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The mindâŚcan make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. â John Milton
The mind is certainly its own cosmos. â Alan Lightman
You go to school, study hard, get a degree, and youâre pleased with yourself. But are you wiser?
You get a job, achieve things at the job, gain responsibility, get paid more, move to a better company, gain even more responsibility, get paid even more, rent an apartment with a parking spot, stop doing your own laundry, and you buy one of those $9 juices where the stuff settles down to the bottom. But are you happier?
You do all kinds of life thingsâyou buy groceries, read articles, get haircuts, chew things, take out the trash, buy a car, brush your teeth, shit, sneeze, shave, stretch, get drunk, put salt on things, have sex with someone, charge your laptop, jog, empty the dishwasher, walk the dog, buy a couch, close the curtains, button your shirt, wash your hands, zip your bag, set your alarm, fix your hair, order lunch, act friendly to someone, watch a movie, drink apple juice, and put a new paper towel roll on the thing.
But as you do these things day after day and year after year, are you improving as a human in a meaningful way?
In the last post, I described the way my own path had led me to be an atheistâbut how in my satisfaction with being proudly nonreligious, I never gave serious thought to an active approach to internal improvementâhindering my own evolution in the process.
This wasnât just my own naivetĂŠ at work. Society at large focuses on shallow things, so it doesnât stress the need to take real growth seriously. The major institutions in the spiritual arenaâreligionsâtend to focus on divinity over people, making salvation the end goal instead of self-improvement. The industries that do often focus on the human conditionâphilosophy, psychology, art, literature, self-help, etc.âlie more on the periphery, with their work often fragmented from each other. All of this sets up a world that makes it hard to treat internal growth as anything other than a hobby, an extra-curricular, icing on the life cake.
Considering that the human mind is an ocean of complexity that creates every part of our reality, working on whatâs going on in there seems like it should be a more serious priority. In the same way a growing business relies on a clear mission with a well thought-out strategy and measurable metrics, a growing human needs a planâif we want to meaningfully improve, we need to define a goal, understand how to get there, become aware of obstacles in the way, and have a strategy to get past them.
When I dove into this topic, I thought about my own situation and whether I was improving. The efforts were thereâapparent in many of this blogâs post topicsâbut I had no growth model, no real plan, no clear mission. Just kind of haphazard attempts at self-improvement in one area or another, whenever I happened to feel like it. So Iâve attempted to consolidate my scattered efforts, philosophies, and strategies into a single frameworkâsomething solid I can hold onto in the futureâand Iâm gonna use this post to do a deep dive into it.
So settle in, grab some coffee, and get your brain out and onto the table in front of youâyouâll want to have it there to reference as we explore what a weird, complicated object it is.
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The Goal
Wisdom. More on that later.
How Do We Get to the Goal?
By being aware of the truth. When I say âthe truth,â Iâm not being one of those annoying people who says the word truth to mean some amorphous, mystical thingâIâm just referring to the actual facts of reality. The truth is a combination of what we know and what we donât knowâand gaining and maintaining awareness of both sides of this reality is the key to being wise.
Easy, right? We donât have to know more than we know, we only have to be aware of what we know and what we donât know. Truth is in plain sight, written on the whiteboardâwe just have to look at the board and reflect upon it. Thereâs just this one thingâ
Whatâs in Our Way?
The fog.
To understand the fog, letâs first be clear that weâre not here:
Weâre here:
And this isnât the situation:
This is:
This is a really hard concept for humans to absorb, but itâs the starting place for growth. Declaring ourselves âconsciousâ allows us to call it a day and stop thinking about it. I like to think of it as a consciousness staircase:
An ant is more conscious than a bacterium, a chicken more than an ant, a monkey more than a chicken, and a human more than a monkey. But whatâs above us?
A) Definitely something, and B) Nothing we can understand better than a monkey can understand our world and how we think.
Thereâs no reason to think the staircase doesnât extend upwards forever. The red alien a few steps above us on the staircase would see human consciousness the same way we see that of an orangutanâthey might think weâre pretty impressive for an animal, but that of course we donât actually begin to understand anything. Our most brilliant scientist would be outmatched by one of their toddlers.
To the green alien up there higher on the staircase, the red alien might seem as intelligent and conscious as a chicken seems to us. And when the green alien looks at us, it sees the simplest little pre-programmed ants.
We canât conceive of what life higher on the staircase would be like, but absorbing the fact that higher stairs exist and trying to view ourselves from the perspective of one of those steps is the key mindset we need to be in for this exercise.
For now, letâs ignore those much higher steps and just focus on the step right above usâthat light green step. A species on that step might think of us like we think of a three-year-old childâemerging into consciousness through a blur of simplicity and naivetĂŠ. Letâs imagine that a representative from that species was sent to observe humans and report back to his home planet about themâwhat would he think of the way we thought and behaved? What about us would impress him? What would make him cringe?
I think heâd very quickly see a conflict going on in the human mind. On one hand, all of those steps on the staircase below the human are where we grew from. Hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary adaptations geared toward animal survival in a rough world are very much rooted in our DNA, and the primitive impulses in us have birthed a bunch of low-grade qualitiesâfear, pettiness, jealousy, greed, instant-gratification, etc. Those qualities are the remnants of our animal past and still a prominent part of our brains, creating a zoo of small-minded emotions and motivations in our heads:
But over the past six million years, our evolutionary line has experienced a rapid growth in consciousness and the incredible ability to reason in a way no other species on Earth can. Weâve taken a big step up the consciousness staircase, very quicklyâletâs call this burgeoning element of higher consciousness our Higher Being.
The Higher Being is brilliant, big-thinking, and totally rational. But on the grand timescale, heâs a very new resident in our heads, while the primal animal forces are ancient, and their coexistence in the human mind makes it a strange place:
So itâs not that a human is the Higher Being and the Higher Being is three years oldâitâs that a human is the combination of the Higher Being and the low-level animals, and they blend into the three-year-old that we are. The Higher Being alone would be a more advanced species, and the animals alone would be one far more primitive, and itâs their particular coexistence that makes us distinctly human.
As humans evolved and the Higher Being began to wake up, he looked around your brain and found himself in an odd and unfamiliar jungle full of powerful primitive creatures that didnât understand who or what he was. His mission was to give you clarity and high-level thought, but with animals tramping around his work environment, it wasnât an easy job. And things were about to get much worse. Human evolution continued to make the Higher Being more and more sentient, until one day, he realized something shocking:
WEâRE GOING TO DIE
It marked the first time any species on planet Earth was conscious enough to understand that fact, and it threw all of those animals in the brainâwho were not built to handle that kind of informationâinto a complete frenzy, sending the whole ecosystem into chaos:
The animals had never experienced this kind of fear before, and their freakout about thisâone that continues todayâwas the last thing the Higher Being needed as he was trying to grow and learn and make decisions for us.
The adrenaline-charged animals romping around our brain can take over our mind, clouding our thoughts, judgment, sense of self, and understanding of the world. The collective force of the animals is what I call âthe fog.â The more the animals are running the show and making us deaf and blind to the thoughts and insights of the Higher Being, the thicker the fog is around our head, often so thick we can only see a few inches in front of our face:
Letâs think back to our goal above and our path to itâbeing aware of the truth. The Higher Being can see the truth just fine in almost any situation. But when the fog is thick around us, blocking our eyes and ears and coating our brain, we have no access to the Higher Being or his insight. This is why being continually aware of the truth is so hardâweâre too lost in the fog to see it or think about it.
And when the alien representative is finished observing us and heads back to his home planet, I think this would be his sum-up of our problems:
The battle of the Higher Being against the animalsâof trying to see through the fog to clarityâis the core internal human struggle.
This struggle in our heads takes place on many fronts. Weâve examined a few of them here: the Higher Being (in his role as the Rational Decision Maker) fighting the Instant Gratification Monkey; the Higher Being (in the role of the Authentic Voice) battling against the overwhelmingly scared Social Survival Mammoth; the Higher Beingâs message that life is just a bunch of Todays getting lost in the blinding light of fog-based yearning for better tomorrows. Those are all part of the same core conflict between our primal past and our enlightened future.
The shittiest thing about the fog is that when youâre in the fog, it blocks your vision so you canât see that youâre in the fog. Itâs when the fog is thickest that youâre the least aware that itâs there at allâit makes you unconscious. Being aware that the fog exists and learning how to recognize it is the key first step to rising up in consciousness and becoming a wiser person.
So weâve established that our goal is wisdom, that to get there we need to become as aware as possible of the truth, and that the main thing standing in our way is the fog. Letâs zoom in on the battlefield to look at why âbeing aware of the truthâ is so important and how we can overcome the fog to get there:
The Battlefield
No matter how hard we tried, it would be impossible for humans to access that light green step one above us on the consciousness staircase. Our advanced capabilityâthe Higher Beingâjust isnât there yet. Maybe in a million years or two. For now, the only place this battle can happen is on the one step where we live, so thatâs where weâre going to zoom in. We need to focus on the mini spectrum of consciousness within our step, which we can do by breaking our step down into four substeps:
Climbing this mini consciousness staircase is the road to truth, the way to wisdom, my personal mission for growth, and a bunch of other clichĂŠ statements I never thought Iâd hear myself say. We just have to understand the game and work hard to get good at it.
Letâs look at each step to try to understand the challenges weâre dealing with and how we can make progress:
Step 1: Our Lives in the Fog
Step 1 is the lowest step, the foggiest step, and unfortunately, for most of us itâs our default level of existence. On Step 1, the fog is all up in our shit, thick and close and clogging our senses, leaving us going through life unconscious. Down here, the thoughts, values, and priorities of the Higher Being are completely lost in the blinding fog and the deafening roaring, tweeting, honking, howling, and squawking of the animals in our heads. This makes us 1) small-minded, 2) short-sighted, and 3) stupid. Letâs discuss each of these:
1) On Step 1, youâre terribly small-minded because the animals are running the show.
When I look at the wide range of motivating emotions that humans experience, I donât see them as a scattered range, but rather falling into two distinct bins: the high-minded, love-based, advanced emotions of the Higher Being, and the small-minded, fear-based, primitive emotions of our brain animals.
And on Step 1, weâre completely intoxicated by the animal emotions as they roar at us through the dense fog.
This is what makes us petty and jealous and what makes us so thoroughly enjoy the misfortune of others. Itâs what makes us scared, anxious, and insecure. Itâs why weâre self-absorbed and narcissistic; vain and greedy; narrow-minded and judgmental; cold, callous, and even cruel. And only on Step 1 do we feel that primitive âus versus themâ tribalism that makes us hate people different than us.
You can find most of these same emotions in a clan of capuchin monkeysâand that makes sense, because at their core, these emotions can be boiled down to the two keys of animal survival: self-preservation and the need to reproduce.
Step 1 emotions are brutish and powerful and grab you by the collar, and when theyâre upon you, the Higher Being and his high-minded, love-based emotions are shoved into the sewer.
2) On Step 1, youâre short-sighted, because the fog is six inches in front of your face, preventing you from seeing the big picture.
The fog explains all kinds of totally illogical and embarrassingly short-sighted human behavior.
Why else would anyone ever take a grandparent or parent for granted while theyâre around, seeing them only occasionally, opening up to them only rarely, and asking them barely any questionsâeven though after they die, you can only think about how amazing they were and how you canât believe you didnât relish the opportunity to enjoy your relationship with them and get to know them better when they were around?
Why else would people brag so much, even though if they could see the big picture, it would be obvious that everyone finds out about the good things in your life eventually either wayâand that you always serve yourself way more by being modest?
Why else would someone do the bare minimum at work, cut corners on work projects, and be dishonest about their effortsâwhen anyone looking at the big picture would know that in a work environment, the truth about someoneâs work habits eventually becomes completely apparent to both bosses and colleagues, and youâre never really fooling anyone? Why would someone insist on making sure everyone knows when they did something valuable for the companyâwhen it should be obvious that acting that way is transparent and makes it seem like youâre working hard just for the credit, while just doing things well and having one of those things happen to be noticed does much more for your long term reputation and level of respect at the company?
If not for thick fog, why would anyone ever pinch pennies over a restaurant bill or keep an unpleasantly-rigid scorecard of who paid for what on a trip, when everyone reading this could right now give each of their friends a quick and accurate 1-10 rating on the cheap-to-generous (or selfish-to-considerate) scale, and the few hundred bucks you save over time by being on the cheap end of the scale is hardly worth it considering how much more likable and respectable it is to be generous?
What other explanation is there for the utterly inexplicable decision by so many famous men in positions of power to bring down the career and marriage they spent their lives building by having an affair?
And why would anyone bend and loosen their integrity for tiny insignificant gains when integrity affects your long-term self-esteem and tiny insignificant gains affect nothing in the long term?
How else could you explain the decision by so many people to let the fear of what others might think dictate the way they live, when if they could see clearly theyâd realize that A) thatâs a terrible reason to do or not do something, and B) no oneâs really thinking about you anywayâtheyâre buried in their own lives.
And then there are all the times when someoneâs opaque blinders keep them in the wrong relationship, job, city, apartment, friendship, etc. for years, sometimes decades, only for them to finally make a change and say âI canât believe I didnât do this earlier,â or âI canât believe I couldnât see how wrong that was for me.â They should absolutely believe it, because thatâs the power of the fog.
3) On Step 1, youâre very, very stupid.
One way this stupidity shows up is in us making the same obvious mistakes over and over and over again.1
The most glaring example is the way the fog convinces us, time after time after time, that certain things will make us happy that in reality absolutely donât. The fog lines up a row of carrots, tells us that theyâre the key to happiness, and tells us to forget todayâs happiness in favor of directing all of our hope to all the happiness the future will hold because weâre gonna get those carrots.
And even though the fog has proven again and again that it has no idea how human happiness worksâeven though weâve had so many experiences finally getting a carrot and feeling a ton of temporary happiness, only to watch that happiness fade right back down to our default level a few days laterâwe continue to fall for the trick.
Itâs like hiring a nutritionist to help you with your exhaustion, and they tell you that the key is to drink an espresso shot anytime youâre tired. So youâd try it and think the nutritionist was a genius until an hour later when it dropped you like an anvil back into exhaustion. You go back to the nutritionist, who gives you the same advice, so you try it again and the same thing happens. That would probably be it right? Youâd fire the nutritionist. Right? So why are we so gullible when it comes to the fogâs advice on happiness and fulfillment?
The fog is also much more harmful than the nutritionist because not only does it give us terrible adviceâbut the fog itself is the source of unhappiness. The only real solution to exhaustion is to sleep, and the only real way to improve happiness in a lasting way is to make progress in the battle against the fog.
Thereâs a concept in psychology called The Hedonic Treadmill, which suggests that humans have a stagnant default happiness level and when something good or bad happens, after an initial change in happiness, we always return to that default level. And on Step 1, this is completely true of course, given that trying to become permanently happier while in the fog is like trying to dry your body off while standing under the shower with the water running.
But I refuse to believe the same species that builds skyscrapers, writes symphonies, flies to the moon, and understands what a Higgs boson is is incapable of getting off the treadmill and actually improving in a meaningful way.
I think the way to do it is by learning to climb this consciousness staircase to spend more of our time on Steps 2, 3, and 4, and less of it mired unconsciously in the fog.
Step 2: Thinning the Fog to Reveal Context
Humans can do something amazing that no other creature on Earth can doâthey can imagine. If you show an animal a tree, they see a tree. Only a human can imagine the acorn that sunk into the ground 40 years earlier, the small flimsy stalk it was at three years old, how stark the tree must look when itâs winter, and the eventual dead tree lying horizontally in that same place.
This is the magic of the Higher Being in our heads.
On the other hand, the animals in your head, like their real world relatives, can only see a tree, and when they see one, they react instantly to it based on their primitive needs. When youâre on Step 1, your unconscious animal-run state doesnât even remember that the Higher Being exists, and his genius abilities go to waste.
Step 2 is all about thinning out the fog enough to bring the Higher Beingâs thoughts and abilities into your consciousness, allowing you to see behind and around the things that happen in life. Step 2 is about bringing context into your awareness, which reveals a far deeper and more nuanced version of the truth.
There are plenty of activities or undertakings that can help thin out your fog. To name three:
1) Learning more about the world through education, travel, and life experienceâas your perspective broadens, you can see a clearer and more accurate version of the truth.
2) Active reflection. This is what a journal can help with, or therapy, which is basically examining your own brain with the help of a fog expert. Sometimes a hypothetical question can be used as âfog goggles,â allowing you to see something clearly through the fogâquestions like, âWhat would I do if money were no object?â or âHow would I advise someone else on this?â or âWill I regret not having done this when Iâm 80?â These questions are a way to ask your Higher Beingâs opinion on something without the animals realizing whatâs going on, so theyâll stay calm and the Higher Being can actually talkâlike when parents spell out a word in front of their four-year-old when they donât want him to know what theyâre saying.2
3) Meditation, exercise, yoga, etc.âactivities that help quiet the brainâs unconscious chatter, i.e. allowing the fog to settle.
But the easiest and most effective way to thin out the fog is simply to be aware of it. By knowing that fog exists, understanding what it is and the different forms it takes, and learning to recognize when youâre in it, you hinder its ability to run your life. You canât get to Step 2 if you donât know when youâre on Step 1.
The way to move onto Step 2 is by remembering to stay aware of the context behind and around what you see, what you come across, and the decisions you make. Thatâs itâremaining cognizant of the fog and remembering to look at the whole context keeps you conscious, aware of reality, and as youâll see, makes you a much better version of yourself than you are on Step 1. Some examplesâ
Hereâs what a rude cashier looks like on Step 1 vs. Step 2:
Hereâs what gratitude looks like:
Something good happening:
Something bad happening:
That phenomenon where everything suddenly seems horrible late at night in bed:
A flat tire:
Long-term consequences:
Looking at context makes us aware how much we actually know about most situations (as well as what we donât know, like what the cashierâs day was like so far), and it reminds us of the complexity and nuance of people, life, and situations. When weâre on Step 2, this broader scope and increased clarity makes us feel calmer and less fearful of things that arenât actually scary, and the animalsâwho gain their strength from fear and thrive off of unconsciousnessâsuddenly just look kind of ridiculous:
When the small-minded animal emotions are less in our face, the more advanced emotions of the Higher Beingâlove, compassion, humility, empathy, etc.âbegin to light up.
The good news is thereâs no learning required to be on Step 2âyour Higher Being already knows the context around all of these life situations. It doesnât take hard work, and no additional information or expertise is neededâyou only have to consciously think about being on Step 2 instead of Step 1 and youâre there. Youâre probably there right now just by reading this.
The bad news is that itâs extremely hard to stay on Step 2 for long. The Catch-22 here is that itâs not easy to stay conscious of the fog because the fog makes you unconscious.
Thatâs the first challenge at hand. You canât get rid of the fog, and you canât always keep it thin, but you can get better at noticing when itâs thick and develop effective strategies for thinning it out whenever you consciously focus on it. If youâre evolving successfully, as you get older, you should be spending more and more time on Step 2 and less and less on Step 1.
Step 3: Shocking Reality
I . . . a universe of atoms . . . an atom in the universe. âRichard Feynman
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Step 3 is when things start to get weird. Even on the more enlightened Step 2, we kind of think weâre here:
As delightful as that is, itâs a complete delusion. We live our days as if weâre just here on this green and brown land with our blue sky and our chipmunks and our caterpillars. But this is actually whatâs happening:
But even more actually, this is happening:
We also tend to kind of think this is the situation:
When really, itâs this:
You might even think youâre a thing. Do you?
No youâre a ton of these:
This is the next iteration of truth on our little staircase, and our brains canât really handle it. Asking a human to internalize the vastness of space or the eternity of time or the tininess of atoms is like asking a dog to stand up on its hind legsâyou can do it if you focus, but itâs a strain and you canât hold it for very long.3
You can think about the facts anytimeâThe Big Bang was 13.8 billion years ago, which is about 130,000 times longer than humans have existed; if the sun were a ping pong ball in New York, the closest star to us would be a ping pong ball in Atlanta; the Milky Way is so big that if you made a scale model of it that was the size of the US, you would still need a microscope to see the sun; atoms are so small that there are about as many atoms in one grain of salt as there are grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth. But once in a while, when you deeply reflect on one of these facts, or when youâre in the right late night conversation with the right person, or when youâre staring at the stars, or when you think too hard about what death actually meansâyou have a Whoa moment.
A true Whoa moment is hard to come by and even harder to maintain for very long, like our dogâs standing difficulties. Thinking about this level of reality is like looking at an amazing photo of the Grand Canyon; a Whoa moment is like being at the Grand Canyonâthe two experiences are similar but somehow vastly different. Facts can be fascinating, but only in a Whoa moment does your brain actually wrap itself around true reality. In a Whoa moment, your brain for a second transcends what itâs been built to do and offers you a brief glimpse into the astonishing truth of our existence. And a Whoa moment is how you get to Step 3.
I love Whoa moments. They make me feel some intense combination of awe, elation, sadness, and wonder. More than anything, they make me feel ridiculously, profoundly humbleâand that level of humility does weird things to a person. In those moments, all those words religious people useâawe, worship, miracle, eternal connectionâmake perfect sense. I want to get on my knees and surrender. This is when I feel spiritual.
And in those fleeting moments, there is no fogâmy Higher Being is in full flow and can see everything in perfect clarity. The normally-complicated world of morality is suddenly crystal clear, because the only fathomable emotions on Step 3 are the most high-level. Any form of pettiness or hatred is a laughable concept up on Step 3âwith no fog to obscure things, the animals are completely naked, exposed for the sad little creatures that they are.
On Step 1, I snap back at the rude cashier, who had the nerve to be a dick to me. On Step 2, the rudeness doesnât faze me because I know itâs about him, not me, and that I have no idea what his day or life has been like. On Step 3, I see myself as a miraculous arrangement of atoms in vast space that for a split second in endless eternity has come together to form a moment of consciousness that is my lifeâŚand I see that cashier as another moment of consciousness that happens to exist on the same speck of time and space that I do. And the only possible emotion I could have for him on Step 3 is love.
In a Whoa momentâs transcendent level of consciousness, I see every interaction, every motivation, every news headline in unusual clarityâand difficult life decisions are much more obvious. I feel wise.
Of course, if this were my normal state, Iâd be teaching monks somewhere on a mountain in Myanmar, and Iâm not teaching any monks anywhere because itâs not my normal state. Whoa moments are rare and very soon after one, Iâm back down here being a human again. But the emotions and the clarity of Step 3 are so powerful, that even after you topple off the step, some of it sticks around. Each time you humiliate the animals, a little bit of their future power over you is diminished. And thatâs why Step 3 is so importantâeven though no one that I know can live permanently on Step 3, regular visits help you dramatically in the ongoing Step 1 vs Step 2 battle, which makes you a better and happier person.
Step 3 is also the answer to anyone who accuses atheists of being amoral or cynical or nihilistic, or wonders how atheists find any meaning in life without the hope and incentive of an afterlife. Thatâs a Step 1 way to view an atheist, where life on Earth is taken for granted and itâs assumed that any positive impulse or emotion must be due to circumstances outside of life. On Step 3, I feel immensely lucky to be alive and canât believe how cool it is that Iâm a group of atoms that can think about atomsâon Step 3, life itself is more than enough to make me excited, hopeful, loving, and kind. But Step 3 is only possible because science has cleared the way there, which is why Carl Sagan said that âscience is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.â In this way, science is the âprophetâ of this frameworkâthe one who reveals new truth to us and gives us an opportunity to alter ourselves by accessing it.
So to recap so farâon Step 1, youâre in a delusional bubble that Step 2 pops. On Step 2, thereâs much more clarity about life, but itâs within a much bigger delusional bubble, one that Step 3 pops. But Step 3 is supposed to be total, fog-free clarity on truthâso how could there be another step?
Step 4: The Great Unknown
If we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed. âCarl Sagan
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The game so far has for the most part been clearing out fog to become as conscious as possible of what we as people and as a species know about truth:
On Step 4, weâre reminded of the complete truthâwhich is this:
The fact is, any discussion of our full realityâof the truth of the universe or our existenceâis a complete delusion without acknowledging that big purple blob that makes up almost all of that reality.
But you know humansâthey donât like that purple blob one bit. Never have. The blob frightens and humiliates humans, and we have a rich history of denying its existence entirely, which is like living on the beach and pretending the ocean isnât there. Instead, we just stamp our foot and claim that now weâve finally figured it all out. On the religious side, we invent myths and proclaim them as truthâand even a devout religious believer reading this who stands by the truth of their particular book would agree with me about the fabrication of the other few thousand books out there. On the science front, weâve managed to be consistently gullible in believing that ârealizing youâve been horribly wrong about realityâ is a phenomenon only of the past.
Having our understanding of reality overturned by a new groundbreaking discovery is like a shocking twist in this epic mystery novel humanity is reading, and scientific progress is regularly dotted with these twistsâthe Earth being round, the solar system being heliocentric, not geocentric, the discovery of subatomic particles or galaxies other than our own, and evolutionary theory, to name a few. So how is it possible, with the knowledge of all those breakthroughs, that Lord Kelvin, one of historyâs greatest scientists, said in the year 1900, âThere is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurementâ4âi.e. this time, all the twists actually are finished.
Of course, Kelvin was as wrong as every other arrogant scientist in historyâthe theory of general relativity and then the theory of quantum mechanics would both topple science on its face over the next century.
Even if we acknowledge today that there will be more twists in the future, weâre probably kind of inclined to think weâve figured out most of the major things and have a far closer-to-complete picture of reality than the people who thought the Earth was flat. Which, to me, sounds like this:
The fact is, letâs remember that we donât know what the universe is. Is it everything? Is it one tiny bubble in a multiverse frothing with bubbles? Is it not a bubble at all but an optical illusion hologram? And we know about the Big Bang, but was that the beginning of everything? Did something arise from nothing, or was it just the latest in a long series of expansion/collapse cycles?5 We have no clue what dark matter is, only that thereâs a shit-ton of it in the universe, and when we discussed The Fermi Paradox, it became entirely clear that science has no idea about whether thereâs other life out there or how advanced it might be. How about String Theory, which claims to be the secret to unifying the two grand but seemingly-unrelated theories of the physical world, general relativity and quantum mechanics? Itâs either the grandest theory weâve ever come up with or totally false, and there are great scientists on both sides of this debate. And as laypeople, all we need to do is take a look at those two well-accepted theories to realize how vastly different reality can be from how it seems: like general relativity telling us that if you flew to a black hole and circled around it a few times in intense gravity and then returned to Earth a few hours after you left, decades would have passed on Earth while you were gone. And thatâs like an ice cream cone compared to the insane shit quantum mechanics tells usâlike two particles across the universe from one another being mysteriously linked to each otherâs behavior, or a cat thatâs both alive and dead at the same time, until you look at it.
And the thing is, everything I just mentioned is still within the realm of our understanding. As we established earlier, compared to a more evolved level of consciousness, we might be like a three-year-old, a monkey, or an antâso why would we assume that weâre even capable of understanding everything in that purple blob? A monkey canât understand that the Earth is a round planet, let alone that the solar system, galaxy, or universe exists. You could try to explain it to a monkey for years and it wouldnât be possible. So what are we completely incapable of grasping even if a more intelligent species tried its hardest to explain it to us? Probably almost everything.
There are really two options when thinking about the big, big picture: be humble or be absurd.
The nonsensical thing about humans feigning certainty because weâre scared is that in the old days, when it seemed on the surface that we were the center of all creation, uncertainty was frightening because it made our reality seem so much bleaker than we had thoughtâbut now, with so much more uncovered, things look highly bleak for us as people and as a species, so our fear should welcome uncertainty. Given my default outlook that I have a small handful of decades left and then an eternity of nonexistence, the fact that we might be totally wrong sounds tremendously hopeful to me.
Ironically, when my thinking reaches the top of this rooted-in-atheism staircase, the notion that something that seems divine to us might exist doesnât seem so ridiculous anymore. Iâm still totally atheist when it comes to all human-created conceptions of a divine higher forceâwhich all, in my opinion, proclaim far too much certainty. But could a super-advanced force exist? It seems more than likely. Could we have been created by something/someone bigger than us or be living as part of a simulation without realizing it? SureâIâm a three-year-old, remember, so who am I to say no?
To me, complete rational logic tells me to be atheist about all of the Earthâs religions and utterly agnostic about the nature of our existence or the possible existence of a higher being. I donât arrive there via any form of faith, just by logic.
I find Step 4 mentally mind-blowing but Iâm not sure Iâm ever quite able to access it in a spiritual way like I sometimes can with Step 3âStep 4 Whoa moments might be reserved for Einstein-level thinkersâbut even if I canât get my feet up on Step 4, I can know itâs there, what it means, and I can remind myself of its existence. So what does that do for me as a human?
Well remember that powerful humility I mentioned in Step 3? It multiplies that by 100. For reasons I just discussed, it makes me feel more hopeful. And it leaves me feeling pleasantly resigned to the fact that I will never understand whatâs going on, which makes me feel like I can take my hand off the wheel, sit back, relax, and just enjoy the ride. In this way, I think Step 4 can make us live more in the presentâif Iâm just a molecule floating around an ocean I canât understand, I might as well just enjoy it.
The way Step 4 can serve humanity is by helping to crush the notion of certainty. Certainty is primitive, leads to âus versus themâ tribalism, and starts wars. We should be united in our uncertainty, not divided over fabricated certainty. And the more humans turn around and look at that big purple blob, the better off weâll be.
Why Wisdom is the Goal
Nothing clears fog like a deathbed, which is why itâs then that people can always see with more clarity what they should have done differentlyâI wish I had spent less time working; I wish I had communicated with my wife more; I wish I had traveled more; etc. The goal of personal growth should be to gain that deathbed clarity while your life is still happening so you can actually do something about it.
The way you do that is by developing as much wisdom as possible, as early as possible. To me, wisdom is the most important thing to work towards as a human. Itâs the big objectiveâthe umbrella goal under which all other goals fall into place. I believe I have one and only one chance to live, and I want to do it in the most fulfilled and meaningful way possibleâthatâs the best outcome for me, and I do a lot more good for the world that way. Wisdom gives people the insight to know what âfulfilled and meaningfulâ actually means and the courage to make the choices that will get them there.
And while life experience can contribute to wisdom, I think wisdom is mostly already in all of our headsâitâs everything the Higher Being knows. When weâre not wise, itâs because we donât have access to the Higher Beingâs wisdom because itâs buried in fog. The fog is anti-wisdom, and when you move up the staircase into a clearer place, wisdom is simply a by-product of that increased consciousness.
One thing I learned at some point is that growing old or growing tall is not the same as growing up. Being a grownup is about your level of wisdom and the size of your mindâs scopeâand it turns out that it doesnât especially correlate with age. After a certain age, growing up is about overcoming your fog, and thatâs about the person, not the age. I know some supremely wise older people, but there are also a lot of people my age who seem much wiser than their parents about a lot of things. Someone on a growth path whose fog thins as they age will become wiser with age, but I find the reverse happens with people who donât actively growâthe fog hardens around them and they actually become even less conscious, and even more certain about everything, with age.
When I think about people I know, I realize that my level of respect and admiration for a person is almost entirely in line with how wise and conscious a person I think they are. The people I hold in the highest regard are the grownups in my lifeâand their ages completely vary.
Another Look at Religion in Light of this Framework:
This discussion helps clarify my issues with traditional organized religion. There are plenty of good people, good ideas, good values, and good wisdom in the religious world, but to me that seems like something happening in spite of religion and not because of it. Using religion for growth requires an innovative take on things, since at a fundamental level, most religions seem to treat people like children instead of pushing them to grow. Many of todayâs religions play to peopleâs fog with âbelieve in this or elseâŚâ fear-mongering and books that are often a rallying cry for âus vs. themâ divisiveness. They tell people to look to ancient scripture for answers instead of the depths of the mind, and their stubborn certainty when it comes to right and wrong often leaves them at the back of the pack when it comes to the evolution of social issues. Their certainty when it comes to history ends up actively pushing their followers away from truthâas evidenced by the 42% of Americans who have been deprived of knowing the truth about evolution. (An even worse staircase criminal is the loathsome world of American politics, with a culture that lives on Step 1 and where politicians appeal directly to peopleâs animals, deliberately avoiding anything on Steps 2-4.)
So What Am I?
Yes, Iâm an atheist, but atheism isnât a growth model any more than âI donât like rollerbladingâ is a workout strategy.
So Iâm making up a term for what I amâIâm a Truthist. In my framework, truth is what Iâm always looking for, truth is what I worship, and learning to see truth more easily and more often is what leads to growth.
In Truthism, the goal is to grow wiser over time, and wisdom falls into your lap whenever youâre conscious enough to see the truth about people, situations, the world, or the universe. The fog is what stands in your way, making you unconscious, delusional, and small-minded, so the key day-to-day growth strategy is staying cognizant of the fog and training your mind to try to see the full truth in any situation.
Over time, you want your [Time on Step 2] / [Time on Step 1] ratio to go up a little bit each year, and you want to get better and better at inducing Step 3 Whoa moments and reminding yourself of the Step 4 purple blob. If you do those things, I think youâre evolving in the best possible way, and it will have profound effects on all aspects of your life.
Thatâs it. Thatâs Truthism.
Am I a good Truthist? Iâm okay. Better than I used to be with a long way to go. But defining this framework will helpâIâll know where to put my focus, what to be wary of, and how to evaluate my progress, which will help me make sure Iâm actually improving and lead to quicker growth.
To help keep me on mission, I made a Truthism logo:
Thatâs my symbol, my mantra, my WWJDâitâs the thing I can look at when something good or bad happens, when a big decision is at hand, or on a normal day as a reminder to stay aware of the fog and keep my eye on the big picture.
And What Are You?
My challenge to you is to decide on a term for yourself that accurately sums up your growth framework.
If Christianity is your thing and itâs genuinely helping you grow, that word can be Christian. Maybe you already have your own clear, well-defined advancement strategy and you just need a name for it. Maybe Truthism hit home for you, resembles the way you already think, and you want to try being a Truthist with me.
Or maybe you have no idea what your growth framework is, or what youâre using isnât working. If either A) you donât feel like youâve evolved in a meaningful way in the past couple years, or B) you arenât able to corroborate your values and philosophies with actual reasoning that matters to you, then you need to find a new framework.
To do this, just ask yourself the same questions I asked myself: Whatâs the goal that you want to evolve towards (and why is that the goal), what does the path look like that gets you there, whatâs in your way, and how do you overcome those obstacles? What are your practices on a day-to-day level, and what should your progress look like year-to-year? Most importantly, how do you stay strong and maintain the practice for years and years, not four days? After youâve thought that through, name the framework and make a symbol or mantra. (Then share your strategy in the comments or email me about it, because articulating it helps clarify it in your head, and because itâs useful and interesting for others to hear about your framework.)
I hope Iâve convinced you how important this is. Donât wait until your deathbed to figure out what life is all about.
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Three other Wait But Why posts about things we should try to remember every day: