This is Why I Started Decentralized Systems: Part 1 – The Observer and the System
Written by Brian Curtis, Consultant, Creator & Author
Brian Curtis is an author, foundational thinker, and the innovator behind the Cirkuitbreaker project. Leveraging a 25-year career as an electrician in both the public and private sectors, he provides executives with a rare, grounded perspective on self-management and systemic alignment.
Social media created a way for us to see one another much more often from a distance. We live in a world where, to break away from working in the standard business model, we must be our own advocates. We need to be if we are going to be seen and have our value acknowledged. Businesses create trademarks, but there is always a person or group of people who own that trademark.
It is extremely rare for everyone under a trademark to own an equal share of it. If your goal is revenue, then it makes sense that the more you are seen, the more you will make. For this reason, we have created a world of marketers pushing visibility as a measure of value. I have lived through the beginnings of the mega corporations that share two or three partners to stay out of monopoly laws. Depending on public demand, brands share value with one another relative to how much consumers want what is being offered.
I live with my Dad. He’s 82 and getting older. I have friends and family whom I frequently talk to, and I can honestly say that I live a blessed life. I have been privileged enough to spend a lot of time with my father. Mom died eight and a half years ago, so I’m getting close to being the person my Dad has lived with the longest. I didn’t have much of a relationship with my Dad when I was younger. It took a long time before we had conversations. It’s a long story filled with fear, like so many other stories. We argue, and it is one of Dad’s favorite things to do, whether he admits it or not.
So, playing devil’s advocate is one of my traits. What I can say is that we love one another and want the best for one another. It gets hard when you watch the ones you love grow older. The psychological stress of not being healthy weighs on you daily. That is true no matter how old you are. If I am tired or not feeling well, it is very hard to stay motivated, and I see the same thing happening as my father grows older. The desire to live wanes, and your health declines to match.
The placebo effect is very real. I have covered it briefly in previous posts, and it is the bedrock of how we start our days, being the prime mover of how we feel, think, and move. If I believe it is a pointless exercise to get up and put information out there, then that directly affects my motivation to do so. For those of you who don’t know, the placebo effect is defined as a psychological and physiological phenomenon in which a person experiences a real improvement in their health or symptoms after receiving a "dummy" or physically inactive treatment, such as a sugar pill, a saline injection, or sham surgery, simply because they expect or believe it will work.
Medical science acknowledges the placebo effect, but Western medicine rarely uses it in practice. We give diagnoses and inform patients “what is wrong with them” instead of telling them they are okay. It is pretty hard to tell someone they are fine when they are in a lot of pain. I understand. Books have been written on the subject, and one of my favorites is Deepak Chopra’s Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine. He challenged the status quo and argued that an individual's mental state, perceptions, and beliefs actively shape their biology, placing the placebo effect at the center of medicine rather than treating it as a statistical anomaly or nuisance in clinical trials.
I have witnessed how real the placebo effect is in my own life and my father’s. If I told him that he is “looking pretty bad” or “your health isn’t getting better,” those statements would have a direct effect on his health. The same can be said for saying things like, “You look pretty good today, Dad!” or “You look steadier on your feet today.” The words we say and the intentions behind them are what create this reality, whether we like it or not. It is a fundamental building block of this universe, where the observer is also the creator. Microsoft would not exist if Bill Gates and Paul Allen hadn’t believed they could build something together.
I have witnessed my dad’s journey through Western medicine and how it tends to introduce ideas that are detrimental to his health, mostly due to liability concerns. We have accepted ideas about disease and sickness as a culture and fail to understand how our thoughts and emotions are creating those things. If doctors don’t treat patients according to these accepted doctrines, then the fear of being held liable is very real, and the patient receives something based on those fears. Just like with all things, the fear of death is what always holds us back.
I can give you one recent example. Dad was in the hospital at the end of last year due to gallstones blocking his bile duct. He was rushed to the University of Washington Medical Center to have them removed, and they also removed his gallbladder. While there, they detected deformed cells in his blood, so he was referred to the oncology department there. We forgot about it because it was hard enough for him to recover and start walking again after spending over a week in bed. Dad doesn’t answer his phone much, so trying to get a hold of him can be difficult, at best.
Recently, he had a bad bout of diarrhea and spent a few days in the local hospital, approximately a year after his last visit. They looked him over and found that his lymph nodes were larger than normal. A biopsy was done, and they found signs of lymphoma. He was referred to the local oncology department and scheduled for a PET scan.
During his consultation after the scan, the oncology doctor took us through his images and said the scan didn’t show anything other than enlarged lymph nodes. There were no major tumors or masses anywhere, and Dad wasn’t in any pain. The doctor admitted that the scan findings didn’t agree with the biopsy results or the cells that had been found. He said he would take the information back to their “board of oncologists” and come up with a decision about treatment, if any was advised.
Just yesterday, I received a call from the oncology nurse saying that the board had convened and decided that Dad had a very aggressive form of lymphoma and that they would like us to come back in. I will let you sit with that for a second. A group of people who have never met my father decided, as a group, that he has an advanced, aggressive form of lymphoma.
My father is very impressionable. We all are, unless we are more aware of how things are created and destroyed. He is very feeble right now. He has bad days when his balance isn’t very good, but he also has good days when he walks just fine and feels more stable. He isn’t in any pain. If they found deformed cells a year ago, then whatever is in his body can’t be too aggressive. The last thing any of us wants is to create a lot of pain at the end of our lives.
Quality of life is everything, and the doctor agreed that we don’t really want to give him treatment if it puts him in bed, makes him miserable, and disables him to the point where he never walks again. He used to be on metformin, but it was making him very unstable and negatively affecting his memory. He was also on losartan, but after monitoring his blood pressure for a while, we realized he didn’t really need to take it. He is on no medications, and I do my best to assure him that there is nothing wrong with him. There’s nothing wrong with growing old.
My brothers and I do our best to make the best decisions for Dad, and I think that is what I would want when I get old as well. The last thing I want is for someone who doesn’t know me to try to sell me something for their own gain or out of fear that they might get sued if they don’t prescribe something. The oldest cell in your body is seven years old. I firmly believe we just need to tap into that resting state in our mind and let it renew, the same way our body builds new cells, by letting old thoughts go to make room for new ones to emerge. If our thoughts and emotions are creating our body, then wouldn’t I want to follow a path that allows the mind to renew?
Read more from Brian Curtis
Brian Curtis, Consultant, Creator & Author
Brian Curtis is a specialist in self-management, human energy systems, and organizational alignment. After a distinguished 25-year career as an electrician, he stepped away from traditional industry models to explore the intersection of universal laws, human behavior, and corporate structure. Through years of deep introspection and creation, he recognized that true professional success is dictated entirely by an individual's inner state and emotional alignment. Today, he dedicates his life to helping leaders heal the heart space, dismantle outdated behavioral patterns, and cultivate sustainable freedom. He is the founder of Cirkuitbreaker, a decentralized platform modeled after the balancing laws of nature.
