“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Seventeen

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: Personality Type Eights can eventually exhibit the Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD) when they become stressed, overly-pious, highly-spiritual, or role-players, along with a God Complex Disorder.

See earlier entries for information on all except the ASPD. Those with the ASPD have little or no regard for the rights of others, the feelings of others, or for any of society’s norms and rules and laws. That “me vs. them” mentality fosters duality. ASPD’s are typically quite impulsive, have limited feelings and little empathy, and have little regard for the consequences of their actions. They are especially deceitful and thus quite effective at conning people. They are irritable and aggressive and irresponsible while being able to rationalize and justify all of their conduct.

Personality Type Nines can eventually exhibit the DID Personality Disorder and the Dependent Personality Disorder and the Schizoid Personality Disorder along with a God Complex Personality Disorder when they become stressed, overly-pious, or identified with a spiritualized ego or any other role.

All of the disorders experienced among Nines have been discussed above except for DID. DID (or Multiple Personality Disorder) has been discussed thoroughly in earlier postings that can be reviewed: search January 24, 2007 as well as February 11, 17, 18, 19, 2007.

So, the Advaitin understands that personality identification comes from a twisted and warped “mind” and that almost all relative existence suffering and misery stem from personality. As reported by the APA, the defects that result from personality have nothing to do with mental illness. Trained professionals are required to assist the 1%-5% with clinical mental illnesses. A Realized teacher could guide the remaining 95%-99% to freedom from personality disorders if that 95%-99% recognized that they were suffering from such disorders and truly wanted to be totally free of the effects. Yet few will ever understand their disorders, and fewer still will be willing to discard all that must be discarded in order to be truly free and joyous.

The modern understanding of personality disorders discussed above support the ancient pointers that have been offered by Advaitin teachers for centuries as they have recommended detaching from personality identification and then Realizing fully. Review the following summary of the relative existence results of personality identification and the subsequent personality disorders:

Obsessing; playing god; perfectionism; judging; criticizing; financial problems; relationship problems; arrogance; depression; instability; emotional intoxication; distorted self-images; hysteria; an exaggerated sense of self-importance; a sense of superiority; grandiosity; a sense of entitlement; using others; lacking empathy; envy; blind faith; childish behavior among adults; and egotism.

Next, an understanding of the personality types—and the obstacles to Realization that are generated by each personality—can reveal why so few will ever Realize. 50% of the earth’s populations are Type Sixes. When Sixes are programmed with dogma, as nearly 99% on the planet are, they will remain loyal to those beliefs, unquestioningly, and will accept what they have been told. Why? Being fear-based, they become trapped by their programmers’ threat: “If you do not have faith in what we say or if you doubt any part of it at all, you will be punished and you will suffer now and forevermore.” Therefore, the tally of those who will never be enlightened starts with that 50% who most likely will never give up their beliefs in dogma and nonsense. In an essay on his website, Mark McCloskey had this to say about “faith”:

Faith is a crutch that humans have used for millennia as a way to explain the unexplainable….” (On August 9, 2006 on this site, a similar reference was made to religious leaders who have historically dreamed up “concepts and ideas and teachings and beliefs that were used to convey false and supernatural explanations for events that were totally natural happenings.” Such is the essence of childish, magical thinking. Only if you mistakenly believe that an imagined “world” is real will you also be required to mistakenly believe that an imagined god—who was actually “created” by man in man’s image—is real.)

McCloskey continues, “If you stay with a crutch when you do not need it, you can become lame by reason of the crutch itself. The crutch must be abandoned, thrown away and then you can walk freely again….” He says, “Faith or any belief system as a whole is the final hurdle to overcome in the human path towards freedom and joy. Let me say it on a very personal level. Until you, as a human being, are able to completely abandon what you believe, have been told or taught what to believe or believe in, you will never experience this moment of reality as it is. You will never be fully free. You will be conditioned to experience present reality through a veil of the past…. This is not a joke, not any agnostic or atheistic principle. I am trying to point you to your own total human freedom to be able to live in this world joyfully….”

Sixes are especially prone to use the crutch that Mark speaks of, though all nine types can be programmed very easily. They will blindly and unquestioningly accept whatever they are told by anyone whom they take to be a “religious, spiritual, or political leader.” Relatedly, most Type Threes will live as a Six at times, exhibiting the Six’s blind loyalty to belief systems while being dedicated to image-building. By sheer numbers, most on the planet are living under the influence of a Three-Six personality. Threes are more interested in creating false images and maintaining those false images, actually believing that their images are real. With the preponderance of the Three-Six in the earth’s population, the majority on the planet will live like conditioned children, remaining loyal to whatever they were taught (Type Six) and always fighting to maintain image and always rejecting any invitation to get in touch with reality (Type Three).

Other types also face obstacles to enlightenment: Type Eights are prone to attach to supernatual beliefs since they think that such beliefs are another means to accumulating power (and thus control); therefore, they are not likely to abandon magical thinking and then Realize. Nines attach to the images that they use to manipulate others to take care of them. Two’s create a loving image in order to obtain what they think they lack and will attach to that image. Like Three’s, they are always “on stage.” Sevens have little desire to face reality and prefer to escape instead. Is it becoming clear why personality is a major hindrance to Realization?

Of all of the nine basic personality types, only Fours are geared toward the search for authenticity, toward attainment of a sense of unity, and toward the quest to discover the True Self, but Fours only account for about 1% of the earth’s population. As for Realizing fully, their dilemma lies in the fact that they are less prone to logic and more prone to seeing the dualities in the relative existence and seeking the “beautiful,” the “moral,” the “romantic,” or the “harmonious.”

So, the conundrum should now be obvious: the “mind” and personality must be abandoned to Realize, but persons value the “mind” and identify with personality; thus, both continue to be the great obstacles to Realization. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: The Conclusion] For additional information about the book which these extracts are being drawn from (There's No Such Thing As "Peace of Mind") click

here

COMING NEXT: A RIVER THAT FLOWS INTO THE OCEAN OF REALITY

WHY ABNORMALITIES ARE NOW THE PLANET’S NORMALITIES, Part Three, Conclusion

[Continued from yesterday]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: I’ve been reading your answers to angie and I’ve reread everything you wrote about MPD/DID. A decade ago, a doctor diagnosed me with MPD.. After years of therapy he kept telling me that I had to keep coming bacvk to him. I thought I was a total defect and might as well kill myself. Finally---after years of my own research and studying the enneagram and also what A.V. teachers have to say about personality---I‘m getting it. No wonder insanity is so widespread! I don’t feel so alone anymore in this struggle. I’m not the only oddball. What hit home was when you showed how so many areas---like finances and relations etc---are affected by each personality I assume. No wonder my mind never stopped! So it starts out causing some trouble and then just gets worse and worse, and this is almost universal, right?. Thanx Beverly

F.: Then you’re told that you are “The Student.” The elections at school show that classmates consider you “The Best Looking”…or not. You become more body conscious. More roles appear, more agendas appear, and more impact in all those areas begins to manifest. Later “The Friend” and “The Girlfriend” are assumed as roles. Later, “The Graduate,” “The Employee,” “The Fiancée,” “The Wife,” “The Mother,” “The Working Mom,” “The Soccer Mom,” or other roles are assumed. Even later, in some case “The Alcoholic” is assumed or “The Divorcee” comes along with “The Single Mom” and “The Failure” and “The Bad Daughter.” A search begins and "The Religious One" or "The Spiritual Giant" roles are played. Now, add in all of the areas where each of those is affected.

The more components that are added to the personality, the more fears and desires are added. Eventually, so many will be added that persons say, “I don’t even know who I am anymore.” Actually, they never did, and if they ever will, it will only happen via Full Realization. Also, notice how each adopted ego-state becomes another obstacle to being consistently happy or content and why, ultimately, being happy becomes an impossibility:

If married, “Husband” might behave in a way which results in “Wife” thinking she’s okay in terms of finances, relations, sex, self-esteem, and security. But at the same time, some teacher has not shown due respect to “Super Mother’s” child, so that role triggers a sense of feeling upset. After a conference in which the contrite teacher restores “Super Mom’s” peace, all seems “good.” “Wife” is fine, “Mother” is fine; “Homeowner” is fine; “Lover” is fine. Then, “Husband” is caught in an affair, and several ego-states feel threatened. Are you beginning to see the way in which each newly-assumed ego-state makes consistent happiness an impossibility?

Two ego-states might think they're happy, but three others become offended. Get two of those three ego-states satisfied along with the first two, and then only one ego-state is unhappy. Get the fears of that one assuaged or its desires met, and then six ego-states seem happy but then something happens that threatens three others. Are you seeing how it eventually happens that so many “stars” have to be “aligned” in proper order for happiness to happen that it becomes an impossibility?

Circumstances just never unfold in a way that allows for all of the areas of all of those false identities to feel that all of their needs are being met and that all of their desires are being fulfilled at the same time. As the number of false roles being played increase, the chances for misery increase not arithmetically but geometrically. At the same time, the sleepwalkers who are totally unaware can have their entire relative existence falling down around them but will claim, "No problems here, floyd...everything is fine, so you really don't have a clue what you're talking about."

Are you seeing that it is belief in multiplicity that sets the stage for so many opportunities to feel threatened, angry, hurt, interfered with, unfulfilled, unhappy, and/or miserable? What is the answer? Realization. Knowing the unicity preempts any false belief in multiplicities. If you Realize that you are not all those things--all those personas--then you might find THAT Which You Are. And THAT is one thing only which is not personal, which has no attributes, and which, therefore, cannot be impacted financially, relationally, sexually, or in any other relative fashion.

Then, whatever happens…happens. No do-er is assumed to be present. No false identities are taken as real. No images are assumed to be authentic, so only that which is witnessed by the “Authentic Self” is given any credibility. Believing the nonsense of parents and teachers and preachers or priests or gurus or medicine men and politicians and all of the other authority figures in various cultures led to the nonsense of believing in your roles and false identities. Then, the nonsense generated by all of those phantoms led to the nonsense of accepting personas as identities. Finally, the nonsense of accepting those roles as defining who you are led to all of the nonsense that followed.

Realized, you will not accept the nonsense of your culture and its authority figures. You will be free of their nonsense and the nonsense they passed onto you as their legacy. And only freed of nonsense can you be free, Fully Realized, and consistently stable for the remainder of the manifestation. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

WHY ABNORMALITIES ARE NOW THE PLANET’S NORMALITIES, Part One

FROM A SITE VISITOR: I’ve been reading your answers to angie and I’ve reread everything you wrote about MPD/DID. A decade ago, a doctor diagnosed me with MPD.. After years of therapy he kept telling me that I had to keep coming bacvk to him. I thought I was a total defect and might as well kill myself. Finally---after years of my own research and studying the enneagram and also what A.V. teachers have to say about personality---I‘m getting it. No wonder insanity is so widespread! I don’t feel so alone anymore in this struggle. I’m not the only oddball. What hit home was when you showed how so many areas---like finances and relations etc---are affected by each personality I assume. No wonder my mind never stopped! So it starts out causing some trouble and then just gets worse and worse, and this is almost universal, right?. Thanx Beverly

F.: Hello Beverly. Thx for writing. Indeed, the curse of personality is universal, you are not alone in suffering the effects of MPD, and you are not an oddball. Billions of insane persons roam the planet. In fact, much of what you have taken to be your oddballism might be explained by chemistry and certainly by some of the Advaita teachings. And yes, the problem begins when duality is taught and when the first persona is assigned.

In the early going, you were not told that you are conscious-energy manifested in a set of elements with a nervous system. Obviously, those who took the label of “parents” did not have The Understanding, so they labeled you a “girl.” Then, they introduced you to the distortions of their dualistic minds and told you at times that you were a “Good Girl” but at other times that you were a “Bad Girl.” Instantly, that introduced you to the chaos and instability of fluctuations between feeling happy at times and feeling unhappy at other times, depending on whether the “good” or the “bad” descriptor was assigned to your adopted label.

That drive to have persons apply the "good" descriptor to every assumed identity will be carried into adulthood and will never be lost unless Realization happens. The next duality of reward/punishment came forth: if you were the “Good Girl,” you got a reward (or at least avoided punishment for the time being); if you were a “Bad Girl,” you may have been punished. Later, you would see that even your own parents did not always agree as to exactly what should be considered “good” and what should be considered “bad.” Confusion set in and joined the fear and chaos and anxiety which traps children by the age of two at the latest.

The confusion became worse when you saw that the next door neighbor said that his son was “bad” when he did the same things that earned you the “good” label. Soon, you would be exposed to the dualities being taught by teachers who each had a different set of criteria that had to be met for you to be considered “good.” One instructor might laugh at your in-class joke and the next might send you to the office for punishment for the same “offense.” The inconsistencies seemed maddening at times, and they were. Ignorant adults drive children insane with all of the adults’ dualistic nonsense. By the time you reached high school, the rules of the game were reversed again, and if you became interested in boys, many of them sent a contradictory message of duality: the “Bad Girls” are the “Good Girls” to have as “girlfriends.” Confusion and insanity grew.

To control you, the reward/punishment duality in “this life” was likely extended to the eternal reward/punishment duality in an afterlife. You got away with being “bad” at home and did not get caught? You later got away with being “bad” at school and did not get caught? You took a cookie from a store and did not pay but did not get caught? There was still no peace around any of those instances because you were taught that there’s a Man-God watching you on some kind of celestial CCTV and you were going to get punished even if a parent, teacher, or store clerk did not see what you did and did not punish you at the time. And if you did not do certain specific things regarding those “sins” in a “holy” place with a “holy” man, then your punishment after death would be eternal. So you carry the fear and the guilt with you, and the mental-emotional load accumulates. As you have desires, more and more guilt piles on, and all of that is based in the illusions and the distortions and the magical, supernatural, dualistic beliefs that dominate the “minds” of persons on the planet.

Now, all of that is the case with a child raised in what is taken to be “normal” circumstances. What is the result when so many children are exposed to the extreme insanity that adult egomaniacs generate in the relative existence: poverty; ignorance; malnutrition; lack of health care; drugs; murder; physical, mental and emotional abuse; wars, ad infinitum. The oddity would be if anyone reached the age of twenty-one on this planet and was not frustrated, confused, either unhappy or walking about in a dream state, and plagued with MPD. Are you seeing that you are not an oddball at all? Are you seeing that “The Oddball” was just another label assigned or accepted in lieu of understanding how MPD/DID comes about, in lieu of understanding Who/What You Truly Are, and in lieu of understanding why insanity is now the “norm” on planet earth? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES VALIDATE ADVAITA AND CONFIRM WIDESPREAD INSANITY, Part One

F.: Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said that science would one day advance to the point that it would prove the validity of the Advaita philosophy. [See http://floydhenderson.com/article2.htm ] Advances in the fields of botany, physics, astrophysics, astronomy, biology, microbiology, physiology, chemistry, biochemistry, and thermodynamics have each added scientific proof of the validity of the Advaita teachings. Now, the science of Abnormal Psychology and the science of psychiatry are providing more proof of the validity of Advaita teachings, specifically regarding one of the predominant mental illnesses that Advaita addresses, namely, Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) which is also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

[Other mental illnesses addressed by the Advaita teachings include schizoaffective disorder and the associated auditory hallucinations whereby persons think they are hearing voices from other-world entities; minor depression; major depression; magical thinking; delusional disorders; anxiety disorders; and mood disorders. NOTE: Many disorders formerly thought to be “mental disorders only” are now known to have physiological components as well. For thousands of years, the Original Understanding sufficed to address all mental-emotional illness. Today, with the bastardization of the food supply, a holistic approach is required for many.]

Yesterday, this pointer was offered:

It is insane to think you are something that you are not, and it is insane not to know Who/What You Truly Are.

One widespread mental illness among persons on the planet involves the assumption of “alters” (that is, the assumption of “alter-egos” or the assumption of personas as identities). That results in the mental illness of MPD/DID. That mental illness, which affects more than 95% of the earth’s population according to some researcher estimates, could dissolve in most cases via Realization. That research proves that over 5.7 billion mentally-ill persons are walking about the planet and will never reach the state of sanity that follows Realization.

Recently, a company paid to have an analysis conducted of its staff and some of its clients, determining their personality type via enneagram testing and then showing them the assumed personas that have been adopted by those persons. The results were typical: 97% showed evidence of MPD/DID, and seeing the relative-existence problems that those persons were experiencing provided scientific evidence of the chaos and instability that the non-Realized experience on a daily basis as a result of (multiple) personality identification.

Consider one person who tested as a Type Six, predominantly. His beliefs and behaviors also showed that he was being driven by his Type Five wing and his Type Seven wing. Too, because of the stress he was experiencing, his psyche had disintegrated into the unhealthy levels of a Type Three, so he showed high scores in that area. Then, because he owned a large company, he tested high in the negative traits of the Type Eight Boss personality that he had internalized.

Now at the age of 51, the effects of personality have taken their toll: he is in treatment for substance abuse, his board of directors just removed him from his position with the company that he founded, he is estranged from his parents and children, and his wife has filed for divorce. The relative chaos that has come from not knowing Who/What He Truly Is—and trying to be all things to all people—has finally become apparent, even to him. How about you? Can you relate to one who is playing multiple roles? Can you relate to one who is trying to be all things to all the people? Can you relate to one who has no understanding of Who/What He Truly Is? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]