About Zachary Duncan

I looked around at the world at 16 after a traumatic brain injury and had no memory of who I was. I offer this view into my life in hopes that you will understand where I come from when I write and speak.

My erasure of memory was total. I had forgotten how to speak, how to read, how to write, and could not think coherent thoughts. It was as though I was newly born, learning the basics once again, rewiring my brain one synapse at a time. I had been highly synaesthetic before the accident, seeing sounds and hearing colors as music, feeling voices like texture on my fingertips, and that was gone, only to be recovered much later in life.

Going back to High School without knowing who was who, where my classes were, which person was my friend, and why Susie didn’t like Sally and why Jason was so important to Jessica, I quickly saw how fabricated the realities of my classmates and teachers were, and promptly determined to graduate early.

It was at this point that I began to understand in an immediate, direct sense the ways in which we are conditioned to behave, acting those behaviors out completely unconsciously and confusing the ideas of other people as our own. The contrast of individual and collective assumptions with reality was stark, and I felt the sway of the fleeting promises of validation from others like a tangible thing.

After playing the starving student role at UC Berkeley where I studied Civil & Environmental Engineering, I began to embody a passionate life lived “all in” to include free-solo no-rope rock climbing and parkour. I wanted a little more discipline and adventure than the free-range lifestyle that was offered ahead, and joined the Marine Corps.

As an Infantry Captain in the Marine Corps, I deployed as an Infantry Platoon Commander with 1st Battalion, 4th Marines to train foreign militaries on techniques, tactics, and procedures of the modern battlespace, then with 1st Marine Regiment as Assistant Operations Officer, and finished my tour as an Operations Officer for 1st Marine Division, working with Special Operations Training Group and redesigning the 6-week live-fire wargame for the DoD that certifies deploying Navy squadrons and Marine Corps units as “deployment ready.”

My search for truth started to expand beyond the traditional philosophical texts, and I looked deeper into history for more tried and tested methods and perspectives. Intensive practical studies of Stoicism, virtue ethics, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy allowed me to test on the front lines what I saw as the most refined technologies for being an effective and efficient leader.

After the Marines, I waited to start my MBA and traveled the world, driving to Panama, riding a motorcycle around the Mediterranean, studying and sailing. While studying at the University of Michigan, I worked as a consultant for such diverse firms as Amazon, where I developed the nation-wide roll-out strategy for Same Day Shipping, PG&E, where I integrated the company’s various work types with an enterprise work scheduling program, and aerospace supply companies, where I developed technology solutions to help their sales.

I began to experience tremendous shifts in consciousness. At irregular intervals, my vision would white-out, and my sense of self would leave my body to a place of non-experience beyond subjective time and space. Everything that I knew of the world was left behind in these pristine moments, including my personality structure, my dreams, my relationships, everything that I had known or accumulated, until only “I” remained. I would then “return” to my body, picking myself up a few moments later back where I was, dusting off and carrying on with the day with a burning question inside.

After some testing, doctors scratched their heads and suggested that perhaps my brain was healing from its earlier trauma a decade before.

My search for enlightenment began to pick up in both speed and intensity of desire to uncover the mystery of just what this experience called life is, to find the source of all existence, to touch the root of all Being, and to understand the ultimate answer to everything, ever.

Sensing again an opportunity for change, growth, and impact, I accepted a leadership role at Boeing Commercial Airplanes to reduce the cost of delivered airplanes and worked to restructure Boeing’s Big Data and Analytics strategy as part of BCA Quality.

Intense realizations continued to unfold as long-lost memories began to surface. Forgotten experiences and entire blocks of my life returned in flashes of sudden awakening and insight, resulting in sometimes drastic changes in my perception of self and identity. I started to explore a Zen practice, joined a Rinzai monastery, and was initiated to teach yoga from Himalayan masters in Rishikesh, India, exploring various esoteric traditions; everything from Alchemy to Jung, from Vedanta to Qabbalah.

Then, I took a role in Boeing Defense, Space, and Security and developed the advanced manufacturing technology roadmap for BDS, bringing together various stakeholders to make the next generation of satellite and missile manufacturing systems.

My experience started to shift again, away from a more traditional yogic point of view to one remarkably similar to the profound teachings of Dzogchen: that the natural state of sat-chit-ananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, is always and already at the root of every experience. That which I had sought without knowing but with all the intuition of a sailor at sea had always been with me, already there, already fully present, as it is with everyone, always and forever.

Again, I felt the same old call to new horizons, and left the space business to found The Freeform Group, a hub for self-realization and self-actualization teachers and teachings, community engagement initiatives, and independent consulting. I now train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, write, teach yoga and spiritual principles to a private clientele, and coordinate domestic and international retreats aimed at one thing: emptying oneself of ego and quantum leaping one’s ability to be of service to others.

Zachary’s workshops, sessions, and books are available for free, or for very low cost, to best facilitate the awakening of the individual and the collective

I continue to throw myself at life from as many different angles as possible in order to know and understand the human condition, inside and out, with the intention to distill from direct experience the most relevant and accessible access points to the highest aspirations of Man: the freedom to choose one’s own way, freedom from suffering, liberation from ignorance, self-realization, self-empowerment, self-knowledge, and self-actualization.

It is my goal to activate every individual I meet into a greater understanding of themselves as consciously aware reflections of the Absolute beyond all form. I want to provide a distilled, practical, accessible, unified philosophy that makes the journey of life clear, enjoyable, and practical for all, not just for those who strive with all their heart and soul for 15 years of their lives seeking for the best answers out there and sifting through diverse paths and philosophies to find the nuggets of Truth within.

The human species deserves the benefits of any distilled science, whether that science is microwaves or meditation. I now make it my mission to bridge the worlds of spirituality and practicality and make this available to our contemporary, collective civilization.

I provide my work for free as much as I responsibly can, and charge for some offerings in order to sustain the delivery of the free content. I have been considered at various times a visionary, a paradigm-breaker, and consider myself someone fearless and willing enough to make a difference even to those who might resent me for it.

Driven by an overwhelming desire to serve others, I maintain my integrity at all times, and in all circumstances; this level of personal sacrifice requires an ego-death in the form of service that can be frightening, but what remains in spite of death, what is revived at the moment of absolute surrender, is the most beautiful experience known to Man, and is well worth the price.

What informs my work

Distrust and separation are commonplace at this time in our civilization, doubly so as the scandals and corruption are brought to the light of the collective awareness during this time of increasing connections and transparency.

Distrust of anyone in authority has become commonplace. Anyone who presents even vaguely spiritual teachings and gathers a following can be labelled a “cult leader,” no matter how beneficial their teachings are. That there are charlatans is not in doubt. That there is anyone who is not a charlatan is. Even snakes speak truth, and it is often the truth we most need to hear.

The most beautiful thing about life, yet simultaneously most difficult, is that everyone must be taken at their word. No matter the proof offered, in the end, we only ever convince ourselves of the truth.

This is doubly the case for spiritual teachings, or anything that deals with “woo.” Because people can have ulterior motives, it is easy to discount, at face value, anything that is offered, no matter how valuable.

While I do use words like “faith” in my work, I do not ask you to take anything on faith. Every recommendation, every suggestion, every claim, can be and will be substantiated by your own direct experience.

With that in mind, not everything I teach will resonate with you as an individual, due in no small part to the illusion of separation between us. I will endeavor to present truth—as I understand it—in clear language, as cleanly and as succinctly as possible, and to present concepts from multiple points of view in order to best drive understanding and enable learning. However, my best efforts may fall short, and you might go: “this guy is full of it…next!”

In which case, please, I beg you with tears in my eyes, find something else that speaks to you.

I do not argue from a position of authority. There is no system that qualifies an individual to talk about life and adds letters to the end of their name, and if there were, you should not trust it. Any sage worth his salt will not lay claims to the title.

I do not ask you to take any qualifications or labels that I do not claim as reason to listen to me. I expect you to think for yourself. When relevant, I will point to sources or refer to additional reading. I will present, for your genuine consideration, some few pointers to realizations that come either from:

• A lifetime of professional experience and applied philosophical exploration,

• Direct Experience and Meditation, and

• Study and Reflection

In the end, this is the absolute most anyone can do when talking about the nature of direct experience. The most elaborate proofs are accepted only when one proves it for themselves.

I will offer the truth as I know it, as I see it, as I live it, as concretely and as directly as possible for me.

Just as I can do nothing less, you can do nothing less than trust in, believe in, and have faith in yourself.

Zachary Duncan