Author: admin
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Consciousness & the nature of reality
I almost didn’t post this video.
Actually that’s not true:
I almost posted it, then didn’t, then almost posted it again, then didn’t.
But a few minutes ago I said fxck it, let it fly.
The clip comes from a fan-favorite session we held at our retreat last summer, on:
Consciousness & the nature of reality.
After 11 years of training in plant medicine and the internal arts, I have a lot to say on the topic.
But I rarely talk about it, because only a small segment of my audience is interested.
So if you’re one of the rare and weird few who’s into this stuff, salute:
This one’s for you.
– T
P.S. If you want to see more of this type of material, hit reply or drop a comment to let me know.
We have tons of clips in the vault I’ve never released on spirituality, consciousness, reality, and all sorts of wild and whacky sh*t that melts most people’s minds.
If there’s enough interest I’ll drop a few more.
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Psychobabble
“I’m tired, boss. Tired of being on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. I’m tired of never having a buddy to be with, or tell me where we’s coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I’m tired of people being ugly to each other.”
And from the wise words of John Coffey, The Green Mile…
I agree.
Stepping away from the internet for a few weeks really does a number on you.
People talking about dopamine detoxes? Sure this helps massively but what they don’t mention is that you look around in the real world and compare things to online (really compare it) and it’s like night and day in terms of comparison.
And the people being ugly to each other is massively amplified and I mean massively.
Was I part of the problem? Hell yeah. Some days I was the whole problem (and when it comes to bullying the AI nerds, that’ll always be the case) but in general. I was 100% ugly to people in a lot of cases. Was I too reactive? Definitely.
I think that’s where we all get stuck. We react to a lot things, mainly cause there’s a lot of things to react to.
Which on paper sounds really fucking dumb, but it’s true.
But where do we go from there? Do we all get together in person and snort a massive line of empathy together? (That would probably work) although it’s not practical.
Although what we can start doing more actively, is stop reacting to everything that happens online, even if we are online.
There’s a time and a place to unleash pure wrath on someone/thing but holding your breath or your fingers before you go wild is the next best thing.
(If you’re seeing someone getting dog piled, who can’t defend themselves. By all means step in)
But if you’re just watching and seeing things unfold. Sitting back and having a little bit more patience and understanding is key.
I’m also definitely not saying that you should give up standing up for what you believe in. All I’m saying is that watch how everything is unfolding online before you chime in. Think and sleep on it and more often than not, when you’ve done that. It works like magic. You’ll notice that your genuine intent for not giving a fuck really kicks in.
Let the rage baiters and political turds keep being ugly to each other, while we sit back and watch it burn a little before offering valid ideas/critiques (And only in circumstances that are justified do we crucify and go full metal jacket on them)
I’ve found just being me. Writing words and working on cool shit keeps me at bay from all of the psychobabble online.
Stephen Walker.
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Stephen Walker, Unit 146317, PO Box 7169, Poole, BH15 9EL, United Kingdom
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sorry I vanished
…but I’m back and want to hear everything.
Hey…
I know I should’ve told you I was vanishing for a short while, but honestly, I didn’t plan it. One day I just looked at my screen and felt this overwhelming urge to throw my computer into the nearest body of water.
So I did the next best thing.
I went completely offline for three weeks.
No social media. No email. No content creation. No endless scrolling through other people’s thoughts about other people’s thoughts. Just me, some books, a lot of staring at walls, and the increasingly foreign concept of being genuinely bored. Oh and a metric shit tonne of caffeine.
It was exactly what I didn’t know I needed funnily enough.
The first few days are brutal. Your brain keeps reaching for that dopamine hit that comes from notifications, likes, comments, the constant stream of external validation that we’ve all become addicted to without realising it.
Then something interesting happens around day four or five. The mental chatter starts to settle. You stop thinking in tweet sized chunks. Your attention span remembers how to focus on one thing for longer than thirty seconds. You start having thoughts that haven’t been influenced by whatever controversy is trending this week. (god damn rage baiters, uninstalling the twitter app off my phone was honestly one of the best things.)
By week two, I was actually thinking original thoughts again instead of just reacting to other people’s content. I was asking myself questions I’d been too distracted to ask: What do I actually want to create? What problems am I genuinely passionate about solving? (yes I used the word passionate. BITE ME) What would I write about if I wasn’t trying to optimise for engagement?
The boredom was a crucial step. We’ve become so afraid of being unstimulated that we never give our brains the space to wander, to make unexpected connections, to stumble across ideas that only emerge in the quiet moments between clacking away on the keyboard or at our phones.
I sat with that boredom until it turned into clarity. And while it was difficult to figure out. Lots of false starts, circular thinking, and moments of “what the hell am I even doing with my life”, the little hiatus was completely worth it.
I came back with a clearer sense of direction, renewed energy which is wild cause I generally have so much energy anyways, and a much healthier relationship with the online world that had been slowly consuming my mental bandwidth.
But with all that being said. Thank you to everyone who emailed and checked in to see if I was still alive. Seriously, it means more than you know. Getting those “where the hell did you go?” messages reminded me that there are real humans on the other side of this screen, people who actually give a shit about more than just consuming content.
Now I want to hear from you. While I was off having my detox revelation, you were all living your actual lives, and I’m genuinely curious…
Did you survive without me? (lol, but also genuinely, did you miss these emails or were you secretly relieved to have one less thing in your inbox?)
What wins did you have? Big or small, I want to hear about the things that went right. The projects you finished, the conversations that mattered, the moments when you felt like you were actually getting somewhere.
What shit punched you in the face? What kicked your ass? What problems are you wrestling with? What’s keeping you up at night or making you question everything?
Have you watched or read anything new and interesting? I’m always looking for recommendations, especially for things that make you think differently or see the world from a new angle. I did manage to binge Mayor of Kingstown and man, that was mental.
Hit reply and tell me what I missed. As always. I reply to everyone I can. One of the benefits of taking a break is remembering that conversations are more valuable than constantly blasting stuff out into the internet.
Good to be back.
Stephen Walker.
P.S. All will slowly be revealed in time.
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Stephen Walker, Unit 146317, PO Box 7169, Poole, BH15 9EL, United Kingdom
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Today, I’m going to read your mind.
Today, I’m going to read your mind.
And your job is to not let me.
Up for the challenge?
If you just answered yes, the game has already begun — and you’re already a step behind.
But let’s continue, because we both know you can do better than that.
After all, you’ve always known you can do better.
You know you’re capable of far more than you’ve been showing; your results are nowhere near your full potential.
And yet, you watch hundreds — thousands — of others succeeding, while you fall further behind.
You can hear the clock ticking.
You can see the window of opportunity closing.
And there are moments, when you’re tossing in bed at night, when doubt creeps in and nearly overcomes you before you wrestle it back down into the shadows of your mind and tell yourself:
No — it’s just a matter of time.
As soon as that last missing piece falls into place, all the doubt and confusion and frustration will resolve into clarity, and this dream will finally begin to become a reality.
It will, because it has to.
An average, default life is the one thing you will never accept, never tolerate, and never, ever settle for.
And you are willing to do whatever it takes — whatever it takes — to make sure that never happens.
I know you are.
Because, like I said, I’m reading your mind.
How, you ask?
Voodoo, you say?
Yes, I reply.
An ancient voodoo, in fact, that the old masters once called:
Psychology (sy-kol-oh-gee)
This dark art — “psychology” — has long been forgotten in modern times…
Buried under sophisticated modern strategies like placing emojis in subject lines and Lamborghinis in thumbnails.
And yet, the power of “psychology” lives on…
Granting the blessings of rapid growth and brand magnetism to any founder daring enough to sit down with a cup of coffee and an empty Notion document and actually think deeply about their audience’s inner experience.
That’s the key word — inner.
Not just their problems and goals, but their thoughts and emotions about those problems and goals.
In this particular case, it was easy:
All I did was think about my own inner experience growing my first business; the pressure, the doubt, the sense that I was capable of more, and all the nights I lay awake wondering if I’d ever make it.
That’s the stuff nobody talks about, but everyone struggles with.
That’s the stuff that moves people.
(and, importantly, allows you to actually help them — because you can only help someone once you understand what they’re actually going through)
Apply to your copy, your content, your outreach, your ads, and, if you’re feeling extra spicy, your girlfriend.
Really. She’ll love you for it.
- T
P.S. Nuclear-grade technique:
Describe your customer avatar to Claude, in detail, and then ask it to write a 5 paragraph inner dialogue in their voice — before, during, and after using your product or service.
(yes, it also works for girlfriends)
“When a person realizes he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. It is as though he were saying: Thank God, somebody heard me. Someone knows what it’s like to be me.” – Carl Rogers
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- T
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Dude, I think I’m broken
“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.” – Charlie Munger
One of my childhood friends, we’ll call him DJ, is the most charismatic person I’ve ever met.
True story:
He once took a bubble bath, with the door wide open, in the middle of a house party.
He didn’t come out for like three hours.
He just sat ass-naked in that tub, playing with a rubber duck and singing songs at the top of his lungs to anyone who walked by.
Anyway, I’ve never met a single person who doesn’t love DJ.
Which is why I was so shocked, a few years ago, when he told me he’d developed crippling social anxiety.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, man. When I go into work I’m terrified to talk to my employees, so I just sit alone in my office and avoid people.”
At first I thought he was fucking with me, but the look in his eyes was sincere.
“I feel like something’s broken. I never used to get anxious about anything. Now I’m anxious all the time.”
So we started brainstorming solutions…
Everything from medication to herbal supplements to resolving a hidden childhood trauma he doesn’t actually have.
Then a random thought floated through my mind:
“DJ, how much coffee are you drinking?”
“Oh, I dunno. Like six or seven cups.”
“A day? Are you fxcking kidding me?”
“Is that bad?”
“Yeah bro.”
“You think that could be the problem?”
“Yeah, bro.”
So DJ decides to cut back to one coffee a day.
A week later he texts me:
“Oh my god I feel so much better. I haven’t had anxiety all week.”
Moral of the story, DJ wasn’t broken.
He was just being an idiot.
And thankfully, that’s the case with most of our problems:
They’re rarely as daunting as they feel, and the solutions are usually much simpler than we think.
Our lack of motivation, for example, rarely comes from a deep-rooted character defect…
…It usually just comes from doom scrolling, video games and wanking too much.
Our self-doubt rarely comes from an incurable trauma we’ve been repressing our entire lives…
…It usually just comes from repeatedly breaking promises to ourselves and failing to do what we told ourselves we would do.
And our inability to focus rarely comes from a legitimate psychological condition that requires medication to fix…
…It usually just comes from too much coffee and red bull and Zyn and weed and processed sugar and brain rot content and creeping baddies on TikTok when you should be working and most of your other favorite things that don’t feel nearly as good as your dopamine-drunk brain tricks you into believing they will.
Of course, there are exceptions:
Legitimate traumas and psychological illnesses absolutely exist.
But they are far, far rarer than the simple, easy-to-solve problems we inflict on ourselves by doing the obvious wrong thing instead of the obvious right thing, over and over again.
So if you feel broken, chances are:
You’re not.
And the solution, thankfully, is much simpler than you think.
- T
P.S. This track is the solution.
“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.” – Anais Nin
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