Could Enlightened Ones Be Seen As Psychopaths?

[odefinierad]

Hello there,

Before I start, I would like to emphasize I am fully aware that might be a highly controversial topic and let me declare upfront that is not a trolling attempt at all.  Though I fully accept if the moderators eventually decide to remove this topic -- but please, read it with a good intent in mind and respond accordingly.  My motivation for posting this is to share a naive discovery that made me doubt, but in definitely a positive sense.

So, a few days ago, as part of my self-inquiry study (motivated by real-life experiences), I was reading the Wikipedia entry on Psychopathy and the list of the observable characteristics started to make me really think, namely the following ones:

• Boldness or impudence: "Low fear including stress-tolerance, toleration of unfamiliarity and danger, and high self-confidence and social assertiveness."
• Meanness: "Lacking [..] close attachments with others, [..], exploitative tendencies, defiance of authority, and [..] excitement seeking."
• Narcissism: "In the mind of a narcissist, there is no boundary between self and other."
• "Psychopaths could switch empathy on at will".

Let us now walk through the points again:

• Boldness: If somebody learns how to handle stress, accepts fear, often contemplates and therefore also accepts death, he or she will definitely become more tolerant to unfamiliarity and danger.  A more self-actualized life also comes with more self-confidence and needs a lot of social assertiveness, otherwise we would just get stuck in our average everyday life.
• Meanness: Being closely attached to others is not the way of the superior men: if a woman comes to his life, that is fine; if the woman leaves, that is also fine, so as with friends.  Self-actualized people often find ourselves to be a bit like Machiavellians, which involves exploitative tendencies or defiance of authority, if needed.  Excitement seeking is also part of an extraordinary life, since that is one of their goals.
• Narcissism: When oneness with the universe is fully embraced, the differences between the self and others dissolve, everybody becomes equal.  People living in harmony like and enjoy themselves as they are, because they accepted themselves as they are.
• Switching empathy on at will: When one learns how to master one's emotions, switching empathy on or off at will becomes a consequence.

Hence I have the vague feeling that average people may often see self-actualized ones not only as freaks but potential psychopaths, i.e. dangerous persons.

What do you think?  Is it crazy to think that?

 

[SkyPanther]

Narcissism is ego driven.  You love yourself more than others.  And "love" is not really at play.  Acceptance is.   "Being" is at play not "love". 

Meanness is usually ego driven, and excitement is usually not something sought out by people that are enlightened.  In fact most feel happy being away from other people.  (And renunciation becomes very easy.) 

Not being attached to emotions is different than being mean.  Being mean creates bad mind states, so an enlightened person would not be mean on purpose. Their intent is not mean. Though it could be taken that way to people that have an ego driven sense of "respect".

I think people just get upset that an enlightened person does not react the way they expect them to, and that is because "react" is ego driven.  Lacking an ego, you respond.  And usually the response is "I choose not to respond". 

I think outwardly appearances are very different from the internal ones, and people tend to project emotions/concepts on other people, so when a person does not react like others think they will, they get a bit freaked out. 

Edited March 18, 2016 by SkyPanther

[Ajax]

I don't think an enlightened being has anything to worry about, society has a tough enough time "seeing" psychopaths. A psychopath doesnt have a problem calling out an enlightened one though!

[Falk]

So the question it comes down to is: What´s the difference between a psychopath and an "enlightened one" or are they the same?

If an "enlightened one" says:  "i am god!" you can go: "cool, me too" and he will smile and say: "I know, you are god, too"

If a psychopath says: "im god! " and you go: "cool, me too" then he will say: " Nono! you don´t understand it is only ME who is god, not you! "

 

 

Edited March 19, 2016 by Falk

[Natasha]

Psychopaths live in a grand illusion.

Enlightened live in a grand reality.

[mandyjw]

Psychopathy is total identification with ego, enlightenment is the death of ego, so both are missing something. It makes sense to me that both might share some characteristics. The vast majority of people feel a sense of connection with others even if it's just with people who are close to them and they also have a strong sense of self. To most people those two things are fundamental to being human.

  I used to have a STRONG aversion to Eckhart Tolle and couldn't bear to hear him speak. The sense that something was missing upset me to my core. Now I realize that feeling was all my ego and now I love to hear him speak. Before you realize what your ego is, you think anything that threatens it is evil and that sense that something is missing will be highly disturbing.