Start Here
Welcome!
If you’re new to this site, you’re probably wondering where to begin.
These essays explore consciousness, meditation, and the nature of self — not through belief or mysticism, but through first-hand investigation grounded in reason and experience. They’re written for anyone willing to look carefully at their own mind, whether you approach from faith, skepticism, science, or curiosity.
And they’re written by a scientist, an engineer, and a skeptic who rejects “easy answers,” magical thinking, and the endless fog of woo-woo.
Each section below links to essays that explore awareness, overthinking, meditation, and the science of consciousness from a rational, experiential perspective.
Here’s the journey I recommend.
Begin with the Problem
The Tyranny of the Mind Run Amok
Why most of us are prisoners in our own heads — and don’t know it
Start here if you’ve ever felt swept away by your own thoughts — unable to stop the mental chatter, caught in loops of worry or rumination.
This essay describes the universal human condition almost no one realizes they’re living in.
Read this first. It sets up everything that follows.
Then Understand the Framework
Kernel Mode: A Universal Framework for Conscious Practice
[Coming soon — the solution to the tyranny]
This upcoming essay introduces a precise framework for understanding consciousness and meditation — one that works whether you believe consciousness is fundamental or emergent, whether you lean toward Vedanta or neuroscience.
Think of it as the operating manual that should have come with your mind.
See Where It Came From
Before the Learning, the Undoing
The cardiac event that changed everything — and what it revealed
In December 2023, I had a health crisis that stripped away everything I thought I knew about myself. This essay describes what remained when identity dissolved — and the three Unlearnings that followed.
Read this to understand the personal journey behind these ideas.
Go Deeper into the Method
The Platform and the Trains: A Rational Case for Meditation
How to reclaim agency in a mind that never stops
Meditation, stripped of mysticism, ritual, and commercial fog.
This essay makes the rational case for meditation as essential mental hygiene, not optional spiritual practice — and offers two simple, evidence-based techniques anyone can practice safely.
Read this when you’re ready to begin the actual practice.
Explore the Foundations
Rational Mysticism: The Enlightenment, Rebooted
An engineer’s journey from certainty to wonder
What happens when someone trained in logic and systems thinking encounters experiences that don’t fit materialist frameworks?
This essay proposes Rational Mysticism as a method — a disciplined way of investigating consciousness that preserves both rigorous skepticism and genuine openness.
Read this to understand the philosophical stance underlying everything else here.
Question Core Assumptions
Unlearning the Belief Myth
Why mindset matters — but it ain’t magic
The self-help industry sells “belief above all” as the master key to achievement. This essay dismantles that dangerous myth and shows what actually matters: not believing harder, but seeing more clearly.
The Third Unlearning: Control is an Illusion
Why freedom begins where control ends
We spend our lives trying to control outcomes, people, even our own thoughts. This essay explores what remains when we realize how little is truly within our control — and why that recognition is liberating, not limiting.
The Undoing of Identity
When identity dissolves, what remains is not terror but truth
If you are not your roles, achievements, or story — then what are you? This essay explores the question that emerges when all structures fall away.
Apply to Life
Unlearning the Inner Assault: The Case for Self-Love
Why self-love is the beginning of love
Most of us wage quiet war on ourselves — harsh judgment, impossible standards, relentless criticism. This essay makes the case for self-love not as indulgence but as foundation: what it actually means to extend compassion inward.
Mindsparks: The Phenomenology and Wonder of Sudden Insight
Of neurons, firelight, and the mystery of the mind
Why do breakthrough insights arrive unbidden, often when we’re not trying?
This essay explores the neuroscience and phenomenology of sudden cognition — and what it reveals about the relationship between conscious effort and unconscious processing.
For the Corporate World
The Belief Myth, Corporate Edition
Why faith alone won’t fix your strategy
The same “belief above all” myth that fails individuals also fails organizations. This essay shows what happens when companies mistake conviction for strategy — and what actually drives sustainable success.
The Journey Ahead
These essays are not prescriptions. They’re invitations to inquiry.
I don’t claim to have all the answers.
I’m exploring the same questions you are:
what it means to live consciously, how to navigate the gap between knowing and being, and where genuine freedom might be found.
Everything here is free to read and free of ads.
All I ask is your attention — the one resource most of us rarely direct inward — and your reflections: your comments, feedback, and experiences along your own journey.
You’re welcome to share them directly as comments on the individual essays or by writing to me at: undoing_raaj [at] protonmail [dot] net.
New essays arrive irregularly — only when there’s something worth saying.
Subscribe directly here or via Substack to get them in your inbox, or check back here periodically.
The journey continues.
— raaj