If You Fight the Universe, You Will Lose

What is it about the universe that can create such deep feelings of dread? Is it the vastness of it all? The virtue of so much unknown? How infinitesimal our lives become when we realize how grand the world is?

No matter the reason, the universe—when interpreted cynically—has the power to instill deep feelings of confusion, hopelessness, and anguish in a person.

Many people have tried to answer the unknowns of space—some more comprehensible than others, but none with absolute certainty, merely theory. Many religions have filled this gap in human knowledge through the worship of God or some other higher power. The existence of these higher beings lets us submit to their interpretation and control over the universe, and through faith and prayer, repel the need for further answers. Repel the need for certainty in the universe, as certainty has been placed in God or some other deity.

While science and religion can coexist, agnostics and others may find the universe terrifying due to the lack of certainty. For those that demand answers, they will not find.

When you continue to demand something from the universe, it will become your enemy. Hostility towards the universe is nothing more than punching a wave and thinking you can defeat the ocean. Why? We are not owed answers by the universe no matter how much we crave them. With how unbelievably big the universe stands to be, why would it be concerned with our speck of a being?

So the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join ‘em.

I’ve undergone psilocybin journeys a handful of times, some of which for recreation, others deep introspective battles between my beliefs and my mind’s various thoughts and assumptions.

Psilocybin, among other psychedelics, have the power to induce a state of being known as ego death (a.k.a ego dissolution). I will fail in attempting to describe this experience astutely, however I can describe the feelings that followed.

Above all, I felt connected with the world. When I looked at the universe, it was no longer a duel. We were one. I was the universe just as much as the universe was me. This was refreshing. To some, losing the boundary between themself and the universe can be terrifying, though to me, this was liberating.

Liberating because truthfully, in some real, visceral way, I felt the power of leaning into the universe for support rather than ridiculing and blaming the universe for the things I lack. Feeling one with the universe provided a layer of protection over my conscious, knowing there was a grand pool of strength to pull from when needed. When you align yourself with a single goal, putting absolute trust in the universe that things will turn out ok, this is more than a spiritual faith. When you orient yourself towards a goal with all your capacity, your conscious and unconscious brain churn through this challenge. The more brain power allocated to a goal, the more opportunity for solution and creativity. The more chances you find to relate the world to your goal, the more progress you make.

Here's the cycle:

- The more we believe the universe is on our side, the more faith we put into a goal.

- The more faith we put into a goal, the more time we put towards it.

- More time means more opportunity for our neural circuitry to align with the goal.

- Beliefs shape our neural circuitry just as much as our neural circuitry shapes our beliefs. The only avenue for us to change our neural circuitry is through changing our beliefs and behaviors.

- Changing our beliefs is hard. Difficult, not impossible.

- To change our beliefs, we must find a level of trust in ourselves.

- What easier way to sabotage this trust in yourself than to fight the universe. You will lose every time. Instead, join it.

- Wrestle with your doubts and failures. Believing the universe is on your side does not grant immunity from failure and obstacle, rather, it provides the clarity to persist in spite of it all.

And thus, the cycle is complete.

You are nothing more than a chunk of energy, bound together through chemistry, locally reversing entropy until we die. What happens to our conscious after death I am not sure, but while we are alive, we are borrowing bits of the universe to experience life itself. To our physical bodies, the chemistry of life will fade away, rotting and rejoining into planet earth just as we were before we were born. To our conscious, no one knows.

I walked away from my first ego death with a clear lesson: It is not you versus the universe. You are the universe.

You see, the universe doesn’t need to be your enemy.

It’s not the universe that is your enemy, it is how you relate, perceive, and approach the universe that is. Your beliefs are the enemy, not the universe. You do not need a psychedelic experience to prove this to you. Go outside and be with nature. Stare at the water. Hug a tree. Build up these feelings of connection to things local, maturing the muscle needed to eventually hug the universe. The most important hug, yet the hardest to get our arms around.

Change your beliefs about the universe, and the universe will follow.

Til next time,

sapoots

_(┐「ε:)_🤍🌱

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Some questions to help facilitate this internal discussion:

What are my beliefs about the universe? Do I generally think the universe is “out to get me?” or do I generally believe the universe is on my side?

How do my beliefs about the universe impact my daily life? Do my negative beliefs impact my work, goals, relationships, sleep, or overall well-being? How can changing my beliefs impact these various aspects of my life?

What is it about the universe that I hate? What is it about the universe that I love? For those things that you hate, is there a way for me reframe these such that I can love these aspects? Do I need to recruit help in that reframing process?