I was thinking about the same thing just the other day. When I was at university in the UK I became very depressed due to the country's soulless atmosphere and the negative environment that I was in started to bring out my dark side. Before long I realized that I had grown quite loveless and cynical, even somewhat antisocial myself. I didn't like the person that I had become. I wasn't always like that though. Before university I was a very kind and loving person albeit a bit of a loner and a misfit. But the ugly depressing city just sucked the life out of me and made me angry and neurotic and even made me feel fragmented on the inside. I wouldn't recover from that state of alienation until my first stay in Spain when I spent the summer in the vibrant and soulful city of Valencia for immersive language school.Winston wrote: ↑May 10th, 2022, 4:08 amAnother thing to be wary of is that the more depressed you are in America, the weaker you will feel too. If you are depressed for a long time, a feeling of doom starts to take over. Then you battle your own subconscious mind too, because your dark side comes out and starts to take over and create a vicious cycle. So there is a lot more at stake here than simply an unfriendly unsocial environment. That's why a toxic environment is more deadly than you think because it brings out your dark side or shadow self too, as Carl Jung called it.
Do any of you notice that too? That the longer you feel depressed in antisocial cliquish countries like America or Taiwan or Japan, where people aren't really interested in making friends or hanging out, that eventually a feeling of doom and dread and hopelessness comes over you too? I don't know. Maybe I'm more sensitive and intense than others. Most people do not feel things intensely though.
The UK has a very dark and depressive energy. Everything feels denser and vibrates at a lower frequency. I perceive this as soon as I get off the plane. As I make my way through the airport the energy of the UK's national egregore suddenly hits me. It is particularly ugly, twisted, demonic, even "reptilian". It soon begins to suffocate my soul and makes me feel miserable and hopeless. I perceive the difference because I am a sensitive soul of light. Other English people don't notice it because they are either dark souls themselves who vibrate on that same ugly, twisted, demonic level or NPCs plugged into the national egregore and programmed to act in accordance with its soulless values. I remember watching a video of a Mexican American spiritual teacher who came to the UK to do a seminar. He said that he immediately felt the depressive vibe of the country and encountered a lot of tired and world-weary souls. Fortunately the UK's dark and depressive energy lessens a bit once you get out of the city and into the towns. There it becomes more bearable.
In Valencia the energy is totally different. Everything feels lighter and more ethereal. The architecture is very soulful and people are friendly and sociable and there is social connection. There I feel like a different person, more whole, more full of love and vitality, more enthusiastic about life and with more desire to go out and socialize. I also harbor less resentment and negative feelings.
Some people think that my aversion towards the UK is irrational. They tell me that not everything about the UK is bad and that not all English people are assholes. What people don't understand is that the country's energetic constitution or egregore is totally alien to the nature of my soul and its alien energy just oppresses me and leads me into depression. I too could have all of the things I want here like a hot girlfriend, a nice place to live, a good circle of friends and a good income and I'd still feel like shit! I shouldn't have been born into this culture. I don't belong here. I'm not compatible with this place at all.
I'd also like to add that I don't even like to speak my native language (British English) because the language is intrinsically linked to the culture on an energetic level and expresses the same vibrational frequencies. North American English is more tolerable for me though. I can't stand British English due to its ugly and soulless British energy and so when I am in Spain or Latin America I speak nothing but Spanish. There's no room for negotiation here. I insist. It's either Spanish or I don't speak at all because I absolutely despise British English and find it exceptionally ugly and disgusting. I much prefer Romance languages anyway. They are much more beautiful and soulful like the cultures that they represent.
PS - I've also read the Kybalion, @Winston. Although it's not an original Hermetic work it really does have some interesting information like the 7 Hermetic Principles.