I'm Dr. Orion Taban and this is Psych

Hacks Better Living Through Psychology

and the topic of today's short talk is

become a monster.

So, this is an episode on personal

development as it pertains to embracing

the shadow. I'll begin by asking a

question. Have you ever had a nightmare

in which you were being chased or

attacked by some sort of monstrous

creature? Most likely the answer is yes.

Almost all of us have had this

experience or something akin to it at

some point in our lives. Maybe the

nightmare was so intense that it caused

you to wake up, your heart pounding in a

cold sweat. At this point, if you're

like most people, you probably thought

to yourself, "Wow, that was absolutely

terrifying. I had this dream and this

monster almost ate me."

Sounds natural enough, doesn't it? But

[snorts] the interesting thing about

this interpretation is that nearly

everyone identifies themselves with the

potential victim in the dream. Almost

certainly because this is the character

that they most obviously resemble. But

the truth is that in such a dream, the

dreamer isn't just the potential victim.

The dreamer is every single character.

How could it be otherwise? After all,

the dream takes place entirely within

the consciousness of the dreamer. So,

who else could these characters be? In

such a dream, you are yourself, yes, but

you are also the monster. You are the

recipient of fear and you are also the

cause of it. You are the unwilling

victim and you are also the violent

perpetrator. And if there are other

characters in the dream, you are them as

well. You are your father and your lover

and your third grade teacher and the

NPCs that observe the whole ordeal.

Again, how could it be otherwise? This

entire drama is unfolding in your mind.

Now, one way to approach this

realization is to consider these various

characters as representing psychological

archetypes that reside inside of you.

The you in your dream is likely your

self-concept. That's easy enough. But

your father could be your patriarch

archetype, which symbolizes all within

you that yearns to build and create and

maintain. Your third grade teacher could

be your high priestess archetype, which

symbolizes all within you that strives

to understand and to convey that

understanding to others. Even the NPCs

could potentially represent the

indifference of objective reality as you

construe it in your own subjectivity.

And finally, and most relevant to our

present discussion, the monster could

represent the beast inside of you, your

primal nature, your propensity to rage,

your capacity for violence, your

participation in chaos and destruction.

Trust me, whether you like it or not,

all of these qualities reside within

you. You're a human and you come

equipped with the capacity to experience

all that humanity in all its horror and

glory has to offer. The potential for

every human action, from the most vile

to the most noble, lives inside of you.

Now, most people are terrified of these

aspects of their own humanity. They run

away from them which ironically is

exactly what happens in nightmares like

the one I described earlier. They do not

want to come into direct emotional

contact with these aspects of themselves

and they are concerned about what the

presence of these aspects means with

respect to their perceived goodness and

respectability.

As a result, most people suppress,

repress, and deny these aspects of

themselves. As a consequence, they can

believe that these darker tendencies

have absolutely nothing to do with them.

Consciously, at least, they are them and

the monster is something else out there.

But that's not the truth. The truth is

that they are both themselves and the

monster. And in my experience, people

tend to experience dreams like this to

the extent that they haven't

acknowledged and integrated these other

aspects of their personality.

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This is the crux of shadow work. It is

the process by which one's deep and

complex humanity is explored, accepted,

and ultimately integrated into one's

conscious sense of self. When people

don't do this work, that is, as long as

certain parts of themselves remain

unagnowledged and disavowed, then they

will project these inner qualities onto

the outside world and respond in kind.

And let me say this in no uncertain

terms. Failing to accept your own

capacity for monstrosity perpetuates

evil.

This is because until you acknowledge

and integrate the monster within, you

will likely move through the world with

a dangerous belief system. to wit.

Almost every act of evil throughout

history, from small instances of

interpersonal evil to huge multinational

massacres, has been instigated by people

who convince themselves that the evil is

out there and that they, as agents of

good, are justified to use whatever

means necessary to ensure that evil is

vanquished,

lurking in every human heart. at least

as a potentiality and frankly speaking

often as much more are impulses to

violence, envy, destruction, cruelty,

and more. And if that is true, then the

best place for all of these impulses to

exist is in plain sight. When these

impulses are disavowed, they have the

habit of reappearing in the guise of

others like the monster in your dreams.

As previously discussed, this

contributes to the most common form of

psychopathy that exists on this planet,

namely responding to the projections of

your mind as if they inherit.

Like most people are psychotic in the

sense that they are actually reacting to

themselves as opposed to responding to

objective reality. However, this

particular form of psychosis is so

prevalent that we functionally

normalized it as a society.

So why bother? Well, as you embrace your

own monstrousness, you'll come to find

that you have much less to fear. Fear as

a psychossematic emotion has entirely to

do with the concepts that are activated

in your mind. What actually happens in

objective reality on some level has

nothing to do with you. It's just

molecules corroing around. But the

extent to which you fear any of those

molecules has to do with your perception

of that reality. When what you fear is

perceived to lie outside of you, it's

much harder to conquer because

ultimately what is arousing that fear is

always a mental construct. It's you.

Like in the dream, it's just a different

part of you. On the other hand, when

what you fear is understood to lie

within you, it's something that you can

kind of get a handle on because it's now

acknowledged to be within your domain of

control. This isn't easy, mind you, but

at least it is now possible given your

efforts. This is how you get a grip on

your darkness and your propensity toward

evil, which paradoxically makes the

world less horrific than it otherwise

would be. What do you think? Does this

fit with your own experience? Let me

know in the comments below. And please

send this episode to someone who you

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know you know someone who's interested

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A lot of great value in all of these

resources. Check them out if you are so

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appreciate your support and thank you

for listening.