The Union of Mystriks has been rethinking belonging — and the conclusion is surprisingly simple: Mystrikism works better as a mindset than a membership.

This episode walks through the shift away from formal enrolments and toward an “open source” alternative to religion: no initiation, no obligation, no conversion performance. If you want to identify as a Mystrik, you can. If you don’t, you can still use the tools, borrow the principles, and walk alongside for a while — or forever. Engagement is customisable, voluntary, and pressure-free.

We explore Mystrikism as a practical, naturalistic life philosophy: reason + compassion + curiosity + justice, grounded in evidence, and still rich in “spirituality” through awe (stars, storms, forests, music, the whole goosebump catalogue) — without any supernatural claims to defend.

Then we get concrete: everyday kindness that isn’t performative, learning from mistakes without shame, intentional “awe pauses,” and using science to steer moral action by outcomes. It’s head and heart working together, without pretending they’re enemies.

Finally, a necessary caveat: openness doesn’t mean moral mush. Mystrikism stays voluntary and non-coercive, but it doesn’t shrug at cruelty. When someone persistently causes harm or pushes deliberate deception, justice comes first — and that’s where Principled Disgust lives: firm, evidence-based moral opposition without dehumanising hatred.

This is the messy beginnings of Mystrikism and the first sparks of what later became the Union of Mystriks.

I grew up with religion as background noise: Bible stories in school, weddings and funerals, and the occasional childhood bargain-prayer (“help me now and I’ll be good forever”… yeah, nah). Then, almost by accident, books cracked my head open — I read The Lord of the Rings to impress a girl, the girl disappeared, but the curiosity stuck.

From there, it zig-zags: teenage atheism as rebellion, a later plunge into serious New Age “woo” (including some painfully cringe moments), then the hard swing into militant anti-theism, then finally a calmer landing in secular humanism… which still didn’t quite feel like a complete framework for living. Because atheism and agnosticism are about one question — gods and knowability — but they don’t automatically hand you meaning, ethics, identity, or that natural, goosebump-y sense of awe people often call “spirituality.”

So I tried to build something: a syncretic, naturalistic worldview grounded in the self-correcting methods of science and the power of compassion. Truth as provisional (best current approximation, always updateable). Ethics that care about reducing suffering across life and ecosystems. Awe that’s fully naturalised, no supernatural add-ons.

And then the Union idea clicked: sceptics and non-believers are often scattered, while superstitious ideologies tend to be cohesive and organised. The Union of Mystriks is the attempt to change that dynamic — shared principles, shared growth, shared momentum — aiming for a rational, ethical, awe-filled future that stays anchored in reality.

https://www.mystrikism.org

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https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/mystrikast/id1848253540

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Mystrikism’s Meta-Dogma: the weird little paradox where the closest thing we have to “dogma” is doubt itself, and we apply it even to our own favourite conclusions.

In this episode, I unpack what I mean by “meta-dogma” (and why I’m using “dogma” in the broad, non-frozen sense). Mystrikism isn’t built on sacred answers. The “sacred” part is the practice: keep confidence flexible, treat evidence like a compass, not a club, and leave the door to the unknown ajar.

You’ll hear:

• Why Mystrikism feels less like faith and more like sceptical trust

• “The dogma of doubt” (yes, it’s meant to sound slightly cursed)

• Mystery as something almost-but-not-quite “holy”, a rational, natural “spirituality” rooted in awe

• Holding beliefs lightly: updating your “map of reality” without shame

• The one Mystrikal “blasphemy” - clinging too tightly to old beliefs

If you’ve ever felt that saying “I don’t know” can be oddly freeing, you’re in the right neighbourhood.

https://www.mystrikism.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1782830925522213/

mystrikism@pm.me

Sometimes the most scientific sentence in the room is still: “I don’t know yet.”

This episode is a narrated run through my 4-part essay Science and Certainty — a Mystrikal call for intellectual humility, especially when we’re talking about the beginning of the universe. The hot Big Bang model has strong evidence behind it… but the closer we push toward “the earliest moment,” the more we’re leaning on extrapolation, and the easier it becomes for confident language to outrun the data.

We take a quick tour through scientific history’s greatest reality-check moments (ulcers, “junk DNA,” brain plasticity, the microbiome), not to shame experts, but to remember a simple pattern: nature is weirder than our first draft. Then we talk communication — how to be clear, compelling, and still honest about uncertainty — and we finish with the Mystrikal posture: respect the evidence, respect the unknown, and keep wonder intact without making stuff up.

If you like science and you like your certainty slightly less inflated, this one’s for you.

Certainty is comforting… and also kind of a liar. This episode is a guided walk through agnosticism — not as a bland fence-sit, but as a whole landscape of distinct stances with different standards, attitudes, and “burdens of proof.” We touch the classics, the modern variants, and why the same label can mean wildly different things depending on the person using it.

From there, we zoom in on Mystrikism’s agnostic ethos: non-theistic, naturalistic, and evidence-first. The basic move is simple — when a claim as huge as “a god exists” keeps failing scientific scrutiny, the rational default is provisional non-belief (while staying open to revision if high-quality evidence ever shows up).

We finish by grounding it in method: ROVRRTELF-style evidential standards, Popper-ish falsifiability instincts, and the Mystrikal use of “spirituality” as natural awe rather than supernatural metaphysics — meaning you still get wonder, just without the intellectual fake ID.

https://www.mystrikism.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1782830925522213/

mystrikism@pm.me

This episode walks through Mystrikism’s Mantra as a full journey: from reality, to nature, to life, to kindness, to justice, to freedom, to curiosity, to science, to truth, to awe, to mystery, and finally to purpose. Each link is treated as a real-world step, not a slogan.

We talk about:

• Why Mystrikism starts with naturalism: one reality, no hidden supernatural backstage, just matter, energy, fields, information, and cause and effect.

• How a brutally honest view of the cosmos still lets life feel astonishing, rare, and worth protecting.

• How “Life compels kindness” isn’t Hallmark-card fluff, but an evolutionary and social fact: cooperation keeps complex life alive.

• How kindness grows teeth and becomes justice, and why justice is what makes genuine freedom possible rather than just a buzzword.

• How freedom turns loose our curiosity, how curiosity becomes science, and how science is our best shot at honest truth.

• How real truths about DNA, black holes, quantum weirdness, and our “star-stuff” bodies don’t kill wonder — they supercharge it.

• How awe naturally reveals the huge unknown still ahead of us, and how that mystery gives us a sense of shared purpose: uniting knowledge and kindness to improve the world.

By the end, the mantra isn’t just a poetic chain; it’s a way of living: see reality clearly, feel awe deeply, act kindly and justly, and keep pushing the boundary of what we understand — together.

To be born today is to arrive onstage late, in a crowded theatre where the exits are already filling with smoke.

This episode, Overpopulation – A Mystrikal Perspective, is a long-form dive into what it means to bring new life into a world already in ecological and ethical crisis. We begin on Kiribati, a Pacific nation literally losing land to the sea, and use that as a lens on the bigger, uncomfortable truth: human overpopulation quietly amplifies almost every other serious problem we face.

From there, we explore Mystrikism’s expanded moral circle: sapient beings, sentient life, and ecosystems, each with their own claim on justice and care. We unpack why parenthood is no longer a morally “neutral” act, how rights like reproduction are always bounded by consequences, and why the mantra “2-or-fewer for a future” is offered as a concrete ethical guideline rather than a slogan.

Across this seven-part journey, we’ll talk about:

The emotional tension of loving your kids while being honest about population ethics.

How small families, voluntary childlessness, adoption, and mentorship can all be forms of generational justice.

Why lifestyle tweaks (recycling, solar panels, EVs) are dwarfed by the footprint of adding a new human.

The addiction to perpetual economic growth, pronatalist policies, and “baby bonuses”.

A counter-vision of a rewilded, human-scaled world where restraint is an act of hope.

This isn’t about guilt for past choices. It’s about what we do after we understand the stakes. Reproduction is framed here not just as a family matter, but as a planetary decision with cascading consequences for centuries to come.

If you’re wrestling with questions about whether or how many children to have, or you just want a brutally honest, evidence-grounded take on overpopulation that doesn’t collapse into despair, this episode is for you.

https://www.mystrikism.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1782830925522213/

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This episode tackles one of the oldest headaches in philosophy: free will. Are we genuine choosers, or are we clever meat-robots running a script written by genetics, upbringing, and physics? Mystrikism offers a “yes-and-no” answer that actually makes sense of both the science and the experience.

We explore:

The clash between determinism, libertarian free will, and compatibilism, and where Mystrikism plants its flag.

How emergentism and reductionism fit together: from quarks and neurons to minds, values, and decisions.

The water/wetness metaphor as a way to see free will as real at our scale, even if it doesn’t exist as a fundamental force.

Free will as the brain’s emergent, first-person experience of complex, reasons-responsive decision-making.

Then we push into the ethical fallout:

What responsibility and blame look like when you fully accept that every action has deep causes.

How this perspective can increase compassion, without dissolving accountability.

Why determinism is not fatalism, and how understanding causes actually gives you more leverage to change your life.

How all of this ties into Mystrikism’s core vibe: naturalism, justice, honesty, humility, and awe at a universe that has managed to produce creatures who can argue about their own freedom.

It’s a tour through the free will debate that doesn’t end in despair or hand-waving, but in a grounded, naturalistic sense of being “determined yet free” — agents whose choices matter, precisely because they’re part of the causal story of the cosmos.

https://www.mystrikism.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1782830925522213/

mystrikism@pm.me