American Samsāra

The hypnotic, trances, and the state of the American slave.

~15 years ago I was on the subway and noticed that everyone in the car was staring at their phone for the entire ride. Nobody looked up once. I realized I was one person watching over a group of people who were completely lost in a world that I wasn’t in, that I had power over them and they didn’t know it. I was more aware of myself and my surroundings than they were. I could slap their phone out of their hand, or worse, and they wouldn’t see it coming. This took place before ‘Black Mirror’ debuted, so the dystopian feel was very distinct at the time. Now, the situation I’m describing is the norm. Phone Addiction, or more accurately, Screen Addiction, is expected in 2024.

Screen addiction means something different for everyone. When it comes to X, you could become addicted to posting (me), addicted to scrolling (lurkers) or addicted to gossiping in group chats (faggots). I’m not a TikTok guy, but the few times I have used it, I quickly noticed their algorithm is pristine because the recommendations are extremely personalized. An infinite stream of young hot skinny girls? I had to delete the app quickly. I know my limits.

Then there’s screen addictions I can’t relate to. Some people get addicted to watching vlogs. Watching someone else describe their day-to-day life. Some get addicted to video game streaming, a phenomenon I truly can’t wrap my head around. My video game era was pre-internet and ended when I hit puberty, so I just cannot relate.

Some people get addicted to porn. I never had a problem with porn (in terms of watching too often) and haven’t watched it in years, but I understand the cycle. Really, it’s an addiction to depression and feeling cucked, but that’s another subject entirely.

Regardless of the poison, a lot of people live their lives entirely on their phones now. It’s easy to do that. You could wake up, check your notifications, check your group chats, do work on the internet while scrolling social media, order delivery then use the internet for the rest of the night until you die. Most people live their lives like this now. Even worse, most people’s entire perception of the world, and ultimately who they end up becoming, is entirely shaped by which part of the internet they’re consuming.

Americans Are The Walking Dead

I feel disgust towards boring people. Not to kiss my own ass, but I have an impeccable ability to read people. I look at someone for a millisecond and can figure them out on a gut level almost instantly, pending they’re not very unique. It’s pretty rare that I meet genuinely interesting people. Most people are kind of just…there. They’re alive, they have a pulse. But I can tell they either don’t have much to say or don’t have the courage to say what they want to say. Most people I meet are trapped under layers of self-imposed (even if culturally-induced) fear of being themselves, stress, and anxiety. That’s an extremely American quality. I’m not trying to say everyone outside of America is exciting and interesting, but it’s far too easy to find Americans who can best be described as boring and exhausted.

Most people I see died a long time ago. You can tell by the look in their eye. Life? They could take it or leave it. In all likelihood, they haven’t really thought about it much. Most people live their lives on autopilot and don’t think about who they are, what they want, or why they do what they do. For the hyper-aware, this seems like blissful vacation. Imagine not needing to think about the dark side of things? But in reality, that kind of live is ruled by pressure and existential dread.

Context is critical here. If you’ve ever spent time in Southern Europe, you realize how much the American lifestyle sucsk. I won’t bore you with the economic pros and cons of each system, but when work is not the end-all-be-all of life, you get to enjoy a lot more of it. You have more time to feel human. A lifestyle that allows for sitting outside with your friends to talk casually while drinking and eating slowly for hours late into the night is objectively better than the suffocating 4HL of the average American.

To add more context, American values come from the top down. The media dictates what’s allowable in polite conversation. Most people are secretly on edge and confused about the political situation here. There’s a lot of things you’re not allowed to question, think, or talk about. Being honest is a liability. Sprinkle some screen addiction where they’re being fed a vortex of lies, and you’re barely looking at an actual person. You’re looking at a pre-programmed chatbot.

“Ignorance Is Bliss”

On my podcast I’ve been asked what I think about Bronze Age Mindset by my friend Bronze Age Pervert. While his book articulated many feelings I felt crazy for having and awakened thoughts I didn’t realize I was suppressing, many men have had the same experience. One of the more under-discussed parts about BAM is how he talks about natural selection. BAP points out that we observe animals at length mostly in controlled environments and rarely in their natural state in the wild, therefore we don’t actually know that much about them.

“Animals walk around in a state of permanent religious intoxication. This is the natural condition of the mind and intellect, the moment-to-moment perception, of man as well. But we have been sold a bill of goods by the dispossessed and the envious, who say that this state is a kind of fall from grace, a primitive and undesirable condition. No, it is the very height of being.”

This description of Being is the indeeed the complete opposite of “ignorance is bliss.” The human condition necessitates consciousness, meaning, even the most lacks-any-autonomy normie is at least aware they’re a person who is alive and exists. I disagree with the second Noble Truth of Buddhism, Samudaya, which states that the cause of suffering is desire. The root of human suffering lies in consciousness itself being highly correlated with IQ and the conditions in which one was raised.

Strangely enough, we know very little about consciousness, despite it being the singular thing that separates us from animals. Neuroscientists don’t know which part of the brain is responsible for consciousness. It’s an extremely complex phenomenon. There’s an entire academic field dedicated to the nature of consciousness called Cognitive Neuroscience. The part of the brain that is most unique to humans is the prefrontal cortex where abstract reasoning, decision making and social context takes place. These are very ‘human’ qualities in comparison to animals, but it hasn’t been proven that consciousness itself ‘lies’ there in the same way we know for sure the somatosensory cortex is where the sensation of touch takes place. But let’s get back to BAP’s quote.

Religious Intoxication

BAP chose the words ‘religious intoxication’ to describe the default experience of animals. He could have chosen the words euphoric or ecstatic. But religious intoxication implies feelings of being overwhelmed with a divine presence or a sense of oneness with all things. Religious intoxication as a human experience has been studied in anthropological, neurological and psychological contexts, so we have a lot of data on what happens during such a state. A brief summary of what’s been observed:

• Heightened sensory perception

• Feelings of euphoria, divine love, and bliss

• Altered breathing, changing in heart rate, reduced awareness of external stimuli

• An overwhelming sense of unity with a divine presence

Religious intoxication can be induced during more spiritual practices like chanting, prayer, meditation, fasting or dancing. Psychoactive substances such as psilocybin and MDMA can induce this as well, more on that later.

There’s plenty of people who claim to be religious, but how many self-described religious people do you know can say they’ve had such an experience? I’m not trying to invalidate their beliefs or convictions, but wouldn’t this be something every religious person would at least aim to achieve?

William James, American philosopher and psychologist, said in The Varieties of Religious Experience that mystical experiences are ineffable.

“Mystical states are more like states of feeling than like states of intellect. No one can make clear to another who has never experienced a mystical state how it feels any more than we can describe to a blind man what it feels like to see the light.”

Religious intoxication is vastly distant from the baseline experience of being a human, whereas with animals, it’s the default, as it’s driven by pure instinct. They’re not burdened with a constant awareness of their own existence.

It’s normal to read this topic and file it under ‘woo-woo bullshit’ or ‘granola hippie cope.’ And oftentimes it is. Truly, hippie types tend to become addicted to these experiences and are some of the biggest messes in life you’ll ever meet. In my experience, they rarely ever have their shit together, tend to become leeches, and have nowhere near the depth they advertise themselves to have. They’re often dirty, shady, and annoying. But that’s because they’re trying to induce such states in themselves to run from their lives rather than enhance it.

The American Spell

As I said earlier, most Americans tend to be boring and borderline robotic. If they’re a liberal, which there’s a ~50% chance they are, if you hear one of their opinions you can predict what another 10 will be. Most Americans aren’t hyper-political, they just don’t care. Americans are a worn down and defeated people. Why do I say this? Most Americans were told to stay indoors over a cold for more than a year, and the overwhelming majority obeyed. Americans feel powerless and there’s good reason for that. January 6th was a loud and clear message to the populace that if they ever get a little too uppity, they’ll rot away in a jail cell for an indefinite period of time. The leader of America is a senile old man. American culture is ran by underfucked hags who want to import criminals and turn everyone else’s sons into gay mutilated eunuchs. It’s a rough scene. American culture is disgusting, depressing and uninspiring.

Most Americans don’t care because they know there’s very little they can do about it. You know how you can tell? Look at American attitudes towards taxes. How often do you hear people talking about how much they give the government every paycheck? Not often. There’s hotter, more emotional issues to talk about. Most Americans don’t realize they’re getting bent over every month by the US Government to have their hard-earned money taken from them so it can be sent to foreign countries and spent putting immigrants in hotels. Why talk about it if there’s nothing you can do about it? This is the same country that started a war over taxes on their tea. Being constantly used, manipulated, looted crushes the human spirit, and ultimately the cultures spirit at large, in ways that are not very obvious.

Most Americans don’t have sex. I’ve covered this topic plenty, but the average person either doesn’t have sex at all or only does on occasion. Most men will be lucky if they have sex with more than 5 girls in their whole lives and most girls are lucky if they ever slept a man who had enough passion for her to make her orgasm. The majority of marriages fail. If you have 2 children, it’s considered an impressive feat because most people can’t afford to have more. Needless to say, America’s Love and Sex Life is not exactly steaming hot.

Most Americans don’t live inspiring lives and arguably aren’t very distant from slaves. Most are just trying to get through it. They do what they’re told and think as they’re told. This is The American Spell.

The Hypnotic

What comes to mind when you think of being in a trance? Most people think about a hypnotist dangling a waving clock in front of them as they’re hynotized, but there are many other ways to be locked in a trance. Let’s discuss what it means for something to be hypnotic.

• Mesmerizing - it’s hard to look away from

• Captivating - there’s an allure that grips you

• Soothing - you’re more relaxed when you immerse yourself in it

• Repetitive and Rhythmic - there’s a predictable pattern of consistency

Of course, something that’s hypnotic could be good or bad. Not all trances are good trances.

Most Americans depend on state media to give them a map of the world. Let’s look at the master of state propaganda, The New York Times, which matches the criteria for being hypnotic.

• Mesmerizing - the amount of status, gravitas and authority one institution has within its grip is truly something to behold.

• Captivating - they hold The Final Answer. No matter the response, regardless of if it’s true or makes sense, it pervades the cultural narrative.

• Soothing - it won’t tell you uncomfortable truths. The words and ideas they use are always within the overton window. The hoes will not be scared.

• Repetitive, rhythmic - most events are explained away with a small set of predicable explanations.

Being hypnotized by The New York Times isn’t good because their rag is mostly nothing but lies. The American Spell induces a negative trance that leads to a boring and slavish population. Some Americans are breaking out of it, but many never will. They don’t know they’re under a spell but feel very comforted by the trance they’re in.

Let’s look at an example of a good trance.

Michelangelo’s David is the only time I felt what the word perfection meant. The first time I saw it in Florence, I stared at it for well over an hour from every angle I could. I was completely mesmerized by it’s stature and perfect symmetry, captivated by the fact this magnificent work of art used to be a giant block of marble and that one man single-handedly chipped away at it until it revealed the vision he had in his mind. Visual art, especially from the Renaissance, is often soothing to look at. It’s not repetitive or rhythmic, but it is alluring. David weighs 6 tons. It’s 520 years old. I think about the amount of people who have witnessed it before me and the sweat and hands that were once upon it to transform it into Beauty. There’s too many examples to name when it comes to music. Needless to say, art can be hypnotic and can induce you into a positive trance, even if temporary.

Donald Trump, The World’s Greatest Hypnotist

A typical routine of someone under The American Spell: wake up, check chats, scroll timeline, start work, maybe go to the gym, eat some food, go to bed. In comparison to religious intoxication, what’s the height of their experience going ot be that day? That week? That month? That year?

In Buddhism there’s teaching called the Five Hindrances. They’re mental states that get in the way of progress to Enlightenment. One of the hindrances is called Thīna-Middha. Thīna represents mental sluggishness, Middha refers to physical drowsiness. One mental, the other physical. Buddhists recommend mindfulness (Sati) to recognize the presence of Thīna-Middha as a means to counteract it. The experience of being in a positive trance means being gripped by something so thoroughly that you cannot focus on anything but that, even if for a few moments. You can tell if you’ve been in one if there’s a ‘hangover’ effect from such a state — you can’t think about anything else for hours.

When people think of being in a trance, it’s often associated with being hynotized. Hypnostists are often seen as an outdated crackpock quacks. This is strange given it’s proven to be very effective in assisting or eliminating chronic pain, anxiety, nicotine addiction, sleep disorders, PTSD and even irritable bowel syndrome. These are serious health issues with billions of dollars behind them in medical research, prescription medication, products and scams to try and alleviate their symptoms. Yet being hynotized, something that doesn’t require any chemicals at all, can improve physical ailments merely through changing mental states, or what is better described as a vibe-shift. I find that extremely fascinating. It makes sense why Mozart spent a lot of time with Franz Mesmer, known as the father of hynotism and where the word mesmerize originates.

Adjusting one’s consciousness makes them more open to suggestions. In that moment, even if induced, they’re focused and concentrated on one singular thing. This heightened state of concentration allows them to delve deeply into their thoughts and feelings, which leads to more insight and self-awareness, increasing the likelihood to change their behavior.

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, author, and popular political commentor, is a trained hypnotist. Scott often talks about how hypnotism is a tool for persuasion and influence. Scott is well-known for boldly predicting that Trump would win the 2016 election while everyone else thought it was crazy.

“The most powerful thing I’ve learned is that people are irrational. And that hypnosis and persuasion are basically understanding how people are irrational and then using that to your advantage.”

In one of his most popular books, ‘Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter’, he uses Trumps 2016 election campaign as a case study. He talks about how Trump is Master Persuader by having an instinctual understanding of Big Lies, branding, reframing, appealing to emotion rather than logic, exploiting people’s confirmation bias, and giving people two ways to see the world.

Outside of just Trump’s ability to persuade the masses, he’s also simply a man of extreme charisma. In The All-In Podcast, which features 4 well-known tech investors, two of whom are billionares, they were sheepishly anti-Trump, or secretly pro-Trump, up until very recently. Particularly after meeting him in person, they were completely sold on voting for him. This kind of gravitas is essentially unknown in the modern world. For one man’s mere presence to change their political beliefs. Needless to say, Trump is hypnotic. He knows how to put people under a spell, in which they enter (in my opinion) a positive trance. And it isn’t hard to see why. Trump is a natural showman. He’s been in the public eye for decades. When he meets people he grips their hand, looks them in the eye and often makes them laugh. He’s often described as having an aura. Combine that with his status, he’s completely in control in every interaction he enters.

Escape Routes

This post of mine received a ton of engagement, mainly because the girl looks like she’s having a mind-blowing orgasm simply by having her head scratched. But in case you didn’t think about why — consider the opposite reaction. Imagine if she pushed away or felt irritated by the fact he was scratching her head. In this gif she fully immersed herself and allowed herself to feel the depths of that momentary pleasure. Of course, the man scratching her head was completely in control in that moment. He very well could have asked her questions that might have brought out a truthful response. Obviously, from the look she gave him after, she was obscenely attracted to him. She was just in a trance under his spell. I believe her experience was very close to religious intoxication.

From Nietzche, in Esse Homo:

“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.”

I believe what Nietzsche is saying here encapsulates what it means for someone to allow themselves to be in a trance. This requires dropping any defensiveness, the need to control, and any resistance to immersing yourself in something as it exists. It’s essentially allowing yourself to slip past your ego and into the “eternal moment” with whatever it is you’re experiencing. Indeed, very passionate sex can induce such a state for both people involved. This is essentially what I was pointing to in Do You Want Total Fuck. Being completely lost in fucking or being fucked by someone you’re absolutely crazy about is perhaps the greatest and most human trance one can be in.

I’m not suggesting everyone take ahyuasaka and vomit in the desert to induce religious intoxication. I am saying that there are things and people all around you that can pull you into a trance, and only you can know what those things are. Whether it’s a beautiful woman, a man you cannot stop thinking about, nature, music, or art, it doesn’t matter.

Things are going to get very crazy in America and it’s never been easier to get lost in the negative trance of a political timeline. There are plenty of better trances. Life has a lot of juice to squeeze. If you have a bit of trouble accessing such a state, it’s worth looking into MDMA or psiolcybin at low doses. They’re both known for melting your ego temporarily and breaking people out of a rut.

Ideally in the future, we’ll be able to calculate exactly how many moments of our lives were experienced in the moment. Before you die, you’d be able to calculate the sum of those moments. Those moments are the total amount of time you were actually alive.