Escaping the Mind Virus: A Call to Build

I had it!

Since the March 2020 COVID lockdowns, I carried something I could not name at first. It disguised itself as caution, as discernment, even as wisdom. At its core, it was fear. I had been infected with a mind virus.

This virus does not spread through the air. It spreads through belief. It alters how we see others, how we see the world, and how we make decisions. It tells us there is not enough. Not enough time, not enough resources, not enough trust, not enough love. Once we begin to believe that, we stop looking for connection. We start preparing for survival.

This is the belief system of scarcity. And it has been with us for far longer than recent years.

It traces back to Thomas Malthus, an English economist who claimed that population growth would always exceed food supply. His ideas painted a picture of inevitable collapse and justified social control policies to prevent that outcome. These ideas took root in elite circles and gave birth to eugenics—a belief system that sought to shape humanity by deciding who was fit to reproduce and who was not. Eugenics was not theory. It became law, then policy, and eventually genocide. It was one of the ideological cornerstones of the Holocaust. Under Nazi Germany, it justified forced sterilizations, medical experimentation, and the extermination of millions.

That same anti-human impulse still echoes today. We hear it in the messaging from unelected institutions that speak of population control, forced transitions, and central management of resources. Their language sounds modern and polished. The core belief remains the same. Humanity must be managed because humanity is the problem.

Adrian Spitters and I wrote It Starts With Gold to speak directly to this mindset. We did not write it for those looking for escape. We wrote it for those ready to face reality. This book is a necessary read because before we can come together and build anything meaningful, we must first be honest about the obstacles in our way.

It Starts With Gold is more than a book about economics or metals. It is a metaphor for de-risking our lives by rematerializing our assets, our thinking, and our relationships. It is a call to bring substance back into a world that has been digitized, financialized, and abstracted beyond recognition. Gold represents what is real, what is enduring, and what cannot be manipulated by systems that feed on illusion.

Now it is time to move forward.

Adrian and I were preparing to write the second book in our series. We decided to jump ahead and write what was meant to be the final volume. It is called Building Your Tribe.

This is not a book about collapse. It is a book about creation. It is for those who want to build something new, something grounded, something lasting. It is for those who have seen the truth and are still willing to act with love and conviction.

There are two kinds of people. Some are guided by fear, shame, and scarcity. They pull others down. Others are guided by faith, clarity, and abundance. They lift others up. I now believe that love is not just a feeling—it is the discipline of looking for what is good and building upon it.

To take that step, I had to face something in myself. I had unknowingly created what some call a Magnetized Trauma Field. I stayed too long in reflection, replaying losses, focusing on injustice. I thought I was being insightful. I was actually stuck. I thought I was helping. I was holding on. I was attracting more of what I wanted to leave behind.

That chapter is over.

I choose to face forward. I want to build with others who are not waiting to be rescued. I want to partner with people who have let go of the illusion that someone else will fix this. I know I will have hard days. I know I will fall back at times. I am developing new habits. I am choosing to contribute, one person and one conversation at a time.

That is what Building Your Tribe is about. It is a call to form real communities rooted in truth, in sovereignty, and in compassion. It is a direction more than a destination.

Day one is today.

If you are ready to build something worthy of the generations yet to come, then we welcome you. It Starts With Gold was the diagnosis. Building Your Tribe is the blueprint for what comes next.

Let us build a world where truth has weight, where people matter more than programs, and where love is measured by the presence we give to one another.

With humility and resolve,

Peter J. Merrick, TEP

To find out more, order your own copy of It Starts With Gold on Amazon today: https://mybook.to/GOLD