From Empire to Empathy
By Christine Castigliano, HeartsQuest.com
It’s January 1, 2050. My final hours on Earth. I’m grateful for my life, and many beloveds. Even the Robocorder who’s preserving this, the best part of my story: creating ‘Empassionistas.’ I’m at peace now. Back in 2024, a gut-wrenching ball of grief and anxiety tortured my sleep. We teetered on totalitarian rule. Climate chaos loomed. Had I done everything I could to re-route the freight train to human extinction? How could we support the young ones, the generation who’d inherit the global mess we’d made? Suzanne Taylor’s essay contest challenged us world-changing wannabes. Imagine: what single action could lead to a more cooperative world in a few decades?
As an elder of 65, I couldn’t bear to see one more gun blasting through conflict. Our zero-sum games and us vs. themmindset could destroy all we loved. As a digital storyteller, I craved captivating media that could show us how to evolve. Show us the heroic work of overcoming barriers to cooperation.
What about a radically new unscripted reality TV show? Instead of eliminating contestants, we’d build a cooperative, diverse team of eight millennials. Instead of a winner-takes-all prize, we’d dangle ‘Humanity Wins’ points. Instead of a cutthroat competition, they’d master near-mystical skills of emotional co-regulation and synergy. Instead of facing snakes and danger in a far-flung jungle, they’d take on a risky covert mission in the concrete jungles of power. They’d assist a hardened, ruthless leader to awaken: to face the hidden costs of their decisions, and commit to changing the story.
Our hidden agenda? To inspire despairing, distracted young people to imitate our show. To build circles of eight and take on stealth operations. To help transform their local leaders into people we could trust.
I invited Aliko, my 28-year-old black/Jewish/trans communitarian friend, to collaborate on this semi-crazy idea. Aliko was brilliant at connecting people, and making stories that inspire action. “Want to co-create a unique reality show, that would ignite young innovators like you to instigate a global game for good?” Yes! Though I’d worked in all media, we knew next-to-nothing about Reality TV.
Aliko showed up in new dreads for a cup of homemade chai and stayed the weekend. We were both excited about growing this baby seed into a radical media project. And we had so many questions.
Aliko said, “Can a reality show that gamifies connection instead of competition engage an audience?”
I wondered, “Could we make it on a micro-budget? Fund it through our social networks?”
He asked, “Could a TV series inspire people to take action in real life?”
I mused, “What if we embed Easter egg clues for fans? A treasure hunt to find our game rules and tools. Would it motivate them to organize a team and create their own missions?”
First, we had to get clear on the basics. Why bother? Who was our project for? What were our tools of transformation? How would our show inspire real change?
We walked the shores of the Salish Sea, munching on local hazelnuts as we tackled these strategies. Here are my recollections from that juicy, pivotal weekend that formed the roots of a movement.
Why bother doing this semi-crazy Reality TV show?
Even with survival at stake, so much got in the way of fixing things. We had to circumvent our impossibly slow, broken political and economic systems. To melt the deeper blocks to cooperation.
Grassroots efforts to influence politics felt futile. I’d been at the Paris UN climate talks. We continued to organize, protest, disrupt, and pressure leaders to act. Sadly, glaciers melted faster than our governments could come together. Our leaders were so divided, they couldn’t even settle a playground spat. People were in denial, despair or both. We argued over petty differences. Most of us didn’t vote. We didn’t take action; we watched action shows. Why not leverage our media obsession for good?
Aliko and I knew our crisis ran deeper than broken systems. The biggest blocks to cooperation were the barriers within. Ancient neuropathways of deep-seated, survival-based fears. Getting along was hard.
From playgrounds to battlegrounds, we blamed others for our problems. Good guys and bad guys. How could we build unity if we couldn’t listen to the other side? If we didn’t address the underlying issues of unresolved trauma and a lack of empathy, even the smartest initiatives could flounder. We’d perpetuate the disconnection from ourselves, each other, and the natural world.
Instead, our show would activate tend-and-befriend neuropathways. We’d rewire old stories into new patterns of behavior. We’d show brave acts of emotional repair. Compassionate heroes willing to expose their shadow selves, to break through to the joys of connection.
Instead of building empires, we’d build empathy.
Who was our audience?
Aliko invited his three most brilliant friends for a dinner of local salmon and microgreens. After we honored the Suquamish Nation, the stewards of this land, and our ancestors, we pitched our semi-crazy reality TV idea. They wanted in! We hashed out ideas until the wee hours. Here’s what arose:
Who was most primed to become catalysts for good? Neurodivergent, creative, non-conforming world-changers like us. Anyone who felt discouraged and disempowered by mainstream values. Our sub-culture of sustainability nerds and mystic misfits thrived on the fringes. In our 18-29 demographic, 29% watched reality TV. 40% of millennials did. To motivate them to tune in, we’d reflect them.
Our show would unabashedly celebrate their powerful, out-of-the-box magical gifts. We’d revel in their joyful play, how it energized them, healed them, and brought them closer together. We’d cheer them on as they risked more vulnerability with each other. We’d admire their ability to share power and tap into each other’s skills. We’d wonder about their stealth mission inside a cutthroat world of politics or business. We’d root for a win as they approached their target leader with open hearts and smarts.
Who else? Whose lives could get better from our show? Leaders in business and government who secretly wanted to shift, too. Everyone was affected by generations of abuse, oppression, and war, including folks at the top. If they could release old stories of power based on emotional scarcity, it could inspire them to try new ways to build unity across the divides. If leaders felt secure and connected, they would naturally promote the technologies that helped them open up. The effects could ripple out far wider, to the 99% who’d benefit from more evenly distributed systems of power.
What were our tools for transformation?
Next morning, we played ‘what if.’ If we were newly cast in our show, how could we forge bonds of trust, quickly? Each of us invited our inner child to play. We rearranged the furniture, built blanket forts. Put on masks and puppets to reveal our emotions. Danced our disagreements. Improvised ways to create conflicts, and work them out. Aliko filmed our experiments, so we saw what worked best.
Creative expression, with no pressure and very low stakes, helped us to connect. That feeling of safety and vulnerability was built gradually; as our confidence grew, we could share more and go deeper. When we felt heard, seen, and free to express ourselves, we experienced a greater sense of aliveness, shared purpose, and bonding. Especially when singing together. Our research showed that singing reduces stress, cools down nervous systems, and fosters connection and cooperation.
We’d build cohesion among our cast with a toolkit of creative games: including singing, imaginative games, sound healing, art-making, movement and dance, theatre games with masks, etc. Enlivening and fun, these creative modalities could release old emotions and trauma in our bodies, too.
We’d tap the power of stories to transform. In Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” the ghosts of Past, Present, and Future showed Ebenezer Scrooge personal stories that transformed his shriveled soul into a compassionate, giving man. As media makers, Aliko and I could replicate that kind of transformation story in a new way, with immersive tech, to melt blocks to empathy.
We’d become masters of Active Compassionate Listening (ACL). When anyone felt prickly, hurt, angry, or ignored, their protective walls went up fast. To consciously connect with our hearts, and listen with full attention, without judgement, created a sense of openness among everyone. We’d seen how the experience of being heard this way opened many possibilities that previously seemed impossible.
The shortest route to a more connected mindset lies in the potential of psychotropic medicines. Entheogens, including psilocybin, ayahuasca, and ketamine, could quickly restore confused, demoralized minds and hearts. Though effects can be intense and dramatic, the research was irrefutable. A few sessions with entheogens achieved what years of meds, meditation, and therapy couldn’t: peace of mind, and freedom from many mental health afflictions. With proper support and integration, subjects reported feeling more connected to self, others, community, and the world. Despite stigma, the US military led the way to legalize entheogens for approved groups by 2026 to treat PTSD.
The transformative arc of our show would rely on expressive arts, the power of storytelling, and the magic of psychotropic medicine. We celebrated this clarity by clinking cups full of dark, sweet cacao.
How could our storyline actually shift power, from hierarchy to harmony?
Aliko and I hunkered down with markers and cards to co-create the story engine. How would our circle of eight get put together? How would the pod use interactive games to practice self-awareness and create connection? Once the cast understood how to get their needs met AND help others thrive in the process, they’d be ready for a mission.
To make our circle of eight, we’ll embrace friendly competition. We begin with one charismatic practitioner and a wider pool of potential contestants. She invites her first pick to play creative games designed to test their compatibility and joy factor. In each episode, the new pick is invited to reveal their strengths, their shadow side, wounds, how they’ve grown and healed, how they see the world, what really matters, how they resolve conflict in relationships, and what helps them feel confident in sharing their brave, authentic self. These initiatory games allow the pod to evaluate their skill-and-mindset as a potential fit. The team is free to accept them, or not. They then select another player from the pool until they reach the ideal number. Why eight? The power of eight people co-creating an intention had showed dramatic results (researched by author Lynne McTaggart).
Next, we’d break out the interactive games. Based on our creative tools, Authentic Relating, Compassion Games, InterPlay and other experiential learning modes, the games were designed for maximum intimacy, sharing, laughter, and personal revelations that led to “Aha!” moments. Players score points for vulnerability, truth, cooperation, healing, and risk-taking.
We called the weirdest game “Assume the Position.” Everyone sat cross-legged in a circle, with their backs facing the center, knees and hands lightly touching. This human mandala created an electric circuit that helped to synchronize brains, so teams could collaborate with more synergy.
Next, the team targets a local leader with dog-eat-dog values (such as our local school board president who pushed a billion-dollar bond that excluded Native schools, then was caught destroying NO vote signs.) The team does extensive research to design a stealth mission to approach this leader and earn their trust before offering transformational experiences. Which include active compassionate listening (ACL), virtual reality (VR) storytelling, and the main course: a trauma-informed, fully supported entheogenic retreat.
On our last show, we’d reveal the bigger game: to activate Empathy pods worldwide. We hoped our treasure hunt would captivate people’s imaginations, so they’d follow the clues to online sites where new pods could download basic guidelines, tools, and support. Would this inspire them to get off the couch, combine their skills and get into some Good Trouble? To win, an instigator had to invite a circle of eight, play the games, target a mission, and share the story.
A SEED is (finally) Born
It took years to grow our seed into a reality TV show. Aliko and I and our production pod put in months of long, exhausting days to develop our package. We scouted a real world setting, a colorful cultural yoga and dance community hub that felt fresh. We made proof-of-concept shorts featuring our strongest mystic millennials playing our most visual, fun, creative games. We invited executives to “Assume the Position.” We hounded new connections and funding.
To stay upbeat despite dozens of rejections, we practiced our co-regulation skills. We took deep ‘ahhh’ breaths to regulate our fried nervous systems. Did a happy dance after every meeting. The more failures under our belts, the closer we came to a win.
Finally, an up-and-coming game production company took a chance. With a tiny budget and no guarantee that it would air. We survived on kale chips, gut intuition, and the positive vibes of our brilliant cast and crew. When the producers threatened to cut funding halfway in, we listened deeply to their concerns, fears, and worries, and worked through all of it. The show was so uniquely compelling that they sold it to a decent streaming service. Yes!
In January 2026, the first episode of “Empassionistas” dropped. Despite rampant cynicism in our culture, our audience resonated with our playfully powerful, gorgeous cast of eight. They admired the vision of working together to create a more friendly world. We played with intrigue, danger, sensuality, and vulnerability, all in service to an epic mission. Our real characters showed how people can shift, from despondent doom scrollers to dedicated ‘Empassionistas.’
Over ten weeks, our characters showed how to grow a pod. As each new candidate played the games, shared their stories, laughed, cried, and got silly, we saw their hearts expand, so they could share deeper. We saw how the suffering of their childhood trauma had created fearful triggers. We witnessed their go-to mode shift from “Watch out! Danger!” to “I’m your friend…this is gonna be ok.” They faced big challenges, yet all emotions were welcome within the pod. They became a family, with all the issues of family. But instead of fanning the fuel of conflict, like most reality TV, we gave them tools to work out their conflicts. They felt powerful, and connected, like they could do anything. We could almost sense their neuropathways of trust and empathy growing stronger.
The weirdest, most celebrated part of our story? “Assume the position.” It actually worked. Our pod grew an uncanny ability to synchronize and strategize. They read each other’s minds before they spoke. Like magic. And the idea spread. People got together to try it, even celebrities. They shared images and videos, and the idea caught fire.
We knew. Our semi-weird idea would not wither in obscurity, it would thrive and grow. People found our hidden clues. They downloaded our game and tools. We’d only dreamed how far it could go, simply by growing the seed of an idea and providing creative tools for people to claim.
Here’s a few stories of real people who got inspired to take real action.
Sonja, Pod 1 and Mayor Jennings
Before “Empassionistas,” Sonja buzzed with potential but felt immobilized by uncertainty. Work was a dead end. She neglected her creative passions. Our show of new companions embarking on a mission to shift the heart of a corrupt leader struck a chord. Intrigued by “Assume the Position,” Sonja felt compelled to try it, to see if it really worked. She downloaded the clues to become the first Instigator. She rallied some friends and acquaintances who shared her desire to do something about their existential anxiety for the future. Her pod included a tech entrepreneur, therapist, healer, legal advisor, and a person doing community service after a DUI. Despite doubts, challenges and their differences they deepened their bond through empathy games. On a transformative psilocybin retreat, they truly came together. Now they could focus on their mission: Mayor Jennings.
Mayor Sarah Jennings was known for her pragmatic yet controversial policies, especially affecting communities who had been marginalized. After researching her preferences and personality, the pod arranged to meet her at a cafe to discuss “innovative solutions for local issues.” After they bonded over shared values, the Mayor opened up about her struggles with initiatives for the unhoused. The pod then introduced a VR experience inspired by “A Christmas Carol,” showing the impacts of her policies, past, present and future.
Mayor Jennings almost left the meeting abruptly when the VR headset made her nauseous. The pod empathized so well that she accepted a follow up, after reassurances and adjustments to the VR setup. At the next meeting, moved by the story, she acknowledged her need for change. The pod offered empathy-based leadership support, which lead to several powerful sessions. The Mayor accepted an invitation to a leadership retreat with legal entheogenic plant medicines, for a safe and possibly transformative experience.
Freshly back from the retreat, the Mayor wanted to share her story of profound transformation. She offered three key insights and revelations, in a public statement covered by the press.
“Leadership isn’t about appearing strong. True strength lies in vulnerability and learning. Confronting my fears and past trauma reshaped my values into empathy and understanding.”
“Empathy bridges divides. Every decision I make affects real lives. This guides me to lead with understanding and care. I’ve shifted focus to uplift the most marginalized. Leadership is about listening, engaging, and creating an environment for participatory decision-making.”
“I used to criticize touchy-feely, woo-woo stuff. I now champion transformative journeys for leaders. It’s a pivotal moment for a cooperative world shift. Gratefully, I see hope in change, one heart at a time, and I’m dedicated to spreading this vision.”
Our semi-crazy story had worked! Sonja felt the call to action. She did something brave and beautiful, invited a pod to learn, grow and co-create a mission. Mayor Jennings created the public ripple effect we’d hoped for. Thrilled, Sonja’s pod agreed to stay close and take on another mission.
Alexander Torres and a Breakthrough to Global Good
Alexander Torres headed InnovateT, a company known for pushing boundaries in AI and big data. He led with a ruthless, competitive edge, ignoring ethics and human well-being. When a staffer brought him a social mention of Mayor Jennings’ turnaround, he first laughed at the story. Then he got curious. With his drive to be on the leading edge of any tech he could leverage, Alexander signed up for the next entheogenic Elite Retreat in a remote, luxury locale. There, he defended his ego posture until the last profound session, when Alexander saw the roots of his relentless ambition—a childhood of abandonment and scarcity that left him with a deep fear of being weak and vulnerable. His tactics became the only way to win in an unpredictable, threatening world.
He bravely allowed all his fear, anger, and shame to surface. He allowed the facilitators to hold him. Scared and embarrassed, he also felt truly seen and understood. He still wanted to win. But Alexander’s rock-solid beliefs about success felt hollow. Was there another way?
This breakthrough prompted Alexander to explore empathy and conscious capitalism, so he could integrate these values into InnovateT.
He privately joined a SEEDpod, similar to the one that influenced Mayor Jennings, focusing on social-emotional skills and group consciousness. Alexander initiated SEEDpod training at InnovateT, steering his staff and the company toward ethical innovation, profit-sharing, and community investment. After years of improvements at InnovateT, he championed the “Global Good Index.” To influence other leaders to redefine success to prioritize societal and environmental well-being.
In a heartfelt testimonial, Alexander reflected on his journey:
“SEEDpod is a catalyst for a transformation, which leads to innovation. I discovered the roots of my fear-driven approach to leadership. We’re learning that true power lies in vulnerability, cooperation, and a commitment to the greater good. As InnovateT requires equitable and sustainable business practices, I encourage other leaders to open their hearts and minds to the transformative power of empathy. Together, we can redefine success and build a legacy of Global Good.”
By 2030, Alexander Torres’ story had become a beacon of hope and inspiration. He was living proof that profound change is possible when leaders are willing to confront their past, embrace empathy, and commit to a path of ethical and compassionate leadership.
What Came Next
As SEEDpods grew more popular, they showed up everywhere. Incarcerated folks started SEEDpods for peer support and prison reform. Elementary kids formed SEEDpods to help each other and their teachers be more humane. Sustainable energy innovations, fueled by the creative process of eight. We felt a shift at all levels. Less road rage. Fewer mass shootings. More kindness in our families.
As my days on Planet Earth wind down, my heart is filled with wonder and awe. I’m grateful for Aliko and our pod, a creative healing community. I’m grateful for people who care about nurturing, commitment, and cooperation. Even a semi-crazy idea, a tiny seed, can grow into a forest. Stories can catch the wind and travel far. I’m grateful to have lived in this time of big transformative changes.
——– thank you!