Random Ideas Flashcards
1
Q
An introvert can show interest in a girl by _______
A
engaging in deep conversations, actively listening to her, making thoughtful gestures, respecting her personal space, initiating small interactions, and gradually building a connection through shared interests, often by starting with one-on-one activities rather than large social gatherings; essentially, focusing on quality time and meaningful interactions over grand displays of attention
2
Q
There are nine seducer types in the world. Each type has a particular _______
A
character trait that comes from deep within and creates a seductive pull.
Sirens have an abundance of sexual energy and know how to use it. Rakes
insatiably adore the opposite sex, and their desire is infectious. Ideal Lovers
have an aesthetic sensibility that they apply to romance. Dandies like to play
with their image, creating a striking and androgynous allure. Naturals are
spontaneous and open. Coquettes are self-sufficient, with a fascinating cool
at their core. Charmers want and know how to please—they are social creatures. Charismatics have an unusual confidence in themselves. Stars are ethereal and envelop themselves in mystery.
3
Q
A highly feminine and sexual presence, even to the point of caricature, will _______. A cue to _______
A
quickly differentiate you, since most women lack the confidence to project such an image.
go for it?
4
Q
Qualities, _______
A
traits, features, attributes, and characteristics
5
Q
Optimal growth (Development zone)
A
Growth occurs at the edge of comfort, where novelty creates optimal alertness and enthusiasm for engagement with life
6
Q
“Earth is filled with _______.”
A
the ruins of empires that believed they were eternal
7
Q
Efforts to cover too much material
lead to _______
A
superficial recall and doom the achievement of genuine undestanding.
8
Q
one cannot aspire to be a poet without _______
A
sensitivity to the interaction among linguistic connotations.
9
Q
It is through such fresh combinations of _______
A
words, as Northrop Frye insists, that we have our only way of creating new worlds.
10
Q
The poet can serve as a reliable guide, or as an apt introduction, to _______
A
the domain of linguistic intelligence.
11
Q
Quality, _______
A
state, and fact
12
Q
Voluntarily, _______.
A
deliberately, consciously, and intentionally.
13
Q
XConformity is the opposite of critical thought?
A
14
Q
XQuantum mechanics or physics makes reality a fact that its meaningful?
A
15
Q
Haters are like bees, _______
A
they sting and then they perish
16
Q
Luck is when _______
A
opportunity and preparation meet
17
Q
2 types of sins:
A
Sin of commission and sin of omission
18
Q
A vision of the future, the desirable future, is _______. Such vision links _______. It lends actions in the present _______. It provides a frame limiting _______.
A
necessary
action taken now with important, long-term, foundational values
significance and importance
uncertainty and anxiety
19
Q
A vision of the future, the desirable future, is _______. Such a vision links _______. It lends actions in the present _______. It provides a frame _______.
A
necessary
action taken now with important, long-term, foundational values
significance and importance
limiting uncertainty and anxiety
20
Q
“Did what I want happen? No. Then _______.” That is the voice of _______. “Did what I want happen? No. Then _______.” That is the voice of inauthenticity. It is not too far from there to “_______” or “_______” or “_______.” Whenever you hear about something incomprehensibly brutal, such ideas _______.
A
my aim or my methods were wrong. I still have something to learn
authenticity
the world is unfair. People are jealous, and too stupid to understand. It is the fault of something or someone else
they should be stopped
they must be hurt
they must be destroyed
have manifested themselves.
21
Q
There is no blaming any of this on _______. When the individual lies, he _______. He may blind himself to _______. He
may fail to _______. He may even _______. But he was _______, in the _______, during the _______. At
that moment, he knew _______. And _______
A
unconsciousness, either, or repression
knows it
the consequences of his actions
analyze and articulate his past, so that he does not understand
forget that he lied and so be unconscious of that fact
conscious
present
commission of each error, and the omission of each responsibility
what he was up to
the sins of the inauthentic individual
compound and corrupt the state.
22
Q
Sensations, survival, _______
A
23
Q
If the problem is _______, then the people who are _______. That is not _______. It is _______.
A
real
best at solving the problem
at hand should rise to the top
power
the authority that properly accompanies ability
24
Q
A responsible person decides to
make a problem _______, and then _______, _______ (_______).
A
his or her problem
works diligently—even
ambitiously—for its solution
efficient, because there are other problems to solve, and efficiency allows for the conservation of resources that might then be devoted importantly elsewhere
25
good people are ambitious (_______) because they are possessed by _______
and diligent, honest, and focused along with it
the desire to solve genuine, serious problems.
26
Lucky spartans engaging in _______ pleasures
sensual
27
Your perceptions are always framed by what you _______.
want
28
Look at the strong people, how they manage to implant their _______, thus causing the latter to think thoughts in accordance with _______. This is
why the masses of people are such _______.
seed thoughts in the minds of the masses of the people
the desires and wills of the strong individuals
sheep like creatures, never originating an idea of their own, nor using their own powers of mental activity.
29
“Clean up the room” = _______
implement the micro routines you have learned to clean up the room, or make it orderly.
30
Primary temperaments are _______ that determine in part _______.
biasing factors
the nature of the interpretive structure that you’re going to lay out in the world.
31
If you're an extrovert, you're dominated by the _______just as someone who is _______.
dopaminergic system
high in openness.
32
The primary law of human psychology is that people _______.
judge on appearances
33
Cold or fright = goosebumps = _______
aesthetic sensitivity = meaning causes fright
34
Xgetting more curious for novelty?
35
Sensuality is an underlying harmony that has a _______. It provokes what Descartes called _______ that is inseparable from _______ yet far removed from _______.
pleasing sensory effect.
a sense of “admiration” or “wonder”
pleasure
satisfaction
36
language shapes _______. If we want to break out of conventional thought patterns, maybe we need to break out of _______.
perception, and perception shapes reality
conventional definitions first
37
XLived experience through pictures?
38
Xsubconscious reserved ability derived from something or by doing something or by experiencing something
39
Sexual energy is essentially _______. Many spiritual traditions (like _______) teach how to _______, like _______. Instead of _______.
creative energy
tantra or Taoism
transmute this energy into other forms of expression
art, writing, or physical activity
releasing that energy through orgasm, try channeling it into something productive
40
There are two components in a religious system, and people are _______. Conservatives are more likely to align with the ________, while the active _______. The mystical element is _______.
temperamentally inclined to align with one or the other
dogmatic component
mystical component updates the conservative component but threatens it, which is what creative thought does
religious but transformative
41
The incarnation is _______.
at least, a symbolic representation of the idea that the spirit has to fully inhabit the body.
42
XThe components of true knowledge and understanding:
One of the best motivations is existential terror
“The fear of god is the beginning of wisdom.”
43
You don’t have anything better to do than the _______ by _______.
best
definition.
44
Letters and their colors:
A: green
B: red
C: yellow
D: orange brown
E: light blue
F: dark green
G: white yellow
H: yellow
I: dark blue
J: dark green
K: red
L: green
M: red
N: orange
O: black
P: light red
Q: light green
R: red
S: scarlet red
T: very dark blue
U: cyan
V: banana yellow
W: purpoe
X: dark red
Y: yellow
Z: tiger orange
45
The encounter with malevolence and evil is of sufficient terror to _______.
damage even the vision of a god
46
It is our responsibility to see what is before our eyes, _______. The act of seeing is particularly important when _______. It is the act of seeing that _______. It was for this reason that Nietzsche said that a man’s worth was determined by _______. You are by no means _______ You are also all that which _______. Thus, you should never sacrifice _______. You should never give up _______
courageously, and to learn from it, even if it seems horrible—even if the horror of seeing it damages our consciousness, and half-blinds us
it challenges what we know and rely on, upsetting and destabilizing us
informs the individual and updates the state
how much truth he could tolerate
only what you already know.
you could know, if you only would
what you could be for what you are
the better that resides within for the security you already have—and certainly not when you have already caught a glimpse, an undeniable glimpse, of something beyond.
47
The Word that produces order from Chaos _______.
sacrifices everything, even itself, to God
48
The better ambitions have to do with _______. Status _______. You carry _______.
the development of character and ability, rather than status and power
you can lose
character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity
49
X“The energy of my _______ alone sustained me.”
The higher the _______, the more energy from it.
Purpose
Purpose
50
“Man does not live by bread alone. _______.”
We live by beauty, we live by literature, and we live by art, literally and not metaphorically
51
The human capacity for imagination
makes us capable of _______. This is the ultimate source of _______. With that singular capacity, however, comes the counterpart, _______.
dreaming up and creating alternative worlds
our creativity
the opposite side of the coin: we can deceive ourselves and others into believing and acting as if things are other than we know they are
52
Things fall apart: this is one of the _______. And we speed the natural _______. Without _______.
great discoveries of humanity
deterioration of great things through blindness, inaction and deceit
attention, culture degenerates and dies, and evil prevails
53
The world is not made of _______, and as a consequence_______. Theres this idea where _______.
objects, it’s made of patterns
relations
relationships arise out of patterns
54
Memory is not a description of _______. Memory is _______. Memory is _______.
the objective past
a tool
the past’s guide to the future
55
True thinking is _______. It requires you to _______. It involves conflict. So, you have to tolerate conflict. Conflict involves _______. So, you have to learn to _______.
complex and demanding
be an articulate speaker and a careful, judicious listener at the same time
negotiation and compromise
give and take and to modify your premises and adjust your thoughts—even your perceptions of the world
56
Xpatterns provide _______, while relationships provide _______. And maybe the interplay between the two is _______.
the foundation
the accessibility, the "shortcut" to meaning
what allows us to build more sophisticated cognitive frameworks over time
57
Relations, analogies, categories, patterns, rules, laws,
58
Types of conversations:
1. The conversation where one participant is speaking merely to establish or confirm his place in the dominance hierarchy.
2. The closely allied form of conversation where neither speaker is listening in the least to the other.
3. The conversation where one participant is trying to attain victory for his point of view.
4. The lecture, which is somewhat surprisingly—a conversation. The lecturer speaks, but the audience communicates with him or her non-
verbally.
5. The conversations that works primarily as demonstrations of wit.
6. The final type of conversation, akin to listening, is a form of mutual exploration.
59
XThe form of conversation where neither speaker is listening in the least to the other:
Instead, each is using the time occupied by the current speaker
to conjure up what they will say next, which will often be something off-topic, because the person anxiously waiting to speak has not been listening.
60
XThe conversations that works primarily as demonstrations of wit. The goal is to be the most entertaining speaker (which is an accomplishment that everyone participating will also enjoy). The purpose of these conversations is to say “anything that was either true or funny.” As truth and humour are often close allies, that combination works fine.
61
XThe final type of conversation, akin to listening, is a form of mutual exploration. It requires true reciprocity on the part of those listening and speaking. It allows all participants to express and organize their thoughts. A conversation of mutual exploration has a topic, generally complex, of genuine interest to the participants. Everyone participating is trying to solve a problem, instead of insisting on the a priori validity of their own positions. All are acting on the premise that they have something to learn. This kind of conversation constitutes active philosophy, the highest form of thought, and the best preparation for proper living.
62
The two forms of positive emotion:
1. Satiation: the emotion that you feel after having a good meal at thanksgiving giving dinner. Satiation puts you to sleep and right now its pleasant because you don’t need anything. But it isn’t motivating.
2. Motivation: comes in a pursuit. You have to be pursuing a goal. You have to figure out what your goal is. If you don’t have your plan, someone else has a plan for you. Whatever responsibility you abdicate will be taken up by tyrants, and whatever direction you don’t provide for yourself will be provided by other people who don’t have your best interest in mind.
63
Qualities that make a woman attractive:
1. White
2. Long torso
3. Slim
4. Intelligent and perceptive eyes
5. Tall
6. Lean
7. Elegant
8. strikingly perceptive look-like
(Optional)
1. Dreamy eyes maybe
64
Most assume that we see _______. Our evolved _______ This is the necessary, _______. This is the transformation of _______. This is how _______. That is not at all the same as _______.
objects or things when we look at the world, but that’s not really precise
perceptual systems transform the interconnected, complex multi-
level world that we inhabit not so much into things per se as into useful things (or their nemeses, things that get in the way)
practical reduction of the world
the near-infinite complexity of things through the narrow specification of our purpose
precision makes the world sensibly manifest
perceiving objects
65
Some people see valueless _______. But other people perceive _______. Floors, _______. It’s for this reason that _______. We see rocks, because _______. We need to see _______. Furthermore, we need to _______. The world should reveal itself to us as _______.
entities and then attribute meaning to them
meaning directly
to walk on, and doors, to duck through, and chairs, to sit on
a beanbag and a stump both fall into the latter category, despite having little objectively in common
we can throw them, and clouds, because they can rain on us, and apples, to eat, and the automobiles of other people, to get in our way and annoy us
tools, obstacles, guides, tasks, and interconnections, not objects or things
see them at the “handy” level of analysis that makes them most useful (or dangerous), given our needs, abilities and perceptual limitations
something to utilize and something to navigate through—not as something that merely is
66
We shift what is inside our skin, so to speak, as ________. Even when we do something as apparently simple as picking up a _______. We can literally feel things with _______. Furthermore, we instantly regard the screwdriver we are holding as _______.
the context we inhabit changes
screwdriver, our brain automatically adjusts what it considers body to include the tool
the end of the screwdriver
“our” screwdriver, and get possessive about it
67
Is our father or son or wife or husband more or less integral to us than an arm or a leg? We can answer, in part, by asking: _______
Which we rather lose? Which loss would we sacrifice more to avoid?
68
When things break down, what has been ignored _______. When things are no longer specified, with precision, _______. When we’ve been careless, and let things slide, what we have refused to _______. It is then that we see what _______.
rushes in
the walls crumble, and chaos makes its presence known
attend to gathers itself up, adopts a serpentine form, and strikes—often at the worst possible moment
focused intent, precision of aim and careful attention protects us from
69
XWhat we aim at, at a specified moment, _______.
determines what we see
70
Everything is intricate beyond imagining. Everything is _______. We perceive a very _______.
affected by everything else
narrow slice of a causally interconnected matrix
71
What is it that we see, when we cannot understand what is happening to us, cannot determine where we are, know no longer who we are, and no longer understand what surrounds us? What we don’t see is _______. We don’t even see _______. What we perceive, when things fall apart, is no longer _______. It’s _______. It’s from that _______
the well-known and comforting world of tools—of useful objects—of personalities
familiar obstacles—sufficiently troubling though they are in normal times, already mastered—that we can simply step around
the stage and settings of habitable order
the eternal watery tohu va bohu, formless emptiness, and the tehom, the abyss, to speak biblically—the chaos forever lurking beneath our thin surfaces of security
chaos that the Holy Word of God Himself extracted order at the beginning of time, according to the oldest opinions expressed by mankind (and it is in the image of that same Word that we were made, male and female, according to the same opinions). It’s from that chaos that whatever stability we had the good fortune to experience emerged, originally—for some limited time—when we first learned to perceive. It’s chaos that we see, when things fall apart (even though we cannot truly see it). What does all this mean?
72
XImagine theres a center and there are outward rooms surrounding the center and encircling it. _______
The center is reality, while each outward room is a different dream. When you’re in a dream, the door could be shut and even locked, making it impossible for you to get to the center. But, theres the possibility of using the tools inside that room/dream to unlock the door and open it. However, once you get to the center, you’re susceptible to ending up in another room and living another dream.
73
XEverything clarified and articulated _______.
becomes visible
74
Why remain vague, when it renders life _______? Not thinking about something you don’t want to know about _______. You are merely trading _______.
stagnant and murky
doesn’t make it go away
75
Why refuse to investigate, when knowledge of reality _______? Well, _______ Well, _______Do you truly think it is a good idea to _______Do you truly think it wise to _______ Isn’t it better to _______.
enables mastery of reality (and if not mastery, at least the stature of an honest amateur)
what if there truly is something rotten? Then what? Isn’t it better under such conditions to live in willful blindness and enjoy the bliss of ignorance?
not if the monster is real!
retreat, to abandon the possibility of arming yourself against the rising sea of troubles, and to thereby diminish yourself in your own eyes?
let the catastrophe grow in the shadows, while you shrink and decrease and become ever more afraid?
prepare, to sharpen your sword, to peer into the darkness, and then to beard the lion in its den? Maybe you’ll get hurt. Probably you’ll get hurt. Life, after all, is suffering. But maybe the wound won’t be fatal.
76
Why refuse to specify, when specifying the problem _______? Because to specify the problem is to _______. Because to specify the problem is _______. But _______.
would enable its solution
admit that it exists
to allow yourself to know what you want, say, from friend or lover—and then you will know, precisely and cleanly, when you don’t get it, and that will hurt, sharply and specifically
you will learn something from that, and use what you learn in the future—and the alternative to that single sharp pain is the dull ache of continued hopelessness and vague
failure and the sense that time, precious time, is slipping by
77
Why refuse to specify? _______. But that won’t work! You cannot be fooled so easily—unless you have gone very far down the road! You will instead carry with you a continual sense of _______.
Because while you are failing to define success (and thereby rendering it impossible) you are also refusing to define failure, to yourself, so that if and when you fail you won’t notice, and it won’t hurt
disappointment in your own Being and the self-contempt that comes along with that and the increasing hatred for the world that all of that generates (or degenerates)
78
“Do not cast pearls _______.” _______.
before swine
to avoid wasting valuable or precious things on people who won't appreciate them or who may even trample or harm them
79
XDetermination, perseverance, persistence
80
XInsatiable desire
81
Sometimes people are clinically insane but _______
coincidentally correct.
82
One secret which I alone possessed _______.
was the hope to which I had dedicated myself
83
If you're too tolerant and not exclusionary at all then _______. It's like an athletic club that _______
everything just gets destroyed
allowed anyone to join, and eventually so many non athletic people join that it’s no longer an athletic club
84
It seems like faster brain processing speed allows one to _______.
synthesize wide information more effectively and efficiently.
85
A faster brain processing speed enables ________, as it allows for _______.
more effective and efficient synthesis of dispersed information
absorption in a shorter time frame. This tacit ability works through information compression, leading to improved retention and longer-lasting memory
86
When things fall apart, and chaos re-emerges, we can _______. If we _______. If we _______.
give structure to it, and re-establish order, through our speech
speak carefully and precisely, we can sort things out, and put them in their proper place, and set a new goal, and navigate to it—often communally, if we negotiate; if we reach consensus
speak carelessly and imprecisely, however, things remain vague. The destination remains unproclaimed. The fog of uncertainty does not lift, and there is no negotiating through the world
87
We parse the complex, tangled chaos, and _______. It is in this way that _______. We are _______. This is _______.
specify the nature of things, including ourselves
our creative, communicative exploration continually generates and regenerates the world
shaped and informed by what we voluntarily encounter, and we shape what we inhabit, as well, in that encounter
difficult, but the difficulty is not relevant, because the alternative is worse
88
Limits are necessary and _______.
should be applied wisely
89
With careful thought and language, the singular, _______. This is how _______.
stellar destiny that justifies existence can be extracted from the multitude of murky and unpleasant futures that are far more likely to manifest themselves of their own accord
the Eye and the Word make habitable order
90
You must determine where you are going in your life, because _______.
you cannot get there unless you move in that direction. Random wandering will not move you forward. It will instead disappoint and frustrate you and make you anxious and unhappy and hard to get along with (and then resentful, and then vengeful, and then worse).
91
Danger was the point. They wanted to _______. They would have been _______. They weren’t _______. They were trying _______.
triumph over danger
safer in protective equipment, but that would have ruined it
trying to be safe
to become competent—and it’s competence that makes people as safe as they can truly be
92
Qualities that make a man attractive:
1. Able to provide security
93
X Self-Appointed Judges of the Human Race
94
Perception of Status and Confidence on men from women:
Research indicates that traits such as confidence and social dominance can enhance perceived attractiveness. For instance, studies have shown that dominant behaviors can increase men's desirability as romantic partners. However, dominance should not be confused with aggression; it's more about exhibiting self-assurance and assertiveness.
95
Girls aren’t attracted to boys who _______. They are attracted to _______.
are their friends, even though they might like them, whatever that means
boys who win status contests with other boys
96
We experience almost all the
emotions that make life deep and engaging as a consequence of _______. The price we pay for that involvement is _______. Absolute equality would therefore require the sacrifice of _______. We might instead note with gratitude that _______.
moving successfully towards something deeply desired and valued
the inevitable creation of hierarchies of success, while the inevitable consequence is difference in outcome
value itself—and then there would be nothing worth living for
a complex, sophisticated culture allows for many games and many successful players, and that a well-structured culture allows the individuals that compose it to play and to win, in many different fashions
97
Marx attempted to _______. When Marxism was put into practice in _______. Private property was _______.
reduce history and society to economics, considering culture the oppression of the poor by the rich
the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere, economic resources were brutally redistributed
eliminated, and rural people forcibly collectivized. The result? Tens of millions of people died. Hundreds of millions more were subject to oppression rivalling that still operative in North Korea, the last classic communist holdout. The resulting economic systems were corrupt and unsustainable. The world entered a prolonged and extremely dangerous cold war. The citizens of those societies lived the life of the lie, betraying their families, informing on their neighbours—existing in misery, without complaint (or else)
98
Whats the goal? Whats at the top of the pyramid?
1. Preparation
2. Meaning
99
The unknown first appears _______). Evidence for the adoption of _______.
symbolically as an independent personality, when it cannot be conceived of in any other fashion, and later appears as if it were a personality (in evidently metaphoric guise
“personality” by representational or quasi-representational “complexes” is plentiful. Such “complexes” may “construct themselves” over the course of many centuries, as a consequence of the exploratory and creative endeavors of many disparate individuals, united within the communicative network of culture
100
Everything novel encountered, avoided because of _______. Everything that produces fear may be _______?
involuntary or willfully manifested fear or ignorance, is potentially or actively linked with all that remains outside of individual competence and/or cultural classification
subjectively considered one aspect of the same (subterranean) thing. What is that thing
101
Idols?
XMoney
XPower
XPleasure
XHonor
Adventure
Exploration
Experience
Preparation
Discovery
102
Concrete realization of such manifestation—transformation into _______.
an artistic production or potent story, for example—involuntarily seized the attention of peers and inspired a sense of fascination and awe
103
Hunger, the will to _______.
self-preservation, drives living creatures to devour each other rapaciously, and the hunters have no mercy for the hunted. Sexuality bends the individual will inexorably and often tragically to the demand of the species, and existence maintains itself in endless suffering, transformation and death. Life generates and destroys itself in a pitiless cycle, and the individual remains constantly subject to forces beyond understanding or control. The desire to exist permeates all that lives, and expresses itself in terrible fashion, in uncontrollable impulse, in an endless counterpoint of fecundity and decay. The most basic, fundamental and necessary aspects of experience are at the same time most dangerous and unacceptable
104
Mythic imagination, “willing” to sacrifice _______, provided the necessary developmental bridge. The earliest embodiments of nature are therefore _______.
discriminatory clarity for inclusive phenomenological accuracy
symbolic combinations of rationally irreconcilable attributes; monsters, essentially feminine, who represent animal and human, creation and destruction, birth and cessation of experience
105
The Terrible Mother _______.
challenges and threatens the individual, absolutely. She barters, paradoxically, offering continuance of life for sacrificial death. She demands reconciliation, without offering the certainty of survival. She embodies the potential for salvation, and the central problem of life; impels the individual, involuntarily, toward further expansion of consciousness, or induces involuntary contraction, leading to death. The Great Mother impels—pushes (with certainty of mortality) and pulls (with possibility of redemption)—development of consciousness and of self-consciousness. The identity of death with the unknown has permanently and incurably destroyed any possibility of final habituation to—adaptation to, more accurately—the world of experience. Man is in consequence the (incurably) anxious animal
106
The properly embodied hierarchy of values—including the value of
conservatism and its twin, _______. Every hierarchy has something _______. It is for this reason that _______. The hero is _______.
creative transformation—finds its
expression as a personality, in narrative—an ideal personality
at its pinnacle
a
story, which is a description of the action of a personality, has a hero
(and even if that someone is the antihero, it does not matter: the
antihero serves the function of identifying the hero through contrast,
as the hero is what the antihero is most decidedly not)
the individual at the peak, the victor, the champion, the wit, the eventually successful and deserving underdog, the speaker of truth under perilous circumstances, and more. The stories we create, watch, listen to, and remember center themselves on actions and attitudes we find interesting, compelling, and worthy of communication as a consequence of our personal experience with both admirable and detestable people (or fragments of their specific attitudes and actions), or because of our proclivity to share what has
gripped our attention with those who surround us. Sometimes we can draw compelling narratives directly from our personal experience with individual people; sometimes we create amalgams of multiple personalities, often in concert with those who compose our social groups.
107
My clients had learned not
only to submit properly to _______.
the sometimes arbitrary but still necessary demands of the social world, but to offer to that world something it would not have had access to had it not been for their private creative work
108
Those creative people _______. The deepest and most profound of these _______.
write and act out the dramas and tell us the stories that capture our imagination, and they fill our dreams with visions of what might be
are remembered, discussed, and otherwise honed collectively
109
The biblical story of Exodus is properly regarded as _______. It emerged as _______.
archetypal (or paradigmatic or foundational) by psychoanalytic and religious thinkers alike, because it presents an example of psychological and social transformation that cannot be improved upon
a product of imagination and has been transformed by constant collective retelling and reworking into an ultimately meaningful form that applies politically, economically, historically, personally, and spiritually, all at the same time. This is the very definition of literary depth—something that reaches its apogee in certain forms of ancient, traditional stories. The fact of that depth means that such accounts can be used diversely as a meaningful frame for any process of profound change experienced by any individual or society (stable state, descent into chaos, reestablishment of stability), and can lend that process multidimensional reality, context, powerful meaning, and motivation
110
I say electricity is the symbol of _______. Others disagree and say that _______. Collectively, the mathematical symbol of energy is _______.
energy
electricity is a form of energy.
E.
111
Meaning, knowledge, transcendence
Thrill, entertainment, enjoyment
112
An unforgettable story speaks to _______.
us, motivating the attention that inspires us to imitate. We learn to see and act in the manner of the heroes of the stories that captivate us. These stories call to capacities that lie deep within our nature but might still never develop without that call. We are dormant adventurers, lovers, leaders, artists, and rebels, but need to discover that we are all those things by seeing the reflection of such patterns in dramatic and literary form. That is part of being a creature that is part nature and part culture. An unforgettable story advances our capacity to understand our behavior, beyond habit and expectation, toward an imaginative and then verbalized understanding. Such a story presents us in the most compelling manner with the ultimate adventure, the divine romance, and the eternal battle between good and evil. All this helps us clarify our understanding of moral and immoral attitude and action, personal and social. This can be seen everywhere, and always.
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Q uestion: Who are you—or, at least, who could you be? Answer:
Part of the eternal force that constantly confronts the terrible
unknown, voluntarily; part of the eternal force that transcends naivete and becomes dangerous enough, in a controlled manner, to understand evil and beard it in its lair; and part of the eternal force that faces chaos and turns it into productive order, or that takes order that has become too restrictive, reduces it to chaos, and renders it productive once again.
And all of this, being very difficult to understand consciously but vital to our survival, is transmitted in the form of the stories that we cannot help but attend to. And it is in this manner that we come to apprehend what is of value, what we should aim at, and what we could be
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The world is made out of:
Patterns, relationships, rules, laws, defined entities, order, chaos, complexes, stories, implications, Information, potential, stimuli, activity, motivation, and potential that contains stimuli/activity/motivation
To deepen our understanding of their nature, we can dichotomize them into two overarching superstrata: one representing promise and hope, the other threat, danger, and anxiety—essentially, their negative and positive aspects.
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A single specific thing is related to a myriad of other specific things
A single specific thing is connected to countless other specific things.”
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4. The Source Beyond the Source
• What if the true source is neither the sun, nor energy, nor consciousness—but something prior to all three?
• A formless, timeless ground of being that gives rise to energy, matter, life, and mind. Some call it the Tao, some God, some the Void, some pure potential.
panpsychism (consciousness is fundamental) or idealism (consciousness is the ground of being).
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Person, thing, event
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Man does not live by bread alone. _______.
Thats exactly right. We live by beauty, we live by literature, we live by art. Literally, not metaphorically, we cannot live without it. Because life is too dismal and tragic in the absence of the sublime. Buy a damn piece of art. Find one that really speaks to you. Because you invite that into your life. You’ll get a little introduction to the artist and that’ll seep into your life, changing things like mad within you.
It opens your eyes to the domain of the transcendent. A real piece if art is a window into the transcendent. You need that in your life because you’re finite, limited, and bounded by your ignorance, and unless you can make a connection to the transcendent, then you won’t have the strength to prevail.
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The 17 year old complex:
Songs:
1. Blue
2. The business
3. Monster - Eminem
Actions:
1. Night handwriting - rap, stories, concepts, ideas
Feelings:
1. Pulses
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The two types of worlds?
1. The world of artistic movement, expression, beauty, creativity, music, and meaning.
2. Matter, matter moving
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X Relational responding and relational processing are distinct but related concepts. Relational responding refers to the ability to relate stimuli in a variety of ways, even without explicit training, while relational processing is a broader term encompassing how the brain encodes similarities and relationships between events
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Xa relational repertoire refers to the set of relational skills or abilities a person has developed through experience. It's essentially the collection of ways a person can understand and respond to relationships between stimuli, concepts, or events. This repertoire is built upon a history of learning and experiences with relational exemplars, allowing for flexible and generalized responding.
Here's
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How is pmo fought?
With courage, truth, and faith. Otherwise you’ll be insecure. Get out there and find the real thing.
Bored? Find a way out.
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XYou never learn when people fix all your problems. When people think for you, you never learn to think for yourself. You read books from people who have thought, but you never write your own books using your own thoughts. You’re not original, you’re a zombie, a dead robot, programmed like everybody else who’s living.
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In the field of psychology, the subconscious refers to _______. It is information that _______. The unconscious mind, on the other hand, is _______.
that part of consciousness we are unaware of
we are not actively aware of in the moment, but that can influence us nonetheless, such as things that are heard, seen or remembered
a term coined by Freud to refer to a part of the mind that cannot be known by the conscious mind, and includes socially unacceptable ideas, wishes and desires, traumatic memories and painful emotions that have been repressed
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Cognition, sensation, and emotion
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Awkwardly socially hungry
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We must experience and live. Even when we haven’t found our why, we should at least notice that we’re suffering with the necessity of living. So instead of being paralyzed by the temporary absence of an ultimate existential answer, we might begin with a simpler question: Why not live with less suffering? That’s the least we can do and conceptualize as worthwhile. “But everything is going to end,” you might say. But, wouldn’t it be better to at least make your temporary being as prosperous and meaningful as possible? Everything will end eventually—this much is certain—but in the time we’re given, we can choose to reduce pain, create beauty, and cultivate something meaningful. Instead of wondering why without answer, why don’t you at the very least reduce the suffering of your being while still alive? Let’s start with saying that we must live, and living is often suffering, so our purpose in part is to live to reduce unnecessary pain and suffering. We cannot be without living because when we are not, we are so because we cant see that we’re not and when we’re not there.
It’s a blessing to live, imagine not being—not merely death, but pure nonexistence: no thought, no pain, no pleasure, no adventure, no meaning, no purpose. Choosing death is cowardice; it is omission of the responsibility to find that which is meaningful. There would be no burden, but there would also be no adventure, therefore no story, and consequently no meaning. This is why god put a snake in the garden of eve—because a world with evil, a world that challenges you, is better than a world without it that doesnt make you grow. There wouldn’t be a need to get stronger, intelligent, resilient, wiser, clever, nor creative. Not a static and perfect world; there is no perfect. You want dynamic; you want paradise—a walled garden that balances nature with culture, chaos and order properly aligned, which means meaning. Even though there seems to be no hope, just at least make your hopeless existence less insufferable, you got nothing else more existentially reasonable to do. There is literally nothing better to do than that. Because if suffering is the price of being, then perhaps meaning is its reward—and your task is to uncover it before the silence returns.
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Productive, effective, and efficient
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When softness and harmlessness become the only consciously acceptable virtues, then _______. Partly what this means for the future is that _______.
hardness and dominance will start to exert an unconscious fascination
if men are pushed too hard to feminize, they will become more and more interested in harsh, fascist political ideology. Fight Club, perhaps the most fascist popular film made in recent years by Hollywood, with the possible exception of the Iron Man series, provides a perfect example of such inevitable attraction
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Chase life, not _______.
money
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Xinformation that further helps your adventure? Increased knowledge for improved adventure?
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To live, to love, _______
to learn, to leave a legacy
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As “important” as the needs are to fulfill, is _______.
the way we seek to fulfill them
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It’s humility to recognize that quality of life is not “me,” it’s _______.
“us”—that we live in an interdependent reality of abundance and potential that can only be realized when we interact with others in fully authentic, synergetic ways.
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Effort has to be based on _______. Only then can we dream, _______.
practical realities that produce the result
set goals, and work to achieve them with confidence
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In the midst if complexity, we tend to seek security in _______.
practices—specific, prescribed ways of doing things. We focus on methods instead of results. “Just tell me what to do. Give me the steps.” We may get positive results with a particular practice in one situation, but if we try to use the same practice in other situations, we often find it doesn’t work. As we encounter situations for which a practice has not been prescribed, we often feel lost and incompetent
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X”you have a great life, it’s just not worth the risk.”
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XYou gotta break the static
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Planes of evolution:
1. Biological
2. Conscious
3. Technological
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What do humans physically run on?
Humans run on chemical energy. Food gets broken down into glucose, which powers cellular respiration, which uses oxygen to produce ATP (energy packets).
It’s like a slow, wet combustion engine—but with more nuance and complexity. In a way, we run on oxygen + chemicals + heat (as a byproduct), but what keeps the machine turning is potential energy stored in molecules.
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Shadow walk
a spell that allows you to traverse a path made of shadowstuff, transporting you to the edge of the Material Plane where it borders the Plane of Shadow
Xa spell that transports the caster and potentially others to a zone on the edge of the Material Plane where it borders the Plane of Shadow. Within this zone, movement is significantly faster than on the Material Plane, allowing for rapid travel
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Maybe you confront your imagination because that’s where the worst monsters live—and therefore, the greatest rewards. Imagination is a negative force not because it’s bad, but because it’s symbolically feminine: chaotic, transformative, and destructive. Order, on the other hand, is static—it’s the walled castle, the rigid social structure, the individual routine that grows stale without change. Too much order leads to stagnation, boredom, and decay. But too much chaos, unchecked, dissolves everything into uncertainty. I think I’ve finally understood the question I’ve been circling: is positivity the domain of order and stasis? Is negativity the domain of chaos and dynamism? Order is ‘positive’ because it protects—it’s familiar, predictable, and secure. Chaos is ‘negative’ not because it’s evil, but because it threatens, promises, disrupts—it is unfamiliar, unpredictable, and always in flux. In that way, chaos is dynamic—it changes us, and changes with us. And that’s where the possibility of transformation lives.
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XYou’ve got to think like an artist and build _______.
like an engineer
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Socialism
an economic system and political philosophy in which industries are owned by workers rather than by private businesses, advocating that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. It is based on the idea that the benefits of economic activity—wealth—should be equitably distributed throughout society.
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Socialists
Socialists emphasize cooperation and social responsibility as ways to achieve a more equitable distribution of both income and opportunity., thus reducing great differences between rich and poor.
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Communism
a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
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Socialists and Communists
The socialist movement was split during the nineteenth century: those who believed socialism could only be attained by a violent revolution became communists, and those who believed democratic processes could be used became today’s modern socialsits
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XSin of commission vs sin of omission
Action vs lack of action.
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Belief not as truth, but as a weapon:
Not in the cynical sense, but in the creative, existential sense—a chosen delusion so charged with meaning and direction that it pushes you to hyperhuman levels of activity, imagination, expression. A self-engineered myth with pragmatic consequences.
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Words impact minds, therefore matter
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Nothingness experience:
What if nothing existed forever—this idea scares the hell out of me.
It’s “The Abyss That Did Not Win.”
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Mystical experience:
The Living Flame of Meaning — the mystical light that remakes reality from within.
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The dark night if the soul:
a period of profound spiritual crisis, characterized by doubt, despair, and a loss of meaning or purpose. It's a time when deeply held beliefs and spiritual anchors may seem to crumble, leading to a sense of being lost or abandoned. While painful, it's often viewed as a necessary stage in spiritual growth, a journey of self-discovery and transformation. It’s a kind of death that you die. What dies is the egoic sense of self.
