Attention is the New Oil
And there's a global war to control yours
We live in the era of cognitive warfare. War isn’t so much about conquering land anymore, as it is about conquering minds. We’re constantly exposed to surprisingly elaborately crafted media narratives designed to make us think and feel in certain ways, and both corporations and governments are fighting to control what more and more often is called the cognitive terrain. Meaning, the contents of our consciousness.
It looks like a quite helpless battle, because who are we to defend ourselves against such advanced tactics of persuasion and manipulation? How do we regain our free will and autonomy over our own lives? It’s a tough task.
In this context, Traditional systems like Neoplatonism and Tantra are starting to re-emerge as the most sophisticated defence systems we have. Because even though their aim in enlightenment might seem lofty and unrelatable, the challenges along that path are of the same nature as more worldly tribulations:
controlling desires and emotions so they cannot be used by “the enemy” to distract you from what matters.
becoming aware of your cognitive conditioning so you can override it, see things as they are and act freely.
discern what are your true aspiration, and what are illusory, implanted dreams.
For those who are practicing these Traditional systems, they are irreplaceable weapons in the cognitive warfare that threatens not only personal happiness and sovereignty, but civilisation itself.
Below I’ll outline 5 practices you can take up today based on principles from these Traditional systems.
I. Purification of Consciousness
Defusing Emotional Triggers
Neoplatonism, like Yoga, begins with katharsis - the purification of the consciousness. This doesn’t mean repressing emotion but becoming conscious of internal reactions so they no longer dictate your beliefs or decisions.
The part of you that can be baited by anger, seduced by lust, or shamed into silence is precisely what propagandists and marketers hijack. When you take control over these impulses, you become less susceptible to manipulation.
Practice: Daily meditation to train meta-cognition; journaling to map emotional reactions and conditioned patterns.
Strategic benefit: You become less reactive, harder to program. You spot falsehoods by consciously processing information, spotting inconsistencies.
II. Reorientation Toward the Good
Re-Hierarchizing the Soul
Modern freedom is often confused with the power to choose anything, at any time, for any reason. In contrast, traditional freedom is the power to choose what is truly Good.
Systems like Platonism, Aquinas’ theology, and Tantra all agree: real agency means aligning desire with the highest truth, but this requires a love for and lucid discernment of what truly matters.
Practice: Contemplation of Godly Attributes - Truth, Beauty, Goodness - not as concepts but as energetic realities known through resonance.
Strategic benefit: Your consciousness becomes anchored in Absolute Reference Points, not passing trends.
III. Awakening Noetic Perception
Seeing Through the Illusion
Noesis is the faculty of direct insight. Unlike logic or opinion, it perceives essences intuitively, like a tuning fork that vibrates when it meets a harmonic frequency.
It doesn’t argue - it knows. And while it requires training to access, it’s available to anyone.
Take care though that this is an advanced faculty of consciousness that requires some training to access, and it can be confused with mere fantasy.
Practice: Cultivation of inner silence and deep meditation on Archetypal Forms like Justice or Truth.
Strategic benefit: You don’t need fact-checkers to detect lies but perceive harmony or lack of it reflected in your consciousness.
IV. Symbolic Literacy
Mapping the Psyche as Tactical Terrain
Psychological operations bypass your logic and target your symbolic imagination. Headlines, memes, and movies encode values that your subconscious absorbs long before your critical mind engages.
When we are symbolically illiterate, symbols are used to penetrate deep into the subconscious and there deliver a cognitive payload - an idea that is untrue but accepted because it’s wrapped in a symbolic wrapper.
Practice: Study myths and symbols, interpret dreams, participate in meaningful traditional ritual practices like mass, meditation and celebration.
Strategic benefit: You see through symbolic distortions. You speak the language of power, and can recognize when it’s being misused.
Example: Hollywood love movies heavily rely on archetypal characters and narratives to open our hearts, only to sneakily implant ideas such as jealousy being good, love is obsession, the ends justify the means and many other distorted ideological payloads.
V. Nervous System Control
Physiological Grounding in Real-Time
Cognitive sovereignty is not purely intellectual. The body’s state conditions your access to reason. A nervous system stuck in fight-or-flight is easier to manipulate and harder to ground in truth.
Practice: Ask regularly, “What state is my nervous system in?” Use breath and awareness to regulate.
Strategic benefit: You become a calm, stable signal in a chaotic field. Your presence becomes an anchor for others.
Together, these five disciplines form a metaphysical operating system for cognitive war. They're not spiritual bling bling or lifestyle trends you flash on Instagram, but tactical, durable responses to memetic infiltration and psychological sabotage.
Or if you’re less dramatically inclined: they are good tools for living a happy, meaningful and assertive life.
As you can see, Traditional metaphysics has not been passed down through millennia out of nostalgia, but because it works.
If we are to regain our footing in a world that seems to be headed toward senseless, global conflict, we will need to see clearly and let our actions be guided by reliable maps of meaning. Training the soul to perceive and participate in reality itself is simply something we cannot go without.
Just as the American Second Amendment was created to defend against tyrannical regimes, we now need its cognitive equivalent: the right to defend the sovereignty of our inner world.
This is what the traditional systems offer.
If you're serious about cultivating this kind of inner sovereignty, begin with the practices outlined above. If you want guidance, reach out. I’m developing both in-depth programs and more accessible courses for those ready to start.
Subscribe to the email list to stay informed.