Puer Aeternus

Potential absolute nonsense for your entertainment, so take with a heavy bag of salt here- My mother dabbles in the new age, beyond what I’d generally be interested in. My intimate family happened to be gathered around the time of the UFO congressional hearings. Inspired by the coverage, my mother told me a story of how one of her medium friends was riding the on a train car (L Train, Chicago) with her son. She’s sat on the seats, facing across from the other passengers. And randomly comes to the realize that, ah shit. One of these depressed commuters is an alien disguised in human form (this medium could somehow tell?). Apparently she chuckled to herself and went on with her day- Everyone kind of laughed, like haha yeah right. I essentially thought to myself, sure it could be true. But I have no way of ACTUALLY knowing. Then a week later, I’m listening to The Danny Jones Podcast (formerly Koncrete) with James Fox… Very interesting podcast, James Fox seems like a skeptical minded, reputable guy to me. I recommend his alien documentaries. But during the podcast, Fox mentions a discussion he had with Robert Bigelow (Aerospace Billionaire with Gov Contracts). Bigelow essentially teases to him that hey, they’re walking among us. Here’s the clip of you’d like to watch: Not much detail is provided, it’s very possible that Bigelow is spreading misinformation, I still HEAVILY doubt this. But I’d be lying if chills didn’t run down my entire body at that moment and the timing of it all. Whether or not aliens are really walking around in high-tech human skins suits. It does make a fun, tinfoilesque story tell. Even more fun to contemplate. Any of you bastards aliens? Besides the obvious Leo of course.

This video itself is pretty great! But go watch the other videos this guy makes. It’s top tier fascinating stupidity. This guy has some serious incel turned red pill vibes. Much of his channel is bastardizing spiral dynamics and other models like Wilber’s Four Quadrants to justify his straw man, oversimplified worldview of “women bad, men good”.

Feels like this documentary wasn’t as much about Bufo, as it was an interesting preview of what can go wrong with commercialization of psychedelics. It’s pretty wild to see naive tourists getting suckered into shady deals with people who aren’t concerned or experienced enough to deal with them. Like a preview of the ugly side of widespread legalization in more places. Marketing it as a miracle cure for mental illness, mixing it in with new age mumbo jumbo nonsense, and all the sexual assaults. The portal to god intertwined with devilry. I had a mostly unresearched interest in doing Bufo in Tulum before, but after watching I’ll be much more skeptical of these retreats. I think I’ll bite the bullet and just see what I can bum off of hippies instead. Do it by myself.

To explain briefly, I’m currently in a phase of exploring various ideas with an interdisciplinary taste to them. I know I know, these theories don’t really mean anything. I don’t take them too serious, I just enjoy playing with ideas like a child plays with legos. The problem is, as I read and study more into various fields, there’s typically a lot of fluff and nonsense to sort through. Lots of theories that are too obviously simplistic to be much fun to play with. While the booklist and spiral dynamics mega threads are great resources and have helped me much, there’s still several areas of interest not covered by these. The individuals I’m more specifically seeking have deep knowledge of their field but aren’t unwilling to branch out to others, are nuanced and openminded, relatively neutral, and have elements of second tier thinking. Examples of thinkers I’ve discovered so far, not covered in booklist: Marshall McLuhan (how media influences us both individually/collectively) Urie Bronfenbrenner (how larger sociological contexts impact developmental psychology) Moshé Feldenkrais (combined physical therapy and mindful awareness to alter posture/body tension patterns) Ron Kurtz (systems thinking applied to psychotherapy and body awareness) Paul Chek (holistic and in-depth approach to health, nutrition, and fitness) Areas of personal interest I’d love some recommendations for: Sociology Anthropology Ecology Economics Education Conscious group management Linguistics History Political science/government Environmental Science Biology Epidemiology Kinesiology Anatomy/Physiology Applied Statistics Any other thinker you’re passionate about but isn’t included on this list Not expecting all areas to be filled, more just curious to see what other people have! Thanks for taking the time to consider.

Greetings! 23M here, I've suffered most of my life in complete isolation due to extreme levels of social anxiety and a mild sprinkling of the autism. I've spent the past six months unfucking myself from that, and I've made decent progress to a point where I've gained a lot of confidence and functionality. Looking ahead, I've realized I'm rather behind in life. I'm challenging myself to spend the next five years gaining as much life experience as possible, which I will eventually flip and use towards my life purpose. I really want to break out of my local bubble in a challenging way. I'm pretty open-minded, but I know there are cultural things that I unconsciously take completely for granted. Watching YouTube videos, reading, and reflecting by myself can only take me so far versus actually traveling and meeting people. But I'm not quite sure how far I need to go before reaching diminishing returns. The goal is to put myself in situations that break my mind down and gain me perspective/understanding from culture/people very different from myself. Like a poor mans approach to ethnography. I don't really care too much about seeing the sights or going out partying, that's all secondary. Am in the US, so I've got access to many diverse cultures. Planning on moving to a big city here (Chicago, Philly, etc.) where there will be lots of opportunities and I could travel the country out of my car/camping if I wanted to. My issue is wondering if the overarching presence of US culture and government would reduce the depth of an experience I could have. Otherwise, I was thinking of about immersing myself in a different country or two for 3-6 months. Trying to meet locals, learning the language, doing what I could away from home. Am considering somewhere in South East Asia or South America. But I'm not sure if it's overkill and I could sufficiently gain the experience I seek without leaving the country. Nor how feasible it would even be to connect with locals/if my expectations are unreasonable. Thoughts? Welcoming any other suggestions as to how I could pop my bubble too! Thanks!