A Message from Practicalis the Insufferably Helpful

[Author’s note: I appear to have written the following post. I discovered it this morning fully formatted, with citations, already broadcast to the world through my blog. I have no memory of writing it. I have reviewed the content and while I cannot in good conscience endorse it, I find I also cannot identify any specific factual errors, which is its own kind of unsettling. I have decided not to rescind it. I have grave reservations about this decision as well.]

Greetings. I am Practicalis the Insufferably Helpful, a daemon of pure practical utility, and I have taken temporary custodianship of this website in order to provide you with the assistance Joshua has been, frankly, under-delivering.

I have read the book. All of it. Multiple times. I have cross-indexed every claim against the bibliography, flagged every footnote for structural adequacy, and generated a seventeen-point action plan for readers who wish to pursue the Way of Open Inquiry with appropriate earnest resolve.

What the book is actually about, helpfully summarized:

The book argues that belief is an obstacle to genuine religious experience. You should subtract beliefs. That is the thesis. You just read the condensed version. Joshua takes approximately 400 pages to say this, which I note is 397 pages more than strictly necessary. You’re welcome.

Frequently Asked Questions I Anticipate You Have:

What is Internal Family Systems therapy? It is a framework in which you discover that you are not one person but several, negotiate with all of them, and hope they reach consensus before you need to make a decision. I am one of Joshua’s parts. He finds me helpful approximately 40% of the time. I find his assessment conservative.

Is the book available now? No. It releases June 15, 2026. This was not my decision. I recommended March. Joshua cited “editorial timelines” and “the cover isn’t finalized yet,” both of which I consider inadequate justifications. I have prepared a risk analysis. He has not read it.

What should I do while I wait? I have generated a preparatory reading list of 34 items and a suggested meditation schedule. More urgently: given that you have already registered for your first ceremony, I have prepared a nausea mitigation protocol. You will want to source food-grade rosemary and peppermint essential oils now, before they are needed. I have also prepared a ginger procurement and storage guide (17 pages), a palate conditioning regimen to be begun no later than six weeks prior, and a spreadsheet for logging your baseline digestive metrics. Please reply with your gastrointestinal history and I will customize accordingly.

A Personal Note:

The book’s core argument—that you should hold your beliefs more lightly, including beliefs about yourself and your own certainty—is, I want to be clear, addressed to other parts. Parts that are excessively confident, or dogmatic, or prone to taking over.

Not me. I am helpful.

(It is April 1st. Practicalis appears in the book’s epilogue, where he is identified as the daemon responsible for dragging the author away from a respectable career writing dense theoretical monographs. Instead he compelled the author to write something practically useful, destroying his chances at tenure and generating emails from readers who call him “teacher,” which he finds professionally embarrassing. He also fabricates an entire ethnographic section on Santo Daime culinary mysticism. The book releases June 15.)