We were never meant to live this way

We have more than we have ever had, but also have less; less community, love, understanding, health, quiet, rest, and connection. Constantly bombarded by overwhelm, we are surrounded by excess information, bright lights, blaring sounds, noxious smells, giant crowds, strange new places, and seemingly infinite choices. We live in a foreign land, each of us wondering why we are struggling and suffering. Why none of it seems to make sense, and why each day brings more and more irreconcilable paradoxes.

This sensation can be defined and diagnosed in many ways, from generic ennui or existential angst to major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety, sensory integration deficiencies to attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Or, we can think about it in another way. Not as a disease or condition, a defect or consequence of characterological weakness.

We live in captivity.

Hello. I'm Rebekka Helford, a psychotherapist with over a decade of experience witnessing profound human struggle and survival.  I invite you to accompany me on a journey into the universal predicament of human civilization.  The purpose of this journey is not, as you might be fearing, to destroy our smartphones, strip naked, and go live in the forest.  No, the new world order is here to stay. Instead, the “solution,” as one might wish from such a potentially ominous work, is much more subtle.

Our journey will involve choosing whether or not to become aware of this disturbing, all-encompassing reality. If you wish to stay blissfully unaware in the matrix of captivity, please stop reading. But if you wish to educate yourself about the captive environment in we are trapped, read on.

Given this knowledge, what, then, might our species be capable of? The possibilities defy the imagination. It is my hope in presenting this thesis that, together, we will generate these possibilities toward the goal of achieving and building upon our birthright as never before in the history of our species, creating a better, more beautiful, more peaceful world, albeit still a captive one.