Today I have the pleasure of speaking to Peter Reading who is using his historical struggle with alcoholism to help other people to overcome their own struggles. ‌ From a troubled childhood to a life lost in addiction, join us on a journey of transformation. In this podcast, we'll explore one man's path from isolation to recovery, discovering his true superpower along the way. Through ups and downs, arrests, and failed attempts, he eventually finds a new purpose in life. Walk with us as he shares how nature and sobriety became his saviours, and how he now strives to help others find their own way to healing and self-discovery. Experience the power of resilience, redemption, and the incredible transformation from a life of despair to a life filled with purpose. This is Walking With A Reason To read Pete's full story follow the link below: https://www.revitalizeclinic.co.uk/2023/09/04/walking-with-a-reason-petes-story/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

I talk mindset with Osteopath and Mindset Coach, Annie Osbourne If you could be a better person, would you? Better means different things to different people. Better physical health or mental health could be an example. Better skilled, a better husband or wife are other examples. Even more simpler; if you could become the best version of yourself, would you? This is Annie’s speciality. Seamlessly, Annie compliments her osteopathic work with mindset coaching and vice versa. Holistically, she blends the psychological and the physical for her clients. The result? Patients who are healthier in every sector of their life. This podcast is a treat for you. Annie will teach you how to reach your full potential, eradicate negative beliefs or even transform them to work for you. To find out more about her work, go to https://www.osteocure.co.uk/your-osteopath --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Suicide and why people take their lives… Robust professional and personal experience are needed to answer such a question. Diane has both. Whilst treating Diane, our conversations often took interesting paths. Diane is a qualified mental health nurse and founder of CASAS (care and support after suicide) which she started to help people like herself who have lost loved ones through suicide. Listen to this podcast as we discuss why loved ones take their own lives; how it affects those who are left behind and how it differs from other types of fatality. You will find Diane incredibly insightful as she navigates a complex and deep topic with expertise and charm. To find out more about her work, go to https://www.mycasas.org.uk Need our help? Book in with your mental health specialist. Go towww.revitalizeclinic.co.uk/book-appointment to book in! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Why your pain may not disappear… Has your parking sensor ever tripped when there’s nothing behind you? Pain can be the same. And pain is more of a parking sensor than a measure of damage. It triggers before damage occurs. But often pain can be anchored by our emotions, beliefs and experiences. Osteopath and Chronic Pain specialist, Pippa Cossens knows this too well. Pippa’s experience with fibromyalgia, emotional trauma, chronic pain and her own training as an Osteopath and SIRFA practitioner provides her an up close insight into living with pain. She uses her training and experience to help her patients become pain free. And she wants to share with you her experience to let you know that if she can make a recovery of over 90% then you can too. Listen to our amazing podcast that we recorded just for you. Pippa is available in East Sussex at the Osteopathy For All clinic https://osteopathyforall.co.uk/staff/pippa-cossens/ Instagram: @osteopathyforall --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Suffer from anxiety? Mind racing like a hamster wheel? And that’s without bringing in the negative thoughts that go around and around like a broken record. Anxiety is our brain’s way of protecting us from what might happen… but something has gone wrong. The absence of a threat should correct our brain but it doesn’t. This is called prediction error. Ie “I’m concerned people are looking at me… no-one is looking at me… I am now calm” turns into “I’m concerned people are looking at me… I’m concerned people are looking at me… I’m concerned…” etc Writing for 5 minutes when you feel anxious, concerned, depressed enables you to observe your thoughts rather than suffer in their grasp. It takes you from being in a burning building, so observing that burning building on a TV screen in safety. In this video I explain how I have been able to restore sense and calmness to my mind by spending 5mins on the same laptop I’m using to write this email. Have a watch and let me know what you think by commenting / replying to this post --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Our understanding of pain is changing in a fantastically productive way. 80 years ago, if you would have died, the most likely cause would have been a work place accident, poisoning, a bacterial infection and other conditions which you had no control over. However, times have changed. Most of us will die of deaths that could have been delayed, and many of us live with complaints that we must be empowered over if we want to stand the best chance of recovery. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer and yes, chronic pain. Thankfully, there is a growing shift in approach to healthcare. I talk to Danny Miller who has a fantastic story. After graduating as an osteopath, due to his frustration of not knowing enough to help his patients, Danny started to study to become a clinical health psychologist. Danny’s understanding of pain, desire, motivation, perspective is mind blowing and he also shares the desire to empower more people over their health outcomes. Give the interview a watch, and let me know what you think --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

During the lecture on black history which was televised by ITV (watch here), one of the first things I speak of is the hero story. In summary, shortly after humans first learnt that farming seeds can produce a plentiful supply of food, we see the start of the first great civilisations. The production of food allowed time for people to think. Early humans (see online lessons on early humans here) no longer had to spend 6 hours a day searching for food and 4 hours chewing it, so they started to build and philosophise on the meaning of life, the creation of the universe etc. Humans, being hierarchical, complex, multifaceted with complex emotional characteristics, started to create the first myths which reflect our complex internal world. God became the symbol for the potential for all being, often synonymous with the mother (ie mother nature or the deification of the virgin Mary) and a hero often emerges from this raw potential and comes into maturity (Jesus, Buddha, Hercules even Simba from the Lion King etc) who then goes onto battle symbols of the inner turmoil that we humans experience. For example aggression, jealousy, darkness, trickery, evil etc. The hero then grows or transforms, triumphs and returns to tell the story of his/ her great accomplishment. We’re going to be exploring the importance of heroes and why it is so important for us to claim heroes in our image. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

For those who are unaware, the Conservative Government commissioned a race report in the UK to examine the presence of institutional racism in the UK. This is in relation to the protests this side of the Atlantic which were triggered by the murder of George Floyd, May 2020 and subsequent protests in the USA. The vast majority of ethnic minorities in the UK would have predicted that the report would have, without a doubt, found a presence of institutional racism in the UK. However… it didn’t. This post is not exploring the evidence of institutional racism in the UK, but is looking at the methodology of the report which is, in my opinion, riddled with bias. Bias we can define as “disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair” The issue is that bias gets in the way of truth. I argue that the bias in the Race Report is so strong that it gets in the way of the truth. I.e. due to poor methodology, from an objective standpoint we don’t know if there is institutional racism in the UK. However, due to the publicity that the race report has gained, as Doreen Lawrence stated, it has potentially knocked UK race relations back ‘20 years or more’. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Tousaint Louverture is, without a doubt, the most impressive man in recorded history. A man born into slavery in St Domingue (Haiti) who purchased his freedom by 30. He was a successful businessman by 50 years of age at which point he fueled the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian Revolution was a bloody ten year guerilla war. After ten years, Toussaint Louverture had led a majoritively black army, a significant proportion of which were women and mixed raced peoples, to overthrow the French, Spanish, British and Napoleon Bonaparte himself. A genius beyond measure and a visionary beyond belief, Toussaint Louverture eventually met his downfall as he was fatally tricked and transported to eastern France for imprisonment where he died of pneumonia, alone in the tower of Chateu de Jeux. In his life and death Toussaint Louverture has provided us with captivating lessons. How to: live a virtuous life, take a stand, lead, defeat evil, stand against injustice. Toussaint is a diamond in our rich, black history. My name is Elliott Reid. I teach Black History through lectures and comic books. I present to you, Toussaint Louverture and his Three Life Changing Lessons. This blog post is based on the following publications --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

I’ll ask you a question which I asked myself not long ago when presented with the problems many black youth face; if you want to get your house tidy, do you tidy the house or do you first stop allowing people to tread dirt through your home? I ask this because for any community you have the internal and external stressors of that community. For example, for the black community, internal stressors may be: 9 times the rate of interaction with the judicial system in comparison to white youth Black children are 6 times more likely to be excluded in the UK Black earning power is 7% less in the black African community This means more black people in prison, less with an education and less earning power. Every single one of these factors doesn’t just slow the rate in which black people can climb the socio-economic ladder. It may in fact mean that we fall further and further behind. This is partly due to wealth compounding, ie wealth has the potential to grow faster and faster. The issue is that if you aren’t able to keep up, you’ll be left behind. This may be partly why the black community, despite being one of the first immigrant groups to the UK in modern history, is still one of the bottom 3 earning ethnic groups in Britain and the US, too. These are problems we have to address, and do address, every day. Every black person I met growing up was told “you have to work twice as hard to get just as far”. However let’s look at external barriers to our progression For some reason black youth are sentenced to longer prison sentences for the same crime and are up to 12 times more likely to be stopped and searched   Black children in the US are more likely to be disciplined for the same behaviour. This is suspected by many to me the same in the UK, too Black people are paid 17% less for the same standard of education “teachers “increased the severity of suggested disciplinary actions when the race of the teachers didn’t match that of the child.” Teacher Bias, Elephant in the Room So we can see here how our community is experiencing disadvantage which is probably predisposed from a combination of what is within and outside of our control. So what do we focus on first? Myself and K from 1 Step Away From discuss barriers to our youth progressing. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

My experiences of dating outside my race have been fairly predictable; give it enough time and someone is going to say something fairly inappropriate and quite possibly overtly offensive. In fact, if I were to pick a family to marry into which I suspected would be more likely to offend me on a regular basis with their sheltered perspective, ridgid processes and isolated culture, it would probably be the Royal Family. So I have to admit, when people were shocked and emotionally moved by Meghan and Harry’s interview on Oprah, I was shocked. How could people have expected them not to experience the turmoil they have experienced? How could the British public not have recognised the racialised language; the allusion to stereotypes etc. To me, it was obvious. Reading between the lines to understand true bigoted belief is a common practice, being a minority in the UK. So how, when the hardship of Meghan’s situation is so obvious, did people miss it? I wasn’t shocked at all. Was this due to me becoming desensitised by my own experiences; so much so that I expected racism, classism, bigoted attitudes etc? Perhaps. And by speaking to a few people I eventually realised that many of the offensive rhetoric which has been sent Meghan’s way had actually been missed by a lot of people. But on deeper exploration, I realised that Meghan and Harry’s predicament is a perfect microcosm to display life as a black person in the UK. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Why do I ask? Covid weight gain is going to cause many of us to shame the way we look. Alcohol and takeaway consumption has increased (ref). We will explore the function of shaming and whether it has a place when it comes to our bodies Body Acceptance is a growing trend to reduce the harmful affects of body shaming. But is this a plaster for a festering wound? Does shaming have it’s place? The function of shaming Control of social norms and hierarchy seems to be the function of shame (ref). For example, promiscuity is shamed. Functionally this historically reduces the rate of STD contraction and scarcity of resources. Shaming a behaviour however is different to shaming a label. Fat shaming is shaming a label. Does shame work? Body shaming increases weight gain as seen in this study with a sample size of 2944 people (ref) Shaming helps the shamer. As discussed by Robert Sapolsky in behave. Shaming / bullying reinstates the hierarchical dominance of the shamer. Self shame may be a motivator as seen in “away motivations” used in NLP. However these are shortlived The predisposing factors for obesity Obesity is highly correlated to stress; financial, social etc. As seen in the marshmellow experiment Obesity is a herd problem, not an individual issue as commonly thought of. It is not an individual choice. It is a societal one The solution Amsterdam is the only country that has been able to consistently reduce childhood obesity (read here). We copy many of the interventions they used in our clients intervention Eliminate environmental temptation Educate participant and social group Reward with something else other than food Culturally diversifying food and learning to cook Prioritising sleep To conclude Shaming benefits the shamer. Not the shamed Self shame may be useful in initially motivating one but not long term Book in at www.revitalizeclinic.co.uk/personal-training to book a free consultation with a PT who understands your needs. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Rachel Greer opens up about her experience at Revitalize To those who have and haven’t been to the clinic, it may seem like a treatment is just the obvious mix of joint manipulation, massage, a quick chat and some exercises. But it often is much more complex than this. Rachel thought she might never dance again. She has a chronic hamstring strain which often stopped her from doing anything at all. She’s now pain free, dancing as often as she liked and I wanted to interview her about her experience. We cover 1. What worked now but didn’t before 2. Mistakes that I made during her management 3. Her advice for others suffering with chronic pain Listen to Rachel’s story and give her a follow on instagram at @rachie_macdonald www.revitalizeclinic.co.uk  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

What do you think about the vaccine? | The end of the sofa scientist… or did it even exist? Elliott Reid, Osteopath and founder of the Revitalize Clinic which has provided over 6500 clients with osteopathy, physiotherapy, sports therapy, personal training, counselling, herbal medicine and more www.revitalizeclinic.co.uk “What do you think about the virus, Elliott. What did you think about the vaccine?” It takes me back to a conversation I had with my friend, Dan. He’s an aerospace engineer. He summarised to be so well that, “long gone are the times where people can create society changing intervention without a long process of developing expertise…” I wonder if that has ever been the case in modern history. The early founders of psychology, osteopathy were medical doctors first. An apple didn’t fall in sight of an unqualified man, it fell in front of an already expert, Isaac Newton. Despite this story being a myth, we fall in love with it. Just like we love to hear the story of the drop out entrepreneur who started a business from his garage. But we pay little attention to the fact that to own a house big enough with a garage in California, he was probably already living in a multi-million pound household. It tells us that anyone with a hint of inspiration can do good. And we can. But when something has killed over 1.5million people worldwide, we need to rely on a better stock of individuals than anyone with a facebook account. And we do this every day. We trust our cars not to explode, our tap water to be clean, our food to not harm us. So why do we distrust scientists with decades of experience, and studies with over 30,000 participants with results of a 90%+ success rate to eradicate a virus and enable us to return to normality. To rely on laymen, is a return to tribalism. To stand on the shoulders of giants is staying true to civilisation. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

What does death mean to you? Is it the end of a journey, the beginning of another? I would be interested to hear your perspective so please let me know. Go to www.revitalizeclinic.co.uk/blog for more posts I had a fairly early and close encounter with death when I was 16 years old.  A great friend of mine passed. It drastically changed the way I viewed life thereafter. And I suppose this can be a good thing. It greatly increased the value which I attribute to time and makes me question to this day, if I could be spending that time doing something better? I had the opportunity to speak with James from the Art of Dying. Their award winning podcast helps people to approach their death with control and dignity. Give it a listen. I would be interested in your thoughts It’s time to talk. You’re going through potentially, one of the most challenging experiences that you have ever encountered. And it makes it worse that no-one can tell, or even begin to understand. When experiencing bouts of depression, anxiety, bereavement; or maybe your personality disorder or bipolar has taken a turn for the worse; it can seem that there is no way out. You’ve tried everything, right? Well, sometimes you need a hand to guide you out of the darkness. Our gravesend based counsellors and psychologists would love to hear about your struggles. It will at least give you a chance to express how you feel to open ears, with no judgement Message us or give us a call and we’ll book you in for a free over the phone consultation to begin with. It will help us to get to know each other before you embark on your journey to recovery #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #anxiety #selfcare #depression #selflove #love #health #wellness #mentalhealthmatters #motivation #therapy #mentalillness #mindfulness #healing #fitness #psychology #recovery #wellbeing #ptsd #life #loveyourself #meditation #inspiration #positivevibes #positivity #happiness #quotes #bhfyp --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Do you ever think how you can slow down the process of ageing? What you can eat and how you can move to keep the fountain of youth? Dr Harriet Holme holds her passion in improving women’s health through nutritional intervention and I had a few questions to ask her. Have a look You’ll learn: How nutrition can be a more powerful intervention than medication How herbs that our herbalist, Iulia provides, can ease the process of menopause (https://www.revitalizeclinic.co.uk/services/herbal/) The benefits of Vitamin K and calcium Why whole foods are better than supplements How phytoestrogens can boost your oestrogen levels Let me know what you think! Harriet is available for consultations and she has a FREE breakdown of her top tips at www.healthyeatingdr.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

I wanted to explore my experiences as a black man, growing up in the UK. And I have done so through reading history and attending therapy to ease the pain or at least better understand certain experiences. If you’re called a monkey or a nigger enough times, it certainly leaves a mark somewhere. But until now, when having this conversation which is rarely ever instigated by myself, I am met with eyes that so quickly glaze over. Why would your eyes glaze over when someone speaks about something which affects them so greatly? And such a great source of pain? I had one admittance of truth whilst having this conversation with a patient the other day “I feel guilty” they said This small admittance of truth is in my opinion such a great hint as to what lies under the tip of the iceberg. This guilt. This sense of ownership of the sins of the past is experienced by many British and American people of European descent, knowingly or unknowingly. What a farce. What a fallacy. Guilty for what? During the height of the British Empire, 25% of Britains didn’t even have enough food to maintain a consistent calorie intake. Diarrhea and pneumonia were common causes of death. You wouldn’t have lived long enough to die from your first heart attack. If you were middle class you might live to 45 My family were on the plantations with scars on their backs as whips tore into their flesh. If of English heritage, your family were likely in the workhouses in more favourable conditions yet still not great. But your ancestors were surely closer to mine than they were to the aristocracy. The greatest lie that the working class have ever been told is that "as long as you’re better than a nigger or an immigrant, you are somebody”. So you look down on the people who are trying to make something better for themselves rather than look to banish the hand so firmly placed in your chest, stopping you from progressing any further. You look to the imaginary ball and chain around your ankle rather than the very real knife in your throat. So let’s now leave this fallacy behind that black progress takes from white progress. Let’s stop seeing black and white as being on this spectrum of push and pull where if one side wins, one side loses. Let’s accept that we’re different yet equal and let’s explore my experiences of being black and British for the hope of helping both of us rid ourselves from a legacy of inequality that has been perpetrated from the top down. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Are you tired of it?... Are you tired of the barrage of information on as to whether or not veganism is good or bad? If it’s healthy or unhealthy? Good or bad for our planet or economy? Me too. Which is why, when I became plant based (diet consisting of majority plants) 4 years ago, the first thing I did was churn through books and studies to better inform me on my decision. But what led to this decision? Health has always been my north star. When I was 8, we went to Bath Spa. My mum told me the spa water was minerally rich and good for you. I literally chugged that spa water down until it made me sick! The point I’m trying to make here is that I value my health over short term satisfaction. And that puts me in a fairly unbiased place because it means I cannot be overcome by subconscious drivers of pleasure as easy as someone else. And that’s what I want you to do whilst exploring this topic with me. We has humans have an amazing ability of paying attention and learning about something until the information presented conflicts with a belief that we hold great emotional attachment too. But we don’t necessarily throw a paddy. We instead work back from our emotions rather than from logic. For example, if you really liked chocolate milk, and I told you that chocolate milk was a killer of small children, you might say things like “well it never killed me or my family and we love it… you have to look out for the dairy farmers… people who don’t like chocolate milk are boring” etc. You’re practicing cognitive dissonance because you’re being presented with information that should make you change your behaviour. Instead you create a false argument to continue to do this behaviour. And it’s the same for vegans. There are many vegans who will deny certain mineral deficiencies because they’re so emotionally attached to the idea of only relying on mother nature for their sustenance. We will explore this later So let us begin with the advantages and disadvantages of being vegan Health implications When we look at a sensible diet, vegan or omnivorous, the closer we stick to a plant based diet, the better. To argue against this, you would have to say that there is a negative consequence of consuming as many of your recommended daily calories from fruit and veg, as possible. This is a pretty crazy argument since all of our essential nutrients come from plants. We have for hundreds of years, evidenced that a reduced consumption of plant based vitamins and minerals results in: scurvy (vitamin C) anemia (iron deficiency) infertility and nerve damage (vitamin B12) So we can safely assume plants are good. So the other question is what happens when we increase the consumption of animal products? type 2 diabetes http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677007 heart disease and all cause mortality https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2803089/ cancer (china study, linking dairy casein to cancer rates) alzheimers and vascular dementia https://p.widencdn.net/zbsj0b/Diet-and-Alzheimers-Disease-Fact-Sheet erectile dysfunction https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20487239/ Full Post available at www.revitalizeclinic.co.uk/blog/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-being-vegan --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

But what is actually wrong with me? And I understand the question; ‘what is actually wrong with me?’. You want to “know your enemy”. But why do you think your enemy can be seen? If you were to take an MRI of your eye whilst you were looking at a sunflower, do you think you could see a flower on the MRI? No of course not. So why do you think that by getting an MRI on your lower back, you will see what is causing the pain? The psychobiological model for psychiatry has been argued as being obsolete by Suman Fernando We are greater than our anatomy, individual chemicals and compounds So why do we insist on diagnosis and “powerful” interventions Why do we insist on scans, surgery and blood tests; diagnosis and prognosis despite no evidence showing this is worthwhile and that it may in fact be harmful? Filling our creative minds with a threatening image or description is never good, as anyone who has googled their symptoms will know. Because we are: curious by nature often passive by nature have been fed a false, pacifying ideology of pain and suffering Humans are curious, we want answers. But we are often very passive. Every invention we pride has made things easier. A dog would invent a computer with a treadmill attached. We instead invent the remote control. The less effort the better It’s the same with relief from pain; mental or physical. If you can pop a pill, have a drink, have an operation, injection etc. you’re all good! You don’t even question the logic behind cutting into a painful area to reduce the pain? Just God forbid you have to actually put the effort in to reduce the pain The Truth The truth is that pain is complicated but the mind and body in all their complexity have one key advantage. They adapt. Endurance and strength athletes have a far greater tolerance to pain than inactive individuals. Exercise based rehab has shown to be superior to purely manual therapy treatment for patients (BEAM trials 2004) Exposure therapy has been a key pillar of CBT, exposing an individual to manageable levels of a threat so they adapt. And once they adapt they can be moved onto the next stage of rehab or therapy. The Guide The issue is, to me, there seems to be a cry out for someone to take the pain away and I get it. It’s like when you’re a child and you hurt your knee, your mum or teacher might wet a towel and dab the sore spot and the pain goes. There are so many examples of insignificant interventions causing pain to drop. The issue is when we rely on something other than ourselves. 20 visits with the chiropractor, another bottle of wine, another month on pain killers You don’t need a hero. You’re the hero. You need a guide Find someone who empowers you. Someone who can make you the hero of your story. Become someone who can rise in triumph against the ill fortune of physical and mental pain. Stop looking for someone to take responsibility for your own deconditioning to trauma. Find someone who will help you to eventually look at what caused you to wince, or hide, or grimace… and be comfortable with it If you need to find your guide then contact the myself at the Revitalize Clinic 6000 clients in and we’re helping people to create lives they love. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message

Socialist Ideals There seemed to be a lack of classist tension in Ancient Egypt. Far from Feudal Europe with social upheaval being very rare (C.Diop, The African Origin of Civilisation) . Their society was extremely wealthy, pledging us much as the equivalent of £8million worth of Gold to build their temples but every. However the Monarchy was responsible for the success of commerce. They also insured the people were well fed and inherited a house. This would be the equivalent of a home and nutritious food being your birthright, living in the UK. Not 30 years of debt to own a flat. You would be given a home and nutritious food would be made plentifully available to you (C.Diop, The African Origin of Civilisation). And this was in pursuit of an ethical, not an economic ideal. Ethics held the greatest currency, not wealth The Monarchy, in their death would have the Declaration of Innocence inscribed in their tombs. We read things such as, Bakhenkhonsu, High Priest (12th century BC) "I did not do islet (evil in his house); I judged the poor like the rich and the strong like the weak”. If they did not live to the Ethical Ideals of Maat, their Ka (soul) would be destroyed in the Duat (afterlife) after it was weighed against the weight of a feather. The point to explore here, is what would society be like if ethics carried as much weight as currency? Triumph over evil (Maat vs Isfet) It was each Egyptian’s duty to banish Islet (evil) from the land by spreading Maat (good, order) and it is in Egypt that we see the first detailed hero story emerging. We can see this in the form of Horus. But the triumph of good over evil is equally seen as a form of Introspection. Within us we have a balance of good and evil and it is our duty to exercise good order over the chaotic evil that resides within us This has translated into the Abrahamic religions but in Christianity, many will claim to be practicing but will assume forgiveness if we even superficially repent. Many people who are practicing followers of religion also practice passivity to save themselves from eternal torment. However Maat encourages active participation in banishing Islet from the land. Mythology (origin of good and evil In ancient Egypt we see a creationist story which tells the story of the universe into being as well as our own consciousness from unconsciousness Atum (the uruboros, the abyss, the chaotic disorder of good, evil, female and masculine) provides 4 key figures Osiris (the old King) Isis (the wife of the old king) Set (the evil brother of Osiris, precursor for Seitan) Horus (Osiris’s son who defeats Set to re-establish order) Horus (eye of Horus) represents consciousness (J Peterson, Maps of Meaning; Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness) and he can only see Set’s evil because he can look into the abyss of chaos and evil and see it for what it is. He is not blinded by tradition and complacency like his father but also ourselves We are all guilty of lying to ourselves in moments of complacency. Many times we look away from the reality of chaos and hide in our unconscious states rather than stare into the abyss and do what is needed of us. Know Thyself is an antidote to this. Do not lie to yourself There are many theories that this is who the story of Jesus is based on. A deity who can look into the abyss of evil and chaos and confront it with good (Ma'at) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elliottreid/message