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Chapter 10 : THE TRUE POSITIVE INDIVIDUAL
Let us now look at the True Positive Individual and all of its characteristics to understand the healthy objective that I recommend a caged human animal strive toward to regain its life.
The True Positive Individual is a human animal who possesses a number of essential characteristics, all to the highest degree possible, all of which enable it to enhance its ability to live well and self-replicate.
1- True to Oneself
The first characteristic is that it is true to itself.
By this, I mean a number of things. First of all, this individual is committed to being itself and no one else. It allows and encourages its basic program to be expressed in an as unaltered form as possible. It recognizes that the only thing that it can successfully be is what it inherently is and furthermore that it is all right for it to be itself. It understands that by trying to be what it is not, it simply contorts itself out of its natural state, which leads to disease and failure. It does not expect affirmation from others for its essence but fights for and provides the necessary support itself for the unfolding of who it is. The whole purpose of getting out of the cage is to allow this self-expression. It perceives that without this there is no point to life at all.
The second aspect of being true to oneself is to be honest with oneself. The True Positive Individual understands that lying to oneself only results in disaster. Therefore, this person has the courage to perceive itself as clearly as possible, knowing that only in so doing does it have the possibility of enhancing its fidelity to the basic program and the likelihood of health and life.
Being true to oneself also means being faithful to one's well-thought-out values. Having taken the time to think and learn, this individual defines what is of true importance in life and then lives in adherence with its principles. By so doing, this individual has integrity. Therefore, to be true to oneself means to be oneself, to be honest with oneself, and to be faithful to one's well-thought-out values.
2- Positive
The second characteristic of the True Positive Individual is to be positive.
The term positive may be defined in a number of different manners. The way in which I choose to use this term has two basic components.
The first aspect of being positive in this context is that the positive individual is someone who confronts reality. Reality is what is. The positive individual understands that in order to have an excellent life, it is essential to live in reality. There is nowhere else to be. There is nothing but reality.
Many people attempt to escape from reality in many different ways - through drugs, sex, entertainment, religion, fantasy, self-delusion, or simply by not thinking. In so doing, the positive individual understands that the result is simply losing all one's power. Reality does not care if you attend to it or not, it just keeps rolling along. If you choose to face reality you have the option to influence it to operate in your favor. If you do not, you have surrendered unequivocally to all of the other forces of the universe to take you where they may. Since they all have their own interests, it should not be surprising that yours will not be looked after. Within the zoo, our ape species has spent a great deal of energy inventing many ways to attempt reality escape. The keepers have understood the importance of this for us and have encouraged it to enable their chattel to remain functional. Farmers who raise pigs have found that keeping a tire hanging over the pigsty so that the pigs can knock it around keeps them more content and as a result more likely to convert the feed that they are given into meat.
Our present need for constant distraction is no different. If we need to be distracted so much, what is it that we do not want to see? The pigsty! The keepers do not want their slaves to confront reality. They want the slaves to be as stupid as possible. If the pigs would stop playing with their tires and look around the pigsty they would perhaps wonder what they were doing there and look for a way to break down the walls.
Confronting reality can be a very painful and frightening experience, especially if one has never done it before. The horror that is revealed when the rose-colored glasses or the blinders have been removed may be overwhelming. However, the longer one goes on without looking, the worse it will get.
Trying to live without confronting reality is like trying to drive on a freeway with your eyes closed. Attempting to escape reality is always unsuccessful. Sooner or later it will catch up with you and generally it happens when you are least ready to deal with it.
Attempting to avoid reality is the typical slave approach. It is an expression of a sense of powerlessness. The human animal that has committed to become its True Positive self is also committed to seeing things for what they are in order to enhance its ability to deal effectively with reality. Its objective is to change its situation to make one compatible with its self-development. It knows that any deceptions that it might have will simply undermine that achievement.
The discomfort that might be experienced upon viewing the reality about it is used by it as a source of power to produce change, as it should be. By harnessing this power on an ongoing basis, it understands that eventually facing reality will not have to be such an unpleasant experience.
Thus, the first aspect of being positive is the commitment to the confrontation of reality. Having confronted reality, the question then is, what to do?
The individual committed to becoming its True Positive self when facing a situation consistently strives to find the most constructive and life-affirming means of dealing with that situation. I am referring to a fundamental attitude toward the universe - that is reality, how do I deal with it?
In this regard, one can be positive in any situation. Your response to the situation at hand is within your power at any time. You can be in a concentration camp and be positive or be in a luxurious mansion and be negative. It is not the situation which determines your response, it is only you.
By consistently confronting reality and challenging yourself to find the most constructive life-affirming response to reality, you will have the best possible outcome in life that you could possibly have. It is that simple.
Please understand that I do not intend to trivialize the potentially horrific situations that one may find oneself in and in which members of our species (and other species) have found themselves in the past. The decisions made in such situations may be very challenging and difficult to make. Any action in any situation is optional, including murder and suicide. However, if you are focused on seeing reality for what it is and in looking for the most life-affirming response to your situation, you will find one. By enacting it you will be at peace with yourself. Therefore, to be positive, the second characteristic of the True Positive Individual, means to confront reality and to find and use the most constructive and life-affirming approach to reality.
3- Self-confident
The third characteristic is to be self-confident.
Again there are two aspects to this characteristic. The first is to be secure in being oneself. This implies self-affirmation, that it is wonderful to be you. Implied again is having an identity and knowing and liking what that may be.
The second aspect of self-confident is to be secure in your ability to deal with reality. While it may be terrific that you fundamentally like yourself, it is also extremely important that you know how to function effectively in the world, that you have skills.
There are many individuals who are really very skilled and accomplished but, because they have a negative self-perception, they lack self-confidence. Such an approach to themselves inevitably undermines their ability to enjoy and use their skills to their fullest potential. As a result, others who may be much less skilled are able to obtain a better quality of life in every sense despite their relative skill deficiency.
In fact, many who are driven to acquire extreme degrees of accomplishment only do so to compensate for their underlying feelings of worthlessness. Since they are attempting to solve the wrong problem, they are doomed to failure from the outset.
It is also true that an individual who has an affirming approach to itself is generally more open to the concept of skill acquisition, will do so more effectively, and have more pleasure in the process.
Nevertheless, not being able to function in the world leaves one in a very low power position and so the self-confident individual will inevitably acquire skills to enhance its ability to live and self-replicate.
In this regard, however, this person will develop skills that are in tune with being true to itself, that enable the expression of its true being. As well, it will acquire skills that are life-affirming and not waste its energy on skills that are not. Being reality based, it will understand what is truly important and what is not. To be self-confident, therefore, means to be secure in oneself and one's ability to deal with reality.
4- Independent
The fourth characteristic of the True Positive Individual is to be independent.
The first aspect of this characteristic is to be free. As has already been addressed at length, in order for one's basic program to be expressed to enhance one's ability to live and self-replicate one must be in control of one's life. Through civilization and the process of domestication, the human animal has surrendered its freedom.
There is a war going on for the last ten thousand years which has led to this enslavement. It still goes on today around the world. Reality says that you are either an accomplice to slavery or a freedom fighter.
In 1775, Patrick Henry, who clearly did not have an evolutionary perspective, and in many respects was an apologist for civilization, spoke to rouse the Americans to fight the British with his most famous speech.
It would be hard to make a better call to the human animal to regain its freedom.
Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace - but there is no peace.
The war is actually begun! ... Why stand we here idle?
What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at
the price of chains and slavery? ... I know not what
course others may take; but as for me,
give me liberty, or give me death!
The True Positive Individual has an uncompromising commitment to its freedom. It will do whatever needs to be done in order to be free.
The other element of being independent is to be responsible for one's own life. This individual understands that its life is its only real possession. It owns itself and as a function of that will not cede this ownership to anyone else.
Because it considers itself the owner of its life, its precious possession, it considers itself responsible to look after itself. It considers this self-evident and like any other animal in the wild does not imagine anyone or anything else to be responsible to look after it. The very concept that someone or something has a responsibility to look after it would diminish its self-ownership and freedom. Non-domesticated human animals would not think in this way.
It, therefore, is self-reliant. It expects to and does look after its own healthy needs itself. It does not stand with its palm outstretched. It does not believe that the world owes it an existence or anything else for that matter. It has what it has because it does what it takes to get it. It does not believe it has a 'right' to anything. It would no more accept being a beggar than being a slave, realizing that they ultimately are two sides of the same coin. Obviously, if this individual perceives that it is responsible for itself, it also believes that all other living things, including human apes, are responsible for themselves as well. Therefore, I am responsible for me and you are responsible for you. I am not responsible for you, nor are you responsible for me. There is no-one on in the universe that you are fundamentally responsible for beside yourself, with one possible exception.
This unique exception arises if one has chosen to reproduce. Although it seems obvious, it bears stating that human animals arrive in this world because of the actions of two individuals, the sperm and egg donors. Reproduction is a choice. One may or may not reproduce. The True Positive Individual will have a strong drive to reproduce in that it lives in harmony with the natural life process, which has been driven to perpetuate itself for four billion years.
However, if the individual does not believe that it has the right combination of circumstances available to it to enable this being to have a life of genuine quality to make it worthwhile to live, it will choose to defer reproduction until the right circumstances arise, as other organisms do. If it perceived that these conditions were not attainable at any time during its reproductive period it would choose not to reproduce at all. Again, of course, this commitment to life and freedom would motivate it to take steps to enhance its situation as determinedly as possible in order to both reproduce and offer its offspring a high probability of quality life.
Since the individual chooses to reproduce, it also understands that it is inviting a totally dependent new individual into the world. The parent has a tremendous vested interest in that new individual surviving since the child is carrying the parent's genetic information forward. It is only logical and natural, therefore, that the parent be responsible for the child.
The parent may decide to abort the child or kill the child at some later date if it so chooses, given the fact that it is its child that it has chosen to create. Obviously, a parent committed to healthy life values would not commit such an act lightly. The child does not belong to society or anyone else for that matter. Until it is able to look after itself, it is dependent on the parent.
Another person may choose to look after this child if the parent should be unable or unwilling to look after it itself. However, it is understood that this other person would have no fundamental responsibility to do so. If it were a relative of the child it may have some vested interest in providing care in order to perpetuate some of its own genetic information shared with the child. Therefore, a parent has a fundamental responsibility to its own child although even this responsibility is a choice. In addition, the responsibility of the parent to the child lasts only until the child is able to be truly responsible for itself, at which time the parent's fundamental responsibility ceases. So even this conditional responsibility is time limited.
Apart from this parent - child dynamic there exist no other inherent responsibilities to others besides yourself. You, therefore, are not your brother's keeper. Those who believe that you are responsible for others are implicitly stating that you are responsible for them which means that they want something from you and that they, in fact, believe that they are entitled to whatever that is. Watch out for those people. They want to rob you. They are also indicating that they are not willing to take responsibility for their own lives. They are domesticated animals and wish to remain so.
All of this is not to suggest that a human ape cannot engage in a co-operative relationship with another human ape, or for that matter a member of any other species. However, underlying this healthy co-operative dynamic is the implicit understanding that it is an agreement between two parties who recognize that working together somehow enhances each one achieving its own individual objectives for which each is ultimately responsible. Co-operation is a choice.
Obligatory responsibility is simply another form of slavery.
It should also be clearly understood that the True Positive Individual is someone who loves life and understands the true interconnectedness of things. It, therefore, approaches the world and other living things with this love and respect. While not feeling obliged to take on the responsibilities of others, it acknowledges their place and importance in the overall scheme of things. It recognizes both from a position of universal affirmation as well as fundamental self-interest that it does not exist in isolation on the planet and that its actions do impact upon others. Since its motivation is simply to ensure its survival and ability to self-replicate it will not approach nature as its enemy but instead as its medium in which to be, seeing itself as a component and not the whole. However, when it encounters the organism, typically human, that is committed to an anti-life agenda, it will do everything in its power to not provide any aid in its direction and, when appropriate, will even destroy that being in order to enhance the overall environment.
In that regard, for example, given the overwhelming state of dominance of the zoo at this time it does not automatically give the other person the benefit of the doubt and extend a hand to help. It will require the other to clarify its values first, realizing that the odds are favorable that the other will in fact be someone who is committed to the values of civilization and therefore an anti-life force. As a function of this position, for example, the True Positive Individual will not donate its organs upon dying to the state to be distributed for transplant as the state sees fit. Beside the obvious issue of whether or not organ transplantation is really an option to be considered by one committed to humans regaining their animality as much as possible, such an option would imply that it would be giving its very body parts to be put into the body of some potentially anti-life individual to maintain itself and pursue its agenda.
The True Positive Individual will also not jump into the river to save the drowning person whom it does not know and put its own life in danger. First of all, the True Positive Individual understands that its first obligation is to itself and its own genetic material. Therefore, if there was some reasonable chance that it might die in the process of rescuing the stranger it would have broken a fundamental rule of life and betrayed itself in the process of subjecting itself to that risk. Secondly, again it might compound matters by dying in the process and saving some irresponsible anti-life individual with its actions creating a further imbalance between life-affirming and life-negating forces on the planet.
Clearly, civilized society considers such an approach to be evil and unacceptable. Civilized society gives medals to the spouses of heroes who die selflessly for others. In fact, when civilized humans think of heroes they typically think of someone who sacrifices something of great value, usually their life, for some total stranger.
In civilization we do not see humans being rewarded for taking extremely good care of their own lives and providing the care and attention needed to ensure that their children grow up to be happy self-reliant individuals.
Selflessness and sacrifice are two highly-promoted values in civilized society. The concept of sacrifice is to give up something of value for something of lesser value. If, for example, you have a lamp that is worth ten dollars and sell it for five dollars, that is a sacrifice. If, however, you sell it for ten dollars you have simply received fair market value, and if you sell it for twenty dollars you have effectively received ten bonus dollars.
When a human invests in itself to improve itself or its quality of life it is not sacrificing anything. Therefore, if I studied many hours in order to become a doctor and if I believe that what I did was a worthwhile and necessary investment to achieve that goal, I sacrificed nothing. I simply did what was required to achieve my objective. It would only have been a sacrifice if I should have invested my time and energy in other aspects of my life and did not. The parent who throws its child from the burning house to safety and dies in the process is hopefully not sacrificing anything. Having decided to reproduce, and having the responsibility for its child, and wanting to ensure that its genetic information would go into the future, and looking at the big picture, and realizing that the best way for that to happen would be for the child to live and to die itself - the parent makes a choice. If the parent had several other children that it was responsible for and if these children would not be able to live meaningful lives if the parent chose to die to save the other child, the parent might make the difficult but potentially correct decision to save itself and let the child die.
To be somewhat less dramatic, many parents go on and on about how much they have sacrificed for their children. While it may be true that they may have been able to work less and have more money or leisure time and other interests if they did not have children or did not choose to look after them, the parent should behave like a responsible adult and acknowledge the fact that they chose to reproduce in the first place. If they were not prepared to do what was required to look after their own children, they should have not had them or killed them or given them away as soon as possible.
A True Positive Individual does not consider doing what is required to ensure the success of its genetic information to be a sacrifice at all. It could not conceive of anything being of greater importance than such an agenda. In fact, the True Positive Individual would never commit a sacrifice because, due to its commitment to healthy life values, it is always doing what it believes will enhance its healthy life agenda. Only if it betrayed its values would it be giving up its resources for something of lesser value. If that were to occur it would hold itself responsible for that incorrect decision and hopefully not repeat it.
As for the concept of selflessness, the True Positive Individual understands such a characteristic to be sick and evil. Since the fundamental responsibility of any living entity is to ensure its survival and self-replication, the concept of selflessness flies in the face of the healthy life agenda. Only a creature that does not value life, its own life in particular, and who sees no genuine point to existence on this planet could maintain such a position.
Selflessness is of course the ideal morality for the zoo.
If the slaves can be convinced that altruism is the highest of all virtues then the state of non-caring for one's own life can be canonized and the sheep will do whatever they are told. Over and over again civilized society extols the virtues of those who devote their lives to others for no obvious self-gain.
One sees this particularly among religious practitioners and politicians. Let it be said that these are two categories of creatures that one should be very wary of. Virtually by definition, members of each of these groups represent the worst of what civilization has produced. They go to great lengths to speak of their service to others and indicate that they have no other motive but the opportunity to be of use. If such were the whole truth then these individuals would be truly pathetic, seeing themselves simply as instruments for others' betterment. However, please understand that their statements are simply lies to attempt to hide their real motives to obtain power within the zoo to take as much cream off of the top as they can. What is also accurate is that they have little fundamental sense of self-worth, because they are in fact generally useless beings who only continue to have a role because of others' allowing themselves to be even more pathetic than them. They need the wretched and helpless to justify their own existence.
The paragon of selflessness of the twentieth century was Mother Teresa, known also as the saint of the gutters. This woman found her home in the slums of Calcutta among the poorest of the poor and the most wretched human apes on the planet. She dedicated her life to caring for them and in the process won the Nobel Peace Prize and was named the most respected woman on the face of the earth by American women. Famous and powerful strove to gain access to her and sought her benediction. Her name has become synonymous with altruism.
Like other perpetrators of supposed-altruism this woman was a failure as a human ape. To begin with, she did not self-replicate. She sought out the most pathetic people on the planet so that she could compensate for her underlying feelings of worthlessness, well-espoused by her religion.
In this environment of the human debris of civilization she attained a level of pseudo-self-esteem. Her level of self-hatred must have been so great that only when surrounded by the bottom dwellers did she feel at ease, safe from rejection. However, like any good politician, she learned to use the under trodden masses for her own self-advancement.
Despite all of the altruistic claims, for Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, a girl from Skopje, Macedonia, to have one of the most recognized frowning faces on the planet, and to be able to hobnob with the zookeepers as she did, was not an accident. Becoming a media superstar has some perks. The role she played with the poor may have been a bit tiresome after a while, but every job has its down side. It seems highly unlikely that Agnes would have risen to such a level in any other way. She was a parasite.
Agnes needed to climb on the backs of the pathetic to gain her sainthood. This is the asexual woman who went around the world telling women to have more children and never to have abortions but to send their unwanted children to her. Having lived the better part of her life in the slums of India, it cannot be argued that she was unaware of the reality of overpopulation and its consequences.
No, Agnes sucked the blood out of the bottom-dwellers to gain power and prestige for herself. If the dregs of the world had ceased to exist she would have no more role and no way to hide her own inadequacy as a human animal. The last thing Agnes wanted was for human apes to be strong and independent. She and her agenda were evil.
Human apes do not have to be helpless beggars. We survived before civilization when we had to compete on a much more level playing field with the other wild animals and we lived well. Rather than encouraging us to be the worst of ourselves, we should admire those who challenge us to bring out our best characteristics. The promoters of altruism always have another agenda. They want and need the zoo to continue for the sake of their own survival.
The True Positive Individual on the other hand is committed to independence. To be independent is to be free, to be the owner of one's own life, to be responsible for one's life, and to be able to meet one's healthy needs oneself.
5- Capable
The fifth characteristic is to be capable.
The True Positive Individual is an achiever. It knows how to do things. If it does not already know, it finds out. When it sets its mind to an objective it will achieve it.
Clearly, one of our strengths as a species is our capability to deal with the world. It is tragic that we have often used this capacity towards anti-life objectives. However, when directed towards life-affirming ends, it is an invaluable characteristic to possess.
This person will have realistic, life-affirming goals and will achieve them.
6- Intelligent
The sixth characteristic of the True Positive Individual is to be intelligent.
To be intelligent is to be able to learn and understand things. The ability to use one's mind logically and effectively is a highly desirable characteristic to possess. One cannot expect to function effectively in reality without this capacity. From a natural selection perspective, stupidity is not an option.
In civilization, intelligence is often equated with education. This confusion should not be made. In fairness, let me say that education does not necessarily preclude intelligence.
Educational institutions exist principally to aid in the domestication process of the human animal. If the parents, the church, and television have not already done a good enough job, these institutions are there to encourage conformity and obedience. A very basic but important aspect of what is accomplished is that is that the young apes are trained from early on to inhibit their physical activity by learning to stay in one place for long periods of time and to be quiet. These adaptations prove to be useful for them in later years in their office and factory jobs for which they are intended.
Such skills as standing in line, inhibiting their bodily functions, and learning to attend to a dominant individual also prove to be useful as they climb the ladders of the zoo system. As well, any uniqueness that they may possess as individuals tends to be neutralized through the peer pressure dynamic. Of course, they are encouraged in the values of obedience and selflessness which are reinforced both by the adults and by their fellow students.
Along the way some intellectual development can also take place. It is remarkable, however, how little they do learn in their typical five and a half hour days after thirteen years or so. Many are still unable to read and write effectively.
In terms of what is taught, there is usually little attention to helping the student learn to think analytically. Thinking is not an important skill for slaves to have. It is much more important that they be able to follow commands. Much of what is learned amounts to simple regurgitation of information which enables the student to repeat the maxims of civilization one more time. What compounds the problem is that in many cases the version of reality that is presented is false and thus the student's intellectual foundation is flawed.
It is safe to say that the production of analytical independent thinkers is not the goal of educational institutions.
The institutes of higher learning take the process to the next level. These are civilization's finishing schools. At best they are essentially technical colleges teaching very definite skill sets to enable the generally totally unskilled high school graduate to be able to know how to do something practical. At worst they are simply centers of extremely concentrated indoctrination in the values of civilization to produce managers for the zoo.
Universities are notorious for having 'absentminded' professors. These individuals are considered to possess a great deal of abstract but little, if any, practical knowledge. At times they seem not to even realize which planet they are on.
It has been my observation that, in general, the average person who works with their hands, tradespeople and farmers for example, often possess a much greater degree of intelligence than the university graduates that they often provide their services to.
They understand how real things work and they generally can solve problems very well. They know how to use their brains well. Often they simply could not or would not or were not interested in playing the domestication game that the school system offered them and so found a different way to feed themselves, rather than going to school until they were twenty-five or thirty years of age to get a diploma. Put me in the jungle with a tradesperson over a professor any time.
It should be stated that the average human has an excellent brain. I have had the opportunity to meet and work with individuals who believed that they were fundamentally stupid and incapable of being intelligent. While they may have in fact been stupid, their stupidity was not due to any deficiency of their brain as a potentially effective tool. They had learned and been encouraged to be stupid or simply became stupid out of neglect and default or due to an early-established negative perception that they developed of themselves that was never altered.
Apart from the rare truly mentally deficient individuals out there, the average human ape has the capacity to be a remarkably intelligent creature. To be realistic, in many respects we were more intelligent prior to civilization than today because, we had to be more adaptable, and innovative to survive then than we do now. Only in civilization can an individual be totally stupid and totally disconnected from reality and still die of old age.
Humans often sing praises to themselves about how intelligent we are by pointing out remarkable technical achievements and inventions. In truth, a small number of our species have developed these things while many of us only take advantage of their work to make our lives easier.
Simultaneously, we regress because their inventions enable us to be less developed than before while achieving what used to be more difficult to do. At one time we knew how to sew, build, make butter, and grow things. Now we know how to shop and push buttons.
Nonetheless, just as I believe that the human organism is built to function effectively if unblocked, I also believe that the unblocked human mind committed to reason and reality has potential that we have never seen.
Rather than focusing on artificial intelligence, humans need to develop their own. While one brain is undoubtedly qualitatively different from another, like any other organ, an individual with the average excellent human brain committed to becoming its True Positive self and open to reexamining its thinking can be as intelligent as it needs to be to experience a healthy and fulfilling life. To be intelligent means to use one's brain to deal effectively with reality.
7- Wise
The seventh characteristic of the True Positive Individual is to be wise.
Wisdom is displayed by an individual who makes excellent healthy decisions. It relates to judgment. The course of one's life is the result of the sequence of decisions that one makes. Every moment we make decisions. We always have choices. We may wish that we had different options at any point in time but choices always exist.
Knowing what to do but not doing it does not count in the category of wisdom. You actually have to make the decision and follow through with the action to qualify as being wise. Therefore, in judging an individual's wisdom pay attention to its actions and not its statements because the actions will reveal its level of wisdom. Words are often simply used for the purpose of confusion, to lie. In addition, apply the same approach to yourself.
To go from point A to point B requires a series of steps and to take those steps one must make the decisions to direct oneself from the origin to the destination. One will not arrive at point B if the decisions that one is making lead to point C. Although such statements may seem idiotically obvious, I am consistently amazed observing people who indicate that they have a certain goal but are nevertheless knowingly making decisions taking them in a completely different direction.
The True Positive Individual is empowered. What empowers this person is a commitment to healthy values. This commitment is displayed by an ongoing sequence of decisions, which takes it further and further on the path that enhances its life. It takes responsibility for its life by taking responsibility for its decisions. You are, your life is, the result of the decisions that you make. To be wise you must make the right ones.
8- Proud
The eighth characteristic is to be proud.
Although all of these characteristics are important, to be proud is one of the most important of all.
Pride is a state of delight that one experiences due to an affirming reflection on one's self, one's life, and one's accomplishments. One earns one's pride by the life one leads and the person one becomes. You can never be too proud of yourself. By this I mean that you can always strive to further enhance yourself and your accomplishments and by so doing further increase your level of self-delight.
It should be obvious that I mean genuine pride and not false pride in referring to this characteristic. Everyone has met individuals who have inflated and inaccurate perceptions of themselves, which lead them to have a false self-image. Except for the relatively few cases where these individuals are genuinely ignorant of their deficiencies, they are just trying to cover up for their underlying feelings of inadequacy. They do not truly experience delight in themselves and so are not in fact proud at all. It is generally not difficult to recognize these people for who they are. Civilization discourages pride. It teaches that it is not good to be proud. In fact, certain civilized beliefs state that pride is a sin, one of the seven deadly sins that lead to spiritual death.
Instead, civilized humans are encouraged to be meek, to be humble, and to turn the other cheek. To be humble implies a lack of self-assertiveness and a willingness to lower or humiliate oneself in front of another. In the societies of civilization, one often finds that individuals that are willing to do this, to be self-effacing, are more popular. Again, of course, such an attitude by civilization toward pride is hardly surprising.
The official morality of civilization is zoo morality, slave morality. If I were going to the slave market today to buy a slave, which slave would I want to buy? Would I want to buy the slave that is proud - who has its own agenda that it is faithful to and will not submit to another? Or would I want the humble slave - the one who is meek, submissive and when hit will turn the other cheek to me? Proud people make very poor slaves. In demonizing pride, civilization reveals its true colors and its true agenda, the destruction of the individual.
Pride is the reward for being true to life and true to oneself. Each individual who is striving to become its True Positive self is in truth striving to become its own hero. When you look in the mirror, if you do not see your own hero looking back at you then something is wrong in that picture. If that is the case, you need to focus your being to find out what it is that is causing that to be so and then you must fix it. Otherwise you are lost. Life without pride is not worth having.
9- Honest
The ninth characteristic of the True Positive Individual is to be honest.
This person lives in the truth. Living in the truth is, of course, a function of being committed to living in reality. Entering the world of falsehood is a trap. One enters a maze from which there is no good escape apart from reentering reality. So why leave reality in the first place?
Therefore, this person is honest with itself. In addition, it is honest with others. This attitude towards others is held for a number of reasons.
First of all, it views entering the world of lies with trepidation since it knows that nothing truly healthy can develop in that environment, and it seeks healthy relationships with others. As well, remembering the truth can be difficult at times despite our excellent brains. Trying to remember a fabrication of the truth is potentially much more difficult and so whatever temporary value might be gained through this deception could immediately be lost with greater resultant damage upon its discovery. In addition, this individual is fundamentally fair with others and recognizes that fairness begins with honesty. It has no negative agenda and cannot imagine why two individuals who approach each other and reality in that way would not want to be honest with each other.
Having said this, this individual is also reality based and intelligent. It understands that through civilization non-life-affirming forms of existence have been able to develop who can actually seek out to harm and destroy life-affirming beings like itself. There can be times, therefore, where sharing accurate information with an anti-life organism may be unwise because of its potential to lead to the destruction or harm of oneself.
There is a war going on! It, therefore, reserves the right to lie when necessary to preserve itself and its commitment to and realization of its healthy agenda. It does so knowingly and takes full responsibility for its actions in this regard. It goes as far as it possibly can to avoid this option since it recognizes the inherent associated problems but maintains it as an option available to it.
Overall, however, it speaks the truth. It also lives truthfully. Just as wisdom is revealed through action so too is honesty. When judging another or yourself in this regard, cover up your ears and just watch the scene to understand what is really going on. One lies with more difficulty with actions than with words.
The True Positive Individual is honest. Its love of reality and its fundamental strength and simplicity moves it in this direction.
10- Direct
The tenth characteristic is to be direct. It is straightforward and to the point.
This person has an agenda. It is striving to self-actualize to the greatest degree possible and realizes that the clock is ticking and that it has finite resources. Therefore, there is much to be done before time runs out! So when some action is required, it seeks out the most effective way to achieve it. Procrastination and avoidance of challenging tasks is not this person's style. These are the habits of individuals lacking genuine commitment to a goal. Instead this person is self-motivated and possesses the energy needed to get the job done. Unlike the slave that needs to be whipped or bribed to do something, its drive comes from within.
Its directness of action is echoed in its directness of speech. It speaks in a clear manner and says exactly what it thinks. When asked by someone whether or not it likes that person's new hat, car, girlfriend, hairstyle, etc. - it has the capacity to answer the question in a manner that clearly expresses its true perspective. It would understand that generally when such questions are asked, they are not being asked genuinely to get honest feedback but are actually solicitations for affirmation.
The True Positive Individual does not function in this manner and maintains its own standard in all of its relationships. If it were so that it did not like whatever it was that the person was asking about, it would be able to say so without intending harm to the other person but also without apologizing for its opinion. This individual is secure in itself and is not trying to win a popularity contest.
If the other person did not want to hear its opinion then it should not have asked for it. Realistically, the True Positive Individual would not be interested in wasting time having interaction with such a person and so by responding in the manner that it did would be using an effective approach to ensure such a scene would not repeat itself. It is direct - straightforward and to the point in its actions and statements.
11- Creative
The eleventh characteristic of this person is that it is creative.
To be creative is to generate from within oneself new approaches to deal with reality. There is virtually always at least one more way of solving a problem. Simply having such an attitude to reality opens up options which otherwise might never have been found.
Humans by nature are very creative animals and thus, in developing one's human animal essence, the revealing of one's creative self is imperative. Civilization is often praised most for allowing the development of human creativity as displayed through the arts and technology. In a limited sense there is some truth to that.
As far as the arts go, most people and especially artists recognize that most of the great works of art have been expressions of the suffering of the individual and are recognized as being great for having achieved a resonance with others who undoubtedly share the same pain. The arts, therefore, are similar to the song of the caged bird and, while often beautiful, reflect the tragic reality of our caged ape status. The sad and often very pathetic lives of many of the artists themselves provide testimony to that fact.
Similarly, the great technological achievements of our species have in most cases been motivated by periods of war and conquest. At some later date they may have been altered to provide some non-destructive benefit to humans but in so many cases the blood drips from them. Pre-civilization humans did, of course, express themselves both artistically, and technologically although , clearly, not to the same degree as their civilized descendents. The reason may be more than simply limited intelligence or skill. In part, at least, their agenda was being met and they did not have the same needs. Why paint landscapes if you are constantly surrounded by natural beauty? A constant and desperate need for distraction is not experienced if you are not locked in a cage alienated from life and yourself. If you are not fundamentally sad, then life itself, in terms of your day to day activities and interactions, may enable you to express yourself just by living it.
When I look at the great people of the world who have been brilliant or famous, I am always very interested to know how they lived, the quality of their relationships with themselves and their significant others. To have come up with the greatest work of art or the most remarkable invention and to have been miserable and not experienced joy and honest meaningful relationships still signifies failure from my perspective. I honestly believe that the average hunter and gatherer lived better than the average modern American or all the kings and queens of civilization.
It is appropriate after deriding civilization over and over again that I address the obvious question. Am I recommending that we all return to the Stone Age in order to become healthy and happy?
No. To be perfectly honest, I do not know exactly what kind of culture the True Positive Individual would create for itself. What I do know is that it would put first things first in terms of values. I know that respect for the overall process of life and the life within oneself would be paramount. I know that what is truly the best of civilization, in terms of what somehow enhances one's healthy quality of life, would be preserved but that a tremendous amount of what is considered essential today would ultimately be recognized to be superfluous if not actually destructive. I also know that this culture would evolve, in ways that neither I nor anyone else could anticipate at this time, and that, so long as the commitment to the fundamental values of life and the rules of natural law were respected, the results would be as good for our species as they could be. I know that if we have the commitment and courage to look within ourselves we can take down the zoo and create another type of culture and society committed to life and beauty instead of the death and ugliness that we presently find all around us.
To do this we will use the creativity that we have within us. That aspect of our creativity has been suppressed by the zoo of civilization. Just imagine if we had invested our energies and efforts in that direction instead of where they have been directed. Civilization wants conformity. It simply uses our natural creativity to create its bombs and concentration camp ovens. If we had been committed to life instead of anti-life, then I know that today we could be truly amazed and proud of our wonderful capacity for creativity. After all, there is always at least one more way to solve a problem.
The True Positive Individual is a creative creature. It expresses itself, not just in art and technology, but in every aspect of its life to affirm itself and life in general.
12- Caring
The twelfth characteristic is to be caring.
Having read what precedes this, advising that an individual is only fundamentally responsible for itself and that the basic genetic program is about self-preservation and self-replication, it may seem somewhat surprising that to be caring is included in the list of essential characteristics of the True Positive Individual. This surprise, if present, is, however, a function of the definition of caring that one may have. The non-civilized individual perceives caring very differently from its domesticated counterpart. The typical reflex perception of the civilized human ape is that caring means looking after the welfare of others. This view is a function of the zoo morality of altruism which promotes selflessness in order to annihilate the individual, both philosophically and practically.
When the True Positive Individual contemplates caring, its focus is on life and its own life in particular. This person understands caring as striving to create the most wonderful life that it can have for itself. If such an approach sounds selfish, that is because it is selfish. This individual understands that its life is its own to look after and it is going to do the best that it can in this regard.
To the True Positive Individual its life is its very precious possession, in fact its only true possession, and it cherishes and treasures it. Since it loves its life, it looks after it as people do about anything that they truly love. Therefore, every aspect of its life is important to it. What it does, where it goes, what it eats, what it wears, its physical condition, with whom it interacts - nothing is ignored by it. This person pays attention to the details of its life because it has nothing of any higher value than it. Since it understands that it is responsible for its own life, this person also recognizes that for that life to be as excellent as possible it must look after it since nobody else should or will.
Unlike the apathetic - 'Who cares ?' - attitude of the domesticated humans, this human animal passionately devotes itself to the creation of the best quality of life that it can imagine for itself. As, I hope, I have been able to make obvious earlier on in this book, that does not mean that its major dedication is to the acquisition of material wealth. Being focused on the core agenda of survival and self-replication in fact liberates this person from devoting itself to the superfluous. While striving to reside in a beautiful environment in which it can fulfill its essential animal needs, it seeks healthy pleasure in its activities and interpersonal dynamics rather than in the pursuit of possessions and status to compensate for a deadness within as its domesticated counterparts do. To it, hoarding gold and seeking recognition seem like a pathetic waste of time.
To this animal, life is a tremendous opportunity, an experience that one should take full advantage of while one has the chance. Each moment is precious. Its worst imaginable scenario is to die with regret.
With regard to the issue of caring about others, the True Positive Individual has this capacity to a greater extent than any altruist. It must be understood that this human ape's opening position is that the other members of its species generally have the potential to be remarkable creatures just like all the other animals out in the forest. As a function of that, it understands that it is in the best interest of its fellow human apes to be highly functional in order to share the experience of having a wonderful life. It does not perceive its fellow humans to be doomed to a beggarly existence, fearful of everything and needing someone to rescue them at any moment from the cruelness of reality. It could not imagine how anyone could accept living with such a view of the world and of oneself.
The very attitude of expecting more rather than less of people, unlike the attitude of those like Mother Teresa, expresses its fundamental positive sense of others' potential and brings out the best in those who are willing to believe the same of themselves.
To this individual, caring for others does not represent assuming their responsibilities and fulfilling their needs, because it understands that doing so simply encourages the worst in others and if pursued ultimately renders them impotent and thus doomed to extinction in the natural order of things. To this individual, people can and should be strong and not weak. To this person, caring means giving importance to. When you give importance to something in your life, you invest in it. This investment may be in different forms - your time, your thought, your money, your energy. Caring is not just a concept. Caring without making the investment, taking the action, is not caring at all. One is reminded of the drunk at the bar who tells its fellow bar patrons about how much it cares for its spouse and children while nonetheless not being at home for dinner with them.
The person committed to being its True Positive self is striving to have the best possible life that it can have for itself. As a result, it is typically already investing its resources heavily in itself to properly attend to its healthy needs. Any individual has limited personal resources. Having already invested a significant portion of its resources in itself, it will only have a relatively small amount of resources left over to invest in other people. Clearly, therefore, it will not care about everyone else in the world. With six billion other humans and many more other living creatures, it is impossible to meaningfully invest in all the other people or organisms on the planet - one simply does not have the resources to do so. Inevitably, therefore, one has to be selective with one's investment. You will care about certain people or things and many others you will not truly care about. The True Positive Individual chooses to invest in others so to, in one way or another, enhance its own life - it does so to get a return on its investment. Furthermore, it will strive to maximize the return on its investment in order to maximize the quality of its own life. As it selects which people to care about, it will recognize that there are certain people that it should not invest in. First of all it will not care about people who do not care about themselves. It takes this position for several reasons.
It knows from its overall understanding of reality and its own personal experience that in order to have a good life, the most important factor to achieve that result is that the individual must care about it itself. The whole world could hypothetically care about you but if you do not care about yourself your life will never be good. The True Positive Individual does not have the delusion that there is any positive net result in investing in someone who does not invest in itself. The very decision to not invest in itself should tell you that your investment in that person would be foolhardy.
Caring about someone who does not care about itself is like putting money in a company that you know will become bankrupt. Why not just burn the money? You will have the same final result. Furthermore, there is a large emotional price to pay if one invests in someone who does not care about itself. This person is by definition a self-destructive individual. Due to its lack of caring for itself, it will inevitably not look after what it needs to in order to achieve a good final result in its life and will ultimately self-destruct. Having invested emotionally in this person, the final scene of the drama as it plays out is the opportunity to be present for its self-destruction. So the emotional reward for your investment will be pain.
S T U P I D !
Only a stupid person would deliberately set out on a path that inevitably leads to pain. The True Positive Individual is not stupid. The True Positive Individual is intelligent and seeks pleasure and not pain in its life which it strives to make as wonderful as possible. Therefore, it will not invest in, it will not care about people who do not care about themselves. They are a bad investment and the True Positive Individual cares too much about itself and its quality of life to do such a stupid thing.
It will also not care about people who do not care about it in return. Since it understands that caring is about investing, if it is going to invest in another, it will only do so if the other invests in it as well.
It is not - give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give and then - nothing back, nothing back, nothing back, nothing back, nothing back, nothing back, nothing back, nothing back, nothing back, nothing back, nothing back.
No, no, no!
It is give - receive, give - receive, give - receive. Balanced. Equal. Fair. Just.
Only an individual who has no self-respect would give without expecting to receive in return. Typically relationships of this type are created by two individuals who are codependently fulfilling some pathological need rather than having anything resembling a healthy dynamic. They are vampires. Even calling such an interplay a relationship is a misnomer. It should be called what it actually is - a disease!
We are social animals and by having interpersonal relationships we have the potential to enhance our lives in ways that we cannot do by remaining solitary. Healthy relationships are based on reciprocation. Each partner gives to the relationship and receives from it equally. By virtue of that, each is willing to invest a great deal into the relationship, knowing that the return will be great as well. Both sides win and nobody loses.
Such relationships represent excellent investments and make perfect sense for the True Positive Individual. This person is caring. It strives to have an excellent life. It cares about others who care about themselves and who care about it.
13- Committed to Positive Relationships
The thirteenth characteristic is to be committed to positive relationships.
I assume that it is self-evident that one's relationships can and generally do have a profound impact upon one's quality of life. The True Positive Individual is committed to having an excellent life. Since relationships are such important factors in one's quality of life, one should not expect life to be excellent if one's relationships are not of that quality.
The principal relationship that one has in one's life is with oneself. You are the most important person in the world for you, as I am for myself, and so on. Therefore, if you want to have an excellent life, you must have an excellent relationship with yourself. You must invest in yourself and attend to your healthy needs to the greatest degree possible. Reality dictates that you will be there for every moment of your own life. You are the one person that you truly must have a relationship with. Given that fact, it is in your best interest that you address whatever conflicts you may have within yourself and make sure that you are someone that you would like to spend a lot of time with because you are going to be with you until your last breath.
The most important relationship that you will ever have is your intrapersonal relationship, the one that you have with yourself.
Interpersonal relationships are also very important in life. The difference is that one has more choice in the matter. The only true escape from the intrapersonal relationship is through death. Generally speaking, one can survive quite well without most interpersonal relationships and, hypothetically at least, without any. Realistically, however, virtually everyone does and will have some interpersonal relationships. Again, therefore, if one aspires to have an excellent life one had better have excellent interpersonal relationships. Inevitably, one will be selective regarding these relationships. We tend to have relationships with certain people and not with others. The most important determining factors regarding the individuals with whom one will have a relationship have to do with one's standards and values. Everyone has standards and values. They may differ from one to another, but we all have them.
If we look at humans and their relationships, we find that they tend to have their relationships with others who share their standards and values and not with those who have much higher or lower standards and values than them. It is, therefore, most probable that today, whatever interpersonal relationships you may have are with others who more or less share your present standards and values. You do not significantly interact with those who have standards and values much higher or much lower than yours. If you were to embark on the process of self-transformation in going from a limited negative version of yourself to become the closest approximation of the True Positive Individual version of you that you might achieve, you would change. Apart from the disappearance of the unhealthy physical and psychological problems along the way, one of the most noticeable changes in this transformation would be in terms of your standards and values. One does not become a True Positive Individual in one step.
In fact, one never really arrives at the destination because further transformation is always possible. As you would evolve, you would find yourself having higher (i.e. more life-affirming and healthy) and higher standards and values with each step of your evolution. As wonderful as that may sound and be, it is also extremely important to recognize that this transformation would have a tremendous impact upon your interpersonal relationships.
If you were in a relationship with someone and you were evolving to become your True Positive self but they were not, the transformation taking place within you would have a dramatic effect upon your relationship. Because your values and standards would be changing and theirs would not be, you would find yourself having less and less in common with that person and ultimately less and less respect for that person. As this gap would continue to widen, it would become increasingly difficult for the two of you to continue a relationship. Eventually, at some point the relationship would inevitably end because you would not have enough in common to maintain it.
If you were to decide to become your True Positive self and pursue the process that I offer to enhance this transformation, you will genuinely change. Because you will change, every relationship that you now have will inevitably change as well. If you are having a relationship with someone who is not in the process of becoming their True Positive self as you are, you will see that at some point that relationship will wither and die.
On the other hand, if the other person in the relationship was also striving to be its True Positive self, then the outcome would be different. Whatever problems and obstacles that exist in the relationship due to your individual and mutual alienation from yourselves and from healthy life-affirming values and standards would diminish and disappear. As a result, the relationship would flourish and develop in a way that would have never otherwise been possible, to approximate its greater potential.
In addition, as your standards and values would become healthier and more life-affirming, you would have the possibility of establishing new relationships with individuals who already had these higher standards and values. These new relationships would have never had the opportunity to exist for you without your transformation.
In the process of this transformation, the individual committed to becoming its True Positive self will inevitably limit its significant relationships to other individuals similarly committed. By significant relationships I mean the central relationships in one's life, the core relationships. Clearly, there are gradations of relationships from the most central to the very inconsequential. Although this individual will tend to become more selective in all of its interactions, it will reserve the option of its most significant relationships for those who most closely share its values and standards. One may potentially have a significant relationship with any other person. Such a person could become an intimate friend or partner in some activity, personal or professional.
When one understands what life is all about, there are a few relationships that should be considered significant by definition. These relationships would include the relationship with one's parent, one's spouse or spouse-equivalent, and the relationship with one's child. Since the True Positive Individual cares about its life and cares about its relationships, it recognizes that the relationships that it would have with its parents, spouse, and children would have to be considered of great significance. Furthermore, since this person is committed to having an excellent life for itself, it would want these relationships to be excellent as well.
The potential for these relationships to be excellent would exist and would be solely dependent upon each party in the relationship being committed to the excellence of the relationship and to healthy life-affirming values. Without that combination of factors, however, such would not occur. A relationship is like a dance. Without both parties being in synch, the dance experience will not be pleasurable and successful. If a person committed to being its True Positive self found itself in a relationship with its parent, spouse, or child and discovered that the other individual was not similarly committed to becoming its own True Positive self and committed to having an excellent relationship with it, then it would find itself having less and less in common with and less and less respect for the other person. At some point as the gap would widen, it would choose to end its relationship with its parent, spouse, or child in order to maintain its commitment to itself and its own healthy life-affirming values.
For this person, a relationship with a parent, spouse, or child would be of such special importance that it would not allow itself to participate in a relationship of that significance which was doomed to be second class or lower with someone whose values and standards, and commitments and expectations regarding the relationship were so low.
This decision would not be made lightly but it would be made. Furthermore, because this person would recognize that any other decision would represent a betrayal of itself and its commitment to life, it would ultimately make this decision with pride and comfort. Furthermore, when I indicate that it would end the relationship, I mean just that. It would not just drop over once in a while or call at holiday time or pretend that the other person was not its parent, spouse, or child. It would have the courage and conviction to terminate the relationship rather than accept less.
Clearly, such a prospect appears extremely frightening and demanding for many people. I have discovered in my professional work in this area that it is with this particular part of the agenda of the True Positive Individual that people will have the most difficulty. I remember a woman who came to me suffering from panic attacks who stated, " You know I really have no respect for my mother but I couldn't imagine not having a relationship with her." I advised her that she had just set her standard and that she should not expect to solve her problems. Another patient, a social worker, who had had ongoing unsuccessful relationships, was horrified when I indicated to her that the inevitable outcome of the agenda that I was proposing would be that she would terminate her relationship at some point with her alcoholic father. She replied that he was the most self-actualized man that she knew. I advised that if self-actualization included relying on alcohol to be functional then we had clearly different definitions of the term and indicated that so long as that was her position there would be no point in coming to see me.
It took me some time to recognize that decisions in this area are the most critical of all. After some time focusing on the area of change and having developed an effective method to accomplish it, I became frustrated with individuals who had the obvious potential for genuine significant change but would not achieve it. I observed them making superficial changes but leaving the central issues alone and thus going around in circles. I also came to the realization that the problem came down to that of agenda.
If you are prepared to put up with something then
that is what you should expect to get, no better.
With my perception of humans as caged apes, if the ape is prepared to stay in a cage as its goal, perhaps a slightly more spacious cage but a cage nonetheless, then that is where it will stay. Humans have been raised in cages and although the zoo keepers are getting the most out of having them there, the ones who have typically been most instrumental in forcing them into the cage and telling them that there is no way out are their parents. This violation of the child is best portrayed in the story of Abraham, as previously addressed. If the child is willing to ignore and accept such a pathological condition and relationship with its parent, its ultimate domesticator, then it should not expect to become a healthy wild animal. In fact, what it is really indicating by its position is that it too accepts the cage morality and would not dare such a harsh judgment because, obviously if one judges that harshly one should expect to be judged similarly oneself.
Therefore, the individual who states that it wants to become someone who is so committed to being its True Positive self, the undomesticated form of itself, that it would consider relating with a parent, spouse, or child not committed to such an agenda a violation of itself and of life, and would, furthermore, want to be someone who could end such a relationship with pride and comfort, has decided to leave the morality of Abraham and the cage behind. This person is prepared to address its core issues that have prevented it from being truly alive and healthy. It may find such an undertaking huge and intimidating but it would recognize such a state of being as its true goal.
I came to realize that without the genuine longing for such a state of being, real change would not take place and at the end of the day my clients would still find themselves in the cage, which they were fundamentally indicating they were willing to accept.
I realized as well that even if that was good enough for them, it was not acceptable to me. I came to understand that the issue of significant positive relationships was the litmus test for my process of change in order to clarify who was serious about getting out of the cage and who was not. Most were not.
The purpose of my effort is to work towards life and health and not simply help the apes cope in the zoo. I, therefore, decided that unless an individual was prepared to make this commitment, I was not interested in working with that person. The relationship that I have with my patient I consider to be significant and I cannot allow myself to have a low quality significant relationship. This area is of too much importance to me to allow me to betray the value system that I promote, practice and believe in simply to have clients. I decided, therefore, that I would rather not have any clients doing this than work with people who were not committed to getting out of their cage. I must have respect for the people I work with and I must have respect for myself. It bears stating regarding the commitment, that I do not expect all my potential clients to immediately terminate relationships with significant others who are not on the path to becoming their True Positive selves. I simply clarify that the outcome of the process would ultimately be just that and request that they be honest with themselves and with me in order to decide whether or not that is the kind of person that they want to become.
I advise them that I would be able to provide them with the instruction, information, and skills to enable them to achieve that objective with pride and comfort in its due course. It is like asking someone if they want to be assisted in being able to climb Mount Everest. Obviously the process would be different than helping them to be able to take a stroll through the park. Why work together if we do not share objectives?
What I am indicating, therefore, is that the True Positive Individual is someone who is committed to positive relationships and as a function of that limits its significant relationships to others who share its high values and standards. While one may have a significant relationship with any other person, the relationships with one's parent, spouse, and child are significant by definition, and therefore, a continued dynamic with any people in this category would only continue if the other person was also committed to a similar goal both in its life and with respect to the relationship in question.
The person committed to positive relationships, as described above, would rather not have a relationship, would rather be alone than betray itself and its healthy life values in having an unhealthy relationship. Let it be understood that there are not many people in this world who are prepared to make such a commitment. The simple point is that one does not have to in order to survive in the short term - civilization gives us that luxury. Therefore, a person who decides to go in this direction should not expect much company on its journey. At least at the present, it will find itself to be like a pioneer discovering new territory and should expect to meet with great obstacles and hostility while on the route. The person taking this route, however, will be someone who could not imagine any other option to be acceptable. For this person, because it will change, all of its relationships will also change and come up for evaluation.
There are three basic scenarios that will arise as it addresses the relationships that it already has. In all of the scenarios to follow, I will imagine that our individual is someone committed to being its True Positive self and is evaluating its relationship with a second individual.
In the first scenario, the other individual is someone who is not committed to being its True Positive self and having an excellent relationship with our subject and realistically never will be. In that scenario, our committed individual will recognize this and will cut its losses by ending the relationship as soon as possible.
In the second scenario, the other individual may be someone who hypothetically could become someone committed to being its True Positive self and might want to have an excellent relationship with our subject but due to this other person's actions in the past, it has crossed a line that should never have been crossed and that fact cannot be overlooked. It is, therefore, past the point of no return from the perspective of our committed individual. No matter what the other person might do, it is too late, life is too short to continue to engage with the other person, and our committed individual unilaterally ends the relationship. If the other person solves its own problems and gets on with its life, that is fine but our individual has no interest in any further investment in that other person. Therefore, scenario two is the past the point of no return scenario.
In the third scenario, our subject believes that the other person might be someone who could make a commitment to become its True Positive self and to have an excellent relationship with it, and it would be interested in such a relationship itself, but our committed individual is not sure of the other's position. So in this situation our subject must create clarity by confronting the other person. It would effectively have to say that its goal is to become its True Positive self and to have excellent significant relationships in its life and would ask the other person to clarify its own agenda for our subject's benefit.
At this point the other person may reply in a number of ways. It may indicate that our subject has too high expectations, that it should learn to become more tolerant and accepting and realize that after all we are only human. It may even go so far to indicate that our subject must have some kind of psychological problem precipitating its position and that it is worried about our person and that it should seek help. Upon hearing this style of response, our subject should thank the other individual for clarifying its position and then cut its losses and move on.
Another possible play-out would be that the other person may thank it for clarifying such a wonderful life objective that it had not previously considered itself. This other person might indicate that, yes, it too would be prepared to become its True Positive self. It may, however, also indicate that although philosophically they would share a lot in common as they both strove for the same basic goals, that otherwise they are very different, taking different paths on the same journey. So, as much as it might respect our subject, that in being true to itself, it does not plan to invest significantly in a relationship with it.
Therefore, once again, while there is a commitment to a common agenda, there does not exist a commitment to create an excellent interpersonal relationship.
The other possibility is that the other person, when confronted, would reply that yes, that was exactly the kind of person that it would want to become and yes, it would very much like to establish an excellent relationship with our subject, and so they would begin to do so. Even in this situation there can be problems, however. Although both are committed to similar objectives, their starting point may not be the same. For the person who is behind in its personal evolution it can be very difficult to relate well to someone more evolved than it. Likely if the personal relationship is truly of great significance to it, our subject will work extremely hard to narrow the gap to make the relationship more harmonious. Similarly, for the more evolved individual frustrations may well occur. By relating to a less developed person it is held back from fully experiencing the life that it wishes to have. It realizes that if it allows itself to grow at full capacity, its further development could threaten the survival of the relationship. If the relationship should not work for these reasons of developmental inequity, nonetheless the two people would continue to maintain a respectful dynamic and make the best decisions possible under the circumstances. However, if they are able to achieve a reasonable degree of commonality of development, then these two will be able to experience a healthy interpersonal relationship. The individual committed to positive relationships will understand that such events are rare in life in these times. It will invest in these relationships and cherish the opportunity for the pleasure and personal growth that they will bring.
14- Comfortable with and Enjoying One's Sexuality
The fourteenth characteristic of the True Positive Individual is to be comfortable with and enjoying one's sexuality.
Human apes are a sexual species. We are sexual in the simple sense that we are one of a large number of types of organisms that reproduce in a sexual manner, i.e. producing new generations by having the genetic material of two parents combine to form the offspring. By virtue of that we have male and female versions of our species. An individual finds itself belonging to one or other group, apart from the relatively rare intersex variants that occur due to genetic and biochemical anomalies.
Since the fundamental agenda of life is self-preservation and reproduction, self-actualization as a highly functional member of one's particular sex and successful transference of one's genetic information forward in time through reproduction followed by whatever is required to ensure survival of offspring must be considered of preeminent focus. Therefore one's maleness or femaleness is a vital characteristic to this end and enhancing that aspect of oneself to the greatest degree possible to maximize one's probability of success from a natural selection perspective is clearly in one's best interest. Therefore, the True Positive Individual is a very female woman or a very male man. As an important aspect of this, the greater one's maleness or femaleness, the greater the probability of finding a mate also at a high level in this regard and, therefore, when combined with other important characteristics, the better the probability of reproductive success.
Not reproducing is simply not an acceptable alternative from the perspective of life. Having said that, species do generally limit reproduction if the necessary circumstances do not exist to provide what is necessary for the probable survival of the offspring. Therefore, an individual may and should defer reproducing until it could offer its child what was needed to be healthy. Similarly, if an individual truly believed that there was no genuine hope for meaningful life for its offspring it might choose not to reproduce at all.
Clearly, such a decision would only be made in very bleak circumstances. Perhaps some people genuinely believe, in looking at the overall world situation, that such a horrible scenario faces them already. While I do not personally hold that opinion, I could imagine how one might, and not having children would indicate a fidelity to one's perspective and values in that regard, certainly much more so than those who reproduce mindlessly.
Therefore, apart from those scenarios, it is the most natural thing in the world to be very preoccupied with ensuring one's reproductive success. What it means to be male or female varies from species to species. For our species there can be no doubt that just as we have become seriously alienated from our basic animal nature we have also become very distanced from our true sexual nature. This should be hardly surprising since the process of civilization is a fundamental betrayal of life and little can be more central to life than sexuality.
I believe, therefore, that at this time it is very difficult to make pronouncements regarding what is appropriate from a masculine or feminine perspective. I do believe, however, that if one is willing to be true to oneself and accept the notion of oneself as being a sexual animal that in the process of self-discovery one's sexuality will blossom. The most important point in this regard is the affirmation of sexuality as an integral part of oneself without which one cannot expect to be truly alive and healthy.
In speaking of sexuality, one is referring to sex, i.e. intercourse, but also more than that. Integrating one's gender into every element of one's life is an important aspect of this person's character. The True Positive Individual is very comfortable with its gender and living out its healthy gender roles throughout all the different stages of its life. As a function of this, it is happy to be the sex that it is and, furthermore, comfortable with and proud of having the body that it has. It perceives no part of its body as being bad or inherently ugly and for that matter, apart from simple environmental reasons sees no cause why any part of its body should have to be hidden from others in a shameful sense. Its comfort with nudity and its body is not in an exhibitionist style. Instead, it considers clothing simply to be an option, which at times may be very practical to use. However, it perceives that we are, after all, just a species of ape, and the idea that we must be clothed is silly. Putting garments on us, though practiced for a very long time, is ultimately as unnatural as dressing up cows or octopi and should otherwise be considered such.
It also, while striving to be healthy and fit in order to function effectively, does not have pathological concepts of an unnatural body form to match some externally imposed ideal. Since it trusts and likes itself, it believes that its body will assume a healthy form with proper care and lifestyle.
As for sex itself, it is able to engage in sexual activity that it finds very pleasurable and can be proud of. This sexual activity is in keeping with its basic life-affirming value system. It does not have to betray itself either to avoid or to have sexual activity. It does not use sex as a drug to escape from a deadness within as so many civilized apes do.
In this regard, while addressing the issue of sexuality with my patients, I have encountered individuals who stated that at least in this area they felt that they were highly evolved since they had experienced a great deal of sex and in a significant variety of ways. I discovered, however, that simply having frequent powerful orgasms does not in and of itself indicate having a satisfying sexual life. While not wanting to downplay the value of orgasms, it is important that the individual feels truly alive in its sexual life and, furthermore, engages in activity for which it should have no reason to be ashamed.
On the other hand, I have met individuals who have decided to become essentially asexual, having decided to eliminate sex and the possibility of sex from their life. In doing so, a crucial and vital element of the individual dies and this can only lead to disease. We are very sexual animals, perhaps only less preoccupied with sex than one other species, the bonobo chimpanzee which uses sex as an integral form of interchimp interaction to a degree which far exceeds even our sex-obsessed species. Therefore, allowing one's sexuality to flourish is an important aspect of rediscovering one's animality.
In terms of the male-female dynamic, there rage ongoing debates about what the natural form of this interaction should be. I seriously doubt if there actually exists a correct form of relationship between the sexes. The whole nature of life and evolution has been the continuous development of varying approaches to reality as time went on, and whatever worked to enhance self-replication survived.
Through the course of civilization a war has been established between the sexes and, like any war, genuine hatred has unfortunately developed. Putting animals in cages brings out the worst in them and when humans become cell mates every aspect of their positive animality suffers. Because individuals cannot and do not fulfill their healthy internal programs, frustrations develop towards themselves and others. At some basic level each sex realizes that they are not what they could and should be, having been neutered through the process of domestication, and similarly recognizes the other sex to be not what nature intends. Since the majority of the survivors of domestication ended up still existing by virtue of their self-betrayal and thus their inherent irresponsibility, it is hardly surprising that they spend the majority of their time and energy blaming and hating the other sex. Furthermore, since they each have such well-deserved low self-esteem due to their self-betrayal, in order to feel even minimally of worth they unfortunately try to dominate the other sex as much as possible.
The brutality of civilization has been its most predominant characteristic. In addition, life has been deemed of little value in the zoo. Since the females happen to be typically the less physically powerful sex and since they are so fundamentally connected to the whole process of self-replication, it follows that they have been considered of little value and subjugated through the course of civilization.
Civilized societies have been consistently patriarchal, preoccupied with domination of females and the life-affirming force of female sexuality in all of its aspects.
For their own part, women have allowed themselves to breed with men of little or no value and have been party to the devaluation of life, putting the value of gold over life and sending their men off to war. Both sexes have surrendered to a pathetic view of life, themselves and their sexual partners. Each sex, therefore, is getting its just rewards.
If members of each sex refused to reproduce with those who were not committed to healthy life values, the zoo would end almost immediately because it requires generation after generation to continue it. Neither sex has been interested in or willing to do that so far, but that is all that it would take to end this regime. Each individual has the power to make such a decision for itself and for the well-being of its own genetic information.
Some comment must be made about the topic of homosexuality. If the agenda of life is for it to continue, then it appears obvious that homosexuality is not in harmony with the agenda (by homosexuality I refer here to an exclusive preference to sexually interact with members of one's own sex and thus not focus on reproductively-oriented sexual activity).
I have had the opportunity to work with homosexuals in my practice and, as of this time, do not claim to understand the nature of their situation in terms of whether it is inherent or acquired.
If homosexuality is a genetically determined state, then it is clear to me that for a homosexual to be healthy it must be true to itself for what by now should be obvious reasons. I would nonetheless have difficulty understanding how such a trait could be considered anything other than a deviation from the healthy life path since by definition homosexuals would not be inclined to self-replicate. As a result, such a genetic tendency would not seem to have a high probability of success under the rules of natural selection. It is possible, however, that in the unnatural conditions of civilization a variant form of human would be more probable to develop and survive than in a more natural system.
That homosexuals are stereotypically considered to be more likely to be involved in interests and professional activities which are very much part of evolved civilization may be an indicator of such a reality. The corollary would be that if the zoo were to collapse, homosexuals would have more to lose than heterosexuals.
On the other hand, if homosexuality is acquired, and thus effectively a disorder of healthy heterosexual sexuality, then we are dealing with a somewhat different scenario. It is clear to me that such an acquired pattern, if it is so, typically develops at an extremely early age. That such could be the case does not exclude this possibility from my consideration since, as those who pursue this process of transformation that I am offering will see, very early, i.e. even prenatal, events can result in learned behavior.
In fact, the earlier the event and the pattern the more profound its impact. If such were true, then by definition a homosexual could not be healthy without changing this acquired pattern. It is not surprising that traditional therapies have been consistently unsuccessful in this regard if such is the case since their methodologies, unlike the one which I ultimately shall present, do not enable such fundamental change to occur.
In either case I perceive the homosexual to be in a very challenging circumstance from a bigger picture perspective. If such an orientation is its true nature, I would encourage it to allow its homosexuality to flourish but would advise that its likelihood of self-replication is low. If it is an acquired state, it must become heterosexual to become healthy and of course enhance its probability of self-replication. I believe that the solution to this question lies within the individual.
As of this time, I have not worked with a homosexual individual who I believe has addressed its core issues sufficiently to meaningfully answer the nature or nurture question and so I do not claim to know which is the case. It is a fascinating issue and I hope to someday have a clearer understanding of it than I do today.
However, a homosexual still has the option of pursuing the agenda that I present because it is ultimately about one's self-actualization which in a fundamental sense is the same issue for any individual. The key issue in this regard is to be truly comfortable with and proud of one's sexual orientation having honestly confronted oneself and being willing to express one's essence.
As someone who is comfortable with and enjoying its sexuality, therefore, the True Positive Individual is someone who is comfortable with its gender and sexual orientation and has a satisfying sexual life of which it is proud.
15- Committed to Ongoing Growth and Development
The fifteenth characteristic is to be committed to ongoing growth and development.
The True Positive Individual believes that in life you really have nothing to lose. It is just happy to have this chance to be and to experience, and it plans to take full advantage of it. Since it understands the reality of ongoing change and evolution of all things, it recognizes that this also takes place within itself. It is, therefore, anxious to develop as many facets of itself as possible to acquire a wide range of experience while it can. Every experience is perceived as an opportunity to learn more about life and itself. Boredom is a concept foreign to it. It is dumbfounded with the general fascination with magic and mystery since it sees the magical and mysterious all around it in the natural processes of the universe. It is most excited about knowing how the universe works so it can appreciate its beauty and better learn to harmonize with its workings. Because it is focused on the essential it maintains the big picture perspective consistently.
Its life is its canvas and it strives to enrich it with experience and is not focused on material acquisitions, understanding the emptiness that they bring when acquired as ends in themselves. Efforts are expended towards obtaining creature comforts if those things genuinely are necessary, and if not of vital importance it does not invest its resources if doing so would diminish its ability to properly attend to its fundamental healthy life agenda. As well, because it connects the effort with the result, whatever it may acquire must give it some healthy pleasure worth the investment because it does not use it as some escape mechanism from reality. It has no need or desire to escape.
If its situation is not satisfactory, it understands that it is up to itself to make things better. Similarly, it does not yearn for some easy paradise, a land of milk and honey where all of its needs are automatically met without any effort on its own part. It understands that such a situation would be unnatural and that living in such a manner would cause it to lose its best attributes. It is the struggle of life that has made it what it is. It does not wish to become a vegetable since it happens to belong to an animal species.
For similar reasons, retirement has no fundamental appeal. With its jungle perspective, it plans to be functional and self-maintaining to the end of its days. It has escaped from the cage and is doing what it wanted to do and so stopping or having to stop due to infirmity does not attract it. It is, furthermore, not preoccupied with death. It understands that death is an inevitable part of the life process. Its focus is on life and living. It knows that death will look after itself. While it may have curiosity about what, if anything, happens at the time of or after death, there is too much going on in its life to waste energy on something that is beyond its access. It certainly does not live its life so as to ensure some favored status at the time of its death. This world is its home. Its commitment to ongoing growth and development is what keeps it vital. It understands that as soon as one stops growing and developing one starts dying. It realizes that it will have an eternity to be dead but only a very short time to be alive. In this regard, it strives to live as close to the edge as possible, in a healthy sense. It knows that it is a clear awareness of one's mortality and the act of putting it all on the line consistently that brings out the best in an individual. It does not live as if there is no tomorrow. It lives knowing that there will not be another today. The True Positive Individual, therefore, constantly challenges itself to explore and maximize its opportunity to be alive.
16- Joyful
The sixteenth characteristic of this individual is that it is joyful.
As a result of living its life in harmony with the basic healthy internal agenda, it is rewarded with a feeling of happiness and this feeling when taken to a high level is experienced as joy.
Although to many it may appear that striving to be happy is a remarkably obvious objective for any living thing, surprisingly, there are perspectives that deride such a pursuit.
To begin with, let us consider if joy as a goal fits into what has been described as the fundamental agenda of life. This agenda has been defined as self-preservation and self-replication. If all life is simply trying to maintain itself and transmit its genetic information forward in time, then what would joy and happiness have to do with such objectives?
At a fundamental level, we are a collection of atoms which form molecules which form different types of cells which combine to form organs which come together to form our body. This machine which is our body is built to function and function well. A primary aspect of how we function is experienced by us as how we feel. We have a wide range of feelings but in their most basic form they can be described as being feelings of pleasure or pain. We define pleasure as being an enjoyable sensation and pain as being one which causes distress. These sensations are informational, telling us how we are doing at any point in time.
If something is happening which is harming our organism, when some critical point of information is reached we discover that we have an unpleasant sensation. This sensation is effectively there to alert us to do something to try to take corrective measures to stop whatever is causing harm. If, on the other hand, something is happening which is helpful to our organism we experience pleasure and will typically attempt to have whatever is happening continue. Again, the underlying concept is that there are certain states of being that are desirable and others that are not and that we have the capacity to recognize these different states. The ability to recognize these states of being is part of our fundamental program and is therefore genetically pre-coded.
The basic program is all about self-preservation and self-replication. Therefore, a sensation of pleasure is fundamentally a feedback that we are on the right track to achieve our basic agenda and pain indicates that the basic agenda is being threatened in some way. Therefore, a state of happiness indicates that we are in a mode and on a route to enhance our basic agenda and a state of joy indicates an even greater degree of the same.
Therefore, joyfulness as a target is very much related to the central life program in that it is our organism's indicator telling us that we are in an optimal state to achieve the fundamental healthy objectives of life. So while life is about surviving and going forward into the future, the organism that does this effectively also gets to enjoy the experience along the way and has a sense of extreme well-being which we call joy.
One of the interesting phenomena that I have observed is that of human apes wondering if other animals have feelings. It appears obvious to me that anyone who would ask such a question has spent precious little time with and observing other living things. Such a question could only come from a perspective that holds humans outside of the realm of animals and one that hopes to justify the unnecessary horrors committed to other animals by our species. It is, however, hardly surprising since significant numbers of our species promote the stupidity that newborn males do not suffer when undergoing circumcision without anesthetic or that fetuses do not have feelings either. All living things feel. They experience their lives and respond in some manner to whatever is happening in them. To be without feeling is a characteristic of something that is dead.
As for the notion that there is something wrong with wanting happiness, there is a certain intellectual perspective that has contempt for striving for happiness, perceiving that only very shallow people could desire such a state of being. Such individuals often believe that a state of alienation is our inherent fate as humans and that we should nobly strive to create meaning in a cold and empty universe. While it is fair to recognize that we are presently alienated from our true nature through the process of civilization, clearly the existentialists are 'the glass is half empty' type of people. Not surprisingly, they tend to be northerners who have spent too long away from the sunshine.
They need to get back in touch with their bodies and learn how to dance!
I had the opportunity to observe another common position that discourages the pursuit of happiness a few years ago, when I attended an ethnic festival that happened to take place at the facilities of a Christian church. Upon entering the building, I happened to see a poster that was promoting the values of this organization. Along with such other values as obedience and chastity, they included the value of being long-suffering.
It seemed to me that if one were to join an organization that promoted the value of being long-suffering then one should expect that one would end up suffering for a great length of time. While I could not understand why anyone would knowingly join with such an unpleasant agenda, at least I had to give the church credit for not hiding the facts of its objectives.
The opening position of Buddhism is that life is suffering. Along with obedience, many religions, notably Christianity, promote that it is good to suffer. The image of self-flagellating monks is a physical portrayal of this perspective. Such a dismal viewpoint holds that life on earth is hopeless, along with an other-world or other-reality agenda, and operates with the concept that if you can suffer enough in this life and in this world then you might gain entrance to the wonderful other world or the other life. The True Positive Individual wants its rewards on this planet and in this lifetime. It works with what it knows to be real and does not get lost in mystical life-denying views of reality.
Another position may be that, of course joy is the goal of life, so why don't we all just go out, get drunk and have a big party? What I am referring to is the 'if it feels good do it' mentality. At a very obvious level, first of all, indulgence in certain activities that may cause a sensation of pleasure can lead to destructive outcomes to oneself. Certainly, ingestion of drugs, alcohol, junk foods, promiscuous sex, gambling and a variety of other activities give the individual a transient feeling of comfort but have significant unhealthy consequences.
Since I have argued that pleasure means being on the course to health and pain means being on the course to destruction, then why do such self-destructive activities give so much pleasure? The answer is that these activities only appeal to the individual who has lost its focus and commitment to becoming its True Positive self, i.e. the individual who has decided to accept living within the cage. As well, such options largely exist as a result of civilization's ability to create them. In addition, the state that one finds oneself within due to these activities would render one non-functional and open to death by predators if one were not protected by civilization. Most importantly, however, all of these options are simply coping mechanisms for the pain that civilization creates in the domesticated animal.
The animal that has accepted the cage and then just tries to find out how to be comfortable within it is very different than one that is in the cage but has dedicated its being to getting out. The one committed to gaining its freedom perceives reality from a different perspective and genuinely is not attracted by the state of being which the coping mechanism creates and certainly not by the price paid for using the coping mechanism.
In other words, junk food really does not taste as good when you are in a life-affirming mode as when you have surrendered to the cage. The organism adapts to its situation and effectively becomes a different creature. In this regard, when operating with a stay in the zoo perspective, the pleasure-pain system becomes effectively inverted due to an alienation from the healthy basic program. Typically in the zoo mind frame, what is attractive is destructive and what is less appealing is healthy.
What is really going on in the domesticated state is negativity. Since positivity has been defined for the True Positive Individual as confronting reality and finding the most effective way of dealing with reality, negativity is its opposite - running away from reality and effectively giving up. Being positive or negative is a decision. One either chooses to confront or to run away. One either chooses to find the best way to deal with a situation or does not. If one chooses to be positive, the coping mechanisms are seen for what they are and whatever they offer is no longer appealing. If one chooses to leave reality, then of course they help you make the trip. However, when reality grabs you by the neck do not expect to have much pleasure then.
What motivates the individual to run away from reality is pain. We do not like pain but humans, particularly civilized humans, have developed the capacity to live with it through our various internal and external coping mechanisms. The fundamental issue that our species copes with is the reality of being a domesticated animal. If one chooses to leave this problem alone then one is limited to accepting the pain that goes along with it and then either living in pain or finding some means of escape from the inescapable - therefore, the coping mechanism. If one has accepted negativity and chosen to run from reality, the pleasure-pain system will help one achieve this but only from a small-picture perspective since the further down the path one goes in that direction, the closer one gets to self-annihilation. Clearly, this has been the species-wide choice that we have exercised - it is the essence of civilization.
The other option is to recognize the pain's existence, confront why it is there and then find and use the most effective means possible to address the reasons for its existence. In this problem-solving mode the coping mechanism loses its value and appeal. The healthy option, therefore, involves extricating oneself from the zoo and then working to destroy it. When one is on this path then one can increasingly trust the pleasure-pain system to be reliable.
So, even though one may not yet be out of the cage and even if the zoo is still overwhelmingly powerful, the simple recognition of its existence and the commitment within oneself to do everything in one's power to get out of it brings the first glimmers of happiness. As one goes day by day forward in that direction and gradually observes the progress and liberates oneself from the pain that seemed impossible to be free of initially, this happiness becomes less infrequent. The individual committed to being its True Positive self believes in the real possibility of happiness and, beyond that, the option of joy. It is its mission to get as close to that state as possible. While it recognizes that suffering can occur in life, it also knows that the point of life is to be alive and to have as much joy as one can for as long as one can. Otherwise, survival and self-replication of organisms in perpetual agony does not seem worth the effort.
In working with a large number of individuals, I would typically ask them what their goals were in coming to see me. A very common answer that I would receive was, "I just want to be happy." My reaction to that statement is, "You just want to be happy?" To achieve happiness is a remarkable achievement and to achieve joyfulness more remarkable still. These states of being are attained by the individual who consistently challenges itself to live in accordance with the natural laws of life and to be truly alive in its life.
Although joyfulness is the last characteristic of the sixteen that I name as being integral to the True Positive Individual, its position on the bottom of the list does not indicate its lack of importance. Instead, it should be considered the ultimate reward, the experiential flavor that turns life from an exercise in biochemistry to a sensual adventure. To become a True Positive Individual one must have the courage to aim for joy in one's life. This is what distinguishes the human from the humanoid.
In describing this composite character, I have chosen to identify these sixteen characteristics as the essential ones.
Therefore, to be a True Positive Individual, the healthy version of the human animal, one is to a very high degree, in the manner described :
- True to oneself
- Positive
- Self-confident
- Independent
- Capable
- Intelligent
- Wise
- Proud
- Honest
- Direct
- Creative
- Caring
- Committed to positive relationships
- Comfortable with and enjoying one's sexuality
- Committed to ongoing growth and development
- Joyful
The prescription for health is, therefore, to become this person.
This is the antidote to the poison of domestication.
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