Why didn’t Ancient Rome invent Dungeons & Dragons?

They had storytelling and games of chance, but somehow they never combined the two.

It’s not that folks were illiterate and innumerate back then. They could have invented a simple tabletop roleplaying game that was light on rules and rolls, and heavy on narrative.

We have a few systems like that now.

And it’s not as though they lacked motive. They were bored and idle at times – a byproduct of unprecedented wealth and security. They loved grand adventures and tales of heroes.

They could have come up with D&D, but somehow they didn’t.

I have a theory around that:

One way to think about the world is that – just as living creatures compete and coexist in ecosystems – so do ideas.

Some ecosystems tolerate certain species, while others don’t. Think of a plant that thrives in the rainforest. It would die quickly in the desert.

This helps explain why Ancient Romans didn’t develop their own tabletop roleplaying games – or, if they did, they were obscure enough that history forgot all about them.

(Think of how much future historians would have to lose of our culture to not know about D&D. It’d have to be a lot.)

It also explains why democracy didn’t catch on in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite significant effort from the global community. There were many factors but one of them was that idea wasn’t compatible with their ecosystem.

A lot of globalist culture is like an invading pest, displacing native ideas and disrupting the ecosystem. But not always. Sometimes the introduced species just wither.

This is relevant for Christianity.

As an idea, Christianity is a superpredator. It spread across Europe, devouring every pagan competitor it came across. Christian thinking didn’t spread by the sword – it didn’t have to. People saw the Truth in it and converted willingly.

But every success sows the seeds of its own downfall.

Christianity spread too well. It formed a monoculture, and those are always sensitive to predators and parasites that thrive on feeding off them.

You can probably guess the idea optimised to devour Christianity, just as Christianity devoured paganism.

“Atheism!”

Ha!

Yeah, right. The atheists wish this was the case.

No, it’s Islam.

Islam is similar enough to Christianity to spread as it does, coupled with violence and ruthlessness. It’s a warped version of Christianity, with less Truth but with a lust for conquest built in.

It blossomed in the heart of Christendom for a reason. That’s where its prey was most bountiful.

But all of that is, at best, interesting theorising.

What does this mean for you?

How can you repel the parasites and predators, while nurturing the healthiest infosystem?

Well, every ecosystem is made of species.

And every species is made of organisms.

Start with the building blocks. Be better and tolerate no poisons.

It’s not easy and no one will likely thank you for it.

But what else are you going to do?

Sit idle while the ideas you treasure rot and invert?

Would you ever not follow a link like this?

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

A message to men:

There’s an old adage:

If you’re off the mark or weak, then they’d ignore you. They insult you, which means you’re powerful and getting close.

Generally True.

But these days, not so much.

After all, think about the insults they use against you.

They say you’re in a “cult”.

Or you’re “racist”.

Or you’re an “incel”.

Just for showing common sense on any issue.

The problem is they misuse and overuse these words so much that they lose their definitions. Them insulting you doesn’t mean anything because the insults don’t mean anything.

There was a time when accusations like that were meaningful – devastating, even. “Cult” has been overused for a long time though, a label haphazardly stuck on anything anyone likes or supports, but the accuser doesn’t.

But both MAGA and woke have been labelled as cults so often, the term is losing meaning.

And the moment Elon Musk got called an incel, you knew that term had devolved into nothingness.

So when someone insults you, it doesn’t mean you’re getting too close.

It doesn’t mean you’ve touched a nerve.

After all, if these folks can’t use simple words correctly, they can’t spot genuine threats.

All it means is someone with limited self-awareness doesn’t like you.

That ain’t much to extrapolate from.

So instead of getting proud – or, worse, defensive – because someone on the internet took some shots against you, you should ignore it.

And put the work in, because you’re a ways off being a real threat to evil.

This might help you on your way:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

We spoke about Terminator earlier and it got me thinking.

It’s been about 15 years since this happened and it still shapes my thinking.

At the time, I was studying science at university. It was challenging stuff – for me, at least. I wasn’t the brightest, most diligent kid around. Even if I was, working on molecular machinery isn’t simple.

You can’t even see when things go wrong.

Or right.

And while I was struggling with my honours project, I attended a PhD presentation.

The soon-to-be doctor had done some research into public perceptions of time travel. See, there are different models of time travel out there.

In causal loops, you can’t change history – going back in time to change things is what makes things turn out as they do.

(Example: Predestination)

Then there’s the idea that you can change the past, but you risk wiping out your own future.

(Example: Back to the Future)

Then there’s the multiverse approach, where time travel creates a separate timeline for you to mess around in.

(Example: Marvel Comics, sort of. The Axis of Time trilogy, for a more robust but obscure example.)

There are other categories. The Xeelee Sequence has time travel within a universe. When paradoxes arise, the universe just copes with it. Doctor Who’s approach is (usually) that you can change the details of history, but it tends to correct itself.

So this guy categorised a couple hundred popular time travel stories – movies, books, TV shows – and surveyed people to see if things lined up. For example, if most fiction portrays history as unchangeable, do most people believe that’s how time travel would actually work?

Is this difficult, challenging research?

No.

But is it potentially useful?

Also no.

It’s certainly not something worth a PhD. This feels like an honours project you give to the slow kid.

But what’s worse was how wrong he got it.

I mentioned Terminator before. He classified the entire franchise as an example of causal loops. The first movie is, sure, but the second shows that history can be changed.

Imagine having a PhD project where you watch movies and talk to people – and you still get it fundamentally wrong.

This stands out in my memory because I’m a huge nerd. I’ve found time travel intriguing since playing Ocarina of Time as a child. In that classic, you learn a song from a windmill owner, then travel back in time and teach the song to the windmill owner… so where did the song come from?

But his flimsy PhD project didn’t stand out for being particularly farcical. I saw a dozen just like it.

Like the proposal to save water by adding fish tanks to showers. As you shower, the water in the fish tank lowers – so unless you want Nemo to flop around on aquarium gravel, you need to take shorter showers.

Or the time people thought austerity measures would work, based on incorrect calculations.

Or the 1.5-metre separation rule during the lockdowns, based on nothing.

I’ve noticed the people willing to defend academia either have never been involved in it (so are ignorant to how flawed, political and intellectually conservative it is) or are currently involved in it (and so need to defend the system to protect their resources).

But anyway, it’s all Good.

Knowing how to distinguish real expertise from hollow certification is a useful skill, and I’m glad I learned it early.

On that topic:

Here’s another thing I wished I learned early.

It’s too late for me (pfft, hardly) but it’s not too late for you:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

If you work full-time in an office job and attend six meetings a day, that adds up to over a thousand meetings a year.

Even if you take ten weeks off.

It’s a lot.

And if you hear the Acknowledgement of Country in most of those meetings…

… plus in other contexts, like seminars and when airplanes land…

… well, that’s also a lot.

Over the break, an Indigenous woman told me Acknowledgement of Country is a religious thing. Best I can tell, she’s wrong about that – which raises a question or two in my mind.

And she’s lucky. If it were a religious ritual, that’d raise hell.

But it got me to thinking:

What if we gave everyone a choice?

At the beginning of each meeting, you can either say an Acknowledgement of Country or an Our Father.

That’s more diverse, by any reasonable definition of the term.

I’d never make Our Father mandatory. I don’t want non-Christians to mutter it out of some enforced corporate ritual.

But I certainly would make that an option for people.

Folks can open meetings with the prayer that Jesus taught us, or with an Acknowledgement of Country. That sounds fair and decent to my ears, at least.

I wonder what my chances are…

Not so great, I know.

But everything becomes more likely when you understand other folks better.

That’s why I wrote Your Story Isn’t About You. That and because it’s not.

Getting this into your bones changes everything.

See what I mean:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

“Men can’t handle strong women on screen!”

Terminator 2: Judgement Day came out in 1991. In the last ten years, I can’t think of a single female character on screen – TV or movies – who’s as tough as her.

One simple example:

She wants to leave the asylum so she can be with her son. When the doctor refuses to let her go, she loses control and attacks him.

Understandable.

Then she learns the terminator is back. Now she doesn’t want to escape – now she needs to.

So she pretends to be catatonic long enough for her guards to underestimate her.

She went from lacking self-control to exemplifying it on a dime. I’d call that bad writing except it came with the shift – from wanting to escape to needing to.

She was strong before she committed to escaping. Then, when she committed, she got even stronger.

(Hehe… “committed”…)

Sarah Conner is a real mamma bear. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her son.

The fact she’s physically outclassed by most men in the movie – let alone the robots – makes her more formidable, not less. She doesn’t have superpowers. She has a lot of skills, but only because she dedicated herself to training for years.

She wasn’t born with her abilities.

Her obligations, yes, but not her abilities.

There’s probably a life lesson in there somewhere.

Oh well.

In the meantime, all I can do is direct your attention thusly. Because based on what we see on screen, Sarah probably didn’t focus her training on a particular skill much:

How to understand others.

And change them.

But John?

A leader so formidable that he saves humanity?

He’d know this for sure.

So if you want to be a badarse like him, here’s a surprising skill you need in your tool belt:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

I haven’t emailed in about a month. If you don’t remember who I am, there’s an unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. Go ahead and give that a click if you want.

For the rest of you…

Hey. What’s up?

I took some time off recently – partly for the Christmas holidays, partly to rethink some of my plans.

Yeah, I know – setting new goals in the new year, how original.

Why you should care?

I’m going to focus more on you. I’m whipping out the magnifying glass and the horse blinders, so I can do more for you.

Working with you has been the most satisfying thing I’ve worked on in a while.

Thank you for that.

For now, get reacquainted with how I operate and what I offer. I’d include a link to my website, but that’d be pointless – the offers my email subscribers get are exclusive. You won’t find them on my site, only in your inbox.

So we’ll leave it at that.

For now.

Then brace yourself, because I’m going to create and offer a lot more over the coming months.

I hope you’re ready for what’s coming.

And if you were unoriginal enough to set big goals for this year too?

What’s coming will help you meet them.

We’re well into advent now.

If you follow the liturgical calendar at all – or just have a general sense of how time works – you know we’re preparing for Christmas now.

This is our spiritual winter – the darkness before dawn.

And things will only get darker.

Then Jesus is born… and things get darker still. Just because the light of life has entered creation, that doesn’t mean all darkness vanishes.

No, it took time for the Son of God to grow into a man.

Even at His brightest, life wasn’t perfect for everyone.

And that’s okay.

This, right here, is a time of preparation and hope.

The Lamb is coming to take away the sins of the world. Rejoice!

Rejoice… while still acknowledging this is a dark time. It’s a dark time of the year and it’s a dark time in human history.

Better days are coming.

That doesn’t take away your suffering now.

So all I can tell you is to hang in there. Breathe, relax, pay attention to what matters and you’ll get through this.

One thing you can do whenever things get challenging is to focus on the fundamentals.

Control what you can and surround yourself with Good people.

Sounds vague, which should make you suspicious. The danger with vague advice is you can nod along to it and think you understand it, when you don’t.

Well, allow me to get specific.

You want to focus on the fundamentals of your life?

Read this:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

“A monkey on your back”.

If you’re not familiar with that idiom, it means you have a burden or addiction of some sort.

The imagery is obvious there – imagine trying to live your life while a literal monkey clings to your shoulder blades.

Yeah, no thanks.

But burdens are surprisingly complicated things. What’s barely tolerable to one person is soothing and nourishing to another.

Exercise is a great example of this. For some folks, it takes every scrap of willpower they have. For others, it’s their reward for working hard.

And if burdens are complicated, addictions are something else. Despite all our knowledge, we still don’t know how much of an addiction is psychological and how much is chemical.

They seem to be both. Mostly. Heroin is addictive because if you stop taking it wrong, you get sick and die. But gambling is addictive and there’s no injecting anything there.

I, too, wonder what my point to all of this is.

It might be that, when you strip away your burdens and addictions – your monkey, that is – then you’re a pure and holy saint.

Maybe every vice, sin and bad decision comes from your suffering.

I suppose it’s pointless to think about – if you ever find yourself free of burdens, then it’s time to add some.

Carrying your cross shouldn’t be so easy.

Something to think about.

Something else to think about:

Give this sales letter a read. Whether you’re thriving or struggling, whether you’re carrying your cross or searching for a heavier one, you’ll get a kick out of this:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

I got to chatting with someone recently.

We disagreed on something pretty fundamental: the desire to have children.

I said – and I stand by this – that wanting to have kids is normal. Not wanting to have them is freakish and abnormal.

Now, some folks have a Good reason for not wanting children. Some people are so mentally unwell that they can barely look after themselves, let alone a baby. Or they’re bipolar and know what it’s like to grow up with an unstable parent.

That’s to say nothing of genetic diseases.

But those are logistical concerns. The desire for children should still be there. And anyone who’s healthy and married should have kids.

“Really? But what,” this other person asked, “if someone is perfectly happy without kids? And having kids would interfere with their lifestyle?”

Then they’re almost certainly lying to themselves. Any lifestyle worth having is compatible with children.

It’s a cliché to hear someone – women, especially – say they never wanted kids, but then being a parent has been the greatest joy.

“What about people who regret having kids?”

Yeah, they exist. They’re rarer than those who enjoy parenthood, but they exist.

And you can trace that sentiment back to simple causes:

It’s greener grass syndrome – they think they’d be happier without kids, but they don’t realise how miserable that would make them.

Or they lack some basic parenting skills because no one taught them properly. I believe any conflict-adverse Millennial who complains about how difficult being a parent is. It’d be better if they knew how, when and why to set boundaries.

And sometimes that comes down to a lack of support. They’d love being a parent if they had more relatives around to help babysit.

“The desire to have kids is just social programming.”

Social programming is specific to a culture. How meaningful children are is culturally universal. It’s hardwired into humanity for obvious reasons.

“You know what else is culturally universal? Slavery – but we overcame that.”

Two conditions came together to end slavery:

Superior Christian morality,

And slavery became less useful. Historically, slavery has provided a source of manual labour and something to do with a conquered people. Not every warlord wanted to exterminate their enemies, but they couldn’t just leave them alone to rebuild and rearm. Taking them as slaves solved that problem.

Both needed to be there. That’s why slavery ended in industrialised Christian nations first.

But society hasn’t outgrown the need for children like we have with slavery.

And Christian morality strongly supports having children, loving them and raising them well.

The point is that “I don’t need kids to be happy!” is delusion and cope. It’s the battle cry of women who traded their youth for hollow careers, plus the simpy men who’ll defend every bad decision a woman makes.

Sure, you can live well without being a parent. I’m doing okay and I’m not yet a father.

But no matter how successful I am – or even how many souls I save – without children, my life will be incomplete.

Anyone who settles for living well when there’s such a simple, reliable and obvious way to upgrade your life is a fool.

That’s not a religious take. It’s an observation of human nature.

On the topic of human nature:

The more you understand it, the greater your power.

This, too, is a simple, reliable and obvious way to upgrade your life.

It’s not as drastic as parenthood but, hey, this will help with that too.

Here’s what I mean:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Once upon a time, you were a wee lad.

You were tiny. Delicate. Unrefined and overflowing with potential.

Youth oozed from your pores like baby food from a tube.

You were bad at relationships. Oh, sure, folks liked you, but that was just because you were cute. If you wanted to persuade someone to do something for you, you only had a few options: asking for it and screaming for it.

It rarely occurred to you that you could do things for others.

You were also bad at regulating your own mental state. If you were even a little tired, the tiniest thing could set off a meltdown that registered on the Richter scale. You would collapse to the floor even in public, screaming, pounding the ground with your fists, tears pouring down your face.

Now?

It would take a lot to push you to that point, if anything could.

All of this is obvious. You know all this already.

But you might not follow the thought to its conclusion.

You used to be bad at relationships, but now you’re better at them. You’re better able to predict how specific folks will act. You know what others like, even if you don’t like those things too.

And you used to be bad at self-control, but now you’re much better.

As a toddler, you knew – on some level, at least – that you could grow smarter, more mentally flexible and more powerful.

So many adults, though, don’t know this about themselves.

“Oh, I’m just bad with people. I’m such an autist! Oh, I suck at controlling myself. I just have zero willpower!”

Doubtful.

But even if True, you can change that.

Those are just skills. If you’re doing things badly, it’s because you haven’t practised or you have a poor way of doing them. Practising a better approach will change all of that.

Don’t assume your brain has solidified in place, unable to evolve for the better.

Even people who adamantly believe that change – they grow more inflexible with each year.

Sad but True.

What’s also True:

I mentioned that practising the right things can improve your relationships and resilience.

You might wonder what the right things means.

Wonder away.

It’s why I wrote this:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay