Thank you, Tom, for inspiring me. I appreciate how you consistently suggest that the approach to the crisis we are facing is grounded in love - the process of knowing and being known, which requires curiosity. I find your writing reflects curiosity and, consequently, is responsive to the needs of our times. Imagine if each of us cultivated responsiveness? While we may not always see our immediate impact, by growing our ability to respond (that is, taking responsibility), we can rest assured that we are doing our part by contributing to an ever-evolving whole.
Thanks so much Claudia- I feel like love is the answer. But perhaps in a surprising way. That it connects us to that infinite intelligence, one that transcends even AI. But we are forced to reconnect through a crisis. A pattern as old as humanity itself. But always with a happy ending.
I completely agree. As a psychotherapist the first thing I encourage of my clients is cultivating curiosity. If there is anything I can help you with to forward your project, please let me know. It seems well worth the effort.
I have a pet theory that all of love is love at first sight.
Inspired by falling in love for the first time at 39, and it happening with a mere glance across a room at the now-fiancée, I've wondered if all deep, loving, attraction isn't the same, but usually there are lots of layers of crap on top that have to be 'worked through' in some way for the love to be fully revealed. But it's there all along, otherwise why the first move to that person/life choice/whatever rather than that other one?
Most frequently, the growth happens / the layers of crap get removed in the relationship, and love blossoms from within the relationship. Other times, like mine, the vision is cleared outside the relationship, so when the relationship comes along, it's instant (a mere few months before seeing the fiancée for the first time, my heart was 'excavated' in a pretty profound way - think visual of heart as a mineshaft going back through my ancestry, and about 6 solid hours of a big claw reaching in and ripping out sludge, which then ended up in a purge bucket... though that was just the final act of a decades-long philosophical saga... love without wisdom being chaos an' all (h/t Vervaeke)) :)
Hi great article, sort of being going down this knowledge path recently via youtube. Its seems the internet is accelerating everyone's knowledge and evolution. I live in New Zealand so somewhat safe from your bleak outlook haha. Can see lots of geopolitical conflict and wars coming but we should be okay 3 steps forward 2 steps back is the path to improvement, the 2 steps back are generally not very pleasant but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
I have to admit, I don't read your newsletters as often as I should because they always offer something interesting. I still think about the "How to be lucky" one from time to time. I opened this one because the headline is something that has been on my mind ever since my awakenings.
Your summary of the average Western mindset - or the patchwork of fundamental beliefs that exist in the collective unconscious, as it also can be described - is really succinct, and when you couple this with individualism amplified by social media it adds another argument for a systemic shift being close. Individualism is a consequence of the tribalism that still rules parts of the world, and fueled by consumerism (which is required to prop up the current global network of financial systems) it is pushing the limits of what is acceptable. The growing number of movements that aim to cripple vital parts of the Matrix (consumerism, corporatism, eternal growth) that I've seen act as an immune system fighting the decay rather than the civilizational death doulas we need.
Looking at the grander scale of things, we are in an interesting stage of evolution of consciousness – the crisis is becoming acute and current civilization is running on a death clock. The system is making the host hemorrhage, but we don't have a bypass machine. It's not like we can pause the world for a year while we figure things out and find new agreements with each other and our biosphere. It's not like the billionaires will give up a majority of their fortune willingly. The crisis demands a solution, and the longer a solution takes the more severe the consequences - but I don't know if there is any question of more contemporary significance because it shows that the Matrix is poisoning our biosphere, and puts science as a crutch for doubters. In order to stay below 1.5°C the average Westerner would have to cut their consumption by 80%. We're all prisoners on Snowpiercer, heading for a cliff ahead, but if we slow down too much the machine explodes.
The needed shift in science is also looming, with a five sigma study going so far as directly challenging the current LCDM model. I think that we collectively need a shift in how we view science: science became the Authority for the Enlightened in the Copernican revolution, but it inherited much of the same bias that Abrahamian religions are based on: man as the crown of evolution. The inherent materialist bias has set research back decades, if not a whole century, when it comes to the nature of consciousness and the universe, because they are the same. Right now, we are studying the stream, and asking how it causes water to be wet without understanding that it is we who make it so. Science should be understood as painting the beginning of the picture, not the end product. The end product will always be subjective, and this is another issue with the Western mindset: the laws of nature are deterministic, and since consciousness is emergent it is governed by those laws and therefore there is no free will. "I am a result of my biology" and "my biology is a result of me" are both functional world-views, but with vastly different philosophies.
I recently read "The Cosmic Serpent - on DNA and the Origins of Knowledge". It makes a compelling argument for consciousness driving biology, rather than the other way around, and highlights the difficulties with contemporary language when it comes to mind and consciousness. Where does attention end, and mind start? How does mind relate to consciousness? Another good read (if a bit scattered at times) is The Egg and the Rock here on substack, which makes a science based case for the nature of the universe being more like an egg and less like a rock.
I'm really excited for this next part of your journey. I'm sure the world will be that much better for it!
Thanks brother. Wild to think about how we "woke up" simultaneously. Such a strange time in our lives. We should reconnect properly sometime via zoom. Feel like we've been entangled somehow.
I am going to work obsessively in doing whatever I can to prevent unnecessary suffering, like much of my dark night, for others. And at the least put some differentiated and interesting content in front of interested audiences.
Thanks, Tom. Your writing has emboldened me to be a bit more public in my own writing. I'm picking up a copy of Kingley's Catafalque when I travel to the US this month, and I suspect there are many parallels to Chris Bache's experience. The Jungian seed was planted in my teens by a unorthodox English litt teacher of mine... I'm only now recognizing the patterns set in motion back then.
I'm looking forward to reading what emerges next from you.
Thanks Jasen, I'm glad you're putting yourself out there. The universe can't be open to you, if you're not showing it who you are. Excited to see what you think of Catafalque. Kingsley is miserable but prophetic.
Really interesting read…especially given AI, the ongoing (but neglected) sickness/population impacts of the pandemic, and geopolitical and internal domestic tensions. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thanks so much Dr Gurner. I go back and forth on how much I think doomerism is appropriate. Especially as most of these issues aren’t something we can address at the individual level. But that means we can all focus on our own internal openness and attitudes towards our own consciousness. Which is hard but more rewarding imo!
Hello Tom, if you haven’t already I think you might find the perspectives Dougald Hine offers in At Work in the Ruins interesting - he’s also writing on this platform.
Jeez. I've just discovered your Substack thanks to your conversation with Michael Garfield on Future Fossils. It's the strangest feeling. I feel like you're about 100 yards ahead of me on the same conveyor belt.
Micro-data point: a few years ago, I wrote a clumsy and long article titled Longing for the Apocalypse, which made a connection between the many apocalypse dreams I've had, my near death experience through addiction (and the enantiodromia that followed through recovery) and our present convergence of crisis (+ the hope I have, despite the real dangers of extinction). Though it didn't make the point(s) you're making here exactly, noticing the analogy was part of me getting very close.
Anyway, this feels like a complete Tim Leary find-the-others deal. Thank you so much for being part of my evolution. Reality is especially fascinating these days.
Thank you, Tom, for inspiring me. I appreciate how you consistently suggest that the approach to the crisis we are facing is grounded in love - the process of knowing and being known, which requires curiosity. I find your writing reflects curiosity and, consequently, is responsive to the needs of our times. Imagine if each of us cultivated responsiveness? While we may not always see our immediate impact, by growing our ability to respond (that is, taking responsibility), we can rest assured that we are doing our part by contributing to an ever-evolving whole.
Thanks so much Claudia- I feel like love is the answer. But perhaps in a surprising way. That it connects us to that infinite intelligence, one that transcends even AI. But we are forced to reconnect through a crisis. A pattern as old as humanity itself. But always with a happy ending.
I completely agree. As a psychotherapist the first thing I encourage of my clients is cultivating curiosity. If there is anything I can help you with to forward your project, please let me know. It seems well worth the effort.
With you on this one :)
I have a pet theory that all of love is love at first sight.
Inspired by falling in love for the first time at 39, and it happening with a mere glance across a room at the now-fiancée, I've wondered if all deep, loving, attraction isn't the same, but usually there are lots of layers of crap on top that have to be 'worked through' in some way for the love to be fully revealed. But it's there all along, otherwise why the first move to that person/life choice/whatever rather than that other one?
Most frequently, the growth happens / the layers of crap get removed in the relationship, and love blossoms from within the relationship. Other times, like mine, the vision is cleared outside the relationship, so when the relationship comes along, it's instant (a mere few months before seeing the fiancée for the first time, my heart was 'excavated' in a pretty profound way - think visual of heart as a mineshaft going back through my ancestry, and about 6 solid hours of a big claw reaching in and ripping out sludge, which then ended up in a purge bucket... though that was just the final act of a decades-long philosophical saga... love without wisdom being chaos an' all (h/t Vervaeke)) :)
Hi great article, sort of being going down this knowledge path recently via youtube. Its seems the internet is accelerating everyone's knowledge and evolution. I live in New Zealand so somewhat safe from your bleak outlook haha. Can see lots of geopolitical conflict and wars coming but we should be okay 3 steps forward 2 steps back is the path to improvement, the 2 steps back are generally not very pleasant but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
I have to admit, I don't read your newsletters as often as I should because they always offer something interesting. I still think about the "How to be lucky" one from time to time. I opened this one because the headline is something that has been on my mind ever since my awakenings.
Your summary of the average Western mindset - or the patchwork of fundamental beliefs that exist in the collective unconscious, as it also can be described - is really succinct, and when you couple this with individualism amplified by social media it adds another argument for a systemic shift being close. Individualism is a consequence of the tribalism that still rules parts of the world, and fueled by consumerism (which is required to prop up the current global network of financial systems) it is pushing the limits of what is acceptable. The growing number of movements that aim to cripple vital parts of the Matrix (consumerism, corporatism, eternal growth) that I've seen act as an immune system fighting the decay rather than the civilizational death doulas we need.
Looking at the grander scale of things, we are in an interesting stage of evolution of consciousness – the crisis is becoming acute and current civilization is running on a death clock. The system is making the host hemorrhage, but we don't have a bypass machine. It's not like we can pause the world for a year while we figure things out and find new agreements with each other and our biosphere. It's not like the billionaires will give up a majority of their fortune willingly. The crisis demands a solution, and the longer a solution takes the more severe the consequences - but I don't know if there is any question of more contemporary significance because it shows that the Matrix is poisoning our biosphere, and puts science as a crutch for doubters. In order to stay below 1.5°C the average Westerner would have to cut their consumption by 80%. We're all prisoners on Snowpiercer, heading for a cliff ahead, but if we slow down too much the machine explodes.
The needed shift in science is also looming, with a five sigma study going so far as directly challenging the current LCDM model. I think that we collectively need a shift in how we view science: science became the Authority for the Enlightened in the Copernican revolution, but it inherited much of the same bias that Abrahamian religions are based on: man as the crown of evolution. The inherent materialist bias has set research back decades, if not a whole century, when it comes to the nature of consciousness and the universe, because they are the same. Right now, we are studying the stream, and asking how it causes water to be wet without understanding that it is we who make it so. Science should be understood as painting the beginning of the picture, not the end product. The end product will always be subjective, and this is another issue with the Western mindset: the laws of nature are deterministic, and since consciousness is emergent it is governed by those laws and therefore there is no free will. "I am a result of my biology" and "my biology is a result of me" are both functional world-views, but with vastly different philosophies.
I recently read "The Cosmic Serpent - on DNA and the Origins of Knowledge". It makes a compelling argument for consciousness driving biology, rather than the other way around, and highlights the difficulties with contemporary language when it comes to mind and consciousness. Where does attention end, and mind start? How does mind relate to consciousness? Another good read (if a bit scattered at times) is The Egg and the Rock here on substack, which makes a science based case for the nature of the universe being more like an egg and less like a rock.
I'm really excited for this next part of your journey. I'm sure the world will be that much better for it!
Thanks brother. Wild to think about how we "woke up" simultaneously. Such a strange time in our lives. We should reconnect properly sometime via zoom. Feel like we've been entangled somehow.
I am going to work obsessively in doing whatever I can to prevent unnecessary suffering, like much of my dark night, for others. And at the least put some differentiated and interesting content in front of interested audiences.
Excellent work as usual Tom. Best of luck in this next chapter!
Cheers BC!
I've loved watching your writing/thinking evolve and excited for the next leg of the journey!
Grateful for your companionship on the journey.
Thanks, Tom. Your writing has emboldened me to be a bit more public in my own writing. I'm picking up a copy of Kingley's Catafalque when I travel to the US this month, and I suspect there are many parallels to Chris Bache's experience. The Jungian seed was planted in my teens by a unorthodox English litt teacher of mine... I'm only now recognizing the patterns set in motion back then.
I'm looking forward to reading what emerges next from you.
Thanks Jasen, I'm glad you're putting yourself out there. The universe can't be open to you, if you're not showing it who you are. Excited to see what you think of Catafalque. Kingsley is miserable but prophetic.
All the best Tom in this continous step
And thanks for making me read the matter with things and sharing your continuous evolution
Thanks Romlev! Good luck with that glorious beast of a book.
Rooting for you Tom
Love you.
Another member of team pathless is born.
Very excited to see you in action in your next chapter. No doubt you will have even more to give!
Thanks man, that's the plan. Death or glory time.
Haha I got a place in NZ and now I can save it as a doomsday bunker now 😂
We need to get bomb collars to keep our security team loyal, then we are good.
Really interesting read…especially given AI, the ongoing (but neglected) sickness/population impacts of the pandemic, and geopolitical and internal domestic tensions. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thanks so much Dr Gurner. I go back and forth on how much I think doomerism is appropriate. Especially as most of these issues aren’t something we can address at the individual level. But that means we can all focus on our own internal openness and attitudes towards our own consciousness. Which is hard but more rewarding imo!
I always appreciate people who make me think!
Hello Tom, if you haven’t already I think you might find the perspectives Dougald Hine offers in At Work in the Ruins interesting - he’s also writing on this platform.
Ooh thanks, will check it out.
Jeez. I've just discovered your Substack thanks to your conversation with Michael Garfield on Future Fossils. It's the strangest feeling. I feel like you're about 100 yards ahead of me on the same conveyor belt.
Micro-data point: a few years ago, I wrote a clumsy and long article titled Longing for the Apocalypse, which made a connection between the many apocalypse dreams I've had, my near death experience through addiction (and the enantiodromia that followed through recovery) and our present convergence of crisis (+ the hope I have, despite the real dangers of extinction). Though it didn't make the point(s) you're making here exactly, noticing the analogy was part of me getting very close.
Anyway, this feels like a complete Tim Leary find-the-others deal. Thank you so much for being part of my evolution. Reality is especially fascinating these days.
Very excited for the next chapter of your (and our collective) journey.