Jay Downes - The Human Operating Manual

Medical Ethics, Misinformation, & Personal Choice

Medical Ethics, Misinformation, & Personal Choice Where do personal autonomy and collective safety collide? Focus: Consent, agency, medical paternalism The weaponization of “science” as moral authority Pharmaceutical propaganda vs. public health truths Ethical dilemmas: end-of-life care, experimental treatment, vaccine mandates Reclaiming power: becoming a competent health decision-maker Optional Cheatsheet: “Medical Ethics & Informed Autonomy: A …

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Alternative & Integrative Medicine

Alternative & Integrative Medicine Is the system broken—or just incomplete? Focus: Functional medicine, naturopathy, TCM, Ayurveda, somatic therapy Placebo vs. mechanistic efficacy The value of systems-based, pattern-recognition healing Energy medicine vs. biochemical dogma Risks of pseudoscience vs. rigid orthodoxy Optional Cheatsheet: “Alternative Medicine & Diagnostic Methods: A Systems-Based Companion”

Pharmaceuticals & the Profit Model

Pharmaceuticals & the Profit Model When healing becomes an industry, what changes? Focus: How pharma companies operate (FDA approvals, lobbying, trials) Overprescription, chronic condition monetization Psychoactive meds, metabolic meds, painkillers The role of OTC medications in self-regulation Intellectual property, research incentives, and global inequality Optional Cheatsheet: “Big Pharma Breakdown: Prescriptions, Profit, and the Public”

Diagnostics & Systems Navigation

Diagnostics & Systems Navigation How do you work with the system—not be consumed by it? Focus: Diagnostic technologies: labs, scans, blood panels What is measurable vs. what matters (biomarkers ≠ whole health) Navigating referrals, specialists, hospital hierarchies Questions to ask your doctor / informed consent How to translate medical info into action without fear Optional …

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The Role of Modern Medicine

The Role of Modern Medicine What It Gets Right When is the system effective—and what’s its proper role? Focus: Acute/emergency care, surgery, trauma intervention Infectious disease control and epidemiology Antibiotics, vaccines, diagnostic imaging The strength of reductionist thinking in crisis-based scenarios Where conventional medicine is indispensable—and why Optional Cheatsheet: “Medical System Essentials: Knowing What It’s …

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Transcending Death

Transcending Death Integration, Legacy, and Continuity What lives on after death? What can be made from it? Focus: Memory, story, and intergenerational transmission Grief as entropy reorganization and meaning rebuilding Symbolic immortality: creation, contribution, continuation The role of ritual in maintaining coherence post-loss Death as integration, not finality (Varela, Kimmerer, Frankl, Watts) Optional Cheatsheet: “Life …

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Death as Dysregulation

Death as Dysregulation When Systems Fail What can death teach us about dysfunction? Focus: System collapse as insight: when health, purpose, or meaning deteriorates Chronic illness as slow entropy buildup Allostatic overload, burnout, and existential numbness Mental health as death rehearsal (e.g. suicidal ideation, apathy) Societal death rituals as attempts to restore order from chaos …

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Cultural Death

Cultural Death How Societies Define the End How do belief systems shape our response to death? Focus: Rituals, myths, and cosmologies of death (across cultures) Indigenous perspectives on death as transition Western denial vs. Eastern acceptance Funeral rites, ancestor reverence, and soul continuity The death of culture: societal entropy and collapse Optional Cheatsheet: “Death Across …

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Psychological Death

Psychological Death Identity Collapse & Ego Dissolution What does it mean to die before you die? Focus: Psychological fragmentation (e.g., trauma, grief, ego death) Fear of annihilation vs. the relief of surrender Rebirth through breakdown (shamanic death, dark night of the soul) Psychedelic and spiritual experiences as simulations of death Dissolution of personal narrative and …

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Biological Death

Biological Death The Dissolution of the System What actually happens when we die? Focus: Definitions: clinical death, brain death, cellular decay The biological cascade: apoptosis, autophagy, metabolic collapse Entropy and energy dissipation at the end of life Nervous system shutdown, DMT hypothesis, and final cognition The body’s “last efforts” to maintain coherence Optional Cheatsheet: “What …

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Author Archives: Jay Downes