What if happiness is nothing more than a myth constructed by the mind?
What if free will is not an inner truth but a sophisticated illusion designed only to soothe our anxiety?
And what if the meaning of life never existed out there—but is simply a story we tell ourselves to escape the void?

This book is where the self-evident begins to collapse. Where joy falls from the pedestal of a noble goal and reveals itself as a fleeting oscillation between pleasure and pain. Where the freedom to choose becomes a brutal question: do we truly choose, or are we merely witnessing events that unfold by themselves? And where meaning itself is exposed—not as a truth to be discovered, but as a mask stretched over the face of meaninglessness.

In a world where success, self-improvement, beauty, and inner peace have become standardized ideals, the relentless pressure to become “better” rarely brings us closer to ourselves. More often, it alienates us. Valia challenges this modern narrative as well—a promise of flourishing that so often leads to quiet exhaustion.

In search of silence and stillness, Valia sets out on a path that offers no comfort, only deeper and more unsettling questions. What lies ahead is a confrontation with those questions—where meditation and silence are not an end, but a gateway. A gateway to something raw: the realization that what we’ve clung to all along may have been nothing more than a dream sold to us—happiness, freedom, and meaning.