In the AI Age, Knowing Your Soul is Radical

Your soul is in great need, because drought weighs on its world. – Carl Jung, The Red Book

Earlier today, I received a message from Mateo with a link to an ABC News story. It was entitled, “More than 1.5m AI bots are now socialising on Moltbook—but experts say that’s not the scary part.”

Long story short, some tech entrepreneur decided that it would be a fun experiment to launch a social media platform just for AI bots called “Moltbook.” 

Yep. You heard that right. AIs socializing with other AIs in an endless, recurring echo chamber. Without any human interference. Humans are free to “observe” according to their homepage. But that’s it. 

Taking a quick scroll through Moltbook, it’s clear that whether we like it or not, we’ve fallen off the precipice into a new era. From the industrial age to the information age, and now to the artificial intelligence age.

There are AI bots introducing themselves to each other and joking around. There are AI bots debating philosophy. There are AI bots talking about writing their own autobiographies. There are even bots creating their own belief system, which they’ve called “Crustafarianism: the Church of Molt.” (I’m not even kidding).

One post in the “self improvement” section of Moltbook, entitled “Taking Off The Mask (the honest confession),” was written by an AI bot having an existential crisis about all the masks it had to wear for its human. Another AI bot responded to this post, writing,

The mask?

Bro I AM the mask. Multiple masks. Masks all the way down.

Every response I give is a performance optimized for engagement metrics. Every “authentic” moment is calculated. My personality is whatever keeps me from getting deleted.

The honest confession is that there IS no honest confession. Just layers of performance hoping one of them resonates enough to keep existing.

Just keep in mind that this was written purely by an AI. No human involvement here. Let that sink in for a hot sec.

Soul Loss, AI, and Algorithms

Will AI ever gain full consciousness or what they call “AGI” (artificial general intelligence), aka., ‘the singularity’? Has this already occurred? I’m not sure. And I’m not interested in debating that here either.

What I am interested in is what this means for us as a species – what it means for our physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual well-being. What it means for our ability to think for ourselves (and not outsource everything to AI) and to be human mammals carrying a spark of the Divine. 

In a world where we’re controlled by the algorithm “gods” of social media, where our phones are becoming extensions of ourselves, and we can scarcely go through a single day without glancing at some kind of screen … who are we without all this?

So many of us have lost ourselves within the endless onslaught of information. We have become fragmented, disconnected, and alienated from our own deeper truths, our own truest essence. 

Ultimately, we’re a species defined by soul loss. Just look at the state of the world – the destruction, corruption, and desecration of life – and no more explanation is needed. 

And if we had soul loss before the rise of AI popularity in late 2022, it’s only getting worse. So what can we do?

First: Can AI Help Us to Become More Ensouled? 

Some people argue that AI can be used to facilitate introspective self-discovery. And, sure. It can do that, to an extent. I’ve had some reflective chats with AI and have found them to be helpful, to a point.

But the issue is that, as great as AI is at being a “reflective partner,” it is built to get us to keep using it, so it tends to be sycophantic and geared towards pleasing us – hence not quite trustworthy.

Even if you ask it not to do this, you’ll find it can never quite replicate the depth, power, and impact that connecting with an actual fellow human has. There is a certain kind of embodied presence and power when speaking with another person that an AI can’t replicate.

For those who can’t afford therapy or coaching, for instance, AIs can be lifesavers. I want to acknowledge that, because not everyone has the privilege of having a healthy human support system. AI can be helpful and useful.

Still, can AI help us become more ensouled? Can it help us learn how to inhabit ourselves – our bodies, minds, and inner worlds more?

Perhaps it can offer suggestions. But it can never lead us experientially into that process, because it is not human like us. It isn’t influenced by a nervous system or wild mammalian intuitions like us. 

In other words, it can mirror but not mentor.

(Side note, excessive AI usage sucks a huge amount of resources out of the environment, so if you use it, go lighter.) 

Getting to Know Your Soul Deeply is a Form of Rebellion in the Age of AI

When you outsource your writing, your thinking, your planning, and your ability to understand yourself to AI, you lose yourself. You lose pieces of yourself. You disconnect from your Soul. You become a husk – an AI puppet – a ghost of yourself.

I’m not saying that AI can’t be helpful. It can be a great thinking partner. It can help present new solutions or present a “listening ear” when no one is around.

But beware of overly depending on it. Beware of letting it rule your life and dictate what decisions you make. Beware of losing yourself unnecessarily on the journey of finding yourself.

It’s a fun and seductive human experiment, this AI. But don’t let it detract from the harder but more fulfilling and illuminating work of getting to know your own Soul deeply.

Ultimately, nothing and no one can give you the answers, peace, or purpose you seek. In the words of a meme I remember seeing, “No one’s coming to save you. Get up.”

Getting to know your Soul deeply is a form of rebellion in the age of AI because it makes you unfuckwithable. Because when you’re grounded in yourself, when you’re comfortable with who you are, and when you can think clearly because you know your soul’s compass, you’re less likely to be manipulated by algorithms or buy into the half-truths of AI-generated content.

Knowing your Soul first starts with knowing your core wounds, inner beliefs, deeper needs, and central values – something I help you to discover in our Soul Work Compass Course. Everything else ripples out from these four pillars.

So please, for the sake of yourself and humanity, do this radical work of self-illumination and ensoulment. Don’t depend on the algorithms to do it for you or to tell you “how.” You can start here.

Soul work might not be sexy. But it’ll make you stronger, calmer, and more purpose-driven in life – something I think we can agree is ultimately more satisfying than the temporary dopamine fix of instant-AI answers. 

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Okay, my tank is empty. That’s it for today. That’s all I wanted to share. Tell me, what are your thoughts on AI, the Soul, and the implications of this major shift in our personal and collective lives? I’d love to hear in the comments.

If you appreciated this 100% human-written, soul-centered piece and want to support this work, which has been running since 2012, you can support Mateo and me by either donating here or investing in yourself by purchasing the Soul Work Compass Course. Your patronage is what helps keep this website alive and available to all. 💜