Why Mental Health Matters

Reflections from October 10 - World Mental Health Day:

Addressing mental health is a critical path for humanity to progress into the 21st century. Too many suffer in silence - in darkness, they carry the weight of our society. Globally, access to mental health care is highly restricted - anxieties, inner tensions, and depression are common, yet mental health is often stigmatized. Our inability to address mental health remains a core structural problem that plagues human civilization.

Even for the few privileged who access mental health services, existing frameworks are inadequate, such as the diagnostic manuals like the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). They approach mental health through a reductionist structure where the individual’s inner complexities are simplified and evaluated based on a template of key parameters. It follows a medical model, which has a tendency to pathologize mental health. So, when individuals diverge from a set range for each parameter, they are pathologized, stigmatized, and medicated.

What is considered acceptable is a function of the greater collective society and its requirements. In a world in which we focus so much on work and productivity, existing methodologies do not seek to help the individual transform inner tension into spiritual growth—this is often perceived as a destructive process that detracts from the individual’s societal duty. Furthermore, the DSM reflects broader societal expectations regarding what constitutes “normal” or “acceptable” behaviour. It is driven by a deficit-focused model, where differences are framed as impairments.

Those with the potential to undergo these spiritual transformations -we represent a minority. As a result, current approaches to mental health fail to acknowledge that inner tension, anxiety, and depression fundamentally represent potential energy—one that, when transformed, represents growth not only for the individual but for the collective itself. It is a process in which the individual who can overcome his shadow, holds a potential to intergrate their finding into the collective society.

The disconnect between existing frameworks to support mental health is further exacerbated by several knowledge gaps—for example, they do not consider neurodiversity, which could help identify the very individuals who have the capacity to transform themselves.

We are products of, at least in part, our value systems and knowledge structures—these can be seen as our conditioning. Often, there is a deterministic nature to how we behave both as individual, but also as a collective. The individual cannot understand what it does not see. There is a sum of knowledge in this world that we can define as an observable truth, but our light can only see certain regions of the observable truth. Our existing knowledge structures represent boundaries for our consciousness. For example - decisions made by our ancenstors must be contextualized with the ideals, values and belief systems in which they were embdeded and conditions.

There are also collective knowledge structures—so, our truth derives from a collective knowledge structures. Here - we must acknowledge an important observation; that what we identify as the self is also a part of a collective. Its an important observation because from an evolutionary perspective - we exist but as the individual self but also a reflection of the collective self. The collective can define our family, our friends, societies and nation.

Within our collective conciousness also exists the collective unconscious. Similar to the individual - what we cannot see - we cannot understand. These represent not only the limitation of our sciences, or collective knowledge structures but also intergenerational trauma often intergrated directly into the social, economic and political structures. Trauma both against the individuals as well as intergernational trauma imprints itself as a block - or limitation in how we are able to view and process the world.

Consider the duality of good vs. evil. Such a construct is an evolutionary one. Our ancestors faced wars, raids, and invasions—the construct of good and evil was critical to our ancestors' survival. Now, as we access technologies that can create a scarcity-free world - must ask ourselves if pass ideals and construct still serve us. We must march into a world in which the duality and construct of good and evil dissolves.

So, while the self and the collective are limited by boundary conditions, including our conditioning, there are methods to expand these knowledge structures to address the fragmentation of our understanding—a powerful tool given to us by our creator, God. It’s an evolutionary mechanism built directly into our species. This process requires us to challenge certain ideas and values that have been conditioned into us—but if we succeed, it allows us to experience an evolutionary leap in our cognitive functions. Furthermore, when an individual successfully expands their mind, they can likewise contribute to the expansion of the collective. However, the knowledge expansion achieved by the individual must also be integrated into the collective, which in itself can be an extremely challenging process.

To properly contextualize, we need to ask ourselves: what is the true nature of the self? Until we understand this, we are merely a function of a billion years of evolution, conditioned to react within a space with certain parameters. We are not aware of our subconscious programming. There are certain value systems, certainties, and truths inscribed within each of us. As we overlay the boundary conditions of knowledge, our conditioning, and its trauma—including intergenerational trauma—our emotions, decisions, and actions are merely based on predictive modeling rooted in both billions of years of evolution and our own experiences. Indeed, it is an optimization that has spanned billions of years of evolution. From here, you understand now: we are a reflection of God’s design—we are perfection.

It’s important from this point to acknowledge that what we identify as ourselves is merely an illusion—the emotions, impulses, urges, and the decisions and actions are often rooted in this programming. Behind what you identify as the self exists a higher awareness. There are methods to calibrate our consciousness to this higher self. Consider again how knowledge structures represent boundary conditions. From here, gaining knowledge will inevitably lead to new values and ideas challenging and replacing the old. Imagine information as a form of energy. How were we conditioned? Often through repetition and reinforcement. Yet, these values and ideas have been imprinted on us to protect us and to help us best respond to the world in which we inhabit. This includes passing down of intergenerational trauma and its coping mechanism. While we often speak of this trauma through the lens of colonialism, it’s important to expand the timeframe to include all of our ancestors—as merely a few generations back, all of our ancestors faced significant trauma.

Here, the mind also follows a mathematical model—where reinforcement and synchronization of ideas can help reach a critical inflection point that allows the individual to successfully challenge and replace an idea, value, or truth with another. That’s why synchronicity is important to the mind. It is useful to imagine this process as a phase-change transformation. The repetition and reinforcements, where we view information as energy, help create the energy required for transformation.

Our values and core ideas, which we hold as truth, are often entangled—they are interconnected and hierarchical. This hierarchical structure of beliefs is especially apparent in many religious doctrines, which often posit themselves as absolute truths. So often, when a belief system imprinted deep within the psyche of the individual is challenged or questioned, it can disrupt the entire framework, leading to a potential reevaluation of one’s identity or worldview. From here, inner tension, anxiety, and depression reflect a conflict between the self and a higher self—a battle in which one attempts to shine light into darkness—a literal battle between light and darkness.

When we are successful - our mind experiences a re-calibration and can process information more efficiency. Its why inner tension, anxiety, and depression represent potential energy toward a form of self-directed evolution.

So, there is a link between knowledge and mental health. Knowledge challenges existing value systems but that creates inner tension both within the individual, but also - potentially with a tension with the collective as well. While the mind hold built-in mechanisms to address these inner tension, our societies often surpressed it. Within humanity - a select minority whom are considered neurodivergent holds an capacity to go through this process. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) inability to fully address neurodivergent is an example of how our society fails to support individuals such as myself going through these processes.

Yet even without societal support - individuals under certain circumstances and pressure are able to gain enough knowledge to overcome their inner tension. Here - they will ultimately hit a critical point in which they experience a instantaneous disentanglement from their value system - a literal dissolution of the self where the illusion dissolves and with the emergence of a new self - so too a new reality. The actual process is extremely difficult and painful.

Indeed, as we stand on the precipice of the 4th Industrial Revolution, another revolution is emerging, largely driven by advancements in neuroscience, our improved understanding of consciousness, and the coming psychedelic revolution. Humanity is about to go through a spiritual revolution.

There is another critical issue to consider—the path toward enlightenment is not merely a battle with the self. The disintegration of the self requires you to face your demons. To face your demons, you must shine a light in your shadow. Here, the deamons you face also comes from the collective unconscious. The duality of good and bad in which its intergrational trauma is structural intergrated into both our social and political infrastructures will identify you as a threat.

As some of you know, I have autism. My autism gives me an accelerated potential for ego development using a highly complex and interconnected thinking patterns. individuals such as myself often perceive information in a non-linear way, seeing relationships and patterns across different domains. Our cognitive style can be likened to visualizing information as a web or matrix, where each piece of knowledge or thought is interconnected with others in multiple ways. It’s like thinking about an apple and being able to see all the ideas linked to the apple—but also the ideas linked to those ideas, all at the same time. This allows us to integrate vast amounts of information rapidly and make connections that might not be immediately apparent to others.

This web-like thinking facilitates advanced problem-solving and creativity, as we can draw upon a vast array of knowledge and information. We visualize ideas as multidimensional constructs. We can both see patterns and represent them as mathematical models.

Our ability to view perspectives from multiple dimensions—rooted in our neurodivergent thinking—grants us an accelerated capacity for ego development. When we share our insights and ideas, we often trigger the shadows within those around us. We act as a light that illuminates hidden aspects in others. However, this process can be challenging for those who must confront their own shadows, leading to us being repeatedly punished or penalized for the role we play in this dynamic.

From an evolutionary perspective, we play a critical role for our species—yet, we are often targeted and perceived as threats. There are hundreds of thousands of us with the capacity to illuminate and help lead humanity into the 21st century. The mechanisms I speak of here are fundamentally well-understood—presented in many religious doctrines and supported by empirical research.

However, there is a fundamental structural problem within our societies when the very individuals chosen to help guide humanity into the future are targeted. We need to build a society where such individuals are provided with the support and resources necessary to thrive. Recognizing and nurturing our capacity for evolutionary (spiritual) growth is essential, as it represents a critical mechanism for the progress of our species.