Crazy Wisdom

I've decided to go on a detour with the style of my episodes. I'm currently not as motivated to interview anyone at the moment and so I decided, on suggestion from a friend, to share a few stories from the various experiences I've had in my life. This episode is the first iteration, it's about my time in Shangai back in 2006. Enjoy!

Francis is the CEO of Invisible Technologies; a business outsourcing and automation company. On his third appearance on the Crazy Wisdom podcast, we discuss AI, the ideal society, individualism, whether or not AI will conquer humans and so much more. You can reach out to Francis via mail by francis@invisible.email, or on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn at Francis Pedraza (@francispedraza) (1:24 – 10:53) A quick summary of what Invisible Technologies is about, how it works, its incentives, and what it seeks to achieve, as well as a quick narrative of the company’s rocky history, how it evolved into its current form, and how it is able to offer its USP. (11:09 – 13:05) The surreal nature of thought; how a single thought can be extremely complex and hold a world of information; why Francis thinks classifying emotions as ‘irrational’ is wrong. (14:10 – 23:51) Why experts tend to be blind; why AI isn’t going to kill us and can never replace humanity, and why you should read Nick Bostrom’s ‘Superhuman’ with your ‘whole brain’ (i.e. Ian McGilChrist style); can we teach a computer to just be? Are AI information processing and human thinking the same process? Does AI think? (23:53 – 28:50) Examples of the human inability to predict the future; why AI needs thinkers; a theory of what the singularity may look like, as opposed to the merging of tech and consciousness view; what is the constantly increasing connected nature of society doing to individuality? (28:51 – 37:42) Why enlightenment isn’t the destruction of the individual; why a society that thrives is a paradox and what this looks like; why Utopia is ultimately fascism and why we should go for another idea instead- as presented by Francis; why none of our mechanisms- not the constitution, and not AI- can save us. (37:45 – 43:34) Can a community become an individual? It is possible for a large group of people to be fully united in goals and aims? How to get a society of 500 million people to agree to a basic social contract. (45:30 – 50:39) What an ideal society looks like in Francis’ view; why he’s anti-utopian; why progress is a tricky metric to measure; why societies should constantly readdress their ideas of progress; why technocracy is a sham, and why society shouldn’t be left in the hands of ‘experts’. (50:58 – 1:01:11) Why enlightenment is a politicized term; why there isn’t just one ultimate enlightenment. Back to progress, why it’s a narrow concept in light of the vastness of being and the knowledge humanity as a whole has lost to time in the death of ancient civilizations. Why non-violence is the core rule of an ideal society and why this rule makes the ideal society inherently unstable. Why the fear of death is the major hindrance to building the ideal society. (1:01:12) Why the individual is greater than society, even though society is bigger; where do ideas come from?; why immortality won’t solve the dilemma of being a human being in our vast universe; What the real aim of meditation is; why you can never fully understand existence. Alternate interpretations of old bible stories; Francis’ summary of what the ideal society is.

Emily Splichal is a podiatrist and the founder of Evidence Based Fitness Academy (EBFA). In this episode, we discuss somatosensation, how awareness of interoception can help manage stress, stem cells, sound and vibration healing, breathwork, chronic pain, functional fitness, and much more. Emily is working on a book titled “Own it: Offensive Techniques to Owning your Health.” You can find her at her various websites namely, dremilysplichal.com, ebfaglobal.com, and neboso.com, or on Instagram @dremilydpm. Enjoy. (Note: This podcast deals heavily with anatomy and uses a lot of medical terms; you may want to skip if that doesn't pique your curiosity.) (2:34) Why don’t other animals have ruffini receptors/ruffinian endings found in humans? (5:53 – 7:18) The relationship between breathing and stress, and somatic responses and stress; an interesting definition of stress in terms of energy. 7:50 – 12:49) Sound healing: how sound and vibration can be used to influence muscular activation and relaxation (it may be possible to sing your way into a high); a possible theory of how breathwork helps manage stress (12:56 – 18:59) Our perception of the inside affects how we view the outside, even before we’re born; how we learn about the world from our mothers while in the womb; the importance of being able to regulate emotions and maintaining a relaxed state of mind during pregnancy, and while raising children. (18:58 – 25:53) Most of our agitation and chronic pain issues result from unconscious cognitive and emotional processes, preventing us from being able to effectively deal with them consciously; how psychedelics and alternative therapy methods can give us access to these aspects of ourselves and help us work through them. (27:34 – 29:43) Stem cells: do they work? Emily shares how she uses them in her treatments and the wrong ways doctors apply them in treating patients. (29:45 – 31:33) Growth factors, what are they? What do they do? Are they different from hormones? (31:39 – 33:56) Functional fitness vs artificial fitness; hammers and axes vs dumbbells and barbells. (33:57 – 35:07) The relationship between the feet and the brain; why the feet are so neurally important; what running barefoot, in nature, can do for memory.

Tuto Assad is the founder of Vitau, an online subscription pharmacy for patients with chronic diseases, specifically targeted to Latin America. In this episode, we discuss entrepreneurship, philosophy, his diabetic conditions, and Tuto gives us a glimpse of what the medical and pharmaceutical industry in Mexico are like. You can find Tuto on all social media platforms at Tuto Assad or on his website at tutoassad.com. Enjoy! (3:13 – 6:28) Seeing beyond the sheen Silicon Valley has placed on entrepreneurship; why you must contextualize when trying to replicate a business model that worked in an environment different from yours; the differences between the healthcare systems in Mexico and the U.S. (6:31 – 8:00) The one thing every entrepreneur needs to keep in mind when it comes to knowledge. (9:10 – 13:21) The major problems patients with chronic diseases in Mexico face; how most local pharmacies fail to address this issue; the solutions Vitau aims to enact in this space. (13:24 – 16:30) An interesting definition of strategy; the two rules that guide Vitau’s focus; why falling in love with a problem is more important than being fixated on a solution. (16:32 – 19:58) Tuto discusses his diabetic condition, how it inspires him to live a healthy lifestyle, and the encouraging words from a priest, when he was first diagnosed at 13, that laid the foundation for his current drive to help people with chronic conditions. 25:00 – 27:14 What is your life philosophy? Tuto discusses his beliefs about what life is and what we’re here to do, and how that relates to doing business. (27:15 – 28:36) How to navigate the hiring process, and relationships in general; how to navigate the search for someone with similar values such that you don’t end up with a clone of yourself. (29:54 – 33:04) Does it make sense to believe in God? If today’s mythology is yesterday’s religion, doesn’t it make sense to think that today’s religion will be tomorrow’s mythology? Hear Tuto’s views on religion and how his search for truth led to him abandoning his Christian faith. (33:48 – 35:15) Why are we trying to understand why we’re here? Why do we try to define life? Tuto offers his opinion on the issue. (39:21 – 42:21) If you had no fears at all, would you have beliefs? A discussion of how fear has shaped most of our religious beliefs and the deepest fear most people have. (42:23) A question to ponder: What do you believe about your business/market that most people don’t and why?    

Claire Tiwald is a painter, illustrator, sculptor, and comic book artist, and Fb friend of mine. We talk about wilderness camping, bears, mountain lions, camping in the winter, r-value and why it is important and much more. You can find Claire on her website clairetiwald.com and on her Instagram page @grimlemur. Enjoy! (5:04 – 7:52) What to actually do when you encounter a bear up close; surprising information on which bears are the most dangerous (has little to do with size). (8:07 – 9:25) Countryside vs city, which has scarier people? (I should run a poll on this); why animals are easier and more straightforward to deal with compared to human beings. (10:04 – 12:27) Bears vs Mountain Lions, which should you be warier of? When and where you should watch for mountain lions; how a donkey got between Claire and a bear. (13:29 – 14:45) Do you know you can take a donkey on the Pacific Crest Trail? The pros and cons of doing so; Claire’s experience with one. (16:00 – 18:54) How emotional struggles, her dad, and the healing effects of nature cultivated Claire’s love for the wilderness. (19:00 – 26:50) Tips on camping during winter; r-value: why you should pay attention to the r-value of your camping gear; why you should be wary of synthetic liners, blankets, pants, and clothing in general; why cotton is worse than synthetics for camping during the winter. (26:50 – 30:11) Do you know it’s possible to get hypothermia in the summer? Under special conditions of course; why listening to your body and being in the moment during wilderness hikes is a must; and, going back to camping during winter, how stacking claories up can stave hypothermia off, and why you shouldn’t take any alcohol when camping during the winter. (31:51 – 36:06) Weather forecasting and navigational precautions to take when deciding to go camping during the winter; courses to take on wilderness navigation and how to improve your ability to navigate in general. (37:00) Do you know it is illegal to have a drone in national forest airspace?    

Today’s guest is Ruth from ‘The Temple of Truth,’ an underground guide for death and surrender practice who 5-MeO-DMT as a tool to induce mystical states that mimic dying, and helps her clients integrate these experiences. In this episode we discuss death, the fear of death, letting go and surrender, 5-MeO-DMT, and much more.While she currently doesn’t have an online presence, Ruth is working on a body of work that will be made available to the online public. That said, there’s always the chance you can find her in person. Enjoy!(1:34 – 2:52) What does it mean to help people experience death and rebirth? What does surrender mean? Does it simply mean to give up? Does it simply mean to lay down and die? Is death such a bad thing?(4:11 – 6:39) How an uncanny penchant for vivid dreams, at a young age, brought an onslaught of anxiety and neuroses, and drove Ruth to eventually confront her fear of death(7:45 – 11:57) Living in fear is a feedback loop that’s perpetuated by the body and mind; it’s a ‘chicken and the egg’ situation; the mind signals the body to generate hormones which signal the mind to further signal the body to generate more stress hormones; it’s a survival mechanism gone wrong; Ruth explains how facing our fear of death helps us reconfigure this loop into a positive one.(13:54 – 17:32) 5-MeO-DMT’s role in cultivating wellbeing and overcoming the fear of death, and the dangers of using it as a distraction from the important work of integration.(17:37 – 26:05) What is 5-MeO-DMT? Where does it come from? How is it different from regular DMT? Why is it called the God/Source molecule? How is Ruth able to use it to help people heal? Are there any differences between natural and synthetically produced 5-MeO?(27:43 – 32:05) The perils of seeking ‘oneness’ out of egoic desire, ignorance, or a means to control life, as opposed to deeply investigated intentions; the true cost of meeting ‘God.’ (Hint: There may be some screaming involved)(32:07 – 36:15) How skepticism can make the process of death and rebirth difficult, and the various reactions Ruth has witnessed skeptics have to 5-MeO-DMT.(36:17 – 38:50) You will never be free of the ego; why this isn’t a bad thing; how you can train the art of letting go.

Kelsey is working on a book that discusses both conscious-consumption and how to change reality from the inside. In this episode, we discuss creativity, perception, meaning, conditioning, circumstance, and how all these come together consciously and unconsciously to create our reality. Kelsey also shared some ideas from her upcoming book: “Mood Food.” You can find Kelsey on Instagram @luscious_alchemy. (1:32 – 2:51) The nature of reality; how our senses create reality, and how our choices, conditioning, and circumstances, in turn, influence how we perceive reality. (4:42 – 8:25) What a trip to Thailand taught Kelsey about how we can use our creative abilities, as human beings, to create an inner fulfillment that transcends experiences, whether good or bad; how seeking to create meaning in this way, as opposed to compiling a bunch of experiences is the key to this fulfillment. (Pro-tip: Getting good at it requires a fine balance). (8:50 – 15:22) How circumstances and conditioning create unconsciously unhealed wounds; trapped emotions and damaging inhibitions, especially as it relates to personal growth and creativity; how our conditioning creates narratives that keep us limited to certain behavioral patterns; suppressing our natural forms of expression; some techniques we can apply to dissolve these behavioral patterns. (16:27 – 19:38) The nature of being; what is being? What is the purpose of life? Is there a true purpose? How do we integrate the fact that we don’t actually know nor are we required to do any of the things we actually do as a society, save issues dealing with direct survival? How do we interpret emotion in a world that isn’t entirely objective? What does this mean for our ability to navigate and influence our experience in life? (19:40 – 23:14) Realms of reality; The various levels of consciousness that human beings experience, and how we can use this to grow through our pain. (23:14 – 28:37) Alchemy; the history of yoga; how the east inspired Carl Jung’s spiritual system; how culture moves through space and time and creates rifts among us when we see its practices as being more than what they are. (28:45 – 40:20) Kelsey shares themes from her book; how it was influenced by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; how we can navigate the path it charts (in no particular order) to better and more aligned states of consciousness and being; both in an individual sense and at a collective level.    

Ray Alejandro is the Access to Finance Leader, Endeavor, Mexico City. He’s passionate about figuring out better ways to signal skills and talent, optimizing for the things you want, inequality of opportunity, properly contextualizing ideas, improving the education system, navigating upward and social mobility in emerging regions, philosophy and ideas, and economics and that forms the basis of this episode’s discussion. You can catch Ray thinking out loud on Twitter and medium @rayalcas. Enjoy. (1:52 – 10:54) Why you should treat life as a videogame; How Ray’s fundamental beliefs have been shaped by death, limitation, living in an emerging market, self-awareness, and trying to accomplish his goals via experimentation.   (12:11 – 19:49) The role of credentials in emerging regions, such as Latin America, for aspects of life like mobility and social freedom; how these credentials are limited to certain aspects of the population and how knowledge of this limitation should guide your optimization process, such that you neither end up stuck nor end up enslaved by the glamorization of credentials. (20:12 – 21:56) How Ray learned to avoid the hype offered by credential-based thought leaders; the importance of contextualizing and idea-debugging. (23:15 – 27:40) Why the movement to liberate the lower class and create opportunities for social mobility of people of all classes should be supported just as strongly as movements such as feminism. (31:50 – 35:50) Mexico City in 15 years: Ray’s projections on the effect of urbanization on the city, based on the current trends. (Hint: large tech companies currently have very little impact on the lives of the majority of individuals.) (37:00 – 41:17) Why the education system is a cultural monopoly and how it holds the middle-class ransom to maintaining narrow forms of credentialing and signaling if they’re to experience any forward mobility; how this credentialing system is maintained by the inability, in most fields, to measure competency. (46:46 – 53:04) Creating your own life philosophy vs copying the playbook of people who have what you want; how to navigate this tension, and having the self-awareness to define success for yourself. (53:42 – 58:18) How Ray navigates consciousness, the sense of self, and personal identity and how he uses the insights he’s gained from studying this to deal with the struggles of life.

Norland Tellez is an artist and teacher, with a degree in film animation from Cal Arts, and a student of mythology and mythological history with a master’s and a doctorate degree in mythology from Pacifica Institute. In this episode, we discuss the Jungian idea of individuation, the nature of the individual, the two-ness of nonduality, and much more. You can reach Norland on Twitter @mythistorian or via his website: norlandtellez.com (3:47) Asking “who am I?” is a narrow approach to self-discovery; a better trail of inquiry as suggested by Norland. (5:10) Are the worldwide instabilities and widespread crises of meaning that are occurring in today’s world a sign that the religious and philosophical movements that were inspired in the axial age are coming to an end? If so, what attitudes should we take in response? Does the Popol Vuh say anything about this? (11:25) An interesting breakdown of the term ‘image,’ in the context of the religious idea (found across a variety of religions; not just Christianity) that “God/the gods attempted to make man in their own image” (13:12) What Carl Jung failed to see about the human psyche and why his psychological worldview is incomplete. (15:49) What exactly is Western Civilization? What is it and is it really behind the ‘hyper-individualistic’ psyche that dominates the majority of human society in today’s world? That said, are we just cogs in society’s machine? Or are we individuals with free will? Or is it both? (28:10) Individualism is a relational concept; an individual is a collective process. (31:50) How the concept of twinship, from the Popol Vuh, correlates with the structure of consciousness; the primordial archetype of ‘two-ness’; why the ‘One’ is actually a ‘twinship.’ (47:45) How we can deal with ideological traps.  

Today’s episode is brought to you from the top of Shasta Mountain where I’m holding a virtual conversation with Woody Wiegmann, founder of the Woodside Investment Counsel. Our discussion focuses on gaining the courage to be disliked without losing your connection to community. You can find Woody on Twitter @woodywiegmann, or check his ideas out at woodsideinvestmentcounsel.com. Enjoy. (4:23) Navigating the balance between being okay with being disliked and being an asshole; Woody shares his daily attempts at navigating this spectrum. (Quick hint: you have no idea what anyone else is thinking.) (8:37) How our genetic programming to attempt to fit into an ingroup has led to the polarization of society and the steady disintegration we’re currently witnessing, especially in the political sphere, and once again, a metaphor we can use to parse the boundaries between seeking acceptance and living true to your core. (16:38) The downsides to identifying with the social identity, especially at the corporate level. (21:15) A suggestion we can practice to maintain our individual sovereignty without losing the attachment to community that gives our lives meaning, and what countries like Israel can teach us in maintaining this balance. (24:38) Have cities made us more ungrounded? What do you think? Have you ever lived outside the city? What was the experience like for you? Leave me a comment on twitter @stewartalsopIII with your thoughts on the matter and tag your post #episodewithwoodywiegmann (28:30) Woody’s interpretation of the US’ response to COVID-19; how America is becoming less and less habitable for the average householder. (31:43) What is America’s future in light of the various institutional and wealth inequality crises that are steadily nearing critical mass? (37:06) How America’s response to COVID-19 is killing capitalism and entrepreneurship in many places all over the country. (44:50) A solution to tackling the issues we face in today’s world. (47:43) Learning to deal with the unknown and a brilliant quote by Nicholas Nassim Taleb.