I’ve been thinking for a long time about how to introduce this project. Should I explain why I spelled it with a ‘w’ instead of using the usual word holistic? Should I start with a long personal story? Should I prepare a full mission statement?
But the simplest place to start is with what this is and why it exists.
What Is The Wholistic Center?
The Wholistic Center is a place for people who are searching. People who want more than material success, more than the daily grind, and more than the thin meaning modern society offers. Some of you may be curious about ancient wisdom. Some may be looking for new ways to understand your life, your work, or the world around you. Others may simply want a place where all the questions you’ve carried for years are finally welcome.
If that’s you, you’re in the right place.
Who Is Nicolas?
If you look me up, Nicolas Zart, you will see my name associated with advanced air mobility (AAM) and other innovative mobility solutions involving electric cars, flying cars, and air taxis. While my passion there lies with efficiency, a cleaner way to move about this Earth, and, of course, wrestling the status quo between a handful of companies throttling competition, my lesser-known secret garden is spirituality and esoteric topics. My name is Nicolas Zart. If you look me up online, you’ll mostly see my work in advanced air mobility, electric vehicles, and future transportation. That part of my life is real and important to me. I believe in efficiency, clean energy, and breaking up the grip of entrenched companies that block progress. But there’s another side to me that very few know about. It has been with me since childhood, and it has shaped everything I do, even when I didn’t talk about it publicly.
That side is spirituality, ancient wisdom, and the search for meaning.
I grew up feeling out of place in the Western world. I sensed the world was alive in ways most adults around me didn’t acknowledge. Like many of you, I felt there was more going on than the surface of things. I was raised in France, where the schooling system was rigid and didn’t leave much room for deeper questions. Only when my family moved to the United States did something change. I was accepted into a program called SWAS, School Within A School, which gave students more freedom to explore real ideas.
The very first elective class I took was Eastern Philosophies, and the first book put in my hands was the Tao Te King. I was fourteen. It was the first time anything about the world made sense to me.
From there, the door opened wide. Zen, Buddhism, Tibetan traditions, Bon, Dzogchen. Then Zoroastrianism and Sufism. Then, ancient Egypt and the principles of Ma’at. While wandering through a bookstore in New York, my hand brushed against a book that would travel with me for decades: The Kybalion. That moment shaped much of what came after.
My search spread from the Middle East into Greece, where I learned how many sages moved back and forth between cultures. I followed that trail into Europe, exploring Druidism, the Norse world, and the myths of the Celts. Then I found my way toward the shamanic traditions around the world, the teachings of the Americas, and the wisdom of the Pacific.
Along the way, one truth became impossible to ignore: we are far more connected than modern education admits. And a great deal of what we were taught as children simply doesn’t hold up anymore. The ancient Egyptians were not simple people in sandals with no tools. The pyramids were not clumsy tombs built by trial and error. Important parts of our history have been flattened or erased, often to fit the worldview of a later age.
That gap between what humans once knew and what we are taught today is part of why The Wholistic Center exists.
From there, the door opened wide. Zen, Buddhism, Tibetan traditions, Bon, Dzogchen. Then Zoroastrianism and Sufism. Then ancient Egypt and the principles of Ma’at. While wandering a bookstore in New York, my hand brushed against a book that would travel with me for decades: The Kybalion. That moment shaped much of what came after.
Greece was of particular interest to me because my native city of Nice was named by the Greek merchants and means ‘victory’. In ancient Greece, I saw fragments of ancient wisdom sadly vulgarized to fit the modern materialistic view that the ancients were sandal-wearing nincompoops, despite having left us a rich account of ancient wisdom, only today confirmed by our so-called modern science. I pushed my studies further North to the Viking and Celtic areas, particularly enjoying Druidism. This opened up the next logical step, Shamanism, a worldwide practice. Eventually, I learned more about native Americans, South America, and finally the Pacific Islands.
How connected we all are, and how sad world education is. If history is rewritten by the winners, surely the difference between what we were taught when I was younger and now is a testament to that. I grew up hearing that the ancient Egyptians wore sandals, didn’t know about the pulley, and somehow managed to lift 400-ton limerocks through sheer manpower. Still not proven to this day, today theories abound on more down-to-earth water canals to outright sound levitating devices. I also grew up hearing the pyramids were tombs despite non having been found. The Sphinx was just a statue, and none of the highly accurate positioning of the pyramids and other monuments meant anything but sheer luck. Today, we have access to far wiser education, despite remnants of stubborn, unconfirmed worldviews that cannot be fully proven.
So what can you expect here?
What The Wholistic Center Is
What you will find here are articles, podcasts, and soon a newsletter. We willl develop conversations about wisdom traditions from around the world and explorations of how to build your own spiritual practice instead of borrowing someone else’s. You can expect honest discussions about how spirituality actually fits into our work lives and our modern world. You might be surprised at how many engineers, CEOs, and founders carry a much deeper spiritual life than they let on.
What you will NOT find are gurus, experts, teachers, and anyone proclaining to have the solutions, then way, etc. This is not a place to find a guru, although that could happen. This is place to find a wide array of ancient wisdom and to see how they can apply in today’s society. This is a place where you can ask questions, share your experiences, and learn at your own pace. There’s no dogma here. Only curiosity, respect, and the hope of understanding who we are and how to live well.
If there is an underlying philosophy at the core of The Wholistic Center, it is as follows. I could never stick to a single system or call me myself a straight-up Buddhist, Taoist, Gnostic, etc, despite how much I love these systems. What has worked for me was to find and integrate what I needed into my life. The idea of The Wholistic Center is exactrly that, becoming ‘wholistic’ in every sense of the word. What this means in practical terms is to walk the middle road. It means not to embrace nor reject, but bring ancient wisdom in home, seeing if it fits, discarding what doesn’t until otherwise review it at a later date if necessary. This means being open about Hermetic philosophies that can mesh well with Gnosticism, Taoism, and so many other systems. An intellectual quotient (IQ) that matches the emotional, (EQ), and what I call spiritual quotient, out of better terms, (SQ) means a wholistically integrated person.
If any part of this speaks to you, stay a while. Subscribe. Leave a comment. Tell me about your own path. What has helped you? What hasn’t? What are you searching for? And how do you weave spirituality into your daily life, whether at home or at work?
Welcome to The Wholistic Center. I’m glad you’re here.