4 mental upgrades to Escape Your Own Bullsh*t
TL;DR/Skip To The End:
You don’t see reality as it is—you see it through a reality tunnel shaped by your beliefs, biases, and experiences. The problem? Most people never question it.
🔹 Mental Upgrade #1: Multi-Model Agnosticism → No belief system is 100% true, so use whatever works. Thinking is a skill, not a position.
🔹 Mental Upgrade #2: Maybe Logic → Certainty is a trap. The smartest people think in probabilities, not absolutes.
🔹 Mental Upgrade #3: Reality Tunnels → You’re inside one. So is everyone else. Understanding this changes everything.
🔹 Mental Upgrade #4: Guerrilla Ontology → Want to think better? Start throwing Thought Grenades™ at your assumptions.
🔥 If you’re ready to escape your own bullsh*t and sharpen your edge, read on.
4 Mental Upgrades to Escape Your Own Bullsh*t
Robert Anton Wilson or ‘RAW’ (1932–2007) was an American author and philosopher who spent his life challenging perception, belief, and reality itself. A 60s countercultural icon, he blurred the lines between scepticism, humour, and radical open-mindedness.
I first encountered his ideas through John Higgs’ excellent book The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds (and from which I steal liberally).
From that point on, RAW became one of my personal intellectual crushes. His work is foundational to Brain Tapas™ because it doesn’t just tell you what to think—it teaches you how to think.
His ideas are threads that run through all of the Brain Tapas Pillars - Know Thyself, Perpsective Shifts, and Mental Fitness.
The four concepts I use most often when mentally sparring with clients are:
🔹 Multi-Model Agnosticism
🔹 Maybe Logic
🔹 Reality Tunnels
🔹 Guerrilla Ontology
If Brain Tapas™ was a menu, these would be the dishes everyone should start with. Does that make them olives? Focaccia and oil dip? Calamari? I don’t know, but let’s have a taste.
1. Multi-Model Agnosticism
The Problem?
Most people move through life with unexamined, rigid, dominant ways of thinking that shape how they see the world. Robert Anton Wilson saw the certainty and dogma contained in these Belief Systems (or BS!) as dangerous and limiting.
He believed that certainty is the enemy of intelligence—because the moment you think you know something for sure, you stop questioning, exploring, and improving your thinking.
RAW’s antidote? Agnosticism—not just about God, but about everything.
“Wilson saw belief as a trap- "convictions create convicts,"- while nevertheless advocating the temporary adoption of many different "reality tunnels" just to see where they led, while being careful not to assume that the one you were currently viewing the world through was any more valid than any other." - John Higgs
This allowed him to explore multiple models, perspectives, lens and frameworks to reach better conclusions.
To CHEW on ideas instead of SWALLOWING them whole.
As UK Hip Hop legend Jehst says on the track ‘1979’ - “and take this food for thought with a pinch of salt”.
What is Multi-Model Agnosticism?
Multi-Model Agnosticism (MMA) is the art of being open to and switching between mental frameworks like tools—using the right one for the job instead of clinging to a single “truth.”
It’s based on the ideas that:
🔹 We don’t see reality itself—we see models of it. “The map is not the territory” or “the menu is not the meal”.
🔹 No single model is 100% true, but many can be useful in different contexts.
🔹 Instead of clinging to one belief system, the best thinkers treat all models as tools—switching between them as needed. Whatever Works™.
MMA encourages individuals to question their assumptions, challenge their beliefs, and seek alternative explanations. It promotes a willingness to entertain contradictory ideas, be wary of certainty and explore the boundaries of knowledge.
Instead of asking “What’s true?”, ask:
👉 “Which model helps me understand this better?”
👉 “Which perspective gives me the best outcome here?”
👉 “What if I tried a completely different way of looking at this?”
This is the mindset that separates people who create opportunities from those who stay stuck in the same patterns.
“I don’t believe anything I write or say. I regard belief as a form of brain damage, the death of intelligence, the fracture of creativity, the atrophy of imagination. I have opinions but no Belief System (B.S.)”
Why This Matters to Brain Tapas™
The world rewards people who can unlock an edge and think dynamically. If you can see multiple perspectives, challenge your own assumptions, and switch between models depending on the situation, you can:
✅ Break through mental roadblocks. By training your mind to see problems from multiple angles, you find fresh solutions instead of getting stuck.
✅ Think on your feet. When a plan isn’t working, you pivot instead of stubbornly pushing forward.
✅ Make high-pressure decisions with clarity. You don’t just react—you assess situations dynamically, choosing the best approach instead of defaulting to a single mindset.
✅ Stay mentally agile. Flexibility in thought means you’re harder to predict, harder to manipulate, and better equipped to handle the chaos of life.
The Takeaway: Use the Right Model at the Right Time
This isn’t about abandoning all beliefs. It’s about knowing that beliefs are tools, not truths. The moment you get locked into one model of thinking, you limit your potential. The smartest, most successful, most creatively dangerous people in the world don’t just think outside the box—they realise there are multiple boxes and know how to move between them.
Maybe MMA actually stands for Mental Martial Arts! If you want to sharpen your thinking, upgrade your mental software, and develop a more powerful edge in business and life, this is the kind of mindset you need to cultivate.
And this is exactly what Brain Tapas™ helps you do by encouraging you to EXPLORE ideas, Thought Grenades™, and perspectives rather than search for CERTAINTY.
To ‘Pick & Mix’ what resonates and find Whatever Works™ for you, by absorbing what is useful and discarding what isn’t, to create a bespoke and practical approach to fulfilling your potential.
2. Maybe Logic
The Problem?
People are addicted to certainty. They want clear explanations, fixed beliefs, and a stable sense of reality. But life doesn’t work that way. Every belief you hold is an incomplete view of reality and shaped by largely unconscious factors, biases, and limited knowledge.
RAW’s response to this was Maybe Logic—a mindset that encourages perpetual curiosity and keeps you open, adaptable, and flexible in your thinking.
What is Maybe Logic?
Maybe Logic is the habit of thinking in terms of probabilities instead of certainties. It means replacing rigid, black-and-white thinking with a more fluid, open-ended approach:
🔹 Instead of thinking in black and white, train yourself to think in shades of probability.
🔹 Replace “This is true” with “This is probably true, given what I know so far.”
🔹 The best thinkers don’t say “I know.” They say “I suspect, based on what I currently know!”
🔹 Instead of seeking certainty, embrace mental exploration and stay curious.
RAW encouraged people to question their own assumptions constantly, never fully committing to any belief as absolute.
“I don’t believe anything, but I have many suspicions.”
This doesn’t mean rejecting knowledge—it means keeping your mind open to updates, contradictions, and new perspectives, much like Bayesian thinking, where each new piece of evidence refines and reshapes your understanding rather than overturning it completely.
Why This Matters to Brain Tapas™
Maybe Logic is a powerful tool for creativity, adaptability, and resilience. When you apply it to your thinking, you:
✅ Dodge dogma. You recognise that belief systems are tools, not prisons—so you use them rather than being used by them.
✅ Embrace uncertainty as a strength. You don’t need absolute answers to move forward—you work with probabilities and adjust as reality unfolds.
✅ Think in bets, not absolutes. Every belief gets treated as a working hypothesis, not an unshakable truth.
✅ Upgrade your worldview in real-time. Instead of resisting new information, you absorb and recalibrate, making your mental model sharper with every iteration.
The Takeaway: Stay Open, Stay Sharp
The world is messy, chaotic, and unpredictable. If you cling to fixed beliefs, you risk getting left behind. Maybe Logic helps you stay mentally agile, giving you the edge to navigate uncertainty with confidence.
If you want to operate with a more powerful, flexible mindset, Brain Tapas™ will help you develop the mental habits to think sharper, question deeper, and see beyond the obvious.
RAW’s point here? Belief systems (B.S.) aren’t reality—they’re just mental frameworks we use to navigate the world.
The moment you take your B.S. too seriously, you stop questioning it, and that’s when it becomes dangerous. Maybe Logic is about staying flexible, never fully committing to any one belief as absolute, and always being open to updates.
3. Reality Tunnels
The Problem?
Robert Anton Wilson’s concept of Reality Tunnels is simple but profound: we don’t perceive reality directly—we experience a filtered version shaped by our beliefs, experiences, and biases.
What Are Reality Tunnels?
A Reality Tunnel is the mental framework through which you experience the world. It shapes how you think, react, and interpret everything around you. It’s influenced by:
🔹 Your upbringing – The beliefs you absorbed before you even knew you were absorbing them.
🔹 Your experiences – What’s happened to you shapes what you expect to happen next.
🔹 Your biases – Confirmation bias, cultural bias, survivorship bias, ‘bias’ bias!—you name it, it’s distorting your view.
🔹 Your information diet – The media, conversations, and ideas that shape your thinking, whether you realise it or not - and leads to a fat or toned brain!
Every thought, belief, and reaction gets filtered through these layers before reaching your conscious mind. The problem? Most people never question the lens they’re looking through.
If you don’t recognize your Reality Tunnel, you’ll mistake it for reality itself.
Why This Matters to Brain Tapas™
Your edge—the thing that makes you sharp, creative, and adaptable—depends on how many perspectives you can shift between. A narrow Reality Tunnel means narrow thinking. Growth is limited.
The good news? Reality Tunnels can be expanded. The more perspectives you explore, the more mentally flexible you become. That’s what we do in our intellectual sparring sessions together.
✅ People stop being “wrong”—they’re just different. You communicate better, challenge your assumptions, and find unexpected insights.
✅ You unlock creativity by breaking out of habitual thinking. Alternative viewpoints = fresh ideas.
✅ A rigid Reality Tunnel = a fragile mind. The mentally agile don’t break when faced with change—they adapt, shift, and thrive.
You don’t need to abandon your perspective—you just need to recognise that it’s one of many.
The Takeaway: See More, Think Better
Your Reality Tunnel is not reality—it’s just your current way of seeing things. The more perspectives you explore, the sharper and more adaptable your thinking becomes.
If you’re ready to question your defaults, challenge your assumptions, and expand your mental map, that’s exactly what Brain Tapas™ is designed to help you do.
4. Guerrilla Ontology
Robert Anton Wilson didn’t just question reality—he ambushed it.
Guerrilla Ontology is his playbook for breaking people out of mental autopilot. He didn’t want you to believe him. He wanted to make sure you never got too comfortable believing anything too rigidly.
What is Guerrilla Ontology?
🔹 Guerrilla – Unconventional, hit-and-run tactics. Think surprise attacks on rigid belief systems, not head-on battles. Use weaknesses as strengths.
🔹 Ontology – The study of existence, reality, and how we define what is “real.”
Together, Guerrilla Ontology is the art of strategically disrupting fixed beliefs—exposing blind spots, challenging assumptions, and forcing fresh ways of thinking.
✅ Mental mischief with a purpose. It doesn’t just poke holes in ideas—it forces you to question why you believe what you do.
✅ Weaponised contradiction. Unexpected perspectives, paradoxes, and playful deception that destabilise certainty just enough to make you rethink.
✅ Nothing is ‘definitely true.’ Every belief, assumption, and truth-claim is a construct—one that can be questioned, reshaped, or dismantled.
In Brain Tapas™, we call these “Thought Grenades™”—explosive insights that shatter old assumptions and leave “knowledge shrapnel” lodged in your brain. Guerrilla Ontology is the original Thought Grenade™—strategic mental disruptions designed to force perspective shifts.
If your thinking can’t handle contradiction, paradox, or ambiguity, it’s fragile. And fragile thinking is what Guerrilla Ontology is designed to break.
How to Use Guerrilla Ontology in Your Thinking
Don’t just accept ideas—mess with them. Challenge them. Spar with them. Flip them upside down. Play with them like an intellectual explorer.
🔹 Ask ‘What if the opposite were true?’ Flip a belief on its head. What shifts? What changes?
🔹 Hold contradictions in your mind. Resist the urge to resolve them. The tension itself is where real thinking happens. As Rainer Maria Rilke put it, “Live the questions now.” Stop chasing neat answers. The real game is learning to sit inside the uncertainty—because that’s where your sharpest insights are born.
🔹 Mess with dominant narratives. When you hear a widely accepted idea, ask: Who benefits from this? What’s missing? Is this really the full picture?
🔹 Use humour and absurdity. People resist being told they’re wrong. But a well-placed joke or paradox can slip past their defenses.
RAW’s goal was not to be believed—but to make sure people questioned everything, including him.
Why This Matters to Brain Tapas™
Brain Tapas™ isn’t about handing you “the truth” in a tidy package. It’s about unsettling fixed ideas, provoking fresh thought, and helping you sharpen your edge.
Guerrilla Ontology is a key weapon in your mental arsenal. It keeps your thinking agile, your perspective sharp, and your worldview impossible to pin down. It ensures you never get trapped in someone else’s narrative.
It’s not just intellectual trickery—it’s a tool for liberation. A flexible mind is a free mind. And that freedom allows:
✅ Know Thyself → If you can’t challenge your own thinking, you’ll never truly understand how it works.
✅ Mental Fitness → If you can hold conflicting ideas without short-circuiting, you’re operating on a higher level than most.
✅ Creative breakthroughs → Breaking mental patterns makes space for truly original insights.
✅ Magnetic communication → A well-placed disruption makes people listen.
“Convictions create convicts.”
The stronger your beliefs, the more likely you are to reject conflicting evidence, dismiss new perspectives, and lock yourself inside your own mental prison.
Guerrilla Ontology is the jailbreak. It forces you to question your own assumptions before they become the bars of a belief system (B.S.) you can’t escape.
The Takeaway: Stay Playful, Stay Unpredictable
A rigid mind is a weak mind. The moment you settle into absolute certainty, you stop growing.
If you want to sharpen your perception, disrupt stale thinking patterns, and become mentally unboxable, Brain Tapas™ will help you cultivate that edge.
Because the sharpest minds don’t just swallow information—they chew on it.
Putting It All Together: Finding Your Edge
The world doesn’t reward people who think inside rigid frameworks—it rewards those who think dynamically.
If you can shift perspectives, challenge assumptions, and adapt fluidly, you give yourself an edge in every area of life—business, creativity, relationships, and personal growth.
That’s the power of Multi-Model Agnosticism, Maybe Logic, Reality Tunnels, and Guerrilla Ontology.
These aren’t just abstract ideas; they’re mental weapons designed to:
🔹 Help you break free from stale thinking
🔹 See beyond the obvious
🔹 Make you think sharper than everyone else
Why This Matters to Brain Tapas™
I built Brain Tapas™ around these principles because they’ve been life-changing for me. The moment I stopped looking for one right answer and started experimenting with different mental models, my creativity, problem-solving, and decision-making transformed. I want the same for you.
Brain Tapas™ is about giving you the thinking fuel to develop your own unique edge.
Through 1-to-1 coaching sessions, Thought Grenades™, and intellectual sparring, I help clients like you apply these ideas practically, so they can break bad habits, escape limiting beliefs, reframe challenges, and create a reality that works for them.
“Since we all create our habitual reality-tunnels, either consciously and intelligently or unconsciously and mechanically, I prefer to create for each hour the happiest, funniest and most romantic reality-tunnel consistent with the signals my brain apprehends. I feel sorry for the people who persistently organize experience into sad, dreary and hopeless reality-tunnels, and I try to show them how to break that bad habit, but I don’t feel any masochistic duty to share their misery.”
Or, as David Graeber put it:
“The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.”
The only question is: Are you ready to think differently?
If you’re ready to sharpen your thinking and challenge everything you thought you knew—let’s talk.
THANKS FOR READING FROM YOUR REALITY TUNNEL. NOW YOUR BRAIN IS AT MY RAW FREQUENCY I’M GOING IN FOR THE KILL. THIS IS THE PART WHERE I TELL YOU TO BOOK A FREE DISCOVERY CALL. BECOME A BRAIN TAPAS™ CLIENT. FIND YOUR EDGE. FULFIL YOUR POTENTIAL. DON’T OVERTHINK IT. UNDER THINK IT - AND JUST CLICK THIS BLOODY TEXT.
