What is this thing we call money?

(*Transcription of my opening speech at the public cryptoconference we held in San Miguel de Allende, México, on December 11th, 2021.)

In late 2014, I made a bold move. I went from a very steady and safe 9-to-5 corner-office job, with the whole corporate identity, fanciness, and high heels every day, to the uncharted territories of entrepreneurship. But beyond looking for the entrepreneur life, I was following my heart, which was telling me that it was time to move on, that I had already learned what I needed to take the following steps and continue exploring my own path and mission. 

Then, in early 2015, I moved for a while to upper New York state, in the middle of the harshest winter (at -30 Celcius), with the idea of learning this fresh approach to kinesiology and opening a new and innovative business with my partners when I came back home. Although it was all new to me -from places and weather to people- I knew that letting go of the illusion of control and embracing uncertainty was the right choice.

And it was there, on a very snowy day when I first heard about Bitcoin and got immediately curious about it. 

I didn't know exactly what it was, mainly because the girlfriend who told me about it was also trying to understand it herself. But I got the main idea and started to look for some clues. I didn't know where to start or how to get in, and nobody around me knew much about it, not even my techie friends or ex-colleagues, which increased my curiosity even more.

A little later that year, I met a fascinating man with whom I could converse about all sorts of professional and geeky topics, including crypto. He was there when I got my first Bitcoin later in 2016, and the blockchain adventures began for me.

And beyond technical details, what I can tell you about the crypto world is that it moves VERY fast, way faster than any other industry I know. So much so that there's always something new to learn every day, and I find that very exciting.

In general terms, cryptocurrency works using a not-so-new technology called blockchain -or a chain of blocks, which is "simply" a general ledger accessible anytime, from anywhere, by all the parties involved. By its nature, it makes falsifications impossible. 

I still remember in the summer of 1997, while I was in high school, spending my free hours in the computer lab, learning as much as I could -although I found it boring memorizing all those DOS commands. And one day, I saw one of my peers doing something different and having fun with it. He told me he was texting with people in Europe in real time without paying long-distance fees.

However, no teachers were teaching that; all I could do was use the school's computer in my spare time because back then, I didn't have "the" internet "installed" at home, so I figured it all out by myself through trial and error and with little help from my peers as they were so busy chatting with strangers.

Back in the day, the internet needed a phone landline and a big chunky computer at home for it to be painfully slow, with meager resolution in pixelated images and quite ugly websites that were mainly plain directories.

The evolution of internet took many years. Then, I was lucky to get a prized Blackberry -the precursor for all smartphones. From that point on, things exponentially accelerated. 

A smartphone is nothing less than a pocket computer. And here we are today: doing home office, video calls, sending money, photos, voice messages, and even exploring the neighborhood in Google Maps -we've all seen memes about such comparisons that today seem more like a legend.

BLOCKCHAIN IS THE NEW INTERNET

Today, it is clear that blockchain technology is the new internet. Blockchain technology is the new internet. It holds the same potential, if not more, that internet had back in the 90s; look where we are today.

With blockchain technology, we eliminate the need to centralize information. Let's use your bank account as an example. 

When you need your statement to see your balance, you can use the bank's website or go to their branch in town. 

The information is yours, and the money is yours, but you don't really own it as you rely entirely on the bank to know and keep this information safe and accurate. If the bank -in this case- wanted to charge you with a few extra cents, they could do it, and you would not even notice. It already happens, where big corporations take money from one pocket and put it into the other to make their numbers even, using money from their unaware clients. We all know somebody, or it's even happened to us, that we find unrecognized charges or fees in our accounts, and the hassle of following up a fraudulent transaction in a bank seems like a daunting task. 

In cryptocurrencies, the need for a "bank" or central figure administrating all the users' data is eliminated.  

Cryptocurrencies work on a peer-to-peer basis, where I can send funds directly to the person's private wallet and not to the bank. 

This is the main reason why governments and corporations are so fearful of crypto; that's why there's so much propaganda about it being a bubble, or "not real money," or even saying that crypto is used only by criminals -therefore, is "bad."... 

They don't like cryptocurrencies because it actively empowers people to participate in their own finances.

DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT MONEY ACTUALLY IS?

Money is one of the most sensitive topics that there are.

Either it comes or goes; sometimes, we can feel this powerful attachment or even aversion to it.

Some people believe that money can be "good" or "bad" per se, but we know that nothing is inherently good or bad, as it all depends on who's speaking and what it is that they do with it. 

Money can be used to feed a family or pay a bribe, pay for food or pay for silence upon a crime.

Money is also something we do not tend to question; as a society, we think of it as something fixed that has always been there and will forever.

There is a generalized belief that fiat money is real, with massive underground vaults keeping mountains of gold and backing up such currency. 

But have you ever tried claiming back your "money note" for its weight in gold as portrayed in the old Western movies? Have you ever heard that what made the bills valuable was a unique material hidden in the money paper itself and that it would be worth nothing without it? As a kid, I heard such a thing, and it seemed more like a mystery.

Yet, not all money is the same as Dollars are not the same as Euros, Yuans, Pesos, or Bolívares.

The money we use every day is called fiat, or dinero fiduciario in Spanish.

The currencies from a country are called fiat money, just like Dollars and others: all of them are fiat currencies.

The word fiat itself is profound. Its meaning and etymology go from something decreed by a government to something related to faith and action.

We could say that we use fiat currencies out of faith in the powers that own those vaults of gold that nobody can ever visit. We use fiat because we collectively "believe" in its value. Society has agreed that a specific currency is valid within a particular territory because the centers of power have approved it. But we as a society have a more significant say in it than we give credit for.

IS ELECTRONIC MONEY THE SAME AS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

Real cryptocurrencies will always be decentralized, meaning that they are not managed by a government but by the people, like you and me, regardless of their location, age, or nationality. 

It is the power of decentralization that makes cryptocurrencies a threat to governments and conquerors because cryptocurrency is a statement that gives back power to the people. And you and I are people.

"IN CRYPTOGRAPHY WE TRUST"

When a big corporation such as Facebook, a bank, or a government issues its own "cryptocurrency," it is an oxymoron: there is no such thing as a centralized cryptocurrency. In such cases, it is just electronic money with a fancy name, but it is inherently not cryptocurrency.

This is precisely what the creators of Bitcoin had in mind when they published the project's whitepaper back in 2008 because we can trust in cryptography more than we can trust in people.

WHY DO WE HAVE TO "EARN" OUR LIVING? (OR HOW TO RIDE A WAVE)

We come from cultures that teach that life is only about survival, earning money through hardship, raising us with fear, patriarchal cultures dedicated to obtaining and owning, forgetting about the self to the point of its negation—dividing spirit and nature. 

Cartesian, Darwinian, and Newtonian cultures, where religion took care of the spiritual and the mystical, while science took care of the material -as if they were separate from each other.

To understand the physical matter, we need to understand that matter and spirit are NOT divided. 

When we talk about abundance, we talk about energy.

Money is the materialization of our energy and resources.

We come from individualist cultures where survival drives existence, where we are used and abused to "make" their money.

We need to heal the money; we need to heal this perspective. 

Money is a "materialization" of the spirit: the spirit that holds a shape.

We generate money from energy. Therefore, we must change the paradigms of "what life is for" and that "it's about producing money." "Producing" because the idea of "earning" money, or "earning" life, is an unhelpful one that does not allow us to get in touch with our essence, which is what generates energy, life, and wealth.

We can be producers of wealth, not in the sense of money, but in resources. Those resources are health, love, beauty, vitality, and attention, and they are not only for us humans but also for the planet and its development. It connects us with nature because money is fundamentally energy related to the elements: earth, water, fire, and so on.

Our energy is linked to nature, and if we cannot conceive that what we produce as wealth and riches is not in service of nature, we won't be happy; it won't be fulfilling money but instead will paralyze us deep inside.

Money has been very distressing throughout history. And this has generated a lot of pain.

"Earning life" as if we didn't have it already, as if we did not deserve it regardless of being alive already.

We have literalized things and live with paradigms that see reality as concrete, material, and divided. We are not taught that, in the end, this is not a material reality but a spiritual reality.

Scientifically speaking, the reality is completely and totally of a spiritual nature. Physical particles emanate from the spirit itself; they are intrinsically connected. 

The spirit expresses itself, and we live this life of the spirit in the material reality. (read that again)

When we do not conceive it as such and perceive ourselves outside of the spirit (through the illusion of division) with a sensation of scarcity, we may feel that we are not worthy or have no value. And the fundamental value of all values is the spirit, the divine, and the infinite we bathe on.

MONEY AND GENEALOGY ARE NOT THAT UNRELATED:

MONEY AS AN ARCHETYPE

It is clear that we must work and develop linking abilities, but from the notion that we are already whole.

The symbol of what money is itself has also been distorted on a genealogical level. Therefore, we must review those invisible genealogical loyalties and the beliefs around money and find out if there were financial damages, murderers, deaths, disputes in couples, immigration, poverty... all of that piles up over the internal archetype of money. And we also have social concepts and constructs.

We must do an internal cleansing of such archetype, allowing it to become a vehicle for a broader situation than the past conditionings.

We also confuse money with emotional and affective situations -was I loved or not loved? Do I have value or not? Am I a producer? Or not?... All those parasites will come out with such cleansing, and we will see them arise as we explore the cryptoworld, starting today.

We are in the midst of a deep human transformative process, and all those processes are like the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. If we face such a process, it becomes necessary and is on us to do such a job. 

The "intentionality" of this very energy is currently being processed by all human beings, little by little integrating it, allowing consciousness and awareness to become more and more abundant in all of us. That is the job.

The proposal is to do what we must to continue moving ahead in this evolutionary process.

The money energy itself already did its quantum leap -not because of the pandemic, but because consciousness is vibing very differently now. It is appropriate to align ourselves with it, do some cleansing, and clear out what this new consciousness is asking us to manifest. We cannot just stay the same. If consciousness changes, it is our human duty to make adjustments.

Many of us are already processing such adjustments, taking this crisis as an opportunity.

BACK TO BASICS

Money speaks to our mammal brain and our reptilian brain dimension, which is about food, territory, progeny, and descendants. When those needs aren't met, they stress out. It reacts whenever we see money being wasted or broken, like when a magician does the trick of breaking a bill. It is paper, but it is also not just paper. Money is powerful. 

Those are conditionings to generate wealth -enough to see that the Vatican doesn't survive out of charity but as a powerful multinational corporation with so much gold that they could easily help save Africa from famine -if they wanted.

A deceitful and mendacious society makes us believe that life is about money so we can become buyers to enrich the elites.

If we do not heal the money, we will miss an extension of existence. 

We are not taught that we can produce ecological money (that one is tricky) and altruistic, spiritual, that helps the world, dedicated to planetary health, and dedicated to growth -not only intellectually but on all levels.

The planet is being destroyed, and humanity is facing such a reality.

If we humans do not do this job and transform such conditioning, we could unconsciously become accomplices to such destruction.

It is not enough to do this job mentally, emotionally, or on a sexual level. Money is essential. Symbolically speaking, it is the body, the vehicle, the matter manifested.

How can we move such a vehicle if it's oxidized with polluting substances?

They say: Money doesn't matter, let's not worry about it, but we do have to care about it. It is vital because the world's destruction is related to this neurotic fixation in relation to money and the false search for power through it. Money doesn't buy happiness, but it participates in it. 

WHAT DOES ABUNDANCE ACTUALLY MEAN IN LAYMAN'S TERMS?

It is joyful to generate healthy money. We are all entitled to live a comfortable life full of health and abundance—an abundance of what's necessary to cover each one's particular needs.

It can be generated, but it also falls onto us to change the perspective and to learn that, in the end, it's about improving and enriching.

Becoming enrichers aligned with the intentionality of existence, walking our talk, trusting the process, dropping the ego because it only cares about filling its own emotional and affective deficiencies, its own depreciation, thirst for power... and surrendering all of that more masterfully. 

We can be sure that things will flow at that moment because the nature of existence is abundant in all senses.

When we don't have sustenance, or when we cannot pay for our house, health, our children... there is anguish and distress. And it's about calming down and self-regulating that part within us... unless we turn into a hermit, move to the forest, and live in a cave out of mendicancy -the way many mystics and sages have done before, generating a detached attitude towards the material. 

We get attached when our wounds and neurosis have not been healed. 

We must find out what's with the money-related neurosis, how it is that it arose in the first place, and how it is that we evade ourselves through this normalized neurosis. I'm sure you all know someone who has a lot, but they never have enough.

FINANCIAL EDUCATION = PSYCHOTHERAPY

Healthy money is related to a healthy, psycho-spiritual life, and we need therapy for this.

When we talk about money, it is not just about money but about the being. It is fundamental to follow a psycho-spiritual process if money is to be produced through the being. 

Difficulties around money are but an invitation to go within and review it all -our ideas, emotional wounds, instincts, sexuality, power, body, identity, birth, and position in the family... And healing the money, somehow, also heals it all.

When we pay for something, we pass on all of the energy we used to produce it with our passion, creativity, intelligence, body energy, spirit, soul, and everything... It is sacred to bind and link that divine energy in a transaction.

Suppose you produce money from that which you love, from your passion, from the transpersonal to help instead of manipulating with deceptive marketing that sells poison as candy... at least with our attitude and intention, with altruism, and from experiencing our spirit. In that case, each cent that you produce is joyful; it is sound and well-intentioned, and it is a good money.

Pseudo-spiritualism has also been mixed with all these beliefs around a magical vision board, where we can generate everything instantly by sometimes imagining pointless wealth... What do you want that toilet made of gold for? 

It is dangerous as it is childish, wanting it all very fast like Superman, without first touching the human, going through the wounds, and processing the pain. What in alchemy is called La Via Lunga: years of inner work on ourselves, and there are no shortcuts like being 8-year-olds wanting to be 25 by using a costume without actually doing the job it takes.

The psycho-spiritual process takes time, and it is not a passive process. A butterfly cannot just jump out of the cocoon in 2 seconds, as it needs to process everything internally, which requires patience and dedication, just like a garden.

Why is it "having" prioritized over "being"? Are we human beings or human "doings"?

NOT ALL CUPS ARE GOOD FOR TEA

The universe gives. If we ask the universe to provide us with the perfect boyfriend, with such and such... it will be given, but you might not be ready. Like asking the ocean to come live in my cup, and then the ocean comes into my cup, but the cup explodes. And things happen.

So, more than asking for something that we are unwilling to work for, you know? -becoming a person that attracts other people who share your values or awareness level. 

Suppose you free yourself from the conditions that block the money flow. In that case, you start producing, and it becomes unnecessary to ask for things because they get generated. That inner work puts us in a position that attracts and generates.

THE KEYS

Many lottery winners spend their money very fast; they do not feel it pertains to them; therefore, they cannot hold it.

We cannot pretend that the river will go in the direction we want it to, but we must remove the stones and obstacles to flow in its natural order.

If we develop ourselves, we generate what is for us, and we become "enrichers." Discovering our own abundance and richness that lies within us. Unlearning the structures we were raised in, as a reinvention, as a redirecting. 

But that needs courage, like a salmon swimming against the current. Yet, simultaneously, the salmon swims back to their origin, where they were born, to their source.

And we align ourselves with the universe through our inner work.

HARD WORK, HARDSHIP, AND SACRIFICE

We are definitely not in the past century anymore, when it was of a good Christian to sacrifice, enduring pain while being on our knees. 

Money awakens feelings of fear within us, but fear as an instinct of survival is helpful; we would not move without it. 

So it is like learning to walk on a tightrope, using "that" instinct and "that" stress in a helpful way.

Giving and receiving is a spiritual vehicle. And the commitment to our spirituality is the fundamental subject of humanity.

It is not merely a philosophical situation but actual energy; it is what we are, so the calling is to unify ourselves with our own spiritual dimension; otherwise, this world won't have it easy. 

Producing for the benefit of us all, from the "me" to the "we." Healing happens when we step fully onto our own path, even if we "rationally" don't know what that looks like.

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

The external always has an inner meaning. What happens inside happens outside. We cannot live a life of abundance that fulfills our needs and wants if internally we have the money all burnt, or in a sewer, in a grave, in the blood, at war, with resentment, or in the childish... it cannot be. 

So, we must review many situations within our families as they are often and inadvertently related to money. 

We must understand the past to be able to take a leap forward.

Thank you.

*In memoriam of my friend Cristóbal Jodorowsky and the cups of tea we shared.