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Order the book to receive a free gift.
How Thinking Became the Source of Suffering—And How to Break Free
By Chris Niebauer, PhD
Release Date: August 18th, 2026
Your mind spends most of its time dreaming. It’s time to wake up.
Our ability to think abstractly is humanity’s superpower. It gave us language, art, science, and civilization. Before a wheel was built, it was imagined. Before a law was written, it was conceived. Abstraction lets us plan, create, and transcend our immediate circumstances.
But this gift has a shadow. The same mind that builds bridges also builds prisons—of worry, comparison, and endless mental chatter. We fret over insults that never came, chase status that can’t satisfy, and wage wars over lines on a map. The abstract world, once a tool, has become our cage.
In The Abstract Mind, bestselling author and cognitive neuropsychologist Chris Niebauer illuminates how abstraction creates illusions that interfere with our perception of reality, how these illusions give rise to mental suffering, and how, with a little practice, you can learn to see through them. This book isn’t another guide to mindfulness. It’s a mirror—one that reveals how deeply we’ve confused thought for life. Like a dreamer realizing they’re asleep, the moment you notice the abstract world is a mirage, the spell begins to break.
Put down your phone. Feel the air on your skin. Listen to the hum of the world. This is where life happens—not in your head, but here. Now.
Welcome back.
Your mind spends most of its time dreaming. This class is the alarm clock.
Discover how abstractions—from “success” to “anxiety” to “the market”—create suffering by masquerading as reality. Learn to spot when you’ve climbed too high on the abstraction ladder, and what it feels like to come back down.
No woo. No forced stillness. Just clear, science-grounded tools for waking up from the dream of thinking.
You’ll leave with:
Life happens here. Now. Not in your head. Sign up to receive the recording today.
Senior Editor at Hierophant Publishing. Writes from an off-grid homestead in the Hawaiian rainforest.
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