The N-1 Sessions by Chris Berryman – technology addiction and the limits of spiritual futurism

In The N-1 Sessions, Chris Berryman blends spiritual philosophy with a sharp critique of technology addiction, attention collapse, and modern spiritual hunger. Written during the pandemic, the book reads like a cosmic diary for a species struggling to evolve faster than its tools.

When I first heard this was pandemic-era nonfiction, I thought “hmph!” and opened it anyway. I had initially used it as a procrastination tool – I was supposed to shovel the driveway, but I thought I'd stay snowed in.

The book follows a seasonal structure, presented as a celestial diary. Berryman’s tone swirls and isn’t strictly sci-fi. He stakes himself in a new-age lineage while also borrowing from astrophysics.

What I discovered, however, was the endearing tone of a non-human intelligence (“N-1”) addressing the audience as “you” – always risky – explicitly rejecting crashed-saucer narratives.

“The limited picture handed to you by popular culture… is not an accurate portrayal of the galactic situation,” the character posits.

A world in crisis

Rather than get preachy, Berryman frames the internet as a degraded environment, even a psychic hazard. Technology addiction is treated as spiritually and psychologically corrosive to humankind.

The emphasis in The N1-sessions is on reactivity, outrage, and nervous-system hijack, with addiction not blamed solely on tech, but screens, sugar, drugs, and stimulation, and that “we’re now wired to react in knee-jerk, emotional ways.”

The philosophy acts as a balm for the algorithmic ways in which we live our lives. With corporations and hierarchies portrayed as hosts for corruption, the author raises the temperature of provocation: “An invisible, vampiric grasp operates through many artificial constructs placed on your planet.”

In UFO folklore, “the Greys” are one of the most commonly described types of aliens. The N-1 Sessions repurposes them as a symbol of cold, hierarchical technological power rather than cosmic salvation.

However, the Greys sometimes work for larger galactic powers in space narratives – think Close Encounters of the Third Kind – and one of those powers is the Orion Empire. The Orion is represented here as extractive, hierarchical, and exploitative, with humans being the test subjects rather than the collaborators.

Another dimension

There’s a heavy use of dimensional language in the book, from 3D through to 9D (pure consciousness and totality across all dimensions), with a binary opposition of species-level identity vs stellar self thrown in, for extra zest.

It reads like an erotic and creative energy folded into spiritual evolution, but with the text lacking ways to anchor the reader, it’s rather muddled. But if you’re okay with loops and layers, it’s worth a shot.

Thankfully, Berryman busts our stark warnings, which prevent The N-1 Sessions from verging into pure self-help.

Because, as he says, “A dangerous time arrives the moment a world becomes so advanced in technology that it no longer relies on organic mechanisms of evolution.”

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