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The Daimon and the Soul of the West: Finding identity, meaning, and purpose in a sacrificial life
We, Western minds, have forgotten who we are, despite having never once stopped being who we are. We’ve lost touch with the impersonal, Daimonic forces that give us direction and the sacrificial nature of our existence. No longer do we realize that our lives aren't, have never been, and will never be about ourselves. Consequently, we've lost our ability to sense the immanent context that couches our lives in meaning and purpose. Our alienation from our own inborn nature and role has led to a tragic a divorce between essence and narrative, being and action. This book is an effort to help heal this schism. It’s about re-encountering our natural selves and guiding Daimon, re-tuning into the archetypal dispositions we embody, and re-learning how to navigate the choppy waters of life in a spontaneous and fulfilling manner.
167 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 26, 2025
45 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Bernardo Kastrup
36 books652 followersBernardo Kastrup is the Executive Director of Essentia Foundation and Founder/CEO at AI systems company Euclyd BV. His work has set off the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence). As a scientist, Bernardo has worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Philips Research Laboratories (where the 'Casimir Effect' of Quantum Field Theory was discovered). He has also been creatively active in the high-tech industry for almost 30 years, having founded parallel processor company Silicon Hive (acquired by Intel in 2011) and worked as a technology strategist for the geopolitically significant company ASML. Most recently, he has founded AI hardware company Euclyd BV. Formulated in detail in many academic papers and books, Bernardo's ideas have been featured on 'Scientific American,' the magazine of 'The Institute of Art and Ideas,' the 'Blog of the American Philosophical Association' and 'Big Think,' among others. His most defining book is 'Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell: A straightforward summary of the 21st-century's only plausible metaphysics.' For more information, visit www.bernardokastrup.com.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 19, 2025
I always enjoy reading more biographical works of people whose work I admire. The philosophy put forward though I believe is flawed. Here is what I disagree with:
1. The positing of an entity (the daimon) to refer to aspects of yourself you have a hard time integrating into your ego.
2. The lack of self-awarenes into the mind-body connection when it comes to symptoms. To anyone who has studied the work of John Sarno, it's very clear Bernardo has TMS. He's a kind of poster child for it actually, putting a shit ton of pressure on himself and creating games where he has the right to relax only after working on things he doesn't want to (!) but his daimon wants him to. And of course, like any mind game you play with yourself, you do get real relief when your made up conditions for winning are met. That's not very far from what people with OCD do daily. He then treats his overactive nervous system symptoms (IBS, tinnitus, anxiety, insomnia, etc.) as structural ailments (he falls in the common trap of believing that because something had an acute beginning, its chronic continuation must be structural, which Sarno talks about) and does not relate it to his way of living and thinking. You'd think that the fact he got some relief by taking an antidepressant would nudge him to that conclusion, but somehow his logic works around it. This is no different than the philosophy spoused by Jordan Peterson, which also amounts to "repress and do more". Jordan Peterson also takes antidepressants and as I write these words is back home after a period at an ICU because of "mysterious ailments that defy logical explanation". Sigh. A couple years back he nearly died from trying extreme forms of weaning from benzos. The guy is another poster child for TMS, and like Kastrup, devised a whole philosophy to teach people to be like them and get these awesome health results. You'd think people like him and Kasturp would use these questionable health results to do an extreme makeover of their worldview until they find one where their bodies seem to be in tune with the lives they're leading instead of suffering so often, taking pills and even considering suicide. But alas, they are so locked in their coping mechanisms of workaholism (discussed below) that they instead double down on it, posit that life is actually suffering anyway and being happy is for kids or the naive, and why not to top it all off add an incorporeal executioner to the mix. Holy moly. Talk about the blind leading the blind.
3. As mentioned above, he is hopelessly oblivious of his workaholism, which seems to be his main venue for dealing with his huge pent-up anxiety. Since this avenue is enough only to reduce temporarily the pressure he constitutionally puts on himself, he then plays the aforementioned mental game where he allows himself to relax if he works more ("obey the daemon"). The relief it gives him is ever only temporary, of course. He then extrapolates to say this is the human condition, the perpetual uneasiness and dissatisfaction, instead of realizing that a mammal like us needs more than work to feel more permanently less anxious: we need family, community, belonging and of course, a philosophy that allows for a lot more rest and repair. He doesn't seem to have much in the way of any of that, not doing anything to integrate his home country and family into the picture and opting for a philosophy that only puts more demands on himself. I can't help to think he'd have profound breakthroughs if he became familiar with the family systems branch of psychology as theorized by Murray Bowen, and realized the unconscious energy it takes to maintain an emotional cut off of this proportion. Which takes me to the next point which is that...
4. He seems not to see that trying to ignore his brazilianness to the degree that he does is actually a great feat of repressing, since he is as Brazilian as they (we) come. A Brazilian intelectual in a country with not much in the way of great intelectuals, sure, but a Brazilian through and through. To me, that's a big shadow side he resists, wanting to always be seen as a european who happened to be born and raised (all the way into adultohood!) in Brazil, instead of a very Brazilian man who prefers living abroad for many reasons, including culture and work, sure, but the very important emotional one of the distance it provides from any association with Brazil (which is indeed a country riddled with problems and of a general tribal mindset like most third world countries), from his family, and perhaps most importantly, his mother.
There's more I could say but this review is long enough. I hope one day Bernardo truly integrates the Brazilian and his mother in him (which are currently overcompensated by Europe and father), and most importantly starts honoring his body, seeing it as much of a source of wisdom as his mind and his "daimon". Peace, happiness and health are possible in this life to a much greater degree than he believes. They're the actual compass of the wise if you ask me, and can make one's contribution to the world flow even better. I wouldn't doubt that a single book written by Bernardo where he was internally aligned and joyful during the task would have a greater impact in the world than his 10 books written in a state of agony to obey the executioner.
PS: In a recent interview he did with the actress from Big Bang Theory, she mentioned John Sarno but Bernardo didn't quite notice it. I was like "oooo.. so close!"
1. The positing of an entity (the daimon) to refer to aspects of yourself you have a hard time integrating into your ego.
2. The lack of self-awarenes into the mind-body connection when it comes to symptoms. To anyone who has studied the work of John Sarno, it's very clear Bernardo has TMS. He's a kind of poster child for it actually, putting a shit ton of pressure on himself and creating games where he has the right to relax only after working on things he doesn't want to (!) but his daimon wants him to. And of course, like any mind game you play with yourself, you do get real relief when your made up conditions for winning are met. That's not very far from what people with OCD do daily. He then treats his overactive nervous system symptoms (IBS, tinnitus, anxiety, insomnia, etc.) as structural ailments (he falls in the common trap of believing that because something had an acute beginning, its chronic continuation must be structural, which Sarno talks about) and does not relate it to his way of living and thinking. You'd think that the fact he got some relief by taking an antidepressant would nudge him to that conclusion, but somehow his logic works around it. This is no different than the philosophy spoused by Jordan Peterson, which also amounts to "repress and do more". Jordan Peterson also takes antidepressants and as I write these words is back home after a period at an ICU because of "mysterious ailments that defy logical explanation". Sigh. A couple years back he nearly died from trying extreme forms of weaning from benzos. The guy is another poster child for TMS, and like Kastrup, devised a whole philosophy to teach people to be like them and get these awesome health results. You'd think people like him and Kasturp would use these questionable health results to do an extreme makeover of their worldview until they find one where their bodies seem to be in tune with the lives they're leading instead of suffering so often, taking pills and even considering suicide. But alas, they are so locked in their coping mechanisms of workaholism (discussed below) that they instead double down on it, posit that life is actually suffering anyway and being happy is for kids or the naive, and why not to top it all off add an incorporeal executioner to the mix. Holy moly. Talk about the blind leading the blind.
3. As mentioned above, he is hopelessly oblivious of his workaholism, which seems to be his main venue for dealing with his huge pent-up anxiety. Since this avenue is enough only to reduce temporarily the pressure he constitutionally puts on himself, he then plays the aforementioned mental game where he allows himself to relax if he works more ("obey the daemon"). The relief it gives him is ever only temporary, of course. He then extrapolates to say this is the human condition, the perpetual uneasiness and dissatisfaction, instead of realizing that a mammal like us needs more than work to feel more permanently less anxious: we need family, community, belonging and of course, a philosophy that allows for a lot more rest and repair. He doesn't seem to have much in the way of any of that, not doing anything to integrate his home country and family into the picture and opting for a philosophy that only puts more demands on himself. I can't help to think he'd have profound breakthroughs if he became familiar with the family systems branch of psychology as theorized by Murray Bowen, and realized the unconscious energy it takes to maintain an emotional cut off of this proportion. Which takes me to the next point which is that...
4. He seems not to see that trying to ignore his brazilianness to the degree that he does is actually a great feat of repressing, since he is as Brazilian as they (we) come. A Brazilian intelectual in a country with not much in the way of great intelectuals, sure, but a Brazilian through and through. To me, that's a big shadow side he resists, wanting to always be seen as a european who happened to be born and raised (all the way into adultohood!) in Brazil, instead of a very Brazilian man who prefers living abroad for many reasons, including culture and work, sure, but the very important emotional one of the distance it provides from any association with Brazil (which is indeed a country riddled with problems and of a general tribal mindset like most third world countries), from his family, and perhaps most importantly, his mother.
There's more I could say but this review is long enough. I hope one day Bernardo truly integrates the Brazilian and his mother in him (which are currently overcompensated by Europe and father), and most importantly starts honoring his body, seeing it as much of a source of wisdom as his mind and his "daimon". Peace, happiness and health are possible in this life to a much greater degree than he believes. They're the actual compass of the wise if you ask me, and can make one's contribution to the world flow even better. I wouldn't doubt that a single book written by Bernardo where he was internally aligned and joyful during the task would have a greater impact in the world than his 10 books written in a state of agony to obey the executioner.
PS: In a recent interview he did with the actress from Big Bang Theory, she mentioned John Sarno but Bernardo didn't quite notice it. I was like "oooo.. so close!"
September 17, 2025
LOVEEEEEDDD this book!!!!@@@@ Like wowzers. Bernardo starts by recounting that Socrates was guided by a Daimon, an inner voice that would call out in protest whenever Socrates was on the wrong path. The greatest living philosopher of our time then continues by retelling the moments of his life where he was guided by his own Daimon, and how that led him to doing important work and overcoming his personal psychological challenges.
I liked
• The Daimon is biologically communicated: through bodily sensations of pleasure and pain, tension, and even pathologies like headaches and in Bernardo’s case, tinnitus. Think about what that means… If the Daimon is real, our bodies are the output instruments of some ungodly information processing system that can predict the future better than we can. And actually, if you take it as far as Bernardo can, our bodies know the future and past in its entirety, because he argues that the Daimon makes decisions sub specie aeternitatus, from the standpoint of eternity.
• I love how rigorous his arguments are. He always makes sense, and he always addresses everything you might critique even more clearly than you could possibly say it yourself.
• This is another point where he makes sense of hippy new age bs intuitions. Where morons in Bali guess, Bernardo reasons from first principles to the point in a compelling way. I love him for that.
• Bernardo is the fucking man. So it’s cool to hear his life story and hear about his personal challenges. As well as his future fears about being pressured by his Daimon into the wise old man archetype.
I didn’t like
• Bernardo argues the whole following-your-daimon-leads-to-meaning thing from the standpoint of him being a “western mind”. In other words, this is how western minds specifically generate meaning. For Eastern minds, go find a guru and meditate. This “westernness” is a central idea to the whole book, because he argues, in the West we are obsessed with analytic thinking, reason, and ultimately, the external world. We want to find the meaning in external objects and see our life as a meaningful contribution to the big cosmic drama. I honestly didn’t buy into much of this. I just didn’t, I don’t think our psychology is so heavily conditioned by our culture that it necessarily determines how we answer the big questions of life. Why should “what does life mean?” be all that different for someone born in Tibet vs Netherlands? Kastrup does anticipate this criticism near the end but his answer didn’t convince me, which is rare because I’ve literally bought into an entirely different metaphysical worldview because of this man’s arguments.
I liked
• The Daimon is biologically communicated: through bodily sensations of pleasure and pain, tension, and even pathologies like headaches and in Bernardo’s case, tinnitus. Think about what that means… If the Daimon is real, our bodies are the output instruments of some ungodly information processing system that can predict the future better than we can. And actually, if you take it as far as Bernardo can, our bodies know the future and past in its entirety, because he argues that the Daimon makes decisions sub specie aeternitatus, from the standpoint of eternity.
• I love how rigorous his arguments are. He always makes sense, and he always addresses everything you might critique even more clearly than you could possibly say it yourself.
• This is another point where he makes sense of hippy new age bs intuitions. Where morons in Bali guess, Bernardo reasons from first principles to the point in a compelling way. I love him for that.
• Bernardo is the fucking man. So it’s cool to hear his life story and hear about his personal challenges. As well as his future fears about being pressured by his Daimon into the wise old man archetype.
I didn’t like
• Bernardo argues the whole following-your-daimon-leads-to-meaning thing from the standpoint of him being a “western mind”. In other words, this is how western minds specifically generate meaning. For Eastern minds, go find a guru and meditate. This “westernness” is a central idea to the whole book, because he argues, in the West we are obsessed with analytic thinking, reason, and ultimately, the external world. We want to find the meaning in external objects and see our life as a meaningful contribution to the big cosmic drama. I honestly didn’t buy into much of this. I just didn’t, I don’t think our psychology is so heavily conditioned by our culture that it necessarily determines how we answer the big questions of life. Why should “what does life mean?” be all that different for someone born in Tibet vs Netherlands? Kastrup does anticipate this criticism near the end but his answer didn’t convince me, which is rare because I’ve literally bought into an entirely different metaphysical worldview because of this man’s arguments.
August 31, 2025
Kastrup is such a brilliant pattern spotter. He notices the commonalities between philosophies, theologies and the cultural differences at which they’re implemented to provide such an interesting and reflective exploration of their applications.
I would say this book is life changing for me. Especially for someone of Jamaican and British descent.
The concept of the Daimon and the western mind and then contrasted to the Pan-African mind has really helped me to recognise my own Daimon, the prophets of my people who came before me (Toussaint Louverture, Malcolm X, Sam Sharpe to name a few) and how the mind at large (Idealism, God’s mind etc) works through us in an immeasurable and intangible way to fulfil its own will.
Kastrup also provides such helpful frameworks to balance ego, Daimon, ID and humaneness.
Loved this book. It has set me on a deeper path to integrate and know more about my Daimon and to pursue further literature on Daimons.
Loved it. A softer, more personal book than his others.
I would say this book is life changing for me. Especially for someone of Jamaican and British descent.
The concept of the Daimon and the western mind and then contrasted to the Pan-African mind has really helped me to recognise my own Daimon, the prophets of my people who came before me (Toussaint Louverture, Malcolm X, Sam Sharpe to name a few) and how the mind at large (Idealism, God’s mind etc) works through us in an immeasurable and intangible way to fulfil its own will.
Kastrup also provides such helpful frameworks to balance ego, Daimon, ID and humaneness.
Loved this book. It has set me on a deeper path to integrate and know more about my Daimon and to pursue further literature on Daimons.
Loved it. A softer, more personal book than his others.
November 13, 2025
... Mr Kastrup: consider this qoute by Max Plank " Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery in nature, And it is because in the last analysis we ourselves are part of the mystery we try to solve". ...
At slightly over fifty percent through i sadly had to throw in the towel - the authors egocentric autobiographical aproach actually worked quite well, ... at first. illustrative of a kind of Jungian life journey. Showing great incite and genuinely fascinating examples that I could easily relate to.
Sadly the authors catastrophic lack of knowledge concerning both near and far eastern philosophy (and no Mr Kastrup- the point of meditation is not to "escape" from things we find it hard to face- in fact over 3000 years of of philosophical incite should have been sufficient to have persuaded you you are 180° wrong on that particular little gem) as well as a total absence of quantum field theory - to be fair, maybe this was in the later part of the book- began the death spiral that entirely tanked the book for me. Come to think of it , is the author even aware of "field theory" ??
As the focus tightly narrowed on Mr Kastrups personal life (albeit interesting), it became clear this was an important cathartic exercise for the author reconciling himself with a tragic loss. had I read this maybe twenty years back i may have shared his perspective- thank god ( the gods, whatever) I've matured to be of a slightly broader ( unacademic) reader of ontology, philosophy and even physics. I would gladly donate and send the author some of my best books on near eastern philosophy ( and/or field theory )for free if he promises to read them with as open a mind as i did with some of his books- if you enjoyed Daniel Dennets now (in)famous work on consciousness you'll probably enjoy this. For those of us not so constrained in our capacity to think outside of the narrow focus of a mechanistic , reductionist, ( cartesian - may as well throw that one in there as well) "western " paradigm- save your precious reading time.
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong.
What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses.
There is no matter.”
— Albert Einstein
At slightly over fifty percent through i sadly had to throw in the towel - the authors egocentric autobiographical aproach actually worked quite well, ... at first. illustrative of a kind of Jungian life journey. Showing great incite and genuinely fascinating examples that I could easily relate to.
Sadly the authors catastrophic lack of knowledge concerning both near and far eastern philosophy (and no Mr Kastrup- the point of meditation is not to "escape" from things we find it hard to face- in fact over 3000 years of of philosophical incite should have been sufficient to have persuaded you you are 180° wrong on that particular little gem) as well as a total absence of quantum field theory - to be fair, maybe this was in the later part of the book- began the death spiral that entirely tanked the book for me. Come to think of it , is the author even aware of "field theory" ??
As the focus tightly narrowed on Mr Kastrups personal life (albeit interesting), it became clear this was an important cathartic exercise for the author reconciling himself with a tragic loss. had I read this maybe twenty years back i may have shared his perspective- thank god ( the gods, whatever) I've matured to be of a slightly broader ( unacademic) reader of ontology, philosophy and even physics. I would gladly donate and send the author some of my best books on near eastern philosophy ( and/or field theory )for free if he promises to read them with as open a mind as i did with some of his books- if you enjoyed Daniel Dennets now (in)famous work on consciousness you'll probably enjoy this. For those of us not so constrained in our capacity to think outside of the narrow focus of a mechanistic , reductionist, ( cartesian - may as well throw that one in there as well) "western " paradigm- save your precious reading time.
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong.
What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses.
There is no matter.”
— Albert Einstein
December 2, 2025
When the left brain becomes too dominant, it finds itself in a quandary. It can up its analytical game to nail down objectively why it should cede more oomph to its right-side counterpart; but that may serve only to aggravate the decibel imbalance between the two. On the other hand, the left side might try to all but mute itself in hopes of encouraging the right to take on a bigger role; but more than likely that will only showcase the left's fecklessness when trying to attain low noise levels.
Mr. Kastrup has good company among philosopher gurus who want to tamp down the left brain and boost the right: Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, and Ian McGilchrist come to mind. But there's potentially a humorous element in such a psychological stance where such authors' left-brains end up simply "protesting too much," in a manner approaching that of a Popeye cartoon dispute. That may be an exaggeration, but Kastrup's effort here did bring Popeye & co. to this reader's mind.
The ideal solution is for the wordy philosopher to become an artist instead, or perhaps, even better, a gardener whose friends are plants. Analytic philosophy of Kastrup's kind seems fated never to escape left-style shackles, no matter how hard it beefs about it. Maybe the whole issue should be side-stepped and the hemispheres allowed simply to move on as their nature directs.
Mr. Kastrup has good company among philosopher gurus who want to tamp down the left brain and boost the right: Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, and Ian McGilchrist come to mind. But there's potentially a humorous element in such a psychological stance where such authors' left-brains end up simply "protesting too much," in a manner approaching that of a Popeye cartoon dispute. That may be an exaggeration, but Kastrup's effort here did bring Popeye & co. to this reader's mind.
The ideal solution is for the wordy philosopher to become an artist instead, or perhaps, even better, a gardener whose friends are plants. Analytic philosophy of Kastrup's kind seems fated never to escape left-style shackles, no matter how hard it beefs about it. Maybe the whole issue should be side-stepped and the hemispheres allowed simply to move on as their nature directs.
December 4, 2025
Not the first Kastrup book I would recommend to anyone unfamiliar with his work, but still a rewarding and enriching read. Deeply philosophical while also autobiographical. Attempts to answer questions such as: “Why are we westerners the way that we are?”,“What is the meaning of life?”, “Why do we suffer?”, and “What do I do with my life?”
A quote from early on in the book:
“The ability to discern glory in defeat, heroism in suffering, nobility in sacrifice, completeness in dichotomy, harmony in opposition, significance in banality, and meaning in absurdity, is the unique gift of time. To live only in the present moment is to reject this gift, something the Western mind intuitively understands. For we, Westerners, are constitutionally incapable of living only in the present. This is a blessing, not a curse; a birth right, not a liability; something to be embraced and celebrated, not rejected and overcome through decades of meditation. To eliminate time —the past and the future-from the crucible of the Western mind is a mutilation. What we need is to develop a mature, functional relationship with time —with the regrets and horrors of the past and the anxieties associated with the future-not cut it off from our lives. Whether we like it or not, we have a past, and we have a future; they are both integral parts of us right now.”
A quote from early on in the book:
“The ability to discern glory in defeat, heroism in suffering, nobility in sacrifice, completeness in dichotomy, harmony in opposition, significance in banality, and meaning in absurdity, is the unique gift of time. To live only in the present moment is to reject this gift, something the Western mind intuitively understands. For we, Westerners, are constitutionally incapable of living only in the present. This is a blessing, not a curse; a birth right, not a liability; something to be embraced and celebrated, not rejected and overcome through decades of meditation. To eliminate time —the past and the future-from the crucible of the Western mind is a mutilation. What we need is to develop a mature, functional relationship with time —with the regrets and horrors of the past and the anxieties associated with the future-not cut it off from our lives. Whether we like it or not, we have a past, and we have a future; they are both integral parts of us right now.”
December 9, 2025
Appreciated hearing Bernardo’s life (to date) story and how it has shaped his philosophy. The only criticism; it was too short. Throughly enjoyed the book and more importantly it gave me a different outlook for my Daemon. A new start to building the remainder of my life in harmony with it, rather than resisting it.
December 11, 2025
As a big fan of Bernardo’s philosophy, I enjoyed how this book moves beyond his purely analytical ideas into an exploration of the fascinating concept of the Daimon. Drawing heavily on Plato, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Jung, it is also deeply personal and influential in how the Western mind may approach this life.
4.5⭐️
4.5⭐️
September 1, 2025
Everyman’s Life is My Own
Bernardo succeeds, for me, to encourage us all by the example of his own life and struggles. The book is a picture of his own heart, blood and all.
Bernardo succeeds, for me, to encourage us all by the example of his own life and struggles. The book is a picture of his own heart, blood and all.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews