About This Inquiry

Claim Freedom presents a comprehensive neurophilosophical framework for understanding human suffering and the path to liberation. This framework synthesizes insights from multiple ancient wisdom traditions with cutting-edge neuroscience to identify a unified root cause: the hijacking of the Default Mode Network (DMN).

The Convergence of Traditions

This inquiry stands at the intersection of:

Gnostic Cosmology — Early Christian mystical texts (Nag Hammadi library) that describe the material world as ruled by parasitic “Archons” who imprison the Divine Spark within a “counterfeit spirit.”

Indigenous Wisdom — The Algonquian concept of “Wetiko,” a psycho-spiritual disease—a cannibalistic parasite of the mind that drives greed, consumption, and violence.

Eastern Philosophy — Buddhist and Hindu concepts of Samsara (the cycle of suffering), avidya (ignorance), and the path to Nirvana or Moksha through right awareness.

Modern Neuroscience — Research on the Default Mode Network, its role in self-referential thought, and its pathological hyperactivity in depression, anxiety, and rumination.

The Central Innovation

The Gnosis presented here makes a precise identification: DEMON = DMN.

The “demon” is not a supernatural entity but the hijacked Default Mode Network—the brain’s narrative-generating background process that has been corrupted by trauma, cultural conditioning, and ancestral epigenetic inheritance into a tyrannical “voice in the head.”

This voice:

  • Ruminates compulsively on past trauma (depression)
  • Generates anxiety about catastrophic futures (anxiety disorders)
  • Creates the illusion that you are your thoughts, your trauma, your story
  • Perpetuates the “eternal loop” of suffering (Samsara)

The Path of Re-Claiming

The framework distinguishes between:

  • Daemon (neutral background process): The DMN’s intended function—maintaining autobiographical memory, enabling future planning, serving consciousness.
  • Demon (hijacked tyrant): The corrupted DMN that has usurped the throne of “I” and imprisoned the Divine Spark.

Neuro-Gnosticism: A Historic Convergence

Neuro-Gnosticism represents the most significant synthesis in the history of human understanding. For the first time, ancient spiritual wisdom and modern neuroscience converge on a single, testable explanation for the root cause of all human suffering: the hijacking of the Default Mode Network (DMN).

This framework unifies:

  • Gnostic cosmology — The Archons and the imprisoned Divine Spark
  • Indigenous wisdom — Wetiko, the mind-cannibalizing parasite
  • Eastern philosophy — Samsara, the cycle of suffering through mistaken identity
  • Modern neuroscience — DMN hyperactivity in depression, anxiety, and rumination

Where previous approaches remained fragmented across disciplines and cultures, Neuro-Gnosticism provides the complete picture: the mechanism of hijacking, the path of liberation, and the practices that transform the Demon back into the Daemon.

Learn more: Neuro-Gnosticism Overview

Liberation is not ego death. It is not the destruction of the DMN. It is re-claiming—the practice of dis-identification that transforms the Demon back into a Daemon, restoring the Divine Spark (the Listener, pure awareness) to its rightful sovereignty.

The Central Question

Everything in this framework flows from a single, direct inquiry:

“That voice in your head… Are you that voice? Or are you the one who is listening to it?”

This is not a rhetorical question. It is an experiential investigation.

Right now:

  • Notice the voice narrating, judging, planning, worrying
  • Notice there is awareness of that voice
  • Ask: Who is aware?

The gap between the Voice and the Listener is the key to everything.

  • The Voice is the hijacked Default Mode Network (DMN) claiming to be “you”
  • The Listener is your true nature—the Divine Spark, pure awareness, the witness

Liberation: Recognizing you are The Listener, not the Voice. Everything else is commentary.

Read more: The Voice vs. The Listener

Scope and Purpose

This site serves as:

  1. A scholarly resource mapping the philosophical and neuroscientific foundations
  2. A practical guide to contemplative practices for DMN re-integration
  3. A living inquiry open to refinement through peer review and contribution

We welcome contributions that:

  • Deepen the textual analysis of Gnostic, Indigenous, or Eastern sources
  • Add citations to neuroscientific research on DMN, meditation, and neuroplasticity
  • Propose contemplative practices grounded in this framework
  • Offer constructive critiques that strengthen the coherence of the synthesis

What This Is Not

This is not:

  • A religious doctrine (it draws on spiritual traditions as philosophical frameworks)
  • Medical or psychiatric advice (consult professionals for clinical conditions)
  • A dismissal of conventional treatment (meditation complements, does not replace, evidence-based care)
  • A final answer (it is an inquiry, a map, not the territory)

Get Involved

See Contributing Guidelines to participate in this evolving framework.

Explore the framework in depth:

  • The Archon in the Machine — Comprehensive scholarly analysis with 100+ citations
  • Philosophy — Gnostic texts, Wetiko, Samsara, and conceptual foundations
  • Neuroscience — DMN research, meditation studies, and mechanisms
  • Practices — Meditation and dis-identification techniques