heidegger’s words, “Anxiety individualizes Dasein and thus discloses it as ‘solus ipse’” (1962 [1927]: 188). The second transformative event is the encounter with one’s “ownmost” possibility, the possibility of death as the possible loss of all possibilities. In facing our own finitude, we find that we are always future-directed happenings or projects, where what is crucial to that ongoing forward movement is not its actualization of possibilities, but the “How” with which one undertakes one’s life. Heidegger tries to envision a way of life he calls anticipatory running-forward (Vorlaufen) as a life that clear-sightedly and intensely carries out its projects, no matter what they may be. The third transformative event is hearing the call of conscience. What conscience calls out to us is the fact that we are “guilty” in the German sense of that word, which means that we have a debt (Schuld) and are responsible for ourselves. Conscience tells us that we are falling short of what we can be, and that we are obliged to take up the task of living with resoluteness and full engagement. Such resoluteness is seen clearly in the case of vocational commitments, where one has heard a calling and feels pulled toward pursuing that calling.[2]