Hello,
What's On My Mind is a weekly newsletter where I share some of my thoughts, stories, and ideas to raise awareness; enable personal growth; nourish an open mind; encourage self-discovery; and empowering myself and others with individual responsibility.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" - Martin Luther King, Jr.
I hope you find them of any use.
In this weekly newsletter I wanted to share some of my thoughts, stories and ideas about the current pandemic. 
How did we get here
I believe that since we moved away from our natural environment, physically and mentally, we inevitably created our own prison. Turning ourselves in captive animals, like broiler, by moving in to large cities with centralized power. If you objectively observe the problems that occurs amongst packed animals in captivation, you'll find that they share a lot of similarities with human health problems. (Side note: we also treat the problems the same way). Because this is causing a lot of suffering we created our own way to deal with them, acting like blindfolds. Blindfolds like the current monetary, entertainment and educational systems to keep you distracted from the real issues. Over time we forgot about the blindfold. Thus, we are aimlessly running around the prison hurting ourselves, and bumping in to each other. Blaming and fighting others, instead of taking the blindfold off to truly see. All of this has led to an endless fictional battle, unnecesarry suffering, and madness with stagnation and degeneration as a result.
The situation we are in now
And here we are, justifying the situation with tooth and nail. Refussing to accept reality. Because we are all bruised up from running around blindfolded and beating each other up we have stagnated and degenerated as a species. Resulting, among other things, in a malfunctioning immunesystem. Virusses and things like cancer take advantage of that lowered defence. As they always do. Along side our bodies, our minds have also degenerated. As a result most people can't think in a clear, objective way to make their own desicions. Just like a virus or cancer those in power, like organisations and governments, take advantage of this lowered mental defense. As they always do. Therefore, the problem isn't the virus, the cancer, the organisation, or the government. The root cause of the problem are those who give room to these oppertunistic entities to rise to the surface and take foothold.
Those who fall asleep in a democracy might wake up in a dictatorship.
Instead of looking at the underlying problems we use medication to suppresses the syptoms and propaganda to justify them. Making things worse. I have always been baffled by the fact of how many people rather treat the symptoms over and over again, instead of looking at the underlying problems. The worst of all is that the current system is designed to maintain this because they are benefitting from it. Lets take the current pandemic as an example. Instead of having a real solution, looking at the underlying problems, we keep people sick and give them a 'medicine' to treat the symptoms and allowing those in power to implement a system of control on top of that. A real cure doesn't lead towards profit or power, it provides freedom.
A real and honest approach should start with stating the fact that these things, like a pandemic, happen and that they are more severe to those that are most funerable. We know that the most funerable people in this situation are those with a lowered immunesystem. We can deploy a tactic that provides focussed protection to those that are funerable, prevention for those concidered having a elevated risk of becoming funerable and for those that are having a proper functioning immunesystem we should make sure that it stays that way. This tactic should take in consideration the fact that humans have certain needs in order to reach or maintain proper health, like the 9 fundamentals.
The true pandemic...
Is one of perspective. Looking at the world from a dualistic perspective, our ego, makes us label everything in good vs bad, pro vs anti. This can be helpful in times of accute danger. It instantly gives us the information of fight or flight. The problems start if we only percieve reality from this perspective. Thus, missing the bigger picture. The way out of this is to transcend our ego, our fear and seeing the bigger picture by taking off the blindfold.
Teachings & Insights
The things you see only when you slow down.
page 180
Any social phenomenon is difficult to generalize. Its causes are embedded in a complex web of history, culture, politics, and economics. If someone explains a social phenomenon in simple terms, he is either an expert of a fool.
page 195
A foolish person thinks, "I already know that." He keeps anything new from coming into his mind. A wise person thinks, "I don't know the whole story." She opens herself up to even greater wisdom.
Page 228
Some people would like to have all their decisions made for them - hence the opportunity for charismatic cult leaders to take advantage of them.
Short Video
Unlock the creative light-force within. - Dr. Zach Bush
Fake world
Dualism is a concept describing the general human tendency to split things up into two opposing parts. We observe dualism in nature: there’s night and day, male and female, hot and cold, big and small, tall and short. In an emotional sense, we tend to sort things into twos as well: happiness and sadness, mania and depression, focus and unfocus, love and hate. Even mythically we like to split stuff into binaries. There’s man and god, winner and loser, the sacred and the profane, the dionysian and the apollonian, the erotic and the thanatotic. The list goes on.
These oppositions help us get through our lives in the same way the proton and electron of an atom chase each other around, creating a fundamental energy beneath everything we see. They are the truths on which all our abstractions are based. There are a million metaphors we could draw from in the natural world. Dualism, on the surface, seems to be an adequate representation of reality. It’s the easiest one to grasp.
What we learn from Taoism and Zen, however, is that there’s something beyond dualism. Dualism is an intriguing way of diagnosing and solving problems and experiencing metaphor, and of course has a use, but it isn’t an adequate blueprint for understanding the fundamental essence of things. We start to understand that essence better in meditation, through total honesty and genuine examination of truth. Eventually we surpass dualism and find something more nuanced and real.
The Tao tells us that the way to transcend dualism is to understand that these concepts aren’t opposites. They aren’t in opposition. They are in cahoots- two sides of the same coin, rather than two opposing coins. As such, we can’t have X without Y. Dualism conversely says, “we either have X or Y”. In a way the Tao is a synthesis of the poles of each duality. In this sense we’re experiencing these fused “opposites” at all times and can direct our attention to this. It’s the philosophical equivalent to the spinning electron. The poles are always moving and shifting and we can never keep up, so we should stop trying to grasp at point A or point B. It’s a pure whole rather than something reliant on something else.
When we see the fundamental unity of all things and all concepts, suffering doesn’t feel as desperate. Happiness doesn’t feel as fleeting. Good and evil rely on one another, feed on one another, and create the weird grey area that exists between them, and everything else beyond. We feel less of a need to resist, to fight and to challenge the organic functionings of nature, time, and space. The thing to remember is that in dualism we assume concepts exist in isolation, opposing one another. But in the Tao there is no isolation. Everything is connected and reliant on everything else. How can we feel hopeless or desperate when we’re integral to the functioning of everything, no matter what happens? And how can we feel too egotistical when we’re just as significant (or insignificant) as a leaf, an ant, or the person we oppose ourselves to? There’s an Italian proverb: at the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back into the same box. Same with the Tao; there’s no distinctions. There’s nothing to chase. And oddly, when you stop chasing so desperately, the world tends to come to you.
That’s the point, and it is really nicely illustrated in that atomic example. In a static, fake world, there is A and B. There are pure opposites. There are simple explanations: happiness and sadness, success and failure, etc. But in an entropic world, in which matter is always trying to exit from its vessels and nothing is ever left unchanged, we must accept a more nuanced view of things. Nothing is as it seems, nor is it otherwise. As soon as you grasp what you’re chasing, it morphs into something else. So stop pretending you live in a static world, a world of pure opposites. When we overcome dualism in this way, we overcome precisely what makes life feel unnatural— ourselves.
Quote
"Our society tends to regard as a sickness any mode of thought or behavior that is inconvenient for the system and this is plausible because when an individual doesn't fit into the system it causes pain to the individual as well as problems for the system. Thus the manipulation of an individual to adjust him to the system is seen as a cure for a sickness and therefore as good."
Theodore Kaczynski "Unabomber"
Short Video
How to have a life worth living. - Jordan Peterson
Fundamentals - updated version of the 9 fundamentals.
I believe that if we balance these 9 fundamentals - in combination with the 3 Constants and the 6 Teachings & Insights- we can create a situation where we can manifest the best version of ourselves. Creating the possibilty to enrich our lives and those of others. The 9 Fundamentals are part of the Alignment guide I am working on (almost done!).
Curiousity
Something that makes life worth living for
*
Thoughts
Clearity
*
Breath
A way of being in the here and now
*
Water
Clean and sufficient
*
Nutrition
Eat real, local, seasonal nutrition in moderation
*
Nature
The ecosystem we are part of
*
Rest
Recover and harmonize
*
Movement
Use it or lose it
*
Relationships
Modesty, forgivenenss and speaking your truth
Podcast - Lex Fridman
Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration. The Great Barrington Declaration is a statement advocating an alternative approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Did you know...
For the ancient Babylonians, most illnesses were thought to be the result of demonic forces or punishment by the gods for past misdeeds. Doctors often had more in common with priests and exorcists than modern physicians, and their cures usually involved some component of magic. For example, if a patient ground their teeth, the healer might suspect that the ghost of a deceased family member was trying to contact them as they slept. According to ancient necromantic texts, the doctor would recommend sleeping by a human skull for a week as a way of exorcising the spirit. To ensure this disturbing treatment worked, the tooth-grinder was also instructed to kiss and lick the skull seven times each night.
Makes you wonder what current "facts" will turn out to be misinterpretations in the near future.
Hope
I believe the current system is done and there is no point in reviving if. Every day more people are taking the blindfolds off and are noticing the same thing. It will destroy itself by design. They know it, you know, we all know it. Yet, power isn't given up easily. So, the old system is playing its last trick: tyranny. Unfortunatly they overplayed their hand and people can see the bs we have been spoonfed for so many years. The educational system, the economy, the way we farm our food and look at our health, and many more aspects of the current system are getting outdated. Every day people are turning their backs to the old system and are moving in another direction. We are at the start of a transformation, a peacefull revolution. Rebuilding a new decentralized society. But, before we get there we will go through a difficult period. A period where we need hope.
Because of several reasons I have made the conscious desicion to not have childern now or in the forseeable future. But, the other day I visited friends and their beautiful newly born daughter. Seeing the innocence in a baby's eyes is something special. It truly is. Although it's not my child, I can't ignore the fact that looking in those eyes gave me a feeling of hope. The hope of a better future for this new generation. That feeling of hope did inspire me to put even more time and energy in the projects I am currently working on. With the personal hope that one day we live in a future where I do want to raise a child. If not, than atleast I had a noble aim, something worth living for. Without hope, we have nothing. Therefore, I am grateful for the experience that reignited the hope within me.
My list of daily supplements
Using artificial medications and supplements on a daily base is not normal. It means that your own body and mind, for whatever reason, isn't flexible enough to return to homeostasis (proper health). This means your sick. Your sick, I am sick and that's ok. But, it's not normal! They shouldn't be part of our daily routine. Having said that, the reality is that we are living in a sick world and we sometimes need help until we have made a conscious desicion to turn back to nature so we can rely on our own body and mind. During this pandemic I have been extending my list of supplements on top of an already existing healthy diet to boost my immunesystem further. Boosting your immunesystem with food and supplements to prevent severe illness from covid is an under reported fact. Prevention should be a key element!
My daily intake:
Vitamine D3 - 9000 IU (I take a higher dose because of my psoriasis. Studies suggest supplementing daily with 900-1000 IU is enough.)
Vitamine K2 - 150mcg (75mcg per 5000 IU D3 )
Vitamine C - 2000 mg
Magnesium - 400 mg
Zink - 10 mg
Calcium - 200 mg
Selenium - 10 mcg
Omega-3 algea oil - 250-500 mg
B12 - 1000 mcg
Before you supplement I recommend you to talk to your doctor and ask for a bloodtest.
Here are some resources (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Podcast - Joe Rogan
Dr. Robert Malone is the inventor of the nine original mRNA vaccine patents, which were originally filed in 1989 (including both the idea of mRNA vaccines and the original proof of principle experiments) and RNA transfection. Dr. Malone, has close to 100 peer-reviewed publications which have been cited over 12,000 times. Since January 2020, Dr. Malone has been leading a large team focused on clinical research design, drug development, computer modeling and mechanisms of action of repurposed drugs for the treatment of COVID-19.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SCsueX2bZdbEzRtKOCEyT?si=Qi24H77nSLeEYWtXpptow&utmsource=copy-link
The way forward
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." - A. Einstein. Lockdown after lockdown, booster after booster, promise after promise, election after election every time we are suppose to believe that this time things will get better. They won't get better untill we take off our blindfolds in order to see the real problems and come up with real solutions. It all starts with personal responsibility. Taking off our blindfolds to see what is what in order to pick up the pieces, learn from our mistakes and start building a new future. A future where we can live in harmony with each other, nature and the universe. That future starts with you. It is your choice. And your choice does matter.
“Morpheus: I imagine that right now, you're feeling a bit like Alice. Hmm? Tumbling down the rabbit hole?
Neo: You could say that.
Morpheus: I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Neo: The Matrix.
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
Neo: Yes.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.”
- Morpheus, The Matrix
Short Video - Plato's Cave
Thank you for your spending your valuable time on reading this newsletter. Your support is much appreciated.
Joey van Tilburg
