📜 Awakened Architect Part 2: The Underlying Bali Blueprint

Why Ego and Patriarchy are the Ultimate Freedom Killers

In my last post, I talked about my looking forward to leaving the archaic, discriminatory energy of Athens. But today, I want to go deeper into the psychological and systemic gaps that keep most people from ever reaching the freedom they claim to want.

Almost everyone I meet says, "I want to do what you’re doing." But they only see the result, not what it took to have this freedom.

The Conundrum of the Successful Nomad

Most digital nomads hide the "ugly" side of this life because they know people won’t have sympathy for someone who travels the world and comes and goes as they please. Because the struggle is hidden, people believe this life is just a "pretty picture" you stumble into—or that you’re somehow “just lucky.”

They don't see the huge amount of sweat and tears required (when you’re not born wealthy, that is) to break out of a society that wants to keep us as zombies in an employee mindset. In Bali, this "zombie" programming is masked by a carefully curated, romanticized bubble, but the cracks are everywhere if you pay attention.

Remember that I am sharing the good, the bad and the ugly of this lifestyle and the lessons I learn along the way while observing the human condition all over the world. The good is all the beautiful experiences now embedded in my memories, the beautiful and interesting people I’ve met and the beautiful places I’ve been to. But this is a universe built on polarity and with every positive comes a negative. It’s just part of the game we call LIFE. I don’t like pretense and I look for every opportunity to learn a lesson so sharing all sides is important to me to feel like I’m being authentic and so people who don’t travel or who have not traveled the way or the places I have, contemplate these topics. It benefits our collective.

A year ago (December 2025) in Bali, I stayed at a stunning villa for the weekend. Out of our 5-week stay in Ubud, I wanted to take some time to explore another part of the island—the coast. While the world sees "paradise," I saw a lot of poverty with the locals and a very strange, disconnected digital nomad community.

The concierge at the villa—a man originally from another country—asked: "How are you successful? What does it take? I ask everyone who looks like they’ve made it, but no one gives me the time of day." By asking those questions he was already ahead of others in his same position. I find that most people let their ego act as a cage—they’re too proud to ask the “how to” because admitting they don't know something feels like a "loss."

We talked for two hours during dinner. He was working his a$$ off, sending every cent back home to his family. He was miserable because they didn't appreciate it—they were splurging on things he wouldn't even buy for himself, while he stayed stuck in a loop of servitude. I told him the sad but bare truth: You have to cut the cords. Family and "tradition" are often the very things holding you back. If your circle is bleeding you dry—financially or energetically—you will never level up. As I travel around the world I see that culture sets the rules and a lot are afraid to stand up to those outdated, no-longer-valid beliefs. We also talked about reading, gaining new skills and having to be obsessed with your dreams and goals to the point you won’t accept anything less.

The Dark Side of the "Spiritual" Facade

While the world romanticizes Bali, I saw a different reality. I saw the "beach gate" scammers in South Kuta overcharging people just to touch the ocean and the disaster of poverty that tourism tries to paint over. By the way, where I am currently in the Athens Riviera coast, they charge at some beaches also and even the lake. Charging for nature is one of the most ridiculous scams. Back to Bali. I started sensing it was a mirage the moment I landed in what to this day is the dirtiest, most unpleasant airport I've ever been to and where we were harassed incessantly by illegal taxi drivers trying to get you to go with them. I have never experienced such intense harassment and violation of space and privacy as I experienced in that airport. What a welcome.

But the real darkness is what the brochures hide. Last August during my Ayurveda treatment in Kerala, India, I met an Italian-American woman who had lived in Bali for five years and worked with shelters for women who were literally kicked into the streets by their husbands—not even allowed to see their own children. By the way, she also lived in Australia for 5 years, and she now lives in New Zealand.

While the men spend all day smoking at temples, pretending to be "spiritual," the women are modern-day slaves. If they complain, they are replaced, and their children are raised by strangers. I can only imagine the level of domestic abuse present in the homes before it gets to that point. And those poor kids—who knows what a lot of them go through being raised by someone who is not their mother. A massage therapist there told me she was desperate to marry a foreigner just to escape the life she was forced to live. Women still looking for men to save them is such a tragedy.

This is the Matrix glitch: A culture that masks deep-seated domestic abuse and a disgusting patriarchy behind "spiritual" incense. It’s a facade. Like in most places nowadays, the locals are often resentful because the government sells out its own citizens to cater to foreigners for profit, while the people suffer.

A Global Program: From Bali to Athens

Patriarchy is a global and very much deeply embedded program in our society thanks to Abrahamic religions and colonization. In Crete Greece, I saw coffee shops with only men most of the time in the middle of the week. Only on the weekend did I notice the women were “out.” And they’re out with their families.

Even during my research, I came across the warning to not be rattled by all the men in the coffee shops in the mountain villages when I go work. So the women cannot “hang out” like the men do? They’re forced to handle the household while the men shoot the shit at a coffee bar? Disgusting.

Also, I read that women should not reveal their shoulders because it’s considered inappropriate in Greece. I mean, what tf is this? What century are we in? It’s mind-numbingly enraging to say the least. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to teleport to an era where such ignorance and control no longer exists. I have been saying for quite some time now: The world will heal and be a better place to live when women realize their power, take back their spiritual thrones, and unite with each other to fight to eliminate patriarchy.

Stay tuned, because I’m preparing a separate deep dive into a society where I’ve actually seen this frequency of female solidarity and safety in action—and I know it’s not where most closed-minded people expect it to be.

Why Staying “In Your Place” is More Exhausting

No one can help someone who is more committed to their ego or their "programming" than their freedom. You can’t force someone to wake up. You can only be a resource for the ones who are ready to ask, "How did you do it?" and/or “What can I do to level up my life?”

If you’re stuck because you’re worried about what people think, or because you’re still loyal to a broken "traditional" system, you’re playing in what Napoleon Hill calls "Satan's Playground" in Think and Grow Rich.

What’s Next? I’m going to explain exactly what that playground is and why staying "in your place" is actually 10x more exhausting than the work of climbing your way to the life you’ve aspired to. Even if it seems so far out of reach.

Would you cut toxic cords to change your life? Are you staying in the bubble, or are you ready for the real path?

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