>[!quote] Not every treasure has a dragon, but every dragon has a treasure. —Jordan Peterson The Judeo-Christian descend into and the emergence from the underworld, which has the shamanic transformation rituals as its precursor, is the path to personality transformation to which all other ideas of such are derivative of. Points made: - Transformation necessarily requires deaths albeit them being minor, and that is why we are eternally resistant to change—to change is to die. - Humility is the precondition for atonement, echoing [[Carl Rogers]]' idea that willingness to admit fault and to learn is the precondition for any therapeutic endeavor. - Thinking is "seek and the door shall be open" put into practice. - Prayer is the practice of upward aim in relationship to personality transformation. - Revelation is, with fortune on our side, what we learn given our aim is right, and we are humble. It descends upon us and make us more than what we are. - [[Karl Friston]] made the case that anxiety "emerges as a consequence of the manifestation of entropy, disorder, chaos, anomaly, the unknown." That means anxiety is experienced when our map of the world that makes it predictable is no longer functional. - There is a mirroring effect of malevolence. Betrayal not only causes anxiety because of the other's unrevealed complexity, it also shows that there is such capacity in me. - [[Karl Friston]]'s theory also argues that while negative emotions increase entropy, positive emotions decrease entropy as positive emotions are linked to progression in the path of goal pursuit, suggesting that one's model of the world is correct. - "Descend into hell is the dissolution into entropy." Within this single line is poetic, metaphorical language being equivocated with psychology language built on a fundamental physical concept. - Intelligence is the rate of producing ideas. Creativity is the breadth of the scope of ideas that can be co-activated. Mircea Eliade documents three routes to shamanic vocation: 1. Spontaneous vocation — Highly creative, and high in openness people, probably also high in neuroticism. "People tormented by ideas solve problems." And they may look like they border on psychopathology. But whether or not something is psychopathological depends very much on whether it is voluntary taken up. 2. Hereditary transmission — Passing down of knowledge of the shamanic transformation process, including the use of psychedelics. 3. Personal Quest --- Back to: [[PA Personality and its Transformations]] Next Lecture: