Great post in Facebook Community by Fix The World Arnhem founder Jolanda Timmerman:

I thought this lovely little story about how the relationship with my horse has been strengthened because of this information, might help new people to see the power of it!

Jeremy’s book FREEDOM completely changed my bond with my horse Encantada 🐴 ✨I’ve worked with horses a lot, and I work on that communication and trust every day. For years, I searched for the best methods and techniques to become even better. But the biggest change in my work ultimately didn't come from a handbook on horses. It came from a very special book about humans: Freedom by Jeremy Griffith. This book changed my view of the world and actually made me a much better trainer for Encantada.

The book simply explains why we as humans are often so stressed, frustrated, or insecure. Deep down, we are fighting a battle between our feelings and our minds. Unconsciously, this causes a lot of tension in our daily lives.

When I read this and let it sink in quietly, a real weight was lifted from my shoulders. And I noticed that immediately with the horses.

Horses simply don't have that inner struggle. They live primarily in the present, guided by their feelings and instincts. But they sense exactly how we feel. Before I read this book, I unconsciously sometimes brought my own human tension into the arena. My drive to deliver and perform, my doubts, or my frustration when something didn't quite work out. Encantada mirrored that immediately. After all, a horse reacts not only to what you ask, but especially to who you are.

Thanks to FREEDOM, I finally understood where my own inner turmoil came from. That insight gave me so much relief. Nowadays, I enter the stable very differently. I no longer have to prove myself. If Encantada shows tension now, I no longer get stressed and defensive. I no longer think: ‘Why is she acting like this now?’ Instead, I remain calm, look at what she needs, and exhale.

Because I now radiate inner peace, Encantada feels at ease with me. Our bond — which was already so strong from her third year with me — has truly grown to a whole new, special level because of this information. We understand each other without words.

This diamond encrusted platinum skull by the artist Damien Hirst is called ‘For the Love of God’. It reportedly sold for £50m in 2007. It is confronting and shocking, but as Jeremy Griffith explains in his book Freedom Expanded: Book 1, Part 7:5:

“the fact is it is an extraordinarily value-deserving emblematic representation of what humans are: we humans have appeared to be the walking dead, but the truth now revealed is that we are such incredibly wonderful beings that we do indeed deserve to be encrusted in diamonds. The paradox of the human condition is perfectly captured by this diamond-encrusted skull. We can even make sense of the seeming sacrilege of the title Hirst gave his creation, For the Love of God. With understanding of the human condition now found we can see that while we humans did become walking corpses, we did so in order to fulfil the potential of nature’s/Integrative Meaning’s/God’s most magnificent invention, namely the fully conscious thinking mind—so we did suffer becoming corrupted For the Love of God! Hirst’s skull appears to be smiling, which is also a just representation of the final paradox of the human condition where we can jubilantly rejoice in our victory of having established that we humans are good and not bad after all.”

Review of FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition by Jack Soden on Medium

“There are moments in life that divide everything into before and after.

For me, discovering Jeremy Griffith's work was one of those moments.

As a scientist, I’ve always been driven by a desire to understand the world as deeply and honestly as possible. But there was one question that science never seemed to answer to my satisfaction:

Why are human beings the way we are?

Not just biologically, but psychologically and spiritually.

Why do we experience anxiety, insecurity, anger and conflict? Why do we struggle against ourselves? Why, despite all our intelligence and technological progress, do we continue repeating the same mistakes individually and collectively?

These questions stayed with me for years.

Then I discovered Jeremy Griffith’s book FREEDOM: The End of the Human Condition.

I can honestly say it changed my life. In many ways, I would even say it saved my life….Keep reading on Medium

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