back to : [[i7 - Spiritual Intelligence]] # 21st Century Schizoid Man While living in nature or more natural environments, the stimulus being riffed off of by i7 is always in context, often alive, and always emerged as a product of cosmic (minerals, elements) or biological evolution. Thus, by seeing these natural patterns and associations between them - like how lungs are like trees, or how people play symmetric roles in community to those that animals play in ecosystems - our ancestors were constantly learning fundamental truths about the nature of reality. When you look at nature through i7, you are seeing the cumulative wisdom of evolution, sustainable by design. That which isn't perishes and is not around to serve as training data! Being in the wilderness with a strong i7 is profoundly educational. Even those with i7 stacked lower naturally develop it rapidly by necessity - the same way we do with i6 today. Understanding the natural life cycles, the seasons, and the various roles and delicate balances needed to maintain a healthy ecosystem, all contain scale-invariant and symmetric psychological, social, and spiritual truths. In contrast, when you look at a modern city through i7, you are not seeing the work of an impossibly long (13.7 billion years anyone?) chain of trial and error that has resulted in antifragile and sustainable systems, you are seeing the work of a culture that is a few hundred years old, and was mainly forged by a tiny percentage of the population running on the incentives of greed and power-hungriness. Often, you are seeing the billboards and advertisements of human organizations that can't even survive a few years, much less a few decades. **In short, you are getting irradiated with information devoid of wisdom.** This is the data the associative gears of i7 are crunching through. Do you know the leading cause of Schizophrenia? It's [Urbanism](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3494055/#:~:text=The%20association%20between%20urbanicity%20and,of%20population%20size%20or%20density.). And yes, that just means living in a city. To quote the linked study: "The association between urbanicity and risk of schizophrenia is **well established**. The incidence of schizophrenia has been observed to increase in line with rising levels of urbanicity, as measured in terms of population size or density." Surprise, surprise, the Geico lizard is not a benevolent spirit guide leading you toward alignment with the All, its a marketing gimmick trying to get you to pay for a cleanup crew to come scrape you off the highway when some drunk father of 4 turns you both into a decent Jackson Pollock. His early work was better, I know. i7 shows us the purpose of things, their hidden meaning. When looking at nature, or a conscious person, i7 shows us sustainable wisdom that can guide us into right action and living. In looking at many (post)modern people, organizations, objects, and places, however, i7 shows us what their purpose is, which is usually not that great. Usually something like, addict as many people as possible so that I have money for my addictions, kill myself through pleasure, numb all responsibility to a greater whole, or the classic "I don't know, I've never really thought about it, I just thought it would be cool to make this thing, and this guy in a vest gave me a few mill to do it, so here I am, cause *progress* or whatever [Andreesen said](https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/)." Etc. So in so many words, having a lit up i7 these days is usually a great way to go a lil crazy, suicidal, emo, goth[^1] or just generally freak the fuck out. Especially if you're a neurodiverse shamanoid like myself where your i7 is 10x sensitive - buckle up. That's not a bug, its a reflection of where we are at right now.[^2] No pressure, no diamond right? ### Further Reading This article by our Integral / Metamodern elder Layman Pascal is a great exploration of similar topics: https://xagick.substack.com/p/of-madness-and-magic [^1]: Welcome to the club. [^2]: If you're going thru this, summon your local shaman, go outside, start meditating, and cease all social media immediately. The attentional system has to be under conscious control to filter bad input. Oh and everything is already perfect, but it might take a second and some out of body experiences for you to believe me on that. In all seriousness, please seek help from a professional who can help with this.