Rumor has it that web3 is dead.
You ask the experts—TA prophets, Fed whisperers, VC insiders. Each tells you something different.
Want to know the future of web3?
Here’s the story of how I learned to predict the future of anything 👇
It was many yrs ago on my grad school graduation day. I was supposed to be attending the ceremony on a ribbon-decorated, perfectly manicured lawn in Washington DC.
Instead, I lied on the bank of an unknown river in the Amazon jungle, wrapped in a stinky blanket shivering in pain, afraid I was going to die.
I’d traveled 3 days to a remote town in Peru to track down a jungle shaman to perform a ritual of ayahuasca, a mythical medicine plant that I heard would open you up to a higher wisdom & see the future.
How I desperately wanted to see the future. 5 yrs of grad school had made me sick & tired of the academic rat race. I despised my life, but didn’t dare to imagine anything else.
I’d been trained my whole life by parents & teachers to follow well-treaded path to success— go to right schools, get right degrees, date right people, get right jobs… So many people have done it this way & seem happy. They must be right, right? Then why do I feel so trapped?
I came to the jungle looking for answers, hoping the spirit would tell me what my future is.
I’d heard accounts of miraculous insights & uncanny predictions from others that went through the ritual. I came up w/ an exhaustive list of questions to ask the jungle spirit— where will I work, who will I marry, how much money will I have, etc, etc, etc.
I wrote the list down & memorized it. I was so prepared…until I got to the riverbank at dusk where the ritual started.
The shaman shook his rattle, danced & sang in Quechua. He passed me the cup of foul-smelling ayahuasca brew. I drank in one gulp, holding my breath to keep it down. To say my body had a bad reaction to it was understatement.
I vomitted & vomitted. My heart raced so violently that I worried it’d burn out any minute. A thousand different TV channels blasted at top volume in my head. I couldn’t hear the rattle. I couldn’t see the river. I was dehydrated & delirious. It went on the whole night.
Then the giant anaconda appeared.
The proverbial jungle spirit. The embodiment of the Force. It glided silently around me. Neither friendly nor malicious. Immense & immensely calm. Though my head refused to believe, I felt the anaconda was physically there on the riverbank w/ me, so ancient, yet so present.
“What do you want?” It talked to me w/o speaking.
I remembered my list of questions. Questions abt my stupid little life. In the presence of this impressive creature, my list of questions felt trivial & naive.
“I want to know the ultimate truth of my existence.” I said, shocking myself. I had no idea what I was talking abt.
Complete silence. The anaconda glided across river sand in slow mo.
After what felt like centuries it said, “You aren’t ready for the truth, child.”
“But the truth is the only thing I’m after, ” I protested. “Please show me.”
“Alright then. You asked for it. But as I said, you aren’t ready. So when you can’t take it, ask for help.”
(BTW, like this so far? I help you get smarter about web3 & macro. Subscribe to my newsletter for updates.)
B/f I could grasp what that warning meant, I was thrusted into an empty space— non-space, to be precise. For there was no direction, dimension, distance or position. It was devoid of any characteristics that Physics would use to define “space”. Yet somehow I was there, present.
I didn’t know how but for some reason I suddenly understood what this strange place was— it was the beginning of creation. Or death. For the two are one & same thing.
It dawned on me that if I wanted, I could create “time”, “space”, & define everything in it right there, in whatever way I wanted. The consciousness I embodied could make that all happen.
Yet I felt a terror so strong that it dwarfed any fear I’d ever felt. I realized as ultimate creator I’d have no external truth to reference. There was no god, no anchor, no axiom to rest my head on. The prospect of that immense power & responsibility was utterly terrifying.
“Help! Get me out of here!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
In no time was I yanked out of the zero-point field & back to the reality I knew, where every parameter of existence was already neatly defined.
But my heart was still pounding & my tears couldn’t stop flowing. I was beginning to realize the implication of what I just experienced—
Every rule or belief that I held as absolute truth is but a fabrication of consciousness. Every future I could think of is just as valid as any other, only depending on what I choose. There’s no right answer & there’s no mistake, unless I choose to make them so.
That realization was maddening. For like most humans I wanted to be reassured, to be handed the right answer. I wanted to predict the future so that I’d be safely prepared, cuz I didn’t have the fortitude to accept that the future was actually up to me.
The anaconda was right. I wasn’t ready for the truth. But ever since that day in the jungle I vowed to be a bit more ready every day.
Whenever I need to make an important decision, I ask myself what would I do if I’m not a frightened little human, but instead, the ultimate creator of the Universe? In a sense we all are.
I ask myself what would I do if the future– for me & for the world I live in— is not dictated by anyone else other than myself? How would I live life differently?
How does that relate to web3?
Whether you realize it or not, if you’re reading these words, you’re a co-creator in this global revolution that may change the internet & how we distribute values in society forever…or not.
You could wait for VCs & macro experts to tell you what will be the future of this movement— truth is no one has a f*cking clue. Or you could take the matter in your own hands & help make the future you want happen.
There’re so many things you can do. You can join a project team, participate in governance, educate friends & your local politicians, use new products, provide liquidity, give feedback…
When there’s enough human consciousness behind a movement, it becomes the future.
A revolution is guaranteed to succeed if > 3.5% of population are actively participating.
— Tascha (@TaschaLabs) May 21, 2022
For web3, that means 277 million global participants.
We're not there yet, but will be in next cycle if you keep building.
The best way to predict the future is to create it the way you want. Simple truth. Yet few have the courage to follow.
19 Comments
Bravo!
When my children were very young, I would tuck them in every night and tell them “Remember when you open your eyes in the morning, everything you see is to do whatever you want with it.”
They have grown to become successful and contributing members of society.
Love.
Love, love LOVE this! You somehow weaved plant medicine, higher states of consciousness, universal wisdom & truths in with the possibilities we have to create with Web3. All of my loves perfectly blended into a brilliant, thought provoking conversation. ✨
That’s a terrific story! Profound and well said!! Thanks
As a Peruvian, who has studied the ayahuasca treatment without ever taking it myself. You surelly had a terrible time. Few people feel the horrible pain you described. It sure means you still have much to learn. Thanks for sharing.
this is a ignorant comment…I know a lot of people who had experiences very much like hers. Perhaps you have much to learn 😉
Beautiful article Tascha! It really touched me deeply as I had a very similar experience with mushrooms.
I thought that I had fallen into that solipsistic and terrifying experience due to my background in Philosophy, but now I see that you lived the same revealing truth.
I know very little about web3 to be honest, but I am fascinated by all this new world.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts
Ruy
Loved it! A good story unbelievable well written. Maybe you should consider writing a book – I would definitely buy it!
Love that you were vulnerable and shared this! I have done extensive Buddhist vipassana meditation and gotten to very similar states and with more stability as it wasn’t out of the blue but a more gradual unfolding. Still I had deep moments of fear as “I” disappeared. Falsely believing there is some fixed permanent self could indeed lead to most of our suffering, and the freedom from this illusion does support a new form of wisdom to arise naturally.
I appreciate the challenge in your message!
Wow! Deep truth, appreciate this. Just adds to my resolve to keep building and investing in regenerative solutions. I’m only 23 but I realized most of what people, including me, believe is bullshit. I will create guided by intuition common sense and the responses of reality. Objectivity and common good – the good of nature, not just the good of humans – must be built in to this new technology wave. Let’s make it happen 🙏
Beautiful Truths here- I’m glad you were able to experience the ceremony , though it was physically challenging for you. It is in our deepest fears and pains that we discover ourselves and our power to become the solutions to our own problems. I love your thinking- Awakening is a Trying but beautiful journey 💯 Sending You Love💖
Such a powerful story – awakening to the realisation that everything you’ve been told has been a fabrication of someone else’ vision/values, and the future is actually up to you… Super inspiring, thank you for sharing 🙂
This is incredible. What a journey by reading this article !
Wow. I would have never guessed you walked this path. When I started reading this I had to make sure I was on the correct website. I can say you described an experience extremely similar to my own. It shaped the direction of the rest of my life. I would add that life is about becoming more real. Most of us don’t use any free will we might have and we fight against ourselves almost all the time. Becoming more real is moving closer to a state of complete nothingness surrounding complete somthingness, both simultaneously coexisting.
Really enjoyed the post. Let’s make this world a better place.
Touched a real cord with me. Must read Dr. Tony Nader’s book.
“One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness” . He lays out the most complete experiential and intellectual framework of what you experienced and how that One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness becomes all of us individual oceans of consciousness.
Love this Tascha thanks. Super funny to read and to picture. But totally understand you, i myself have been to a few Ayahuasca rituals too. Event went to Peru jungle once, but tried San Pedro instead.
Took me many books to read, many nights of discussion with friends and a hell of a self reflection to arrive at the point to realise, that the meaning of life is being a creator or contributor to what we think is the truth. Unfortunately I realised that there are so many truths.
Should have tried Ayuhasca to reach that point faster. 🙂