The Inside Story Of Leverage Research 1.0

The Rise of Leverage Research

Leverage Research emerged in 2011 as an influential node within the Effective Altruism movement, focusing on deep psychology and rationalism.
Recruits were issued explicit warnings about the psychological risks of the group's techniques, including physical shaking, paranoia, and severe depression.
The organization attracted high-achieving academics like James Dama, who were disillusioned by fraud and burnout within traditional scientific institutions.
Leverage operated as a multifaceted entity, functioning as both a psychological research group and a startup incubator for Silicon Valley types.
The group's history is marked by a sudden dissolution in 2019 following rumors of extreme psychological distress and 'demons' among members.

Then the recruiter listed “side effects” the Leverage psychology techniques appeared to cause: twitching, physical shaking, severe depression, paranoia, dreams and nightmares, and sexual arousal.

The Mystique of Leverage

Leverage Research operated with a broad, ambitious mandate to solve global issues like AI safety and human aging through a highly autonomous 'tenure' model.
Employees focused heavily on 'introspection tools' and psychological theories developed by founder Geoff Anders, despite lacking formal professional training.
Recruits were often drawn in by profound physical and psychological experiences, such as a 'bodywork' session that allegedly reset a recruit's caffeine tolerance.
The organization maintained high-level Silicon Valley connections, including funding from Peter Thiel, which lent it an air of legitimacy and power.
The group's intense internal culture led to social isolation for members and rumors of mind control, earning it the nickname 'Peter Thiel’s MKUltra.'
New arrivals reported hearing screams and hysterical crying within the headquarters, which were dismissed by leadership as standard results of their psychological work.

Upon occupying his new room in the four-story Leverage building on Lake Merritt, James sometimes heard screams and hysterical crying through the walls, only to be assured that these were standard outcomes of the Psychology program.

Demons and Data Files

The secretive organization Leverage collapsed in 2019 following a sudden restructuring by founder Geoff Anders, leading to mass departures.
Former employee Zoe Curzi published a viral exposé detailing 'mental invasions,' PTSD symptoms, and ritualistic prayers to remove 'demons.'
The Effective Altruism community reacted with alarm, offering bounties for information and debating whether the group functioned as a cult.
The author reveals personal ties to the group, including a recruitment attempt based on being an 'epic person' and the existence of a private file on her.
Geoff Anders breaks his silence in 2024, explaining his lifelong plan to master philosophy and psychology to manipulate social structures.
The author's own spiritual experiences and interest in mysticism provided a bridge of trust that eventually allowed her to interview Anders.

I personally prayed for hours most nights for months to rid myself of specific ‘demons’ I felt I’d picked up from other members of Leverage. If this sounds insane, it’s because it was…

Geoff's Grand Philosophical Plan

Geoff developed a systematic flowchart for world improvement, beginning with the foundational goal to 'Answer all philosophical questions.'
Inspired by Isaac Asimov's Foundation, he sought to use logic and science to shepherd humanity through historical cycles and reduce suffering.
His early intellectual journey involved attempting to improve upon Spinoza's proofs for the existence of God before eventually leaving Christianity.
Geoff became a central figure in the nascent Effective Altruist movement, bridging the gap between academic philosophy and Silicon Valley rationalism.
He founded Leverage Research in 2011 with the ambitious aim of building an original moral theory and a model of the human mind from scratch.
Despite being profiled in literature on extreme altruism, Geoff views early descriptions of his work as reductive caricatures of his actual mission.

In the first box, which represents his initial goal, Geoff wrote: “Answer all philosophical questions.”

The Birth of Leverage Research

Geoff Anders founded Leverage Research based on the thesis that human behavioral insight, not technology or money, is the primary bottleneck to global progress.
The organization secured early financial backing from high-profile tech figures including Jaan Tallinn and Peter Thiel after Anders demonstrated extreme personal productivity.
Leverage attracted individuals who were skeptical of existing institutions and often came from the 'rationalist' community or the LessWrong forums.
The group played a foundational role in the Effective Altruism movement, hosting the first EA Global conference in their own home in 2013.
The organization eventually expanded into a sprawling 'ecosystem' centered around a communal apartment building in Oakland known as 454.

A promotional summary video shows a bare-bones living environment full of whiteboards; it features Peter Thiel and Holden Karnofsky.

The Pluralist Era of Leverage

Leverage Research began as a 'learning organization' focused on collective intelligence and continuous employee transformation.
The early ecosystem was defined by extreme pluralism, recruiting diverse thinkers ranging from neoreactionaries to Bay Area progressives.
The social culture was highly integrated, featuring sea shanties, communal dinners, and visits from high-profile tech figures like Aaron Swartz and Dario Amodei.
Internal friction emerged between neoreactionary members and feminist colleagues, leading to clashes over 'witch cult' labels and relationship norms.
Founder Geoff Vaughan utilized a 'minimalist' management style, allowing roles to self-organize and tracking the fluid social structure on a color-coded wall.
Despite growing ideological tensions, early members recall this period as an idyllic time of rapid personal growth and free collaboration.

Some neoreactionary guys mocked other parts of their workplace as a 'witch cult' or complained that feminist colleagues persecuted them for their political viewpoints.

The Culture of Leverage

Emily, a Reed College graduate, chose Leverage over academia because of its focus on root causes and intellectual discipline.
Early members like Tyler Alterman initially questioned if the group was merely live-action role-playing a grandiose dream.
The organization maintained intense security protocols and information management tests to prepare for future threats from intelligence services.
The presence of high-profile tech billionaires as casual guests lent the group a sense of legitimacy that countered its more delusional aspects.
To avoid becoming a cult, members studied cult dynamics through documentaries and satirical videos, though the lines remained blurred.
New recruits underwent 'Basic Training' which involved learning proprietary psychological theories and navigating intentional secrecy.

I think the truth was that Leverage was onto a bunch of things, and it was delusional, and it was closely intertwined.

The Science of Self-Optimization

Leverage researchers rejected AI development as unsafe, pivoting instead to spiritual enlightenment, sociology, and intensive self-improvement.
The group developed a shared introspection toolkit designed to 'debug' undesirable human behaviors and transcend personal limitations.
Founder Geoff Graham aimed to establish a new psychological paradigm based on 'Connection Theory,' which posits that all behavior stems from logical goal-seeking.
A technique called 'charting' used box-and-arrow diagrams to map the unconscious logic and 'limiting beliefs' behind a person's actions.
Early successes with charting included treating social anxiety, resulting in profound physical sensations and immediate shifts in mental state.
The process occasionally unearthed startling cosmological and spiritual imagery buried deep within the researchers' psyches.

In groups, in pairs, or alone in their rooms, the researchers sat with notebooks and whiteboards, diagramming every corner of their mental landscapes, seeking ways to 'debug' behaviors they deemed undesirable.

Engineering the Super-Competent Founder

Leverage members applied introspection and charting to diverse challenges, ranging from improving video game reflexes to alleviating chronic cluster headaches.
Introspection sessions occasionally triggered severe physical and emotional distress, including hours of shaking and hysterical screaming, which members largely ignored.
The group became obsessed with the 'Myth of the Founder,' seeking a psychological formula to replicate the extreme productivity of figures like Elon Musk.
To monetize their research, they launched Paradigm Academy, a for-profit venture based on income-sharing agreements with trainees they hoped to turn into 'masters.'
Geoff promised billionaire investor Peter Thiel that Leverage tools could create or recruit ten world-class masters in various disciplines within three years.
The organization began exploring esoteric 'energy work' after an influential venture capital funder introduced them to a spiritual healer.

We felt we might be able to crack the code on what makes a handful of people super-competent while the rest just muddle through.

The Levitation Pill Experiment

Tyler joined Leverage after a crisis of faith in academia caused by the Replication Crisis in psychology.
Geoff challenged traditional scientific methods by proposing that massive, obvious effects do not require randomized controlled trials to be validated.
The group adopted a mindset of seeking 'large effects' and 'important secrets' that mainstream science ignores due to its rigid protocols.
Despite initial skepticism of 'hippie nonsense,' Tyler and other rationalists participated in a somatic workshop led by Anna-Lisa.
The workshop induced trance-like states, involuntary physical shaking, and intense emotional catharsis in the participants.
The experience transformed a group of 'hyper-rational nerds' into a room of people weeping and lamenting, defying their robotic reputations.

One guy I thought of as the paradigmatic Rational Person now had his shirt completely unbuttoned and seemed to be lamenting on the couch like a melancholic king.

The Partition of the Psyche

Leverage researchers integrated therapeutic techniques like Internal Family Systems and Focusing into a vast shared practice of introspection.
The group adopted computer science terminology to describe mental structures, labeling the boundary of the unconscious as 'the partition.'
Despite their focus on psychological reprogramming, the group lacked basic vocabulary for emotions, which were considered taboo as technical concepts.
The community's commitment to minimalism led them to reject traditional spiritual or psychological frameworks for protecting the psyche during deep exploration.
The introduction of esoteric practitioners like Anna-Lisa Adelberg and David shifted the group's focus toward bodywork and Luminous Awareness.
Leveragers attempted to access and reprogram 'cordoned-off' areas of the mind while lacking the emotional language to process the resulting interpersonal fallout.

Eventually, some Leveragers would label the boundary they saw within their psyches 'the partition,' named after the computer science term for when a hard drive is divided into separate parts so each part can operate independently.

The Rise of Masters

Leverage introduced a 'master' hierarchy that granted immense, unchecked authority to a small group of leaders including David and Samo Burja.
David, a mysterious bodywork practitioner, claimed supernatural healing and harming abilities despite having undocumented training and a cryptic communication style.
Followers reported physical illness and psychological distress after sessions with David, yet his status as a 'master' shielded him from accountability.
The 'halo effect' surrounding these masters created a culture where ethical red flags and reports of sexual misconduct were minimized or ignored.
The power dynamics were exacerbated by the fact that members' housing and visas were often controlled by the organization's leadership.
Internal rivalries emerged among the masters, with leaders like Geoff and David openly bragging about psychologically manipulating one another.

In response, David 'would take a whiteboard marker and like, draw a tic-tac-toe board, and stare at me, and not speak.'

Bodywork and Internal Paranoia

Interpersonal conflicts and romantic entanglements between members like David and Samo exacerbated existing tensions within the Leverage organization.
A technical incident involving a file-scraping tool triggered internal paranoia regarding information management and led to high-profile departures.
David viewed Leverage as a potentially evil force and refused to transmit his skills to those who did not share his specific moral values.
The introduction of bodywork provided a professional veneer for intimate physical contact, complicating the group's existing culture of non-monogamy.
Researchers combined bodywork with 'charting' to access the deep unconscious, leading to claims of shared, intersubjective mental landscapes.
Experimental sessions reportedly produced 'weird' results, such as multiple participants independently visualizing the same complex imagery of a warehouse.

And Leveragers soon determined that they could combine bodywork with other techniques to bypass the partition — a move that arguably, finally, allowed them to dive into the uncharted waters of the deep unconscious.

The Dangers of Bodywork

Leverage employees began experiencing severe physical and psychological side effects from experimental bodywork, including paralysis, panic attacks, and convulsions.
Despite evidence of harm, leadership pressured staff to continue experiments to maintain funding and meet ambitious internal goals.
The organization's culture shifted from rationalism toward occult practices, incorporating crystals and manuals on psychic self-defense to manage the fallout.
Staff members felt trapped in a cycle of self-sacrifice, enduring dangerous conditions out of loyalty to their colleagues and the mission.
Former members describe a descent into chaos that culminated in allegations of psychic breaks and the eventual public exposure of the group's practices.
Internal disputes arose over the characterization of their activities, with some members defending the group while others warned of its total loss of control.

Worse, the word “emergency” was becoming common, as it was used when an employee was in an extremely bad state (screaming or convulsing, for example) and then required hours or days of help.

Psychosis and the Occult

The author investigates claims of 'psychic breaks' at Leverage but finds no evidence of professional diagnoses or workplace impairment.
High-intensity self-improvement and meditation programs often carry inherent risks of psychosis, which secular groups like Leverage may be ill-equipped to handle.
Employees began reporting uncanny experiences, including a request for 'occlumency' to protect against perceived supernatural attacks.
A disturbing pattern emerged where multiple women reported identical nightmares of sexual assault by a specific group member's 'energy.'
The group struggled with the ethics of interrogating individuals based on the unconscious 'woo' experiences of others.
Leverage's focus on deep unconscious exploration led a secular, rationalist group into a trajectory that mirrored traditional occult frameworks.

Emily recalls a time when one, then two, then three separate women came to her and said they’d had 'very similar nightmares of being raped or sexually harmed by a persona, or being, or energy, that looked a lot like a person in the group.'

Psychological Breakdown and Occultism

Leverage Research members began experiencing unpredictable intersubjective phenomena and psychological instability as they pushed their experimental toolkits.
A senior member named James suffered a severe relapse of childhood trauma and potential false memory recovery after attempting to treat a colleague's psychosomatic crisis.
The group's internal culture shifted toward the occult, utilizing mythology, tantric energy manuals, and iron nails to manage their deteriorating mental states.
Despite widespread emotional breakdowns and 'unhinged' behavior among staff, the organization continued to hire new employees into the increasingly volatile environment.
Leadership began exploring 'magic' and extrasensory perception, such as attempting to 'read' information from others at a distance without scientific validation.

As shocked newcomers tried to process what they were hearing, Emily cried.

Boundaries and Intention Objects

Internal skeptics like Nevin questioned the validity of Leverage's psychic claims, suggesting information was likely obtained through mundane means.
The organization suffered from extreme boundary blurring, with employees living together, dating, and acting as each other's therapists.
A scandal involving Geoff Anders' secret romance led to widespread feelings of betrayal and raised questions about the misuse of organizational resources.
Anders admitted his reasoning was impaired during this period, potentially due to the psychological experimentation he was performing on himself.
The group attempted to use their 'toolkit' to 'cure' emotional states like jealousy and heartbreak, treating psychological distress as a technical problem.
The research shifted toward 'intention objects,' where members began perceiving mental constructs that some described as having their own will or angelic/demonic qualities.

Could jealousy, or a broken heart, be “cured” with the Leverage toolkit?

The Intention War

Leverage Research members began using occult terminology like 'demons' and 'egregores' to describe psychological 'intention objects.'
A period known as 'The Intention War' emerged, characterized by acute paranoia and the belief that these mental objects were contagious germs.
Subgroups developed collective meditation rituals to 'cleanse' themselves of perceived infections from colleagues.
The belief system created severe social control, with members being pressured to sever friendships to prevent the spread of 'malign' objects.
Epistemic divides made conflict resolution impossible, as believers and skeptics could not agree on the reality of the 'invisible pathogens.'
Leadership eventually framed these experiences through the lens of 'magic' and 'introjection,' acknowledging they had entered the territory of witchcraft.

James says that “we were basically realizing that we were in the territory of the evil eye and witchcraft, and stuff like that.”

Psychological Contagion and Intention Research

Leverage members developed a 'virus model' to explain how psychological introjections and mental images could spread between individuals.
The group researched diverse sources including Wilhelm Reich, the Desert Fathers, and mirror neurons to understand spiritual and psychological vulnerabilities.
Members attempted to build 'immunity' to these contagions by proactively identifying and healing their own psychic traumas and emotional weaknesses.
The intense focus on preventing 'mental invasion' led to significant psychological distress, with some members reporting months of near-constant terror.
The group's independent discovery of 'unattached burdens' mirrored methodologies later published by the Internal Family Systems therapeutic community.
Former members remain divided on the validity of their 'intention research,' though some argue the study of such deep human connection is often unfairly stigmatized.

As Zoe Curzi later wrote about her Leverage time: “I personally went through many months of near constant terror at being mentally invaded.”

Stablecoins and Spiritual Shifts

Nevin Freeman and his team founded Reserve, an early stablecoin project, to create a less volatile cryptocurrency.
Leverage members attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, experiencing what they perceived as predatory energy manipulation and 'dark rituals.'
Jonah Bennett criticized the WEF as a place lacking original thought, populated by 'overgrown student government representatives' and 'blockchain grifters.'
As the Intention War wound down, the ecosystem remained plagued by secrets, betrayals, and a lack of a unified theory regarding intention objects.
Seeking stability, some members turned toward orthodox religious practices, including Latin Mass and Sikh philosophy, to remedy the group's psychological turmoil.
Geoff abruptly restructured the entire Leverage ecosystem just as Emily invited non-traditional Buddhist monks to join their communal living space.

The blockchain community, though it contains a few interesting projects, is dominated by obvious scams, and so received an appropriate amount of contempt from traditional finance at Davos, whose scams are much more subtle and institutionalized.

The Dissolution of Leverage

Geoff Anders officially dissolved the original Leverage ecosystem in mid-2019, physically removing staff photos from 'The Wall' in an emotional meeting.
The organization's end was gradual and ambiguous, with some members continuing to use the facilities and gym until the lease expired in early 2020.
The author describes a post-Leverage period marked by spiritual exploration, including sensing 'demonic' influences and consulting a Roman Catholic exorcist.
Former members expressed bitter disappointment with an internal inquiry published in 2022, claiming it 'whitewashed' the group's history and negative experiences.
A smaller iteration, Leverage 2.0, continues to operate under Anders with a focus on 'revolutionary science' and a move away from communal living.

“I cried the whole time. It was so upsetting that I completely forgot that anybody else was there in the room,” he says. “Then I remember looking up, and they were all there. They were still all there. They were all standing there, looking at me.”

The Aftermath of Leverage

Former members have dispersed into influential tech and political circles, including the founding of the 'New Right' magazine Palladium.
The organization's financial legacy continues through the Reserve Rights (RSR) cryptoasset, which maintained a multi-million dollar market cap into 2026.
While Leverage contributed to the Effective Altruist movement, both groups now distance themselves from each other amid allegations of cult-like behavior.
Many former employees have transitioned into private coaching, yet several key figures report lasting psychological and 'energetic' damage.
The community remains divided between those who view it as a successful 'learning organization' and those who feel deeply hurt and abandoned.

Emily has difficulty describing her troubles in standard English, and says her “energy body” was severely damaged at Leverage.

Beyond Materialist Rationality

The author reflects on the limitations of materialist rationality, using Hamlet’s address to Horatio to suggest that reality exceeds what logic can currently explain.
Leverage 1.0 is framed as a psychological experiment where trauma patterns may have been reified or anthropomorphized into 'demons' as a treatment modality.
The author posits that spiritual language might serve as a functional tool for healing, regardless of whether the underlying entities are ontologically real.
Emily compares the intensity and inexplicable successes of the Leverage group to the biblical Acts of the Apostles and the early church's struggle to harness the Holy Spirit.
The narrative concludes by highlighting the search for a language that produces consistent, 'good' effects while allowing peers to communicate about extraordinary experiences.

She laughs with both wonder and chagrin, a combination I’m very familiar with.

Moderation and Community Engagement

The author establishes strict moderation rules to ensure kindness and prevent cruelty or manipulation in the comments.
Former employees of Leverage Research are offered free paid subscriptions to facilitate their participation in the discussion.
The author expresses a willingness to grant access to anonymous users or pseudonymous commenters provided their identity can be verified privately.
A commenter reflects on the 'utterly bizarre' experience of living through the events described, noting it was unexpected for a startup incubator.
The author emphasizes that the narrative is structured to allow for future follow-up rather than providing a definitive closure.

It's been utterly bizarre to live through! Definitely not what I expected when I signed up for a startup incubator program.