I came to the U.S. from Romania at 18, chasing a better life. But no matter what I built, no matter how much I had, something was always missing.

On the outside, everything looked good—I ran multiple successful businesses in Chicago, dated a gorgeous woman, and had many friends who looked up to me. But inside, I was drowning.

Then life ripped me open.

I lived with my cousin Clau for years—he was like a brother to me. Then one day, a near-fatal accident changed everything. Not long after, my father died from a hospital infection in Romania. And then came heartbreak— a conscious and very painful separation from Asma, the love of my life.

I searched. I traveled. Psychedelics cracked me open. Silent Vipassana and non-dual retreats—I threw myself into everything. MBSR, Logotherapy, SAND, The Headless Way with Richard Lang, retreats with Rupert Spira, Lama Surya Das, and Loch Kelly.

I followed the pathless path— Sam Harris, Douglas Harding (seeing I had no head changed everything), Adyashanti, Ramana, Nisargadatta, Ramesh, Krishnamurti, Osho, David Bohm, David Deida, Jim Newman, Roger Castillo.. and many others.

The last few years have been about integration—uprooting the beliefs in personal doership and attachment to outcome, developing faith in the unknown, and releasing the emotions crystallized in my body.

The journey wasn’t about finding anything or adding anything new to me. It’s about dissolving me. And what’s left is this.