the Puzzle: why do you follow a path that you've learned takes you to bad outcomes

the failure of sincere vows

There’s nothing newsworthy about making a mistake. . . the first time. But when you make the same painful error again and again, you’ve got a problem to solve. It’s generally easeir to see the solution to someone else’s problem than your own. So here are two examples of this puzzle of the soul [psyche]. A soul suffering the consequences In retrospect the protagonist shares that judgment but will nevertheless repeat the mistake at the next opportunity. These are generalized examples. The objective of this project is to help you solve your particular puzzle. Namely, what causes your perverse tendency to follow a path that you have already learned takes you to unwanted outcomes.

The first puzzle involves reccurring failure to control your appetite for a substance [such as food or a drug] or an activity [such as sex/porn or gambling]. The solution seems so obvious unless you are the one caught in the trap. Consider Mr. E, a compulsive gambler.  He’s lost more than he could afford on several occasions, and each time he swares he’ll never gamble again. Several months after his most recent vow of abstinence from gambling, Mr. E is driving through the Rockies and entertains the though of a side trip through Las Vegas.   He remembers the pain of previous losses as well as his sincere vow to never gamble again.  On the other hand, he feels certain that he will be able to control himself and will walk away from the table if he needs to.

Figure - Ground

The Mystery of Mysteries

Puzzle #1: Can you solve the mystery of Mr. E’s repeated relapses despite his sincere intention to never make that mistake again?

  • Why is there so little resistance each time to violating his sincere vow to “Never gamble again?”
  • Why does he continue to take his promise seriously after observing that he breaks this vow every time he makes it?

The Trap Detector self-test  

Satanic Versus

Puzzle #2: Mimi is lonely. Can you help her solve the puzzle of why all her lovers leave her?

After an argument, Mimi’s boyfriend attempts to apologize: “I’m sorry.   I love you.” he says. Mimi interprets this as “I’m sorry I love you.” which triggers feelings of abandonment and rage.  As a result of Mimi’s excessive reaction, he wants out.  Sadly, Mimi will continue to drive intimacy away until she solves the puzzle of what causes her react as she does to the things that happen.  

To solve the puzzle of why you repeatedly choose a path that you would advise yourself not to take, use the A-B-C hack to: 

Research cause-and-effect

personally explore the mechanism responsible for voluntary self-sabotage

taken in by the soul illusion

What’s so puzzling is not that Mr. E and Mimi act in ways they later regret but that they make the same regrettable choice the next time they get the chance (even when they promise they won’t).  Why don’t they learn the lessons their pain is trying to teach them?

If your biography includes a recurring pattern of unwanted outcomes, you have a puzzle to solve: Why do you continue to follow a path that you have already discovered takes you to a bad place?

It looks different than it Feels

If, like Mr. E, your puzzle involves excessive appetite [for a substance or activity], focus on the sequence of events that lead to a relapse. If, like Mimi, your puzzle involves an excessive emotional reaction, focus on the sequence of events that triggered the emotional reaction.  In either case, you will see things differently in retrospect than you experienced in real time. What was obviously a mistake in hindsight probably felt like the right thing to do at the moment.  To solve the puzzles of the psyche, you have to appreciate both of these realities.  Specifically, you have to understand your puzzle from the inside out (first-person perspective of cause-and-effect) and from the outside in (third-person perspective of cause-and-effect).

The objective reality is an array of pixels on the screen. Images do not exist until an observer creates them from the stimulus elements.  The Soul Illusion [the bogus assumption that you see things as they really are] results from forgetting that the map your nervous system creates to represent the objective world is not the same as the territory it is attempting to depict.  The Failure to appreciate the difference between objective and subjective reality shows up as recurring patterns of unwanted outcomes

Click an image to examine it

Neker cube
Necker Cube
ambiguous figure
how fast can you flip?
ambiguous figure
perpetual motion
ambiguous figure
Angels & Devils
Figure Ground
9 Embedded Figures
Figure Ground
Who’s bigger?
Identical Figures
Tabletops
Identical Figures
Shades of Grey
Contrast
logo for the psyche
Impossible Figure
more illusions
why the protaganist fails to see the solution

the truth is cruel

The truth is cruel, but it can be loved
and it makes free those who have loved it.

 — George Santayana

The cruel truth is that you don’t have immaculate perception.  Your interpretation of the things that happen is biased. If you think you see things as they really are, then you’ve been taken in by the Soul Illusion [the bogus assumption that your particular map of reality is the same as the territory].   

Everything you think you know is a fiction created by a biological creature with a point of view.   Acting as if this fiction is the same as objective truth is the cause of your avoidable suffering. 

The way out of these recurring patterns of self-sabotage is to accept the humility of Socrates.   

 You voluntarily choose a path that you’ve already discovered takes you to a bad outcome because of the illusion that you see things as they really are.  Mimi and Mr. E are each certain that their current interpretation is objectively valid.  When they later experience the familiar bad outcome, each is certain that they have learned from their expensive education.   Alas, this certainty results from the same illusion that causes them to repeat their mistakes despite knowing better.   


The black dots in this image exist only in your mind




Watch the video for more phenomenal imagery

There is no "most valid" photo of me, so I chose this one on the basis of utility

How I chose my photo for this site

I went through the photos I had of myself and chose the most flattering one. Then I had the thought: “You can’t use that one, it makes you look better than you really look,” then I thought: “Actually, it’s the other pictures that make you worse than you really look.” Needless to say, this internal dialogue reflects my self-focused ruminations rather than facts about the objective world.  Each of my photos shows how I look from a particular perspective. Since there is no “most valid” photo of me, I cannot use validity as the basis of selection. So, I followed Nietzsche’s advice and chose on the basis of utility.

Just as there is no most valid photo of you, there are no objectively valid judgments of you. Different perspectives generate different judgments about your worth, loveability, shame, etc. None of these perspectives is valid and complete. But you have to look at things from some perspective. Nietzsche recommends that you choose your perspective on the basis of utility.

You can find more on this topic at Intentional Trance Formation.

Dr. Will Dubin
(At least how he looks from one perspective)

Find the solution to your puzzle by looking within

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