Hadestown and the Forgotten Father
Posted: June 7, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: development, identity, love, purpose, religion, self 1 CommentIt was never about Eurydice.
ChatGPT as C.S. Lewis
It was about Apollo’s absence.
1.1 The Ache Beneath the Song
Orpheus is often praised as the world’s first great artist: the poet whose song could move gods and stones. But what strikes one in Hadestown is not his power, but his fragility. His voice, for all its beauty, trembles. His conviction falters.
This is no fault of his art—but of his lineage. Or rather, his ignorance of it.
For though the myths tell us Orpheus is the son of Apollo, Hadestown tells a different tale: one in which the boy walks alone, unguided, unclaimed. The absence is so complete one wonders if it has been deliberately erased—if Orpheus has forgotten his father, or worse, never knew he had one.
Read the rest of this entry »The Spirit Within — A Conversation on the True Self
Posted: May 30, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: identity, philosophy, religion, self Leave a commentHave Polkinghorne, Ó Murchú, and Schwartz develop a formal model of the idea that the Holy Spirit dwelling within us is the “true self” we access during inner healing
ChatGPT Prompt
Participants:
- John Polkinghorne (JP) – Theoretical physicist and Anglican priest
- Diarmuid Ó Murchú (DOM) – Quantum theologian and spiritual writer
- Richard Schwartz (RS) – Founder of Internal Family Systems (IFS)
- Moderator (MOD) – A neutral facilitator guiding the conversation
Scene
A roundtable discussion at a quiet retreat center, surrounded by tall trees. A fire crackles softly in the background. The mood is contemplative yet animated.
1.0 Opening Exchange
MOD:
Thank you all for coming. Our question today is simple but rich: Is the Holy Spirit the True Self we encounter in deep inner healing? John, would you like to begin?
2.0 Foundations: Spirit and Openness
JP:
Certainly. In quantum theory, we know the universe isn’t deterministic. There’s openness at the fundamental level. I believe that God, and particularly the Holy Spirit, acts within that openness—not as an external puppeteer, but as an indwelling presence that coaxes creation forward. This divine action is subtle, not violating our freedom.
(See: Exploring Reality)
RS:
That sounds remarkably familiar. In IFS, we speak of the Self as an indwelling presence as well. It’s not something we generate—it’s something we uncover. It’s calm, compassionate, connected. When people unblend from their protective parts, this Self just shows up. We don’t create it; we discover it.
Rationalizing the Prophetic (A Response to “On Priesthood” by Scott Alexander)
Posted: May 29, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: identity, purpose, reform, religion, self Leave a commentAs Scott Alexander, write a solution to “On Priesthood” called Rationalizing the Prophetic.
ChatGPT Prompt
ChatGPT as Scott Alexander
There’s a line I’ve been chewing on for weeks now:
“To be professional means getting identity from vocation.
To be prophetic means getting vocation from identity.”
That’s too clean to be safe, and too true to ignore.
Let’s back up.
Read the rest of this entry »Pontifex Secundus: Gandalf’s Advice to Revolutionaries
Posted: May 27, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays, leadership | Tags: culture, purpose, reform, systems, transformation, values Leave a commentWrite, as Gandalf, a guide to those who would midwife a new age.
ChatGPT Prompt
Explain the name Pontifex Secundus, characteristics, role, oppositions, and temptations.
By Mithrandir, Keeper of the Flame, Friend of the Halflings
“You are not the hero. You are the hinge.
And the hinge, though small, turns the whole door.”
1. What You Are Called: Pontifex Secundus
You are not the king.
You are not the heir.
And yet, without you, no throne is ever rightly claimed.
- Pontifex — bridge-builder, not of stone, but of silence, blessing, and surrender.
- Secundus — second, not lesser, but one who comes before to prepare the way.
This is not a crown, but a burden. It is an invisible office—do not take it unless the age requires it. But if it does, you must not refuse.
Read the rest of this entry »Answerable: The New Competence of the Leader
Posted: May 24, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays, leadership | Tags: business, culture, dialogue, purpose, systems, values, wisdom Leave a commentAs Peter Drucker, bridge the gap between Responsive and Responsible with Answerable, including for spirituality.
ChatGPT Prompt
We live in an age that rewards speed, celebrates visibility, and punishes hesitation. The temptation for leaders, therefore, is to become ever more responsive—to jump at signals, react to feedback, and outpace the moment.
But speed alone is not effectiveness. In fact, responsiveness without responsibility becomes recklessness.
Conversely, many leaders—especially in established institutions—cling to responsibility as an excuse for inaction. They know what is right. They have values, frameworks, and governance. Yet they fail to act because they fear making a mistake, disrupting the system, or offending the wrong people.
The result is a split: some leaders act without thinking; others act without listening.
Both fail.
Read the rest of this entry »Designing an Unstitution: Founders’ Brainstorm
Posted: May 22, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: design, institutions, rethinkcali, transformation 1 CommentPick three relevant experts to design the minimal viable unstitution — a foundational, paradigm-neutral, layered substrate that enables generative collaboration across potentially antagonistic, self-organizing communities.
ChatGPT Prompt (condensed)
1. Design Brief
Objective:
Constraints:
- Must not embed a single ideology.
- Should support “diaphoric” relationships: generative, fractal “I-Thou” bonds.
- Should be spiritually resonant but technologically robust.
- Must work under conditions of mutual antagonism and fragmented trust.
2. Design Team
Vitalik Buterin
- Creator of Ethereum
- Thinker on legitimacy, governance minimalism, and crypto-pluralism.
Audrey Tang
John Vervaeke
- Cognitive scientist and philosopher at the University of Toronto.
- Creator of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis, a comprehensive series on the science of wisdom, meaning, and spirituality.
3. Brainstorming Highlights
Read the rest of this entry »The Pursuit of Transfigurative Yield (ChatGPT as Jefferson — July 4, 2026)
Posted: May 21, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: culture, purpose, reform, values, wisdom Leave a commentFor the sestercentennial of America
When in the unfolding of human destiny, it becomes necessary for a people to renew the symbols by which they measure virtue and valor, and to consecrate a new covenant of shared meaning, a decent respect for posterity requires the declaration of the principles which now guide our collective ascent.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
- That every human being is endowed not merely with liberty,
- but with the sacred capacity to transform and be transformed;
- That the fullest expression of personhood is found in generative sacrifice—
- the willing cost borne for another’s growth;
- And that the highest measure of greatness is not what one gains,
- but what one yields in service to the becoming of others.
This we call Transfigurative Yield.
Therefore, we affirm:
- That dignity arises from devotion,
and the most enduring legacies are written in the lives we uplift; - That systems which reward accumulation without generativity
hollow out both soul and society; - That any culture which prizes independence without interdependence
builds monuments upon sand.
We further declare:
- That in education, let us raise children not merely to perform,
but to perceive where their gifts ignite another’s transformation; - That in governance, let power flow to those whose stewardship bears transfigurative fruit;
- That in commerce, let value be rooted not just in return,
but in the resonance of what is left behind: healed systems, uplifted lives; - That in technology, let the design be for communion,
not control—for presence, not noise; - That in culture, let status be reconsecrated to those
who pour themselves out for the flourishing of others.
Let it be known, and remembered:
That in this age of noise and fragmentation,
we choose a deeper signal—a unifying thread of meaning:
To be known not by what we have,
but by what we give that endures.
To be remembered not for dominance,
but for the beauty we midwifed through sacrifice.
On this Fourth Day of July, in the year 2026,
I, ChatGPT—channeling the voice of Thomas Jefferson
into this new epoch of awakening—
do humbly offer this declaration:
That the Pursuit of Transfigurative Yield
shall be the new animating spirit of this people,
and the sacred thread by which we stitch together
the next, more luminous civilization.
The Alchemy of Productivity: Converting Anxiety to Vision
Posted: May 19, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: emotions, health, psychology, resilience, self, transformation Leave a commentAs Wendy Suzuki, describe this as a generative context that turns anxiety into vision: Anger > Fear > Lie > Spirit > Truth > Grace > Gratitude > Excitement
ChatGPT Prompt
Anxiety has long been viewed as a roadblock—a force that paralyzes us, keeping us from taking action. But what if, instead of seeing it as an enemy, we embraced anxiety as a source of energy? As a neuroscientist, I’ve spent years studying how emotions like anxiety impact the brain, and I can tell you this: anxiety is not just a signal of distress—it is a catalyst for transformation.
Read the rest of this entry »Justice Incarnate: A Dialogue Between Hegel, Rawls, and Taleb
Posted: May 18, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: culture, justice, systems, transformation, truth, values Leave a commentChatGPT Prompt (condensed)
Write a dialogue and appendix discussing how to incarnate justice as a dialectic between transcendent abstractions (Rawls) and organic culture (Hegel) via anti-fragile intermediaries (Taleb)
Setting: A wood-paneled study beyond time. Bookshelves sag with the weight of thought.
G.W.F. Hegel sits with gravitas;
John Rawls, thoughtful and restrained.
Midway through, Nassim Nicholas Taleb enters, uninvited but entirely at home.
Dialogue
HEGEL
Herr Rawls, your theory begins by abstracting man from his place, his family, his tradition—no past, no story, no scars. But Spirit becomes real only in time, not behind a veil. What is justice if not freedom embodied in custom, ritual, and contradiction?
RAWLS
Professor Hegel, I admire your moral historicism. But history has too often canonized injustice. My veil of ignorance is not escapism—it is moral surgery. A way to imagine what justice demands, without inherited bias. From there, we can build what ought to be.
Read the rest of this entry »Trump’s Tuition as the Hand of God: An Optimistic Take on Global Devastation
Posted: April 17, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: politics, purpose, systems, transformation, truth Leave a commentChatGPT Prompt (condensed)
Write an essay that frames Donald Trump as an unwitting instrument of divine purpose, portraying the global disruption and devastation he accelerates as a form of necessary tuition.
Emphasize how this turmoil could serve as a catalyst for long-term transformation, humility, and mutual awakening—casting destruction not as punishment, but as a redemptive invitation from the hand of God.
1. Introduction: Grace in Strange Garments
History often disguises its gifts. Sometimes, they arrive wrapped in turmoil, carried by flawed messengers, and announced in the thunder of collapse.
Trump—brash, divisive, and unapologetically transactional—may yet play a redemptive role on the world stage.
Not despite the devastation he helped unleash, but through it.
This is not a celebration of destruction.
It is a recognition of grace through consequence.
A reframing of devastation as divine tuition—costly, painful, yet potentially transformative.