Your Ticket Out of Crazy Town

This a question I have often pondered over the past 10 years…

How do people who believe in the craziest shit still manage to be functioning adults? I mean, how does someone who believes the government controls the weather still remember to pay their utility bills and show up for work?

More recently, a new question has arisen…

If there’s a ticket to Crazy Town, is there one for getting out?

At the heart of these questions is a desire to better understand extremism.

Extremism isn’t just about having strong opinions or wearing the same clothes and chanting the same incantations. At its core, extremism is about living in an alternative reality—a mental world where your beliefs have become so inflated, so intertwined with your sense of self, that you’re willing to defend them with violence, if necessary. It’s when your worldview becomes non-negotiable, and anyone who dares to question it is treated like a mortal enemy. Extremism turns a disagreement into a war, a debate into an existential threat, and a differing opinion into heresy.

Sadly, the proliferation of echo chambers produces plenty of invitations to slip into extremism and not even realize it’s happening. You start with a few strong convictions, and before you know it, your ego has wrapped itself around those beliefs like barbed wire. Your ideas stop being just ideas—they become your identity. They become the lens through which you see the entire world, and eventually, anyone who challenges them becomes the “enemy.”

Most people don’t go from zero to extremist overnight. It happens gradually, through a series of mental traps that your ego lays for you. Here’s how it usually plays out:

1. You stop questioning yourself

Your ego loves certainty. It wants to believe that everything you think and feel is right, and it gets real uncomfortable when you start asking questions like, “Why do I believe this?” or “Could I be wrong?” So, eventually, you stop asking. You let your beliefs sit there, unexamined, and slowly but surely, they harden into absolutes.

2. You over-identify with your thoughts

This is where the real danger kicks in. You start mistaking your beliefs for you. Instead of treating your thoughts as passing mental events, you start treating them as an extension of your identity. Now, it’s not just that you believe something—it’s that you are that belief. And when someone challenges it? It feels like they’re attacking your very existence.

3. You feel an uncontrollable need to defend your worldview

The more your ego identifies with your beliefs, the more defensive you get. Your worldview stops being just a perspective and becomes a fortress—something you feel compelled to protect at all costs. And that’s when things get dangerous. The ego hates uncertainty, so it reacts to any challenge with fear and aggression. This is where people start justifying violence, thinking, “If I don’t fight back, my world will collapse.”

But here’s the good news… the truth that sets you free is already inside you, and so is the tool: the power to observe your own mind.

One of the best practices for using our God-like ability for self-observation is called Vipassana; a form of mindfulness meditation that focuses on observing thoughts, sensations, and emotions with detached awareness. It trains the mind to see things as they really are, rather than through the distorted lens of the ego. Vipassana is a Pali word that translates to “insight” or “clear seeing.” The practice is believed to have originated over 2,500 years ago and was taught by the Buddha as a key method for gaining insight into the true nature of the mind and reality.

Scientifically, Vipassana has been shown to reduce activity in the amygdala, the brain’s fear center, and strengthen the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for self-awareness, impulse control, and emotional regulation. This rewiring of the brain enhances mental clarity, reduces emotional reactivity, and helps break patterns of automatic thinking, making it a powerful tool for introspection and emotional balance.

If you’re already halfway down the path to extremism—or even if you just want to make sure you never go there—Vipassana is the way out. Vipassana is a practice that rips the mask off your ego and shows you the raw, unfiltered truth of your mental life. It forces you to sit in silence, watch your thoughts, and realize just how much of what’s going on in your head is bullshit. It teaches you to see your beliefs for what they really are: temporary, fluid, and not nearly as personal as you’ve been led to believe.

Here’s how Vipassana helps you break free from the grip of extremist thinking:

You start to see your thoughts as separate from yourself

When you practice Vipassana, you’re not engaging with your thoughts—you’re just observing them. And the more you observe, the more you realize that your thoughts are just that: thoughts. They’re not facts, and they’re definitely not you. This is the first step to breaking the ego’s stranglehold on your beliefs. When you stop over-identifying with your thoughts, you stop treating every challenge to them like an attack on your identity.

You learn to sit with discomfort without reacting

One of the hardest parts of Vipassana is sitting with the uncomfortable emotions that come up when your ego feels threatened. But that’s exactly the point. Vipassana teaches you to observe those feelings—whether it’s anger, fear, or defensiveness—without reacting to them. You watch them rise, and you watch them fall. And eventually, you realize that you don’t have to act on every impulse your ego throws at you. This is how you stop the extremist cycle before it starts.

You stop defending your beliefs like they’re sacrosanct

The ego’s biggest trick is convincing you that your beliefs are sacred, and that they need to be defended at all costs. But once you’ve practiced Vipassana for a while, you start to see that your beliefs are just another part of the mental noise. They come and go. They’re not permanent, and they’re not worth fighting over like they’re the Holy Grail. This realization takes the pressure off. You can have beliefs without clinging to them, without feeling like you need to justify them with violence or aggression.

If you’re wondering whether you’re on the path to becoming an extremist—or maybe already there—here’s a simple Vipassana-based exercise to help you figure it out (hint: if your impulse is on a binary spectrum between the impulse to isolate and the impulse to commit violence, you’re already an extremist):

• Sit down and shut up: Find a quiet spot, sit comfortably, and focus on your breath. Let your thoughts come and go without getting involved in them.

• Bring to mind a belief you hold strongly: Pick something you’re passionate about—something that, if challenged, makes your blood boil. Notice how your body reacts when you think about it. Are you tense? Angry? That’s your ego gripping onto the belief.

• Ask yourself: Why do I believe this? Is this belief actually grounded in reality, or am I holding onto it because it makes me feel secure? What would happen if I let go of this belief? Would I still be me?

• Observe your defensiveness: When you feel the urge to defend your belief, don’t act on it. Just watch the feeling come up and let it pass. Recognize it for what it is: the ego’s knee-jerk reaction to protect itself.

If you practice Vipassana consistently, it will eventually return you to your core Self. And here is where you find the ticket out of Crazy Town: it reconnects you with your power to choose. This ability to pause, reflect, and respond consciously is a direct threat to extremism, which thrives on impulsive, fear-driven reactions and rigid, unquestioned beliefs. You become less susceptible to manipulation and ideological control when you reclaim the power to choose how you think and act. That’s why authoritarians and extremist groups target this ability—they rely on people reacting without reflection, on blind loyalty, and on a population that can be easily controlled through fear and division. Vipassana breaks that cycle.

Then the ego can actually begin to evolve. Instead of seeing the power to choose as a threat, the ego can gradually recognize that this space for conscious decision-making allows for a more balanced and empowered self. As you practice observing your thoughts and emotions without immediate reaction, the ego can shift from being a rigid defender of old beliefs to a more adaptable, flexible part of your consciousness. This evolution of the ego allows it to become a supporter of growth, helping you navigate life with greater clarity and resilience. In this way, the ego transforms from something that clings to extremism into a partner in embracing more thoughtful, compassionate choices.

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Here’s the thing: there’s a reason extremism is tempting. There’s a shit ton of unpredictability in the world: the 2024 election, the climate crisis, global instability, crushing economic pressures, and more. Add to that generational and social change that forces us to confront the temporalness of our beliefs - especially for white people. No wonder we feel a pull to put on the red hat and nestle deeper into the warm embrace of madness - even if it costs us our soul and sanity.

Vipassana is your way out. Or more accurately, it’s your way into reality. It’s the practice that teaches you to sit with uncertainty, to recognize when your ego is getting out of hand, and to see your beliefs for what they really are: thoughts, not reality. So if you don’t want to end up screaming into the void, clutching onto your alternative reality like it’s the last chopper out of Nam, start practicing Vipassana.

Because at the end of the day, the real threat isn’t the 2024 election or the state of the world—it’s the unchecked extremism growing inside your own head.