Something changes in people who hold Bitcoin for a long time,
and I don't mean their portfolio, I mean them.
They start buying less, thinking longer term, building instead of
consuming. They quit jobs that don't align
with who they are, and they invest in health, relationships,
skills, and things that compound over decades.
They report feeling calmer about the future, even when the market
drops 40%. Now you could say, well, that is
just rich people feeling good about life.
Except this shift happens to people stacking smaller amounts
to people who aren't rich by any traditional measure.
The change isn't proportional to the number of Bitcoin that they
own. It's proportional to the depth
of their understanding. Something is rewiring, and
nobody is talking about what that something actually is.
Hey everyone, I'm Bram Gonstein and this episode of Bitcoin for
Millennials is deferred and final part of a small solo
series. Part 1 was about the trap, how
Fiat money hijacks your consciousness.
And Part 2 was about the map. 7 ancient principles that reveal
why sound money matters at a level deeper than economics
today is the path. What actually happens inside you
when you step out of the Fiat money system and into something
different? And I want to start by naming
the thing you're stepping out of because most people don't
realize they're running a mental operating system that was
installed by the monetary system they were born into.
It's invisible to them, like something that is hiding in
plain sight. If you are enjoying my content,
it would mean a lot to me if you could subscribe to the channel
and like my video to support my journey.
Thanks a lot. Now let's dive in.
The Fiat operating system has four core programs, and once I
name them, you'll start catching yourself running them every day.
Program 1 Scarcity, panic. Your money is losing value
always and every day. So there's this constant low
level anxiety about not having enough.
And it's not irrational. The dollar has lost roughly 87%
of its purchasing power since 1971.
If you're not running to stay in place, you're literally falling
behind. The system trains you to feel
perpetually behind because mathematically you are.
You know that. Not in your stomach when you
check your bank account. That is scarcity panic.
It's not a personal failure, it's the program running.
Program #2 is high time preference because saving is
punished by inflation. The system trains you to value
the present over the future. Spend now, consume now, and
leverage now. Why delay gratification when
your money buys you less tomorrow?
That isn't a character flaw, but a rational response to broken
incentives. Every impulse purchase, every
subscription you forgot to cancel, every time you fought.
I'll deal with it later. That's high time preference
running in the AND program tree is identity true consumption?
When the system needs you to spend, it needs you to 1 So your
identity gets constructed around what you buy, your car, your
clothes, your apartment, your vacations.
And consumption becomes self-expression, shopping
becomes therapy, and lifestyle inflation becomes the measure of
success. Think about the last time you
felt a rush of excitement buying something.
Now think about how quickly that rush faded that cycle.
The wanting, the buying, the brief hit, the emptiness, and
the wanting again. That is the program, not you.
Program 4 is learned helplessness.
You can't change the monetary system.
You didn't choose it. You can't opt out.
The rules change without your consent.
So you stop trying to understand it.
You focus on running faster within it, and the most
important economic forces in your life remain completely
beyond your control. And you accept that as normal.
That feeling that says this is just how things are, that
nothing you do will change the big picture.
That's learned helplessness, and it's the most dangerous program
of all because it prevents you from even looking for the exit.
These four programs don't feel like programs, right?
They feel like reality, like the way things just are, like human
nature, but they're not human nature.
They're Fiat nature installed by a monetary system that needs you
to behave in a certain way for it to function.
And the moment you start holding Bitcoin, truly holding it,
understanding it, the uninstalled process begins.
But first, something has to crack.
Now what is this crack? For most people, it starts with
the question that seems simple but turns out to be
revolutionary. Where does money actually come
from? And when you really dig into
that, when you understand that money is lent into existence,
that banks created from nothing, something shifts and you can
feel it physically, a kind of Vertigo.
The ground you were standing on turns out to be a fake,
fabricated story. Alan Watts described this kind
of moment. He said the ego is a social
institution with no physical reality, just a symbol of
yourself. And money is the same way, a
symbol of wealth, not the wealth itself.
When you see the symbol as a symbol, you can never Unsee it.
The ancient Gnostics had a word for this gnosis.
Direct knowledge. Not something someone told you
to believe, something you saw for yourself.
And here's a line from the Gospel of Thomas.
The authorities seized the keys to knowledge and hidden them,
neither entering themselves nor allowing those who wish to enter
to do so. Think about that in the context
of monetary education. Financial literacy is absent
from most school systems. The mechanics of money creation
are understood by a tiny fraction of the population, and
the keys to understanding have been functionally hidden not by
conspiracy necessarily, but by a system that doesn't benefit from
you understanding how it works. Bitcoin is the crack that lets
light in, not because Bitcoin is magical, but because
understanding why it exists requires understanding why Fiat
money is broken. And once you see the operating
system as an operating system, you cannot go back.
Now here's where most Bitcoin content stops.
A lot of people are talking about number go UPS, stacking
sets and buying the dip. But if that's all you got from
Bitcoin, you missed the real shift.
The real shift is something a Barbadian Mystic figured out
over 80 years ago. This Barbadian philosopher was
named Neville Goddard and he lectured in America in the mid
20th century. And his core teaching was this.
Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled.
Not visualize what you want, not set goals and hustle towards
them. Assume the feeling like life,
like right now, in the state of consciousness that corresponds
to what you desire. If you occupy that state, the
external world rearranges itself to match your state.
Now, I know that to some people that might sound woo woo, but
the cool part is that Bitcoin makes this practical and real.
Remember Program 2 high time preference.
The Fiat operating system keeps you in a perpetual state of not
yet. Someday I'll have enough.
Someday I'll be secure. Someday I'll build what I want
to build. The system is designed around
deferral, around a future that keeps receding because inflation
ensures that enough is always a little further away than it was
last year. Neville Goddard would say living
in the state of someday is exactly what keeps someday from
arriving. You're occupying the
consciousness of lack of not having, and the world reflects
that consciousness back to you. Bitcoin lets you do something
radical. It lets you assume the feeling
of the wish fulfilled right now. Not because you're pretending,
not because you're doing affirmations in the mirror, but
because the trajectory is actually real.
Bitcoin supply is known and the rules cannot change.
Your savings cannot be be debased, ever.
The feeling of sovereignty isn't manufactured through positive
thinking. It's the rational assessment of
your actual position. And here's where the shift
really happens. The wish fulfilled isn't a
number. It's not when Bitcoin hits XYZ
amount of dollars then I'll be free.
That's still the Fiat mindset. Still deferring to the future,
still living in the not yet. The wish fulfilled is a state of
consciousness. I am sovereign right now, I hold
my own keys, I understand the system and my value is
preserved. I can think long term.
That exact state is available to you right now with any amount of
Bitcoin. And when you occupy it, your
behavior changes, your decisions change, your relationships
change. Not because external
circumstances shifted, but because your inner state
shifted. And is Neville Goddard taught,
and as the Hermetic principle of mentalism confirms, the inner
state creates the outer reality. You don't wait for the
revolution, you become the revolution.
If your Bitcoin double tomorrow, would you feel good about how
it's secured right now? Most people haven't really
pressure tested that. And I get it.
Some people are comfortable taking full control of their own
keys, but others want security without having to manage it all
themselves. That's why I partnered with
Onrep Multi institution Custody, where your keys are held across
independent institutions in multiple jurisdictions.
No single company can access, move or lose your Bitcoin.
Lloyds of London insured inheritance planning built in
and a team that walks you through the entire set up.
They serve clients globally whether you're in the US, Europe
or anywhere else. Book a free consultation at on
rampbitcoin.com/brom to learn more.
That's on rampbitcoin.com/brom. Most people stop too early with
Bitcoin. They buy it, maybe move it to a
wallet, and think they are done, but they're not.
The real questions are how you're securing it, how private
your setup is, and whether you're verifying your own
transactions or trusting someone else.
And what happens to your Bitcoin when something happens to you.
This is the layer that most people ignore, and it's the most
important one. That's why I've been working
with the Bitcoin way to help you set up self custody properly,
including privacy, cybersecurity, inheritance, and
even running your own note. And they do it without ever
touching your Bitcoin. They're not a custodian, they're
your support team. If you're serious about this
like I am, go to thebitcoinway.com/brum, that's
Bram to book a free call. They'll walk you through your
setup, personalize everything to you, and help you get a much
stronger position very quickly. Whether you're a beginner or
more advanced. That's the bitcoinway.com/brum.
When your time preference lowers, a cascade of changes
follow. And this is what report with
remarkable consistency across backgrounds, incomes and
countries. You used to eat out four nights
a week. Now you cook at home and
actually enjoy it. You used to have 12
subscriptions, half of them forgotten.
Now you've got three that you actually use.
You used to carry depth like it was normal, because everyone
does. Now you pay it off aggressively
because you understand what depth really costs in terms of
future purchasing power. You used to scroll for two hours
before bed, but now you read. You used to measure your year by
what you bought. Now you measure it by what you
built. You used to spend Sunday at the
mall, and now you spend it learning a new skill.
You start exercising because a longer, healthier life means
more years to benefit from your savings.
You invest in relationships because community compounds like
nothing else. You think in decades, not
quarters. Safety in the Moose puts it
beautifully. He argues that the lowering of
time preference is what initiates the process of
civilization when money holds its value.
People plant trees they will never sit under, they built
cathedrals that take generations, and they invest in
education, culture, and infrastructure.
Henry Walter Thoreau, an American author and philosopher,
figured this out in the 1840s. He went to Walden Pond and
discovered he could meet all his expenses by working six weeks
out of the year. Six weeks and the rest was for
reading, writing, walking and thinking.
He wrote. The mass of men lead lives of
quiet desperation, and man has no time to be anything but a
machine. Bitcoin changes the math that
creates the desperation, and when the math changes, the life
changes. But the rewiring goes deeper
than habits. There's a moment that goes
beyond intellectual understanding and becomes
something you feel in your body. This is the moment you move
Bitcoin to self custody. 12 words written down, memorized
and secured. The value representing years of
your labor held by you alone. No bank can freeze it.
No government can confiscate it. No algorithm can flag your
account. No terms of service can change,
and when that lands, when it really hits you that you can
hold your own values, something profound happens.
Because for the first time in your life, the most important
economic asset you have depends on nobody's permission.
The Gnostic tradition described an inner divine spark that no
external authority can grant or revoke.
Self custody is the financial discovery of that spark.
The moment you realize I didn't need a bank, I didn't need the
state. The sovereignty was always
available. I just needed the tool.
Goddard's teaching applies here, too.
He talked about the difference between living from the outside
in, letting external authorities define your reality, versus
living from the inside out, assuming your own sovereign
state, and letting the world adjust.
Self custody is living from the inside out.
You don't request, you hold. You don't have to ask, you just
verify. And that all sounds great and it
is, but I need to be honest. There's a part of this journey
that nobody warns you about, and that is the loneliness.
Seeing through the system is lonely at first.
The Gospel of Thomas has this incredible line.
The teacher looks at humanity and says I found them all
intoxicated. I found none of them thirsty.
And if you've been in Bitcoin for a while, you know that
feeling. You see the cantalong effect
happening in real time and nobody you know has even heard
of this term. You try to explain self custody
to your family and they look at you like you've joined a cult.
You watch the money supply expand by trillions and everyone
around you just thinks groceries are getting more expensive for
no apparent reason. That's the cost of gnosis.
That's the cost of the direct knowledge that isolates you from
those who don't share it. The ancient traditions warned
about this. The Gnostic path was described
as difficult precisely because it means seeing what others
cannot. But here's the turn, and this is
very important. The loneliness is temporary, and
the isolation isn't the destination.
Definitely not the destination. It is just a passage.
Because the moment you find other people who see what you
see, who've been through the same rewiring, who understand
without you having to explain, the connection is deep, deeper
than most friendships built on service level shared
consumption. The Bitcoin community, for all
its debates and drama, functions as a is a network of people who
share a form of nosis, and the bonds form through shared
understanding are real. Neville Goddard would say.
When you change your frequency, you attract others on the same
frequency. The tribe doesn't require
joining. It assembles around the signal
that we're putting out. From my European friends that
want to buy Bitcoin with ease, check out Relay.
I've been a long time fan and happy to partner up with what I
think is the best Bitcoin only platform for Europeans.
They offer a super simple beginner friendly app with no
distractions and no shit coins. You can do a quick one time
smash buy or set up automatic purchases when you're stacking
regularly. And here's the thing that
matters most. Relay is 100% self custody.
Every set you hold is yours, your keys, your coins.
If you want to get started, download the app file in my link
below or in the description and use code BRUM.
That's BR AM at checkout to get 10% of your fees.
Every bitcoiner hits this moment.
You need cash, maybe a house deposit, an emergency or a tax
bill. And you're staring at your stack
thinking, do I really want to sell this?
Here's the thing, you don't have to.
You can borrow against your Bitcoin instead.
So there's also no taxable event and your stack can keep on
stacking. This is where Firefish comes in,
a peer-to-peer marketplace for Bitcoin backed loans.
And Firefish isn't a lender. They built the protocol that
makes this all possible, which is exactly why they never ever
have to touch your Bitcoin during your loan.
Your Bitcoin sits in an on chain multi sick secured by open
source code. You can easily create a loan
request with your desired amount, duration and interest
rate and share it on their marketplace at firefish dot IO.
When you get matched and decide to accept a loan offer, you can
use code Brom to get 30% of your first loans fees.
That's firefish dot IO and code Brom.
All right, now let me bring this entire mini trilogy together
because for these three episodes, the convergence is
what matters most. In in Part 1, I showed you the
trap, a monetary system that captures your consciousness,
your time, and your life energy through the extraction loop, the
bandwidth trap and the institutionalized forever desire
for more. In Part 2, I showed you the map
7 ancient principles revealing that Fiat money finds reality
while Bitcoin aligns with it. And in this episode, in part
three, it is all about the path. The crack that lets you see the
system, the shift from someday to now, the rewiring of your
habits and your time preference, the spark of self custody and
the loneliness of gnosis. And now the built.
Because the path comes down to a single word.
Built. Buckminster Fuller said you
never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, built a new model that makes the existing
model obsolete. Building is the opposite of
consuming. Consuming extracts and building
creates the field. Money system needs consumers,
but Bitcoin creates builders. When your time preference
lowers, when your savings are secure, when your identity isn't
constructed around what you buy, you have the margin, the
bandwidth, and the freedom to ask what can I create?
And that question, I think, is the real gift of Bitcoin.
Not number go up, not getting rich.
The gift is the space to ask the question and actually have the
bandwidth to act on the answer. Neville Goddard's teaching one
last time. Assume the state of the builder.
Don't wait until you have enough money, enough time, enough
permission. Just occupy the consciousness of
the person who creates, and the creation will follow.
Hayek dreamed of this in 1984 when he said all we can do is
buy some sly roundabout way, introduce something that they
cannot stop, and Satoshi Nakamoto built the sly
roundabout thing. And the question passes to us
not will Bitcoin work? It works.
The protocol runs and the network grows and the math and
the physics hold. The question is, what will you
build on top of it? So what does the rewired mind
look like? Not in theory, but in practice.
It measures wealth in time, not money.
It thinks in decades, and it doesn't need the next thing.
It holds its own keys and understands what that means.
It builds, creates, and contributes not to get rich, but
because low time preference and secure savings free up the
bandwidth for work that matters. And it lives right now in
Goddard's state of the wish fulfilled, not waiting for
someday, not deferring to a future that keeps receding.
It is occupying freedom today with whatever they have.
The Gnostics called this Gnosis, the Taoist called this returning
to Pooh, the uncarved block, and the Hermeticists called it
mastery. Right?
Rising from pawn to player. Goddard called it the wish
fulfilled. Different maps, same territory.
And that territory is all yours. And it always was.
You just needed a tool to see it, and now you do.
Bitcoin gives you this tool. The rewiring gives you the mind,
and the path you walk after that, that is totally yours.
Thanks for listening to this episode and miniseries in the
Bitcoin for Millennials podcast. All three episodes are linked in
the show notes and if this trilogy changed how you think
about money, share it with someone who needs to hear it
too. I will see you with the guests
in the next episode. Bye.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, you can click here
to find more just like it and click here to find all Bitcoin
for Millennials podcast episodes.
Also, if you want to help me shine a light on the message of
Bitcoin, please like this video and subscribe to stay connected.
I hope to see you for the next episode.
Bye.