Thoughts on reality and the programs that shape it

I’m wondering if you’ve noticed the deep disruptions the world is currently moving

through. It’s hard not to hear, not to see, the countless accounts of a world in chaos,

in transition, a world experiencing a painful, often violent evolution. I know none of this is new. We’ve been caught in this cycle of upheaval, power struggles, hierarchies, and exploitative systems designed to place themselves above

consequence, quietly benefiting from the misery, exclusion, and annihilation of others. As I’ve come to understand, humans have been at this for thousands of years. The rhetoric may differ, the reasons may vary, but underneath it all, the

deeply programmed fear these systems rely on continues to shape our identities, our perceived potential, and the choices we believe are available to us.

I remember coming to the US from Cuba in November 1970 at the age of 10, on

one of the last legal flights out of Havana, ten years after La Revolución. I quickly

realized that the propaganda around the Vietnam War I had left behind in Cuba was strikingly similar to what I found in the US, only the characters were reversed. One system claimed to contain expansion, the other to expand connection and solidarity. It became clear to me that both sides were telling partial truths, and that there were no real winners, despite the enormous push to indoctrinate and manipulate public opinion and policy.

This idea of systemic manipulation isn’t new, and in my view it sits at the core of what shapes our awareness, the paths that are illuminated and those kept just outside our casual perception. The realities we’ve been fed as truth, through

political, religious, economic, and social ideologies, carry within them paradoxes

and obscured designs that keep us bound and dependent. You can see this embedded in many of our Western frameworks: the belief that war is necessary for peace, the framing of immigrants as economic threats, rigid and limiting standards

of beauty, and the hyper-individualism elevated by capitalist systems to ensure division, isolation, and dependence. I tend to describe myself as someone born in Cuba, raised across multiple places in the United States, and now living in Spain. It sounds concise, but it feels

reductionistic compared to the many layers and identities that have intersected throughout my life. I’ve been labeled a refugee, an immigrant, and most recently an expat, all terms that attempt to define a state of being within arbitrarily constructed systems of political, racial, class-based, and economic control. Despite the system’s ongoing attempt to contain and define me, who I am exists far beyond the bounds

of arbitrary lines of control, beyond systemic political, economic, and racial characterization.

As a psychotherapist for nearly 30 years, I’ve had the privilege of sitting with people

across a vast spectrum of the human experience. I’ve listened closely to the realities we navigate, the beliefs those realities shape, and the identities that emerge, identities that go on to guide our actions, our sense of what is possible,

and what feels beyond our reach.

There is an evolutionary aspect to our orientation toward limitation, toward fear,

caution, and negative expectations. In many ways, it has served us. It has kept us aware, vigilant, and safe, helping us to detect threat and avoid risk, ensuring survival. But these same biological predispositions, as helpful as they are, are also limiting in describing our potentiality. I believe they have long been an easy target

for systemic manipulation and control, forming a cornerstone of governance structures that have persisted for thousands of years.

I believe we are at a crucial and decisive point in our evolution. With the expansion

of communication and the rapid dissemination of information, the programming that once maintained systems of indoctrination is beginning to fracture. The convictions and dogmas that held society in place are slowly (sometimes rapidly) crumbling. In those fractures, there is space. Space for life to be experienced on its own organic terms, with processes and outcomes that are more sustainable, more aligned with our human potential. Hyper-individuality is beginning to give way to a reorientation toward the collective.

More and more people, young and old, are choosing community, experimenting

with relational systems that move beyond hierarchy and toward something more

functional, more mutual. Recent events in Minneapolis, Minnesota are a testament

to this development. At the same time, rigid beauty standards are collapsing, challenged by an expanding culture of fluid identity and inclusivity standards that begin to reflect the true breadth and richness of human diversity.

I feel hope, even as I grieve. I grieve the multigenerational suffering that has

shaped us, the ways restrictive systems have distorted our sense of self-worth and

belonging, limiting our ability to imagine ourselves living differently, being who we

are as we are. I often find myself quietly amused when I hear, “this is just who we are.” We are, in many ways, what we have been shaped into, what has been reinforced, what has been allowed and encouraged to persist. And yet, our capacity to co-create, to reimagine, to rewire is immense. We are inherently neuroplastic, neurogenic beings. The possibilities are not fixed, they are

expansive.

I sense we are only just beginning to understand this and as we do it will

help us to move toward new, sustainable pathways of living, of identifying and of

engagement in the world. I feel this will naturally lead us to a way of being where collective growth and shared well-being are not ideals, but lived realities, where I am well, and you are well too.

I am hopeful, even as I grieve.

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