Basic Fear: Of being helpless, useless, incapable
Basic Desire: To be capable and competent; to have something to contribute or “bring to the table”
(Damaging) Self-Image: You are separate from the environment as an outside observer.
Level 1: Level of Liberation
Behaviors (outer): visionary, pioneering, enraptured, profound, revolutionary, compassionate, knowing
Attitudes (inner): participating, immediately apprehending, comprehending, awed, clear-minded, trusting
Self-Actualization: Let go of your identification with a particular self-image, that you are separate from the environment as an “observer.” Let go of needing to see yourself as impartial and objective.
The Fear that will kick you down to a less healthy level: Of being helpless, useless, or incapable. You begin to fear that you can’t handle life on your own. You fear that you’ll be overwhelmed unless you control your energy output carefully.
The Counterintuitive truth that you have to face to move to a healthier level: N/A
Level 2: Level of Psychological Capacity
Behaviors (outer): perceptive, “smart,” curious, insightful, playful, alert, unusual
Attitudes (inner): observant, attentive, sensory acuity, fascinated, unsentimental, objective, self-contained
Desires (why do you act and think these ways): To be capable and competent (to have something to contribute)
The Fear that will kick you down to a less healthy level: Starting to question the sufficiency of your perceptions will kick you down to a less healthy level. Specifically, beginning to question that your perceptions are sufficient enough to give you an orientation to life can tempt you to take a step back from really participating in life, just until you’re “absolutely” sure (which may never happen). Thinking and “preparing” begins to replace doing and living.
The Counterintuitive truth that you have to face to move to a healthier level: Let go of the self-perception that you have to “buy” your right to exist by having something to contribute. Capability, competence, and ability are wonderful qualities, but you are a person worthy of “taking up space” whether you have them or not. Practice deliberately participating in activities you haven’t “mastered.”
Level 3: Level of Social Value
Behaviors (outer): innovative, original, skillful, inventive, communicative, creative, learning
Attitudes (inner): focused, exploratory, open-minded, patient, whimsical, uncompromising, independent
Desires (why do you act and think these ways): To create a niche for yourself – that you (and no one else) have completely mastered. You believe this mastery will instill confidence.
The Fear that will kick you down to a less healthy level: The sense of being “unprepared” may intensify, leading you to doubt that you have anything valuable to contribute. This fear kicks off a (potentially endless) cycle of needing to prepare more thoroughly before you can really “show up” in your life.
The Counterintuitive truth that you have to face to move to a healthier level: It may seem like the answer is to gain confidence by mastering an area or creating a specific niche for yourself, but it’s a trap. Mastering an area intellectually is fine, but it can’t produce the confidence you want in order to live your life. That confidence is only gained through the actual experience(s) of life. To gain confidence, act; don’t analyze.
Level 4: Level of Imbalance
Behaviors (outer): expert, knowledgeable, acquiring technique, collecting, studious, practicing, delay closure
Attitudes (inner): conceptualizing, encyclopedic, model-building, analytic, uncensored, preparing, avaricious
Desire (why do you act and think these ways): To feel safer and more confident by withdrawing into your mind – there’s always another “thought experiment” that needs playing with
The Fear that will kick you down to a less healthy level: As your commitments to greater preparation ramp up, you begin to resent demands on your time. You start to be afraid that others will demand too much of you – your limited reserves of time and energy, particularly. Your threat response may go on alert – others and the outside world seem to be encroaching on your inner world.
The Counterintuitive truth that you have to face to move to a healthier level: It feels safer to retreat into your mind and imagination, but the confidence to deal with the world that you are looking for cannot be found there. Resist the urge to withdraw; engage instead. Think of it as an opportunity to learn – from others. Take notes, if that helps, but there won’t be a test.
Level 5: Level of Interpersonal Control
Behaviors (outer): preoccupied, creating worlds, secretive, speculative, high-strung, offbeat, impractical, compartmentalized
Attitudes (inner): detached, abstracting, intense, ignoring needs, complexifying, absent-minded, agitated
Desires (why do you act and think these ways): You just want to shut out “intrusions” (other people and the outer environment), so you have “peace and quiet” to think (intensely).
The Fear that will kick you down to a less healthy level: The sense of alert raised at the previous level grows here. You begin to have full-blown suspicions that others are “attacking” your competency. Any interest others show in your niche may be interpreted as trying to “steal” it for themselves. Paranoid tendencies may begin to develop.
The Counterintuitive truth that you have to face to move to a healthier level: Intensifying your mental activity isn’t the answer. Those “intrusions” from other people are not obstacles to be overcome. They are the life-lines thrown out to rescue you from your withdrawal. Perhaps it can help to think of it this way: the more you withdraw, the less objective you become (i.e., no checks and balances). Repeat the mantra: “More thinking is not always better thinking.” Work toward treating others like the happy “epiphanies” that bring joy to your thinking rather than the troublesome “interruptions.”
Level 6: Level of Overcompensation
Behaviors (outer): provocative, argumentative, scornful, antagonistic, contentious, far-fetched, subversive
Attitudes (inner): extreme, cynical, intellectually arrogant, distrusting, pessimistic, jumping to conclusions, stingy
Desires (why do you act and think these ways): To scare off anyone who threatens your niche and/or “limited” resources of time, energy, or materiel.
The Fear that will kick you down to a less healthy level: You may begin to despair that you will ever find a place in this world, and you’re not sure if you care enough to try either. Interacting with others begins to feel not just intrusive but also tiring and exhausting.
The Counterintuitive truth that you have to face to move to a healthier level: Welcome people into your “inner world” and thought process. You’ll be surprised at how much they may understand, if you’re willing to take the time to really connect with them. At this level, spending time with other people feels like the last thing you want to do, but it’s the only thing that will truly help. Join a book club, local fan association, or some other group that centers around an interest or activity that you share. Resist the urge to become the club “expert” on some area; just participate. Refrain from any judgments concerning the intelligence of others.
Level 7: Level of Violation
Behaviors (outer): eccentric, isolated, unstable, rejecting, emptying, burning bridges
Attitudes (inner): nihilistic, retreating, devaluing, dark fantasies, feel besieged, no expectations
Desires (why do you act and think these ways): To cut off all connections with others and the world to regain a sense of control in the one area you still trust – your own mind.
The Fear that will kick you down to a less healthy level: At this point, you are becoming severely unhealthy. Fear has become paranoia, and you are becoming paranoid that the world is closing in on you. You feel a tremendous urge to “cut ties” in order to regain a sense of control.
The Counterintuitive truth that you have to face to move to a healthier level: While you may feel like burning your bridges and proclaiming “to hell with everything,” you need to seek connection. You may continue with any group associations you made at the previous level, but you may also seriously consider some form of support group or group therapy.
Level 8: Level of Delusion and Compulsion
Behaviors (outer): delirious, hallucinating, projecting, repelling, sinister, insomniac
Attitudes (inner): schizoid, distorting, weird perceptions, horrified, overheated (thinking), nauseous, resisting all help, “no one understands”
Desires (why do you act and think these ways): The only desire left is to fend off all terrors (and, in this paranoid state, almost everything seems like a terror)
The Fear that will kick you down to a less healthy level: Paranoia becomes full-blown at this level, and you turn it toward the one area of trust that you had maintained until this point: yourself. You begin to doubt your own mind, ability to reason, and grasp on reality.
The Counterintuitive truth that you have to face to move to a healthier level: Fight withdrawing through connection. Give preference to simple actions that help people in practical ways. Abstract thinking won’t pull you to healthier levels, even if it feels like the “key” to everything. Also, eschew any answers that offer the “key” to the universe or existence. Grand, unified theories likely have always seemed attractive, but they’ll be especially tempting at lower levels of psychological health. Go to group and/or individual therapy.
Level 9: Level of Pathological Destructiveness
Behaviors (outer): “psychotic,” deranged, suicidal, annihilating, “analysis paralysis,” catatonia(-like) states
Attitudes (inner): seeking oblivion, imploded, split off, inner chaos, feel damned
Desires (why do you act and think these ways): To leave “reality” and cease all sensory input. Even consciousness has become the enemy, and escape is the only desire.
The Fear that will kick you down to a less healthy level: N/A. The basic fear is realized. Any objectivity you once had has been effectively destroyed through extreme withdrawal. You have become helpless, useless, and incapable through your actions all the while giving every scrap of your attention to your thoughts. It seems like the only path left is to break away from your own consciousness.
The Counterintuitive truth that you have to face to move to a healthier level: No easy move. Go to (residential) therapy. Begin to work back by acknowledging the lie that started the whole process. It is a lie that you are separate from your environment as an outside observer. You are a partial and subjective being, just like everyone else. So, live life (imperfectly) – just. like. everyone. else.