THE HIGH LEVELS [of Thinking - and How they Make Things Better, Sometimes]

It's time for PsychoMath by Homath. In levels two, I'm going to explain the higher levels of consciousness and why you should stop focusing on them. But first, a quick review.

Relationships are failing. There is a wedge between men and women. Marriage is ending. Countries are disintegrating. And it's all because the people we live with are not grown-ups. Not anymore.

Before we get started, if you're here for my normal making fun of Tik Tok girl videos, I promise more are coming. Those are fun and easy and they make a lot more money. But these long videos are important. I spend weeks and weeks on them because I need to set up an entire library of diagrams like this one, and I will get better at explaining things as I finish them.

So, this is a levels of thinking video. Uh, if you have not seen levels basic and levels one, those will fill you in on anything you're missing here. But for now, this video is about levels or layers of thinking, how they work, why they matter, why you should not just pretend you're at the high ones and how the low ones cause problems.

In levels one, I use this drawing to show how that works. This guy here just does not understand what other people think. That's a low level of thinking. Basically, he wants to smoke in someone else's house, and this guy says no. And they get in a fight because in this guy's consciousness, it's cool to smoke here cuz we're not at work or school. So, why are you saying no? You must hate me for no reason. You must be dumb or evil or something.

But this guy understands that there are two perspectives happening here. And since it's my house, it should be my rules. That is a higher level of thinking because it includes more perspectives. People who are not capable of that are actually dangerous because every time they don't get their way, they think they're being victimized.

This is the same thing that's happening right now in politics. We used to expect people to be at level four or five as adults. That means that you are capable of saying, "Okay, we think different things. We disagree. Let's find a way around this." rather than fighting. But today, there's one side in particular that thinks there's only one right way and basically we're gonna do whatever we want in your house. That is an alarmingly low level of awareness for that many people to have. That's not normal. That's basically thinking that other people are just things that are there to do what you want and not people with their own thoughts and feelings.

And before you start arguing, we know this is true because people on the right can explain the thoughts and feelings of people on the left, but the left cannot do this in return. So even though we're mad at them, we understand what they believe and why. And we can see that we just have different opinions. But when we ask them to explain what we believe, they say, "You're just insane and evil for no reason." And that's just the way it is.

That's actually a really good levels test that you can do in real life. If you disagree with someone, ask them to explain what you think and feel and why. And if what they say is you're just evil and full of hate, you're dealing with someone at an alarmingly low level of thinking. They're basically just doing this to you. Oh, you don't think the way I think? Well, then you don't matter.

And this is what that kind of thinking looks like. These people are celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk, who never did anything but speak about his basic American morals. According to these people, that means he deserves to die. He doesn't agree with me, but it's not because he has his own thoughts. It's because he's full of hate for no reason and therefore not people. And it's just not normal for that many adults to be stuck at this level.

Most of them were about here. Those people dancing were interested in control and power. They're interested in connecting but only with people of their own group. They're interested in conforming and belonging but only to their own group, the one true way. And they're not interested at all in different ways of life and how they work for different people. So our world was built at about this level and this new generation is stuck about here.

My mission is to teach people how to think and make people more conscious. I do this with my drawings and I also do this with Self-Max, today's sponsor. I designed Self-Max myself. This is a map of how your mind works, whether you're conscious of it or not. You feel a desire, it enters your mind, you take actions that go into your world, and they become your life and hopefully you learn something and then the process starts all over again. Using the map makes you more conscious of that process.

Self-Max is an AI platform that walks you through the map step by step. Just show up, say what you want today, create a goal, get suggestions from the AI, and Self-Max will point out where your mind should be. Self-Max even learns about you. You can tell it about your life, take personality tests, and there's even a levels test called Level Check. I designed Level Check to ask you questions, listen to your answers, find which level you're coming from, and then nudge you a little bit higher to find your highest level of thinking. And now Level Check has a new upgrade. Level Check voice has nine sections and you answer them by speaking into a microphone. I'll have to take this one over. Now Level Check can measure your level of thinking closer to where it would be in your everyday life. I got a seven on relationships. I got a six last year and that showed me how to grow. But I got three on needs. That helped me see that I've been trying to control life by running away from people and that's self-protective. Now I can see that my next step is to find a place to belong one step at a time.

Selfmax and Level Check make it easy to think about your own thinking so you can grow up faster, find your own value, offer it to the world, and get more of what you want out of life. All you have to do is let it guide you to the next step. Click the link in the description to start growing up or go to selfmax.ai. Help me make the world more conscious by doing it yourself.

Aside from selfmax, I try as hard as I can to make people more conscious with my videos and my charts like this. This is the table and this is the the table table. You find things on here to put on the table for the world. It comes from men asking women, "What do you bring to the table?" And a lot of women will say, "I am the table." Which means only my needs matter. You don't have needs. I just deserve things and that is just the way it is. There's no other perspective.

When too many people are stuck at this level, the place they live becomes undeveloped, unstable, and chaotic because they're all just focused on winning and being on top. So, that's what my channel is really all about. I want people to think at higher levels, especially this one. The screeching Tik Tok girls are a great way to get people to pay attention. Thank you for being what you are. and also stop it. But I really just want people to grow up so we don't lose the world that we built because we will as long as people keep thinking I deserve, I deserve. I deserve and they don't give back.

Grown-ups, providers build the world by putting in work and getting value back. Not from people, but from nature. And deservers destroy the world by just soaking up all that value and giving back little or nothing. So getting people up here is my main focus and that's why I'm going to try to rebrand to psycho math. It's exactly as funny, but now I can expand into psychology and it doesn't scare the hoes as much. Let me know how you like it in the comments. I'll still make homemath videos, but it'll be like a subbrand. In case you don't get the joke, psycho math would be like the math of psychology or measuring how people think. And it also sounds like psychopath so I can lean into being a jerk and dunk on my haters.

Anyway, this video is about the high levels and why you should not be in love with them. When you introduce people to levels of thinking, you're going to notice that people want to be at the high levels. Some people just assume they're already there. Some people play word games and they go, "Oh, I accepted something once, so I must be up here." That's called confusing the map with the landscape. That's like the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. Just because you've pointed at the moon doesn't mean you've been there. And just because you've felt these feelings doesn't mean you live at these levels every day. These are signposts, not a checklist. And if you think you've been to the moon, just cuz you pointed at it, you're never going to actually do the work to get there. So pretending that you're at the higher levels is the best way to never grow up.

If you want to grow through the levels, you have to constantly use your conscious mind to ask yourself, what's going on in the rest of my mind? What am I thinking and feeling and why? That's thinking about thinking. You have to actually listen for your own brain lying to you. That's what I talked about in SCOPS. the lower levels of your brain will send you messages and most people just figure out how to believe them instead of questioning them. Some of the more common lies that your brain might tell you include, I'm always the good guy or I deserve something more than other people or this fact that makes me uncomfortable must be false. How do I make this false? How do I use words to make this fact look false? You have to be able to catch yourself uh telling yourself these lies and go, "Now, why would I tell myself that?"

I will make an entire video on what it's like to move from level to level. It's different for each one, but it is always thinking about thinking. Most people just write a story with the lower parts of their mind and then they just believe their own story without asking any questions. And that's dangerous because the lower parts of your brain are easier to manipulate. And then anyone who disagrees with it is an insane and evil monster who deserves punishment. At least that's how these levels think. And that's how most people are in the world. Some countries used to be better than that because the people were developed to higher levels on average, but we have fallen.

So if you want to be a higher level thinker, you can't just say you're already here because that's what these levels would say. You have to consciously listen to your own story. And then instead of just saying that your story is awesome and being done with it, you have to ask yourself, why is my story different from yours? What am I missing? What are you missing? That's how you absorb all the different perspectives that make you a highlevel thinker.

So higher level does not mean better at math or better at making money or or gh. It it it doesn't mean nicer. There's so many people who think that the higher level you are, the nicer you are until you are the most nicest and then you give everyone free cookies. And that's not how it works. I'll make a whole video on that, too. What it means is thinking about thinking about thinking.

This drawing is from an old video where a girl suddenly realizes that her dad tells her to stay away from boys because he knows what they're thinking. So, she has a moment where she says, "Oh, dad tells me that because dad is having thoughts about the thoughts of boys cuz he knows what they are." So, that's a thought about a thought about a thought thinking about thinking and that's all happening in her head. I know that dad knows what boys are thinking. So that's first, second, third person perspective, which is about level five. And this was a young girl, so it felt good to see her getting there.

Let's go over this same situation from the bottom. First person would be, I desire something. Give it to me right now. And that would be, "Dad tells me to stay away from boys, so I have to do it when he's not looking." that corresponds with avoiding punishment or self-interest from Coberg's stages of development. At second person, there's a right way to do things. That reasoning would look like this. Me and dad and boys all want different things. In other words, we're all struggling for power and control. And so, there must be a right way to handle this. Should I listen to dad because he wants what's best for me or because he's in charge? Or should I listen to the TV and do what I want? That would be Coberg's good boy stage. I'm doing what I'm supposed to. That's conform, belong, obey, follow rules, choosing a way of life.

At third person perspective, your choices are all up to you. Now she understands why dad has rules because he knows what could happen to her. So now she knows what the potential risks are and how much she's willing to take. Now she's a grown-up. So down here it sounds like dad is saying you can't have what you want. Like he's being controlling. Up here it sounds like dad is saying do what I say because it's the way we do things. You have to follow my rules. But up here at the rational level at the third layer of thinking about thinking she finally understands that dad is saying these are the consequences of your choices. It's up to you. You have to make your own choices and you will be responsible for what happens. This, in my opinion, is the minimum level to be an adult.

That's how higher levels of thinking create a better world. Instead of just running out and getting hurt, she can listen to dad and go, "Oh, gotcha. I'll keep that in mind." What women mostly do today is they just jump into the dating circus and then they hope that they don't get hurt by this situation. And then I made this whole chart to warn them about that. And then they just call me an incel because at a lower level of thinking, they're not thinking about my thoughts about the thoughts of the men they're dating. They just see me as dad but without power. So I don't have to do what you say.

There are a lot of women who appreciate my work, but they tend to be like this. Now that I'm 60, alone with a string of hooked up with hot guy and it led to nothing in my past, I can't argue with anything you said. So, I was easy prey to attention by hot guys who just wanted to get laid. I just don't want women to be 60 and alone with a pass like that. And if they think at higher levels, they'll avoid it more often. And that's why higher levels are better. And that's why everyone wants to be there. And I want to help you do that. But you have to go step by step.

So, I just walked you through the first five levels. And in my last video, I kind of stopped at level six. There's a reason for that. First of all, that is where it gets complicated. This is 1 2 3 4 5 6. I didn't even try to do seven and 8. This took me 3 days. Second of all, the move from 6 to 7 is a critical point that we are struggling with as a culture. I have seen over and over again people who are stuck at level six fantasize that they are at levels 8 and 9 so they can feel like they're cool. And if you do that, you're never going to get there.

Okay, here we go. This is where it starts to get weird. This drawing I've been showing you is a thought about a thought about a thought. That's three layers. Level six is one more layer up from there. I drew this to illustrate. Starting from the bottom again, this is the first step. She sees only her own mind. There's things that she likes and then there are problems. So basically, dad is just getting in the way of what I want.

At step two, now she's understanding that other people's minds have their own things in them. So just like my mind has things in it, their minds have things in them, too. At this level, she's just going to pick which one to conform to. So if dad had a lot of support, if this was like the 1940s, Annie had a lot of support from family and church, she would conform to that. But since she's probably getting all her support from Tik Tok, she's just going to listen to, you know, go with the times and do what you want. So, she'll conform to this instead. That's why it says second person here at the conformist level because at second person, you can see, oh, other people care about things just like I care about things.

So, this girl again was at third person. That's 1 2 3. Let's see what that looks like. She knows that dad knows what the boy thinks. She also knows that the boy knows what dad thinks. Do you see how that's a much more clear picture of what's going on for her? She's not just picking who to listen to. She now knows what their reasons are for wanting her to listen. And one has a good reason and the other one doesn't. Specifically, dad is saying, "I remember when I used to chase girls and I didn't always have good intentions. So, the boy is probably doing that, too. You have to look out." But the boy knows that dad is on to him and he's just saying, "Ah, dad doesn't know nothing. You should just do it the cool way." So now instead of just picking the old way of dating, which is boring, or the new way of dating, which is fun and exciting, now she can see the reasons that each uh guy wants his own different way. That's much more clarity. Clarity increases at every level.

Now we're at the fourth step, level six. There's fourth person, level six. I know it's confusing that these numbers don't match, but I'll explain in a later video why 1 2 and three are all in first person. So, fourth person is level six. What's happening here is she's basically taking this entire thing and running it multiple times in her own mind. So, now, not only does she see more clearly what's going on, but she also gets to decide who she wants to be in relationship to what's going on. Do I want to be the good girl who listens to dad? Or do I want to go with the times and assume that dad is just insecure and he thinks the boy is a monster because dad just doesn't get it?

So, at first person, you see the world and you respond to it. At second person, you see a whole world full of people seeing the world and responding to it, and you have to pick how you're going to be to fit in. At third person, you see a whole world of people picking the ways that they're going to be. So instead of just fitting in, you have to decide who you are for yourself. And at fourth person, you see a whole world of people you could be. And that's where that floating feeling comes from. Who am I going to be? It's up to you. How do I decide? It's up to you. And once again, this is possible because of a thought within a thought within a thought within a thought or thinking about thinking about thinking.

So basically this square, this empty square is just the consciousness of an individual being. Even like a dog or a mosquito. A mosquito can know that it wants to suck your blood and it would have I want blood in here. But a mosquito cannot simulate your consciousness. Higher beings can do that. They can go, "Oh, just like I want stuff, the mosquito wants stuff. It wants to suck my blood." And so here she's simulating this is what I want but oh dad wants things and boy wants things. And then here she's going oh dad knows that boy wants things and boy knows that dad wants things. So it's another layer and then here is four layers. So I want you to notice that the the girl could make the same decision uh either of these two decisions at any level but the reasoning is very very different. Over here, I'm going to date the boy because I want to. Over here, it's because Tik Tok said so. Here, it's because I don't care if that's what the boy wants. I just want to live my life. And over here, it's because I could choose to be a cautious, conservative person, or I could choose to play fast and loose, and I'm going to choose fast and loose because I want to live my life. So, the more complexity in thinking, the more power you have to choose, and that's when things start to get weird.

You might remember this drawing from my first levels video. This is what that level felt like to me. There's so many different ways that I could be, so many different versions of myself, and so many different ways to respond to everything to choose from that I I didn't know which one to go with. That's what she would be doing here, looking at all the different potential choices she has for who she wants to be. That's why they call this level the individualist. Because when you get the power to choose who you are, people start wanting to be who they are. In other words, how can I be who I want to be if I'm still being a version of myself that other people told me to be? And that's why not only is this level individualistic, but it's also very anti-conformist. They try to break the rules as much as they can because they don't want to be held back by them. Some people take this way too far, but not everybody who does this is at a high level. Some of them are doing it to be individuals. Some of them are conforming to people who did it first. And some people are doing it because no one tells me what to do, like dress like an adult.

So again, you can make the same choice at any different level, but the reasoning is what's different. And the reasoning at level six, fourth person, is just really unstable. So because there are so many different versions of yourself to choose from and you don't want to just pick one because then you don't get to be all the others, people at this level start to see everyone else in the world as also having many different versions of themselves to choose from. And so if I want to be who I want to be, then I have to let you be who you want to be. And that's why this level values inclusion. That's what they mean by empathy. And that's why their morals are all holding hands under a rainbow. It's also a feminine level.

Let's walk through the whole thing again. First person perspective, levels 1, 2, and three, is I want stuff. I want to get my way. There's only my way. Second person, level four, is oh, everyone wants to get their way. We can't just fight over it forever. Let's figure out what the rules are. How are we supposed to behave? Then third person, level five, is when you go, "Wait a minute. Everybody has their own ideas about what the right way of life is. There's not just one. So my way of life is up to me." And then finally, at fourth person, level six, there are so many different ways of life that we could choose that we really just have to let people be who they are. And that means understanding everyone and including everyone everywhere all the time and never saying no, which eventually leads to this. And more importantly, it leads to this. This guy wants to be understood and included for being who he is. And so, he also wants to understand and include everyone else. Even though sometimes, a lot of the time, they don't want to understand or include anything that doesn't conform to their one true way. So they are trying to include people who don't want to include. And now you have a major problem. You're tolerating people who don't tolerate you.

So now you see the contradiction. Anybody can be what they want and believe what they want, but only if they agree that everyone can be what they want and believe what they want. And almost nobody does. And you also can't make them. You cannot force people to grow. Sometimes they just don't want to. Sometimes they don't have what they need to get there. And also, there are IQ limits on these levels. I don't have the data with me right now. I'll find it later. But I'm pretty sure that being at level six puts you in the top 20% of IQ globally. And what you're trying to do is create a world that includes 100% of people in the world, even though 80% of them don't want to include everyone. That's not going to work. That's just the Tower of Babel. If you don't know the Bible story, basically all of the people in the world come together into one place and then God confuses their language, meaning that they can't talk to each other and they don't get along and then there's a big disaster. That's what you're doing. And that's why this problem can only be solved by getting everyone we can to move to the next level.

I will finish drawing out fifth person perspective for you at some point. But for now, just imagine taking another step back from this. So again, we have my mind, we have everybody has a mind, so we have to coordinate them. And then everybody's mind is is their own. So we all have to be our best selves. And then finally, anyone's mind can be anything. Anyone can be anything. So we have to accept anything that anyone wants to be. Take another step back from that and you will see the key realization that starts to move you to the higher levels. And that realization is I am not my mind.

This can be difficult for some people. So I will walk you through it. Let's start with I am not my body. Imagine that I cut off one of my fingers. Am I still me? Do I still exist? Wouldn't I still have all of my memories and my name and my driver's license? I'm still the same person, right? What if I get fat or thin? What if I get old? I'm still me even though my body has changed. So then I can't really be my body. I'm just kind of operating it.

Well, your mind works the same way. Imagine that you could cut off a part of your mind like maybe you forget how to cook eggs or you forget third grade or something. You would still be you just without that memory, without those thoughts. You would still be a person existing and seeing reality and remembering your name and having a driver's license with the same name, right? What about Alzheimer's disease? Your mind slips away bit by bit, but you don't become a different guy.

Think about your body again. When you get hungry, you don't say I am hunger. You say I am hungry. Hunger is here now. It'll be gone later. It's not who I am or what I am. It's just happening to me. All of your thoughts are exactly the same. People say things like, "I am a libertarian or I am a Star Wars fan." But really, you're just experiencing libertarianism or fanhood in the same way that you experience hunger. It doesn't matter how long you have felt these things, you never become them. Just like if you're hungry every day for years and years, you never become hunger. So, your thoughts are the same. They are things that happen to you and you are just along for the ride. And just like at level six when you want every part of you to be included and so your morality becomes about including everyone else. When you get to level seven and you see your mind happening to you, you also see everyone else's mind happening to them. That's when all of this starts to make sense.

I drew this little time spiral here because when you see that your mind is happening to you, you remember your mind happening to you throughout time. You remember I used to see things this way and then this way and then this way and then this way. And that's where you get levels. You remember being here, then here, then here, then here, and then you look at everyone around you, and then you see everyone else being here, and here, and here, and sometimes here, and not much else. And then you realize that that's not going to change because you remember yourself changing and you see everyone else not doing it. And then you go, "Oh [ __ ] we should have paid more attention to who we put together." And then you make a YouTube channel to warn everyone.

So fifth person perspective is about seeing your own mind, seeing everything that your mind is and wants to do from the outside. Just like you can say, "I'm hungry or I'm tired." you start going, you know, I'm feeling a little libertarian today. Maybe it'll pass. And just like your body gets hungry whether you want it to or not, your mind also does things whether you want it to or not. So instead of talking about how people should be, you just go, "Well, they're not. My mind does this, your mind does that, their minds do this. So maybe we should plan for who people are instead of pretending that we can change them." And then you can start designing the world around your own mind and the minds of other people. And that's where you get integration and harmony.

So again, the major difference between level six and level seven is I am not my mind. You are not your mind. Our minds are happening to us just like our bodies. And we have to plan for it better than this. You can't should this into working. Go tell the moon that it should be an owl. It's not going to work. It's still the moon and people are not going to change either. You're not going to make progress and a lot of them don't fit together and you're not going to make them. So to get to the next level, you have to see that the mind is its own thing just like any other thing and you have to deal with what it is.

I once had a life coaching session with a guy from a writing group and he told me that his group was working on the same script for 18 months because every time they finalized it, someone wanted to change something. This guy wanted this script. This guy wanted this script. This guy wanted this script. They could not get five guys from the same neighborhood to agree on a movie. They were trying to make every part of everyone fit into one thing and it destroyed the thing. My solution for him was that in 18 months you could have all written your own scripts and you're in charge of this one and you're in charge of this one. And if you don't like it, that's too bad. This is my script. I'll I'll listen to your ideas, but if I don't like them, we're not doing them. And when we do your script, then you don't have to take my ideas.

This problem of insisting that everyone gets included everywhere. I'm calling it everybodyism. And it destroys everything it touches. This is one way of life up here. This is another way here. And when you insist that everything gets included in the same place, it all collapses down to the bottom and turns to mud. So at the lower levels, you're either good or bad all the way up to level four. Like Islam says that Islam is good and the gay bar is bad and that's everywhere in the world all the time forever. And then level six says we can get them to live together. We can make Islam be more understanding and then Islam disagrees and instead of having both ways of life, it collapses and then you get only Islam because that's their one true way. it all falls down. But at level seven, there is a place for the gay bar and there's a place for Islam. It's just not the same place. They don't both go in the same script. And if the Muslims want to live in the gay place, they have to conform. And if the gays want to live in the Muslim place, they have to conform. And level six gets very mad at us when we tell them this because they don't understand this yet. They think everybody can be here. So when we tell them everything in its right place, they think that we're talking to them from here and what we're saying is America number one, bomb them back to the stone age. So if we can somehow get these people to take this fifth step back, they'll finally move from being this mind that has all these parts, they'll move outside of that and they'll see my mind makes thoughts that look like me because I'm the one thinking them. And then imagine another one of these over here. And then your mind makes thoughts that look like you because you're the one thinking them. And some of us are not as far along as others. And that's why we can't live like this because it all falls to the bottom. You can't include everything everywhere, not even with five people. This is the thing we're doing. You can either fit or leave. We're not changing the thing. And that is everything in its right place. This is my house. That's the place. We don't smoke in here. You can't have both. We smoke and we don't. And this is my house, so it's my rules. There are places for that. They're not here. And all of this comes from I am not my mind. Whenever I have a thought, I'm the one who thought it. So, it's shaped like me cuz it comes from me. And your thoughts are shaped like you.

The higher levels might not sound like you were expecting. Some people think that it's going to be like a spiritual experience, like I'm sitting on a mountain in a sunbeam and I'm free. And some people think that that it means being a better person according to whatever morals they have at this level. Like at this level, if I think racism is bad, then a higher level person must think that racism is really, really super bad. And that's not how it works. Remember, more perspectives equals higher level. A higher level thinker would not just yell their opinion louder. They would say, "Why do you think the opposite of me until they they understand everyone? You can't be up here if you don't understand even the people who disagree with you. You don't have to agree with them. You don't have to conform, but you do have to understand. And lower level thinkers cannot do that because they think that that listening to someone, understanding them is the same as agreeing. They they say things like this. They go, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear this because then I might agree with it and then I would be bad like you. Then if I listen to you, then this might move over here and then I would be the bad guy and I would lose all my belonging points and I can't have that. So not understanding your enemies and and being like this is the best way to stay down here forever.

Now let's move on to level eight. Remember that level seven starts with I am not my mind. I see my mind doing all the things it does just like I feel my body doing the things it does. So once you realize that you are not your mind because your mind changes over time you spend a lot of time watching your mind change from the outside and eventually it just starts happening by itself and now you're here. So again, just like I feel hungry, but I'm not hungry. You can say I feel anger at this video I saw, but I'm not angry. The angryness is not me. It's just what happened to my mind just now. And because I can see all of that from the outside, the question is now not just who do I want to be according to the way I see things, but rather which way of seeing things do I even pick? There would be multiple of these fours within a big five that I'll draw later. That's why these levels are second tier because down here there's sort of one way that the world is. And as you move up, you gain more ability to change the way that you see the world or to react to the way that you see the world. But up here, it's like, oh, I have power over the way I even see things. There there are many ways the world is and I can just watch how my mind puts it together and wait and choose a different one. So remember thinking about thinking these levels would be understanding understanding. Oh now I understand the way I understand and there are different ways to do that. That's why I'm so good at understanding women because I I get it that there's a whole world of feelings and needs and emotions that matter to them that don't matter to us. They have feelings and thoughts that we don't have. So, I just spent a lot of time with them and I said, "Why did you do that?" And they told me and I wrote it down. I have suffered women that you may not. And I can do that because I am not my mind. I am watching it happen. And when I watch my mind happen, I can see other people's minds are happening to them. And I want to know why. I want to understand how they understand. And I also want to understand the way that I understand.

Let's go back to Steve for this one. At a lower level, 1 2 and 3, I would look at Steve and go, "This guy's a jerk. I don't like him. That's just it. That's the way it is." At a middle level, four 56, I would say, "Well, me and Steve are different people. We see things in different ways and that's okay, but maybe we just shouldn't hang out. At a higher level, I would be able to look at Steve and think, what is it that's making me judge him this way? What do I not like about him? Is it is his hat? Is it the way he talks? Is it is that he's smoking all the time? What is it? What have I seen and heard that makes me think the way that I think about him?

So, at level eight, right in the moment, you get to see why your mind wants to do what it wants to do. So, let's say I don't like Steve's hat, which is true. I don't. At a lower level, I would say, I know that hat. People who wear that hat are usually jerks, so Steve's probably a jerk. At a higher level, I would say, I am noticing my own belief that this is a jerk hat, and I don't need to engage with it. I don't need to believe in my own belief that this is a hat for jerks. I can wait for new information about Steve and build my perception of him in a different way. And that gives you the power to choose not just who you want to be in relation to Steve, but how you are inventing an idea of Steve. That is called being construct aare. And that literally means that you are aware of the way that you are constructing your own self and your own thoughts. That's why I use the word maximize. Because when you become aware of how you are telling yourself a story, you can let go of it and look at all the different bits of information you have and say, "Is there a better story I could be telling myself?" That's what I'm designing Self-Max to do, to walk you through choosing your own story in the best possible way.

I'm not going to talk about level 9 that much cuz I think I'm not in it that much. I think I might be taking a little step into it sometimes, maybe. Level 9 is sixth person. So, this is first person. Second person is multiple first persons. Third person is multiple second persons and so on. By the time you get to six, I'm probably never going to draw that. The reason that I called it complete is because it feels to me like the question is the answer. You might notice that the higher you go on these charts, the harder it is to describe what's happening. This is almost like poetry. It's hard to be precise, but I'll give it a shot. So, just like at level eight, you're watching your mind put stories together in real time, like you're seeing all the little bits of whatever you're looking at. like this is Steve's hat and this is I know that Steve smokes and this is something nice he said last week and this is where he went to school. You can see all the little bits of reality and you can see your mind building them into a story in real time and so you can choose how to build that story. You have you have more options for how you want to tell yourself the story about all the facts that you see. At level nine, you're now watching the choosing. There's that poetry again. It's just kind of unavoidable. At least for me, at least right now. Everything that is brought us to where we are, and it will bring us to what is next. Look at what you see. That is what you have. It's just it's mush. That's why the stereotype of the wise man on the mountain is that he says things that are really obvious because they are obvious but you forgot and he didn't. That's why he's the wise man. Like the journey of a,000 miles begins with a single step. Well, of course it does. That's the only way to begin a journey. So, how is that useful information? Well, it's useful because you forgot about the first step. you never took it because you were worried about all the steps that are not here yet. So you got lost in the question cuz you forgot that the question is the answer. So then everything that you're looking for is inside of your own mind already right now and you find it by thinking about your thinking like what do I want? Why do I want it? Is that a good reason to want it? Well, if it's a good reason, why am I not doing it? Oh, I guess I'm scared of something. What am I scared of? Why am I scared of it? And that's how I don't know what to do becomes the first step on the journey. I want to know what to do. And then how do I find out what to do? I built you I built you a map that leads you through the steps. So you're not there yet, but you are on the way there, which is where you want to be because that's how you get there. If you want to be there, then being on the way there is where you want to be. Unless you don't want to be on the way there and then you can be going somewhere else and then that's where you want to be. Even if you're suffering, if you're having a bad time, you can still be on your way to being done suffering. That's that's what this is. This is I'm on my way to this being over. That's why the urge at level 9 is accept, surrender, admit, detach, release, let go. It doesn't mean give up and stop trying. It means if you are trying then that's where you are and that's good enough. I am trying. I accept that I'm trying and now I'm done. I'm at the part where I'm trying. I believe that's what they mean by living in the moment and the power of now and so on. It's like right now I want to be done with this video. It's taking me too long. So I am now at the place complete where I will be done with this video and I'm wondering if people are going to like it. Is it going to be more popular, less popular? And now I'm I'm at the part where I will find out soon. I'm doing everything correctly to get to that part. So, I am done. I'm I'm there. I'm on the journey. So, it is what it is. Question, answer, journey, first step. I don't know. I hope I'm not getting this one wrong. Maybe one day I'll talk to someone who's been here for a while and they can let me know if I uh misinterpreted anything or left anything out. But it just feels like a transition. Like I remember moving from here to here really quick when I was 12. It was kind of all of a sudden and then this was a slow growth through high school and the first time I ever got here I was 20 and I decided I wanted to read two opposite political books at the same time. I read an Anne Coulter book and a Michael Moore book back to back just to see what it made my mind do. And that was me challenging my opinions. That was me saying I am not my opinions. I'm not my mind. I'm not my personality. And I remember those transitions. And this just feels like another one. That's all.

So in my opinion, level 9 feels like the opposite of a kid who's not getting candy at the grocery store. You know how they kick and scream and throw a fit? You have to imagine a kid who uh is not getting candy and he goes, "That's disappointing. I'll sit with it. The world would be better if we could all behave like that because it changes how you can choose to see things before you act."

So, I'm just a guy on the internet and I make a lot of dating videos. I know I'm nobody's source of morality. So, I will just quote the Dollaly Lama. If a mad dog is coming towards you, compassion is no use. What that means is that peace and acceptance and surrender and kindness and all that, it makes you a better person, but the dog is still mad or the bear. I didn't draw a dog, but I feel like I have to say this because so many people come to me and they say they think that that a highly developed person will be nicer. Like like more high is just more love. This is just a ladder of hugs. But you can't hug the bear into not being a bear. You need bear spray. And you can't should the bear either. Islam should accept the gay bar. Well, they don't. So, you're stupid. You should have known that. They told you. When you say they they should accept each other, that is the resistance. That's the opposite of this. That's you being the kid in the grocery store kicking and screaming cuz you don't get candy. That's you being lost in the journey because you can't see the first step. I want everyone to be nice is just gimme, gimme, gimme. I want the world to be my way right now. It is absurd how much clarity you don't have when you say that. I want things to be different than they are. Well, they're not. Accept it. Once you do, then you will know what to do with much more clarity. And the more that we get people up these levels, the better the world will be. So, higher levels are not all magic and joy. Okay, you're not going to see a bunch of eyes like an Alex Gay painting. Higher levels are just when you see more and more of what's right in front of you because you are paying attention to the way that you are looking. And the more of it you see, the less you have to kick and scream and the less you try to sh everyone. And the only way to get there is to take the first step that is in front of you right now. And Selfmax and Level Check are designed to help you do that. Sign up here.