Pick 10 masters whose work you must study deeply under as if for the rest of your life. Who would they be, and why?
These selections will mirror your taste and quality. What you study is also an indicator of your character, personality and beliefs. You will therefore transform yourself into becoming the average of these 10 great Masters who you decide to apprentice under. Make sure your choices are exceptional.
Master No. 1:
MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI
Subject: Psychology
Branch: Flow
Purpose: learn to specialise in psychology, specifically psychological flow, which is, how to achieve happiness, flow state mastery, the attainment of skill acquisition abilities, learning how to flourish at life, cultivating higher levels of creativity, finding fulfilment, enjoying studying the art of enjoyment, deliberate practice as a way of living life, experiencing deeply energised focus and euphoric involvement, daily.
Why: How to Improve The Quality of Life
Pick 9 other subjects or subject branches to assign and align with the structure to fit the research methodology including reasons why so you understand the purpose for each Master, what is expected from each and therefore what you seek to achieve by employing their work.
You can add other Masters’ to the same subject if their work falls under the same branch. But do not have more than 1 Master who specializes under the same branch. Choose who you see as the very best in the world in that field to narrow your focus in on to study their works deeply.
If anyone else speaks interestingly on the same branch, place them under the Master of that subject. You want to end up with 10 different Masters whose work spans to at least 10 different fields seeking ‘relative disconnections’, things that you see could fit but are not currently being noticed. Ensure differentiation so each master operates in disparate fields.
You can have several psychology Masters but they cannot be in the same discipline. To choose another Master in the field of psychology, they must specialize in a different domain. And what you are trying to do is find patterns in unrelatable places to fuse multiple disciplines together. And all of this is about one thing: Range.
“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.” – ARISTOTLE.
“Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit.” – SENECA.
HOW TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE: WITHOUT DRUGS OR OTHER LIES
One thing is clear: before the flow, there was a condition or two. 10-years after flow, they’ve become strengths rather than weaknesses. There was a time when there was nothing to read or write but this wild gobbledegook which made no sense. We had on our hands what could only be described as, ‘a blithering idiot’. Someone who couldn’t read and everything they wrote was nonsensical.
So at the beginning of the process we treated him heavily, putting him on flow 2-3 times a day for the first lot of years. What happened in those preceding years was astonishing.
Through each episode the individual induced himself into flow, sometimes morning, noon and night, these neurodevelopmental delays slowly started to stop and it seems almost the conditions have completely gone into remission. In fact, what started out as incrementally noticeable from a distance, through our month on month observations over many years, was that not only were these neurological conditions that were present fading, but rapid alterations in pattern recognition and cognition started beginning to appear. The individual used flow to not only treat the symptoms of their own condition, but reversed the disorders and achieved remarkable articulation to an elite educated academic level, even though there was no formal education.
This method of using flow then in order to treat a person by showing them how to release these naturally occurring neurochemicals from their brain, that include: dopamine, norepinephrine, endorphins, anandamide and serotonin is therefore showing real potential to radically alter the mental state and experience of someone positively who struggles with neurological conditions, enabling them to achieve a far higher quality of life and living. Flow essentially opened the door that seemed forever shut, being able to finally control the contents of their consciousness, but operating at times from a level of awareness it seems not actually aware of their awareness, yet able to aim their life with a strong sense of purpose in an extremely positive direction.
Flow can therefore not only positively alter the trajectorial experience of a person’s life, but even go as far as saving lives.
That’s the importance of what we are talking about here.
That’s why it matters.
“The tools for managing paradox are still unknown.” – Kevin Kelly.
“And by ‘we’ he means, of course, himself.” – Steven Kotler.
THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN EVER FEEL BORED NOW: SO IF YOU ARE, HERE’S HOW NOT TO BE
Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1975).
The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and The Self, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Eugene Halton (1981).
Flow: The Psychology of Happiness, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1992).
The Evolving Self: A Psychology for The Third Millennium, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1993).
Creativity: Flow and The Psychology of Discovery and Invention, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996).
Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1997).
Living Well: The Psychology of Everyday Life, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1997).
Flow: The Classic Work on How to Achieve Happiness, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2002).
Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2003).
A Life Worth Living: Contributions to Positive Psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2006).
If you are to ask what am I doing, it is this: learning today in order to solve mental health problems tomorrow without the need of medication or doctors and how to achieve it within the self. Some might say, ‘impossible’, ‘foolish’, or ‘that can’t work’. And what I would say to that is, ‘it’s not only not impossible, but attainable. And if it seems foolish or like it can’t work for you, then walk away. This isn’t for you.