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.