Up until you go through an authentic adulthood initiation, you don’t know that you don’t know that there are such things as authentic adulthood initiations.
You might have heard the words…
You might have heard the stories…
You have read the stories in a book…
But up until you go through one, all the way, you have no idea that it was possible.
Nothing could be compared to it.
You can make an analogy, such as going to Costa Rica.
I’ve never been to Costa Rica.
I’ve seen the map. I’ve seen the pictures. I’ve even seen videos. I’ve talked to people from Costa Rica. I’ve listened to music from Costa Rica. I’ve read of their traditions and stories.
But I’ve never been to Costa Rica.
Until you go to Costa Rica, everything you know about Costa Rica, is theoretical, it lives in your mind, in concepts, in ideas.
You have not experienced Costa Rica in all your 5 bodies.
If you think that you know Costa Rica because you’ve read about it, then you are living in a fantasy world.
The reality is that up until you go to Costa Rica, or go through Costa Rica, you don’t know Costa Rica.
Damn, now I really want to know Costa Rica.
Up until you go through an initiation, you don’t know what’s on the other side.
This is the landmark of an initiation.
Throughout your life, you have gone through different initiations, which have led you to grow down and up and take more responsibility.
You don’t know what it’s like to be a parent, until you become one.
There is no way of knowing.
No matter how many books you read, how many videos you watch, how many parents you spend your time with, or how much you convince yourself.
Up until you become a parent, you don’t know what it’s like to be a parent.
What am I trying to say?
I’m trying to say that there are 2 things:
What you don’t know
What you don’t know that you don’t know
Is there a third thing?
Yes, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth, and so on.
Which one do you think is bigger?
—What you don’t know? Or, what you don’t know that you don’t know?
I’m not speaking in circles here.
What I’m pointing to is that most of us have been trained since childhood to avoid looking into the great unknown, or even having the sensitivity that there is an unknown.
Rather, we are trained to put a band-aid on any crack that questions the reality where we live.
Death, for example.
Many people, beliefs and religions have all sorts of band-aids for death.
These band-aids prevent the individual from having their own experience, and instead, they borrow someone else’s experience, someone else’s words, beliefs, ideas, and concepts, and that satisfies their curiosity.
They stop wondering.
They stop asking questions.
They stop digging in, exploring, discovering, refining.
They conform to the common consensus.
Who benefits from this?
Power-seeking organizations and individuals who benefit from exploiting disempowered, obedient, subdued human beings.
The result is a factory of human beings who do not have their authority. Whom their authority lives outside of them for somebody else to use.
How is this connected with authentic adulthood initiatory processes?
It is connected because we live in a world with a dominant culture (or anti-culture as I’ve heard Ian MacKenzie call it), ALL authentic initiatory processes have been ripped out of the fabric of creating adult human beings.
And most people don’t know because they’ve never gone to Costa Rica.
They’ve never gone through an initiation.
They’ve stayed comfortable, in their homes, in their jobs, in the busyness of their lives, in the drama of their relationships, in the watching of movies, the drinking of alcohol, the smoking of substances, and the many other ways to escape reality.
What reality?
That we live in a responsible world.
Every action has a reaction.
You throw a pebble in the water, and it creates ripples.
Right now, corporations are creating enormous messes without any intention of cleaning them up.
Environmental messes.
Societal messes.
Political messes.
The Earth has boundaries.
When these boundaries are crossed, the whole system comes out of balance and collapses, making this place no longer inhabitable for human beings.
Many of these planetary boundaries are already being breached.
Meanwhile…
…Some people continue to operate as business as usual.
…Others are taking full advantage of the collapse and desperation to further exploit other human beings and natural resources for their survival and personal profit.
…A few others are protesting, going to the street, using their voices to expose the real purpose of the system.
…A few others are going through initiatory adulthood processes to become the agents who can take the level of responsibility needed to be taken to fully face this cultural and environmental crisis creatively and not out of reactivity or survival which would just repeat the past.
Who knew that adulthood could be this much fun?
Nobody prepared you for this.
Now, as an adult, you get to choose the game you play and how you play it.
They might have tried to extinguish your flame, to kill the seed of life that you carry, but it is still there, alive, and well.
You’ve done well surviving. You made it. It worked.
Whatever you did, it worked. You are here.
Now, you are an adult, but your internal system is stuck at a time back when you stopped feeling because it was too dangerous, back when you made a decision to play safe rather than to play full out, back when you chose to survive instead of choosing yourself.
You are not wrong for surviving. You are not wrong for using survival strategies, to hide, to avoid, to repress your feelings, to deny your authentic being, to numb. You are not wrong. You are not evil. You are not broken. You are not a coward. You are not a traitor. You are not weak.
I think that you were protecting something precious, an enormous gift that you came here to share and create in this world.
Is it time now?
Is it time to remember?
Are you ready to remember what you came here for?
In Love,
Jorge & Gaia
Your survival strategies did their job: They got you here.
But to face the planetary and cultural shifts now, you need an internal system that can do more than “hide and avoid.”
You need the capacity to feel, to relate, and to create from a place of radical responsibility.
In the Fall of 2026, we’re bringing an Expand The Box to Canada.
Expand The Box is a 4-5 day residential training, or a month-long online training, where you go through a series of initiations into adulthood.
Gaining revolutionary relating skills that create intimacy
Learning how to consciously feel mad, sad, glad and scared
Distinguishing between your box, your gremlin and your being
Going through initiatory processes that create new possibilities in your life
Geting tools to create the village, family, or project of your wildest dreams
Fill out this form and let us know that you’re interested: https://forms.gle/pNTJXPHxPvYrFQU5A
Get on the list for ETB Canada 2026
Authentic Adulthood Initiations
https://adulthood.mystrikingly.com/
Transform your feelings from a burden to a resource
https://jorgepedret.gumroad.com/l/sourcing-your-feelings
Allow yourself to finally feel anger consciously for no reason
https://3-3-3.mystrikingly.com/
Join the next Rage Club
https://rageclub.org/
Join the next Expand The Box Training
https://possibilitymanagement.org/etb
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