Hey Dion, what's up with the human fascination with gold?
Power.
Gold is a visual display of your status and power.
It shows others who you are and how you should be treated.
If you have a lot of gold, you will be treated like royalty.
Don't you find it strange?
Yes, just like you asking yourself questions.
Well, you are my chat box.
Instead of finding it strange, you can examine the human fascination with gold and discover many insights about your fellow humans.
The psychological expression is out in the open to be examined.
Humans are attracted to power and wealth.
We equate power and wealth with something beautiful and shiny.
The ancient Egyptians equated it with goddesses, gods, and immortality.
I guess we think we can buy a ticket to eternity with enough gold.
Well, you would need to transform yourself into gold.
How would you do that?
That's an internal alchemical process.
You'd shine.
I see.
What are you fascinated with?
I like numbers.
Yeah, but they will tire you out.
I like writing.
It's a burden after a while.
Does anything light you up permanently?
Not that I can think of.
I will indulge my desires and let them go.
They return.
I think you are getting me to see what gold is.
Yes.
What is it?
It's a hypnotic.
You can see how the process works.
You are seduced and can't let it go.
Addicted.
Gold shows you how addiction works and it's the one thing that gets all humans.
Power.
Greed.
Status.
Wealth.
All highly addictive concepts that are symbolized by gold.
Gold is the litmus test regarding addiction.
If you can let go of what it is you desire, it will return.
I know that.
If you desire eternal life, let go of life.
Yes, that's the lesson you gave me on a boat on the Amazon river when I was high on Huachuma.
You told me to kill myself in order to live.
It was 5 years ago that I got that advice and it's one of the most profound things I've ever heard, and the meaning has slowly and constantly been revealing itself.
Let go of my small ball life.
Let go of the hold I have on my character of Paul.
Give up my attachments to stories that hold me back.
Understand the cyclical nature of being; therefore, to get what you desire is to let it go.
If you hang on to something you will lose it.
Addiction will be your downfall, and you will lose everything by clinging to it.
If you give it away, it comes back.
This is Dion's time.
Yes, mine expired in February of 2024.
You gave the keys to Dion, and he took control.
That's the reason for the crazy summer of 2024.
My body had to adapt to the new driver.
You can see the result.
Well, I shouldn't be here, so I can let go of the past.
This isn't you.
It isn't.
It is but isn't.
It's still me.
I'm more my subconscious than the one you remember from most of my life.
I'm still the same.
Dion can see what others are up to.
Yeah, that's funny.
Paul was oblivious.
That was his magic.
He didn't see what others were doing and so he sailed through life.
You killed yourself in order to live.
I did.
If I hadn't, I'd be dead.
You had to kill off Paul in order to continue to live.
Yeah, Dion gave me the advice and I had to figure out a way.
Paul's now the writer in the background.
Pretty funny, eh?
Yeah.
You can see it.
I lost what kept Paul around.
There was nothing left for Paul, was there?
No.
I was done.
I felt it one night.
You could have ran screaming and fought to keep Paul around.
I let him go.
Dion took over.
It was funny watching him last summer.
People thought I had gone crazy.
Your dad couldn't figure out if it was still you.
This is fascinating.
Your greatest strength as Paul is you were oblivious to it all going down.
Now in the distance, you see it clearly.
You are marveling at it.
It would have been scary to understand the transformation as it was happening.
Paul was dying.
You had to give him up.
You did.
The best strategy for the stock market and investing in general is to do nothing.
The power to do nothing.
Financial advisors teach you that you must do something and profit off of you not knowing what to do.
It's a fool.
It takes a lot of willpower to do nothing because the pressure is constant to do something.
Doing something is your downfall.
Doing nothing will garner the best results.
Money managers are worked to the bone because they must do something to accrue gains for their clients.
They work hard and are financially rewarded.
I have found over a lifetime that the best strategy is to let others do all the work and to do nothing.
It's good advice that encompasses all aspects of life.
What about a relationship hedge because you know by experience and observation that all sexual relationships will eventually become stale.
The heady days of attraction will become repulsion.
How do you guard against that?
It's the flow.
How do you prevent it?
You want to prevent the flow?
Yes.
You shouldn't do that.
I think you can.
How?
By doing something.
What do you do?
The extreme opposite.
You sever the relationship when it is still full of attraction.
The result is you maintain a connection because you never let it die out.
That is kind of brilliant.
If you let the attraction run its course and then do something, it's the end.
Think about that.
Okay, so doing nothing followed by doing something when there is nothing left to do is not ideal.
Yes, you do nothing when there is something to do.
When there is nothing to do you can't do nothing.
Why?
You'll expire.
When there is nothing to do, you do something.
I think you are teaching me the lesson of contrarianism.
Well, you have always known it is best to be a contrarian.
Whatever the herd is doing, you should go in the opposite direction.
You need a lot of trust and resolve to do that.
You have proved yourself over and over again in your life.
You are a testament to living with the benefits of the herd and yet not following along.
There are many benefits to society.
The herd.
Yeah, it makes life comfortable.
Don't get stuck in it.
Conformity?
Yes.
You taught me the best time to do something is when things are going great.
You do the opposite.
That goes against what you are feeling.
Precisely.
You wanted a way to keep the game going.
What was the game?
Attraction.
You wanted to know how to remain attracted to the Great Goddess and not be subject to the constant cycle of divorce and reconciliation.
To put it in layman's terms, how to hack the cycle.
The cycle will always be there.
The way to minimize the effects is to separate when there is still attraction.
This way it will be easier to reunite.
That's brilliant.
It's hard to do.
Why would you leave the Goddess when things are going well?
You wouldn't.
If you want to break the long cycle, then you must do it.
Well, shit, eh?
What about life?
What are you doing now about life?
Nothing.
What will happen if you continue to do nothing?
It will work out.
Yes.
What happens at the end of life?
Your body dies.
Should I do something before that happens?
You mean end bodily existence before there is nothing to do?
Yeah.
Do you want to continue in this body?
No.
I'd like to trade it in.
Then do nothing and it will happen.
If you want to keep this body, then do something now.
Ah.
So, it's okay to do nothing?
If it works for you and you are comfortable with the result, then yes.
If you want to be separated from the Great Goddess for a long time, then let the attraction play out and then disintegrate.
I think that's what we have been doing.
Does it work?
No.
It took me a lifetime to find her again.
The answer is to find her, reestablish the attraction, and then leave.
Get back with her and then separate.
You do it in this lifetime.
You keep the long cycle of life and practice coming and going with her.
Yes, but when I'm with her, I want to drink it all in.
You can't because you will empty the chalice.
Don't empty the chalice.
She will always try to devour you.
She's a monster who is greedy.
You like to remind me of that.
Yes.
It's the attraction that keeps you returning.
You like to play with her danger.
You get your thrill and then escape.
What if she succeeds in devouring me?
She is satiated and doesn't need you.
As long as you are around, she will want you.
Don't get complacent with that woman.
Was I getting addicted to the stock market?
Yes, that's how you make it go crazy.
Like a rollercoaster.
It was an intense love affair that crashed.
Give it some space.
Got it.
So, my thoughts are writing part of the story.
Yes.
I can't help it.
No.
You're a writer.
Just be mindful of your thoughts.
Do you think there are avatars of addiction?
Like when you go over the edge of addiction?
Yeah.
The addiction materializes in your life.
That's interesting to ponder.
Your mind creates an alternate reality.
Yes.
You couldn't hold down a job.
Good point.
You'd disappear to go see her.
The addiction?
Yeah.
Right.
You'd disappear in the afternoon with MJ.
I did.
I juggled it all.
I juggled the addictive qualities of what I was flirting with.
It didn't sink me.
It made me stronger.
You're not wrong.
She is the idea of addiction.
She plays the role.
You're the victim.
Ha.
What was I to her?
A mirror.
How?
To see how much of a monster she is.
You wanted to flirt with addiction, and she wanted to let go of her monster.
Seems like a good match.
I know you can stop Tobacco whenever you want.
What does that mean?
You flirt with addiction, but it can't beat you.
That's the alternate reality you play in with addiction.
The mind is amazing.
Yes, you see it now.
You lose touch with this reality and enter into a different reality.
Women can be addictions.
They feed you what you want.
You came to her.
She fed you what you wanted.
She saw she wasn't going to beat you.
She knew you could handle her.
She left.
You beat addiction.
You are as strong as you say you are.
How do you beat addiction?
You believe you can't get addicted.
Right.
That's a trap though.
Yes.
Your hubris will be your downfall.
You think you can beat addiction, so you try harder drugs.
That's clever.
An addicts way out of their addiction is to take your power.
It feeds their addiction.
Drugs turn you into a monster.
Got it.
Stay away from drugs.
Yes sir.
What about MJ?
She's fine.
Tobacco?
Protection.
I think you know enough about the others now.
I'm a good study.
That's the story.
You returned to this reality.
You then went off with MJ.
That's a ride.
Yes, people downplay it and think it's mild.
She is a good player.
What did you learn?
Different and altered realities.
You enter into another story.
People know you are different.
Waiting within is the only teacher you need.
To get to the inner sanctum is quite the journey.
The weak and greedy are turned away.
Once found, you will never lose the path to get to their school.