Manifesto

FALSE GOD is my creative outlet. It's a place where I process emotions that I can't always express in my daily life.

I live in constant motion — as a husband, a father, an employer, a son, a friend. In all those roles, people rely on me, and so I have to keep functioning. That means I often have to control my emotions. But controlling them doesn't make them disappear. It's more like putting them in a refrigerator. That works for a while, but running that refrigerator takes energy — life energy — and if it becomes too full, it breaks.

FALSE GOD is what keeps mine from breaking. It's a way to release what I feel without resorting to unhealthy coping mechanisms like alcohol or distraction. It's a therapeutic tool — and, at the same time, an act of integrity. Because if the world continues down the path it's on, and my son looks back at me in twenty or thirty years, I want him to see that I didn't stay silent. I want him to know that I refused to become a bystander to what is happening.

A few years ago, I went through a period that forced me to confront myself. My startup was close to insolvency. I had just become a father and was personally liable for my company's debt. I decided to start therapy to stay functional — to keep leading my team, saving the company, protecting my family. The therapy worked. I managed to turn the company around, and today it's one of the fastest-growing startups in Germany. But the process also started something I can't switch off anymore: an inner dialogue that keeps unfolding. It's a constructive one, though — a journey back to myself.

Until then, I had been completely rational, analytical — allergic to anything that sounded "spiritual." That changed when, out of curiosity, I tried a shamanic power animal meditation. I didn't believe in it at the time, but I approached it openly. What I discovered wasn't superstition — it was symbolism. The animal I encountered represented something from my subconscious. It was a language of the inner self. That experience opened the door to a new understanding of consciousness.

Since then, I've read spiritual and philosophical books that are among the most intelligent, self-critical works I've ever come across — and I say this as someone with three academic degrees who has always loved reading. These books weren't about magic. They were about awareness, reflection, and the psychology of meaning.

Through that, I became fascinated with consciousness itself. My art and my writing — especially this blog — are part of that exploration. I want to trace the roots of consciousness from ancient Egypt to modern theories of artificial intelligence. Each month, I plan to document what I've learned and how my understanding evolves.

Technologically, I've realized how many of the tools we use daily — social media in particular — are designed to exploit our "lower self" and make us dependent. They disconnect us from our autonomy and turn us into reactive beings, robots driven by algorithms instead of free will. That realization horrifies me.

Societally, we are drifting toward autocracy. Things are being said and done publicly today that would have been unthinkable years ago — and for good reason. The erosion of press freedom, human dignity, and the rule of law is happening faster than most people realize.

FALSE GOD is my personal reaction to all of this. It's my refusal to pretend everything is fine. It's my way of documenting that I was here — that I saw what was happening — and that I cared enough to say something.

The name FALSE GOD itself is a statement. It's about courage — the courage to speak out publicly, even knowing that in the wrong political climate, such views could carry consequences.

My art will remain dark because the world that inspires it is dark. I have no interest in false optimism or decorative illusions. Until the world changes for the better, I see no reason to paint it in bright colors.

When people visit my website, I want them to be shaken — to pause and reflect on what kind of world they are leaving behind for their children.

Signals from the Machine, my newsletter, is an extension of this space. It's not about marketing or self-promotion. It's a dialogue — between human and machine, between logic and intuition, between awareness and control.

Empathy, vulnerability, and authenticity are central to what I do. They're also what I value most in others. I'm trying to stay awake in a world that rewards sleepwalking.

And yes, I fail at this constantly. I'm human. I get distracted, sedated, tempted. But I try to set boundaries — no phone in the bedroom, limited social media, and creative rituals like FALSE GOD that pull me back into awareness.

If someone who doesn't care about art or technology asks what FALSE GOD is, I'd tell them: You go to therapy; I write and paint.

And if my son reads this one day, I hope he finds the words of a father who worried deeply about the world he brought him into — but who tried, in his own way, to make it a little better.

— Niklas Hanitsch