Living in Harmony with the Daimon
The daimon (pronounced démon) is an Ancient Greek concept that is closely related to the human soul and spirit, but also contains a divine and super-human element.
It was seen as a spiritual driving force for great achievements and genius, a strong unrest deep in our soul that forces us to explore our full potential and the unknown within us.
The daimonic is not inherently good or bad, and as such can lead us to deep self-discovery as well as self-destruction. It’s that powerful force that many elite performers and creative geniuses over the centuries have utilized, but have also struggled with. As Carl Jung later proclaimed: "A creative person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is captive and driven by his daimon.”
Eudaimon can be seen as the positive manifestation of the daimon. Aristotle said that eudaimonia means “doing and living well” and saw it as one of humanity’s greatest aspirations. He believed that “Happiness is to live in harmony with one’s daimon.”
With Yudemon I want to help people — and, quite selfishly, myself — access their daimon, work with it, and achieve Aristotle’s goal of living in harmony with it.
Accessing the Mind through the Body
Our body and mind are not separate entities. They are strongly linked.
Yet, when it comes to improving our mind — whether that’s in order to get the highest performance out of a “healthy” mind, or in the (increasingly common and important) context of dealing with mental health issues — we have barely begun to make use of this link.
While talk therapy and other staples of psychotherapy can be powerful interventions, they should only be part of the tools in our toolkit. The fact is: It is extremely difficult to control or heal the mind solely through the mind. Yet it is our go-to approach.
It’s time to change this.
Addressing our mental state through physiology first is at least as powerful, if not more so, as focusing on the psychological aspect. Rather than trying to change the content of the mind and hoping that it trickles down to our overall wellbeing and how we feel physically, we can start from the other end, changing our physiology and have it seep up to our mind and change its content.
Elevating Human Happiness, Performance, and Wellbeing through Creative Technology
Yudemon lives at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), computational creativity, biometric data, and generative music and soundscapes. It applies cutting edge technologies from the creative fields and combines them with existing techniques such as heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback training, meditation, and immersive experiences.
In the long term, I see Yudemon as a container — my own personal playground — for explorations at the intersection of my various interests, and using them in a quest to optimize human happiness, performance, and overall wellbeing.
Yudemon is a project by Max Frenzel, in partnership with Qosmo.
Max Frenzel is the co-author of the international bestseller Time Off: A Practical Guide to Building Your Rest Ethic and Finding Success Without the Stress. His ideas have been featured in Fast Company, Financial Times, Thrive Global, Entrepreneur Magazine, and other publications. After receiving his PhD in Quantum Information Theory from Imperial College London and working as a postdoctoral research fellow at Tokyo University, Max has been involved in several tech startups, focusing on the intersection of AI research and product design, as well as the applications of AI and deep learning to creativity, design, and music. Some of the AI-art Max has been involved in was exhibited at places like the Barbican Centre in London, and he is a regular public speaker on topics such as AI and creativity. He has a long-standing interest in biohacking and self-improvement. In his time off, Max enjoys good coffee, tries to perfect his bread baking skills, and produces electronic music and performs around Tokyo. You can find him online at www.maxfrenzel.com.
Qosmo is a Tokyo-based group of artists, researchers, designers, and programmers, led by Nao Tokui, working on digital art and research into cutting-edge technology, such as artificial intelligence. Qosmo is also involved in the development of artworks commissioned by companies and organizations. www.qosmo.jp