Why You Feel Empty

So much has changed in such a short period of time. With a million distractions coming from all directions, our minds can hardly keep pace from one thing to the next. But, we all have those moments when the “noise” ceases, and we’re forced to see how hollow everything is. Most will reject this feeling and purposely engage more distractions to drown out the darkness. Our minds have been conditioned to keep this never-ending cycle of constant distractions up at all times because, as long as we do, we do not have to face the silence. We don’t have to face ourselves or the fact that there’s something very off about the world. Many are confused and blame themselves without ever thinking it may be systematic problems with modern society itself.

Growing up, we’re told we can accomplish anything, become anything, and are all equally capable. We are the hero of our story. Yet, in truth, we live in a meritocracy, which is actually a good thing. The problem is that we live in a merit-based society where people are not given half the tools they need to actually achieve all the things we’re told we can be, and the entire system is geared against the average person. We all grow up with dreams of a positive future where we matter and are important, but when hit by the real world grow miserable at dead-end jobs of constant abuse from all sides. Though anyone can rise, few gain the attributes necessary to do so.

All I just said may seem philosophical to you and not grounded in reality. Yet very real scientific research proves all I have to say on why so many people feel empty. The truth is, many like to consider themselves “scientifically minded” but really don’t keep up with science or research its countless forms of information. Most go along with what their peers or family consider to be “science” with little regard to the many mind-blowing discoveries that would rock their accepted view of reality to the very core.

There are many reasons why today’s world makes people feel empty.

Neuroscience

Neuroscientist Daniel J Levitin has researched just how bad the modern world is for your brain. The fact that an entire generation raised on social media is showing troubling sings never before seen in any prior generation is quite unsettling. Millennials were the last to grow up normal in any sense of the word. Still playing outside as children and having to use plugged in phones to contact people. Sure there were video games, but most of their time was spent in a far less tech-obsessed reality.

Dr. Levitin’s research explains how our tech addiction is actually hindering us in many ways. The brain and mental health, in general foremost amongst them. With the advancement of smartphones, the onslaught of distraction literally has no downtime for the most part. Not saying smartphones are bad, just that most people have no moderation (as we have all been conditioned). Nothing is inherently good or bad; it’s how it’s used that swings it on the pendulum of polarity.

Many problems arise from this lifestyle, but constant multitasking is one of the sneakiest. With our attention spread all over the place all the time, neuroscience has proved this actually diminishes our ability to function properly. Human brains are not wired to multitask efficiently. Many people would argue this, but despite their illusions, the fact of the matter is science has proven time and time again; there is a genuine cognitive cost in all humans from such constant switching of attention. It actually increases cortisol release from the brain (fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline), which greatly increases stress and anxiety. This overstimulation of the brain actually reduces its effectiveness to function, which leads to another issue mostly associated with social media.

“When trying to concentrate on a task, an unread email in your inbox can reduce your effective IQ by 10 points.”
-Daniel J Levitan

Social Media

When constantly on such platforms for an extended period of time, our brains create dopamine-addiction feedback loops. The moment of looking at your notifications sends bursts of dopamine, only to subside right after, and trains the brain to be rewarded for losing focus while constantly searching for more external stimuli that will release more dopamine. The prefrontal cortex has a novelty bias, which means that attention can be drawn easily by new things from brains conditioned into addiction feedback loops. This modern mind has created a human that has far less able to focus and have independent thoughts.

The result is short bursts of dopamine, followed by anxiety and stress that leads to daily burnout. This burnout affects judgment and the mental well-being of all who are subject to these dopamine loop addiction lifestyles. Information overload is a real thing, and everything around you is designed to do just that. Dopamine addiction destroys our drive, willpower, and ability to perform hard work to achieve our goals. Instead, the mind is hard-wired to thrive off of short meaningless bursts of dopamine over and over that depletes our dopamine receptor’s ability to function properly. Resulting in countless people losing their potential in life and ability to think clearly.

However, cognitive ailments are only the beginning. The modern youth raised on social media is by far the most affected, and the attention engineers have made it all as addicting as possible. Youth suicide and online bullying is cancer at the heart of current culture. Everyone posts about the ideal self they wish to portray, and they all base their own well-being based on how they add up to these fake representations of people. It is scientifically proven those who use social media or smartphones more than those who don’t suffer far higher depression rates.

[the_ad_placement id=”manual-2″]

One of the results is these youth grow up in a state of constant insecurity and unease. They grow up, basing themselves off other people clicking or commenting on meaningless posts. This also causes people to start editing their life, to the point they portray a complete lie, and they know it. People see others living these fantastic lives far better than their own (even though it’s B.S.), causing people to feel unsatisfied with their own lives. Still, people go back again and again with this dependence on reinforcement, also creating a herd mentality and a lack of individual self-esteem. This dopamine feedback loop becomes required, and the person loses the ability to value themselves. There are countless stories of people who committed suicide that no one they knew had any idea they were depressed in the first place. It’s because the person they knew wasn’t real. It makes people stop living as individuals and start living for the approval of others. If one cares more about how they appear to their peers than what they mean to themselves, they are lost.

This negative effect on people’s happiness is not the only way the world makes you feel empty. The cycle of jealousy is never-ending, with many people purposely trying to make others envious. This is most prominent in youth, and many groups of friends create “witch-hunting” mobs to attack all those that go against their narrative or hurt people they don’t like. These teens essentially create a hive mind mentality, and as they grow into adults, it results in a toxic form of entitlement. It also conditions them not to be in the moment and perceive things only on a superficial level.

We’ve all had that person we don’t know very well spend all their time on their phone at social gatherings, taking pictures of themselves, and all-around not living in the real world. This person’s entire self is a castle of glass built on sand.

News

The media, too, has become something that leads towards mental illness. The news is probably the worst transgressor of this, but the mainstream media as a whole is part of the problem. The news constantly repeats topics designed to scare and bring out fear and anxiety, as well as the inner conflict that reverberates within the mind of the viewer long after they’ve turned off the T.V. because of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). A person skilled in psychology, the unconscious/subconscious mind, hypnotization, subliminal messages, and double-speak are quite aware of what the news does. Still, the rest of humanity is blind to it. Yet, once you know what to look for, it’s not hard to figure out.

The news covers topics that instill anxiety with a complete focus on “the dark side” of things. When in truth, there is as much good as there is bad in the world, but it takes clarity to see the balance. And unlike how the news was when I was a kid, it no longer presents you with information and lets you make up your mind about it; instead, it tells you exactly what to think and feel. These outlets lost their objectivity long ago and are now biased and geared towards controlling and manipulating the masses by the corporate oligarchy. It lacks balance and only focuses on the negative of human nature and the world at large. This is incredibly toxic to the subconscious mind on a massive level and the source of many people’s anxiety and depression (especially the older generations).

The fact of the matter is the only news that really matters daily is the news from your own direct life and experiences. The modern news trains everyone to worry about things far outside of themselves and are quite irrelevant to them, and they have no control over whether they ever knew about it or not. In contrast, their focus should be on their present tangible existence, which is all that truly matters to live a full and complete life of individuation. Don’t worry, if anything big happens that could be safety concerning, you’ll know about it whether or not you watch the news.

Yet day after day people sit in front of the news for their “programming” to know how they should act and think as dictated by the 1%.

Mainstream Media/Celebrities

The rest of the mainstream media is little better, and it’s all owned by a total of six corporations. And with all the media owned by such a few amount of people, what happens when they all share a political slant or agenda?

One of the first things anyone desiring to better their lives should do is detach from the mainstream media altogether. That doesn’t mean to stick your head in the sand; just that one should be aware of what it is and detach from giving it any influence over their minds. For example, celebrities are not people to emulate and actually know very little about the real world and what it is like to live as an ordinary person. They also are controlled to the core by thought police because in order to make it in Hollywood, you have to follow the rules and the narrative, or you won’t get any work. So many of their so-called “opinions” are not their opinions at all, but celebrities simply parroting their overlords. If you look with discernment at the celebrities who speak their mind, their careers don’t really last that long as they drop from the spotlight blacklisted.

However, that’s just the beginning of the problems concerning mainstream media. Most journalists completely ignore many rules and regulations in journalism schools and past ethics concerning media content in modern times. Journalists have gone from presenting the public information and letting them make up their minds to tell people what to think and how to feel, with their work engulfed in opinion and manipulation. These people know exactly what they’re doing. They know how to polarize people and then use that polarization to their faction’s own agenda.

Since most people don’t really want to face hard truths, they will accept whatever convenient truth is presented to them. Yet, if you check all points of view and sources for most topics in the mainstream media, you’ll find very real counter-arguments backed up by objective fact. This is because humanity has become lazy in valuing their free will and not searching for the truth themselves. The media knows this and is only too happy to feed people a narrative suitable to their confirmation bias.

[the_ad_placement id=”manual-2″]

Those in the know don’t want ordinary people to be aware of this (or would an average person even care?) and maintain an authentic form of systematic thought control. Most people are controlled and conditioned by thoughts and world views that don’t belong to them. The media uses this to create social unrest, division and direct the masses’ eyes where they want them to be and how they want them to think about it. And presenting the truth is never a factor. Do you think the masses could ever accept most of their great truths they cling to is nothing more than propaganda? I think not. The cognitive dissonance would not allow them, and they’d turn to the first convenient truth to put them at ease.

What we think we see is only as real as our brains say it is. Up until now, the generation of information has been in control on an individual level. However, with more and more people waking up from the narrative dreams, it’s not easy. That’s why we, as a society in recent times, are experiencing attacks on free speech, expression, and individuality. All the censorship is attempting to control what narrative you perceive.

The media has created witch hunts and mobs to attack those who think outside the accepted reality tunnels the mindless herd subscribes to. And the most frightening part of it all is they can’t even see their strings, or that they are puppets of “the Establishment” that has no goodwill towards their individual well being. If you do not subscribe to their dogmatic conditioning, then you are evil and the enemy. That sounds a lot like fascism.

“When things go wrong people turn around and place the blame on something else. “It’s not my fault. It’s not your fault.” In denial, people resort to looking for another, convenient truth, in order to make themselves feel better. Leaving behind in an instant any so called truth they formerly embraced. Should people like that decide what ‘truth’ is?”

-Kojima

The hard to believe is often the truth. It often shocks us. Shakes the box of our reality. Yet, a society focused on the responsibility towards independent thought and truth is a society that will stand the test of time, no matter how inconvenient or against one’s option that truth may be. A society consumed in narrative truth is built on sand.

However, finding truth takes hard work and a strong mind open to all possibilities. Do you think with the cacophony of modern distractions always penetrating the human consciousness that ordinary people can even conceive this notion?

In the book “Subliminal” by Leonard Mlodinow, he explains the nature of the unconscious and “In Group” impulses of group identifications that people are completely unaware of on a conscious level. When people get labeled into group identities this impulse is extremely easy to manipulate in the mass media. Even if individually we would never be affected, if one subscribes to group identity a lot of their free will is lost and they can be easily maneuvered on the chessboard by those in the know (and all that on a subconscious level).

Scientism

In our modern society, what is truth, but an opinion? “Well, science says…” -it says what? That it’s God? Science is one of humanity’s greatest tools, yet to understand our modern relationship with science, you must understand the difference between science and Scientism. The truth is that many subscribe to the modern religion of Scientism complete with its own dogma without even realizing it.

The Scientific Method is objectively useless on many subjects, yet in Scientism, they try to label what can’t be defined by it, which is very unscientific. The Scientific Method has its limits. This is a fact that is undeniable by logic, true science, reason, and objective truth.

“If science cannot answer a question then no one else has the right to answer it.”

-A popular modern Scientism saying.

My mother is a brilliant Chemist and Physicist, yet she warned me of the dangers of Scientism as I grew up. All true scientists are aware of falling into this pitfall. The thing is, the Scientific Method only works in controlled environments with repeatable results. Scientism applies the Scientific Method to all subjects, even those outside this realm of viable data. People who practice the dogma of Scientism use science in places where science isn’t applicable and have a blind belief in anything labeled “science” on it.

Most people are a part of this religion without knowing it, you can imagine the cognitive dissidence in denouncing these universal truths. Just like how the 1% utilized religion to control the masses throughout medieval times, one of the modern forms of this control is Scientism. Medieval forms of dogmatic control are very much still around in modern times; it has just changed.

Go ahead and do a test on how powerful this dogma is. Ask a random person you know if they know what Scientism is. They will most likely look at you with glazed-over eyes blankly or think you’re talking about Scientology or something. That’s ok, don’t argue with them, just let them sleep. But when you repeat this experiment with more and more people, trust me, you will come to interesting conclusions.

Our society loves to label things as “the scientific study says…” and the masses accept whatever it is as objective fact and think you’re stupid if you disagree. The truth of the matter is, it is just as easy to buy a scientist as it is to buy a politician. And scientists need a paycheck just like anyone else, so their “conclusions” tend to lean towards the results their benefactor wants as an outcome.

[the_ad_placement id=”manual-2″]

This systematically indoctrinated faith leads to much emotional and mental stress. Like I said at the start of this article, many people claim they believe in science, but few actually follow it or have a deeper understanding of it. This leads to subconscious turmoil and cognitive dissidence trying to make sense of all the hypocrisy and contradictions. Just more information overload to burnout one’s already deeply overstimulated modern mind.

Much of mainstream science is pure pseudoscience. So let go of the dogma of Scientism. The truth is there is a much grander and mysterious world around us, and the possibilities within it are limitless. In 100 years, they will laugh at our science, just like we laugh at the science of a hundred years ago. Science constantly proves itself wrong daily. So, why do so many people blindly believe in Scientism?

However, remember that this author loves science and is quite invested in it, coming from a family of generational scientists. It is one of our greatest tools to understand the world around us. We just have to be aware many turn it into dogma and to not believe all that we’re told by the media when they label “science” on something.

Conclusion

The modern world has created a disconnect that though we are not alone, we are all by ourselves. Real relationships grow rarer and rarer. We plug ourselves into false realities that hide us from our true natures and our ability to find happiness. It’s ironic, to say the least, that the more connected we’ve become through technology, the more separated we are at the same time. Yet, instead of seeing this, most fall deeper and deeper into an unconscious life.

We want to think that modern humans are advancing and progressing, being superior to all those who came before us from the ignorant past. Yet, in truth, we are devolving. And the majority of people are puppets so easily manipulated they don’t even know they are not the driving force behind their own lives. The subconscious mind governs 95% of our lives, and few have any access to the subconscious, which all our ancestors used to have to an extent. Mostly because of silence and introspection. A fully functioning brain naturally seeks out the unconscious. The unending onslaught of distraction and mental burnout make a relationship with the inner self impossible. Yet it is this inner self, found in the silence, that is key to our success and happiness.

I look into people’s eyes and see how vacant and unaware they are. I can see a hundred people a day that have given up entirely. They blame others for their emptiness, yet they alone are responsible for their lives. They will consider their failures as the failure of the world. How many alive today are already dead? Each day there are more of them. Beware the preachers, beware of the knowers, and beware of those who tell you how to think.

If you “unplug,” there will be those who hate you, and their hate will be pure. Yet if you become who you are, this will never matter. They know nothing of silence. Nothing of solitude. The emptiness haunts them, and they will attempt to destroy anything that differs from their own paradigm. Not being able to understand consciousness, they will assume yours is as limited as theirs. Not able to truly love, they will assume your love is lacking. Not able to think for themselves, they will think your words are crazy. They will see you as a mirror to everything they hate in themselves unconsciously, and the herd does not care for those who stray. But stray, you must.

The mainstream world is an illusion. I’m not saying to stop using your phone, watching TV, or going on social media. Just moderate the onslaught overstimulating your mind rendering daily burnout, and spend time in silence. Maybe check social media once a day, and limit your time on smartphones and tv or any modern stimuli to narrow windows of dedicated time. Interact with the inner self and the immediate world around you. Study the subconscious, because the unconscious mind is key to individualization. Learn to understand “Double Speak” to know when politicians are lying. Question authority and those few who influence the minds of the masses with an iron grip. Seek wisdom and ways to better your brain and body. Read philosophy, go out into nature, and seek to know yourself. The more you take back your mind, the less empty you will feel. Explore your dreams. The more you can connect with the subconscious mind, the more you will be free.

“Your life is your life. Don’t let it be cloaked into submission.”

Free your mind

Liked it? Take a second to support Cryptic Chronicles on Patreon!