Who Am-I ?

 

I am Mohamed El Khatib IBN HADJ KACEM... Born in November 28th 1988. A normal person, Mr X if you want... Nothing so special or great about me !

Typical normal life, I am from Nabeul, Tunisia, a country of North Africa and part of the Arabo-Muslim world... I studied School in Kasserine (1st until 5th grade) and Intermediate School in Ariana (6th until 9th grade) High School in Sidi Bouzid (4 years)... I gave it a shot at the Military Academy for 5 months and then I gave up...So I followed Preparatory School in Nabeul (2 years)... Afterwards I took engineering studies in Mannouba, Computer Studies, and finally ended up working as a computer engineer in a major company... Typical Western/American lifestyle, 8 hours in an office and renting a house in the capital with a couple of identical roommates...

I was first introduced to psychology from my early twenties, it was interesting for me to study the mechanisms and tricks of the mind... I was attending seminars, watching videos on YouTube and reading books (I especially liked Maslow and Maltz Maxwell)...

And then after having some relationship problems... (breaking-up from a 6-year-old relationship) I started to notice that knowing the theory was not enough, and the most practical thing I found in psychology (at that time of course) was the pick-up community, followed that for a couple of months... And then noticed that THAT also did not fulfill me...

So then this has led me to personal development, and self-actualization... Very practical and I could relate to it very much...

Afterwards, I noticed some very common patterns, and this has led me to some other practices I have been ignoring... Like Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Spirituality, Meditation, and finally The Final Awakening and Enlightenment...

If you are a degree-lover then I have many certifications in psychology, from all the seminars I have attended (Some exams were required for me to obtain those) I also attended many online training sessions about guided meditations and hypnosis.

It is no coincidence that the path to enlightenment is called "the hero's journey" it is very easy to fall into subtle traps like dogma, building a "spiritual ego", and start moralizing... I am still on the path and not enlightened yet, I have only seen "the tail of the Ox" (Zen reference) and all my life have taken a drastic shift ! This path is very rewarding and you start to see benefits from the first week it's wonderful !

Now about the reasons why I did that, there are a lot of them... As I've said, I've been living a typical Western American lifestyle...

Chasing success and money all the time, and I was successful and earned a good paycheck...
Chasing women and intercourse and I had plenty...
Chasing parties and fun and going out with friends and I did everything, from alcohol to weed to all drugs...
I chased true love and close relationships and I got a girlfriend for 6 years with a lot of complicity and intimacy...

But then it hit me and I woke up.... None of that was fulfilling me... I felt empty inside... Always trying to run away and hide and occupy myself and I felt I wasn't doing the right thing...
My girlfriend got bored of me, and we broke up... My money got spent and I was always craving more... Drugs started to not affect me and started feeling like decaf' (The Weeknd reference)... Friends became superficial and they were always gossiping and complaining... I was alright and pretty secure in my life, but started to feel anxiety, fear, sadness, anger, depression and even thought about suicide for no reason at all and I didn't know why...

Tried pick-up community to improve my relationships... Nothing !
Tried self-help and personal development, not the real deal, but the charlatans talking about positive thinking and law of attraction... Nothing !
Tried yoga and mystical spirituality, the kind that speaks about magic and mind-reading and all... The dark side gullible way... Nothing !
Tried philosophy... Nothing ! But really, knowledge is power, and philosophy led me to psychology (Freud).
Tried psychology... Started to feel something ! And it led me to self-actualization !

I was always impressed by reading books and watching informational videos on YouTube until I found a guy who is called Leo Gura, owner of the self-actualization project 'Actualized.org' (also the YouTube channel of the same name) a very rational and scientific man with a very rich background... He was the one who introduced me to "the hero's journey", true spirituality, all about tapping into our higher self, listening to our intuition, doing self-inquiry and seeking our true nature... Spiritual Enlightenment !!!

Now I'm seriously on my way to awakening and enlightenment and I am so grateful God have put this in my way... All my pain and suffering, depression, suicidal thoughts... Were all there for a reason !

It helped me grow.. and a lot !!! Happiness, abundance, infinity... It was all inside of us from the beginning... And the more we get away from it the more we suffer unconsciously...

So in the end, I noticed some very interesting life-changing practices, and that's what led me to make "The Grand Illusion" project, in order to share my discoveries with everyone else, and maybe, help the process (which was already ongoing) of making a better world with more aware and conscious people, because I noticed that more and more people are starting to get fed up with all the mainstream culture all about chasing money and success and material things....