2017 Personality 22: Conclusion: Psychology and Belief

[Music]

I called the course personality and its

transformations and I think you could

think about that as a restatement of the

idea of being and becoming and that's

what you are you're for whatever that

means you're an entity that both is and

is transforming and there's a rule that

goes along with that by the way which is

don't sacrifice who you could be for who

you are which means if you have to

choose to transform in a positive

direction or maintain your current

position then it's better to transform

in a positive direction so you might

even think of that as the core of your

being

that's a piagetian idea it's a union

idea as well who are you you're the

thing that transforms who you are now

you're also who you are but on top of

that you're the thing that transforms

who you are and I do think that that's

and that's not an arbitrary statement

you know one of the things that modern

universities do dreadfully now is

convince their students that value

structures are relative and that and

that's a that's a big mistake it's

there's a lot of things wrong with that

idea and one of the things that's wrong

with that ideas that doesn't include

what I just mentioned which is that's a

good moral rule is you are the thing

that is and you're the thing that

becomes and you should put the thing

that becomes at a higher place than the

thing that is that means you also have

to allow yourself to shake off those

things about you that you might be

pathologically attached to habits and

people for that matter ways of thinking

all of those things you have to allow

yourself to shake those off and that's

more like a burning that's why the

Phoenix is that's why the Phoenix is the

symbol that it is right it's all in a

deteriorate so bursts into flame and

then it's reborn it's like well do you

want to be reborn like that's not the

question the question is do you want to

burst into flame and the answer to that

generally is no but that's the wrong

answer the right answer is you let all

that nonsense burn away and you know and

you might say well I don't know what I

should leave behind and the answer to

that is that's a lie you know some of

the things that you should leave behind

you all you have to do is ask yourself

you'll come up with a list instantly of

a hundred stupid things that you're

doing that you know you could stop doing

some of them maybe you don't know you

could stop doing

well fine leave those alone for now but

there's a bunch of things you perfectly

know well that you could stop doing that

would improve your life and so do that

see what happens that's a good that's a

good idea

all right so it's personality and its

transformations because partly I wanted

to talk to you about talk to you about

what you are as a human being and also

as an individual but also what you could

become and that's actually a crucial

question in the domains of clinical

psychology in particular because a lot

of what you're doing with people as a

clinician is trying to figure out who

they could become that's right you come

you have a problem your life isn't what

it could be it's like fine let's see

what it could be like if we changed it

we'll figure out how to change it that's

got to be a negotiated dialogue right

because like I don't know what the hell

you should do with your life I can help

you figure it out maybe we can talk

about it but you are the person who has

to decide if the things that you're

aiming for you know get you out of bed

in the morning because that's really the

that's at least one of the crucial

issues so you got to specify the goal

and then you go to specify the

transformation processes and start

practicing them and you have to

understand that you're going to be bad

at it but it doesn't matter because

Bad's fine persistence is what you need

to be if you persist with tiny

improvements if you persist you win so

okay so in a broader you know in a

broader context you can think about this

as a more fundamental ontological

question so one the one question is how

you should act to the world the other

question is well what is the world and

that's a complicated problem this this

is a scientific answer to that question

and that is that the world is a

collection of objective phenomena and

that's a very powerful perspective and

we have a good method for determining

what the world is like as a collection

of objective phenomena and and that's

made us very technologically powerful

and so more power to us and all that but

leaves a question unanswered and the

question is well the world isn't just a

place of objective phenomena because

it's not a panoply of inert matter it

has living conscious creatures in it and

that's a different they're a different

order of be

and the fundamental issue for conscious

active creatures is not what is the

world from an objective perspective but

how it is it that you should conduct

yourself in the world and that's a and

there's a very there's a kind of

unbridgeable gap between those two

domains of inquiry and I think the

reason for that is that there's a the

scientific method removes value from its

description so that's actually what it

does and so once you're left with value

free descriptions it's very difficult to

extract out a value proposition from

them because you've that's the

scientific method removes the value

propositions you're supposed to be left

with only that which is objective right

and value propositions are in the domain

of the subjective so I think the idea

that you can derive what you should be

or do from a collection of facts is

flawed a because the collecting the

facts themselves gets rid of the value

structure but B there's an infinite

number of facts and so which how are you

gonna pick which ones should guide you

you can't you can't you you have to do

something else the facts do not tell you

what to do with the facts you need

something else to help you figure that

out well it's come to me over the years

that that's what essentially that's what

the narrative cognitive framework does

it's the framework that we use to

specify how we should act in the world

and so you could divide the world into

the world as it is and the world as

perhaps it should be

that gives you some direction and you

need that and we know this technically

right you need direction the reason for

that is its direction that produces the

primary that produces primary positive

emotion and so if you need positive

emotion to move through life which you

do because you can't even move without

positive emotion and also positive

emotion is a good bulwark against terror

and pain if you need those things then

you need direction you need a goal you

need a value structure so that doesn't

seem particularly disputable to me you

could still say well what value

structure it's like okay fine that's a

good question but I was you know I've

thought a lot about that too so if we're

gonna adopt a value structure there's a

couple of rules that go along with it

and this is why the bloody post

modernists are wrong as far as I can

tell is a it can't just be my

value structure because I'm stuck with

you and we're both stuck with all these

other people and so if I'm going to lay

out a value structure which is a way of

interpreting the world let's say and

there's an infinite number of potential

ways of interpreting the world it's like

the out fine no problem except that I

have to interpret the world in a way

that I can use while I'm dealing with

you and the world two of us are dealing

with everyone else and while all of you

are dealing with everyone else and so

that that's the piagetian game

proposition if you want to be a popular

kid on the playground you better play

games that other people want to play

that's a brilliant brilliant brilliant

observation and I told you that Piaget

was trying to heal the rift between

science and religion and that's one of

the things that he did that he thought

helped do that his question is well

where the moral judgments come from

well they partly come emerge as a

consequence of consensus and it's a

bounded domain if we're gonna if we're

gonna occupy the same space for any

length of time and those are two

critical propositions the same space and

a long time then we have to figure out

how to play an iterative game that

doesn't spiral downward hopefully that

might even improve that we both don't

object to because otherwise it's not

gonna work right you'll walk away and

play another game or the game will will

disintegrate catastrophically so there's

massive social constraint on what

constitutes an appropriate frame of

reference so so much for the relativist

argument and then there's another issue

that's equally relevant and it's

associated with the idea of objective

reality to some degree but it's not

exactly it's not that's not exactly

correct because it's not exactly

objective reality let's say that you and

I decide to occupy the same place for

some substantial amount of time and we

figured out how to solve the problem of

being together but you and I still have

to figure out how to solve the problem

of being together in a manner that

doesn't make the world object too much

and it isn't just other people although

that's a huge part of the world you want

them to know what object you may even

want them to support you that would even

be better but you also have to deal with

the you know the the the tendency of

matter to object because so your mode of

being in the world

your interpretive framework

as a description of how you should act

is actually the laying out of a strategy

that will produce the ends that it

predicts which are the things that you

want so this is the pragmatist

perspective this was worked out by

William James and his people back in the

late 1800s in New England the only

genuine brand of American philosophy and

what the pragmatist said is how do you

decide if something's true the answer is

how the hell can you you don't know

anything well that's true but that isn't

helpful because there you're stuck with

the problem of how to be in the world

well so what you do is you lay out a

mode of interpretation that has an

endpoint and then you run the mode of

interpretation embodied right because

you act it out and if it doesn't produce

the outcome then it's not let's say true

the claims within it aren't they're not

true by the definition of the game

itself

so you might say well you're a kid on a

playground you want to play a game one

of the implicit demands is that the game

is fun if it's not fun it's not worth

playing so you play it for a while and

then you see well was that fun if the

answer is yes then you keep playing the

game you say well that game is it's good

enough it's accurate enough it's true

enough and so you lay out

interpretations in the world and they're

subject to massive constraints other

people have to go along with them and

cooperate with you because if they don't

then look the hell out like it's a major

serious non-trivial constraint and then

the other thing is well social proof

isn't good enough it also has to work in

the world outside of the social world

you know so if you have an illness and

you have some hypothesis about how to

construe it you might say well is my

understanding of the illness correct

well it implies that I take these

actions well how do you know if it's

correct while you take the actions and

if the illness gets worse then by the

definitions that are implicit in the

framework of reference that you're using

you've made an error and so there's no

relativism in that you could still say

well there's a lot of potential

solutions to any potential set of

problems it's like yeah yeah there's

lots of different ways to play chess on

the on a single board right but that

doesn't mean that any old solution is as

good as any other solution it doesn't

mean that at all

so okay so then we're looking at things

two ways we're trying to figure out well

how does the world present itself and

then how is it that you should act in it

and so well there's other there's other

constraints on the mechanisms of

interpretation that you place in the

world so we could say well you're

constrained in your interpretations by

the constraints that other people place

on you but there's internal constraints

as well we talked about those mostly

from a biological perspective because

you could also regard yourself in some

sense as a loose internal society that's

sort of a psychoanalytic dictum right

you're you're a collection of sub

personalities or you could say your

collection of subroutines I don't care

how you how you formulate it but you're

a unity but you're a you're a universe

unity that brings together a plurality

of sub components and part of the

constraints on how it is that you lay

out your interpretation of the world is

that you have to satisfy those internal

subsystems right so you're the ego but

it's more like you're the captain of a

ship full of people who were rowing you

got to keep the people rowing you're not

you know a tyrant you're not an impotent

tyrant of your own destiny you're

constrained by the nature of your own

being and so you have to provide

yourself with food and you have to

provide yourself with shelter and you

have to provide yourself with water and

all of these things and and those are

demands that are laid on you by the

nature of your internal processes and of

course how they lay themselves out as

demands and what the appropriate

solutions to that is to those problems

are is is debatable infinitely but you

can see that constraints stack up you

have to satisfy your internal

constraints so they have to be brought

into a unity that seems to happen at

least in part but between the ages of

two and something like between the ages

of birth and four years old maybe even

two years old you bring yourself

together into something that's sort of

functioning as a unity then you have to

turn that unity into a unity that can

function in the social world in with

increasing breath and that unity in the

social world has to be a unity that can

function inside the natural world it's

something like that so it's you're

stacking up these games into a hierarchy

of increasing complexity and one of the

questions that emerges from that is well

what should be at the top of the

hierarchy if it's a hierarchical

structure it has to be a hierarchical

structure because some things have to be

worth doing more than others or

you can't act which is another thing I

really don't like about the

postmodernist ethos because it claims

that value structures are there to

eliminate to exclude and oppress and

never once notices that well yeah fair

enough but value structures are also

there so that you know which way to walk

because you can't figure out which way

to walk without saying that that

direction is preferable to that

direction

so you stuck with the damn things and

and they do exclude obviously category

structures exclude the question is if

you're going to have a value structure

how is it that it should be constituted

well ready to describe some of the

constraints like if your value structure

is perfectly functioning except that you

don't get enough to eat that turns out

actually to be a fatal problem right and

it might be you can run into all sorts

of fatal problems you're too lonesome

while means you're let's say that your

value structures too narcissistic

there's lots of reasons to be lonesome

but that might be one of them or you're

too timid or something like that like

you're gonna be informed by your own

internal biological mechanisms when the

value structure that you're laying out

in the world is insufficient to keep

itself propagating across time and some

of that's just you and some of that's

other people in some of that's the

natural world constraints galore and so

in the phase of all those constraints

and absolutely unreasonable to say and

the old solution goes try it generate a

random solution run it as a simulation

in the world and see and see how many

slings and arrows come your way they'll

be plenty and you might say well I don't

care about slings and arrows it's like

ya know that's a claim you don't get to

make so okay so you know you're you're

being informed internally as to the

nature of your value structure you have

to specify where you are you have to

specify where you're going you have to

integrate all your underlying biological

mechanisms into that into that schema

it's something I think that's actually

kind of weak about the P a jetty an idea

say because Piaget a great fan of Piaget

but Piaget tended to think that the

child came into the world with nothing

but a set of reflexes and that's his

technical claim and that the boots drop

off those reflexes and I think that's it

underestimates the degree to which the

child comes into the world as it already

prepared unit

and I mean he just thought of those

things that's so self-evident that you

don't need to talk about them but that's

actually not true you do need to talk

about them we know for example that if

you provide children with food and

shelter and an adequate food and shelter

but you don't interact with them

socially almost all of them die in the

first year right it's not optional touch

is not optional for children attention

is not optional for children play is not

optional for children so it isn't just

like well the child comes in to the

world with a set of reflexes and can

adapt to any old environments like no

the environment has to be structured in

a certain way or the child will die and

it's very interesting when it comes to

things like play and touch because you

wouldn't think of those as fundamental

necessities right but it turns out that

they are if you deprive a child badly

enough of play and touch in the first

three years of their life even if they

survive what comes out at the end of

that is often something that's like

barely recognizable as a functional

human being and cannot be repaired after

that point and that that experiment was

done with Romanian orphans back in the

back in the 90s so it was it was an ugly

situation to say the least

okay so now you take these underlying

biological systems and maybe they

aggregate themselves into something that

vaguely looks like your temperament your

your five temperamental dimensions so

maybe if you're an extrovert you're

dominated by the dopaminergic system

just like you are is if you're high an

openness and if you're if you're you

know if you're high in eroticism it's

mostly that you're dominated by anxiety

systems and systems that mean mediate

emotional pain and if you're agreeable

you're dominated by the function of the

underlying maternal slash care

affiliation systems but so you could say

well you've got these loose you've got a

multitude of fundamental biological

predispositions that manifest themselves

as implicit stories something like that

and they organize themselves into the

primary temperaments and the primary

temperaments are biasing factors that

determine in part the nature of the

interpretive structure that you're going

to lay out in the world it's not

entirely determined by your temperament

we know that personality is only

predicting you know something like let's

say 10% of the variance in most complex

social outcomes and and the other

elements are well temperamental as you

might be used

have to get along with other people in

the world so you you know you come in

with these internal biases but they have

still have to be modified extensively by

your social and your natural surround

okay and then you develop your routines

from the bottom up as Piaget pointed out

and sometimes from the top down because

now and then you can think yourself into

a radical transformation but mostly what

you're doing is building the micro units

of your interpretive schemas and your

behaviors and aggregating them into

higher order structures that you can

then tag with higher order abstractions

and we talked about that you can't tell

a three-year-old to clean up his room

and the reason for that is he those are

empty boxes as far as the kid's

concerned clean he's doing he might he

might have room he might have that clean

he doesn't have he might have pick up

the teddy bear and put it in that space

right so that's one of these little

micro routines and maybe you say you put

20 of those micro routines together and

now you can say clean up your room and

basically what you're saying is here's

implement the 10 micro routines that

you've learned and so a well-functioning

personality has all the micro routines

in place that's actually something that

you help people with if you're a

behavioral therapist because one of the

things you assume if you're a behavioral

therapist is that sometimes the reason

people aren't doing things is because

they don't know how you know sometimes

maybe the person is depressed but

potentially high-functioning they got

all the damn micro routines they're well

socialized they're just dormant you got

to get them awake again and implementing

them but sometimes you get someone in

your in your practice say who's just

been neglected like you cannot believe

right the parents never paid any

attention to them or maybe just punished

them every time they did something good

that's really fun and then you know they

didn't make friends and so they're

really really big and and and poorly

articulated and so then what you do is

you work at the bottom of the micro

routines and get them to practice

building up all these little attributes

that they didn't build up and you know

one of the things you can think about in

terms of character development is so now

maybe understand something about your

own personality you might say well what

could you do to improve your personality

and the answer is develop some of the

micro routines on the other side of the

personality distribution so if you're

disagreeable as hell maybe

start learning how to do nice things for

people and that actually works by the

way so if you take disagreeable people

who are depressed and you get them doing

nice things for other people their

depression tends to lift but then by the

same token if you're agreeable then you

should practice doing some things for

yourself and being more tough minded in

your negotiations and so you can sort of

place yourself on the on the personality

trait distribution you know you're

extrovert it's like okay man learn to

spend some time with yourself right

you're low in openness well try reading

a book that's outside of your you know

your your sphere of interest now and

then if you're conscientious well you

should probably learn how to relax

occasionally and and so forth so you can

I think partly what you're doing is

you're developing your personality is

not moving the mean much the average

where you know where you're located but

you're extending the standard deviation

so that you're a bigger bag of tricks

than you were before and I think you can

practice that consciously it's like

you're hyper orderly it's well get a dog

you know dogs they're messy horrible

things you know it's just what you need

if you're hyper orderly because they're

gonna leave hair everywhere and force

you live with it and so okay so and so

this is sort of you right this is your

personality it's this connect collection

of root subroutines that you've turned

into a hierarchy and then there's

something at the top of it and that's

that's a big question like what the hell

should be at the top of the hierarchy

because that's the ultimate question of

unity and then the clinicians would say

well it's the self-actualized person or

it's the self or something like that you

know that's that's the ID that's the

implicit and perhaps explicit ideal that

you're aiming for and you might say well

is does such thing exists that I would

say well do you admire people because

that's your answer right do you despise

people well you like some people and you

don't like others you respect some

people you don't respect others well

you're acting out the notion that

there's at least an implicit ideal you

do the same thing when you go to movies

you know you you know who the hero is

you know who the bad guy is you're

acting out the proposition that there's

some sort of value hierarchy and there's

some sort of manifestation of it that's

coherent across time

so you appear to believe that and you

know you are driven at least to some

degree by your own inner ideals and so

you tend to answer the question is that

real with an affirmed

and if you don't there's catastrophic

consequences Nietzsche and the

existentialist we're very good at

detailing that's like you let your value

hierarchy disintegrate well then what

well part of it is nihilistic chaos whoo

that's not so much fun and then there's

the alignment of nihilistic chaos with

the intrinsic desire that someone will

come along and tell you what to do right

so what happens is if you let this

devolve you end up with nihilistic

exists

not with nihilistic chaos or the demand

for for the tyrant to come forward and

we've had that happen lots of times and

doesn't seem to have gone that well so

all right well so what happens when you

you lay out these little routines in the

world at different levels of analysis

well this is how your emotions function

broadly speaking you know you're aiming

at something and this is an

oversimplification which is why I want

to show you this right when I show you

this assume that it's made out of that

right it's just a schematic

oversimplification because even if let's

say that I'm trying to do something as

simple as walking towards the door I

mean that the action of walking towards

the door is predicated on the existence

of all the subroutines that enable me to

propel my body across time and space and

like there's that took a lot of internal

organization to get that right it's a

traumatized now and so you can treat it

like it's invisible but implicit in any

one of these structures is this entire

structure and you actually see this in

therapy very frequently too so I was

talking to a client the other day it was

so interesting this person said

something he had been talking to his

mother and he's he just made a casual

comment he said he was talking to his

mother who was in a state of grief for

for good reasons that were it

independent of this particular person

who said and I hate her and I thought oh

that's interesting like where did that

come from and so I made a comment on

that

that's a Freudian slip right because

there was the conversation was flowing

and then this little emotion tagged

utterance came forward and whenever an

emotion tagged utterance

of that sort comes forward you know it's

associated with a whole rat's nest of

underlying pain and anxiety and and and

on what would you call it disappointment

and frustration that hasn't been

properly rectified so it's like a marker

and yet you know this when you're

talking to people they say something and

you think oh you know what Wow

too much information that's one way of

thinking about it's like just what are

you up to and and then if you have any

sense you just forget that that even

happened and you continue but that's

that's like the snout of a dragon

peeking out from a cave and you might

say well it's just a snout man but it's

not because dragons snouts tend to be

attached to the whole damn dragon and so

this is also something to know about

relationships because when you're in a

relationship with someone they'll do

that now and then they'll you know utter

something and you think huh-huh it's

like there's a bump in the road well

we're gonna look underneath that at our

peril but if you do go down there and

you look at it then then the whole thing

comes you can start to disentangle the

the web of of memories and and

experiences that are all tangled

together as a consequence of their

emotional identity because I could say

well everything that makes you anxious

or everything that makes you upset is

the same as every other thing that's

ever made you upset and so and then

there's an even different subset instead

of that which is all those things that

have made you upset that you've never

dealt with they're all laying down there

at the bottom of your nasty little soul

waiting to pop themselves up in some in

some random utterance right and so then

you go in there at your peril because if

you're the person who pokes around in

that then you're gonna get blasted with

all of that stuff it's gonna come out

like almost uncontrollably then then you

can sort it out and so what you find is

if you ask a person a question like that

and then you let them free associate

which is just talk about it they'll do a

wandering around like that maze that I

told you about they'll do a wandering

around of that entire territory and

sometimes just having them worn during

it can help them straighten it out but

you might find out that something

happened to them 15 years ago that left

them with a terrible sense of guilt or

dismay or frustration and then when when

they interact with their parents in a

certain way the parent knows exactly how

to tap that and then that all comes up

and that's what produces that that

little

that little utterance and so that's the

material of the world manifesting itself

that's what matters

manifesting itself and it almost always

manifests itself as an object something

that objects we're having a conversation

it's going quite well no problem there's

a bump in it there's an emotional

disjunct right now we're no longer in

the same place at the same time we're no

longer playing the same game so that I

might say okay well let's open that up

and see what's behind it

well the question is what's behind the

game you're playing and the answer to

that is all the world that you're

ignoring always so when so when imagine

that think about it this way you're

trying to do well in a class and you get

a bad grade okay so you're in this

little frame you want to get a good

grade that isn't happening you got a bad

grade okay what is it that's manifesting

itself as the bad grade well you could

say well it's a c-minus on a piece of

paper it's like well that's you know

really no that's the objective

manifestation you got a piece of paper

with a c-minus the value-free

proposition is that you've been

delivered a piece of paper with a curve

on it a little you know negative sign

well you think well that's what that is

well you know it's as dopey as thinking

well here you got your failing grade you

go into the lab and you like weigh it on

a scale then you burn it and see what it

was made of it's like well why did I get

so upset about that it's just paper it's

like no that's not just paper it's an

entity that exists in a web of

connections the fact that it's signified

by paper is almost completely irrelevant

what is it the answer is you don't know

and that's why when you pick it up you

get this paralyzed sinking feeling

because your limbic system is a lot

smarter than your perceptual systems and

your perceptual systems say well that's

a piece of paper and your limbic system

says nah for sure dragan right right and

so then you're sweating and then maybe

you put it away and you go play video

games because you know better the

hypothetical dragon than the real dragon

and so instead you pull out the piece of

paper maybe and you think okay why

I did I get this c-minus well that's a

hell of a question isn't it it's like

maybe you're stupid well that could be

or at least stupid compared to who you

think you are like that's that's the

real horror that's lurking there writes

like all I thought it was kind of smart

that's a that's a proposition of the

highest order

I thought I was kind of smart it's like

yeah well what about this c-minus it's

like well that goddamn professor right

that's the first thing it's it's I've

been attacked by a predator that's the

first response right so it's it's a

nonsensical message it's just delivered

by someone evil and predatory well

that's you know possible but I wouldn't

go there I wouldn't go there first

necessarily so but then well then say

you don't go there okay well so what is

this exactly do you not know what you

thought you know are you not who you

think you are do you not work hard

enough or your values not organized

properly do you misuse your time are you

in the wrong field is the way you're

construing your life completely

inappropriate are you acting out what

your parents wanted you to do it and

you're pissed off about it so you're

only running at 40% despite them despite

the fact that they're paying $25,000 a

year for your education because that's a

fun game yeah I'll go do what you want

me to do but I'll fail but not

completely because then that would

wouldn't cost you very much I'll just

fail a little bit so that you have to

spend all that money forcing me to do

what I don't want to do but you'll never

get to escape from it and then every

time we interact I'll stab you in

various ways that you don't quite

understand just to show you how

irritated I am that I happen to be

acting out the destiny that you've put

forward for me so maybe that's part of

the dragon' right and then that pulls in

the whole parent thing and you know it's

these are bottomless pits often when you

when you're in the world there's

something objects to you something that

matters objects to you then in the

entire unrealized world is in that thing

that objects it's all tangled up inside

that's why it's the great dragon of

chaos it's everything that's outside of

your conceptual structure and what is

that it's everything that lurks outside

of your of your walled city and it's

manifested itself like the snake in the

garden and the

easiest thing to do is say I'm not

having anything to do with that but the

problem with that is well you get your

c- and you don't do anything about it

maybe you're a little bitter and more

resentful in your study habits get a

little worse so the next time you get

like a d-plus and then you collect a

bunch of FS and then you stop going to

school then you stop showering right

then you end up jumping off the bridge

and so that's a that's that's how the

dragon eats you when you don't pay

attention to it and so it's no bloody

wonder that people avoid you know it's

really no wonder that they avoid because

error messages contain within them the

implicit world now the upside of that is

while they contain within them the

implicit world and the world isn't all

negative and so maybe you get your

c-minus and that's actually the best

gift you ever got because somebody

finally took you and went whack you no

clue in and so you take that apart and

you think oh I don't know how to write I

don't know how to think I've never read

anything in my life my study habits are

abysmal you know like maybe I'm working

at 2% efficiency which which is probably

I would suspect that you know some of

you aren't doing that but I bet you that

I bet there's thirty thirty to fifty

percent of the people in the room are

working at two percent efficiency it's

like you got it that's so to find that

out is so optimistic I mean if you're

barely hanging in there but you're only

working out 2% you might imagine what

you could have as a life if you work it

out like 50 percent so so that the

c-minus can be the best gift you ever

had and that's the gold that the Dragon

hoards right that's exactly what that

means and so well so you're moving from

point A to point B in your little

circumscribed world you've made

everything invisible and as long as that

works then your Theory's good enough

it's accurate enough it's true enough

you're in your little paradise but if

something comes up and objects well

that's where your character is tested

fundamentally that's the character test

it's like what do you do with messages

of error and that's a tricky issue okay

so here's a solution to that here's what

not to do I am a bad person

I got to see mice I'm a bad person I'm

out I'll just go jump off the bridge

it's like no that's not good because

what that means is that every time every

time you try to

learn something you're going to make a

mistake because what do you know so

you're gonna make mistakes and if the

rule is every time you make a mistake

you're gonna go jump off the bridge then

that's not a useful problem-solving

strategy and so when you make a mistake

you don't get to beat yourself to death

with a club it's a bad strategy and

you'll have your internal tyrant in

there who's perfectly happy about doing

that that's the you know overactive

super-ego that Freud talked about maybe

it came to you via a parent who was too

authoritarian or a grandparent or or

maybe it's just you because you're

disagreeable and neurotic and so you'll

take you're at hyper conscientious

you'll take yourself apart well starting

the and so you've got a problem

something has objected to you then the

question is well what does that mean

well maybe you're not looking at the

world right maybe your goals are wrong

maybe you're not acting properly it's

okay so the question that arises when an

obstacle emerges is which part of this

structure needs attention and the first

answer can't be all of it which is why

when you're arguing with someone in an

intimate relationship and you're angry

at them and you want to win which is a

big mistake

you want to win you say well your this

is what you're like here's another ten

examples of how you've done that in the

past and I can enumerate more of them if

you'd like and so it doesn't that's

actually what you like and I've tried

fixing you and didn't work and so it

looks like you're gonna be like that up

into the future and you're basically

saying to them well you're a bad person

and the only thing they can do is either

collapse or punch you and punching you

is actually better than collapsing look

you don't you know what I mean it's such

a counterproductive way of arguing they

you don't leave the person any out and

so maybe while they're civilized so it

doesn't get physical well maybe that's

good and maybe it isn't but then they

end up either really not happy with you

in a way that they will manifest the

first possible opportunity they get or

they have to go off in the corner and

cringe it's like great you won it's like

now your partners either hates you or is

cringing it's great that's a real good

victory man cry rack up about a hundred

victories like that and you'll be in

divorce court and spending two hundred

and fifty thousand dollars while being

miserable about it

yeah so anyway so something objects to

you and you think okay well I need to I

need to take myself apart right because

there's a piece that's broken somewhere

and then you might think well let's

let's assume it's a little piece to

begin with that's the right mechanism

it's like okay you got a c-minus that

doesn't prove that you're stupid and now

it implies that you might be stupid but

it doesn't right really it does and

that's why you don't want to look at it

maybe it implies that you're lazier

implies that you're ignorant or like it

implies all sorts of terrible might

imply that you're a bad person even but

you don't want to leap to that and

that's sort of the proclamation of

innocence before guilt assume that

you're the least amount of reprehensible

and ignorant possible and so then you

look at the micro routines it's okay

well I got a c-minus in this course

maybe I should study for that course

fifteen minutes more a day for the next

three months and then you ask yourself

do you think you could do that no I'm

too useless okay how about fifteen

minutes every second day you think you

could do that you put it in your

schedule like 15 minutes every second

day in the morning and that's while you

think well what's wrong with me

well I'm not very good at managing my

study schedule that's not quite down

here at the behavioral level but it's

pretty close because what you you can

take an action you can open up your

schedule and you can say all mark 50

minutes of it aside then you can

practice doing that it's pretty low

level in the hierarchy means while

you're still not a horrible person you

just gotta polish up your work ethic and

so what you want to do is you want to

it's like it's like the old adage you

got to stand up for yourself but you

don't want to make unnecessary enemies

that's a really good thing to know it's

like shut the hell up most of the time

but now and then you don't shut up

because it's time to say something you

don't you don't want to make unnecessary

enemies though well you don't want to

take yourself apart any more than is

absolutely necessary

start little and you do that with people

around you too like if you have a child

you know and the child does something

that isn't right

then you think okay minimal necessary

intervention what can we do to decrease

the probability that that's going to

occur in the future so and that's so

that's a good thing to know with

children it's also a good thing to know

with your partners you have an argument

some it's like okay what the hell do you

want what's the minimum thing you can

request from them that would satisfy you

and the evil part of your soul is going

to be I want them cringing in a corner

it's like yeah get that get that stuff

under control man see if you can figure

out what that person could offer you

that would be minimal that you would

accept and then tell them that it's like

here's the words I would like you to say

in the apology I would like you to

formulate assuming that you think you

did something wrong we have to argue

about that because maybe you didn't but

if you did I want to specify it

precisely and narrowly and I want to

give you an escape route and you know

you might only be able to do it badly

because you're still mad so you

apologize half-heartedly it's like you

get a pat on the head for that good next

time it'll be 51% not half-heartedly

right so it's careful training its

careful training of yourself and other

people with with the goal in mind but

also with the least amount of harshness

possible and then the other thing to do

as well and this is also true for you

and this is something I learned from

studying the behavior is like watch the

people around you like a hawk whenever

they do something that you think is good

you tell them that's wisdom man you'll

get so far with that you cannot bloody

well believe it because most people you

know they're afraid of any number of

things but one of the things they're

really afraid of is that now and then

they'll creep out of their cynical shell

and try to do something good you know

it's like they're it's like they're

popping out this thing that's

unbelievably vulnerable to try to do

something good and creep right back into

their persona and they'll look around

see if anyone noticed and sometimes

they'll get punished for it and then

well then they won't do it again so

don't do that but then now and then you

think hey I saw you do this it was

actually that was actually pretty good

Oh someone noticed it looks like wow and

then they'll think yeah I could maybe I

like I could do that again and if you

want to live with someone for a long

period of time I would say every time

they do something that you would like

them to do more of number one notice

number two tell them right because I

know you don't want to because you

really want to dominate them and you

don't you don't want them thriving

because then

maybe a they'd be competition to you and

you wouldn't be able to go complain to

your mother about what a miserable

partner you have and you know how

delightful that is so you have to forego

all that pleasure if you actually help

your person develop so you got to get

over all that it's really annoying so

you know you've got this person peg this

yeah you're stuck with them and you know

maybe it's the best you can do but you

got one eye open and then every time

they do something good you don't want to

notice because if that elevated them a

little bit you wouldn't be able to feel

so resentful and miserable and keep your

eye open for the next possible affair

and that is what people are like that is

what people are like and that's what

you're like - that's what people are

like so you got to decide if that's what

you want or you want to help the person

that you're with grow you know that's

dangerous because they might out sign

you well good then you have someone to

compare yourself to that would be a good

deal it's really rough with kids you

know because parents will stop their

children from succeeding beyond them

they get jealous and then they'll put

them down and then they have kids that

do not like them and they'll pay for it

so one of the things that I figured out

over the last years is this is a good

proposition so you know it's pretty

self-evident that life is has got its

rat's nest of miseries and that's for

sure and maybe you could even make a

categorical statement that life is

mostly a rat's nest of misery you know

and you can make a pretty powerful

argument for that but then there's a

counter question which is well what if

you tried not to make it any more

miserable that had had to be right then

what then what would it be like and my

suspicions are is that a lot of that

misery I would suspect that most of that

misery would go away

because it's the unnecessary misery that

really brings you down you know it's

like well someone has cancer it's like

that sucks but it's not like it's not

like you can say if only we had done

this differently then that wouldn't have

happened but when someone's out like

torturing you in a malevolent way or

maybe you're doing the same you could

always ask yourself was it really it's

this really necessary is this just like

an useless add-on to the miseries of

life that's what disheartens people and

so even in your own life if if you if

you aren't suffering from self-imposed

misery and your

only suffering from an escapable misery

maybe you could handle that and you know

you could you could survive you could

bear it and even maybe without becoming

irredeemably corrupt so the goal would

be well yeah life is a rat's nest of

miseries and maybe it has no ultimate

meaning we could say that for feeling

particularly pessimistic but it still

leaves one question open which is if you

didn't do everything you could to make

it worse how good could you make it be

and the least answer is well it it could

be tragedy but maybe not hell and I

think that's right I really believe that

that's that's the most pessimistic

proper statement the worst-case outcome

in the worst of all possible worlds is

that your life could be tragic but not

hell and that's blood better than hell

right it's it's and you think I could

give you an example of the difference

you're at your mother's deathbed

well that's tragedy here's another

scenario you're at your mother's

deathbed and all you you and all your

idiot siblings are arguing well that's

the difference between tragedy and hell

and you might be able to tolerate the

first circumstance and maybe it would

even bring you closer together with your

family members the second one no one can

bear that you walk away from a situation

like that sick of yourself and sick of

everything else - and you know it's

often the case that tragic circumstances

bring out the Dragons because the stress

is high and all those things that people

haven't dealt with they don't have the

energy to repress and and all the

bitterness comes pouring forward it's

like seriously man you know so that's

actually a good

it's a rough lesson but it's a good

hallmark for figuring out whether or not

you're you've got yourself adjusted

properly and in relationship to your

siblings it's like if you are all

gathered around the bed of someone close

who is dying could you manage it if the

answer is no it's like well put your

life together because it's going to

happen and you should be the person

who's there that can do it and do it

properly and then maybe you'd find that

it isn't the sort of thing that will

undermine your faith in life itself and

I've seen I've seen both of those

situations you know ugly ugly ugly

situations you know murderously ugly

situations and then they're opposite

where people

had terrible things happening to happen

to them as a family and you know they

pull together and they rebuild their

damn ship and they sail away so that

seems to me to be a lot better that

makes you know when the flood comes

right well okay so the same thing the

question emerges well who are you well

you could say your this plan that's what

people usually that's how people usually

identify maybe they have no plan at all

and they're just in chaos right that's

like being in the belly of the beast

they're nihilistic and chaos they have

no plan they're just chaos itself and

that's a very dreadful situation for

people to be in or maybe they conjure

together a plan that's their identity

it's kind of fragile and they're holding

on to that with with everything they've

got it's their little stick of wood that

they're floating in the ocean clinging

to you know and so they're identifying

really hard with that plan that's what

happens when you're an ideologue is that

you're identifying really hard with that

plan the problem is if something comes

up to confront it well how do you act

well you can't let go with a plan

because you drown then you cling to it

rigidly well that's no good because then

you can't learn anything then if that's

you you're a totalitarian you're not

going to learn anything you're gonna end

up in something that's close enough to

hell so that you won't know the

difference and you might drag everyone

along with you that's happened plenty of

times right it's the whole story of the

20th century happened over and over and

over and it happens in people's States

it happens in their business

organizations it happens in their cities

it happens in their provinces it happens

in their states and it happens in their

psyches all at the same time you can't

blame the manifestation of that sort of

thing on any of those one levels it

happens when a society goes down that

way it goes down everywhere at the same

time it's not the totalitarians at the

top and all the happy people striving to

be free at the bottom it's not that at

all it's totalitarianism at every single

level of the hierarchy including the

psychological and so you don't want to

be the thing you don't want to be in

chaos that's for sure but you don't want

to be the thing that clings so

desperately to the raft that you can't

let go when someone comes to rescue you

right you don't want to be that so then

you think well exactly what are you

you know what the chaos you not the plan

maybe you're the thing that confronts

the obstacle and I would say that's the

categorical lesson of of psychology

insofar as it has to do with personal

transformation that's what you always

teach people in psychotherapy I don't

care what sort of psychotherapists you

are you're always teaching them the same

thing you're the thing that can you not

you're not the plan you're the thing

that can confront the obstacle to the

plan and then when you know even further

that the obstacle is not only an

obstacle but opportunity itself well

then your whole view of the world can

change because you might think well I've

got this plan something came up to

object to it it's like it's possible

that the thing that's objecting has

something to teach you that will take

you to the place where you develop an

even better plan that's a nice framework

to use it's like are you so sure that

this is a problem is that the only way

that you can look at it or is it an

opportunity I mean I'm not trying to be

you know naively optimistic there are

some things that's pretty hard to

extract gold from some dragons and maybe

the death of a family member is a good

example of that

but in even in a situation like that I

can tell you that it's an opportunity

for it's an opportunity for maturation

that's for sure

and the thing is you might say well it's

pretty miserable to go to be digging for

gold when someone's falling into the

grave well if they really love you first

of all that's what they'll want you to

do and second you're gonna make their

death a lot more palatable experience

for them if you're someone who can be in

the room and be helpful instead of be

you know quivering in the corner and

feeling that the entire world is

collapsing in on you I mean that's

another you want to be the useful person

at the funeral how's that for a goal

that's a good goal man you know that

you've got yourself together in a

situation like that because you're gonna

be at them and maybe you want to be the

person on whose shoulder people cry

that'd be a good goal that's kind of you

know I don't like being naively

optimistic so when I tell you to get

your life together I'm not gonna say

roses and sunshine it's like that's

that's that's that's pablum for fools

but it really is something to be the

reliable person out of funeral right and

you can aim at that you can do that it's

and you got to be tough to do that

because it also means that you can

sustain a major loss without collapsing

and that

you've got to be a monster to do that

right because you might think and I've

had clients like this while I love my

child I love my mother so much that I

couldn't survive if anything happened to

them it's like you have some serious

thinking to do about that

it's like you really want to curse

someone with that kind of love do you I

couldn't live without you it's like my

god get away from me

really it's terrible that's the eatable

mother right that's like I'll forgive

you no matter what you do it's like

really you no matter what I do eh

you are not my friend that's for sure

not at all it's a horrible thing to do

to someone that's that's the witch in

the Hansel and Gretel story all

gingerbread and outside to the lost kid

inside you feed them candy and make them

fat and eat them right that's Hansel and

Gretel that's the eatable mother that's

one of Freud's major discoveries it gets

a major discovery it's like the

devouring force of love you want the

person to be able to stand on their own

and price you pay for that is that you

stand on your own

it's like good to have you around I'm

glad you're here but if if tragedies win

and if and when tragedy strikes either

of us I hope that one of us is standing

when it blows past and and that there's

a harshness about that that's

unbelievably cruel because you know you

say well if my mother died I could live

well what kind of monster are you

exactly death of your mother doesn't do

you in well turns out that being a

monster is the right thing so and that's

a rough thing to learn but it's

necessary to learn you know because it

also makes you you know at some point

for example as you get older mm-hmm

by the time you're in your mid-20s

something like that you should start

having a relationship with your parents

that's approximately one of peers and

you can tell if you have that so here's

a little trick you can use so you have

parents obviously they have friends you

probably care what your parents think I

would imagine do you care what their

friends think of you and answer that is

well not nearly as much and so then I

would say well why do you care what your

parents think of you then they're the

same

you know what I mean it's just luck of

the draw that your parents are someone

else's kids friends they don't think the

same way about them that you do well

that's where you see that you have a

projection right if by the time you're

30 if what your parents think of you

matters more than what say a random set

of their friends think of you then

you've still got your parents confused

with with God that's one way of looking

at it you've still got them confused

with an archetype and you're still a

child and you might think well it's

pretty damn rude not to think about what

your parents think of you anymore not to

care it's like yeah it's kind of rude

but maybe you'll be useful for them when

they get old and that's a much better

form of caring it's like you're going to

be independent enough and strong enough

and and detached enough so that when the

taught when the when the power dynamic

shifts which it will that you'll be the

person that can carry things forward

well you can't do a better thing for

them than that right that's the best of

all possible outcomes for your parents

well you can think about the world this

way you can think about it as your

orderly little plan that's a place and

you can think about it as the place that

things that disrupt your plan comes from

that's another place this is a bigger

place than this because there's an

endless number of things that can

disrupt your plan and only a tiny number

of them that can you know that will help

you work it out so part of the question

then too is like are you the friend of

your plan or are you the friend of the

thing that disrupts your plan and I

would say you should work to become the

friend of the thing that disrupts your

plan because there's a lot of that and

then if you become the friend of the

thing that disrupts your plan then you

start to develop strength in proportion

to the to the disruptive force and

that's really what you want you want to

be able to implement your plan obviously

but you want to be able to take on the

consequences of error and learn from it

and then then you win constantly because

even if something goes sideways you

think there's something to be derived

from this that's wisdom fundamentally so

and so those are the eternal domains

right there's the domain of order

that's a snake by the way and that's a

domain of chaos and that's the world and

maybe you're in the order and maybe

you're in the chaos but those can flip

on you and maybe you shouldn't be in

either of those places maybe you should

be right in the middle and that's where

you should be as far as I can tell and I

think this is this is another escape

from postmodern nihilism let's say

that's actually a real place it's not

metaphysical or maybe it is but it's

metaphysical if metaphysics is more real

than physics and you can tell when

you're at that place because that's a

maximally meaningful place and you drift

in and out of it all the time in your

life and when things are really bad for

you you're not there hardly at all right

because everything is overwhelming you

or the things have become sterile but if

you watch your life even over a week or

two you'll see that now and then you're

there I think you stand up straighter

right because you're in the right place

at the right time you think aha I got

the forces of chaos and order properly

balanced it's unstable and it'll fall

apart on you but you know you can

practice bringing things together

continually and then you can end up so

that you're there more often than not

and then that's that's a meta place it's

not a place it's a meta place and it's a

place that you can be in all places and

and it's not an illusion of any sort

it's the deepest reality your nervous

system is always orienting yourself your

is always orienting you to that place

always and and that's because it's a

real place that's another way of

thinking about it well that's the normal

world with that's the garden with the

snake in it and that's chaos that that's

the chaos that arises when your plans

collapse right that's the world in the

underworld and so the underworld is

always there and it's lurking beneath

everything it's like the figure of the

shark in the jaws poster right there you

are swinging at the top and there's that

terrible thing underneath that can come

up and pull you down that's the world so

you need to be able to operate here and

you need to be able to operate here and

when you operate here well that's when

you rescue your father from the belly of

the whale that's when you go down you

see when you're down in chaos and you

don't know what the hell's going on you

have to rediscover the values that

orient people have oriented people

forever that's what you have to discover

so for example when I'm dealing with

people have post-traumatic stress

disorder and they've usually encountered

someone malevolent they have to relearn

the description of good and evil because

if they don't they have no framework

they're lost they think well there's a

malevolence afoot in the world and I'm a

naive I'm a naive I'm a prey animal a

naive prey animal for the malevolence of

the world it's like well good luck

functioning under that set of

assumptions man you just do not recover

from that you stay at home in your

burrow that's what you do well you have

to you go down into that you think okay

well malevolence is afoot I better be

the sort of person that can understand

it and deal with it and that's another

reason why you have to transform

yourself into a monster that's the

Jungian incorporation of the shadow it's

no bloody joke because the only thing

that a monster won't mess with is

another monster and you might say well I

don't want to transform myself into a

monster it's like you don't have a

choice you can either be a pathetic

monster or you can be a monster with

some power those are your options

there's no non monster alternative weak

or strong and I don't mean strong like

dominating tyrant strength that isn't

what I mean at all I mean strength like

functioning at a Funeral strength and

that's a kind of monstrosity and when

you're down in chaos that's what you

have to rediscover well that's partly

what that means you're lucky if you come

back out remember I told you the story

of Jonah at the beginning of the course

it's like he had something to do and was

refusing to do it and so God pulled him

down to the depths of being and

threatened him with death but worse not

just death he'll really well he decided

it was better to come popping up back

into the light and go do what he was

supposed to do well there's a reason

that like that's the oldest story of

mankind as far back as you go into the

archives of history you find this story

right and it's because well it's because

not only is it because it's true it's

because it's true and everyone knows

it's true even though they don't know

that they know that this is the story -

it's the same thing there

always a city it's always enclosed right

there's always people who inhabit it

there's always someone who's willing to

notice that the dragon hasn't gone away

the skulls are still around there's

someone who's willing to come out of the

fortress and and take that on right and

to prefer perform the job of rescuing

that's an eternal story are you the city

are you the dragon are you the thing

that engages voluntarily in combat with

what lies outside your range of safety

because that's what that image

represents it's that is the monster

amalgam symbolic amalgam of all that

which lies outside your realm of safety

you want to be safe forget that right

that is that's not that's not in the

cards you're not gonna be safe well then

you have to be meta safe and that's way

better because then you're not safe but

you know how to cope with danger well

find that that solves the problem and

maybe it's even a better solution

because if you're safe then you just

have to stay in your burrow but if you

can confront danger then you can go

wherever you want and you can have an

adventure and maybe that's what you need

to do is to go out and have an adventure

so you don't even want safety because of

how exciting is that not Dostoyevsky

said very clearly let's say we made you

perfectly safe all that you had to do is

eat cakes and worry yourself with the

continuation of the species what would

you do

you'd smash it all down as soon as you

possibly could just so you had something

interesting and challenging to do so you

don't want safety you want to be able to

cope with danger that's a whole

different thing and I'm like this isn't

again metaphysical that did clinical

data on this is clear when you treat

someone for an anxiety disorder like

Agra phobia you do not get rid of their

anxiety

you make them braver that's way better

there's no going back like once your

agoraphobic your heart's not doing them

you know it's it's it's missing beats

now on that it's like death like the

crocodile that's got the clock and it's

in his stomach

death is after you there's no there's no

going back to naivety you don't get to

be safe ever again well so what happens

you get to be stronger well hey it turns

out that's a better bar

anyways so Lin is Bell an evolutionary

arms race between early snakes and

mammals triggered the development of

improved vision and large brain in

primates a radical new theory suggests

the idea proposed by Lin is Bell and

anthropologist at the University of

California suggests that snakes and

primates share a long and intimate

history one that forced both groups to

evolve new strategies as each attempted

to gain the upper hand that's Hercules

right well that's infinity that symbol

and this is the snake you cut off one

head and seven more growth it's like the

it's an infinite snake you're never

gonna run out of snakes those are the

things that object to your plans well

you can't get rid of the snake so what

do you do you learn how to handle them

right that's it that's that's the

answers you learn how to become a

handler of snakes both physical and

metaphysical see you see the little halo

around it I think that's st. George

might be st. Michael but I think it's

st. George why is he go to halo well

that's the Sun well what does that mean

it's gold - Gold is pure it's the pure

gold Sun it's associated with

consciousness it's the pure gold Sun of

consciousness that can confront the

terrible thing that paralyzes and that's

the same thing that's death right the

clock in the stomach of the crocodile

it's already got a taste of Captain Hook

Captain Hook's no st. George that's why

Peter Pan doesn't want to grow up I'd

always sees his Captain Hook I don't

want to be Captain Hook

he doesn't see this so he stays at home

and plays video games with the rest of

the Lost Boys look I got nothing against

video games by the way I mean everything

in moderation right and I mean they

demand skill well so what's this you

know there you are you go down into

chaos and then you come back up and so

you might say well am i this or am i the

chaos or am i the new new solution an

answer is you're not this or you

shouldn't be because that's your old

dead self right that's the thing that

needs to burn away you know what chaos

itself but you're also not the new

regenerated order you're the thing that

can make the journey and more than that

you're the thing that decides to make

the journey voluntarily and then more

than that you're the thing that decides

to make the journey voluntarily

for as long as it takes and that's where

you derive your strength it's like

there's no getting rid of chaos it's

eternal there's no getting rid of order

it's eternal those are both traps you

mediate between them and that's where

your strength lies and that's not only

strength for you it's strength for you

it's strength for the people around you

strength for the community and strength

for everything it's the thing that makes

everything order itself properly and

thrive

you have to ask yourself and this is the

thing you ask yourself this is the

existential question do you want things

to be ordered properly and thrive

because if the answer to that is yes you

have to give up your hatred of being you

have to give up your resentment you have

to give up your martyrdom and your

victimization and all of that because to

the degree that you carry that forward

it will corrupt you and you will not

want the best because to be if you

aren't the best you have to be without

Rachel hey treated rancor and and

resentment because you know if I resent

you for your inadequacies or even for

your for your accomplishments I'm not

going to have a conversation with you

where I'm aiming for the best I'm gonna

have all sorts of motivations I'm gonna

take you down somehow you know

especially if you're successful that's

the Cain and Abel story it's like I bet

I want to be who you are but I can't be

so I'll just cut you off at the knees

and that'll do just fine and then I can

get my revenge on you and I can get my

revenge on being and you know the fact

that it helps turn everything into hell

well maybe that's just an additional

benefit that's represented all sorts of

different ways the masculine Sun and the

feminine moon and that's Horus in gold

right Horus is all speech and eyes and

that's Osiris the god of tradition and

Isis the queen of the underworld you see

the same thing here suffering individual

that transcends it by accepting it

nested inside of society and the

patriarchal structure nested inside the

natural world and the feminine

that's the same idea there that's Buddha

emerging from the lotus flower and the

lotus flower if its roots go down into

the murk at the at the bottom of the of

the the pond

so it emerges out of the darkness and

manifests itself and then it climbs

upwards towards the light and then the

Lotus floats on the surface of the water

and blooms open and inside that the

Buddha sits golden buddha sits in the

light

it's the flowering of being and that's

that's a Mandela from the Union

perspective it's the Mandela opens up

and it reveals this mode of perfect

being

that's what the Buddha means and he

found enlightenment underneath the tree

because that's the human environment

there's to find enlightenment underneath

the tree he's got the Sun on his head -

and he's gold for the same reason gold

is pure

you see the same thing in Hinduism so

that's the yoni feminine symbol case you

were wondering masculine symbol that's

the union of the two right that's the

union of chaos and order

with a snake lurking in the background

and it's golden because it's the union

of those two things that produces the

power of the snake that's something that

you might think about you could think

about those as two halves of the DNA

molecule that is what they are although

I can't tell you how I know that but

it's the same idea it's the same idea

here so this what happens here is that

you see this is a very remarkable

picture so this is Eve Eve is handing

out skulls to mankind right

it's self-consciousness and the

discovery of death this is Mary as the

church on this side and she's handing

out these things that are the hosts it's

those are pieces of Christ's body and

see so he's put up there on this tree

the same as the skull as an antidote the

antidote is something that you

incorporate and the thing you

incorporate is the voluntary acceptance

of suffering as the cure for death

that's what that picture means people

worked on that bloody picture for a long

long long long time and you know we see

the picture but we don't know what it

means but that's what it means means the

same thing that this means it means the

same thing that this means means the

same thing that this means see there's

there's pride rock this is the

Scandinavian world tree there's pride

rock right there there's the territory

outside see it's a serpent it's a snake

that's the territory outside that's

outside of the light and that's all in a

tree that's how can you not read that as

a history of the evolution of mankind

that's exactly what it is that's our

eternal home

well we better stop before that girl

comes in

it was very nice having you all in the

class and I appreciated the warm welcome

I got especially in January because it

was a rough time in January and so I'm

glad this all worked out so well and it

was a pleasure teaching you so good luck

to you all

I mean it be what you can be God you let

the world dissolve around you otherwise

that's not a good thing you've got

something that everyone needs man

including yourself it's like let it out

that's where everything you want is and

it's this it's the case for every single

one of you so you know hoist up your

goddamn privilege and go out there and

do something in the world see ya

[Applause]