Prologue: An Electrician’s Guide to Our Universe and a Life, Love, and Death on Its Unlimited Bandwidth-The Garden of Lies and the Search for Truth
We live shrouded in mythology, religion, and lies—wrapped in what I call the conspiracy of silence and cloaked in invisibility from our own truth. The fig leaf from the Garden of Eden myth represents more than modesty; it symbolizes the lies we use to conceal ourselves from ourselves and each other and the shame we carry for possessing the knowledge of good and evil, leading to endless cycles of self-judgment and condemnation of others.
Joseph Goebbels once observed that if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually believe it. This principle hasn’t been lost on governments, institutions, or individuals. Whether examining the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy’s assassination, Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential elections lie, Q’Anon, a conspiracy theory generator attempting to run smokescreens and interference for Trump’s criminality, or countless other “conspiracy theories,” we discover that many have foundations in fact—though the truth remains murky, subject to interpretation and political manipulation.
The first person to suffer from a lie is none other than the liar. Lying feels bad and damages pride and self-esteem. It’s a slippery slope that leads to further and greater lies and other ethical violations. It can take a lot of thought and exertion and sacrifice to avoid being found out. If found out, the liar loses credibility (possibly for ever), undermines their reputation and relationships, and may suffer further sanctions, including being lied to in return. Last but not least, by keeping them under the radar, lying prevents the liar’s issues from being dealt with.
Our government claims to be “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” yet it reflects our own tendency toward dangerous secrets. America has historically shown itself to be a nation of lies, where the white race demonstrated immense talent in leveraging falsehoods into profitable enterprises—committing genocide against Native Americans, enslaving Africans, and somehow finding ways to justify these murderous excesses.
Much of the American Christian Church morphed into a political ally for capitalism, becoming the primary agent for proliferating the lie that we have no value unless we adhere to their belief systems. When confronted with our excesses and crimes against humanity, we’ve learned to change subjects quickly or spin facts creatively to avoid accountability for our destructive attitudes and actions.
In 1987, I experienced a series of transformative events that changed everything. I was near death, insane, and prepared to leave this earth if I couldn’t find a truth to guide my life. I finally discovered that truth and had what Christians might call a born-again experience—but without their prophet Jesus and surrounding mythology. This miraculous healing gave me a blank slate to write my new identity upon, free from the wayward attitudes of my former self.
However, this spiritual experience revealed two trauma-created “tricksters” in consciousness that I lacked the knowledge to address at the time. Most spiritual teachings, religions, and prophets bypass engagement with these powerful forces, keeping them as unconscious advisors to well-meaning practitioners. Yet ancient shamans, early Greek philosophers, and modern voices like Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Gabor Maté, Dick Schwartz, Paul Levy, and Dr. Alberto Villoldo have pointed toward ways to engage, transform, and transcend these ever-present forces that impede our spiritual evolution.
I wouldn’t have lived much beyond 31 if I had continued turning away from my traumatic wounding and resultant suffering. This book couldn’t exist if I had turned away from the wounding and suffering of others. A powerful realization emerged: I could no longer accept abuse from past versions of myself or a society that drains life force from its unconscious members just to parade around as if everything were acceptable.
The parable of The Emperor’s New Clothes illustrates how we become susceptible to lies spun with invisible golden threads of self-deceit. Our deceptions create a perceived “cloak of invisibility”—lies that initially feel spun from gold, filling us with pride in our new self-version. Because of our social nature, we parade these fabrications before others until life presents us with “an innocent young boy” who sees through the deception and proclaims our nakedness before adoring crowds.
The ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur offers a powerful allegory for the journey of psychological and spiritual healing. In this tale, Theseus must descend into the labyrinth—a symbol of the human psyche—to confront the Minotaur, a beast that represents the wounds, traumas, and fears that devour our creative potential and authentic self-expression.
The Minotaur, born from the union of our biological instincts and divine nature, embodies the shadow aspects of ourselves that we often keep hidden in the deepest recesses of our minds. These are the lies we tell ourselves, the unprocessed traumas, and the deep-seated wounds that consume our vitality and creative spirit. To heal, we must be willing to venture into our own internal labyrinth, confronting these dark aspects with courage and clarity.
However, Theseus’s success depended on more than just bravery. He carried with him a thread—a “clew,” which gives us our modern word “clue”—that allowed him to find his way back to consciousness after confronting the monster. This thread represents the practices, insights, and support systems that keep us grounded as we navigate the depths of our psyche. Without this lifeline, we risk becoming lost in the darkness, overwhelmed by what we discover.
The myth reminds us that healing requires both descent and return—we must face our inner demons while maintaining a connection to the light of consciousness that guides us back to wholeness and renewed creative power.
This cultural conspiracy of silence manifests in three distinct yet interconnected ways, each carrying profound implications for our personal and collective growth.
First, it embodies the shameful ideas we’ve harbored and acted upon, sometimes culminating in intentional harm to ourselves and others. This form of silence breeds internal toxicity, creating a shadow self that festers in darkness. The weight of unacknowledged wrongs becomes a burden that distorts our perception of reality and erodes our capacity for authentic connection.
Second, it manifests as the withholding of information to protect a loved one, or to shield oneself from guilt. While often born from compassion, this protective silence can become a prison that stunts emotional and spiritual development. It robs others of the opportunity to make informed choices and denies us the healing power of truth.
Third, it appears as a hesitancy to discuss our spiritual potential and innate ability to connect with more aware, intelligent states of being. This spiritual silence perpetuates a culture of limitation, keeping us tethered to mundane existence when transcendent possibilities await our exploration.
We guard our secrets closely, fearing the day others might see through our surface stories to the hidden truths behind our anxiety, fear, indifference, or hatred. How many times have we constructed elaborate deceptions, sharing lies with family members, friends, or acquaintances to protect or punish someone? How many times have we felt compelled to withhold transformative healing information because another person seemed too resistant to receive n
As a culture, we must remember that our mentally ill population, including addicts and alcoholics, are society’s “canaries in the coal mine.” We’re all susceptible to damages from spiritual asphyxiation if we neglect to listen to stories told by our most vulnerable family members. The sensitive and oppressed define the leading edge of our shared human experience, serving as indicators of our collective spiritual condition.
I’ve been personally impacted at the deepest levels—victimized by mental illness, addiction, depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. My path through life made me a reluctant expert in these matters. Not only is remaining unconscious and victimized unhelpful now, but keeping silent around these issues becomes inappropriate and unhealthy, as I tend to be as sick as my secrets.
This work carries healing potential for those not trapped in culturally and religiously constrained patterns of unawareness, or for those seeking release from these historical restraints. According to neuroscientific studies led by Antonio Damasio, our human identity is more determined by collaboration between all cells within our bodies and our feeling nature than by left-brain-dominated rational processing centers.
We must feel something deeply to truly discover new truth and experience our real selves. I appeal to the very marrow of your bones, the cells within your body, the feeling nature of your heart and soul, while keeping intellect and rational processes engaged. Remember: we must feel truth deep within our bones before we’ll act upon it.
Consciousness itself encompasses the Garden of Eden, Adam, Eve, the Serpent, the Tree of Knowledge, the Apple, God, the labyrinth, the Minotaur, the Emperor’s New Clothes, and the innocent boy calling out our lies. We are that Consciousness. Jesus clearly stated that humanity represents the prodigal son—we’ve strayed far from Eden and feast in the pig pen of unevolved human experience.
The journey back to our true nature, though most difficult, offers life’s most rewarding experience. If we commit to traveling new paths of consciousness, eventually Eden will reappear within our interior vision, and we need spin no more illusions attempting to capture others’ attention.
We can all return to our essence, to our original “Garden of Eden” state, but we need a reliable clue. Otherwise, we remain trapped in labyrinths of self-deception and spiritual corruption. Without healing our wounds, loving acceptance of ourselves and each other remains impossible—we stay separated from our true nature, dominated by demons from the past.
I saved the world from myself. Yet the world remains too unconscious to save innocent people from its own wayward intentions, let alone the misguided intentions of individual citizens. The powerful message here: we each must work out our own salvation and discover our unique healing, guiding light, for those offered by our culture are suspect at best.
We can dramatically improve our perceptual aim and finally hit love’s bullseye with consistency. Freedom belongs only to those brave enough to seek it while breaking free from our culture’s historical shackles. We can break free from narratives created by religious and politicized people of the lie. We must find ways to bring Love’s eternal order from the chaos of normal human experience.
We can save the world… from our unhealed selves.
We can stop hiding from ourselves and from each other.
The time has come to prepare for the journey to meet our real Maker.
And this Creative Potential, though innate to all of humanity, lies outside the normal band of human experience and endeavor.
Are we ready to begin to explore a life, love, and death on an unlimited bandwidth?
Turn the page, then!
