Taking a Stand for Economic Transparency And A Healthier Online Ecology

MONEY: like all triggering and uncomfortable topics, if we can summon the courage to talk about it openly we will activate new healing impulses.

Dear friends,

I will never sell your time and attention in order to make a living. This is a moral line in the sand for me that has been there from day one.

Let me explain.

The internet is an amazing tool. I love that it allows us to meet people all over the world we otherwise wouldn’t have known. And…

As a content creator (and consumer), I am aware that the online landscape - and economy - has been engineered to divide us into ever narrowing ideological silos; to harvest our personal data for nefarious state and corporate agendas; and to trigger our dopamine reward pathway and get us addicted to content consumption in order to feed the voracious appetite of the ad generating machine that the internet has become.

With The Human Freedom Project, one of my primary missions is to shed light on the corrupt merger between state and corporate powers that has infiltrated nearly every sector of our lives, but none more completely than the economic system - whose tentacles can be felt ever more acutely in our increasingly digital lives.

My mission in life is to advance human freedom.

In my short 42 years on earth, I have identified five primary “constraints” or “buckets” of life that we are all confronted by every day: the body, relationships and social life, money and economics, the state, and environments both natural and man-made.

The free individual - the human spirit - lies in the center, impacted and influenced by the interpenetrating and overlapping connections of these five areas of modern life. These daily challenges present us with the necessary grist to develop our freedom, which I define as “moral will.”

We have a podcast planned that will explore these 5 primary constraints and their relationships to - and impacts on - each other.

The human nervous system is the primary controller of all human behavior, and it is because of nervous system patterns that we find it so hard to change.

Relationships are the bedrock of nations, giving birth to religions, governments and global economies.

Money and survival stress have profound physiological, psychological, social and spiritual impacts.

The state has merged with corporate powers that have taken over education, vocation, science, medicine and healthcare, for example; meanwhile, these powers have decimated our planet while creating tax payer funded subsidies, loopholes and laws that favor corporate giants while obliterating the middle class and ensuring that the poorest among us pay the heaviest tolls.

Light, water, electromagnetism, architecture and toxins (to name a few environmental constraints) profoundly impact human health - for good and bad.

And our five constraints come full circle.

As I’ve written about, hundreds of cases of chronic pain in people that I’ve worked with personally are rooted in patterns of self censorship, or fear of authentic self expression (which is a social fear) and money stress. Often, these two combine when someone feels unable to express themselves in a relationship where money plays a triggering role in the dynamic.

Meanwhile, I have had first hand experience with the state controlled education system that indoctrinates us to believe that the psyche is separate from the body, and the foot is separate from the spine which is separate from the brain, and all of these separate parts require legally licensed specialists who know nothing of the whole. We’ve been conditioned to believe we need the government’s permission to collect rainwater, start a business and get married…(it’s an endless list!)

My mission in life is to break these (and other) spells while advocating that we source authority from within, aligning our daily actions with the voice of our conscience.

My mission is to penetrate the many layers of illusion and delusion that we are currently operating inside of - to uncover the truth.

My mission is to become as free as possible this lifetime - in my own body, soul and spirit - while inviting you to walk your own path to freedom beside me, if you’re inspired to do so.

One of the many delusions we are currently under is that content on the internet is - and, even more insidiously, “should be” - free.

Nothing in this universe is free.

Energy - in the form of labor, nature, technology, electricity, money etc - is required to produce and consume everything on this planet, whether we’re talking about food that we eat or content we “consume” online.

Most content creators rely on monetizing their social platforms and making content that favors the algorithms, so they can amass a large enough audience to obtain sponsors.

Sponsors are the primary means a podcast makes money. Sponsors are the primary means that YouTubers make money. Without sponsors, it’s nearly impossible to succeed financially as a content creator.

I have never - nor will I ever - form relationships with corporate sponsors in order to finance my “free” content. This moral line in the sand has put my online existence in jeopardy. My moral convictions, however, are unshakeable. And because of this and other factors I will reveal below, today I’d like to ask for your help.

Maybe you’re new here.

Maybe you’ve been with me since the beginning.

Either way:

My relationship is with you, and I want to keep it that way.

If you value the content I create and you want me to keep creating content - please consider supporting me financially.

Below, I am going to share an absurd tongue-in-cheek example from “real life” that illustrates what we’ve done to the internet.

Then, I’m going to get real with you and share some behind the scenes facts about what it’s like to be a content creator - in case you’re curious, and because I believe we need to talk openly about the way MONEY impacts the online world.

Finally, I’m going to show you some of the ways you can support me to stay online.

If you simply wish to support me - or access the resources I have available that could help you - scroll down to the section titled “Easy and Affordable Ways to Support Me.”

Otherwise, keep reading to join me in peeling back the layers of illusion in order to penetrate a few ominous truths about the online world, which - like anything painful that we have the courage to confront - will show us the path to healing.

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“If it’s free, you’re the product.”

Imagine for a moment that you are a new client of mine and you’d like to see me for a Kinetix session, which will be free.

That’s right, you won’t have to pay me anything! And I won’t have to put a price on my work, because any compensation I receive is no longer connected to my skills and talents; instead, it’s contingent upon how much attention I can attract.

As you’re pulling into the parking lot, the first thing you see is a giant wall of ads plastered across the exterior of the building. Walking up to the door you’re visually bombarded with flashing words and images accompanying a voice on loudspeaker touting the health benefits of a water filter, wool mattress, and the latest barefoot shoe company promising to re-wild your feet.

Your session with me is scheduled to be 90 minutes in duration, but every 10 minutes or so we have to pause so I can tell you about my sponsors and persuade you to buy their products. Whether or not you get results, I am not responsible; you knew when you came here that it was for entertainment and educational purposes only.

This sounds insane, and yet it is exactly what it’s like being a content creator - and consumer - online.

Surely you’ve noticed (how could you not?) that the entire internet is designed for generating ad revenue. A close second to ad profits, it is also designed to CURATE every bit and bite of information we see.

A decade ago I found treasure troves of information spanning a wide variety of opinions and sources for every search query; these days, I’m shown page after page of homogenized propaganda that is NOT what I searched for…which is often buried 30 pages deep, if I can find it at all.

Instead of cultivating consciously developed relationships with our audiences, content creators have been conditioned to use their audience statistics (subscriber count, watch times, monthly downloads etc) to form economic relationships with corporate sponsors; meanwhile, audiences have been conditioned to outsource the economic support of their favorite content creators to the advertising mega giants of Google/YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Creators and consumers alike have been reduced to a series of cold hard metrics that reveal the economic potential of our online “avatar” to make mega corporations richer.

We’re NOT the consumer - we’re the product.

Bombarded with ads on every platform, every blog, every search engine and every podcast, our time and attention is the product that content creators sell to sponsors and big tech giants who control the flow of information across the web in order to extract the most amount of money (and personal data) from us that they possibly can.

We have no idea what the social, economic and political ramifications have been from the suppression of open feedback channels; not to mention the health impacts from using platforms that have been engineered - intentionally - to trigger addiction cycles that generate billions of profit.

Being an online content creator is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve questioned my sanity for wanting to continue. I want to compete in the marketplace of ideas, and win or fail based on the merit of my work - not because I generated the most money for Google with my attention winning tactics. Not to mention…

Deceptions abound:

Did you know that some of the most popular YouTubers are actually bought and paid for by Hollywood talent agencies and production companies? That’s right - they’re approached and signed as they begin to go viral.

The allure of money is powerful, and many creators sign contracts with these agencies in order to capitalize on their sudden rise to fame; meanwhile, their audience has no idea they’ve been captured, because they are not legally allowed to disclose that information to their audience while under contract.

Compelled to perform instead of inspired to create, many of these people lose their spiritual bearings and become extremely depressed at best, and suicidal at worst. A few find their way out and talk about it, which is the only reason I know any of this.

You might wonder why anyone would choose to continue doing this if it’s so stressful, and I can only speak for myself: it’s the emails and comments that I get from people every single day thanking me for changing their life; for giving them hope; for helping them heal and find freedom after years or decades of pain and trauma.

You are the reason I am devoted to making this work.

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The last five years of being a full time content creator have been the hardest of my life.

Ironically, I went online with a mission to help people heal, find freedom and feel as good in their body as I did after so two decades of trauma and chronic pain. Instead, I became a slave to ever changing algorithms, upload and email deadlines, and learning the ins and outs of how to make it all work financially. Like always, it was my body that woke me up to the truth: not only was this not working financially, but I was becoming as unhealthy as the people I wanted to help.

When I started creating online content in 2015, I refused to put ads on my YouTube channel and blog. Ads of all kind have always felt like toxic pollution to me.

My reward for sticking to my morals was watching my videos and blogs get demoted in Google/YouTube’s algorithm in 2019. After that I began losing more email subscribers than I gained each week, and for someone like me that spelled economic doom. Which is when the demoralization started; but I was in denial.

Then, in 2020, their policy changed to include not only the continued demotion of my videos, but they reserved the right to monetize any video of mine they wanted - without my permission, and without me getting any of that money; unless, of course, I monetized.

That same year I interviewed Andy Kaufman - one of the most censored individuals on the internet - and my YouTube views tanked even further. I do not regret this one bit and I will continue to take a stand for freedom of speech and a decentralized internet until the day I die.

It took me until spring 2021 to finally give in to monetization - which averages about $185/month.

Totally burnt out, in the fall of 2021, I “took a break” from YouTube; it was supposed to last a few months.

I’ve struggled to make my return to YouTube because of these economic realities (and because I’m not sure I want to support this economic monstrosity anymore).

Since 2018, my primary source of income has been “launching” online courses with intensive email marketing campaigns. This is such an exhausting process that it takes me months to recover; but I’ve been so economically dependent on it that I wasn’t able to admit the truth until last year, when I made myself a promise: no more launching.

My health has improved dramatically, but I’m now facing an uncertain economic future.

Which brings us to today:

We have the power to create a healthy online economy that doesn’t capitulate to third party mega corporations and governments intent on increasing surveillance and censorship.

But we can only do this if we STOP supporting the ad generating economy and take back our online financial power.

That means taking economic responsibility for our online relationships, modeling them after real life - because this is real life.

You’re a real human.

I’m a real human.

We both have real human needs.

I am here to help you as a guide, researcher, writer, video maker, course creator and mentor. Please consider helping me if you value what I’m here to offer.

Easy and affordable ways to help:

I love writing these weekly letters and there’s so much more I want to write about - but the good ones take me days to research and write.

1. Consider a paid subscription to my writings here on Substack. This fall I will be moving to a free and paid version, with paid subscriber perks like 2X/mo Zoom calls with me. It would feel amazing to know that you value my writing enough to support it financially.

2. If you want to help me make videos for YouTube again (or some other platform?), and/or help us get the HFP podcast off the ground, please consider a one time or recurring donation of any amount. Even $5/mo means so much to us.

We are not a company or a corporation. We are two imperfect individuals who are devoted to helping humanity heal and find freedom.

Stefan is the one helping me with all of this. He does the video editing; he’ll be editing the podcast; he has helped me film and edit all of the videos for my courses, takes care of the tech/VA side of things - and I could not do any of this without him.

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Your support means the world to us.

Your comments, stories and emails inspire me to keep going.

I want us to be real with each other, and foster real human relationships.

And if you’re able to support me financially by one or more of the above options:

THANK YOU.
Thank you.
Thank you.
🙏 🥰

With love,
Elisha