On September 26, 2026, I wrote a Thought entry about the city council in Heidenau, Saxony, deciding not to keep Stolpersteine (stumbling stone memorials) in the city center. The topic moved me so deeply that I adapted the text and published it as a post on the local neighborhood platform nebenan.de.
The post received a wave of positive responses. After a short while, a neighbor named Diana reached out to me via private message, inviting me to join a Ruhi study circle titled "Reflecting on the Life of the Spirit".
I was intrigued, but I wanted clarity: was this course an open community toolbox for local engagement, or was it a pathway to recruit people into the Bahá'í faith? Diana quickly cleared up my doubts. She explained that she isn't affiliated with any religion herself and that the focus isn't proselytization, but building neighborhood connections, exploring diversity, and discussing meaningful quotes. She also mentioned their casual "Soul Food" evenings as another option.
Since the course leader, Miriam Nadimi Amin, hosts the group in the Gohlis district, I checked out Miriam’s website beforehand. I immediately noticed striking parallels to my own background—from adult education and anti-discrimination work to studying at Leipzig University. I felt reassured right away that I’d be in good hands.
This experience is a wonderful practical example of how 1000 Thoughts and the digital doppelgänger principle work. In Everybody Lies, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz describes digital doppelgängers through the lens of Big Data: when Google collects data on a massive scale, you can zoom in until you find individuals whose search patterns and questions match yours almost 100%.
1000 Thoughts obviously lacks that vast data scale. But by sharing an entry on nebenan.de, the exact same phenomenon happened on a human scale: my thoughts reached people who think similarly and share a core set of values. It brought me into a fantastic local community—and I look forward to sharing more about our first meeting on October 6.
Fact Check:
