Painful Experiences

Certain qualities seem to be universally admired. Selflessness. Patience. A positive spirit.

Yet it seems that many of the virtues that most of us want come from experiences that most of us shirk. The painful loss of a business or even a child. Or even the hunger pains and muscle ache required to develop a chiseled physique.

It is worth remembering when you are going through a difficult experience that you may well gain a characteristic or two that you've always so admired in others. This very hope may be the hope that you need to get through this experience.

Heroes & Individuals

"I asked myself 'What is the myth you are living?' and found that I did not know. So ... I took it upon myself to get to know 'my' myth and I regarded this as the task of tasks ... I simply had to know what unconscious or preconscious myth was forming me."
- C.J. Jung

Charles Tart makes the point that a hypnotist, in a matter of minutes, can program you to do things. How much more powerfully can society program you during the course of your life?

The purported purpose of life until now has been to be a good Christian, a good citizen, a good employee. That is, purpose has been given to the individual by social institutions.

The genuine individual distances himself from these institutions to do the hard work of defining herself with a degree of autonomy from them. The hero comes back from this shape-shifting exercise and transforms these institutions. It's hard work - and nobody's got to do it.