In our previous discussion we've seen a transition
the individual has to make; from an egoistic,
childish and unconscious state into one that
is more so dualistic.
The duaslistic phase is accessed either in
puberty or in the youth period.
It refers to the moment where consciousness
becomes expansive enough to process more of
life to ready the child for independence.
We've seen also how the many types of psychic
distubance are the result of a clinging back
to childhood.
A narrower level of consciousness where the
person doesn't have to worry much, where he's
reliant on a caregiver.
In the following segment, we're still going
to talk of youth and mid-life but detailing
other features of them.
The questions being asked are along the lines
of: how to avoid getting stuck in a childhood
level of consciousness?
Further, what is it that helps us mature better
psychologically?
What is it that grants us access to a higher
level of consciousness ?
Before we could answer such inquiries, my
fellow viewer should know the reason as to
why he must strive for a higher level of consciousnes
in the first place.
Psychic expansion implies a better ability
at solving complex problems in real-time;
to swiftly extract meaning from an ambiguis
philosophy, enhanced social skills and better
an understanding of the world overall.
It also results in an strenthening in willpower
and the creative and intuitive processes.
Like you start to have a feel for the right
thing to do, for what to look for, more often
in any situation.
Now that we know why higher consciousness
is important to aspire for, let's look at
some ways to reach it.
People stuck in a childhood level of consciousness
are childlike grown ups who still live in
the egotistic phase.
Some of them remain reliant on their parents.
But what's most common is they have difficulty
empathizing because they're often self-preoccupied.
In their reality they haven't yet acknowledged
the quote on quote "other", the "new and strange".
An example could be the shy one, the insecure,
or the narcissistic; personalities which represent
a hurdle in social life.
It's really hard to entertain that you are
alone in the world as an adult when you're
parents are still alive or when you still
live beside them.
Live as though your parents were dead.
Come to terms with uncertainty and misdirection.
For a while a period of disorientation, of
being lost, is necessary to grow independent
; Because adulthood it just a state of being
acclimated with chaos.
That is, the burden of responsibility which
was once monitored by the parents.
The duty of independence is to keep at bay
childlike unconsciousness and open doors to
higher consciousness.
So to untangle oneself from childhood one
has to welcome a new perception of reality;
That he or she is on their own, that uncertainty,
is part of the fabric of existence.
Reiteration:
The egoistic phase is about ego-maintenance.
The dualistic phase is about ego-adaptation
to the outside world and making room for further
development.
"Of course, to win for oneself a place in
society
and so to transform one's nature that it is
more
or less fitted to this existence, is in every
instance
an important achievement.
It is a fight waged
within oneself as well as outside, comparable
to the struggle of the child to defend his
ego."
That said, you can in fact encounter others
that are successful in spite of being stuck
in the egoistic phase, example being narcissistic
personalities.
This is why Carl Jung illustrated how external
success doesn't necessarily lead to higher
consciousness.
He noted society's emphasis on achievement
and its neglect of inner development of personality;
like getting unstuck from the egoistic phase,
going from parent-reliance to self-reliance,
learing to welcome different opinions, to
be empathetic, to share.
Jung observed how in their twenties the majority
are lead by society's narrative; that is to
strive only to become useful in the workplace,
to achieve concrete goals.
And this is why most of us grow socially unsavy,
awkward, unsympethic, or narcissistic.
For character development is way too subtle
of a change for the pragmatic mind to notice.
"Achievement, usefulness and so forth are
the ideals
which appear to guide us out of the confusion
of
crowding problems.
They may be our lode-stars in the
adventure of extending and solidifying our
psychic
existences- they may help us in striking our
roots in the
world; but they cannot guide us in the development
of
that wider consciousness to which we give
the name of culture."
In this quote he's sort of alluding that accomplishment
in general is not a bad thing, but that only
certain types of experiences are what helps
us gain higher consciousness.
As far as my understanding goes, these experiences
are which involve high levels of ambiguity,
novelty and uncertainty.
He did not illustrate them plainly but from
what I understood, striving to understand
more complex insights from philosophical books
for instance.
Challenging oneself mentally, physically.
Aspiring for what makes us tremble, learning
to welcome the unknown, seek out new experiences,
for uncertainty constrains us to think outside
the box, which translates into better problem-solving.
And the better able to solve of the world
the further able we are to grasp more of it.
This is higher consciousness in a sentence.
The biggest mistake is to restrict oneself
as I said to professional life, and blind
oneself from the pleasures of life and or
the novel and uncertain.
Gestalt Therapy emphasizes the importance
of maintaining so to speak a fluid personality.
It underlines the idea that character becomes
corrupted if the person turns complacent.
The road to an authentic, higher self requires
positionning one's life in that meeting point
between inertia and fluidity.
In other words, we should never cease learning
and proclaim that we know everything about
so and so topic.
The authentic self lies in that ephemeral
state of not knowing anything, and always
being open for more in spite of being an expert.
Stagnation happens when the major problems
of youth and the beliefs of the person seem
to have been served a definitive solution.
For instance, the stuck up who take the religious
or scientific perspective as the ultimate
explanation of life, as an either or type
of matter.
Religious or scientific dogmatism that is.
"The serious problems of life, however, are
never fully
solved.
If it should for once appear that they are,
this
is the sign that something has been lost.
The meaning
and design of a problem seem not to lie in
its solution,
but in our working at it incessantly.
This alone preserves
us from stultification and petrifaction.
"
The major problems of Youth should never be
fully solved in order for the individual to
keep striving, and for the personality to
retain its flexibility.
By problems here Jung might be alluding to
belief systems, the meaning of life, challenges
and aspirations, etc.
In the period of youth, the longer we go about
living by a certain belief system, the likelier
that one's personality will construct itself
around it.
"And so it is also with the ideals, convictions,
guiding
ideas and attitudes which in the period of
youth lead
us out into life for which we struggle, suffer
and
win victories: they grow together with our
own beings,
we apparently change into them, and we therefore
perpetuate them at pleasure and as a matter
of course,
just as the child asserts its ego in the face
of the world
and in spite of itself-occasionally even to
spite itself."
This is why it is crucial to choose the most
suitable path in your twenties for you will
literally become what you believe in.
Say for instance you entered mid-life with
a fragile character, fearful, weak, dependent,
at a certain point of your development, your
personality solidifies around these traits
and are then made permanent.
In your thirties, precisely around thirty
four and thirty five, some habits and beliefs
become impossible to change.
The mind begins the process of including the
most exercised so far habits and beliefs into
the core fabric of your personality ; because
your energy diminuates in your thirties, and
making certain routines more so automatic
is a smart move from the mind to free up some
of mental ram.
- So what does this mean?
Well, whatever habits and beliefs you chose
to live by in your twenties, in your thirties
they become second-nature.
So better choose carefully what person you'd
like to be in the future, from now on.
- It also means that no one can point out
the right path ; that at some point you have
to make a choice, and with time it is going
to start to feel subjectively like you were
right about the road you've chosen because
as I've mentioned, the more we exercise a
certain belief system the fruther ingrained
it gets in our character, and the more true
it'll seem, to you.
I appreciate your attention.
You can support the journey with a simple
like, comment or share if you enjoyed this
video.
And I'll leave you now with a last quote from
carl jung.
"The nearer we approach to the middle of life,
and the
better we have succeeded in entrenching ourselves
in
our personal standpoints and social positions,
the more
it appears as if we had discovered the right
course and
the right ideals and principles of behaviour.
For this reason we suppose them to be eternally
valid,
and make a virtue of unchangeably clinging
to them.
We wholly overlook the essential fact that
the achievements
which society rewards are won at the cost
of a diminution of
personality.
Many-far too many-aspects of life which
should also have been experienced lie in the
lumberroom
among dusty memories.
Sometimes, even, they
are glowing coals under grey ashes."
