Why Gen Z’s Existential Crisis is a Catalyst For a Global Spiritual Awakening
I’ve recently become aware of a trend on Youtube.
Many young Gen Z are posting video titles like this one:
While the topic seems morbid, depressing, and can be easily dismissed as, “oh that’s just Gen Z being lazy and dramatic” it doesn’t take away from the reality that these videos are being watched by hundreds of thousands of people.
Not only are they being watched, many people in the comments are expressing similar sentiments. “It’s all pointless, it’s all meaningless, why bother?”
Simultaneously, there is also a trend going on in China where influencers are posting videos of themselves staying in bed all day.
It’s been called “bed rotting.” Once again it is mostly the Gen Z youth posting such videos.
While previous generations may look at Gen Z and say things like, “nobody cares, just work harder”, I think there is something else going on here. There is a degree of wisdom to the nihilism and bed rot that escapes the minds of those who are quick to judge it as laziness.
Some of you might know exactly what wisdom I’m referring to. Others aren’t aware yet, but you may find something stirs within you in response to the sentence below.
Many Gen Z find life meaningless because on an unconscious level they recognize we live in a society that no longer tells stories around the fire. These stories aren’t just for entertainment, they are the myths that remind us of who we are. Aesop’s fables, The Odyssey, your grandparents’ tales- they all carry a timeless wisdom to them.
What’s the story Gen Z are hearing today?
“AI will be replacing humans in jobs. You will own nothing and you will be happy. Climate change will destroy the earth. Yes, we told you about Epstein and the depraved things the hidden elite who run the world governments do and there’s nothing you can do about it. Oh yes we are also going to keep building more data centers and destroy the environment because we want to win this AI arms race and turn the Matrix into a reality.”
The stories Gen Z are hearing are bleak and designed to cause a numbing sense of overwhelm. So the natural question becomes, “Why should I bother participating in any of that? This isn’t a world or society I want to contribute anything to. We’re cooked.”
Some of them turn towards self-development and healing to try and turn their life around, but even there they are still being presented a soulless story.
Morning routines are a fad to show off your status rather than something you do to discover how repetition and monotony polish your mind, body, and spirit.
Modern psychology has become a scientific study about your thoughts and behaviors when originally the roots of psychology meant to treat the soul.
Vocation has become a fancy term for feeding the machine that could at any moment replace you with AI rather than its original meaning which meant a spiritual calling or summoning.
We have successfully optimized, mechanized, and automated our society to the point where there is no more soul or sacredness.
Meaningful rites of passage have all but disappeared in modern society. Some of you don’t even know what the fuck I just wrote there. “What even is that?”
Rites of passage have existed in all cultures throughout time. They were initiations, a ritualized event that marked a crossing from one threshold to another. From childhood into adulthood. From the sick one into the shaman. From the prince into king and princess into queen.
These sacred rites of passage etched a carving on the cave walls of your psyche reminding you that you are no longer the same person. An old identity has composted and given birth to a new identity, one with more maturity, wisdom, and more Whole.
Today? No ritual. No sacredness. No meaningful rite of passage. Just, “hey you’re 21 so you can drink now. And go lose your virginity while you’re at it. Get married. Get good job. Save for retirement. Travel and take pictures so you can show people dat Instagram lyfe.”
Baseless. Soulless. Empty.
I can’t blame younger generations for their apathy. It’s a form of rebellion against a society that has lost touch with the sacred. If anything, I applaud them for opting out in such a subversive way.
However, it also comes at a severe cost. It requires that you anesthetize and kill off your soul. The life force that you are is put on life support and the pulse of your soul becomes weaker and weaker. You may have succeeded in not being a pawn for the machine, which gives you a righteous sense of satisfaction, but in those quiet moments where you can’t sleep anymore, can’t scroll anymore, can’t eat anymore, can’t mindlessly numb anymore, your soul begins to gnaw at you. “There is more for you than this” it whispers.
The rebellion that was initially a subversive power move has now become your prison. Your story is, “I live in opposition to and in rejection of the machine”, but you have no story when it comes to what you live for. When you only live against something you inadvertently ensure its continued existence. It’s why red pill/Manosphere men always find miserable women and embittered feminists always find awful men.
There’s a great scene from the Netflix Castlevania series that illustrates this. Isaac, one of Dracula’s right hand men, made it his mission to carry out Dracula’s story of destroying all humans. He then meets a shrewd ship captain who asks him, “Have you ever heard this maxim: If you don’t have your own story, you become a part of someone else’s?”
“Why would a man with all your fantastic knowledge not use it to teach people how to be kind?” This question from the Captain sent a ripple throughout the rest of the series and ultimately lead to one of the greatest character arcs I have ever seen. For many, Isaac became the star of the show. I’ll let you discover why for yourself.
All this to say, where Isaac only knew death and suffering, the Captain inspired him to begin to ponder what is life-giving.
Those of you who are set on bed rotting or giving in to nihilism absolutely have the free will to do so. But if I could be your version of the Captain, I invite you to consider this:
Want to rebel in a meaningful way? Read The Alchemist. Then write and create the story and myth of your own life. Take every event that has happened in your life and turn it into a story arc that fuels your evolution.
In your time of mindless consumption I bet you have come across stories that touched you deeply. Maybe it was a book, a movie, an anime series, a song, or even a video game.
For a moment, you were captivated. Perhaps tears began to fall from your eyes as the numb haze that had fallen over you was temporarily pierced. Your soul stirred in response to a deep sense of remembrance, “I know this. I, too, have a story to live out!”
You absolutely do. You are a co-creator with Life. So create the story and myth that enlivens you and gives you a sense of purpose. Then you’ll discover how you can create magic even while you are “trapped in the Matrix.”
As counterintuitive as it may seem, if you have been feeling a sense of existential dread or anguish, you are already in a ripe stage of transformation. This is the stage where the old story dies and the new story has not yet been written. Modern society looks at this stage and experiences paralyzing death anxiety. Ancient mystics looked at this stage and said, “the way out is through.” American writer and mythologist, Joseph Campbell, poignantly stated, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
Your greatest breakthrough will often be preceded by a breakdown of all that you have known. The dreadful agony of such ego deaths, existential crises, and spiritual emergencies is something I’ve been through many times over. I wrote three letters describing three of the most painful and transformative ego deaths I went through. I take you through what the breakdown was, what I had to let go of, and how I emerged on the other side.
Where modern society has forgotten the sacred wisdom of stories and myths, I am here to remind you of them through sharing my own. Sometimes all it takes is hearing another person’s story to realize with relief and understanding, “I’m not crazy. Others have been through this before and it’s actually a necessary part of my growth and awakening.” That’s what my three ego death letters are for. You can read them here.