Below you’ll find wise, funny, interesting, inspirational, and downright wise quotes from ordinary internet users like you and me—pulled from comments on YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit.

Subscribe now

On: Consciousness and The Journey of Life

Pressure is a privilege. It’s is a sign that you’ve earned a place where expectations are high, and the opportunity is within reach. It is a reflection of your potential and trust placed in you. (@FS_Steven from YouTube)

“Realizing you’re a character in a play when everyone else in the play is unaware that it’s a script we’re writing for the enjoyment of it is lonely, not exactly as liberating as it would be if we all were pretending along together, knowing that’s what we’re doing. Like kids playing “cops and robbers” is fun because ALL the kids playing the game know it’s a game, despite how “seriously” they take it while they’re playing their roles.” (@allhimwithme5115 — YouTube)

Our brains are just like a Youtube Algorithm. It plays back to us all the things we are interested in or focus on. Change your focus and you change the Algorithm. (@maximus9080 — YouTube)

“I heard a wonderful quote recently that knocks the whole “cultural” argument into the stratosphere for me. It was “Traditions are just peer pressure from dead people”. (@Melissa.Garrett — YouTube)

Every time we experience an event our mind spins a story around it. And we believe it to be true. (@freespirit9806 — YouTube)

On: Therapy

“Therapy is just confession for college graduates.” — @ishanp2514

Therapy is paid compassion. — @WarmandHardy

“Whenever I think I need therapy I just talk to someone Im really close to about the things that are bothering me and I feel a lot better. And thats free folks.” — @Oblio1942

As a therapist I would say … a lot of what I try to work on with clients is how to move forward and how to be resilient by learning/ reviewing coping skills and behavioral changes. I work for a place that is short term solution focused and I love it. I think therapy can be very helpful and its rewarding to see people over come their struggles but its always them doing the work, I’m just giving some tips here and there and listening/ validating their experience. — @dillonpeterson1658

“So many people like my mother get offended by the idea that therapy is a scam. They can’t fathom the fact that therapists are random humans pretending to listen for money. Why are therapists treated like humans who are kings who lived more than once with ultimate wisdom? They’re doing life for the first time like you. There’s nothing a therapist could say that you haven’t heard or seen if you’re intellectually capable.” — @putitonpause

Therapy is cool but sometimes you gotta move on and build on what you have now not what you used to. — @Mentalvaultstackdooni

Leave a comment

On: Work

“I’ve been working for more than 30 years. I’ve effectively “quiet quit” my entire career. My employers were never my friends and in many cases, neither were my coworkers, at least in the sense they would throw you under the bus to save their own jobs. Work enough to get paid but never volunteer your labour for fake “bonus” points for the boss.” (User @wcg66 — YouTube)

The modern day 9-5 actually is indentured servitude but in a new form. Sure you can gain a skill, maybe, but instead of working for room and board for 7 years, they now have you for the majority of your life. The reason many fall into this trap is due to the lost value of livelihood which has now become an endless cycle passed down from generation to generation with the reward being the “American Dream”. People without a high value skill, generational wealth or a salary well into 6 figures are basically now unlikely to achieve that dream in one lifetime. They will however work from age 22 ( or earlier) to 65 ( reality is many can’t afford retirement) , so they effectively have you for life. Once you fall into that trap of debt, which is what they push on everyone who wants an education, one wrong move... maybe you chose the wrong industry, maybe technology rendered your skill obsolete... that’s it , they have you for life. Life. (@GotmerKed from YouTube)

“The realization of “I’m way too smart to be stuck here” is so real. I really am too smart to be stuck in a job where I’m being bossed around and essentially forced to keep my thoughts to myself. Employers love treating you like you’re their bitch, and people stay there for what? Minimum wage? I’m determined to get the fuck out of this trap, because I’d much rather kill myself than stay in it.” (@ramsesjfg7668 from YouTube)

I worked 10 years in 3 different factories and one of them permanently damaged my spine. The job where I got such injury, while I was still recovering, I had the boss telling me “I do not care, come back to work”. I am now self employed as illustrator, making less money than the factory, but definitely happier. It’s not about the money for me, it’s about not feeling like I’m ditching my dreams to accomplish the ever-embiggening ones of someone who already had it all. (@Dexter01992 from YouTube)

“I guess, just in the blood of me couldn’t stand the whole thing that’s going on, the ordinariness of life,” Bukowski said. “I couldn’t stand family life, I couldn’t stand job life, I couldn’t anything I looked at. I just decided I either had to starve, make it, go made, come through, or do something. Even if I hadn’t made it on writing, I could not do the 8 to 5, I would have been a suicide, something. Something, I’m sorry.” - Charles Bukowski (@towardsthelight220 from YouTube)

I stopped working at the corporate world and started to do Housekeeping for air bnb’s and private clients, specifically seniors and I have never had so much fun! Obviously, many people, like friends or relatives give me weird looks as if I was crazy doing something so not glamorous but I am just at a point in my life where I want to have fun, so I don’t give a toss about other’s opinions. (@ladypaix4314 from YouTube)

On: Religion and Cults

“Dreams don’t feel weird until AFTER you wake up. This is the cult phenomenon in a nutshell. It all seems normal when you are emerged. Only through hindsight, is the insanity revealed.” (@UncleMikeDrop — YouTube)

Fear-based religions/sects are a scourge on this planet. I grew up terrified of the cult (clarification: it was a rather extreme offshoot of Pentecostalism) which my grandmother took me to. From age 2 through approximately age 8 or 9, I loved Sunday school. Then they started taking us upstairs to the adult services. People praying, shouting, screaming clapping frantically, some falling to the floor as the spirit of the Lord “moved” them. At age 15, I was moved ... to exit the front door of that place. Never looked back. (@josi4251 — YouTube)

“I was in a real cult. It is called school.” (@GreaseJB@GreaseJB — YouTube)

I lost my grandmother to Jehova before I was even born. My paternal grandmother has never been around and treats my father particularly like crap. My father went into the hospital for a heart attack when I was young and his mother was in town but didn’t even bother to come see him, just other family. My father is going through cancer right now and she still hasn’t even tried to contact him. She only really talks to my aunt and grandpa. One of my family members tried to to introduce me to her at a family reunion when I was about 6 or 7 and told me “This is your grandma!” I looked at her, point blank said “No she isn’t” and pointed my grandpa’s second wife and said “She’s my grandma.” I haven’t spoke to her since and I don’t think I ever will. (@MelodyRose96 — YouTube)

On: The Nature of Reality

“Trying to understand reality from our current vantage point is like trying to understand the human body AND consciousness by studying someone’s shadow.” (@Mathew-ul6np from YouTube)

We mistake society for reality. In fact, it’s a chimera, a fantasy, comprised of our memories. The reality is that each of us, though separate, are pieces of a larger harmony. It’s when we drop our egos and see the whole that we can sing together. Meanwhile, our egos bump up against each other and we remain divided in these ridiculous compartments of jobs, politics and tribes. Only now is the common man realizing his power and is breaking away from The Machine. It’s encouraging to see and my hope is that one day we’ll all realize we’re part of each other, and the horrid divisions among us will stop. (SpongeJake from Reddit)

“Left side you’ll be left (with nothing). Focus on imagination, creativity, intuition. Just flow. Life doesn’t have to make sense. Everyone is on their own journey. “Despite you living in the same planet as me you don’t live in the same world as me.” (@jaketaylor6058 from YouTube)

If you don’t like something, take away it’s only power, awareness. (Key-Amoeba2827 from Reddit)

“Within you is the real world where the scripts are written. Out here is just the reel world where we see the theaters manifest what we create in us.” (@vinsaintmichael from YouTube)

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Spectator’s Perspective. :)

Having grown up in a Christian cult, I was quite intrigued by the direct experience approach of Eastern philosophy and took to both Buddhism and Hinduism once I had access to them.

I also dabbled in a bit of Islam and have done Ramadan twice.

After practicing these traditions for a while, I walked away with tools from each one that continue to enrich my life to this day.

• Daily meditation and breathwork from Buddhism and Advaita

• Periodic fasting and the courage to let go and surrender to life from Islam

• The ability to live and let live, and loving thy neighbor, from Christianity.

All of these traditions have something valuable to teach once you strip away all of the dogma, pomp, and ceremony. They all can contribute to creating a more sane, self-aware human, equipped to witness and experience life from different vantage points.

Leave a comment

Of course, an argument can be made that some of this content can create silos and echo chambers where people only seek to confirm their own biases. But by and large, the comments section is a treasure trove of human opinion that gives us insight into the current sociological map of human consciousness. On some level, it gives us an indication of people’s level of reasoning and an idea of how human evolution is going. It also lends credence to something I’ve always believed, that our experience of life is largely determined by our perspective.

You’ll notice that, under the same topic, people hold vastly different opinions — opinions that are not only shaped by their experiences but also go on to shape and influence those experiences.

All this to say that The Spectator’s Perspective is my attempt at sharing some of these interesting insights and reflections from the internet’s comments sections. And I have collected and categorized enough of these to turn this into a weekly newsletter, so this should be the first of many. Enjoy.1

On the Journey of Life

“As a small child I remember being fascinated by my friends "great-great". She was a very old Eskimo woman that had shrunk and wrinkled as she aged, like a piece of dried fruit. She was barely bigger than we were. I was mesmerized because I saw all her weathered wrapping as a book of stories. Those old milky eyes would sparkle with charm when you asked to spend time with her. She was Wabi Sabi. She was beautiful and valuable because she was what her life had created. Not perfect but wonderful.” — (@LambentLark — YouTube)

“'No matter how much crap you're getting or going through, it will not last unless you let it linger'.” — (@orpheus.in.the.underworld — YouTube)

“My body is, without doubt, an exact part of the natural realm of this reality. My avatar came from it, will return to it, and I'm a living part of it all. Giving birth to children was the kicker realization for me. I'm not that much different to any other species here. Watch any animal give birth, and you'll get what I mean. It's primal, messy, natural and magical. It figures too, that If I'm conscious and sentient, with an inherent life force, all of nature is the same. Magical and mysterious.” — (@ngaire_hiria — YouTube)

“Becoming free is realizing you are a pattern ongoing into a greater pattern... ongoing.” — (@robottrainer — YouTube)

“Our time is more valuable than we’ve been led to believe. Time is not money, actions are money, but Time is our life.” — (@Latenightnonsense-td5yd — YouTube)

“Every feeling we experience leaves a mark on our subconscious mind. And unless that feeling is overridden by a stronger opposite feeling, it's going to manifest in some way in our reality.” — (@bytethought — YouTube)

On Reality, Consciousness and The System

“You know what really got me cracked open? Someone said to me that all of the elements needed to build an iPhone have been on earth since the beginning of time; humans just had to evolve enough divine intelligence to put them together in the right way.” — (whitney_h_christ — r/ArahamHicks)

“Scientists looking for consciousness in the brain is like looking for the radio announcer inside the radio.” — (@Krash845 — YouTube)

“One interesting thing I heard years ago is that the word "sin" originally came from old Greek and it’s related to archery and it means missing your target/goal. You're a "sinner" when you fail to become who you want to become (inside yourself).” — (@KGArtDesign — YouTube)

“Too often we say something is "impossible" when really what we mean is the system we created won't allow it to happen.” — (@cassiusdhami9215 — YouTube)

“I want peace and contentment, not wealth and power. Most of us do. But the few that do want wealth and power have accumulated so much that they’ve outmatched us regardless of how we might outnumber them. I hate this world. I hate it so much. It makes me ashamed of my species.” — (@Earwithfoot — YouTube)

“I think this sort of thing is super important to contemplate; how so much of what we have, we assume there is some grand logic to it, "it's our human nature", "it's what God determined", when it's probably mostly just historical accidents compounding on themselves from being part of this large chaotic system.” — (@magplop11 — YouTube)

On Relationships

“It’s so messed up how society has made romance the most important and ultimate relationship you can have. It just makes people waste years of their lives in the sunk cost fallacy with the wrong person because they are terrified of being "alone", and makes them prime targets for scammers who take advantage of that fear.” (UnknownUser — YouTube)

“After being used for sex by every man I’ve ever been with, then discarded, I’m 59 and fine with not being in a relationship. I obviously have a defective red flag detection mechanism. I have a fulfilled life with friends and hobbies that I love. The thought of another man lying and using me makes me cringe. I have no interest.” — (@deeb1636 — YouTube)

“Love is unconditional, relationships aren't.” (@grazielaalmeida8438 — YouTube)

“Fellas, take it from a 52 year old brother, whom have everything in the world I could want, but no longer the one and true love of my life, because I wanted to continue to play games. Despite her pleas to me, to just give myself totally to her, I didn’t, until she said Enough was enough. Now I still have everything, which doesn’t mean shit, because I no longer have my baby to share it with. If you have a good woman, do whatever is necessary to let her know you truly appreciate her. Ladies always know your worth, and don’t settle for anything less than it.....Peace to you all.....Ronald.” — (@ronaldlynch1563 — YouTube)

“I don't see the point of seeing someone daily, and making sure I get to show my tired, weak, sweaty body after work, making sure my partner inevitably hears me fart and burp, as if without that enmeshed territory, love somehow is not possible. I am an introvert, and I love my own space and my own habits. The downfall is that there is a possibility of cheating? Excuse me! How many people find the possibility to cheat in marriage, while living together? This is independent. Marriage is for the codependents, in my opinion. I love being alone every day and feel drained if I see somebody every day. Also, I love being single and I might live like this forever. I have no fear of being alone at all.” — (@user-ee5om8wy7u — YouTube)

“No amount of healing will insulate us from ill-intentioned lovers. Healing allows us to better navigate the inevitable disappointment that comes with loving someone. People are disappointing and that's life.” — (@lindal3841 — YouTube)

“Normalize saying "I love you" to friends. Normalize hugs. Find common activities or hobbies. Reach out to others.” — (@Attivian — YouTube)

“My aunt turns 70 in 2023. She has always lived a fabulous life, has turned down at least three offers in marriage, and whenever she did have a man “acquaintance”, she never shacked up with him. To this day, she says she never regretted not getting married and glad she didn’t!” — (@TASconfidential — YouTube)

On School/Education

“Schools just order you to memorise. I found myself interested in learning only after I stopped going to school.” — (@krassilverfang5504 — YouTube)

“After I graduated from high school a new high school was built in my town. My friends and I would drive past the new building and comment how it looked like a prison. Found out later the blueprints for the school were prison blueprints.” — (@joebuntic9736 from YouTube)

“Public school will never give children the weapons to dismantle the public system. Such is why alternative/supplemental education from home is a massive advantage. The greatest thing my parents did was make me read every day and have discussions driven by our interests. They encouraged and bolstered both independent thinking and creativity. Don't let it stop at school.” — (@daileykohtz5838 — YouTube)

“It is really sad to see the difference in attitudes from children going into first grade (full of excitement, creativity, enthusiasm, etc. for learning) and young adults graduating high school (I hate my life and I am never going to open a book again). All those years of grinding and beating out all the creativity, curiosity, and enthusiasm for learning.” — (@alexfinn7989 — YouTube)

“I dropped out of school...I thought I failed so I went to College.And dropped out again after realising I had succeeded the first time.” — (@SMOKEYJOEKILO from YouTube)

“They (children) are kept In holding pens, with others of their own age and social class, they are priced and valued according to their ability to adjust to this unhealthy regimen, to remain passive, to take orders, to maintain a cheerful demeanor while their time is being wasted.” — (@servantprince from YouTube)

On Money/Wealth

“Everything is better with money. The lack of money is the root of all evil.” — (@hampersincldt3373 — YouTube)

It's incredible that some people think whoever dies with the most toys wins. Do they think they get to take any of it with them in the afterlife?” — (@banzy3 — YouTube)

“I like having lots of money! It serves as a hedge against what otherwise would be the dark cloud of my mortality. It gives me a heightened sense of importance, and a kind of power over an environment--both natural and human--that I would otherwise be at the mercy of and have to adapt to. Screw that, my friends. My overriding purpose in this life is to accumulate and control, and to ceaselessly pursue the various pleasures associated with my wealth and my power. God is truly great!” — (@KJ-vc3sw — YouTube)

“Many decades ago, a professional psychologist hired my freelance typing service. We ended up having coffee together on many occasions. One thing she told me about her practice is that the people with the most psychological problems were wealthy. She had concluded that when people have too much money from an early age, they never learn that there are "consequences" for one's actions, because they can always buy their way through life.” — (@crazyforcanada — YouTube)

“If I owned a billion pairs of shoes, I’d be called mentally ill. If I had a billion cats, I’d be called mentally ill. If I had a billion seashells, I’d be called mentally ill. BUT if I had a billion dollars, I’d be regarded as lucky/successful/fortunate/gifted/blessed/important/divine. On this Planet of the Apes, money is god, and only one thing counts: in the bank, large amounts! To paraphrase George Orwell’s Animal Farm: All animals are born free, but Manimal is born slave-to-money … unless born rich. The rich are out of touch, indeed sickened by limitless greed, and pose a danger to others in society.” — (@yaksauce — YouTube)

“The Universe is not on a budget. Ask and you shall receive.” — (@marny125 — YouTube)

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed The Spectator’s Perspective. :)

The earth is a realm that runs on what can only be translated as an "algorithm," one that picks up cues from your subconscious mind. This is where the idea that "you create your reality" comes from. Most people reject this concept because what they think they want to manifest usually comes from their conscious mind. They're completely unaware of what lies beneath in their subconscious, which is what's really running the show.

Here's an example I once heard on TikTok that I think illustrates this idea beautifully: Imagine the algorithm is a restaurant, and your subconscious mind is you as a patron of that restaurant. You keep ordering based on what's stored in your subconscious, i.e., beliefs you picked up as an infant. The waiter takes your order and serves it back to you, and then you complain, saying this isn't what you wanted. But it's exactly what you ordered. It's almost like you're talking out of both sides of your mouth, pardon my French.

When you finally realize this, here's what happens: You say to the waiter, "Hey, I realize I've been ordering this same dish for years, but I'd like to change my order. Could you kindly send this back?"

The universe responds, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I cannot. But what I can do is take down your new order and give it to the chef. Oh, and by the way, since you've been ordering the same thing for so many years, I've already ordered your other courses — including a few helpings of dessert, just how you like them. I'll have to bring those as well, but you don't have to eat them if you don't want to. You can just wait for the dish you've ordered now, and I'll bring that as soon as it's ready."

You can do whatever you like with the other stuff that's coming — throw it away, ignore it, whatever. In fact, I would highly recommend that you just ignore it, as interacting or reacting to it can be mistaken as you renewing that order.

Subscribe now

And that’s the trick: ignoring the old while trusting the new order is on its way. Most people get caught up in tasting and retasting the old food, poking at it (AKA reacting), then getting upset that it showed up again. But that’s just wasted energy. The sooner you let the old plates pass you by, the sooner your table is cleared for the meal you actually want.

The earth, the realm, the simulation — whatever you want to call it — isn’t here to punish you or trick you. It’s simply mirroring back the recesses of your subconscious mind. Once you understand that, you stop arguing with the appearance and start choosing with awareness.

And that’s the beauty of it: you don’t have to master the algorithm, “hack the code,” or outsmart the system. You just have to decide, at the deepest level, what you’d truly like to taste next.

Leave a comment

Basically, when you start feeling the need or desire to ‘manifest’ something different from what you’re experiencing, it’s usually because you’re no longer enjoying your current experience of reality, either because it bores you or it’s just no longer relevant to who you’ve become as you’ve grown and evolved over time. After all, your current version of reality is usually based on who you were in the past, and perhaps you’re no longer that person anymore or don’t prefer to be. It’s either that, or you see a potential path that inspires you and feel called to leap to that experience.

I find this trail of thought softens my desire for the outcome, allowing me to rest in the knowing that the thing that I desire is as attracted to me as I am to it.

Leave a comment

Anyway, the challenge becomes to hold the tension between the old and new. Because there will be a period of tension where it seems like nothing is happening. The old storyline is falling apart, like a set being taken down, but the new one is not yet here. Because we exist in linear time, we must needs go through the experience of “becoming” and this is the part that’s usually the most uncomfortable.

A mantra that I like to use during this time is: “Things are always working out for me, no matter how it looks at this point in time.” I got it from Abraham Hicks, and I don’t know, it just sets my mind at ease, allowing me to focus on the present moment.

Another reframe that might help is to look at your life like a novel, and tell yourself that you’ve reached the end of your current chapter, and are transitioning to the next one. And just like in a novel, transitions can be tough.

The thing about life is, despite our constant grasping for permanence, it is essentially a game of change. Every chapter, every storyline, has its place, but none are meant to last forever.

Anyway, I’m struggling to wrap this up in a neat bow so I’ll just say this: manifestation isn’t about rushing toward the next thing; it’s about acknowledging that your desire to ‘manifest’ anything is but a snapshot into a possible ‘future’ (for lack of a better world) whose unfolding is inevitable, and the best way to align yourself with it is to make an intention to do so, then take inspired action towards it. Looking at the process of life this way helps me let go of the pressure to control the outcome and instead relax into the adventure of becoming, which admittedly, can be challenging for an ADHD-challenged individual like myself.

And yeah, I hope this finds someone on their journey to living a more consciously directed, but ultimately chill life. :)

Similarly, when I sit in meditation on a cloudy day—even if it’s not raining—there’s a sound associated with that. In that silence, I can hear the sound of melancholy, despair, and sometimes even sadness. There’s a certain exquisite quality to it, because even melancholy can be beautiful. It’s a reflective quality that makes us want to bundle up and stay inside, both physically and mentally. It’s almost as if we’re meant to hibernate during winter. Not only are we repelled by the uncomfortable sensation of the cold, but we're also drawn inward by the very sound of winter itself. It's as if the season carries a frequency that resonates not with activity and expansion, but with introspection and stillness. Contrary to what one might think, the sound of winter isn’t empty. It’s full of possibilities waiting to unfold. It's the sound of dormancy, of seeds resting beneath frozen earth, of life gathering strength in the darkness. When I listen closely during those gray months, I can hear something almost primordial, a call to slow down and let my thoughts settle like snow on windowsills.

All this to say, there’s a beauty in weather and how it makes us feel, and sitting in silence only makes one more sensitive to the sounds of the seasons. For each season brings its own song, whether it be joy and anticipation (spring/summer) or reflection and melancholy (autumn/winter).

I know the internet gets a bad rep. Google’s not what it used to be. Facebook and IG are shadows of what they once were. TwitterX is a veritable cesspool. And TikTok, while still considered by many to be the de facto collective town hall, is slowly becoming another Pinterest with all the ads and AI slop. And let’s not even get into the psychosocial effects of screen time addiction. Anxiety, depression, and disconnection from each other and ourselves are on the rise.

Okay, fine.

The above notwithstanding, let’s, for a moment, look at one of the most overlooked (or taken for granted) boons of the internet age: access to information.

On the face of it, it’s easy to dismiss this as an obvious advantage that, on its own, doesn’t outweigh the negatives outlined above, nor does it stand above the many other advantages of internet technology. But if you really think about it, access to information has to be one of the most (if not the most) important contributors to human development. It’s basically *free* access to education. The internet has given us unprecedented access to knowledge, breaking down barriers to many fields and allowing people to reclaim power that was once held by gatekeepers who controlled access to information. Most importantly, it has given us the gift of choice by exposing us to alternative ways of being and seeing the world.

Why is this important?

As someone who grew up in a religious cult, I can tell you that one of the reasons I stayed so long is that I didn't know much about other religions, or 'the world' as normal life outside the church was often referred to. Sure, I knew other ideologies existed, but by virtue of being in a cult, I wasn't allowed to explore them in any real way. A lot of us stay in the same place simply because we don't have any alternatives (or at least we think we don't).

But thanks to the internet, we now have access to millennia of collective wisdom, the accumulation of lifetimes of trial and error. And none of it is gatekept or hidden from view. We can now benefit from the wisdom of all the indigenous peoples who have come before us from across the globe, the wisdom of science and all that it has revealed to us, and the wisdom of religion and all the tools it has given us. In fact, the internet can be a veritable charcuterie of self-development if you’re into that kind of thing.

Case in point:

I like to take responsibility for my health, and over the years, I’ve developed a “health supplement protocol” based on my internal guidance system that includes plant medicines from various traditions. 1 And I find that going to the doctor is a much more interactive experience, as I’m much more informed.

Similarly, having grown up in a Christian cult, I was quite intrigued by the direct experience approach of Eastern philosophy and took to both Buddhism and Hinduism once I had access to them. I also dabbled in a bit of Islam and have done Ramadan twice. After practicing these traditions for a while, I walked away with tools from each one that continue to enrich my life to this day. Daily meditation and breathwork from Buddhism and Advaita2, periodic fasting and the courage to let go and surrender to life from Islam, the ability to live and let live, and loving thy neighbor from Christianity… all of these traditions have something valuable to teach once you strip away all of the dogma, pomp, and ceremony. They all can contribute to creating a more sane, self-aware human, equipped to witness and experience life from various vantage points.

P.S. No Nonsense Spirituality has a lot of great TikToks about how technology can be used to expand our perspective by allowing us to take what resonates from each philosophy we come across, recognizing that each tradition has something valuable to teach.

Subscribe now

I enjoy living in the modern world as much as the next person: indoor plumbing, central heating, pants (this is a big deal for me as a woman, okay?), not to mention the technology and medicine. But the constant hum in the background of modern life: the music, the podcasts, the social media, the news… it can all be a bit much. And the more I observe the human condition in 2025 (i.e., people-watch), the more I notice an erosion of our collective ability to hear our own internal happening and becoming.

When your internal voice is buried beneath hours of daily content consumption, it becomes hard to decode or even hear your intuition. And if you're someone who prays, it’s even harder to hear the answers to those prayers when the line is jammed with a backlog of media and distractions. But the constant stream of content and internal traffic doesn’t just muffle your inner guidance; it can also blind you to your own motivations and the subtle ways your environment shapes how you show up in the world.

The truth is, it takes a sober and honest look at your life to truly see how much modern media influences you. From the way we talk, to how we dress, what we eat, and most importantly, how we perceive reality. I’m reminded of this funny TT post by the witty Jazmine Giovanni of The Counterculturist, who rightfully calls out the ridiculousness of one of these social media trends, while subtly pointing out its insidious influence:

Now, one must account for some degree of imitation, which is a normal part of social conditioning. But I think there’s a line between influence and absorption. After all, human perception flows from internal process. And if your internal processes or filters are constantly absorbing external input, there’s a good chance you’re living out someone else’s story. Or, as Frank Ocean puts it, “living in an idea from another man’s mind.”

Of course, there are benefits to having access to all this information. For instance, it helps us build the psychological infrastructure required to understand experiences we may not have had words for before. And that is where social media truly shines, in my opinion. Take the 4B movement, for example, which helped surface women’s shared experiences under patriarchy while creating a sense of collective understanding. This movement was, and is, a space for women to process the collective trauma experienced under a system that works to silence our voices. So from that perspective, these types of social media movements give voice to things that otherwise might remain unnamed.

But here’s where it gets tricky for me; I find that sometimes I get so obsessed with something that I end up making it my whole personality. And I don’t know if it’s a pattern left over from the cult programming I received growing up in a religious household, or this weird need to genuflect to external authority. But I just noticed this strange compulsion to almost give one’s power to something external and then proceed to make it a central part of my personality and my whole sense-making process. 1

I first noticed this when I went vegan. I started doing all this research and consuming all of this information about the lifestyle ‘cause I was genuinely curious about it and wanted to empower myself with the knowledge to make the right choices. But the more information I consumed, the deeper the rabbit hole went, and pretty soon, I felt like I was in a cult.2

That’s when I realized that while internet movements can be effective containers that help us organize knowledge for easier access, many mistake them for a final destination or the answer to all their questions. Thus, they end up organizing their entire worldview around a perspective shaped by said movement or trend. It’s almost like mistaking the rudder (yes, a rudder, not even the ladder) for the destination.

I kind of feel weird sharing this here, to be honest, but I haven’t seen a nuanced take on this kind of thing besides internet movements being used as a finger-pointing tactic by political pundits, which I’m not interested in. But I think it’s an interesting aspect of the human experience circa 2025.

My own philosophy now is to always take what resonates, while remembering that no one idea can encompass the whole truth or serve as 'the answer to all my questions.' I see each unique opinion as part of the ever-expanding mosaic that filters my perspective of reality.

Even when I’m in the “obsessive” phase of discovering something, a part of me now knows that this is just a rung on the ladder of the process of assimilation. It’s essential, at least for me personally, to fully engross myself in a subject in order to fulfil my curiosity and really get the most out of it.3 After all, knowledge is building blocks and the more knowledge you acquire and can process, the more of reality you have access to.

I’ve also observed that if I hold onto one specific philosophy instead of processing and integrating it as part of a larger puzzle, I run the risk of stagnation, which is what happens when you belong to a cult. I use the word cult because a lot of this reminds me of the cult I grew up in; the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But that whole journey deserves its own post, I think.

Suffice to say, having access to information is great because the more knowledge you have, the more expansive your perspective and the more nuanced your experience of reality itself. But that’s all it is; a tool. Not an identity.4

Subscribe now

There may have been a time in history when long term romantic union was sustainable for various reasons, chief of which was that women had no choice but to stay in loveless marriages. Of course, men had no reason to leave these relationships either, as marriage has always been beneficial to them. But for women who weren’t even recognized as human beings equal to men and married off as property, staying in a marriage was more of an obligation at best, and akin to captivity at worst.

We’re now at a time when both men and women have the freedom to exercise their agency as human beings, and we’re seeing the unstustainability of the institution of marriage.

Detaching from the idea of relationship longevity

While I'm no longer attached to the idea of longevity in relationships, this doesn't diminish my ability to commit and attach to a partner within the construct of a romantic relationship.

It's similar to how, despite knowing that we're going to die one day, that doesn't diminish our experience of life or prevent us from living to the fullest or being attached to the body and mind. We know that death is inevitable and that our body, mind, personality, and all the possessions we accumulate, attach to, and identify with are going to fall away one day. Yet we continue to fully participate in and immerse ourselves in the experience of life with complete abandon.

The same goes for relationships. I think we’ve reached a point where we realize that longevity is not a requirement in relationships, and we have the statistical evidence to back this up. We're redefining relationships for ourselves, both individually and collectively, recognizing that longevity doesn't have to be a factor in measuring the success of a relationship.

Nowadays, when I get into a relationship, I don’t expect it to last a lifetime, and if I were to ever get married, I wouldn’t expect the marriage to last a lifetime either, as I no longer measure the success of any romantic relationship by the time served, because… we’re not in jail.

Truth is, some relationships are for a lifetime, some are momentary, and yes, some are only meant to last for but a season. As Diane Von Fursternberg put it:

“If you can produce a certain number of pieces of paper or a piece of plastic that is representative of those pieces of paper, then you can unlock the food.”

Otherwise, the food is perpetually locked away and the only way you can unlock it is if you can produce said pieces of paper, and in order to get those pieces of paper you have to give your life away doing work that you do not enjoy and sometimes aren’t even good at. That’s the definition of slavery, isn’t it? And that’s not something that a civilized society does.

The first thing you do is to stop locking food away, make it freely available to everyone, and have fruit trees growing everywhere. Some people would call this ‘ending world hunger,’ but I think that statement is so incredibly abstract and bizarre. I mean, think about it; it’s this weird buzzword that was created to separate us from the reality of the situation and prevent people from developing the perspective that I’m presenting to you now.

Like, when people said that Elon Musk could end world hunger with the amount of money he used to buy Twitter, I laughed because I’m like, you’re still operating within a framework of believing that food should be locked behind shelves and numbers, which is peak absurdity.

My general feeling has always been that humanity needs to free itself from the concept and practice of capitalism. Until we can do that, we cannot in all good conscience call ourselves civilized, can we?

Subscribe now

Well, let’s look at the word “cultivate”. The word has two main meanings if you look it up in any dictionary:

Within the context of the technological system of man in which we exist, to be a cultured or a cultivated individual means to be domesticated. It means to have a mind that is prepared to take on any and all programs imposed upon it by the system. It means to be absolutely open to whatever the system wants to plant or implant into you—if we’re to go with the analogy of the mind being a garden, that is.

To be cultivated means that you have pruned away all of the aspects of yourself that the system finds undesirable—your wildness, your ingenuity, your imagination, your unbounded creativity, your connection with All That Is.

The Cultivated Human

The state of cultivation in man can be likened to a well-manicured bush. It’s neat, predictable, controlled, dull—an object to be seen but not interacted with. Now contrast this with a wild thorn bush or blueberry bush in a forest—it’s mysterious, enchanting, enticing, inviting.

The same can be said about the state of cultivation or “being cultured”. It simply means you are not expressing the fullness of who you can be. For under the manicured bush is the potential of the wild thornbush. And the manicured bush needs constant “maintenance” because it constantly strives to return to its natural state.

The same can be said of the modern human. He needs constant pruning and maintenance (in the form of social institutions, entertainment, drugs, sports, etc.) to stay within the confines of the system for which he is bred. It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, and instead of acknowledging that the former doesn’t fit, carving it into the acceptable shape to fit into the hole.

What’s the alternative?

I propose ferality.

If you were to look up this word in an Oxford reference book, you’d find the following meaning;

I don’t know if we know what that even looks like to be feral in our current state. But, I feel it at that moment when I enter a forest, when I fall asleep on the sand at the beach, when I hug my daughter, when I dance to music, when I feel the sun on my skin, when I sit in silence, when I write, when I speak from my heart.

Ultimately, I feel feral when I feel free, truly free. And I feel most free when I am in nature, or when I am in my true nature. And by that, I mean when I am in an environment that man has not cultivated.

Many people do it as part of their New Year’s resolutions; to signify a new start; to detoxify after a ruinous holiday season diet; or to simply start the year in good health. Whatever the reasons, it’s always a good idea to do it in a comfortable environment, unhurried by life’s demands and away from any temptation. With my daughter being away with family, I had the luxury of being alone in the house, which meant less cleaning and no worries about having to cook for someone else. Furthermore, I didn’t have to report to work until after the last day of my fast.

Subscribe now

Having no demands on my time, I prepared myself. No internet or outside communication for the whole weekend. And after the holidays, my pantry was worse for wear and I didn’t bother to stock up so I wouldn’t have any excuse to break my fast before the allotted time. I’d be too tired to go to the store anyway.

The Beginning

The fast began in the most unusual way. The first 24 hours were surprisingly “easy”. Very few hunger pangs and I felt as though I had energy to spare. Around the 30-hour mark, however, the chickens came home to roost, and I realized what I had gotten myself into. But, before I get into the nitty gritty of the actual experience, here’s a breakdown of my daily routine during the 3-day water fast:

• Wake up (slowly and leisurely)

• Make my bed

• Brush my teeth

• Drink my first water of the day

• Sweep the floor

• Shower and get dressed

• Drink more water and make myself tea

From there, I would spend the rest of the day either reading, watching something, napping, drinking and peeing. Those were the prevailing activities, although there were some moments of staring into the void wondering when this would end.

But here’s what I really want to share; the perceptual changes that occur throughout the fast. Some moments you feel as though you’ve always been hungry and all you want to do is watch food shows and cooking videos (I must confess, I couldn’t resist!—eating with your eyes is better than not eating at all, amiright?)

It really makes you think. How often do we take food for granted? How often do we throw it away despite our best efforts not to? How often do we eat hurriedly without any real appreciation for the energy and effort that goes into producing every morsel? Not to sound preachy but these are just some of the thoughts that went through my mind as I was going through the fast.

Leave a comment

You also realize the impact the food we eat has on our body’s systems. Without the need for digestion, your body has time to address years of abuse in the form of questionable food choices. And while you’re going through it, you find yourself getting these bouts of spontaneous energy that don’t really make sense considering the lack of material sustenance. It’s an eye-opening experience that has left me feeling resilient and inspired.

My Fasting Booklist

Having little to do and no access to the internet leaves one with plenty of time to catch up on the ‘ole reading list! In addition to a few fasting books that were crucial to my fasting experience, I also read a few fun books that I’d been putting off for lack of time. While all the fasting books were extremely helpful, Dr. Pelz’s Fast Like a Girl really kept me going when the going got tough with a reminder of all the incredible benefits that my body was receiving with each completed day of fasting.

The main fasting I books I read were:

• Fast Like a Girl by Dr. Mindy Pelz

• Arnold Ehret’s Rational Fasting

• Therapeutic Fasting by Arnold Devries

The Why

So why did I put myself through this? Well, the way I look at is; I’d rather put myself through discomfort than to have it imposed on me. Truth is, we humans make some dubious eating choices and over time these choices can have dire consequences. Just imagine all the fat and sugar and undigested stuff that your body is just dying to detox. Sometimes you just have to pay the piper (and you know you owe him). So you can either go willingly and give your body the space it needs to do its job or life will impose it upon you one way or another.

Food is great; don’t get me wrong, and going without it for so long is utter torture. But once you’re on the other side of it, you find that it’s completely worth it.

Subscribe now

My fasting experience in a nutshell

• First 24 hours: Meh. Felt fine, hunger pangs notwithstanding.

• 36 to 48 hours: Am I dying? Could hardly get up. Blood sugar levels fluctuating like crazy. Cold extremities.

• 48 to 54 hours: Felt good. Slight heart palpitations but energy levels good. Could hardly fall asleep with all the spontaneous energy.

• 54 to 72 hours: Hello darkness my old frieeeeend… Heart palpitations worsen. Heart rate between 133 to 140 bpm. Feeling dizzy. Lethargic. Actual death.

• 72 hours: Breakfast! Feeling better. Turned out I was low on electrolytes — watermelon and lemon water with a pinch of sea salt to the rescue! Heart rate is 78 bpm (thank G-d!). No more dizziness. I can move around and do stuff.

Uh-oh! That was just the beginning. Turns out, the elimination period after you break your fast is like part 2 of a horror movie you wish you didn’t see in the first place! Not only did I die twice (once in the shower and another time while sitting on the toilet), but I was in so much pain that I could barely lift an arm.

Now, it’s one thing to read about the symptoms of a fast and quite another to experience them. Almost shitting yourself and dying in the shower while there’s no one around to help you is quite a humbling experience. I spent I don’t know how long on the shower floor unable to switch off the water—which sounded like the biggest waterfall in the world when I came to–and it took a level of willpower I didn’t know I had in me to get up, rinse off and walk to my room.

Once there, I plopped myself on my bed—still wet—and took a “nap”. This time I just passed out, I didn’t pass into the other realm like I had just done in the shower. What’s interesting is that for a near-death experience, this wasn’t as “woo-woo” as I expected it to be. All I wanted to do was get back to my body and finish this thing already. But, I was in for another surprise. After getting dressed (if you can call it that), I sipped some water and got back into bed. After lying down for a little while, I felt the urge to vomit and boy did I. When I saw the yellow bile in the sink (no strength to lift toilet seat lid) I thought “oh good, it’s almost over”. Again, WRONG!

(WARNING! Explicit TMI content ahead!!)

I soon made another trip to the lavatory, this time to make a number 2. What I thought would be a relieving release turned out to be yet another sojourn to the waiting room of life. This time, I stayed long enough to see my life literally flash before my eyes. It was like being in a surround sound theater but with multiple screens and the sound was SO loud! It’s an immersive experience where you actually see and relive moments from your life just like they describe! Anyway, I managed to pull myself out of it when I realized what was happening. I was in the middle of one of these scenes when I was like, “wait, what? What’s happening? Why am I here?”

Again, gargantuan levels of willpower were employed in getting myself back earthside and I don’t think I would’ve done without this voice I started hearing in my head that was cheering me on and telling me, “You can do this. Do this now. Do that now.” I want to call it my higher self but I guess it could also be attributed to my survival instinct. Either way, shout out to that voice because without you, I don’t think I’d be here.

So after that scenario, I washed my hands and went back to my room, where the small voice told me to order more watermelon* (I know this is getting into the weeds a bit, but you’ll understand why in a little bit) cause there was no way I’d be able to drive out and get it myself. Anyway, I ordered it but unfortunately, what I got seemed destined for the compost pit, not a human stomach. So, again, the voice was like “don’t worry. It’s fine, drink some more water. You see how you were able to go outside and get your order. The water’s helping. You can probably drive now.”1

And so, there I was, pissing off everyone behind me driving 40 kms an hour to get fresh watermelon from the Food Lover’s Market a couple blocks away (oh, and I almost fainted at the store). When I got back, I got right into that watermelon and let me tell you — night and day!

All of a sudden, I could think. Like, really think. Not just follow the voice in my head anymore. It’s like I could feel stuff happening in my physical brain that I still cannot explain to this day. I started sitting up straight and not feeling horrible anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I was still feeling pretty bad around the midsection and I knew a biggun was coming, if you know what I mean.

Arnold Erhet is absolutely clear about this: if you don’t get a bowel movement within hours of refeeding, something’s wrong. So I ate my watermelon (took about two hours) took some magnesium and started to feel better enough to start writing in this here essay. Pretty soon though, it was that time and I did indeed have a much relieving experience.

The Aftermath

After my refeeding and elimination experience, I experienced a clarity of mind I hadn’t experienced in a long time. First of all, I didn’t—and still don’t— blame the fast for what happened. A fast reveals your habits to you, and mine had been atrocious. From my ridiculous sleeping schedule to the stress I’d been putting myself under to all the awful “vegan” food I’d been eating — white bread, white pasta, white rice, cookies, etc. I really got the experience I deserved.

Having done a similar fast before, I thought I knew what I was getting into but truth be told, I was much younger then and ate a much cleaner diet. This one was a real wake-up call and it made me realize just how much stress I’d put my body under. And it’s weird because I’ve been feeling pretty fine up until this fast and I was just doing it as a detox of sorts. And I knew it would be hard, but had no idea that it would be this hard because I took it for granted that I was healthy. Turns out, I was harboring some pretty nasty stuff, from a dysregulated nervous system to dysbiosis, that really needed to be purged. Not only that but once you release parasites from your body, you realize just how much of an influence they have on your mind.

For a long time, I’ve been running on what I see clearly now to be pretty erroneous and disadvantageous narratives. These narratives kept me in a state of complacency because that’s what suited the parasites I’ve been feeding. So long as I didn’t fully love myself, I could continue eating trash, not sleeping properly and putting my body and mind under stress. I simply hadn’t been thinking clearly. And for the first time in a long time, I am.

Some of the lessons I’m walking away from this with include realizing that there is never any justification for beating myself up and I should keep myself in a pristine state physically and mentally so I don’t invite anything that would cause me to think otherwise.

And this had me thinking; is this caused by the food we eat? Because we all know that the vast majority of modern food is heavily processed and poisoned. Or could it be our mental diet as well? It’s no secret that out of the 70,000 thoughts that we think in a day, about 80% of them are negative. Or something in that region. And we’d be fools to think that that doesn’t affect us physically. After all, our thoughts are what create the reality we experience. So, if 80% of your thoughts are negative and you don’t even know about it, an ultra-sensitive being may pick up on that by the way you smell.

Like, “hey this person smells like self-pity or that person smells like anger, or this person smells like love or that person smells like positivity”, depending on the majority of thoughts that you entertain on a daily basis. And it’s kinda like how some people can see sound, energetically sensitive beings may be able to “smell” thoughts and emotions.

Leave a comment

Most of us obviously don’t notice the physical effects of our thought patterns on that level because our senses have been so dumbed down that even dogs have a better sense of smell than us. But, it goes even further than that. There is this thing called "physiognomy" which is really the practice of assessing a person's character or personality based on their outer appearance—especially the face. But, it can also be seen as the study of the relationship between thought and physical appearance.

Basically, the thoughts that you continually think of every day not only create the events in your life but also generate your actual appearance. If we were to look at this from the perspective of life being a video game, then it stands to reason that our thoughts are like the computer code that we use to meticulously craft and tailor our reality. So your thoughts are the computer code that generates reality, as well as your appearance because your appearance is part of your self-concept, which includes the way you look, the way you think the world sees you, and the way you project yourself to the world — AKA your “residual self image”.

That's why sometimes, even the most objectively beautiful person if they harbor negative thoughts most of the time, can somehow come off as ugly. And an average-looking person, on the other hand, can come off as beautiful because they exude positive energy due to having positive thought patterns. This just goes to show the far-reaching effects of our thoughts. It is my belief that as you become more aware of your thoughts and make a conscious effort to shift toward a more positive outlook, your reality, including your appearance, has no choice but to reflect that.

What You Focus On, Grows

I recently realized that through consistent effort and awareness, it is possible to tip the scales so that about 51% of the thoughts coming through are positive and only 49% are negative. This is possible because if you constantly feed your mind positivity in the form of music, the content you consume and share with the world, as well as the affirmations or words that you consistently repeat to yourself daily, then it is possible to reprogram your mind toward a more positive perspective.

Now, I feel the need to add here, quick sidebar, as a "by the way" um, that thoughts do not belong to you, right? Those 80, 000 thoughts that go through your mind every day are simply part of a collective conversation that we're constantly having with each other on a subconscious level, and this is where our interconnectedness comes in. Because we as a collective have leaned heavily towards negativity for so long, it is often reflected in our individual thoughts. But, the more people choose positivity in their individual lives, this in turn, affects the general algorithm or collective subconscious, so that it leans more towards the positive than the negative.

The goal, of course, is to get to a point where we are in harmony with the rest of observable creation, which is always 51% positive and 49% negative — that is generally accepted as the vibrational set point of creation itself. And so, when we shift our own individual consciousness towards the light of positivity, we make it possible for others to do the same, and vice versa.

Subscribe now

I remember when I had my first awakening, my first experience of self-realization or "enlightenment" where I felt myself melt into oneness with everything, I instinctively knew at that moment, that that experience was made possible by the Tibetan monks who had sacrificed their lives to decades of silent meditation so that they may realize higher states of consciousness. Their ability and willingness to hold that space for the collective means that that state will always be available to anyone within the algorithm of reality. That's why ancient gurus would often assert that enlightenment is available to anyone, anywhere, and at any time. you don't really need to do anything or be anything to experience it. It's available to us all, all the time.

It's just a matter of where you choose to point your light of consciousness or your awareness. Just like you can curate your TikTok or YouTube algorithm to feed you certain content by constantly choosing that same kind of content, so too can you teach the mind to look for positivity by constantly feeding it that.

Your Thoughts Can Make You Smell Bad?

I know I started this post talking about whether or not your thoughts can make you smell bad, and I think the verdict is clear. The answer is "yes". But, it takes a certain level of sensitivity to perceive that, I feel. But, most importantly, this just goes to show how important it is to be aware, to be in this moment, and to be as mindful of your mental diet as you are of your physical diet. I know a lot of people right now are eating healthier, eating seasonally, and incorporating more plants, clean water, and movement into their lives. But, that can only take you so far.

You also need to feed yourself a mental diet of positivity through the content you consume and put out into the world, the stuff you read, your internal and external conversations, etc. And you know what? The results don't lie.

Just as eating healthy food leads to a stronger and overall healthier body, the same can be said of your mental diet. The more you feed yourself a mental diet of positivity, the more likely you are to feel positive, the easier it is to be mindful and in the moment, and the easier it gets to integrate your shadow by shining light onto it. But, that's a topic for another post.

It might seem like a situation is one thing when you’re presented with one part of it initially. But turn it around, and you’ll soon find that it has another face, and another, and another. In this sense, the reality is as multifaceted as a diamond.

A good example of this would be the idea of marriage. For the longest time, society has conditioned women to view marriage as the ultimate goal and aspiration, with all other options (e.g., getting an education or making art) being perceived as stepping stones to that ideal and incomplete on their own.

However, as women continue to find their voice in the public square, as we continue to compare notes and process our collective experience for the past few centuries, we’re realizing that the idea of marriage as it has been sold to us is very different from the actual experience of it. For the most part, marriage has been sold to women as an upside-only deal.

Subscribe now

However, the truth is, there are pros and cons to marriage, just as there are pros and cons to being single and childless, there are pros and cons to being a single parent, and there are even pros and cons to being a dink (double income, no kids, aka childless married couples).

Every choice you make has its own unique consequences, and those consequences are not all bad or all good. You’ll experience a little bit of good and a little bit of bad as a consequence of every choice you make. It’s just a matter of what is relevant for you at this moment in your life.

So, don’t go chasing waterfalls because you think that your life will “make sense” or “be complete” once you “get there”. What you’ll find when you do “get there” is that it’s a destination with its own unique opportunities and challenges and experiences, some of which you might find favorable and some not. And from that position, you’ll feel compelled to make yet more choices and take more actions that will lead to even more choices, and on and on. It literally never ends. That’s the whole point of life.

Ultimately, there is no right choice or wrong choice, and black-and-white thinking is a flawed understanding of life and how it works.

I’ll start with how I think curses in the context of witchcraft work; witchcraft being the dark arts, or the art of using the creative power of the universe to serve what we’ll henceforth refer to as “the separate self.”1

First of all, I think we can all agree that anyone who practices withcraft unironically must be doing so out of fear and/or powerlessness.2 Because no one who’s actually enjoying their life would even conceive of practicing the “dark arts” or externalizing their power to cause harm to another.

And so, that’s the first thing to note: that fear is the only reason a person would choose to pursue a “dark path”.

The perpetrator (acting out of scarcity) might fear that the success of another will eclipse their own and send negative intentions toward them out of jealousy. Whatever the motivation, witchcraft is often driven by a desire to serve oneself at the deliberate expense of another.

How it actually works

How witchcraft works is that the person who is doing the witchcraft stirs shit up in your life either directly or indirectly (mentally and/or physically), with the assumption that you’ll react negatively. Assuming that the things we experience and create originate in the mind, it then follows that dark arts practitioners only ever succeed by using your own mind against you. This is probably why well-meaning spiritual teachers often emphasize the value of cultivating clarity through meditation and mindfulness, because it is in that stillness that you rise above the clouds of fear and what it can attract to you. And it is in that stillness that fear vanishes. Literally.

So it would seem that the best “deterrent” against witchcraft is being in a state of awareness or clarity. Of course, most of us have too much going on mentally to ever maintain this state for more than 5 minutes outside of meditation. But, this whole thought experiment made me realize that far too often, we bring to bear that which we fear by holding on to the state of fear itself.

Now, I want to emphasize the word “remain” here, because fear is part of the human experience; a completely natural human emotion, and it would be ridiculous to try and avoid it altogether. However, just like any other emotion, it’s merely a messenger, and if you’re aware enough, you should be able to receive its message, take right action, and keep it moving.

It would appear that the “problem” comes when one holds on to fear, causing it to turn into worry and apprehension, which naturally diminishes your ability to try new things, take on opportunities, etc. And how do you hold on to fear? By telling a compelling story about why it’s there and why it should stay. Simple.

Okay, let’s wrap this up in a neat little bow, shall we?

How witchcraft works is that someone attempts to fuck up your ish for whatever reason by sending negative vibes your way. They can do this by merely thinking bad thoughts about you, repeatedly cursing you with their words, or they can put their back into it by doing a ritual. However, because all of these things can only be done from the “low vibe” of fear, they can only reach you if/when you also are in that state. Rise above it, and their attacks cannot reach their target.

Essentially, no-one can curse you without your permission. Yes, a practitioner of the dark arts may use all manner of devices and practice all kinds of rituals to try and derail an aspect of your life by sending you “negative vibes”, but those vibes can only reach you if you’re vibrating on the same level as them. 

And while fear is a normal part of life, staying in a positive state most of the time keeps anything outside of that at bay. All you see are the things, people, places, etc., that vibrate on that same level.

So the best way to protect oneself from witchcraft is to raise your vibration - AKA regulate those emotions! You can do this through earnest self-reflection, meditation, breathwork; there’s a plethora of tools and methods out there to help you clear the junk upstairs and flow through life with a clearer head and an open heart. It’s the only “protection” I know of that truly works.

Jokes aside, the older I get, the more I realize the truth of this statement,

Do with that what you will.

And then it dawned on me that indigenous housing is made from materials from the earth and looks like the earth. So, when dust or mud gets on it, it doesn't look “dirty” it becomes a part of the structure’s patina. Whereas, when a painted concrete structure gets splashed with dirt or mud, it looks “dirty” because of the juxtaposition between the paint and the mud. Then you have the paint, which deteriorates and has to be repainted.

This got me thinking about how buying into the capitalist system means you’re not only buying into the idea of needing money to buy food and afford shelter, but that shelter comes with “add-ons” that you have to constantly purchase in order to maintain your subscription to the shelter. This is where the idea of “earning a living” starts to make sense, because once you have your capitalism-approved concrete shelter, you have to periodically buy paint to refresh it so it looks clean and aesthetically pleasing.

Not saying it’s right or wrong, simply observing the video game nature of reality and the different stages we’re going through as a species. We’re led to believe that modern conveniences are better than indegenous life, but we don’t consider that buying into modernism comes with a whole host of consequential responsibilities that you must perform to maintain your subscription. 

Now that we’ve created the idea of toil, and as our technology becomes more complex, we are coming up with things like cleaning robots to solve the problem of not having enough time to do the things we want to do because we’re spending all of our time cleaning and maintaining the capitalism-approved structures that come with subscribing to this level of the game. 

Funny that.

Named Sarco (short for sarcophagus), the death pod apparently wraps around you like a comfy cocoon, as you’re lulled to sleep by a cocktail of powerful drugs that make death feel like a hug. Sigh.

Now, imagine rooms with Sarco pods and resident death doulas guiding “patients” (because that’s what they’ll call you — a patient — not a client or a customer, which is what you’ll really be) through a pre-death life review (much like what NDE survivors describe as part of the afterlife experience) as you peacefully exit Earth Corp.

This is what’s in store for humanity as we enter a brave new world of death tech and commodified exits.

Death, Inc.?

For a long time, the death industry was made up of small mom-and-pop operations like mortuaries and stonemasons (with the exception of insurance companies, which have always capitalized on the ironically named ‘life insurance policy’).

With the death industry’s latest developments, it’s safe to say that every single aspect of your life is now commercialized. I’d say from cradle to grave, but that would be an understatement since the maternity industry hit a 20 billion dollar market cap last year, so there’s an industry ready to integrate you as a consumer at every stage of life.

Congrats, you’re a little consumer from before you’re even born!

What’s most interesting to me about this whole thing is how the scienc-y solution of suicide pods and the more holistic death doula can and will likely interact.

To me, these two things represent the same thing — our evolving relationship with death.

Most people look at death doulas as a sort of fringe idea now, but I believe there will come a time when they’ll be seen as part of a professional farewell party in the same way that midwives and birth doulas represent Earth’s welcoming committee.

Truth is, death is no longer the “big bad” it once was, especially as the shared reality we call life on Earth takes on a more dystopian flavor.

It’s also interesting how the solutions we’re coming up with represent this very real split in realities between those who view the world from a mechanical perspective and those who see it as a holistic system that’s underpinned by a spiritual foundation.

I’m not advocating for one or the other because, as I said, I think both of these solutions are a reflection of our changing attitudes about death. But I am curious to see where this goes. Like, it’s not far-fetched to think that one day we’ll have “death centers” that integrate both approaches to give people a way out. (Hello, Soylent Green!)

Just look at the way we approach work, purpose, and career. If something comes too easily, we downplay it as a “hobby”. There’s even a saying that “if you do what you love (i.e. if you do something that comes easily to you and brings you joy), then you won’t work a day in your life.” Because what is work according to the paradigm we’re coming out of? Work is toil as the Abrahamic religions would have us believe, and it is not meant to be fun.

Same with love and romantic relationships. For the longest time, we believed that love is pain and that you have to work hard to “make things work” whereas I feel that relationships are now evolving to embody a level of authenticity where we’re not looking to force something that doesn’t feel aligned.

Subscribe now

Anything that’s out of alignment feels utterly unbearable right now.

And I think this is happening because we’re becoming so sensitive to energy that we can no longer tolerate anything but true alignment. This is in stark contrast to the previous paradigm, which was characterized by humans living lives of quiet desperation, tolerating the bare minimum just to fit in and survive.

The new paradigm is all about doing that which is in alignment with your very soul, as we align our external reality based on a desire to manifest or experience “higher” ideals or perspectives of reality. The new paradigm affirms that that which you love, that which comes easily to you, is not only worthy but absolutely necessary.

The previous paradigm treated our talents like hobbies and afterthoughts, childish things that must be put away in due time to “face the music” of “the real world” of hard work, struggle, hustle, and sacrifice. Those same talents are now considered essential aspects of who we are.

Misalignment is just so obvious to me every time I try to do anything that is not what I know I came here to do. And a lot of the programming that underpins my limitations is coming up to be seen, which can feel really uncomfortable and scary but I think it’s important to remind myself that it’s just the old story coming up to be witnessed so I can realize that it’s not my identity — it’s just a story that I took to be my identity for a really long time.

Leave a comment

I now know that just because something is complicated and difficult to achieve doesn't mean it's better than what comes naturally to me.

You have to constantly renew your mind, your body, and your heart.

You have to constantly renew your heart by expanding and opening it because it will continue to experience deeper levels of heartbreak and disappointment. It will also experience many kinds of love and soar to new levels of joy you’ve never imagined.

Subscribe now

You have to constantly renew your mind by staying curious and open to learning. The world is constantly changing, and as it evolves, so must our capacity to learn. A curious mind is the ultimate foundation for living with sanity in a constantly changing world, and we live in the most tumultuous time in human history. 

You have to constantly renew your body because, whether you like it or not, it is always changing. It is always rebuilding itself from the material you give it, both physical and otherwise.

Flexibility, especially during times of crisis, is the key to balance.

So I thought, you know what? Instead of being an advertiser with a pen (Edward Bernays’ definition of a copywriter) let me go back to what attracted me to this craft in the first place: the ability to escape to a world of my own creation.

I’ve been fascinated by words since I was a kid. I started reading at about 5 and wrote my first comic at 12. Back then, I used to write all sorts of stuff: song lyrics, essays, short stories. But over the years, my writing became more and more commercialized and I found myself falling out of love with this art.

So this here is my escape. An opportunity to write what I like and share my perspective on this interesting reality we call “the world.”

I have high hopes for this publication; one day I’d like to see it become a magazine. (Oh, how I loved those growing up!) But for now, it’s a space where I share my thoughts, musings, and observations of the human experience. Because someone once said to me “the world needs that gift that only I have”.

With that said, I hope you’ll enjoy reading my work as much as I enjoy creating it!

Subscribe now