Most people think they want more money or power or fame, but what they truly want is a sense of wellbeing that is consistent and permanent, undisturbed by circumstance. As I wrote about five years ago in How to Improve the World, this essentially comes down to our navigation through Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. When we talk about Fundamental Wellbeing, we're talking about the top of the pyramid, Self-Transcendence, which Maslow added towards the end of his life:
I'm 43. I have 3 kids who are currently 8, 11, and 13, and a beautiful wife, all of whom I love spending time with. I've recently been intentionally reorganizing my life in order to spend less time doing what others can do and spending more time doing things which only I can do along with what I'm most passionate about doing. Right now, that's 3 to 5 years dedicated to full participation with the journey of my children becoming adults and with being less wrong about my true nature and the nature of reality. I want to live in this world, awakened.
I've met many of my needs in the physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization categories. I'm really most interested in self-transcendence and as part of that journey, finding new aspects of self-actualization for later stages of my life. I want to help create a world we all want to live in. I want to see communities form around tools that enable that world which is why I've been involved in cryptocurrency and blockchain projects for over a decade.
Recently I've come to realize what many people think they want is not actually what they want. Take for example early crypto investors. Many of them have become multi-millionaires (surpassing the lower rungs on Maslow's Hierarchy) who eventually leave the communities they helped create. The reasons will very from things becoming "toxic" or "losing sight of the original vision" or they just get bored. I think what they really want (especially now, closer to the top of the pyramid) is fundamental wellbeing. This is easy to discover when you keep asking why.
- Q. So you want to earn money in crypto. Why?
- A. So I can have resources, goods and services I want.
- Q, Why do you want goods and services?
- A. So I can feel safe and secure, so I can attract a spouse, etc.
- Q. Why is it important to you to feel safe or to attract a spouse?
- A. Because it says something about me, that I did something useful with my life, and that I don't have to try so hard all the time or be afraid or worried.
- Now we're getting somewhere. Tell me more about those feelings you want and what that state of mind is like.
- A. I guess I want to be at peace. To have wellbeing. To feel like I've arrived and am done but not in a way that leaves me empty or striving for something else. That I can just be and that will be enough.
And there we have it. This is what the team at http://www.nonsymbolic.org/ calls Fundamental Wellbeing or to be more scientific about it, PNSE: Persistent Non-Symbolic Experience. This is what is often described as:
- Nondual awareness
- Plateau experiences
- Unity consciousness
- Deautomatization
- Enlightenment
- Samadhi
- Transcendental experiences
- Flow experience
- Mystical experiences
- Satori
- Cosmic Consciousness
- The peace of God
- Self-transcendence
- Silence beyond sound
- Numinous experiences
- The peace that passeth understanding
This is what everyone actually wants, if they were able to quiet the noise of all the other lower level survival needs striving for their constant attention. This is what I'm passionate about in this stage in my life.
But what about cryptocurrency, consulting and advising, and building Decentralized Autonomous Communities? What about being defined by your titles, job, and roles / responsibilities?
Well, I may just try to combine these passions and spend time with my kids by including them in the process. What does that look like? I don't know yet, but I think it looks like bringing PNSE (or something like it) to DAOs and cryptocurrency communities. As I learned first hand, within DAOs, it's not personal while at the same time everything is personal. One of the biggest challenges maintaining healthy communities is the awareness level of the people within them. I think I can help projects that my kids will enjoy participating with such as art, NFTs, blockchain games, and more. I think I can facilitate realization about what it is people actually want: Fundamental Wellbeing.
Imagine if the next major crypto project that comes along thinks about the long-term vision for their community from the beginning? When playing poker, you have to decide to fold or bet on the flop based on what you're willing to bet on the turn and the river. You have to think about the end game. If your project will mint a bunch of millionaires and billionaires, that's great, but what happens next? Why would your core founding members leave and go elsewhere? My thesis is that they will go elsewhere to find Self-Transcendence or Fundamental Wellbeing unless your community roadmap includes that destination on the path.
Can you imagine how powerful a community would be if they exist in a PNSE state before and after they strike it rich? If their motivation to contribute to the project isn't driven by a barrage of self-referential thoughts or perverse incentives or shame or guilt or any other form of neuroticism? Can you imagine what it would feel like to be a part of, contribute to, and work alongside a community of enlightened, fully-present, satiated people, operating in excellence? Gone would be the toxicity and drama that inevitably finds its way into well-meaning crypto projects that want to build tools for freedom but get caught up in "make token go up" and "when Coinbase/Binance listing?".
In many ways, all of this activity is just a proxy for getting the wellbeing we really want. If communities learn about and incorporate the tools for reaching PNSE (or something like it) as part of their process of belonging then they will have something no other community has. It won't be based on their financial status, their NFT collection, their gender, culture, locality, religion, or ethnicity. It will be based on a shared feeling of bliss, effortless action, and true community. This will not be for everyone, but everyone will want it. It will include onboarding strategies and screening processes for protecting what is valued.
For now it's just a dream of an idea, to combine the important aspects of cryptocurrency freedom tools (not the least of which is the separation of money and the state) with the deeper desire for persistent, fundamental wellbeing all while, on a personal level, connecting with my family.
Does this sound interesting to you?
Let me know in the comments.
In two days (Saturday) I'm starting a course with https://45daystoawakening.com/ to learn even more about the tools available to reach PNSE. I'll let you know how it goes.