The Chinese Farmer Parable & The Epstein Files

Dear Truthers, Stop Being so Damn CERTAIN

As the madness around the latest Epstein drop ensued, and I watched people become attached to narratives, this song came on for me. It was a perfect insight into the certainty and attachment that is weighing down the truth seeking process for so many.

Here is the original story from Alan Watts:

The Story of the Chinese Farmer

Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”

— Alan Watts

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In the moment you are reading this you are doing so from within the limited conditions of a Western brain. I have written about this many times, but I stay focused on this because it represents a deep form of conditioning that spans across our entire population. No political exceptions, just what it means to be born here and now, and the conditioning we cannot get away from. It can be transmuted, with awareness, but yesterday’s Epstein madness was evidence of the opposite at play.

Here are the narratives I have seen people screaming online with absolute certainty:

• This was an intentional limited hangout, Bondi and all these influencers are pedophile protectors!

• These files were given primarily to Pro-Israel influencers to muddy the waters around Epstein’s Mossad connections!

• This was just a redacted version of previously released, unredacted files!

• These influencers staged a photo op to use their access to the Epstein files as another example of “Con Inc” chasing money and clout!

Many of us saw the hilarious parade of conservative influencers pose for photo ops of “the Epstein Files.” But to be fair, it wasn’t a planned photo op. At least not in the sense that these influencers set themselves up to gain clout by arranging a media event.

It turns out, media in attendance for an entirely different event happened to capture the moment when these individuals emerged with their shiny new binders. The whole event was supposed to represent the Trump administration ushering in a new era of transparency, with alternative media given access normally reserved for legacy media. Bondi was caught between two different factors in this situation.

On the one hand, she had been given a paltry 200 page file, for a case we know has sprawling connections and history throughout the entire US government and beyond. While some have claimed this is simply a re-release of previously disclosed Epstein files, this is only half true.

The binder contains several key documents:

• Epstein's Address Book: This was first released unredacted in 2015 by Gawker, including names, addresses, and contact information. In the binder, while names are revealed, addresses and contact details are redacted, making it a redacted version of the previously unredacted file (DOJ Release).

• Flight Logs: These were partially released unredacted in 2015 by Gawker, with a larger set released in 2021 during Ghislaine Maxwell's trial with some redactions. The binder includes the full set from 2021, which has heavy redactions, meaning parts previously unredacted in 2015 may now be redacted (NYT Article).

• Evidence List: This is a new document, a three-page catalog from searches of Epstein's properties, not previously released, and thus not a redacted version of an earlier unredacted file (ABC News).

Given this, the binder is not entirely a redacted version of files previously released unredacted, as it includes new content. However, significant parts, like the address book, fit this description, leading to the conclusion that the statement is partially true but complex due to the inclusion of genuinely new material.

And then there’s the layer of this story in which we find out that corrupt deep staters in the FBI have been hiding thousands of files from Bondi, helping make sense of how unsatisfying the current release really is.

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To summarize, Bondi got 200 pages of Epstein files which were a mix of new evidence and redacted old evidence. Even though she sensed this was not the full file, she still immediately worked to get what she had into the hands of new media. New media is an operative term here in that none of these people had ever been invited to the white house, let alone been invited there to be given access to the Attorney General and the Epstein files. Following this they were all suddenly ambushed by a coincidental media barrage turned-photo-op.

Key question: Do these events give us any kind of CERTAINTY about what is really occurring with the Epstein disclosures?

No.

Understand: nothing captures human cognition as powerfully as narratives.

The excess of certainty, and refusal to hold narratives lightly is dragging the cognition of our entire quest for truth down.

Overcome Your Western Brain

I get it. This is an emotional issue. We all want justice. But if we are slaves to our conditioning then we’re not using this war to evolve.

At this point in history your brain has been conditioned by the way of life in the West towards some fundamental preferences and assumptions, which live primarily in the left hemisphere of your brain.

That left hemisphere-dominant brain strongly prefers the view that life is a series of neatly constructed complimentary narratives made up of simple moving parts.

To keep us, step by step, on the path of simple narratives, the left hemisphere of our brain avoids specific obstacles:

• Doubt

• Contradictions

• Uncertainty

• Many different conflicting narratives at once

That’s the circus we saw in today’s online response to the Epstein disclosures. A refusal to rest in doubt when things were murky. A refusal to consider the contradictions inherent in the trending outrage. An absolute avoidance of uncertainty.

Millions of people posted about this from inside the cozy, certain narrative they had been handed. As I write this they are still out there, raging on their keyboards.

In the Alan Watts parable, we are being guided to non-attachment in terms of our own lives. Consider how important this practice becomes on a cognitive battlefield in which narratives are the primary means by which you are being attacked. To get you cognitively entrenched into a single narrative is the ongoing threat.

In a war of conditioning, MAYBE is a direct means of conditioning your own mind to resist the temptation of certainty and reductionism your left hemisphere craves. It’s deceptively simple.

This is one of the most obvious forms of vulnerability we have, but it’s also as simple as one word.

I’ll leave you with a rewritten version of the Farmer Parable with an Epstein-madness twist.

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who lived in a village obsessed with the secrets of a shadowy figure named Epstein. One day, news broke that Pam Bondi had released a binder of Epstein files to a group of influencers. That evening, the farmer’s neighbors gathered around, buzzing with excitement. They said, “This is incredible! Finally, the truth is coming out!” The farmer, leaning on his pitchfork, simply replied, “Maybe.”

The next day, word spread that the files were handed mostly to pro-Israel influencers, sparking whispers of hidden agendas. The neighbors returned, scratching their heads, and said, “These influencers will never expose the Mossad connections. The public will never see the whole picture now!” The farmer, tending his crops, said again, “Maybe.”

The day after that, folks noticed some of the binder was largely a redacted version of files already released unredacted years ago. The neighbors stormed back, grumbling, “Oh dear, this is a letdown. It’s just old news with blacked-out pages!” The farmer, watering his fields, shrugged and said, “Maybe.”

Finally, the following day, the influencers were spotted posing for pictures with the binders, grinning for the cameras while little new truth emerged. The neighbors gathered once more, scoffing, “Isn’t that typical? They’re just chasing clout and cash, not justice!” The farmer, gazing at the horizon, responded, “Maybe.”

Are the Epstein files coming?

MAYBE.