Five steps toward personal emancipation in an Orwellian world

At the risk of coming off as eccentric or outrageous, or better yet, as practical, in the following I propose five steps toward personal emancipation, more important in these Orwellian times than ever! This post will be regularly expanded and eventually turned into a book, in which I will delve into the history—going back to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution—of these intertwined ideas.

My steps are different from what you might expect in a typical self-help guide in that each presents the same paradox: while some people will find them a snap, others may find them daunting or simply untenable. But they are all attainable with a little shift in perspective.

The five steps are progressive: it’s advised to proceed through them in order, though which steps one finds easy or difficult will be a matter of individual personality, and one can start anywhere. They link together, build on, and mutually reinforce each other.

After each step is a challenge for practical application, which you can embark upon by yourself or with others.

STEP 1: GO NAKED

Open your body to others. Go naked at home and outdoors as well, wherever risk of arrest is low. Not just when alone but with everyone—family, friends, and select guests. Announce in advance your intention to do so; the purpose is not to shock but to liberate living space. Invite, rather than insist, others to do the same by setting an example. And of course, sleep naked; don’t advertise the apparel industry’s unnecessary product known as pajamas.

If this sounds like imposing our private matters where they’re not wanted, recall that our homes have long been invaded by the cultural ideology of body shame, and we need to combat it with body freedom. Take off the state’s clothes.

This has nothing to do with sex (that’s covered in Steps 2 and 3) but with kicking oppression out of the house.

If you’re European, you’ll probably find naturism—the nonsexual nudist life—easier to grasp. Europe, particularly France, Germany, and Spain, leads the rest of the world in the extent to which social nudity is enshrined as a right and officially designated spaces—beaches, nature areas, resorts, clubs, saunas—are set aside for this purpose. In addition to France’s countless nudist beaches, the “naturist village” in the town of Cap d’Agde balloons in peak season to over 30,000 naked residents. Spain has 450 nudist beaches; the country does not have a law against public nudity. In Germany, all beaches are nudist beaches by default. The Germans have been practicing FKK (Freikörperkultur—Free Body Culture), their term for naturism, for over a century; the storied park in central Munich known as the Englischer Garten swarms with nudists—many of them office lunch-goers. In most European countries, female toplessness is permitted on public beaches where full nudity isn’t, and mixed-sex nudity is allowed and expected in public saunas.

Now, either the rest of the world is normal and the Europeans are depraved, or they are onto something. Europe also happens to have some of the best educational systems, the most advanced social-safety nets, virtually free health care, and progressive LGBTQ+ laws. Countries where public nudity is allowed in officially or unofficially designated spaces: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, U.S. (varies by state).

Another word for nudism and naturism which I am partial to is panism: from the Greek god Pan who frolicked naked in nature.

A main obstacle to social acceptance of public nudity is the all-too-common assumption that any display of nudity is about sex. This fixed idea has less to do with nudity, however, than with distorted notions about sex—the way sex gets attached to anything in the minds of those disturbed by sex. They simply can’t understand why anyone would want to appear naked in front of others outside of the house or bedroom. Some naturists might explain that they are not going naked for the sake of others. They simply love the feeling of being naked, inside and outside—the feeling of sun and wind on bare flesh, the feeling of water coursing through their loins while swimming. Other might have more of an “exhibitionist” inclination, and this is not meant in a salacious sense but in a purely celebratory way. They have triumphed over the stubborn and false puritanical injunction that the naked body is inherently shameful and must always be covered. They’re saying, “To hell with puritanism!”

It might help to consider social nudity as a form of honesty, similar to removing your sunglasses or earphones with someone in private and, conversely, the distinct discomfort you feel when someone refuses to remove them. We are so used to wearing clothes that the sight of them is hardly discomfiting. Obviously, nice clothes are delightful to the eye. But naturists naturally prefer to doff their clothes at the first opportunity as a way of breaking the ice with people. They can’t wait to do so, and it’s a great relief to them, even when others present don’t themselves disrobe but give them permission to.

A few naturist websites: https://www.nakedwanderings.com/
https://www.naturismre.com/

More reading, including a few classics:

Barcan, Ruth. Nudity: A Cultural Anatomy (Berg, 2004).

Baxandall, Lee. World Guide to Nude Beaches and Resorts (Elysium, 1998).

Carr-Gomm, Philip. A Brief History of Nakedness (Reaktion, 2010).

Hoffman, Brian. Naked: A Cultural History of American Nudism (New York UP, 2015).

Merrill, Frances, & Merrill, Mason. Among the Nudists: Early Naturism (Knopf, 1930).

Merrill, Frances, & Merrill, Mason. Nudism Comes to America (Garden City, 1932).

Parmelee, Maurice. Nudism in Modern Life: The New Gymnosophy (Muller, 1927).

Smith, Mark Haskell. Naked at Lunch: A Reluctant Nudist’s Adventures in the Clothing-Optional World (Grove, 2015).

The challenge:

Imagine I invite you over to my home for the purpose of gauging the extent of your “openmindedness.” I reassure you in advance that the challenge is completely safe and harmless and your cooperation is optional. You might even find the challenge fun. You may come alone or bring a partner or friend; they’re also welcome to participate in the challenge (participants’ gender is not essential but a mixed-sex group is preferred as it heightens the challenge).

Once settled in with a bit of chitchat, drinks, and relaxing music, I get up to close the living-room curtains. “Now,” I announce, “can you take off your clothes?”

You freeze. “Why?”

“Because that’s the challenge.”

“Why don’t you take off your clothes?”

“It’s the easiest thing in the world for me to take off my clothes,” I say. “But do you really need me to initiate? The challenge is for you. Wouldn’t it be better if you were the first to get naked, to prove to yourself that you can fully respond to the challenge, regardless of what I do?”

“It’s your idea, so you should set an example,” you insist.

“Fair enough.” I proceed to strip naked.

Now at this point I cannot say whether you will follow through and join me in our exercise. People are very different and many factors will influence the outcome. One of two outcomes, to be exact:

→ You disrobe (this may happen at once or after a drink or two). Congratulate yourself on passing the test!

→ You refuse to disrobe. Refusals generally fall into two categories:

1) Provisional refusal. Due to sheer awkwardness. Being caught off guard with an unprecedented request that you simply aren’t ready for. You’re embarrassed not so much at the prospect of getting naked as at your failure to get naked. You might consider following through on another occasion, with more mental preparation. If that is the case, I invite you to organize the same event at your place, and I guarantee you I will show up!

Some might consider disrobing with the “right people.” Nope, not a valid excuse. Whether you’re with your closest friends/family or total strangers should make no difference to your own body freedom and independence. You should be able to get naked with anyone as a matter of principle.

2) Out-of-the-question refusal. This is where it gets interesting, as the reasons can vary greatly:

• You regard the challenge as silly, stupid, and irrelevant to what you imagine to be loftier or more philosophical conceptions of personal emancipation.
• You regard the challenge as an affront to your personal privacy and dignity.
• You regard the challenge as a rude, underhanded sexual proposition (despite my assurance that the exercise has absolutely nothing to do with sex).
• You have no problem with the challenge itself but are too self-conscious and shy about your body to allow others to see it (despite my reassurance that it’s not a beauty contest and all bodies are respected regardless of appearance).
• All of the above.

Personally, I find the nudity challenge the most elegant and efficacious test of mental freedom ever devised. It gets to the core of what people hold most dear—and fear: their body, which they stubbornly and irrationally cling to and protect while claiming to be wholly liberal in intellect and daily life.

There are indeed many other conceivable tests. And, of course, people can be openminded about nudity and close-minded about many other things (that’s why we have more tests below). Still, if you must refuse, ask yourself why and what might lie behind your reluctance. After giving it some thought, and if offered the nudity challenge in real life, where would you fall on the scale?:

Body freedom scale →
1 —– 2 —– 3 —– 4 —– 5

1 Out of the question, period
2 Out of the question but it does get me thinking
3 Intrigued by the idea but need more time
4 First time to experience social nudity but rose to the challenge!
5 Would happily cooperate; already a practicing nudist/naturist

STEP 2: BE PANSEXUAL

Open yourself to other bodies. Be bolder than a bear hug: sleep with people because you like them, without regard for gender, age, ethnicity, or any other prejudice. Entertain the idea of sexual generosity. This does not mean that we should sleep with everyone, of course, but the point is one’s sexual “orientation” need not be a barrier to sexual expression.

Pansexuality follows from panism (nudism, naturism), because sex is the next logical step for people who are naked together and who are also into each other. Here the Greek prefix pan– comes not from the god Pan but means “all, every, whole, all-inclusive,” that is, all-inclusive sex.

Polls regularly reveal that 5-10% of adults identify as LGBTQ+ (Gallup; Williams Institute). Looser estimates range from 2-15% (Gayther). The Kinsey Reports (1940s-50s) found that “37% of men in the U.S. had achieved orgasm through contact with another male after adolescence and 13% of women had achieved orgasm through contact with another woman.” British researchers in 2012 found that 17.3% of men and 19.7% of women reported having a same-sex experience (Demographics of sexual orientation).

Traditionally, there was one universal straitjacket: heterosexuality. Today, we have at least five more to choose from: LGBTQ+, standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, while “+” includes pansexual, omnisexual, ambisexual, intersex, nonbinary, genderqueer, aromantic, asexual, and others. Remove the straitjacket: it’s superfluous. Don’t pin yourself down to a single “orientation.” What sets pansexuality apart is that it incorporates all these orientations: it’s fluid and elastically erotic. Many people are pansexual without necessarily identifying as such; they may not even be aware of the term and identify instead as bisexual.

Pansexuality constitutes a radical act of imagination. It reverses the usual gender/love hierarchy by placing love over gender instead of gender over love. In conventional love, sexual expression follows from attraction to the opposite gender; or if you’re gay, attraction to the same gender. In pansexual love, sexual expression doesn’t follow from gender attraction; it takes primacy over gender attraction. Gender attraction never goes away but properly sits in the balance with love—attraction to the person rather than to their gender.

If you are proudly heterosexual and would never remotely consider exploring your gay side, it’s still vital to support LGBTQ+, as these freedom fighters are in the politically progressive vanguard. They raise the sexual-freedom bar for everyone, and they are the first to be attacked wherever fascism rears its ugly head; your own sexual freedom will be the next to go.

The literature on LGBTQ+ is too voluminous to list here, but newbies can begin with these starter kits by a few pioneers:

Eisner, Shiri. Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution (Seal, 2013).

Hutchins, Loraine, & Kaʻahumanu, Lani. Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (Riverdale AVE, 2015; orig. pub. 1991),

Queen, Carol, and Rednour, Shar. The Sex & Pleasure Book: Good Vibrations Guide to Great Sex for Everyone (Barnaby, 2015, orig. pub. 1994).

Rubin, Gayle S. Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader (Duke UP, 2011)

The challenge:

Here things become genuinely more difficult than Step 1 for many people because it involves sex. And it should be apparent that you will not be able to proceed unless you have a keen curiosity and desire to.

You’re curious and your desire is keen. Let’s begin with the easiest form of sex (apart from masturbation): passive sex. Passive sex is when you don’t do anything but allow someone to do something to you. Consider a massage with a first-time therapist who doesn’t arrive in your room until you’re settled prone on the massage table. You don’t know whether they are male or female and they go to work on you without speaking. Does it really matter what gender they are if they are doing a good job? Would their gender make any difference if they massaged you erotically? What if you imagined them to be your preferred gender and it turned out you were wrong? Would that necessarily diminish the experience in any respect?

Okay, so you can handle gender-blind passive sex. But you can hardly bring yourself to reciprocate with someone of the same sex (or the opposite sex if you’re gay). Consider the challenge in a reversal-of-perspective way: imagine yourself as gay and your partner as straight but curious (or vice versa if you’re gay). This is what bisexuals can do. However you configure the scenario in your head, imagination—the most powerful motor of mental freedom—is key.

Is there any straight male out there who has never fantasized watching his female partner doing it with another woman? This common sexual fantasy is an act of the imagination. If he’s lucky enough to witness it in action, he can still feast on it with his eyes without physically involving himself. Many people have far more elaborate sexual fantasies than this. In fact, sex is all about the imagination. The challenge here is how to extend your own sexual imagination to encompass all genders and scenarios in novel and unforeseen permutations and combinations. You will soon surmount the limitations of gender and achieve full-blown pansexual clarity.

We might consider the analogy of travel. It’s often said that one learns more about one’s own country by living in another country for a significant period of time than if one has never gone abroad. Only in this way are we able to view our own culture objectively, as something strange and fresh. Similarly, if I am a straight male, it’s not until I experience and cultivate a taste for gay male sex that I can come back full circle and truly enjoy sex with women. And vice versa: if I am a gay male, it’s not until I experience and cultivate a taste for straight sex that I can truly enjoy sex with men.

Even if after all of this sincere experimentation you find that you’re not one iota closer to enjoying sex with a new gender, try a new perspective. Consider not just what you prefer but what they might prefer. Experience the joy of giving. We do this normally whenever acting on behalf of friends and acquaintances—surprising them with a nice birthday gift, attending their wedding, visiting them in the hospital, helping out with a house or car repair. We get distinct joy out of these acts of generosity and don’t mind being inconvenienced in the least. You might discover that you can get the same joy out of sharing a bit of bodily intimacy—the sexual gift. And then what does it matter what gender the receiver of your gift is? It’s the giving that counts. More on this in the next section. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

STEP 3: BE POLYAMOROUS

Open your house to others. Dismantle the monogamous nuclear family structure, which is nothing other than the authoritarian state replicating itself in miniature by the millions, with all, conveniently for the state, being isolated from each other to prevent interaction and organization. Communal polyamory unfolds the household to accommodate more than one family, with communal kitchen, living room, and other shared spaces, while separate bedrooms can be maintained. With this act of domestic liberation, the horizontally extended family enables the pooling of labor, resources, and wisdom and the raising of children in a more socially convivial environment.

Sexual polyamory follows naturally from communal polyamory by turning the bedroom into a shared space as well. How multiple couples work out the often-complex intimacy arrangements is entirely up to them. An easier option for some is romantic polyamory: multi-partner intimacy without the sex.

Polyamory follows naturally from panism and pansexuality. If you can get naked with more than one, you can get sexual with more than one. If you can make the leap to sex with a new person of an untried gender, it’s only a short leap to sex with a new person at the same time you’re involved with someone else.

The big barrier to sexual polyamory for many people is morality. But what really lies behind “morality” is the commodification of sex as a form of property and exchange value. The monogamous bedroom is a giant safe or vault in which a couple’s sex life is locked up and stored, without much productive use, not to mention any accrued interest or gain. The stubbornness with which people hoard and guard their sexuality has no equivalent among any other valued possessions, mental or material. It is done unthinkingly, at the insistence of a very powerful overload—ideology (to be returned to in the last section). Some, however, aren’t intimidated by this overlord. Friedrich Engel’s wasn’t (see his The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State). And you needn’t be. Freed from the monogamous bedroom vault and recast as a form of abundance rather than parsimony, people’s sexual capacity to engage with others is almost limitless.

According to Wikipedia, “about 4% of people practice polyamory, and up to 17% are open to it” (Polyamory). Polyamory is also known as consensual non-monogamy or ethical non-monogamy. The practice is often confused with swinging (aka. the “Lifestyle”) but differs from open sexual encounters in the greater emphasis on bonding, intimacy, and cultivation of long-term relationships in addition to or in place of the exclusively sexual. Polyamory is sharply distinguished from polygamy, since no gender bias or coercion is involved. No country as yet officially recognizes polyamorous marriage, though “courts and cities in Canada and the U.S. are increasingly recognizing polyamorous families, granting legal parentage to multiple adults and extending protections to multi-partner relationships” (Polyamory). Short of threats to one’s job or stigmatization in divorce court, such relationships are de facto legal in any country in which mixed-gender, multi-partner cohabitation is legal.

For an extended discussion of polyamory, read my Loving many: Polyamorous self-actualization

An interesting take on polyamory by an OnlyFans star: Adult star dated “six people at once” as “humans aren’t meant to be monogamous”

Recommended homework from the growing literature on polyamory:

Engles, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884).

Fern, Jessica. Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy (2020).

Fern, Jessica. Polywise: A Deeper Dive into Navigating Open Relationships (2023).

Hardy, Janet W. & Easton, Dossie. The Ethical Slut, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love (2017; orig. pub. 1997).

Ryan, Christopher, and Cacilda Jetha, Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships (2012).

Thouin, Marie. What Is Compersion?: Understanding Positive Empathy in Consensually Non-Monogamous Relationships (2024).

Veaux, Franklin & Rickert, Eve. More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory (2014).

Weitzman, Geri, Davidson, Joy, & Phillips, Robert A. What Psychology Professionals Should Know About Polyamory (National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, 2014).

The challenge:

If you are a couple, arrange a camping trip with a third person or another couple; if you are single, find a willing couple to go with. Everyone is aware in advance that you will all be occupying the same tent, naked, and things may get sexual (the tent must comfortably accommodate the number of people involved). You’re not going to pull any of this on unsuspecting guests! They too must understand, agree to, and show some curiosity or interest in the trip’s purpose: to explore a consensual intimate and sexual relationship with more than two people. Whatever transpires sexually does so spontaneously and is never forced, especially when people are first getting their bearings. Not everyone may be ready, and it may take several camping trips. But it’s clear you’re all working toward the goal of a polyamorous relationship.

It’s suggested to start with mutual massage—and progress to erotic massage as desired. Massage is also a good launching pad for gender-blind sex.

Why a camping trip? A tent puts everyone together in an intimate space. Additionally, you are all helping out with the cooking and other preparations, learning how to get along twenty-four hours a day over a period of several days. Polyamory isn’t just about sex, like swingers who depart when the evening is over, but about three or more living together in a way that catches, holds and lasts, because all parties want it to. An alternative to a camping trip is an out-of-town hot springs resort with a hot tub or pool in a private room large enough to accommodate more than one couple. All should sleep in the same room and in the same bed.

If you are already a full-fledged panist and pansexual, polyamory will be the next logical step (and the reverse, polyamory may lead pansexuality and panism): you can easily get naked with new people and readily adapt to bisexual arrangements. But this is notoriously more challenging for men than it is for women. Let’s return to our example of a threesome involving a heterosexual couple and a third female. We are presuming both women are willing to get sexual with each other and with the man without his partner’s jealousy getting in the way (a sine qua non of open relationships!). In cases where a couple invites another male to join them for the female partner’s satisfaction, however, things can get tricky. Anecdotally, in few cases will the men dare to get sexual with each other. It’s almost a taboo, and an unfortunate one. This is not the space to go into the possible reasons for male bisexual anxiety. The burden is on men to deconstruct and decalcify their male pride and become as fluid as women in exploring their bisexual side. Polyamory provides the perfect opportunity.

STEP 4: EXPLORE PSYCHEDELICS

Mushroom symbol stands for all psychedelics

Open your mind to plant wisdom. The natural mind medicines—psilocybin (magic mushrooms), mescaline, ayahuasca, cannabis (marijuana), etc.—have been used for enlightenment purposes for thousands of years. Their illegal status in the modern age, due to the state’s arrogating the right to dictate which plants, freely proffered by nature, we may or may not cultivate and consume, is a crime against human freedom and decency.

Fortunately, there has been a collective turnaround in recent years, as their legally sanctioned use in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and PTSD is gaining acceptance. Psychedelics expand consciousness and awareness and can be life-changing and transformational—and frightening. To quote psychonaut Terence McKenna, “If you’re not scared of psychedelics, you haven’t taken enough.” They are not for everyone, but the risks can be minimized with homework and guided use.

They also powerfully enhance empathy and creativity, while cannabis, steadily being legalized, is the greatest of aphrodisiacs.

Psychedelics follow naturally from panism, pansexuality, and polyamory. After opening your mind by opening your body, leverage the process further with these revolutionary consciousness-expansion tools, likened by Terence McKenna to the discovery of the telescope—directed at inner rather than outer space. Psychedelics can also assist those experiencing stumbling blocks in Steps 1-3.

The desire to consume psychoactive substances and experience altered states of consciousness is hard-wired into our nature. In their book From Chocolate to Morphine, Rosen and Weil note how children will spin around on the floor till they drop for the pleasurable rush it produces. Most cultures make use of four legal substances for this purpose—alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and sugar—a paltry menu of choices. In spite of what the state forbids, we have the natural right to experiment with whatever drugs are within our reach, while guarding against their abuse. (The big exception is the plague of Frankenstein synthetic opioids fentanyl, carfentanil, cychlorphine, and the nitazenes. These poisons are massacring narcotics addicts everywhere and have no redeeming value except to profit the cartels).

The Western Hemisphere is the region with the largest number of indigenous psychoactive plants. It’s not surprising that it seems to be leading the way in liberalizing use of psychedelics (notably the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Peru, and Brazil). Though laws allowing personal recreational or medical use of cannabis and psychedelics are constantly changing, globally the trend is clearly upward. As of mid-2026:

Countries where cannabis is legal or decriminalized (“tolerated” or unenforced) for recreational use: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Austria, Barbados (Rastafarians only), Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominica, Ecuador, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands (legal gray area but sold in shops), Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, USA (legal in 24 states for recreational use and in another 10 states for medical use only).

Countries where psilocybin is legal or decriminalized: Australia (medical use only), Austria, Bahamas, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, Canada (legal gray area but sold in shops), Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic (medical use only), Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands (truffles only), Peru (psilocybin in gray area; ayahuasca is legal), Philippines (not classified), Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay, USA (decriminalized in more and more cities; legal in Colorado), Vietnam.

Countries where psychedelics are undergoing state-sanctioned research for potential medical treatment:

Australia: psilocybin, DMT, ketamine, N₂O, MDMA
Brazil: psilocybin, ayahuasca, DMT, ketamine, ibogaine, MDMA
Canada: psilocybin, ayahuasca, ibogaine, ketamine
China: psilocybin, ketamine
Denmark: psilocybin
Germany: psilocybin, ketamine
Ireland: 5-MeO-DMT
Netherlands: psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT, MDMA
Spain: ibogaine, MDMA
Switzerland: psilocybin, ayahuasca, DMT, ketamine, LSD, MDMA, mescaline
UK: psilocybin, ibogaine, ketamine, MDMA
USA: psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine, ketamine, kratom, LSD, MDMA, salvinorin A

It’s recommended to read up on psychedelics by the many great writers on the subject before embarking on these powerful substances for the first time. For starters:

Fadiman, James. The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys (Park Street, 2011).

Grof, Stanislav. LSD Psychotherapy (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, 2018; orig. pub. 1980).

McKenna, Terence. Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge – A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution (Bantam, 1993).

Mitchell, Andy. Ten Trips: The New Reality of Psychedelics – An Engrossing Neuropsychologist’s Experiment with Ten Compounds, from Labs to Ceremonies (Vintage, 2023).

Pickard, William Leonard. The Rose of Paracelsus: On Secrets & Sacraments (Michael Haydens, 2022).

Pinchbeck, Daniel. Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism (Broadway, 2002).

Pollan, Michael. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (Penguin, 2018).

Rosen, Winifred, and Weil, Andrew T. From Chocolate To Morphine: Everything You Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs (Harvest, 2004; orig. pub. 1983).

Strassman, Rick. DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences (Park Street, 2000).

Tumbleweed, Daniel. The Museum Dose: 12 Experiments in Pharmacologically Mediated Aesthetics (Phoropter, 2015).

The challenge:

This is the biggest challenge yet. Psychedelic drugs can be dangerous for some people, especially when consumed carelessly in the wrong set and setting. In high doses they temporarily shatter the ego—the very coordinates shoring up your consciousness and sense of reality. This is actually the goal of psychedelic therapy: to reset the ego in a healthier way than before. As with sex, the desire to explore these powerful substances must be keen. Nobody need persuade you to experiment with them; only you know if the plant spirits and their synthetic cousins are calling you. If you have no such interest in the mind medicines, perhaps because you find it challenging enough just making it through the day, they may not be for you.

It’s recommended to start small, with microdosing, and work your way up. When you’re ready for a stronger dose, do it with a friend who has experience with and a mature attitude toward the drug in question: one who is willing to work with you during any turbulent episodes, reassuring you that you are not falling apart but the fear is precisely what you need to embrace; that fighting it is as useless and counterproductive as fighting your image in a mirror; that letting go is not only the only option but is the magic carpet you will emerge upon out the other end.

STEP 5: CONCEPTUALIZE FREEDOM

Open your mind. This step is placed last, as mastering Steps 1-4 better prepares one to tackle Step 5 (some may navigate Step 5 with seeming ease while balking at Steps 1-4). Conceptional freedom involves critically imagining and constructing your own understanding of freedom independently of the state’s definition of the term.

Conceptual freedom follows from panism, pansexuality, polyamory, and psychedelics, as theory follows from praxis (practice). If you have conquered Steps 1-4, you cannot be conscious and at the same time conceptually bound and shackled. On the other hand, claiming to be intellectually or “free” (Step 5) does not translate into willingly getting naked or enlarging one’s sexuality or intellect with psychedelics. The philosopher Slavoj Žižek often wryly notes that the very people who claim to understand how ideology shapes their lives ironically enjoy their repression and remain just as bound as everyone else. The solution to this trap is praxis: carrying out freedom in action, in the flesh (Steps 1-4).

Standard notions of freedom tend to include the following political and personal freedoms:

Freedom of worship
Freedom of assembly
Freedom of speech and the press
Freedom to vote and petition the government
Freedom of worship
Freedom of movement
The right to privacy
The right to own property
The right to run a business

Some countries, notably the U.S., consider the right to bear arms essential.

Then there are freedoms not always labeled as such but highly important nonetheless:

Freedom from fear (from violence and intimidation, i.e. safe streets)
Freedom from want (civilized social-safety net, national health insurance, etc.)

Despite the right to bear arms and the illusion of safety it provides, the United States does not fare well with regard to the latter two freedoms compared to other developed countries. It ranked 7th worldwide in the Human Freedom Index in 2007 and fell to 17th in 2021. It’s hovered between 15th and 17th over the past five years.

There are also the freedoms explored in this essay. Typically regarded as trivial or petty by old-school conventional morality, they are not only vital but fundamental to the very identity of those who live and advocate them:

Freedom of naturism (public nudity in legally designated areas)
Freedom of sexual orientation (LGBTQ and pansexuality)
Freedom of nonmonogamous cohabitation (polyamory)
Freedom of psychedelics for both recreational and medical use

Conceptual freedom is a species of intellectual freedom. It presupposes the ability to critically investigate all forms of freedom in order to create new forms of freedom. It is not founded on impoverished, ascetic religious notions of “freedom” through the rejection of fleshly desire and worldly pleasures but on abundance, generosity, and ease of communication. You must invent your own understanding of it. It is the freedom to cultivate the erotically extravagant life free of money.

Conceptual freedom can also be understood as psychological freedom. The wellness symbol above captures one aspect of the human capacity to bloom internally, but true mental freedom goes deeper than the oft-superficial New Age notion of “wellness” (which originally derives from Maslow’s commendable psychology of “self-actualization”). In placing the burden of unhappiness entirely on the individual while allowing state repression to flourish, New Ageism easily veers into neo-fascism.

Conceptual freedom is both the application and outcome of ideological deprogramming. The big initial step for many is deprogramming religious indoctrination. However—and this is important—atheism does not by itself constitute liberation from dogma, as atheists may be just as bound by prejudices (nationalist, racist, sexist) as the religious; and atheists are often just as monogamous as everyone else: the religion of Monogamism. To build character free of a rigid personality structure, work on uprooting internal prejudice and bias in all its forms.

4 responses to “Five steps toward personal emancipation in an Orwellian world”

Lloyd Lofthouse

commented on

September 21, 2025
Steps two and three is all that’s needed. Once those are the norm all the time, day or night, life will feel great.

Sex triggers the release of several “feel-good” hormones, including endorphins, oxytocin, and dopamine, which contribute to pleasure, relaxation, and bonding.

Sex causes a significant release of these natural bodily produced chemicals.

Hormones released during sex:
- Endorphins: These natural pain relievers and mood boosters are released during pleasurable activities like sex, exercise, and massage.
- Oxytocin: Often called the “cuddle hormone” or “love hormone,” oxytocin promotes feelings of closeness, intimacy, and bonding.
- Dopamine: This “feel-good” chemical is associated with the brain’s reward system and can lead to feelings of pleasure and happiness.
We should learn from the bonobos.

March 1, 2016

16 min read

Bonobos Use Sex to Cool Tempers

Inclined toward gender equality, this close relative of humans substitutes sex for aggression.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bonobos-use-sex-to-cool-tempers/
Isham Cook

commented on

September 21, 2025

Lloyd, I agree with everything you say about sex. Note that these are two steps that you have fully absorbed, but what about the others? 😉 The reason I put these 5 particular steps together is that they actually have a long, closely involved history, now mostly forgotten, which I plan to excavate. The intellectual high point was the 1920s-30s, after which fascism shut everything down, and is still trying to shut things down.

1. Lloyd Lofthouse
  
  commented on
  
  September 21, 2025
  
  Clothing is vital for my health these days, inside or out, due to eczema, which is trying to get worse. Eczema is one of the health issues listed on the Agent Orange list.
  
  I seem that I have every trigger that makes eczema worse. This all came on in the last couple of years.
  
  Skin exposed to sunlight. When the air dries out too much, which is why I have a humidifier going all the time in my home office bedroom keeping the humidity at 50%. I had to stop using my natural gas heater in winter because natural gas heat dries out the skin.
  
  Skin dries out faster when naked.
  
Lloyd Lofthouse

commented on

September 21, 2025

Still, I don’t like clothing on when I sleep. The sheets help hold in the skin’s moisture. I can’t wash clothing, towels, sheets, et al. with scented soap or softeners. The perfume scent makes the eczema worse. I replaced those scented softener tissues with balls made of wool that do the same thing. When I go outside, I put gloves on, so the sunlight doesn’t touch my hands, which explode looking like raw meat in no time.

When I do yardwork, I now have to slip a gaiter over my head to cover my neck and upper face to keep the sunlight off or my skin erupts driving me mad with itchiness. IF I forget to wear a wide brim hat, I pay for it later.

ISHAM COOK