Why Isn't Everyone Doing This?

[PlayOnWords]

That's it, really. Why is it only a small minority of people ever try to self-actualize?

I have my own theory of repression playing a huge role. Most would much rather walk around thinking the same old thing, doing the same old work... It seems as though no one ever says, "hang on, what's actually going on here?" Because it's scary, right? It's existential crisis type stuff. That's why ignorance is a haven. I just thought that eventually everyone or most would have moments of breakage, where the suffering has become so great that they start looking for answers. But this mustn't be the case. I suppose this is why people get stuck, thinking they understand, thinking they know what's best.

Baffling to me.

[Eph75]

It's not a matter of choice, what we perceive and what we think, and the meaning we make is a result of how we think. So creating a shift in how we think is what needs to happen first.

In most cases this is circumstantial. Something happens that throws our current way of thinking out the door, and a side-effect from that is that we become open to absorb new ways of thinking to fill that void. 

As a child we had not yet become ridgid in our ways and accepted shifts as a more or less constant flow, until a point where the flow of new improved ways of thinking diminishes and we create that ridgidness in what we already know. 

We all resist that which we don't accept. So it's not strange, it just is. Either hope for others to get there through circumstance, or facilitate environments where circumstances to more likely to happen, e.g. when safely exploring that which causes anxieties. 

Turning this towards yourself, where are you stuck, and why haven't you chosen to unstuck yourself? You have to see and understand that you are stuck to even begin considering that question. But how can you do that with something that you are not yet aware of. 

One of the biggest hurdles here is that problems are externalized as a result of the ego protecting itself. And since the solution for one's problems is looked for externally to us, we can never create change, as all change happens internally to us. 

Self-deception is a powerful thing. 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Eph75

[Flowerfaeiry]

Actually, a lot of people try to self actualize in a way, and it's popular on social media etc. The difference is that most never go very deep with it.

Why? They don't know the depths that are possible because they were never exposed to it. Or if they were, its simply too difficult. I mean when you start noticing all the ways you decieve yourself and deconstructing your reality things start getting a lot less ego gratifying and a lot more "oh shit". 

[Nos7algiK]

If everyone did this work then you would lack the mirrors of what you wish not to be in order go help guide you closer to your own self. "I'm not this, I'm not that." How many times have you bettered yourself using another as an example of what not to do?

[Rigel]

Because It's hard. 

[LastThursday]

Unknown unknowns. We're all deeply ignorant all the time. Except on occasion we get lucky. Even then we usually forget like goldfish.

[Leo Gura]

Because they simply don't have the necessary hardware to be innately conscious.

You might as well ask, why aren't mules learning calculus.

[Etherial Cat]

2 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

You might as well ask, why aren't mules learning calculus.

[Zigzag Idiot]

i like the term transpersonal psychologist Charles Tart used sometimes.  The "cultural consensus trance" 

Within that I see a lot of people in SD Orange level and their priority is in materialism. Chasing the dollars and going after the goodies of the world

[Eph75]

@Zigzag Idiot @PlayOnWords

Each stage is experiencing the same thing, just around different values and beliefs, an ideological, dogmatic relatedness to those values and beliefs. 

Externally identified problems linked to suffering is easier to run from, looking for something else, which is "easier" in prior stages than orange and beyond, where the only thing left to run from is internal to ourselves and causes to the suffering is solved in our minds. 

Pointing at one major shift at the root of the 1st to 2nd tier transition and the growing of Yellow traits, it's the ability to disengage with any stage and from such ideological and dogmatic ways, which translates to an openness that allows for even deeper understanding of the interrelatedness of the perceived reality, and of perspective of perspectives. 

Blurring the lines of SD and Ego Development Theory, as they follow the same individual development in different yet similar ways, SD pointing at the development of values, believes and therefore perspectives and in a social context, EDT is point towards the complexity of the sense we make from what we are able to perceive, this unfolding of development points more towards EDT than SD and towards becoming deliberate about one's own development for the sake of development and not for the sake of being knowledgeable and be perceived as being "right", which explains the reduction or dropping of dogma and the fascination of not knowing.

Also here it's still important to recognize and keep in mind that the unfolding of the stages happen in a predictable way, and you don't choose to transition into stages, and shifts need to happen in a certain way, and often order, before self-development becomes a means to and end, and transitions into a means for the sake of being. 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Eph75

[LastThursday]

@Eph75 paradigm lock is a real problem as you say. It takes luck - epiphany or suffering or external influence - or something else that breaks the paradigm to escape it. No paradigm is wholly consistent, there are always holes that can be noticed:

 

[Superfluo]

@Leo Gura Exactly. The speed and scope of your thoughts, as well as the way your mind interprets reality, are directly linked to the type of thoughts you have. People that think in images or symbols usually are more meta and holistic thinkers

[gettoefl]

14 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Because they simply don't have the necessary hardware to be innately conscious.

You might as well ask, why aren't mules learning calculus.

i would say we need a bit of patient grace from some kind compassionate caring random soul

and these types are not typically found down the local pub

moreover, "you" cannot self actualize, it is existence which decides the matter and the timing ...

but it never hurts to pray or meditate or pine for it, so that "you" will be ready for step 1, this means grace in fact is descending

[Etherial Cat]

A lot of people have too many blindspots in their thought process to get on the right track. 

There are so many problems that can make of a mind a deregulated calculator... It's like they don't have the formula to equation rightly set.  And it leads them away from the essential almost systematically by a few inch. 

Usually, they also have plenty of holes in the bucket when it comes to holding truth.

For instance, some have an incredibly strong pattern with giving away their authority. They have no grasp at the concept of epistemeology, so they build their knowledge with a lot of errors. And that's because It seems like they cannot even find this place in their experience where they question something as basic as "how do I know things?". 

And/or they are master at begging the question and don't get far enough to the bottom of things. A typical case that I see are those who find the Big Bang to be a satisfactory answer that check mate all the needs for further reflection. 

Or they don't know how to contemplate, or how to be honest with themselves and fall for a lot of self-deception trap.

Also almost paradoxically, they've got too much doors that should be opened that are clogged with delusions. So they remain hermetic to a lot of the correction one could bring to their inner GPS.

These are recurring issues that I see with those who do not manage to "see".

Another point seems like they aren't usually very talented to reorient themselves alone. Usually, those who are talented have got a mechanism that get their precision level towards truth always significantly closer. A lot of people don't have this and are progressing at very slow rate.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Etherial Cat