Weekend News

Non-Player Character

Here's something they didn't teach us in school — the worst thing you can do for yourself in this life is to be an NPC.

NPC stands for Non-Player Character.

The concept comes from video games — any character not controlled by a human being. A character not driven by a human sitting at home with a keyboard, mouse, or controller — but by the software itself.

While a human player can suddenly decide to jump, run a different direction, or stop playing, the NPC operates by pre-written lines of code.

They walk the same path, say the same line, perform the same action every time you meet them.

If you try to talk to them beyond what the programmers wrote, they won't be able to respond. They're stuck inside the system's logic.

These characters are there only to fill a role for the human player. They might be "the crowd" on the street, the enemies you have to beat, or the shopkeeper who buys gear from you.

They don't have lives or goals beyond what serves the game.

In real-life slang, the meaning is — a person who appears to operate on autopilot. Without exercising personal judgment or critical thought. As if someone else programmed his responses.

The term became a sharp metaphor for people who are seen as not thinking for themselves.

When you call someone an NPC, you mean they operate mainly by a social or political script. They repeat slogans they've heard — from media, society, even academia — without criticism, and they have no unique personality or independent opinion.

It's not very surprising, since most humans go through the same path in life — learning similar content in the education system, watching the same TV shows, serving in the same army / university, listening to the same radio channels.

These are the people who go to protests sure they're changing the world. Who think there's such a thing as left or right. Who think democracy is a real thing — but if you really pay attention, you'll see you can choose between one candidate and another, but those candidates were carefully selected, and there's no real difference between them.

This week I saw a news article that the Mossad created protests in Iran to topple the regime. What do you think makes people in Israel go to a protest? Themselves? It doesn't work like that. People don't gather by the thousands or hundreds of thousands of their own accord. It doesn't start one day by accident and doesn't end overnight by accident.

The difference between the video game and reality is that the NPC in reality doesn't just repeat messages — they also lose their composure if someone challenges their worldview.

Which doesn't happen to a regular player.

Covid was a great example: people who recited messages of "stay home," "wear masks," "inject substances," "stay away from loved ones," "wipe elevator buttons" — they didn't know why they were repeating it. The messages just appeared on the wall-thinking-device and were adopted by most of the public.

More common cultural examples:

• We used to live to age 40
• The IDF is the most moral army in the world
• You can't teach kids to eat healthy
• My problem is genetic / chronic — the doctor said so
• The Earth is round
• Vaccines saved humanity
• The war with Iran is because of Iran's nuclear program
• Cow's milk is healthy and builds strong bones
• Inflation is rising because of the war
• The climate crisis will destroy the world because of plastic straws and farting cows

It doesn't matter if these are true or not. People just repeat what they were told and are sure that's the truth — because they were told.

Why would you want to live in a world where there's no room for doubt? Where there's only one truth?

Has anything in your life ever improved when you didn't allow independent thinking? When you thought there was only one truth, one path?

It's amazing how much people lose their composure if you challenge their original worldview.

I can say I believe cows can fly and nobody'll get upset.

But if I say the Earth is actually flat and there's no climate crisis, there are people who'd want to fight me physically.

Bizarre.

But it's more than that. The NPC is someone who lives in the world without living as if he's the main character.

Imagine for a moment — right now — that you're inside a video game.

There's a camera behind you following you. It sees you, right now, sitting and reading this newsletter.

You finished reading. What are you doing next?

Is what you're about to do this afternoon worthy of a main character — or an NPC?

Are you:

• Complaining about life, watching reality TV, watching the news, waiting for society's approval to express yourself or the government's approval to leave the house?
• Scrolling all day? Watching Netflix at night? Talking about things you want to do, but not doing them?
• When you have an idea, do you act on it immediately?
• Want to live in another country but feel bad about grandma?
• Explaining to yourself what you can't do because of … (you fill in the rest)

Not everyone will be a main character in this life. And I don't mean being a celebrity, a famous entrepreneur, or a known actor.

I mean being the main, active character in your own life.

It could be:

• When you look at a girl on the street but don't approach her
• The way you raise your kids — afraid to set them limits
• The words you don't dare to say in work meetings or at the dinner table

A main character takes responsibility for his life.

Responsibility — responsi + bility. The ability to respond. The ability to lead himself and his environment.

Freedom — the freedom to act freely, not dependent on the opinions of others or managed by his patterns.

If you're not acting freely, you're working against the universal laws.

The NPC is a victim. He doesn't lead the game. He waits for something to happen. He blames others — the government, the country, family, genetics, childhood, and so on.

In a world of billions, only a very small percentage allows themselves to behave like main characters.

Because the culture teaches us to fit in and behave like everyone else. Our culture also encourages victimhood. The victim is the darling of society.

But what's interesting about that? What's satisfying? How does it justify the story of your life?

Ask yourself:

• If your life were a video game, what would the person at home with the controller do right now?
• If your life were a movie or TV show, what would the audience at home shout?

What's so obvious that you know it yourself but you're waiting for someone else to make the change for you?

So here it is — nobody has a plastic controller running your life.

But you can pick up that controller and create whatever reality you want — just like you created everything happening now.

How do you stop being an NPC?

That's the natural question. There are several reasons why some people are players and others are NPCs — education, beliefs, habits, and so on.

But here are some very basic and important things:

1. Fluoride. Sodium fluoride is a synthetic, toxic substance added to drinking water, toothpaste, and at the dental hygienist (not to be confused with calcium fluoride, which comes from nature). Fluoride is found to calcify the pineal gland — the most important gland in our body, responsible among other things for critical and independent thinking.

Start using a filter that removes fluoride.

2. TV. TV and most online content fry the brain. Passive watching shifts brainwaves to alpha — the brainwaves on which consciousness can be programmed. Meaning you're being programmed to think in a way that turns you into a player in someone else's game.

Stop watching TV, especially the news. It'll change your life.

3. Processed food. Processed food isn't calories — it's poison to body and mind. When you eat junk, you lose the ability to function, become ill, and become dependent on drugs and other people instead of behaving as the main character you deserve to be.

(If you don't know how to start — Gut Rules course.)

4. Meditation. Practice meditation. People are afraid to be bored, but it's a key tool for growth, self-discovery, and developing independent thinking.

(If you don't know how to start — Tools for Change course.)

5. Take responsibility for your life. Anything that happens is your responsibility — if not in action, then in response. That gives you power to advance and win. Always look for the action you can take to change your approach. Acknowledge reality, don't resist it. Take ownership of your circumstances. Find solutions to every challenge and implement them.

And most importantly — go on adventures beyond what you know. Meet new cultures, new people, new opinions. You can't grow in the same environment your whole life.

Come to my retreat in Cyprus if you want a consciousness-expanding experience beyond the familiar.

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