It’s my opinion that all of us, are the Spirit incarnated into a body to experience life.
You can choose to agree or disagree with this idea.
But one thing we can all agree on is that we’re all human beings, walking around covered in cloth, eating, drinking, and breathing the same air as everyone else.
Yet some people have much better lives than other people, why is that?
Because some people play the game of life to their advantage and some don’t.
In fact many people don’t even realize a game is being played and suffer the consequences.
The reality is, if you don’t play the game of life you get played.
Just like if you’re sitting at the poker table and you don’t know who the sucker is, that sucker is you.
The game of life is not fair, just or reasonable.
And if you don’t play the game well, it’s not fun, I’m speaking from experience here.
But when you know how to play, you can create a damn good game for yourself.
But to do that you need to use your illusions to your advantage.
By illusions I mean concepts that only exist as thoughts, spoken words, and words on a page or a computer screen.
But these particular concepts that have no physical reality whatsoever.
Government being a good example an illusion that people agree has existence.
But government has no actual existence in the physical world.
You can’t taste, touch, see, smell or hear government because it only exists as an idea or a word.
In reality, it’s a bunch of guys in suits, who tell the guys that wear uniforms and carry guns, what to do.
Now take the concept of an apple as opposed to the concept of government.
The concept of an apple, like the concept of government, exists as a thought, spoken word, and a word on a page or a computer screen.
But, an apple also exists in the physical world, you can taste, touch, smell and hold an apple in your hands.
Now whether you think government, or any other illusion, is beneficial or destructive is besides the point.
The point is that people believe in illusions and those beliefs have actual, physical effects on your reality.
This applies to all the major concepts, or illusions, that people agree have existence.
That’s why it’s important to learn how to use your illusions to your advantage.
The smart way to play is to use every illusion you can to create a better life for yourself, starting with these five:
Your character, money, masculinity, status and power.
How To Use Your Illusions
1) Character
You’re the nameless, formless Spirit, who incarnated into a body to play the game of life, at least that’s what I believe. Your self image is an illusion that you can compare it a character you would play in a video game, where your real identity is player 1.
Everyone on the planet, with the exception of children presents a carefully created image to other people. They try to present a coherent narrative of what they want you to see, and hide what they don’t want you to see. Most guys don’t walk around talking about their bowel movements, or cheating on their wives, or the p*rn they secretly watch.
As you get to know someone you get to know more about what’s going on behind the mask, but at first you’re meeting his representative. And when I say mask I mean it, the word persona actually comes from the Greek word for actor’s mask.
And everyone on the planet has a persona or personality, myself included. But just because you have insight into this, doesn’t mean the rules of the game don’t apply to you. If you want to have the good things in life, you need to use the illusion of your avatar to get them.
The good news is that there is a lot you can do to upgrade your self-image, or character in the game of life. The first step is to look at life as a fun game to be played, much like a video game, where your looks, money, status, intelligence and charm, are your attributes. And as you progress through life you level up by achieving your goals.
I used to be a salesman and although I had my money, style, fitness and game together, I hated my job. So I became Will Freemen and leveled up my character to lifestyle designer. I did it by creating a coherent narrative, and since 2012, I’ve been producing content that offers solutions to life’s problems. The end result has been money, influence, and respect in my niche. As well as being able to do what I love for a living, and live in sunny Thailand instead of cold Canada.
A more extreme example of a character upgrade would be The Rock. He failed at his first upgrade of playing in the NFL. So he went to the WWE playing the babyface character of Rocky Maivia. Rocky Maivia didn’t get much traction, so he became The Rock, a brash, funny, charismatic, heel character and went on to become of the biggest stars in the business. He then leveraged his personal brand and went to Hollywood. Through his brand, charm, attractiveness, acting skills, networking ability and a lot of performance enhancing drugs, he became the best paid actor on the planet, with millions of fans worldwide.
At the end of the day, our avatar is an illusion, but you can use your illusion to live better. And you can have a lot of fun in the process. God created you to think, feel, smell, taste, touch, hear and play through the temporary vehicle of the body, so it only makes sense to use your character to enjoy life to the fullest.
2) Money
Money itself, exists only as a thought or a word. In reality, the things people call money are nothing more than pieces of paper or digits on a computer screen. But six billion people on the planet agree that special paper and digits on a computer screen have value. And therefore you need that special paper or those digits to play the game of life. Without money you can’t survive, but with enough of it, you can do whatever you want.
When you play the money game right, you get financial security, you get to do work you enjoy, and you don’t have to work a job you hate. With enough money you can either solve or dramatically reduce every problem in your life, from food to clothing to shelter to health to your dating prospects.
You can talk all you want about how money is just a fiat currency produced by central banks, but you can’t pay your rent in economic insights. And don’t think Bitcoin changes that fact, because you can’t pay your rent in bitcoin, at least not yet. Bitcoin is merely just another storehouse of wealth, similar to gold, but much more volatile.
Calling Bitcoin a currency is an exaggeration, yes you can buy steroids with it online, but in the real world, you can’t even buy so much as a chocolate bar with Bitcoin, at least not yet. The whole buzz about Bitcoin is really about one thing, how much it’s worth…in fiat, US dollar, magic paper currency. If it couldn’t be exchanged for currency, no one would care about crypto.
Now that’s not to say that you won’t be able to buy things in stores with Bitcoin in the future, or that blockchain tech hasn’t and won’t continue to the change the game, but some virtual coins you own online are no more real than some magical pieces of paper. It doesn’t matter what the instrument is, all that matters is that people value it, either because you can exchange it directly for goods and services, or you can exchange it for special paper or digits on a screen.
The bottom line is, despite money being nothing more than a concept, the more money you have, the more you can influence people to give you goods and perform services for you, and therefore the easier your life will be.
3) Masculinity
Masculinity is merely an idea about how men should act. Some culture warriors will say masculinity is nothing more than a social construct, and that’s true, because everything is a social construct. Society is nothing more than people, and every construct or concept the human race has ever created has naturally been created by people.
Being masculine is merely and idea about how to think, dress and act in the game of life. But, it’s also an idea that is the product of millions of years of male evolution and is consistent across all cultures. And it’s an idea that will help you navigate the game of life.
Not everyone will agree with me, some guys choose at an early age not to adopt the masculine behaviors of older men, and actively resist adopting gender norms in adulthood, and that’s perfectly fine with me.
But, the fact of the matter is, being masculine will get you more respect from men and more attention from women. When you’re confident, can speak with certainty, have a firm handshake, can look people in the eye and can control your emotions, you become a more attractive man overall.
Playing the game of life as a masculine man will make it easier to make friends with like-minded winners, to sell more effectively in business, to get more women, and to have a better chance of being able to hold on to the women that you actually get.
4) Status
Status is a concept based on one person being superior to another person. Status is an illusion, an arbitrary agreement that one person outranks another person. But the fact that people agree that people differ in status affects every aspect of human behavior.
On average the people with the most advantages and attributes have the highest status. Advantages and attributes like money, power, respect, connections, looks, physique, charm and the ability to speak with authority. Some of those advantages and attributes are genetic, but many of them can be learned and gained through playing the game of life well.
Status, like money and masculinity gets you more respect from men, and more attention from women. As a general rule, the most attractive men on the planet to women are men with the highest status: billionaires, CEOs, celebrities, politicians, athletes, musicians and actors. Genetics plays a big part in how attractive you are to women, but status is by far the biggest amplifier of attraction in regards to women.
Not only that, but status applies to all social relationships. There is a hierarchy in politics, the military, corporations, academia, media, Holllywood, athletics, all the way down to friendships and romantic relationships. In a perfect world, all people would have equal respect and dating prospects, but we don’t live in that world, not even close.
People are not treated equally. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying to themselves or is trying to manipulate you. The hot girl who says she believes in equality is not being honest with herself, it’s no accident she happens to marry the handsome, high status guy and not the janitor. And your boss at work is trying to manipulate you by telling you to take an ownership mentality in his company and that everyone on the team is equal, when in reality he calls the shots, has 100% equity, and gets all the profits.
With that being said, you don’t need to be a CEO or a billionaire to make status work for you. Height, muscle, shoulder width, masculinity, and attractiveness can all raise your status in the world. The muscular, 6’5, good-looking, masculine acting guy instantly gets a lot more respect and attention from women than the shy, 5’2, 100 lb guy. At the end of the day, people’s instincts are primitive, and they respond differently to a guy who looks like he would have been a tribal leader, prior to the agricultural revolution.
You can’t change your height or your shoulder width, but adding 50 lbs. of muscle, dressing well, walking and talking with confidence, and acting masculine, go a long way in terms of giving you status. So does renting a nice car, and a nice condo, and making sure they’re featured on your online dating profile. You don’t have to have those things if they’re not in your budget, but they do help.
You can also choose to amplify your situational status, because status applies differently to every situation. If you’re a young, good-looking guy, with no money and no status, you can still get status in a packed club full of 10’s by becoming a club promoter. You’ll be a lot more successful with women this way than by running around trying to cold approach every girl in the club.
During the day you could work for a wealthy CEO and have no status in his organization, but as a promoter on a packed dance floor full of 10’s who know you, you outrank your boss. That is, unless he buys a bottle service table from you, and buys out the bar for the hottest girls in the club, then he regains status over you in that situation.
At the end of the day, status is an illusion, we’re all just Homo sapiens walking around in cloth, but other people buy into it in the game of life. And so having status gets you real, tangible results, like women in your bed. You can think that the status game is superficial and choose not to play, but you’ll get less respect from men and less attention from women.
The fact is, improving your status, whether situationally or in general, will get you more respect from men, and more attention from women. Not to mention you’ll have higher quality friendships and romantic relationships when the people you’re spending time with see you as someone who is high status and valuable.
5) Power
Power is an illusion. The only difference between powerful people and people without power, is that when a powerful person tells someone to do something, they do it. When the middle-aged man in a suit called the head of state tells the middle-aged men who wear the generals uniforms to bomb people in another place in the world, they do. When the guy in the janitor’s uniform commands someone to do something, nobody listens. But both people are just humans wearing cloth, however one person invested a lot of effort into getting other people to agree that he has power.
With that being said, compared to the other illusions, power comes with the most drawbacks. You’ll find that pursuing power for power’s sake is a Pyrrhic victory and has the least ROI of all the illusions in terms of your happiness. Often times power comes with a lot stress, a lot of responsibility, and having power sometimes threatens your safety. And more importantly, real power is very difficult to get. Most guys can only get their hands on a little bit of power.
The highest most guys get is middle management. And that takes 20 years of diligent service of climbing the corporate ladder. In return you get mediocre money, an office, and 20 people who report to you. For that, the corporation expects you work long hours and to handle all headaches of managing people for much less money than you would make as a successful entrepreneur. And the corporation also expects to be the top priority in your life, severely restricting your freedom.
To me that’s a bad deal for a small amount of power.
Real power comes from, in order of importance:
1. Force
2. Money
3. Salesmanship
Or a combination of all three.
Force is off the table, both for ethical reasons, and because the government (another illusion) has a monopoly on it. And I definitely don’t recommend getting into the dirty business of politics or becoming a professional revolutionary, both of those paths don’t sound very fun to me.
Instead you want just enough power to help you get the things you want in life, and to do that, you need salesmanship and money. Salesmanship, or the art of persuasion, is an extremely powerful skill to have. But it doesn’t touch money in terms of influencing people, and I’m telling you this as a guy who literally wrote the book on how to sell. This is because money is really just concentrated influence.
Mark Zuckerberg, through having billions of dollars, is able to get 30,000 people working day and night to make him more money. And because he pays for their lives, and can cut off their resources at any time, he has tremendous power over the people that work for him.
It doesn’t matter how persuasive you are, money trumps salesmanship. You can sell people on your vision, and they might stick around for a little while, but the vast majority of people can’t see past the next few months. The best way to get them to do what you want is to pay them money every month. People will tell you it’s not about the money, but it’s always about the money. And the more money you pay someone, the more power you have over that person.
With that being said, paying people money just to have power over them is a bad play in my opinion. You should only take on as many employees as you need to hit your financial targets. Personally I’d rather not have to manage people when I can avoid it, as 90% of business stress comes from managing people. Not to mention that If I want to travel that month, or need to do a visa run, I’d have to worry about how business is being handled at my office.
Luckily, because of the type of business I have, I’m able to manage my operation by being a client of various companies and contractors online. I use my power as a client to get companies to host my website, podcast and YouTube channel, among other things. I also use my power as a client of independent contractors and pay them to do graphic design as well as help me create products. And if the company or contractor isn’t doing the job up to my standards, I have the power to quickly and easily switch to one of their competitors.
For social situations, money helps as well, everyone wants to hang out with a wealthy guy, but salesmanship is also important. By making people feel good, and adding value to their lives, you can persuade people to give you power and treat you as the leader of your social circle, or the leader of your romantic relationship.
But again, it’s not about getting power over people for power’s sake, or just so that you can manipulate them. It’s about only getting as much power as you need to make more money and create happy experiences for yourself, your friends and the women in your life.
The primary reason it’s good to have some power in your business and in social situations is so that you don’t have to live with other people controlling your life. It’s much harder to get your needs met when you give your power to your boss, friends or girlfriend. It’s easier to be happy when you have control over your revenue, control over your social experiences, and you get the respect that comes with being a leader.
You don’t have to like the game but you have to play it
At least if you want to be able to live well.
You might be able to see through illusions.
And you might think that money, status, and power are worldly and superficial.
You might wish you didn’t have to worry so much about making money
You might wish that women didn’t care about status and arbitrary fashion trends.
You might wish you lived in a world where people believed in self governance.
You might wish the game was different.
Sh$# I wish the game was different.
I wish we lived in a world where everyone was happy, healthy and wealthy.
But we don’t live in that world… and to get food, clothing, shelter, women, freedom and all the other good things in life, you have to play for them.
Don’t think just because you can see through the game that you don’t have to play, that’s dumbsmart, the game is the game is the game.
Illusions might not have any physical existence themselves, but other people agree they exist, therefore you need to use them to your advantage.
Lastly, it’s not enough just to use your own illusions, you have to respect other people’s illusions as well, and play your hand accordingly.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that when you poke holes in other people’s illusions, they will reward you for your intelligence and insight.
People don’t reward other people who poke holes in their reality, especially when it comes to the concepts that they’re most proud of, in fact they respond with outright hostility.
You can guarantee with mathematical precision, that by attacking other people’s beliefs, they will most certainly shoot the messenger.
If you don’t believe me, try telling the cop that pulls you over, or the custom’s agent at the airport, that you don’t agree that they have authority over you, and that the government they claim to represent is just a concept without physical reality.
I guarantee that you will end up in a world of hurt, because they have all the guns, and guns have real world physical consequences.
The smart player doesn’t pick a fight with a superior force.
The smart move in that situation would be to play the role of respectful, harmless citizen, comply with the person’s requests, and have all your documentation ready to be shown.
The same logic applies to all situations that involve other people’s illusions, you will get much further in life by respecting them.
Playing the game is not about showing off how insightful you are, or using your intelligence as a way to attack other people, it’s about playing the right card at the right time.
In Summary
Illusions are concept that exist as thoughts, spoken words, or words on a page or screen, but in and of themselves have no physical existence.
But, because people agree that certain illusions exist and are important, those illusions affect your physical reality and your experience of life.
And they affect your life to such an extent that it’s hard to imagine the modern world without them.
You can think some illusions are superficial, but they still affect you nonetheless.
You can wish the world was different, but the world is the way it is.
Therefore, if you want to get the most joy out of life, it only makes sense to use your illusions to your advantage.
When you approach life as a game to be played, where illusions are attributes of your character that can be upgraded, life becomes a lot more fun.
But, to play at the highest level, you not only have to use your own illusions, but you have to respect other people’s illusions as well, and play your hand accordingly.
Disrespecting other people’s illusions as a way to prove your intelligence will only end with you suffering real world consequences.
So, view life as a fun game where he who has the most joy wins, play it to the best of your ability, respect other people’s illusions, and use your own illusions to create the best possible life for yourself.
