The Last Bastion
The Last Bastion
How the inner world protects us from manipulation and enables our survival.
The world is changing. Three years of Corona madness have shown us that much of what we took for granted was nothing but a tender plant that could easily be trampled down. Worldwide lockdowns and further evidence-free containment measures, bizarre mask fantasies, simulations by epidemiologists that were out of touch with reality, gene therapy for all humanity, regardless of whether young, old, pregnant or breastfeeding and massive suppression of fundamental rights have made many doubt the truthfulness of their previous perceptions. In addition, from the beginning of 2022, there was blatant war propaganda, the likes of which we have not seen for decades, where it suddenly became acceptable to send not diplomats but weapons to war zones and to philosophize about nuclear war. Cancel culture, wokeness, dark climate scenarios and censorship, censorship, and more censorship make us doubt our previous perception of the world. In short, the world as we knew it seems to be literally falling apart before our eyes.
Yet we often overlook the fact that this is only the "outer" world. The materialism of the last decades, our almost manic fixation on everything we can touch, see and scientifically analyze, have almost made us forget that there is also an "inner" world. A world that exists completely untouched by the madness of the outer world and that is a continuous stream of vitality and energy for us.
What is the "inner" world?
The Israeli psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who after the end of the Second World War wrote a widely acclaimed book "...nevertheless say yes to life" about his time as a prisoner in a concentration camp, explained the strong will to survive of some prisoners with the ability to hold on to positive visualizations of the future and also with the resilience and self-reliance of the human spirit. In essence, Viktor Frankl was referring to the mind, which, unlike the body, could not be taken by the perpetrators.
But is the inner world really only the mind?
The human biocenosis
The human being is a unique biocenosis, a community of life consisting of 10 trillion cells, 100 trillion bacteria and 10,000 trillion viruses. We are not a cellular unit inhabited by bacteria, but rather a complex symbiosis of different living organisms. It is only through the genetic material of the bacteria and the viruses that we have the possibility of surviving in an environment that is in principle hostile to humans. The totality of all microorganisms in humans and their genetic material is called the microbiome. Research in this field in recent years has shown how manifold the body is influenced by the metabolic products of microorganisms. These effects can be positive or negative - in both cases, the presence or absence of a product of the microbial metabolic pathway can be decisive. The mind is also significantly influenced by the so-called gut-brain axis. Whether we are sad or even depressed, feel joy or euphoria, all this is essentially controlled by the microbiological part of our body.
The human consciousness
But besides the mind and the body, there is a third level of being human: the human consciousness. It has many names: Soul or the "real" I, are just a few of many names that have been given to it over the last thousands of years. Ultimately, it is the part of us that - as Eckhart Tolle or Michael A. Singer, for example, write in their books - becomes aware that our mind is thinking. So we cannot be the mind, otherwise, we could not become aware that this mind is thinking. Therefore, there must be an entity that, far from the mind, perceives it - the consciousness.
We are not our mind
Many people react irritably and with incomprehension when a dissociation of mind and consciousness is suggested to them, because they are so interwoven with their mind that separation from it seems unimaginable. But in the book "You are not your brain" by Jeffrey Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding, it is scientifically presented what Buddhists have known for about two and a half thousand years: That the mind, located in our brain, is just a part of us, like the heart, lungs or other organs. This mind takes in countless pieces of information every day and repeats them incessantly.
The mind is therefore not protected from propaganda and manipulation, as it cannot help but absorb and process this information as well. However, the mind's reproduction of received propaganda does not mean that we are defenseless against it. For the mindful perception of thoughts allows us to observe this information, yet otherwise not pay any further attention to it. This ability of humans, which can be enhanced through mindfulness training, allows us to have a last bastion into which the madness of the outer world cannot penetrate, simply because we do not allow it through our mindfulness.
Mindfulness and the microbiome
Mindfulness, which can be practiced and increased through meditation and an open "mindset", not only offers us protection from our mind. It also has a direct impact on our microbiome. In one of the next substacks I will go into more detail about how the microbiome is directly affected by increased meditation and this has also been confirmed by several scientific studies. Microbial populations in our bodies change under the influence of meditative practices and in turn have direct physiological effects on the physique and psyche.
Are we "broken"?
Media, politicians and big pharma often want us to believe that we are broken and can only be saved by external intervention. This influence is important to keep the belief in oneself low, thus the longing for external help and influence high. Therefore, it is important to recognize manipulation and to hold the last bastion against it. We are not broken - our immune system has very well enabled our survival for hundreds of thousands of years. Our microbiome has changed, but mainly due to changing environmental conditions. No one wants to have the microbiome today that our ancestors had 50,000 years ago. We would not be able to survive with it. It can certainly receive a little "nudge" in the right direction through a conscious and healthy diet or through reputable probiotics - but the belief that we will degenerate without external means is simply absurd. It is surprising how quickly many people want to give up faith in their self-preservation powers and rely on the "golden knight on the white horse", the external helper. This is the result of pure manipulation.
What can we do?
So what can we do to survive despite the madness of the external world?
First, we should become aware of our inner world and the separation of mind and consciousness. The manipulated mind immediately loses some of its hold over us by doing this.
Secondly, we can strengthen this "last bastion" through mindfulness training. It makes us healthier and more resilient and allows us to recognize the propaganda of the outer world more quickly.
Thirdly, we should remember that our body is a complex and friendly symbiosis of human cells, bacteria and viruses. The microorganisms are not there to destroy us but, on the contrary, to enable us to survive.
Fourthly, we should realize that we can support this symbiosis through the right food, sufficient exercise and mindfulness training. We can thus directly influence the factors that are vital to us. The more mindful we are, the stronger, more resilient and more diverse is our microbiome.
And fifth, we should not try to put all our energy into changing the external world. This is a pointless endeavor. Because only when we start to consciously strengthen our inner world, only then will we be able to change the outer world through us.
Or to quote Mahatma Gandhi: "Be the change you wish to see in this world.”