April 2022

Preface

The Political Gut is built upon nearly three decades of professional and personal experiences. From owning a wellness brand built around tea, named Pure Luck®, to a career as a professional artist. Working globally with major advertising agencies, fashion labels, alcohol brands, post production studios, art departments, mega corporations, politicians and more.

I was engaging with, and working for the entities that try and succeed, to define us. Creating the content to do it. The message I kept receiving was clear. I had to stop supporting these entities. And begin actively working to educate as many people as possible how upside down the system is.

My Memoir From The Anthropocene

My goal with this book is to inspire people to change the way they live. To manifest change in our collective patterns of thinking and being. By altering how we view food and the world around us. We will build a new way of being and thinking. Breaking ourselves free from the toxic world we presently inhabit.

My hope is that I motivate others to assist in creating this new paradigm. Where every person has the basic necessities of life – food, water, shelter, clothing, safety and sanitary living conditions. Where we are able to make clear-headed decisions, free from chemical contamination, ill health and manipulation. The idea is simple: the return to “natural.” My wish is for humanity to come together collectively and build a new paradigm, one so popular it renders the current one obsolete.

This “memoir” is telling the story of our current paradigm, our epoch, the Anthropocene. A period of time in which human activities have altered society and changed the course of the planet’s geology and ecosystems. I piece together the myriad of ways consumerism and business as usual are changing the very being of humans, our DNA, food systems, and society.

Shining a bright light on what is obscured by our everyday lives. I have collated a wealth of information and research, bringing it together in one place. Viewed as a whole a clear picture emerges. The goal is to enlighten, inspire, and foster a new view to enmeshing with the natural world around us.

Recalibrate Back To Natural

The physical world is full of traps, constraints, and heavy weights. Holding humanity back from meeting, and being our full potential. Causing us to act against our best interests. My aim is to help you navigate and recognize the tripwires. The world we live in has been built upside down on purpose. Food is political and the human gut is an integral part of the decision making process.

I highlight several key areas: energy, critical thinking, diet, discipline, kindness, awareness, objectivity, love, and mindfulness. To gain awareness of oneself, engaging in an inner dialog is imperative. Throughout the book I point out methods and means of trickery used against humans to continue the status quo. To maintain the status quo means to continue keeping humans from focused, clear thought, at all costs.

Living in a natural state of being. You begin to experience the world around us for what it truly is. Once you see this, it cannot be unseen. Stop, think and recalibrate back to natural. Maybe you don’t even know what a natural state of being feels like.

Improve Your Quality Of Life

Free yourself from dogma and embrace dharma. Challenge the ways you think, believe, eat and live. This will actually reduce your stress and increase your health. The Political Gut is meant to be a “memoir of paradigm,” and provide the tools to the art of living in the 21st century.

Remove the guardrails, they don’t exist. It’s all an illusion. Cut out the toxicity, pills and bad influences; ignore the manipulation and cravings and remove the toxins we ingest and absorb willingly. These toxins collect in our bodies and infect our minds, thoughts and most importantly our decision making. Becoming aware of it all is a big first step. From there I will guide you to detox, re-align your reality, and renew your quality of life. You have never known freedom like this.

We Resist What We Don’t Know

Humans are programmed and designed to resist the unknown and foreign. Every day we are taking unconscious actions to resist conflict. Making decisions based on group think. As a species, we are ultimately just stumbling through the dark on a rock hurtling through space time, searching for a light switch, trying to keep up, and figure it out.

Group acceptance is a very powerful force. We let groupthink control us more than we should. To think freely–true free thought–is to be accepting of the unknown and to be open to new ideas. In marketing, there are categories used to describe different types of people. A person who takes a risk. Accepting an idea or product before the majority of others is known as an early adopter. This is roughly thirteen percent of people.

The Early Adopter

Early adopters don’t care if others are widely adopting an idea. This person is open to change and trying new things. “Early adopters are typically younger in age, have a higher social status, have more financial lucidity, advanced education, and are more socially forward than late adopters.” – Diffusion of Innovations, Everett Rogers.

Another word we may use to loosely describe an early adopter, progressive. “Progressive,” defined by Merriam Webster, “1) using or interested in new or modern ideas especially in politics and education 2) moving forward.” Those with a progressive mind are living, moving into the future, evolving, and changing sooner. The early adopter is flexible in their mindset, creating new neural pathways, methods and sometimes even paradigms.

Everyone Else

If most people are not going to accept something new. How do you get the majority to purchase or accept it? Through repetition, birth, manipulation, and coercion. This is the purpose of advertising, politics and the media. When those things don’t work. There are always laws, chemicals, and additives. These mediums are signaling it’s OK, go ahead and give into your craving. Follow us. Try it out. Be like everyone else. There is a lot of psychology behind all this.

The idea sold to us is that we should be getting the newest thing. Maximizing our buying power by working and competing harder. Endlessly, consuming and working to get money, to exhibit status. When you minimize inputs instead of maximizing consumption. You will find much greater peace of mind with less. Realizing that the majority of things that are sold to us as “must haves” are actually worthless.

Change The Way You Live

What if you cut out social media, shopping binges, the newest TV, culture war politics, junk food, meat, soda, TV dinners, snacks, candy, special sauces, and the like? Learning to live with less will free your mind of the mental weight and cravings of physical things. You will find this significantly improves your health, sleep and lowers your stress.

What if you start drinking only clean, pure spring water? Eat real organic food and turn off the TV, just sitting with yourself, in the quiet of your mind. The majority of people may find this very difficult at first, or maybe even say they don’t have the time. Yet, you have the time for social media and to watch TV, right? If you make the time, you will regain your focus and absolutely maximize the quality of your life. If you can find your natural state you might learn something very new and appealing about yourself and the world around you.

Objectivity Is Power

Being able to objectively, and reflectively view ourselves and the world around us. Allows us to see the incredibly negative effects of the world we live in, and the outsized influence it has on our minds, environment, health, and collective futures. Taking a moment to stop and recognize relationships and interconnectivity. Enables us to break the mono-mindedness cycle. Stop living in a repetitive state, reliving our past experiences endlessly.

Open it all up. Take the time to think and inspect ourselves. Shine a bright light in all of the crevices and cracks of your mind. I want to show you how you can view yourself objectively. Creating context and the ability to acknowledge what is really happening. And to be able to build an off-ramp, safely crossing the barrier into the unseen and natural world. We can create a better quality of life, a more kind society and a healthy world if enough people dare to do the same.

Inspiring You To Make The Connections

In The Political Gut I convey a lot of information in generalities in order to drive the main points home. The goal is to provide fodder for your mind. To stimulate you to think and ask questions. To make the connections I provide a trail of breadcrumbs. It is up to you, the reader, to make the effort to do the homework.

The best way to learn and come to realizations is by committing and undertaking the task yourself. Spoon feeding the reader is how the media works. They expect you won’t do any research for yourself.

My Personal Philosophy

The Political Gut takes a philosophical approach to what we call the Pure Luck Lifestyle. From there, it builds on existing theories and ideas. Ideas which my company has been teaching during our fermentation seminars and lectures for the last decade.

I cite dozens of scientific studies as correlative and anecdotal evidence and interweave experiences from my own life and our interactions with clients. I have personally been living the lifestyle I describe in The Political Gut for a long time. However, there was a time when I was just like everyone else: wanting to fit in, consuming, and addicted to sugar, alcohol, nicotine, meat, salt, and fat.

I sincerely believe each person has the power to change the world. First by making the change they want to see within themselves. I strongly believe in leading by example. I wish to thank you for making it this far. You are well on your way to true balance and freedom.

What Is Time, Really?

What is time really? A human invented concept of units meant to use as a measure. Based from revolutions of our planet, broken down by division into minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. A way to keep track of our lives and those who have come before us. A measure to make sure we show up at the right place at the right time. In a world full of uncertainty time provides much needed solace in predictability. In the end is time anything more than just a way for us to count the days of our lives until the end?

Our Energy Is All That Endures

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, humans don’t really live that long in the grand scheme of things. But what about our energetic unconsciousness? There are many documented cases of children remembering their past life in great detail. If energy can never be created or destroyed, then how old are we truly?

Sure in human physical life terms a few hundred years is a long time, but not to the universe. What is our comparison? In what context can humans compare time? Taking this statement with a grain of salt. How do humans even know how old the universe is? The idea that we can look back into time through shaped glass. Observing light signatures of varying wavelengths to measure time, it’s not an easy concept to grasp. How can we know for sure, this is true?

Bang! Now This All Exists

Suddenly, a big bang. An ever expanding universe. Now this all exists. It makes me wonder. When a video game is created, if it too is witness to a big bang. Then suddenly all the games world exists. Imagine the metaverse. As time goes by, the developer builds, adds architecture and life.

Oscar Wilde wrote in 1889, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.” This is known as an anti-mimesis point of view. When compared to Aristotle’s mimesis, “art imitates life.” From this I pose a question. Is our art, using a video game or the metaverse as an example, imitating our existence? It would seem to be so. And if our existence, our life, is some higher beings art or game. Then our life is imitating art. While our art, or game, is imitating our life.

Wilde further states that anti-mimesis, life imitating art, “results not merely from Life’s imitative instinct, but from the fact that the self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and that Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realise that energy.”

85% Of Everything That Exists Is Dark Matter – What That Is, No Human Knows

What exactly is “this” within which we exist? Scientists suppose 85% of the Universe is dark matter. What is dark matter? They don’t know, but they know it exists, and it makes up the majority of our Universe. I certainly don’t know the answer. I think these ideas create more questions than answers. Searching for answers is one of the things that keeps us going. Giving us purpose.

Other scientists have even hypothesized that there must be a mirror world right next to ours to account for right spinning neutrinos. Since, in our world neutrinos, for some unknown reason, only spin to the left. These physicists believe spinning neutrinos are somehow connected to dark matter’s function. Even if we have no idea what we are looking for. Like making art, the process is a part of it. In this case discovery is the process.

We Are So Very Small

Our concept of time and space is so small. Like a crumb of dust, on a crumb of dust, of the cosmos. Consider the size of the Sun when compared to Earth. Our Sun is more than 100 times the size of Earth and is said to make up 99.8% of all the mass in our solar system. Look out the window of an airplane. Humans are nothing but ants. Tiny little ants.

Our physical world’s mass is pretty much meaningless at this scale. Everything humans do. Everything that ever was and will ever be created by human beings began from stardust and shall be returned to stardust and forgotten. All of our buildings, books, monuments, and machines. Every single physical thing, including our bodies.

We Are All Made From Stardust

To quote Ali Sundermier again, “About 99 percent of your body is made up of atoms of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. You also contain much smaller amounts of the other elements that are essential for life. While most of the cells in your body regenerate every seven to 15 years, many of the particles that make up those cells have actually existed for millions of millennia. The hydrogen atoms in you were produced in the big bang, and the carbon, nitrogen and oxygen atoms were made in burning stars. The very heavy elements in you were made in exploding stars.” What are we truly?

In my opinion. Nothing we do is really significant or important in any way in the grand scale of the Universe. Except for working on the energy that binds us, our energetic unconsciousness. Energy that can never be created, nor destroyed. It already exists and only changes form.

Life In A Bubble

Humanity lives in a bubble, quite literally and metaphorically. Yet, we are poisoning this planet like a virus does a cell. Creating waste until the environment has been ruined beyond repair. All in the name of greed, consumption, and reproduction. Is that the reason humans exist? To just endlessly consume, breed and lay waste?

The only meaning derived from living is the one you give to yourself. Most people will say they live for their kids. If this was true. Then wouldn’t these same people, who live for their kids, make their best effort to be certain their kids have a better living environment? One that’s free of pollution, chemicals, and toxins. How could anyone say they are living for their children yet not act as custodians of food, of the planet and nature?

Are we all that disconnected from the life force that sustains us? Without the environment of Earth’s climate, soil, microbiome and clean water. There is no future for children. Except one of misery and suffering. Life is often said to be “what you make it.” This is quite literally and metaphysically true. Right now our actions are making life less and less good for our children.

Owning Our Smallness

Being insignificant in itself is not a motivating thought. Actually owning humanity’s insignificance and smallness. Being a nobody is hard to grasp and accept. Those in positions of power always act in a way as to be great, to be somebody. Controlled by ego.

Rulers often seize lands and say they are doing so to reclaim the “motherlands” or to make their country great, or to liberate people from an oppressor. Every now and then these gestures are altruistic. In reality, more often than not, they are done for power, greed, or to be remembered in history. However grand these egocentric gestures are presented, the achievements mean nothing in the scale of time.

Instead The People Suffer

Many times the method to go about these reclamations involves great strife, death, and suffering for everyday humans. We need only to look at what is happening in Ukraine in 2022 for an example. The majority of people just want to live and love in peace.

This negative egocentric or machismo energy does nothing for the collective of humanity. To be great, in my opinion, is to live in peace with all mankind and nature. Which means destroying the Ego.

The Physics Of A Game Called Earth

On Earth we have what I like to call, the physics of a game called Earth. Gravity, Newtonian Physics and Relative Theory. They define the mechanics our world and universe.

The Golden Ratio

Our natural world on this planet follows a very predictable formula called the Golden Ratio. A major component of the physics of a game called Earth. Some examples: the shape of a nautilus or snail shell, a hurricane, a spiral galaxy, human faces, flowers and DNA molecules. They all grow and fit within this ratio.

I find it compelling that there’s such an order in our natural world. It lends credence, in my opinion, to the theory that this is all just a simulation. Imagine a video game. When a developer designs a video game, all of the mechanics have to follow certain rules and set parameters. These defined “physics” make the outcomes predictable, allowing the characters to exist and interact within the game world with order and reliability.

Which Came First, Order Or Chaos

In some ways I think that the order of our world is an argument that it is not real. In a true “natural” world one might surmise everything could be random, not orderly. I think that UFO sightings and NDE’s (Near Death Experiences) in some ways exemplify this idea.

Many eyewitness reports of UFO’s highlight how these objects never follow what we perceive as our predictable rules, or mechanics. UFO’s are outlier artifacts that come and go as they wish. Often explained away as “advanced technology”. I am not saying I know the answer, but I have to ask. What if it is simply that they, like the game developer, do not need to abide by the mechanics since they control the mechanics?

Surviving Death And Living To Tell About It

NDE’s have a similar pattern. The majority of people who have died and come back from clinical death have conveyed similar patterns of experiences. In these experiences time, space and consciousness do not follow the same rules as we know them. It’s often a chaotic experience.

People who have experienced NDE’s, describe peeling away from their body and hovering over or around the scene. They are able to watch what is going on around their body. At the same time a person experiencing an NDE is able to perceive things happening, without leaving where they are, in a completely different locale. There is almost always a tunnel or white light that feels loving, comforting and warm. With absolutely no perception of time as we define it.

You Have More Work To Do!

People often describe the same things during the NDE experience. And they often end the same way. Someone tells them, “You have more work to do, it’s not your time” Followed by a pulling feeling, ending with them coming back to life. Yet, somehow they remember these experiences even though they are clinically brain dead. Millions of people have experienced these undeniable and interesting phenomena. Always the person comes back with a completely different view on this existence.

Are we all just players in a game called Earth? Bound by the physical mechanics defined by another intelligent life form? It is impossible to know. I explore these idea deeper in The Political Gut.

What If Gut Health Affects Quantum Mechanics?

The Invisible Microbiome Working For Us

Microorganisms form a very important role in the food chain and decomposition. In the soil they make nutrients available for plants. Inside the human gut they do the same, making nutrients bioavailable for humans. These microbes are essential for life on this planet and proper gut health in humans. If they were to die out, so would humans.

In the last decade, scientists have only begun to learn how different bacterial compositions are within our gut. And how these compositions change the function of our brain, health and bodies, by altering our perception, mood, well-being, genes, and cognitive abilities. This is amazing breakthrough science of which we have only just scratched the surface.

Why are yeasts, fungi and bacterias so different in every city, town, and home worldwide? Why are there so many different species of yeasts, fungi, archaea, and bacteria living in our bodies and everywhere around us? Where do these microorganisms come from anyway? Scientists have a theory. About three billion years or so ago they may have formed in the seas or maybe they rained down from the skies. However, these same scientists admit that no one truly knows where bacteria came from. It is very important to absorb this concept about our knowledge.

Do We Really Know Anything?

Contrary to contemporary egocentric beliefs, humans in this physical form are quite insignificant. Ultimately, we really have no idea how we came to be. Sure there is the theory of evolution. It is a valid theory. But one has to accept there could be many other theories as well. Did aliens come to Earth and splice monkeys with their DNA? Is this all just a holographic simulation? What if all the evidence we find, buried in the Earth, was planted there for us to find? Maybe everything we think we know is a total set up and manipulation.

Philosophy Meets Science

French philosopher Alain Badiou argues that truth is a witnessed event. Constructed through process. The process being, the witnessing of said event. By witnessing it and naming it into worldly situations we write it’s “truth.” He argues that ontology is situational. Meaning that every persons existence is based on their situation. How each experience of an individuals situation is how they view the truth of the world.

Further, since we cannot account for, or know all situations. That which we know as truth, or in the case here, knowledge. Is only what we experience it as, an “event” or “situation.” Meaning the only truth we know is from what we are experiencing. Our experiences of life here and now.

Regardless of what was “learned” or “experienced.” In my view, humanity mostly has no idea what is going on. Caught up in the minutia of the day to day. The knowledge we know, mostly comes without comparison. No matter what you think, study, learn or believe. We cannot put human existence in any context. There is no comparison.

Therefore, we cannot truly have an objective understanding of why or how we got here. Or what our existence is, in comparison to other intelligent life forms existences. Of course we can feel like it’s this or that reason. Humans can make up theories and study so called evidence. But we can’t even be sure if the physical world we live in even real. And many credible scientists seem to agree, it’s not real!

These same scientists theorize that, in fact, this world is not real, more of a simulation or hologram instead. Ultimately, we are just hurtling through space, counting what we call time, on what we believe to be a rock. A human named Earth. Living in what I like to call the “stone age” of an idea we express as “technological advancement.”

The Quantum Mechanics World View

Let’s get scientific. Quantum mechanics is a very fascinating field of study. The quantum model of physics states that the physical world is 99.99999% energy and .00001% matter, meaning atoms are mostly empty space and fields of energy. I, very briefly, majored in Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston and absolutely love physics and chemistry. But was terrible at the math. Even though I never even came close to completing my studies at Northeastern University. I still do my best to keep up with the latest advancements in theoretical physics.

When I began to learn about quantum theory, it just blew my mind. The key to remember with quantum mechanics is that the electron of the atom does not appear in a position until you view it or “manifest the wavelength,” or “collapse the wave function.” A bit like what I think Alain Badiou means when we witness an event we record it as truth. Once witnessed, at that point the electron appears as a particle in position. This could be simply be interpreted that by thinking and viewing, we are creating. Quantum mechanics is the secret to manifesting humanity’s future selves and makes good sense of the theory that this life is actually a simulation.

If this is all a simulation what can we do about it?

You are probably wondering what does gut health and quantum mechanics have to do with each other. Here is how I see it. Quantum mechanics rules the world we live in. Energy is a very important aspect of this world. As I mention in later on in this book, there are scientific studies which show that by controlling our personal energy, humans are able to use that energetic focus to manipulate DNA strands simply with thoughts.

The Gut Brain Connection

Studies have shown that bacteria in our gut effect our mood, cognitive abilities, well-being and so on. This is why gut health is so important. If we accept that our world view is dictated by the microbiome living in our gut. We must also recognize that if our mood is dour and the cause is poor gut health, or poor diet, that affects the bodies ability to metabolize nutrients amongst a host of other side effects.

We all know that when we are grumpy from a sugar crash, hangover or because we are hungry that our energy signature and brain function isn’t the same as when we are operating at 100%. This in turn effects our ability to be our best selves and use our energy to manifest our reality. Remember with quantum mechanics it is all about manifesting the wavelength. Meaning that if we focus hard enough building a picture in our mind and our energy is congruent with the quantum field that surrounds everything. Then we can bring that idea into reality.

When our energy signature is not congruent this can leave us stuck or going in circles. Imagine your bodies is like a formula one race car and you keep putting cheap regal gasoline in the tank. This is how your gut health and the gut brain connection work together with energy to steer each individuals reality.

Gut Health Effects Decision Making

A big part of the system is decision making and the ripple effect. If you replay past events in your life. You will find jumping off points that lead you in one direction, or another. Most people probably don’t realize that every decision you make in your life has a ripple effect. For example, maybe there’s a great networking event. If your gut health is poor and you are afraid that you might have to run to the bathroom at this event and you don’t like public toilets, you may choose to skip the event all together. In turn missing an opportunity. This is one of the more obvious examples. But there are also many more subtle ways that gut health can effect your decision making process and you may not even know it. In the end you are the only one responsible for your decisions and your health. The best you can do to keep you energy congruent with the quantum field is to make sure that you have great gut health and maintain proper gut brain connection.

The Microbiome And Your Body’s Relationship With It

There is a microbiome story line running parallel to our human lives. One of living relationships, nature, understanding, connectedness, and codependency. It’s very possible that what we cannot see is of more importance, and influence on us, than that which can be seen.

Are We An Avatar?

What if we consider the idea that the human body is an avatar? Because we are avatars in more ways than one. Humans could be said to be an avatar for the soul or energetic unconsciousness. Or, in this life, humans could simply be players in a game for an advanced alien species. Humans could even be avatars for microscopic aliens. No one really knows why we are here.

Humans are literally walking, talking biofilms. Another word used to describe a biofilm is SCOBY, which stands for a Symbiotic Culture Of Bacterias and Yeasts. This term is used in kombucha brewing. The SCOBY is what grows on top of the fermenting tea. Protecting it from invaders and contamination. The SCOBY is a hotel of sorts. This term could also be used loosely to describe the human body.

We Are More Invisible Organisms Than Visible Ones

Some scientists have concluded that the human body is made up of more microbiota (57%) than cellular structure (43%) with the greatest concentration of microbiota in the bowel. “They are essential to your health,” says Professor Ruth Ley, the director of the department of microbiome science at the Max Planck Institute. “Your body isn’t just you.”

Not only that, the genes of these microbiota could outnumber our human DNA by as much as 1000:1—this means we have to consider that we are more than simply “our” human DNA. Professor Rob Knight, from the University of California San Diego, has done some experiments on mice. These mice were born into a world completely free of microbes. What he found is incredible. He says: “We were able to show that if you take lean and obese humans and take their feces and transplant the bacteria into mice you can make the mouse thinner or fatter depending on whose microbiome it got.” Could you imagine the diet pills?!

Our Microbiome Is Kinda Like A Pet

We don’t know what we don’t know. It might behoove us to treat our bodies with the utmost respect, love, and attention. Because it may very well be that our very lives depend on the wellness of our microbiome and the relationships we have with our microbiota.

Our personal wellness is a function of the quality of our relationships. Not only with our friends, family, and peers, but also with the unseen world. The quality of our relationships is a function of the quality of our wellness…and so it goes. It’s a microcosm of the macrocosm. Whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not. Our lives are dependent on our relationship with bacteria, yeasts, fungi and archaea living on and inside of our bodies. The best thing we can do it try to nurture them like pets. At least the good ones!

Fear And Chemicals Manipulate Decision Making

As a child you fantasize about what you want to be when you grow up. You want to be someone with purpose and shine. Then life comes along and molds you into shape and says be realistic, get an education, get a job, pay your bills, have a nice something-something, raise kids, find somewhere to live. We follow the path set for us, seldom asking, “Who set this path?” Ask your parents, “Why do we do things this way?” You probably will get an answer something like, “Because that’s the way things are done.”

Some will say God tells us what to do, quoting stories from books. Written during a time when humans did not know much about the natural world around them. Books of this sort only tell stories, left to interpretation. Their proponents will justify this devotion by saying something like. “These words were passed down to us by a divine power.” Yet, how can we ever know the true motivations of the writers, or the scribes. Or who truly dictated these words. We will never truly be able to know the actual authors.

It’s Our Programming

For most people it’s less work to follow and not question or think too much. Don’t rock the boat, do what everyone else is doing, we resist conflict. Human beings are programmed this way. For thousands of years religions have ruled the planet through the insistence of dogma and unquestioning loyalty.

For millennia humans were forced to conform or be labeled as heretics. It’s part of our psyche. Still to present day humans are conforming, fitting neatly into a box. Only now, we are conforming to being mass produced consumers. Like products on an assembly line. The producers make sure the followers stay within the lines, stop at the right stations, get the right attachments, and so forth.

If you think about an assembly line. Separating yourself from the usual, the required and accepted stops. Deviating from the “correct” way of assemblage is a recipe to be penalized or even fired. Take a moment to think. How many times have you participated in an activity, or claimed to like something, acted in a certain way, solely because others did? Regardless of whether you personally wanted to participate, liked the activity, or wanted to act that way. Regardless of whether you truly agreed, as those around you seemed to.

Fear, Group Think And Chemicals Manipulate Decision Making

Fear, chemicals and decision making are a part of our daily life. Being objective and gaining understanding about these processes will greatly improve our quality of life. Humans are a funny species. Since we are so adaptable, this is precisely why questioning the paradigm is difficult. We adapt to fit into social situations. Finding ourselves often making decisions and taking actions specifically because we are resisting conflict, because we fear conflict.

When you take into consideration the control this fear wields on us every single day. You can only come to the conclusion that you are being controlled by your fear. Simply because you don’t know with certainty what another person’s reaction will be. You want to protect your own self image. But what you may not know is that food, chemicals and many other components are affecting these thoughts and decisions as well. It’s much easier to control the fear of group think when you have the confidence of a clear mind.

What If It’s As Simple As Learning About Ourselves

In The Political Gut I lay out a series of actions and ideas to consider, as well as my theories and philosophies of how we got to this point. From my experiences working in advertising, to my time spent owning a health and wellness brand. I realized it was important to me to understand how all of these seemingly innocuous chemicals and manipulations affected my thinking. Now, I want to share what I have learned and am able to see, clear as day. After many years living the lifestyle I espouse in this book.

I think these ideas are important for everyone to consider in order for humans collectively to change our trajectory. To return us from the brink of self destruction and become “clean,” or back to natural as I prefer to call it.

Fear And Chemicals

Not only that there are many chemicals in our food, air and water that are emotionally and micro-critically swaying our thoughts and actions every day. Humans, generally speaking, are afraid of the unknown. It is important to come to a place where we can relate to and understand ourselves. We all have thoughts, cravings and fears. Understanding where each of these comes from, and asking ourselves why we have them, is a first important step in learning about ourselves.

Manipulating The World Around Us To Fit Our Perspective

For the last hundred years plus, rather than bending to and integrating with the world around us, humans have taken a hard edged, top down approach. We are the alpha species, taking the natural world, manipulating, and commodifying it. Claiming ownership of it for ourselves and for profit. Before modernity and industrialization people still had to rely on the natural world. There was still a connection to the rhythms of nature.

Part of the human experience is a sense of territorialism, as with all animals there is an innate sense to lay claim to, and defend what we perceive to be ours. This leads us to fear outsiders because the outsider is an unknown. For example, there are many cases of a black man walking in a white neighborhood, with a perfectly good reason be there. Yet, someone invariably calls the police, or worse assaults the black man. You might say he doesn’t blend in. Simply because of his color he stands out. The same as a white person does in a predominantly black neighborhood. This behavior is rooted deep in our DNA. We seek out breaks in the patterns. Mentally and physically humans are consciously and unconsciously landscaping territories individually, collectively, and tribally.

A Break In The Connection To The Natural World

Our modern existence has caused a break in connection to the natural world. Instead of integrating with it, the human species is tearing the natural world apart and reassembling it from shards like a puzzle with no defined picture, besides profit sign. Bending everything around us to meet our demands, our point of view, our selfish and unnecessary physical needs and our thoughts of how things “should be.” Manipulating everything, even reality.

This way of reasoning has caused us to lose touch with the energy and love of nature. Throwing us out of balance. We begin to start missing that deep connection between our species and nature. You can feel this connection when you go into the forest for example. It provides perspective, refreshes, calms and reconnects our sense of empathy.

Manipulation, Manifestation And Gaslighting

Manipulation done in the proper way, through manifestation for the collective and self betterment, can be a good thing. But overall that doesn’t seem to be what is happening. Maybe using the term “gaslighting” instead is more suited to the idea I am trying to convey—we are gaslighting ourselves and others around us.

Human survival is actually dependent on the collective. Our egocentric selfishness is a product of advertising, manipulative messaging, and our consumeristic, consumption-based, endless economic growth paradigm. This paradigm uses humans like tools. It is built for the sake of profits.

Re-Integrating With The Natural World

Many humans have come before us and integrated with the world around them. Inherent human adaptability and malleability is a blessing, and humanity’s curse. If we control our own malleability, using it to benefit our own personal greatness, and are able to mold ourselves to the collective benefit, then we are in control. However, when we secede this control to a greater power we become the subjects and tools of those in power. Packed neat and tidy, molded into conformity. Manipulated to consume. We do as we are told for fear of rocking the boat.

My Personal Epiphany

My reason for writing The Political Gut. For one, it’s cathartic for me. But I had an epiphany. I was just like everyone else. One day I woke up and I just couldn’t take part in the endless negativity and destruction anymore. I became too aware of the damage being done to the planet, our physical bodies and our energetic consciousness. Having become too great for me.

I strongly believe the only product we should be considering is ourselves. How you personally reflect on those and the world around you. We need to ask ourselves everyday: Are my actions benefiting or negating our environment? How about your best “self” and those around you? Do you really need all the possessions in your life? Is one-upping your neighbor or friend really worth the negative ripples? Do you think generating endless amounts of waste won’t add up?

What Is Truly Our Purpose?

For me this life is about gaining wisdom for our energetic consciousness. It’s not about being a wage or debt slave so I can consume everything that tickles my fancy. Even if I was very wealthy. I would still live relatively simply. If you separate yourself from the upside down paradigm like I have. When you turn yourself right side up. You see more clearly the ways which you are being manipulated every day by your food, chemicals, advertising and those in power.

Throughout this book I reference dozens of scientific studies and cite many personal examples from my life. This information helped bring about the realizations for me. Our diets and systems are so upside down. I urge you to break free, and take control of your own quality of life. Take real actual control. Recognize the subtleties of how your thoughts are influenced every minute, of every day. Gain the power to block out all of the toxins, messaging and resist the cravings.

Seeing The Picture Clearly

My aim with The Political Gut is to tie a multitude of seemingly disparate information together. Like individual puzzle pieces, I assemble this information into a clear picture and narrative. In a way for everyone to see for themselves. How the food we eat, advertising and our political systems shape who we are as energetic beings in our current epic, the Anthropocene. This is my memoir from the Anthropocene.

It’s time to take the red pill and wake up. There is no way to be objective of this reality, if there is no way to compare it to a different reality. There is, however, another reality right here. Right here inside of you. You hold it, you possess it, it is yours to control. But you have to wake up and see it. It’s not as dystopian as in The Matrix. It’s actually more fantastic than the reality we live in now. But if humans collectively can’t snap out of this fever dream we live in, it is possible it may slip away for good.

When It All Started

I was cleaning out my storage recently and I found this article about us in NY Magazine. This café started my kombucha and wellness journey, culminating in my soon to be published book, The Political Gut. Originally, when I first started, what would shortly be named Pure Luck®, the brand was named Kombucha Party. As the article mentioned, and I talk about in my book briefly, this all started as a way to poke fun at the emergence of the Tea Party. Right after this article came out we renamed the café Pure Luck Tea Bar. The rest, as they say, is history.

American Way

Pay the fee, get vested.

Mind the guardrails, pop

goes the unicorn.

Formulaic, on repeat.

Courage, ethical speak,

we may not seek.

For within the legal limits,

must it be fine, must it be usual,

to fall within the lines.

By those who have built us

upside-down. To their benefit.

‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills

There are more than a dozen “Don’t Say Gay” bills being introduced in states right now in America. These bills are “barring public school teachers from holding classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity.” I find it odd that no one has informed these legislatures (or the media) about Ray Blanchard and Anthony Bogaert’s study.

According to the National Institute for Health (NIH). These gentlemen have “demonstrated that the probability of a boy growing up to be gay increases for each older brother born to the same mother, the so-called fraternal birth order (FBO) effect. Their first investigation indicated that each older brother increased the probability of being gay by about 33%.”

It would seem to me that this is natures way of mitigating over population. Teachers should be actively discussing this information. These new bills will make certain that does not happen. It reeks of politicians using the situation to get more political miles. Instead of using knowledge they rather politicize the LGBTQ+ community by invoking “wokeness” and culture war chants. It’s not only a statistical fact that men with more brothers have a higher chance of being born gay.

Chemicals In Our Water Are Causing Sex Changes In Animals

It is also highly likely that chemicals in our environment are also affecting the sex of our species. Instead of looking at the hard facts and evidence. Right wing politicians prefer to throw red meat to their “voting base.” This entire idea is absurd.

Instead of educating, and understanding, these politicians rather ostracize, and create an angry mob. “The institutionalization of these bills is an overt form of structural transphobia and homophobia, and it goes against all public health evidence in creating a safe and supportive environment for transgender, nonbinary, queer, gay and lesbian youths and teachers to thrive,” Arjee Restar, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, told NPR.

Chemicals Disrupt Hormone And Endocrine Production Causing ‘Gay’ Fish

In The Political Gut I address the chemical issue. Chemicals in our environment are disrupting hormone and endocrine production in the human body. This is not speculation. These are hard truths. We can see the hormones affected in species living within contaminated waterways. Scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey undertook studies in 19 national wildlife areas in the Northeast United States. They found that 60-100% of male smallmouth bass are intersex.

In Vermont, at the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge—which happens to be one of the most productive and pristine wetland ecosystems in the Northeast—about 85% of male smallmouth bass are intersex. In this case meaning they are growing female egg sacs in their testes. Feminized male fish have been found in 37 species all over the world.

This is also prevalent in frogs who are turning from males into females, something not known to happen naturally in amphibians. The culprit is a pesticide known as atrazine, affecting testosterone production. Even when you go fishing in the most pristine wetlands and think you are catching a clean ‘natural’ fish. If you eat it, you are consuming atrazine. This is the new “natural” world we live in.

Polling Reveals People Identifying As LGBTQ Is Rising

In a Gallup Poll 15.9% of Gen Z (those born in the late 1990s to early 2000s) identified as LGBTQ. This information made me stop and think. All over the Earth there are strong anti LGBTQ stances taking place. From citizens, organizations and religious groups to governments. Do any of these anti LGBTQ people stop to question why or how this is happening?

Aside from the FBO effect. It’s very possible, the increase in people identifying as LGBTQ his happening due to the thousands of hormone and endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment. Which, humans are consuming from birth. Don’t take this out of context, I support the LGBTQ community. My point is, does anyone even consider that maybe the environment we live in could be a cause of this increase? If fish and frogs are changing sex due to contaminated water, you can’t deny the possibility.

We’re Supposed To Be An Educated Country!

Thinking and troubleshooting our problems seems to be a far off concept for politicians these days. I am concerned humans can’t, and don’t think anymore. It’s easier to blame and use the LGBTQ community as a cudgel to divide and tribalize; caught up in the culture wars! It’s a consistent theme, blame someone else instead of looking at the facts.

We are living in a no-facts-allowed period of politics. I think a major reason no one is thinking straight is because there are so many chemicals in our food, water, air and the environment. Where our ability to have an honest, thoughtful conversation has been obscured by lies, anger and vilification. In my opinion being objective and thoughtful requires mediation and a clean, healthy diet.

I quote many studies in my book that prove diet effects mood and personality. Sugar, alcohol, probiotics and basic vitamin intake all have a significant effect on mood and cognitive ability. What if keeping people from thinking before acting is the whole point?