Early last week, I relaunched Regenerate in a brand new, more easily-navigable form. For the longest time, I ran this blog on the Manifest theme – a minimalist single-column design with a focus on pure content. The idea behind this was that people are so bombarded every single day by a rather noisy visual culture that I wanted visitors to my blog to be able to relax, slow down and concentrate. I wanted to leave space for their thoughts and reflections.

That motivation still informs this new move forward. Although the writing on this blog chronicles my personal experiences with self-reflection, I want to offer my visitors the experience of self-exploration themselves. This blog is about my life and thoughts, but the reason it exists here is really for a wider purpose: it is my attempt to connect with other human beings on the most honest and pure level that I know – through sharing my personal experience and philosophies of life.

Nearest and dearest to me is my experience of life. I think the greatest thing we have to offer each other (apart from love) is not mere monetary exchange, nor goods, but perspective and a more complete understanding of reality through compassionate exchange. Regenerate is a move to forge a personal connection with readers through discussing ‘big’ concerns like meaning and purpose in a ‘small’ (personal/subjective/non-authoritative) way.

Regenerate (and the entire silentinfinite.com project) is also a move to create a new culture. A culture built on love, self-expression, collaboration and sharing. A culture based on the sheer depth, diversity and awe-inspiring nature of the human experience. Given the context of how the mainstream media and corporate culture operate in the 21st century, I believe that this is a revolutionary and important concept.

I was born, raised and lived my life for 25 years in what is essentially a corporate police state: a nation run like a business, with all mass media owned by the government (and used specifically to serve their agenda) and no freedom of expression or assembly. I spent most of my life in a classic science-fiction dystopia – Zamyatin’s We made flesh. In a homogenous culture, people tend to believe very strongly that there is only one way of life. Where I used to live, individual creative expression is anathema and punished through the education system from a young age. I was bitter about having to live there for a very long time. It is only after a difficult move to New York City that I’m grateful to be able to draw lessons from living in a repressive state. It has made me realize how truly important the struggle for free expression is.

We must express our true nature every chance we get. We must be certain of our ideals and live them. We cannot conform to a status quo that makes us miserable, or prevents us from living a deeply fulfilling life, simply out of convenience. I believe that if we are to truly have a social revolution then it must begin with being. We must become conscious of how we want to live. Do we want to live as slaves or free human beings? Do we value comfort or self-actualization? We have to decide for ourselves and construct lives that reflect these decisions in a powerful way.

I believe that no earthly force can truly come in the way of a being ready to consciously evolve. Human beings can delay progress, but they can never bring it to a complete halt. The freedom I encountered on the internet was absolutely instrumental in my intellectual, emotional, spiritual and creative development. Since I decided to pursue a life based on love and creativity in 2007, my life began to flourish. It lit up from inside with a sense of true purpose. A life lived merely conforming to social codes could never bring me joy like this.

Regenerate began as a personal journal to document this flourishing, this transformation of my consciousness. But the very fact of it being public makes it so much more than a simple document: it is also an invitation. It is my way of reaching out to say: I’ve had these experiences, have you? So, I want to hear from you, dear reader/visitor/fellow earthling. I’m interested in where our similarities lie, in what your ideals and dreams are and in how we can collaborate to make these a reality. For the internet is something awesome we have right now that enables us to connect with each other and create the world we want. In our hands it is a powerful tool to give us leverage against those that prefer a silent, compliant, homogenous humanity. Its very structure speaks to decentralization and collaboration – it is truly our medium. We can use it to facilitate emancipation from a system completely uninterested in human progress and we can use it to create new realities.

In short, I want to change the world. But I think it’s a lot more important that we change the world together.