The Pilot Episode

settling into the seat of the soul

“I don’t know where to start…”

So start there.

This is what I said to my dear friend Nathalie Agnes upon recollecting our thoughts. After the future-proof creator summit had reached its conclusion, a couple creators and I stayed in the area for a few nights. And thank GOD for that.

So many insights were neatly packaged in carefully woven baskets and set out to sail on a warm summer morning, waiting to be retrieved and reopened at moment’s notice.

I was sitting on a kitchen table, sharing a wonderful kimchi omelet made (with love) by my wise new friend Matt Buffa. To my right sat earth angel Nathalie, and across the table were the magnificent Jesse James Carver and sharp-shooting Dan Goldfield.

Surprisingly, I’d traveled the least far from that group of people. Boston was just a hop skip and jump away to Vancouver compared to the others. Dan G from the UK, Matt from Ireland, and Nathalie had most courageously journeyed from Belgium, to Paris, to Iceland (!!!) and finally to this destination, where we all settled into the warmth of Jesse’s kitchen.

I’d just finished cutting some sourdough bread. An assortment of fruits and nuts and juices were spread lusciously across the table.

In one fleeting moment, I was struck with a reoccurring thought, Is this real?

My body started floating.

Reel it back, reel it back. Sit with it.

This led me to think, why am I having such a hard time being present in this state of love?

Here’s what I landed on.

Roughly 90% of our every day thoughts are not novel.

They are repetitions of the previous day’s thoughts. So the question becomes, how do we rewire our brain to start shifting into new patterns if our thoughts are simply iterations of old ones? If they are pre-programmed, is it possible, and how long does it take? How does one assess which programs are worth keeping and which to rewrite?

Is it through whisper or shout?

Well, like any question we seek to answer, it is best practice to find the bud and nip it. Like when you want to heal a physical ailment: would you rather seek the root of the problem or treat its symptoms with pharmaceutical drugs? Probably the former.

As for the brain, it is difficult to approach these questions because we simply haven’t ventured into the source of where these thoughts bubble up from. We’ve slapped a term on it: consciousness. But this term often gets misused.

Consciousness actually refers to your individual awareness of your internal thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations, and the surrounding environment. In other words, it is the state of being aware of something internal to one’s self. But this definition leaves one important question unanswered: where do these thoughts arise from?

There is a vague idea, but from most angles, it is a black box of mystery, a mystical ether that is circled around and poked at but not really defined.

Experiments can reveal how damaging parts of the brain can impact certain aspects of it. Imaging shows us some abilities that can result downstream of activating it.

For example, if you are hooked up to an fMRI machine and told to close your eyes and imagine a letter, let’s say ‘B’, the screen will light up and reveal a pattern that vaguely but unmistakably resembles the letter ‘B’.

So we can get pretty close to observing what the brain can do and what occurs when parts of it are perturbed, but we have yet to find the source of its product (thought).

One interesting theory is that concisousness does not stem from any sort of brain structure, but rather exists outside as frequency that can be tuned into. Another one is that our DNA is so expansive that it can never be truly defined because the brain is the most advanced quantum computer in the world.

The instructions that are given in our primordial cells (think sperm and egg meet for the first time) are replicated. 30 trillion times. Within each cell is a perfect copy of this data: a universe within a universe.

Okay, so we can’t define the Source. At least not right now (in 2026), although truthfully, probably, ever. Just because we can’t find it doesn’t mean we can’t approach it and connect.

The answer lies within.

With expansion comes contraction. A transfer of energy. In any closed system, energy cannot be created or destroyed. Our biological system is no exception.

With any transfer of energy under imperfect conditions (hello human nature), there will be friction. Resistance. I experienced it at that kitchen table, and tenfold after the event. I feel myself rewriting pre-existing thought patterns in real time and it’s awfully uncomfortable.

But mostly, it’s gorgeous.

Each one of the people sitting with me were characters. They all had their special quirks and backgrounds.

The days leading up to the event, things started clicking in a way they haven’t before. Pressure building. A shared felt energy.

Nathalie coined it best: this felt like the pilot episode. All of us with our unique backstories and hardships made a decision that eventually led to this moment, only for our lives to be stitched together. And here we are, mastering what Italians call l’arte d’arrangiarsi — the art of making something out of nothing.

A few ingredients, a few conversations, a couple of jokes exchanged and suddenly we were the wealthiest people in the world.

Truly there was nothing I’d rather be doing in that moment. Nothing to add or remove. A perfect recipe.

We were hardly present in the material world, whisked away constantly by conversation. Through sleepy eyes, one person would ask a question, another would chime in and suddenly ideas exploded all over the table.

Hugs and tears passed around like precious gifts. What were once thought as symptoms of being human are now celebrations. We’d all become obsessed with talking about anything and everything. Big ideas, small observations, high on the validation of our human existence and projects incubating in the background.

There were many such moments where time seemed to pause and my brain clicked beautifully into place.

It’s hard to explain the depth of what transpired in that room and the pride I feel seeing all my friends expanding into themselves. Like atoms colliding into each other, we were all impacted with a transfer of energy and are now off on our own journeys.

Speaking of which, I am writing this from a plane now. One-way ticket.

I can’t wait to share more.

〜 ♡∞ Love always, and talk soon.

---

➶ PSSST! This newsletter is part of a series which will build into a framework that will help you identify your life pillars and become your best self. I am on a mission to become smarter, hotter, and richer in 2026. If this resonates, I invite you to join me ₊⊹

I’d love to know what you thought of this one. Or about your summer plans. Or just about YOU, beloved reader. Let’s engage in the comments section, or shoot me a dm.

If this landed well with you, you might enjoy my last quip on the atrocious state of modern work and dating ⤵