Metabolic Theology: Vampires, Aristocrats, and the Peatian Will

The "peaters" like to connect almost everything to metabolism. They say your "aura" is determined by your bodily temperature, which in turn is the consequence of your body's metabolism. I think they are right — the gastrointestinal tract and the resulting neurochemical state are intensely interconnected with conscious experience, social behaviour, appearance — usually in ways we don't yet understand. The peaters' goal is to have a high bodily temperature, caused by intense, fast metabolism based on a high-carbohydrate diet. They are often "right wing", mirroring the Futurists' and in general, fascists' love of speed and intensity. Their claims of increased "whimsiness", curiosity, and general life-force/energy seem mostly true and to be expected. But there is a deeper philosophy here. The fundamental idea of Peatianism, philosophically: 1) The body has many restorative, productive, exploratory, "expansive" functions — positive feedback loops. What they have in common is they require energy, on all levels from cells to cognition. For that they need adequate glucose metabolism, thyroid function, etc. — and a constant source of novelty. 2) The body also has an opposite set of functions — suppressive, torpor, hibernation-eliciting. These prevent excess energy expenditure. They are elicited through stress — strain on the organism, adverse conditions. They are only necessary when hardship (and by extension death) is expected by the organism. 3) The "expansive" functions decline with aging and prolonged psychological stress, as "suppressive" functions take over, "preserving" the organism. 4) The reason: the expectation of the organism, on all levels (from higher brain functions to mitochondria) that it will lose its purpose — which is posited to be these "expansive" functions: creativity, reproduction, exploration, growth. 5) The expectation of purpose is what keeps the organism's active functions going — this is only possible with adequate (or even excess) energy and the expectation thereof. 6) Thus the philosophy is broadly Nietzschean — it prioritises the active, expansive force over the negative-feedback, homeostatic force. 7) The implication for aging: either one inhibits one's body enough to be in a constant state of hibernation, thus slowing and therefore prolonging the organism's existence, OR one avoids stressors and lets the "expansive" (including self-repairing) functions stay in a constant state of growth. 8) In other words, Peatianism favours allostasis, while "Bryan-Johnsonism" promotes homeostasis. 9) Concretely, the Peatian metabolic state is dominated by active dopamine, T3, oxidative-phosphorylation, high-ATP state, while the Johnsonian state is dominated by estrogen, fat-oxidation, low-metabolic rate. 10) The radical claim: As humans we can persist in the expansive state, lowering local entropy while continually increasing entropy elsewhere, suppressing all suppressive functions and expecting only further abundance — which can lead to a far more alive organism than the hibernation state promoted by mainstream health science. This position naturally favours right-wing ideology, as it has a far greater aesthetic appreciation for "expansive power" as opposed to homeostatic mechanisms, such as state-controlled economy or inhibitory medication (SSRIs, benzodiazepines). At the same time, the Peatian state assumes a position of dominance — the inhibitory functions of an organism are protective precisely in positions of powerlessness (depression, inflammation, lowered self-esteem driven by low dopamine, high prolactin). Paradoxically, this expansive state can only be sustained in radical abundance of energy and safety — thus it can exist only either in a small elite of powerful humans, or in a functional, pro-social economy. Ray Peat himself was vaguely a socialist — in his view the expansive force is naturally pro-social, decreasing hostility and increasing charitability (not inhibitory enforced equality though). — Now consider the metabolism spectrum through an archetypal lens. It has been shown, both in rats and in humans, that those with a less-than-optimal influx of calories live longer, sometimes drastically. This can be explained by evolutionary adaptation: in times of plenty, populations optimize for the true objective — reproduce and die, create complexity and prune. If, however, there is a lack of resources, metabolism shifts from glucose to the more efficient triglycerides stored in adipose tissue. If an organism is in this metabolic state, its body temperature is lower, it is in constant stress — but it is also in a state of vigilance, endurance, longevity. It is playing the long game. The archetypal "slow-metabolism" figure is the Vampire. The Vampire doesn't eat sugar, it eats rarely, and when it does, it consumes a mixture of protein, cholesterol and fat. It is constantly in a near-death state, and precisely because of that, it is near-immortal. The "cold aura" they must have is not conductive to high social status, at least not in normie society. They live outside of society, hated and feared. A disadvantage that prevents them from taking over the world is their lack of useful motivation. Not a lack of motivation per se, but its utter rigidity. They want barely anything other than food (blood), just as a fasting homo sapiens is intensely preoccupied with finding energy in a scarce world. The peaters' goal is the state of no hardship, of constant excess. This is an inherently aristocratic state, one that can only be afforded by the minority who has hacked the social order such that the majority, living in the "slow" metabolic state, works for them. Attempting to "skip" into this state as a non-aristocrat can lead to much difficulty. For example, the aristocrat doesn't have to control his attention, thus the "whimsiness" of peaters. Games, exploration are beneficial and natural in this state, but directed, hard work is not. Should one be an Aristocrat or a Vampire? In my opinion this depends on one's stage of "liberation" — the measure of how free one's will is. An ADHD kid won't profit from a Peat diet; it would only amplify the pathologically strong tendencies of unfocused attention and constant state of "fullness" with hedons. But that doesn't change the fact that the Aristocrat's metabolism is the optimal end-goal — at least if one is concerned with human society and one's status within it. Otherwise, immortality through shadowiness is a sensible path. For most, the optimal path involves a stage of "grinding" while in the "hungry hunter's" (the low-level, transient Vampire's) metabolic state — regular fasting, low carbohydrates, higher intake of fat and proteins — followed by the Aristocrat's metabolism after victory is achieved, after the symbolic animal has been caught.