On Craniotomy, an introduction

After observing the behaviours and attitudes of the average person today, an observer needn’t spend much time before questioning themselves entirely. This spectacle: so absurd, so ridiculous, so strange, that it is more comforting to imagine that it is not society that we observe, but a zoo. An enclosure of some sort. The creatures inside of it, barely clinging on to their consciousness. Online, this conclusion becomes more accurate:

Rodent is the rule; and vermin, an honest critique.

This assessment, without the necessary explanation to explore it, will sound harsh and unhelpful. So it is better we discuss why it is true.

The Hamster Wheel of Wasted Potential

Allow me to paint the vicious expression above with a more vibrant colour.

The fact is simple, it is not that people themselves are ‘vermin,’ or rodent-like in structure. Of course, they possess all of the necessary characteristics of a human being - in its inherent glory, and magnificence. But the truth should not be sugar coated.

The majority have not lived up to the full measure of their potential.

This statement can be made with grim certainty. And more devastating still, is that their current trajectory offers no hope or promise that they will achieve the zenith of human experience before their final breath. Recognition of this is rarely direct. No, most maintain only but a dull consciousness of it. Still, it lingers with a quiet persistence.

This is the cutting knife that twists itself ever so deeply when pondered too long. The blade that slices the hollows of ones viscera, that nestles itself within the cavern of the gut. It is quite painful, and can seldom be ignored. This sharpness reminds one of its presence when there is nothing to distract from it.

Therefore: few will ever do it, there are so many clever ways that one avoids this honest confrontation. Truthful acknowledgement of this fact—how far one falls from their potential—is always demoralising to the human character.

Reader, I cannot speak for you, and so I project my own experiences and shortcomings in these following letters to you. When I address ‘you,’ understand that I often speak to an aspect of myself. But I suspect that upon reading this, you recognise some of these things ring true for you as well.

What is peculiar about Man is that he exists with an inescapable knowing of his condition. To gaze into a persons eyes is to meet them at the point they have met themselves; one carries their personal gradation in their eyes. It is always there, and it is known - in every cell, and every fibre of the being. It is known.

It simply does not go away.

Through nature herself—as if by cruel jest—those endowed with the greatest potential are more likely to suffer this existential dread. This… knowing.

The greatest potential births it own torment.

So, with every rotation of the earth a new failure is marked: another declaration that has not manifested into reality. Seasons change yet most remain largely the same - trapped in repetitive cycles that leave no lasting impression in the soft clay of memory. They maintain this cycle, consistently rotating on the hamster wheel. There are very little rewards for their efforts.

It makes little sense, they work ever so hard. We should not consider them lazy, the problem is something else. More insidious, more sneaky.

On and on they go: despite this perpetual and endless cycle, they spin like gerbils endlessly. As if by some miracle the wheel is one of fortune, and suddenly everything will change if they continue to spin the loop. It has been years; yet they spin it still.

I write this with a growing suspicion that it has started to resonate with you rather uncomfortably.

They say they wish to be great, or at the very least humbly fulfilled. Yet, their actions do not seem to align with their desires. An insurmountable chasm of paralysis and procrastination exists between their intention and execution.

How can they allow so many of their days to blur into each other? Each year passes faster, and the months become the same, the days themselves now disappear. Repeated again and again. Repeated again and again.

Time can never be remembered when one lives this way. And in its petty spite, time returns the favour: it forgets those who slander it to waste.

Claiming the virtue of ambition means very little because anybody can state large goals. Everybody has big dreams—and so this proclamation would make you no different from anybody else. Eventually, you realise these words and exalted phantoms of opinion are worth just as much as it costs to say them. Nothing.

“Words are sweet, but they never replace food” — Igbo Proverb

Nobody wants to waste their life.

So why do so many people do it?

In the past, I have seen it phrased quite similarly to this popular anecdote:

If you were to read a book that was important to you, and you were told that you could never turn back the pages, imagine how much attention and detail you would apply to each page. Think of how intensely you would savour each word, how purposefully you would take each page to inhale its contents. Your life, of course, is exactly the same.

Again, reader, I cannot be certain this is you - only you can make this judgement, but to diagnose it accurately: allow me to dissect further.

You will know if you have been wasting your years because of the subconscious punishment you inflict upon yourself.

In the worst moments, you stop wearing your nicest clothes, the sweetest perfumes and fragrances that chemically exalt your surroundings remain untouched, you never light your best candles, you become ignorant of your best health and beauty products. The best of your grooming efforts rarely see the light of day.

The very thought of real action exhausts you. It is all so bothersome. You miss events, opportunities, even the things you used to enjoy are drained of the previous colour they had. Even if you had all of the things in the world, a part of you knows you probably wouldn’t enjoy them. There is something else.

This emerges from an unspoken self-judgement. It is an aggression against the self, and it speaks to everybody in a language even the illiterate could understand. It tells you that your present self is unworthy of life’s richness - unfit to bathe in such opulence. You save these things for later. You save them for the version of you whom you deem worthy of such things.

This self-sabotage does not relent. You begin to discover cleverly subtle ways to ruin any plans to take control and direction in your life. How easy it is to convince yourself that you do not care about allowing the highest form of yourself to materialise; to become nonchalant about your life. Loose, uncaring. To insult it. To live with a technique that degrades and slanders it.

I say this with genuine truth and kindness:

It is not your fault.

However, since it is your life, then it does not matter whose ‘fault’ it is. You are not guaranteed a second chance, therefore, it is your responsibility to curate your experience in the time that you do have.

This is no mistake; I have put this to repetition so that it might find sufficient resonance with you.

Nobody wants to waste their life.

Thus, my intentions with this letter—and the subsequent essays that are contained within it—can be stated more precisely:

To dissect, with exactness, that which prevents you from achieving your highest potential. Not to lament or frustrate, and not to tear apart the aches in your chest with cruel vexation - but to atomise your circumstance and examine it. To provide keys that will exalt your life forever.

Above all, we must ensure that you can form easily sustainable systems for repeated success. One win is never acceptable, it is useless to me, and it is only one singular victory you attain then I would have miserably failed in my writings to you.

No nonsensical abstract prescriptions. No superficial instructions to exercise, walk, or state self-affirmations in the mirror. Regurgitated tropes that are so exhausting in the digital diaspora that they are lazy echos at best. Annoying and frustrating at their worst.

Equally, there is no uber-woo ‘just heal your inner child,’ or ‘shadow work’ - both of which have been reduced to conceptual phantoms so abstract and clumsy they have no real meaning at all.

You know these things already, and you have heard them countless times. So I will not insult your intelligence so egregiously.

Rather, I write to you as someone who has been blessed. Blessed in suffering the misfortunate of humbling themselves to crawl from the lowliest depths. Who, once overly abundant in pride, was reduced to slithering on the ground like a debased invertebrate - desperate for motion.

I have found that one’s perspective is made raw and true when they have had their spirit defiled mercilessly, and the geography of prayer was explored through nightfall and necessity. Surrender and begging.

Thus, I speak to you with sickening exactness. Every spark of linguistic intensity is deliberate when I speak to ‘you’ directly, and because it is you who feels like you have been wasting your potential in life then it is important.

ON WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCE

It is curious. The years spent in melancholy, self-neglect, anxiety, and with a fragmented attention with dormant capacity have not depleted your potential at all. It works quite strangely, and these times and feelings have only served to enhance your potential exponentially.

On it’s head, this sounds nonsensical - but I promise this is true.

Let me explain.

The greater the duration of accumulated tension within your psyche, the more favourable; the more profound your upset and dissatisfaction, the better. Picture this more vividly:

Imagine a dam that sustains injury as it struggles to contain the magnitude of growing water that dashes against it with increasing furiousness. There is nowhere for the water to go. Or more carnally, the coiling spine prior to its abortive expulsion. With such prolonged frustration it hums with electricity.

Once you psychologically unravel, and you are able to direct this energy stored, then you will find no rival: not a moment of stagnation was squandered. The fragments coalesce with perfect coherence. Everything makes sense when it has to make sense.

You develop what is termed an autotelic character—from the Greek words "auto" (self) and "telos" (purpose)—engaging in activities for their intrinsic value rather than for measly external rewards. This is a fundamental reorientation that occurs organically; as though guided by divine instinct, you surpass ordinary limitations with an effortlessness that you cannot rationally explain.

Achievements are no longer so elusive to your grasp; they always materialise at precisely the perfect moment. The mechanism that propels this consistent success reveals itself with elegant simplicity:

The system of excellence is you.

From this profound simplicity emerges a genuine humility, and the mechanism transcends all logical comprehension. Articulating your triumphs becomes impossible. People will ask you how you do it, and you can never explain it. Not really.

It sounds ridiculous to state that you suspect the fundamental forces of nature are aligning themselves to ensure you win. You become lucky. Not as a sly insult to disrespect your efforts. It is literally the case. You keep winning, repeatedly. Again.

More.

The fragmented parts of your attention piece themselves together. It is easy to focus for hours. So easy. No longer are your thoughts so scattered that they seldom reach impressive conclusions.

The acquisition of knowledge is no longer laborious and taxing; it is natural. Your speech attains newfound eloquence; your written expression manifests crystalline clarity; your diction, ever so succulent and smooth. Liquid silk.

Confidence.

The need to impress other people dissolves. You simply are impressive.

The world responds to your authentic living without any conscious deliberation: colleagues offer their assistance and sacrifice; strangers gift radiant smiles as if to mirror your intrinsic luminosity; animals bathe in the presence of your tranquil, and infants too—who possess an uncanny sensitivity to all that is invisible—find sanctuary in the flow of your stability and warm presence.

There is no “I’ll just bookmark this for later”—There is no more denial of the best version of yourself with excuses that delay. This letter found you at exactly the right moment.

There is no more procrastination,

because your upward spiral starts now.

CONTENTS OUTLINE:

• On Craniotomy, an introduction

• On Psychic Entropy

• On Awareness and Presence

• On Thought Loops

• On Attention and Focus

• On Identity

• On Man, When Magnetised

• On Practical Solutions: Step by Step

  
  It it my recommendation that you read the essays in chronological order, but ultimately your reading experience is completely up to you. There is however, a consistent build of the philosophy that solidifies each concept. Honestly, it’s long, and dense, so it certainly does not require reading in one go.

  But the entire purpose of Craniotomy is to regain your attention, focus, and maximise your potential by gaining control over your life, so it is best to take time with this. And so, with that all of that said…

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This letter found you at exactly the right moment.

Christina’s World, Andrew Wyeth (1948) – depicts a young woman, crawling to a distant farm house. She yearns to live, but struggles to move forward.

My Personal letter to you.

Dearest Reader,

I make this confession with a palpable embarrassment. Unfortunately I could not conjure a shorter way to articulate these ideas to you. Therefore, I have presented them as a series of letters, of which this is the introduction. The prelude.

Here, I outline the basic content of each letter and I’ve pinned this so that you might refer to it as I add each link upon its publication. Over the following months we are going to dissect the human condition.

More succinctly: your unique and personal circumstance.

Each letter in this series may be considered a collection of personal essays that have been directly addressed to you. They can be read individually in your own time to ensure an appropriate digestion of their succulent nutrient. No need to read them all at once, and I greatly appreciate your patience in this regard.

Genuinely, I say that with the utmost sincerity. And for those who have been graciously waiting for this series; thank you.

Blessing innumerable upon your life.

Anyway, your reading experience will be up to you. I recommend a chronological order, but it is written in such a way that each essay stands on its own merit. What ultimately matters is that the sentiments are swallowed in a way that finds resonance with you.

The architecture of this series is in the form of a metaphorical surgical dissection. The deeper you get into the letters the more intimate the layers that are tenderly fleshed out with our fingertips.

It is intuitive, and you will get it.

Each section is dense. Each metaphor waddles as if strained under the weight of weight of every pregnant word. And so, you will soon see why it has necessitated such a long period of gestation.

You will find that although each letter is logically structured and organised with an almost pathological rigour—I have occasionally allowed myself to psychologically unravel into a lyrical poeticism with furious cadence.

I make no apologies for the way in which my passions to ensure you achieve your highest potential betrays me.

It is no embellishment to say that I have given everything to this.

My one aim is to offer the understanding and solutions that will transform your life.

This is no exaggeration; and I promise this series is not engorged with distasteful arrogance. I state this with such certainty only because my own existential injuries and the violations inflicted upon my psyche inspired me to search earnestly for such insights myself. No existing work frames the dissection of the human condition–from the crown to your soles–with such meticulous, surgical precision.

At least, until now.

This is an amalgamation of hundreds of works on the subjects of philosophy, psychology, medicine and surgery, neuroscience, religion, ancient mystery scripts, Christian theosophy, the Bible, ancient African philosophies, as well as years of direct study on the human body and the immaculate constitution of the soul.

I have taken great care to ensure a number of things:

Namely, that the letters are meticulous in structure and supported by a solid philosophy that is logically consistent. Also, and just as importantly, that the writing itself is seamless.

Penned with liquid silk. Smooth and easy.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”— Leonardo da Vinci

With that said, I wish to waste no more of your time explaining what is unnecessary. It is becoming impossible to disguise my desperation to operate. I salivate with the rabidness of the hound. My mouth bubbles with foam. And I Froth.

I can hardly stand to wait any longer.

Let me use this letter to provide the philosophical framework, and then the outline.

Then we can finally begin.

BONESAW

The Dissection of Man

Vitruvian man, Leonardo Da Vinci.

It is no secret that upon any deep reflection, one comes to a realisation about the human body:

Every aspect of its constitution is a delicate and symbolic arrangement of all that is immeasurable and incomprehensible.

The wisest minds across all ancient civilisations have independently arrived at the same revelation. This knowledge transcends all cultural boundaries because it requires no communication. It emerges naturally from observation.

We intuit what is simple, and after we have wasted time on clumsy nuances, we discover what is true and profound had only been wearing the cloak of complexity.

“Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper the impression it makes”–– Arthur Schopenhauer.

Even when its whispers are drowned by outside noise, our instincts sense when the very essence of a thing is true.

And so, we can say with much confidence: The human body represents a corporeal metaphor. The imperfect form of man contains within itself the universes most intricate patterns—a living microcosm that reflects the infinite macrocosm.

In every school of thought, an anatomical analogy will demonstrate this principle.

From the Vedic texts of India to Hermetic philosophy, from Taoist Chinese doctrine to the anatomical studies of the Renaissance. Consistent. Always. We see this in the rigid logistical confines of Western philosophy and in African philosophy—where the opulence of colourful metaphor and profound clarity passed down largely through oral tradition cannot be overstated.

Even Christianity, both ritual and scripture, contributed to this with its own Biblical flavour. Gregory of Nyssa, an early Christian theologian, described Genesis 1:27, in which mankind was “created in the image of God,” to mean we possess qualities that reflect divine attributes.

Our brain and neural pathways echo cosmic pattern; our hearts pulsate with the fibrillating resonance of our emotions; our loins throb in fluid to unveil our desires; our cellular and anatomical structures mimic the magnificence of galactic design.

Of course, reader, we know that this need not literally be the case, but the practicality of the framework it presents to us is of undoubted utility in our everyday lives. It is only the disheartened simpleton who would refuse to make use of such an accessible and valuable abstraction.

And so, we enter the sacred theatre to drill into the ivory vault and trace the geography of thought with our fingertips.

CONTENTS

CRANIOTOMY: THE MIND

The neurosurgical procedure in which a portion of the skull (cranium) is temporarily removed to gain access to the brain for treatment.

Henry Cushing, illustrated osteoplastic craniotomy and cortical mapping of patient who suffered from a gunshot wound

Achieving your highest potential, unlocking your inherent genius state.

• Societal constraints and their limitations on personal potential

• False virtues and implanted beliefs: mechanisms of modern enslavement

• The modern workplace: structures of containment

• Desecration of the five senses in contemporary life

• Recognising and breaking destructive thought loops

• Reclaiming focus, attention, and personal aura

• Creativity and accessing your inherent genius

• Identity formation and authentic self-expression

• Procrastination.

• Understanding and overcoming shame

• Mental health: ADHD, depression, and anxiety

• The concept of the indomitable "Will"

• Distinguishing between forced striving and effortless achievement

• Autotelism: self-contained purpose

• Magnetised Man: embodying aligned consciousness

Step-by-step practical guide to fully realising your potential.

THORACOTOMY: THE HEART

The surgical procedure in which an incision is made through the chest wall to gain access to the thoracic cavity. This procedure allows the surgeon to access the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels.

Saturn Devouring His Son, Francisco Goya (1819-1823)

• The emotional spectrum of the human condition

• Depression: pathways to liberation

• The downtrodden path: recognising and redirecting

• Lingering in feeling: emotional processing

• Suicide: confronting the darkness

• Anxiety: sources and solutions

• Passion, desires, and fundamental needs

• Focusing emotional energy

• Faustian striving: ambition and its costs

• Love: authentic connection and expression

LAPAROTOMY: THE BODY

The surgical procedure in which an incision is made through the abdominal wall to gain access to the abdominal cavity.

Benefits supervisor sleeping: portrait of Sue Tilley, by Lucian Freud (1995)

• Environmental toxins: identification and avoidance

• The gut-brain interface: connections and implications

• Dietary fundamentals for optimal functioning

• Effortless fitness: sustainable physical well-being

• Body image: perception and reality

• Binge eating: causes and recovery

• Fundamental dietary principles: identifying optimal nutrition for your genetic makeup and lifestyle

How to avoid environmental toxins and maintain optimal physical condition without fad or yo-yo dieting.

I post my body and physique in this letter, as I believe health and fitness advice online should only be taken from those who can demonstrate direct results.

SPINAL SURGERY: CONNECTION

The surgical procedure that provides access to the spinal cord and surrounding structures.

The Flayed Angel Face Mask, Jacques Fabien Gautier dAgoty (1749)

• Interconnectedness: recognising systemic relationships

• Serendipity: inviting meaningful coincidence

• Synchronicities: patterns of meaningful connection

• Cultivating luck: practical approaches

• Flow state: accessing optimal experience

• The healing impulse: natural restoration

ANAESTHESIA: THE UNCONSCIOUS

The medical procedure that induces a temporary state of unconsciousness or sedation.

Clara (rhinoceros), engraving by Jan Wandelaar 1742

• Dreams: messages from the unconscious

• The unconscious mind: structure and influence

• Mysteries of Golgotha: spiritual symbolism

• Law of attraction: manifestation principles

• Law of mentalism: thought as creative force

• Law of assumption: belief as reality creator

• Accessing ancient genius states: tapping collective wisdom

PRESCRIPTIONS AND PRACTICALITIES

A comprehensive integration of therapeutic approaches.

• Summary of practical steps from each section

• Detailed, sequential implementation plan

• Integration of mind, body, and soul

No more procrastination, we are to touch every aspect of life.

We dissect.

See you shortly.

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