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I can't prove it but I really don't think the shadow of unconsciousness is infinite It's just a hunch I guess

I guess the shadow is the ego or dark or unconscious side of us that we are not fully aware of that can lead us to do harm to ourselves or others. By mindfully studying it within ourselves, we can learn to transcend it. But can it ever fully go away? Is full enlightenment just the full transcendence of our unconscious side? I've definitely seen people who are more pure in intention and action than others but I have yet to find anybody that seems to have fully transcended their shadow. What do you guys think?

Maybe you are arguing a really aggressive epistemic point that we can't definitively prove anything, but if you do research into the subject, you'll see that there is extremely strong evidence and a lot of credible personal testimony showing that they did some really awful and illegal things This is my opinion though because how you decide to weigh evidence is subjective and how you morally judge something is subjective too

I'm looking to get involved in politics, not for the pursuit of raw power, but to work on the growing civic problems that we're facing today. And these political actors are so incredibly hypocritical, it is not hard to spot the inconsistencies, but what I find difficult it to discern whether they are not even aware of their own hypocrisies or they are just straight up lying and manipulating. If somebody is being hypocritical without realizing what they are doing, you can much more easily hold them accountable to their own personal standards but if they're psychopathic liars like Andrew Tate then different measures must be taken, which in this case is likely legal action.

I get it. There is a reason that his messages are resonating but I respect that you can see through the BS. It's like studying a lot of other dark figures in history, there was a reason that they rose to power but I personally wouldn't want to use any of the same harmful techniques that these people used if I can help myself. I'm concerned about the net damage that he's doing to western culture. Culture has self correcting forces in it, like nature, but if things get too far off track there can be a lot of unnecessary harm and suffering. I think he should have stuck to being a personal trainer for young men because even his business knowledge is so narrow in scope that it doesn't transfer much beyond shady industries. It sounds like you were able to transfer it a bit more generally though.

I'm not good at reading body language, I guess it's a skill that you can develop, but this was actually the first video where I started to notice it intensely. Tucker Carlson is truly giddy in this video. He is probably one of the least truthful high profile interviewers out there but I think he believes what he's saying and is just largely delusional. I initially thought the same thing about Tate, that he didn't realize how much harm he had been doing, but it's clear with the new reporting that he was intentionally lying. I've been struggling and trying to develop the ability to tell when somebody is mistaken themselves versus consciously lying. Focusing on just the truth of their statement is not enough because it's hard to discern intent.

In what ways do you feel that he has benefitted from you? I'm curious because I don't see much if any utility in the things that he says

Andrew Tate is a classic psychopath and I think guilty of far worse than what the vast majority realize at this point. I found this citizen journalist account on Twitter that has been exposing a lot of their lies by going through their social media history and whatever has been made public in the Romania court filings. There are many others on the account. He's effectively a genius con man. He made a fortune by mostly illegitimate businesses, he's admitted and even boasted about effectively defrauding and stealing money from really sad and lonely men that were clients of his webcam girls. He's messed around with underage girls, in Romania the age of consent is 15 but he was doing this with girls from other countries including the US. The reason that he's so appealing and dangerous now is that there is a large deficiency in masculine energy and gender polarity in the west, in part as a result of decades of feminist movements that has been repressing and suppressive to me. The cultural pendulum is swinging back to the other way but he has spotted this desperation of men who crave more sexual opportunities and money and he's giving them fake or sleazy advice on how to get this for themselves. Unless the Romania justice system totally messes up, I think it's very clear that they're going to be put away. What still puzzles me is how many people have been cast under Andrew Tates spell and how it might be possible to deprogram these people. I'm legitimately curious what you guys think of these videos because it's super clear to me that he's a psychopathic conman with empty charm and advice and I don't don't understand why other people don't see it.

I don't really know how to identify but I would agree with you that a significant part of him is at the construct aware stage. He's obviously aware of the nature of his own ego and has been working to transcend it, but he's also dogmatic about his belief that everybody should be transcending their egos and maybe that's not a universally applicable value. I think I've been in the construct aware stage for years at this point, I'm not really looking to necessarily move ahead since things are still progressing naturally, but I don't know if I have ever really found so many people that are fully in the unitive stage. Still see fragments of ego in even the most spiritually advanced people. I don't think he's in the unitive state but he has achieved a state of peace that many haven't in certain circumstances which is what I'm striving for as a whole.

Sam Harris seems to be missing why Trump and Andrew Tate are so popular and it's not because they are assholes, it's often in spite of the fact that they are assholes. They both at least appear to be able to offer something that an increasingly large pocket of society desperately wants. They aren't delivering because they're both con arts but they're tapping into and exploiting unmet needs and pain. Trump and Tate are both making things worse in many ways but I strive to focus on the societal and systemic reasons that people are making them kings because that's a larger and more relevant problem that we need to be addressing in my opinion.

taboo against incest is a cultural universal in that maybe every culture has independently decided that it is a very undesirable behavior. Not only does it increase risk of rare genetic illness, but it is potentially very destabilizing to the family structure in any society. It is theoretically possible for two siblings to become involved romantically or sexually and live healthy lives based on a sturdy relationship if they don't have children or maybe their children turn out fine, but at a societal level it is extremely risky to normalize that kind of behavior because the net effect on the entire group will likely be extremely bad.

this is an interesting dynamic because the transgender identity and how we decide to integrate it into american culture is deep at the heart of the american culture war that we're experiencing. to some extent, identities are social conventions, but individuals get to choose how they identify within reason and sometimes parts of society will accept that identity and others won't. we don't know how to think about transgenderism and its causing all sorts of problems. at the essence, gender dysphoria is not a social construct. some ppl physically feel very bad because of expectations that are imposed on them by society as to how they should act or behave or think because of their biological sex. If society were more accepting of diverse behaviors in men and women, then there would be less gender dysphoria. in some ways, exploring the way you relate to how society expects you to behave and whether you want to accept or reject that can be healthy as it gets you closer to your authentic self, but people can easily be misled or get off track on this wild explorations and its happening at a very large scale these days as our culture figures out what to do about all these things and how to define them. Would love to hear leo's take in a video because very very very very few people have anything intelligent to say about this concept and it's fairly important in today's world for people to able to make sense of it.

At a certain point, I felt like I got over the spiral dynamics model and was able to see between the lines and distinct stages so much that it was no longer so helpful to me. I only watched a few minute of this video, but any person that is religious from a traditional standpoint will be strongly blue of course. I will likely disagree with them about the nature of the universe and origin of humanity and Earth etc, but a lot of religious people, especially some religious leaders, possess very powerful spiritual wisdom which is of great value to their communities that really can't be categorized well with Spiral Dynamics. Many may still have huge personality flaws or gaps in scientific knowledge, but it takes a certain strength and level of insight and wisdom to lead their communities. Some of that wisdom transcends their local community or culture and would even be useful to all of humanity but we struggle to learn from people who we identify as being different from us.

Have you considered making a video on trangenderism? It's something I've been thinking about for the past year or so and it's really hard to put it into words. Society and history goes through cycles and we are at a point where gender differentials are at a cyclical low and will start to turn around again pretty soon. I'm not opposed to the idea of even having children transition, at least in theory, but my hunch is that the vast majority of children who are exploring the possibility of being trans these days really have no idea what that means or entails.

There is definitely a layer of the Matrix involving raw power dynamics that wants to keep some people weak in order for others to perpetuate their own survival needs. It's a really dark place to be but it definitely exists and it's not just in the mind. We will continue to see more of that over time in the US as our democracy unravels.

I think the way to get past a stage is to pursue enough money and success and status until you have your minimum needs met and you get to the point where you are sufficiently self aware to realize there are more important things in life once you have enough. Some people get stuck in that trap once they have enough because they don't realize they are using worldly trappings to fill a hole that it simply cannot fill. Often a trauma response or a means to find connection and respect from other people through success/money/fame. A lot of self-identifying spiritual people really skip the pursuit of worldly rewards which can be a form of escape or self-neglect.

Stage red in Spiral Dynamics is generally psychopathic. Some ppl get stuck there because they get traumatized or poorly socialized and others might have some kind of genetic abnormality that prevents them from developing normal social conditioning for pro-social behaviors.

I would say that it is meant to help us make sense of the world and human experience and navigate it to have a better experience and avoid danger and harm

thanks I really like this answer and explanation Any thoughts on how philosophy differs from spirituality?

Really interesting response from Chat gpt. I think esotericism refers to any kind of hidden or inner knowledge but perhaps the concepts of mysticism and occultism are much more closely related. But it seems that occultism is more often associated with supernatural or magical beliefs. What did you mean when you said that philosophy is the study of the seen where mysticism is the unseen. What does it mean to be seen versus unseen? Is unseen part of the inner or esoteric worlds?

Any thoughts on the differences between occultism, mysticism, and esotericism?

How does spirituality fit into all of that? In what ways are philosophy and spirituality similar versus different?

What would you say is the purpose of discovering truth?

I think there is some puzzling overlap between psychopathy and enlightenment. Because they are immune to social conditioning they have less things to unlearn that a more normal person would. But due to his impairment in empathy, it would probably be much harder for him unless he has experienced the same suffering that other people have. I think he is actually compassionate about a small number of things that he has personally suffered - mainly not being attracted to women and being poor. But he doesn't really understand much beyond that. He is crazy overcompensating from a traumatic childhood and rough upbringing that he has not yet come to terms with. It would probably take a crisis or serious adversity (like prison even) to motivate him to make changes. Right now, he seems to have little to no interest, but I think he might end up in jail. I would maybe argue that too much consciousness on certain dimensions and not others can lead to the risk of antisocial behavior being put into practice. Some of the Nazis were practitioners of yoga and mysticism and they clearly were deeply aware of how to manipulate people aggressively on a national level. Just massive limitations in other areas made them susceptible to the leadership of a megalomaniacal psychopath.

Wilber is totally a genius but his content is so esoteric that it will be deeply appreciated by a narrow group of ppl which is why he has a cult following and misunderstood or ignored by masses. Leo is like that too in my opinion. There are very few truth seeking philosophers in this world but many of them are very private and very unlikely to be professional or academic philosophers.