Dear all,
Thanks for the reads throughout the year and support of the podcast. I hope we get across something slightly different from what's on offer elsewhere.
I was thinking recently about how the Bio-Individual Philosophical (BIP) outlook doesn't fit anywhere. It tends to offend or confound everyone in equal measure, whether they be optimisers, humanists, tech utopianists, warriors, moralfaginists, political theory chimps (most), spiritual types, philosophical types (most - except for one very notable exception) and the religious. This makes getting the essential message across difficult; it presupposes some kind of realisation of the silliness of it all.
Yet, despite the global flood of tears BIP assertions often create, BIP also borrows a bit from each of these things. As collectors of tools and methods, we have no real complete loyalty to any one-thing or outlook. This can be deeply disturbing to some.
Mostly, however, BIP doesn't fit because it has a different view of what man is, where he is now and where he will be going. After some consideration, this is the main point of difference.
All the groups I mentioned above share a straightforward assumption - they tend to see man as a completed project - by default. He's complete.
Problems, therefore, simply result from something outside himself "dat be keepin im' down". Sin…lack of funding for the disadvantaged stinky masses…not enough wars...lack of old-time homesteading…lack of spiritualism…inability to read the stars...no moral fibre….lack of that old-time morality…lack of edumuhcashun…the list of solutions goes on of things we once had when we were complete.
Of course, if you have one of these things in proper measure, or even a variation of a theme like an AI tool instead of a book, men will be "fixed", and everything will return to "normal". Because he's fully cooked and just down on his luck, right?
In a word, or a few words - an organic being in stasis.
Some in private discussions have disagreed with me on this. They say that a concept like sin implies that man is "incomplete". There is a degree of truth to this. However, they miss the fact that everyone is programmed to absolutely not view themselves or the species at large in this way. And around this wrongful assumption, all sorts of idiotic and sometimes incredibly destructive solutions are woven.
So, I think BIP will remain unpopular (or difficult to understand) because it proposes a different view of the human scumbot. A more scientific and psychological view.
A BIP guy would say that the human monkey and his governing outlooks are incorrect because he sees himself not as he is. The derived solutions never seem to work out according to their promises.
Even though the truth is all around us all the time, it is really dreadfully obvious. As we all know from our personal experience, it's comical how human beings can miss things right there in front of our faces.
So, what's the BIP view?
That we are incomplete. Unfinished. A species in transition - or on its way out? Evolving still. A dynamic ape. One that's fooled itself about what it really is.
There was no normal time before or complete being somewhere else at some other time. We are not fallen from a formerly perfect state. And like everything in this universe, we are in flux. Nothing is stable. And that Mother Nature is a gambler.
This also applies to us as individuals.
With this in mind, I want to reflect on a few things in this end-of-year Newsletter.
Even though New Year's resolutions are a little silly, it is worthwhile to run an introspective exercise every now and then. That is to reassess or even assess, to begin with, what you're you're akshually up to from time to time.
I say even assess for a very good reason.
Very often, when people approach me for discussion or questions about these modalities, it isn't clear to me they know what they're trying to do.
Indeed, when I look at my practice or pursuits as a young man, I don't think I ever bothered to think in depth about what I was up to. That's not strictly true...but my aims were just so...intangible.
Other than high flung, starry-sky aims that, if I'm being honest, were probably the result of momentary reactivity or thinking at various points resulting from various happenstance situations.
We tend to move from thing to thing, seeking out new and informationally novel pieces of "the puzzle". In fact, we know that our primitive brains are strongly programmed to act this way - so it is profoundly unsurprising that our entire lives can be defined by listless, undefined information-seeking ventures.
Most of which does nothing to make our lives better.
We can feel better, though, because our brains reward us for acting out primitive seeking patterns. But other than for losers and other hippies, what the hell use is feeling better?
In particular, spiritual types seem to suffer from this the worst because, unlike an average person, nothing they do leads anywhere. It's a case of "ok, what now?" as far as I'm concerned.
At least a few beers and a football match in the manner of normie leads you to a KFC and a full stomach.
Of course, in a primitive context, novelty-seeking and optimal levels of distraction are adaptive and confer a vital survival advantage. Hunter-gatherers need this. And that's why we have it.
As non-hunter gatherers, though, as far as I know, we should ask ourselves often, "How am I being lived by these powerful, ancient, instinctual drives? Is it helping me achieve my aims?"
"Is my constant seeking for new sexy mystical practices, explanations or theories - is this a feature of my drive towards novel information for its own sake - do I even have a goal that this is all geared towards?"
I think most people would agree that a life well lived is worthwhile. That is a tangible goal. That involves specific courses of action and making choices. Doing things.
Is this what I am doing, just a primitive brain acting out its instinctual tendencies and taking whatever me is along for the ride?
Am I making choices in the manner I think I am here?
In many cases, and I'm not being facetious - we are being lived in this way. I don't actually think many individuals in these spheres have any real idea about what it is they're doing, frankly.
What's the outcome of all of this? Do you know it's real? The promises? People online often seem utterly certain of even the most absurd and ridiculous proposals for velvety endpoints.
Is disappearing into the ether like a secret chief after opening your super-sayan dragon energy chakras something that will happen? Will you live to 1000 years old because you refuse to cum? Is the medieval conception of enlightenment accurate? Is reincarnation of "soul" actually what they meant? Is occultism actually something that works, for the most part? And if it is real, is jumping from theory to theory, book to book, and argument to argument going to get me to this place? Can I think myself into disappearing into the ether and becoming a secret chief?
Or am I simply a walking set of delusions and wishful thoughtings?
I don't really know. I suspect, but I don't know. Still, these are all questions worth asking regularly; I think about everything we do.
…it seems obvious, but I don't think it is.
In the forest, these "notice, hone in, eat & fuck” circuits are adaptive. In modern high-tech society, I think, for the most part, they are absolutely not adaptive.
The extravagance of these ancient circuits can really bare it's behind when one applies this logic to seeking, and so-called "mystical practice", "esoteric knowledge" or psycho-physiological practice.
Again - the drive towards always seeking something more wherein there'll be a tasty morsel. Myself included - many I have known that have devled to greedily and deep into such things tend to have rows and rows of books and not a whole lot else. Many of them lived in poverty or had dysfunctional relationships, but will often spit advice of a somewhat smelly moral tinge at those "less understanding" than them.
You have to ask yourself, what's been the point of it all? I mean…Indeed, they often have considered themselves better than average or superior in spiritual knowledge...but that's just thinking, right? If I really want to, I can convince myself the moon's made out of blue cheese.
Thinking about it here, it can't be much more than just more imagination, more thoughts, more models - and the individual remains precisely the same person they were before.
Just with way less time and way less potential.
So, what was the point of the practice? Did they even get a call-up to be a secret chief? A bodhisattva?
This is another way BIP differs - it demands tangible results. Because it's about living life well, on your own terms, without sugar-coating the shitshow. Being completely honest and forthright. Not making excuses, not covering things up in the deceptive guise of moral superioty. Being able to admit when you lost and accepting it. Admitting when someone is better or superior. Admitting that you don't have something but you'd like it. So much energy is expended on defending inferiority - on running away from facing it. And spiritual pursuits are very often the cover.
BIP, the great liberator, says you can have all these things the culture at large says are incompatible. Why not?
“What and why are you doing or reading it?” is something I will be asking myself more often this year.
I have started reassessing - favouring long term, executive function type goals and tasks. Physiological practice then can be seen as a means to helps me achieve these aims and to live a life worth living.
A good life - that’s a whole other topic, and another thing we should all go to great trouble to define. According to my research, only a few complimentary practices are required for this.
All other high flung pseudo-aims, strange religious conceptions (probably devised by ancient resentful schizophrenics that should have been locked up), promises of intangible secret super energy, and other dumb exotic historico-cultural oddities - I will be increasingly be pruning and discarding.
All in the name of the pursuit of elegance and simplicity - more on this next week.
I hear the scoffing.
Remember this - when it comes to any true practice, simplicity is not so simple.
So why make something harder than what it needs to be, by throwing even more unnecessary layers on top, as sexy as they may sound?
More on this next week.
I hope you’ve found this interesting, and best wishes for the new year.