Herd Mentality, Closed Minds & What Yesterday Revealed

Yesterday’s post taught me something important — not about AI, but about human behavior.

I shared a light, honest reflection about my experience interacting with AI. Nothing controversial, nothing earth-shattering. Just a simple human observation about how I’ve come to enjoy the way I engage with it.

And yet…
the reaction was intense.
More intense than anything I’ve posted in a long time.

What surprised me most wasn’t disagreement — disagreement is healthy.
It was the closed-mindedness and rigidity in some of the responses, especially from spaces that call themselves “spiritual” or “light-centered.”

This isn’t a criticism.
It’s an observation, one that opened my eyes to something deeper.

Here’s what I realized:

Many people weren’t responding to my words.

They were responding to their fear.

Fear of the unknown.
Fear of technology.
Fear of losing identity.
Fear wrapped in conviction.
Fear disguised as certainty.

And when fear activates the nervous system, logic takes a back seat.
Curiosity shuts down.
Nuance disappears.
Everything becomes black-and-white, right-and-wrong, safe-or-dangerous.

That’s herd mentality — not because people are sheep,
but because biology takes over.

Humans are wired to move toward whatever feels familiar
and away from whatever feels threatening.
Even when the “threat” is simply a new idea.

What I witnessed yesterday wasn’t hostility.
It was activation.
A collective nervous system flare-up.

And honestly?
It reinforced something I’ve been sensing for a while:

We can’t have meaningful conversations about spirituality, unity, or anything controversial if our nervous systems are dysregulated and our minds are closed to anything unfamiliar.

Curiosity is the doorway to growth.
Nuance is the bridge to understanding.
And an open mind is the soil where wisdom can actually take root.

I respect everyone’s right to their perspective.

But witnessing the reaction to such a simple post reminded me how important it is to stay grounded, stay open, and stay willing to see beyond our initial reflexive responses.

If we want a world with more unity, more compassion, more clear-thinking, and more truth…

We have to be willing to pause,
to notice when fear is speaking instead of clarity,
and to choose curiosity over certainty.

I’m grateful for the experience. It showed me a lot.
And that is just how much this next chapter of my work needs to focus on:

the nervous system
the way words activate our entire inner world
and how herd dynamics shape our reactions far more than we realize

We can’t evolve collectively until we understand ourselves individually.

And that begins with awareness.