Call Summary: New Year Reflections, Spiritual Integration, and Christic High Art Vision

Overview

Extended New Year's conversation covering life updates, geopolitical analysis, book recommendations, spiritual integration of consciousness studies and Christianity, and long-term artistic vision. Both Gary and Alex shared major life transitions (moves, relationship milestones) and explored the tension between New Age/consciousness frameworks and Christian faith, arriving at an "optimal spiritual stack" framework.

Key Topics Discussed

Life Updates

Gary's Move to Austin:

• Just moved to Hyde Park (Austin) with housemate Dawson
• Setting up his work station in the new place
• Continuing to support Encounter Church in Liberty

Alex's Move and Relationship Progress:

• Moved to Echo Park, LA around New Year's (previously Los Feliz)
• Planning to move in with girlfriend within 1-3 months
• Girlfriend officially met Alex's family
• Actively discussing marriage, kids, timelines, finances, and getting a home
• "My girl really did a great job just making a house into a home"

Geopolitical Discussion - Venezuela and World War III

• Both analyzed the Venezuela situation and US intervention
• Discussion of petrodollar preservation, oil reserves (330 billion barrels), and Russia implications
• Alex noted Professor Jiang's analysis that wars will become "unignorable" in 2026
• Gary observed: "It is an oddly relevant skill set to be like a reality show star... because you're constantly thinking about how attention grows and solidifies your power"
• Alex speculated about backroom deals and theatrical elements

Books Alex is Reading

1. "Loving What Is" by Byron Katie:

• A "self-help classic" about liberating people from their own thoughts
• Four-question framework: Is it true? Can you absolutely know it's true? How do you react when you believe the thought? Who would you be without the thought?
• Helping Alex process trauma from Mothership chapter
• Both Alex and girlfriend reading together, improving their relationship significantly
• "The profound realization that you are not your thoughts"

2. "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller:

• New York Times bestseller on "Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality"
• Taking Alex back to his original experience coming to Christ as a teenager
• "After like 30 something years... sometimes you got to go back to the basics to relearn things"
• Gary ordered the audiobook during the call

Gary's Projects

Pastor's Book Documentation:

• Building a documentation site for his pastor's book "The Way of Fire"
• Using Docusaurus (open source React-based framework by Facebook)
• Book covers: How to burn with God's love and power, receiving miracles, facilitating miracles
• Gary: "Describing the true nature of our divine system, of our spiritual reality"

Continued Learning:

• Taking deep learning courses (not Andrew Ng's)
• Completed cloud learning about AI
• Spent New Year's at Encounter Church in Liberty
• Excited about healings expected in 2026, including a blind boy who "has deep faith that he'll see again"

Alex's Current Work

• AI Fashion Company: Getting traction, experimental but high conviction on AI narrative transforming industries
• VPN/Wi-Fi Router Marketing: Director of marketing for cybersecurity home solution
• Both roles involve "programmatic creative pipelines" - merger of creativity, technology, and business strategy
• Using AI tools for generative ad creative deployment

Film Recommendation: "No Other Choice"

• Korean film directed by the Oldboy director
• About a paper factory worker laid off after 20+ years due to acquisition
• Only in the last 5 minutes revealed to be about AI and techno-capitalism
• Commentary on human cost of technological displacement
• "You find yourself rooting for him as he's like killing people... because his actions feel justified"
• Gary planned to watch it immediately

AI and Human-Made Intelligence

• Alex shared perspective from a Chinese book: Asia calls it "human-made intelligence" not "artificial intelligence"
• "Makes it feel less scary... we made this"
• Referenced Andrej Karpathy's tweet about feeling behind and AI being like "alien technology"
• Gary's friend sent him AI-generated Christian music without realizing it was AI-made

Spiritual Integration: New Age vs Christianity

Alex's Framework - "Optimal Spiritual Stack":

• Highest layer: Christian faith (Christ is King, Lord of Lords)
• Mechanical layer: Buddhist techniques (breathing, observer consciousness, therapeutic tools)
• "Thank you, Buddhists, for teaching me how to breathe... but I must check that power"
• Must not conflate understanding mechanics with being the supreme architect
• "Don't get the mechanics twisted and think that you're suddenly the supreme architect of all reality"

Alex's Spiritual Journey Analysis:

• Describes his exploration as a "split consciousness" - part of him stayed anchored in Christ while another explored other paths
• "The Christ signature, the Christ in me is kind of anchoring the whole thing"
• Left institutional Christianity feeling it was insular and not curious about other traditions
• Needed to "stress test" faith through exploration
• "True intellectual honesty, even if that led me into fire and flames"

Critique of New Age Giants:

• Ram Dass slept with students
• Terence McKenna had a psychotic break
• Alan Watts drank himself to death
• "These are supposedly the giants of spirituality... yet they all are hiding something"

Gary's Observation on Christ Consciousness:

• Shared story of woman who was going to expose New Age community covering for a rapist former governor
• She eventually just became a "Christ consciousness girl" rather than committing to Christianity
• "Half right" may have eternal consequences according to many Christians

Vision for Christian Media and Art

Gary's "Ambitious Christianity" Concept:

• Content for Christians who are ambitious - currently seen as an oxymoron
• Daily encouragement and community for ambitious Christians
• "Strengthening the existing troops" rather than converting skeptics
• Related to Christofuturist vision

Alex's "Christic High Art" Vision:

• Quoted his friend's vision at length: "hybridization of Renaissance Christian themed oil painting... but future themed"
• "Music that captures the essence of the age of the return of Christ"
• Beyond "watered down modern bullshit Hillsong worship swap"
• "A biblically accurate Bible" - rebranding the Christian worldview
• Considers this his "highest mission, highest calling"
• Everything else (day jobs) is in service of this artistic worship

Funding Kingdom Work Discussion

Gary's Dilemma with Private Equity Funder:

• Former Republican secular activist who became Christian
• Wants to fund taking "territory from the enemy"
• Currently too "flesh-focused" - sees humans as enemies
• Very enmeshed in culture war, "pretty MAGA"
• Gary's instinct: best spiritual interventions aren't things techno-capital world would understand

Alex's Suggestion - Small Church Support:

• "Undercover boss" approach to vibe-checking churches
• Find the ones doing real work who just need $3,000-$5,000
• "Do things that don't scale"
• "Where's the Mackenzie Bezos of small Christian churches?"

Reflections on Masculine Christian Leadership

• Gary noted most people who move in the spirit are women he knows
• His spiritual moms "almost care too little about the material reality"
• Question: What does it mean to be a masculine Christian that respects spiritual reality while integrating into the world?
• Pastors are in their own category - their whole life is Christ
• Challenge for Gary and Alex: how to be effective, obedient followers while flourishing professionally

Alex's "Maybe the Problem is Us" Reflection

• Questioning whether trying to "save the world" is ego-driven
• "There's no need to save the world. It's already done. Everything is perfect and going according to plan"
• God doesn't need any of us - "He can use a rock, can use a fish in a lake"
• Gary countered: community builders are given gifts for a reason
• Alex agreed it's a "gut check, ego check along the way"

Key Quotes

Alex on his spiritual journey:

• "I went to the other side, I went to the forbidden area, and I see how the big picture works"
• "Christianity is much bigger on morality and justice in a way that the others aren't"
• "Once you know, you can't unknow. Once you've seen, you can't unsee"

Alex on New Age seduction:

• "It has an incredibly seductive power when Christ is removed, because it makes you God"
• "Doesn't require any submission or obedience or repentance"

Alex on his artistic calling:

• "I'd like to proclaim [Christ is King] through art, and storytelling. And everything else I do is really just to pay my bills"

Gary on his approach:

• "Millions of people believe in Christ more... or now for the first time, because of content I put out, stories I put out"

On their shared identity:

• Alex: "We're pretty niche, bro... You don't find it every day"

On funding spiritual warfare:

• Gary: "The best spiritual war interventions are not things that the techno capital world would get at all"

Action Items / Takeaways

• Gary to send transcript to Alex
• Gary ordered "Blue Like Jazz" audiobook
• Gary to watch "No Other Choice" film
• Both exploring what "thought leadership" could look like for Christian capital allocation
• Continued collaboration on articulating why "flesh vs flesh" warfare is misguided
• Gary developing "ambitious Christianity" media concept
• Alex continuing Christic high art vision development