In Mexico I caught a bug. It didn’t make me sick to my stomach, but it did affect my brain.

We were living in a mountain town and had driven down a rutted dirt road to tour the property of an acquaintance living off the grid. My wife and I were just beginning to talk about reducing our ecological footprint and that afternoon we saw tangible examples of practices that were still mysterious to us – water harvesting, alternative construction, and solar energy, among others.

Now this could be just another inspiring story of how one family reached ecological enlightenment, after many trials and tribulations, going on to live a more sustainable life. Or I could describe how a seed of change was planted that day. But it really felt like I was born with it inside me, it had grown and now it was finally pollinated. I was never explicitly aware of this seed, but it had always subtly intoxicated me and made me struggle to understand the world, interact with people and assimilate into modern society.

I may have attributed this feeling to being an introvert, a deep thinker, and a doubter of myself and my world. From a young age I didn’t like anything about possessions – their birth (fabrication), life (ownership), or death (abandonment). I couldn’t fully comprehend money and finance. I resisted car culture. I wanted cities, houses, and transportation to be different. I didn’t understand people, violence, and greed.

But when I graduated from the university I became a well-paid engineer and money had a very palliative affect on these feelings. Materialistic and hedonistic distractions do wonders to dispel existential thinking. I could still be there today. After many years I was a respected senior employee. Until one day I couldn’t do it anymore.

So I sold my houses and cars, gave away most of my possessions, and began searching, as many do, by traveling. But everywhere I went I experienced more of what I had left behind, just a different color or flavor. I was just an unsatisfied, walking money dispenser. Along the way, I moved to Mexico, met another un-moored soul and we married. I started an Internet company and was bored; I dabbled in cognitive science and was discouraged. I floundered. But then something began to happen.

Being an outsider in Mexico and outside of the United States, I was an observer of both cultures. I felt alienated as a child and now again I was unconnected to any society. But that day when we began to live ecologically conscientiously, I took a step towards solid ground, while simultaneously disengaging myself even more from Mother Culture, that is, civilization as we know it.

We began living a more organic, healthy, sustainable and harmonious life, questioning our approach and attitudes towards food, hygiene, consumerism, construction, transportation, relationships, etc. We began to walk down a path that was quite distinct from almost everyone around us. I wondered where we were heading.

I realized that our culture always has, is and will be evolving and changing. And when something evolves it is shaped by external forces. In the case of society we are the driving force. Being conscious beings we have the power to consciously change the direction our culture. Where we are today is really one of many possible versions we could have created. And it’s wrong.

Doesn’t if feel wrong, viscerally, the way we treat each other, the environment, and ourselves? It should be so much better. It really seems like we’ve gone down the wrong road. Could some or all of our conflict, discord and madness be attributed to a culture we’ve created that isn’t consistent with what human beings really can be and achieve?

I believe we really can be and achieve something beautiful and mature, and so I’ve embraced true counter-culture. Not some hip, rebellious, marketed version of counter-culture, but a mental state where you objectively observe your surroundings and deliberately decide what really contributes to the harmony with yourself, mankind, and the natural world.

It takes courage to question the ideas and pursuits that we sell ourselves, and to realize that we have over-rated, over-hyped, over-sold, over-worked, and over-complicated science, technology, art, entertainment, finance, luxuries, relationships and other aspects of our lives in the modern world. When you decide to examine the ways we live and resolve to reject that which is perpetuating our dysfunctional civilization, you will receive an acerbic response from … well, everyone. But when you do, you will exhibit spirit and bravery. You will be the latest in a long line of prominent, as well as anonymous, fearless thinkers who have passed a torch from generation to generation, steering our world back onto the right path. You will feel truly alive.