Need the evolution of Steve be linear?

[Keith]

Steve has obviously evolved significantly since he started this blog.

His early blog entries are about self-discipline, procrastination, overcoming fear etc. (plus the series on polyphasic sleep, of course!). His recent blog entries are about subjective reality, intention-manifestation, polarisation, etc.

So: Is the early stuff a necessary foundation for the later stuff? Need I go through growth in much the same order as Steve or can I (for example) jump straight to engaging in intention-manifestation?

Is it important to build a strong character foundation first? Or is that assumption just a limiting belief?

Given the vast and varied information available on Steve's site, what's the best way to go about using it to fuel my own growth?

Thanks.

[AO1]

Originally Posted by Keith

...

Is it important to build a strong character foundation first? Or is that assumption just a limiting belief?

...

This is the very same thing I have hard time identifying. Because one of my strengths is "futurist" with "input" and "learner" close by I often think of how I can blitz my learning curve and if it's possible to "skip" certain material portrayed in a hierarchical manner.

e.g. With weightlifting, what if I could jump straight to lifting 200lbs from 100lbs? I know, the common place knowledge is to achieve that goal through incremental weight-training. But what if, through some divine, untapped potential we could just jump to 200lbs?

It's these types of questions I revel in I can't help but think like this. And something tells me you may be similar.

It is sometimes difficult to know where to draw the line (or even its necessity) between reality and "fiction". Especially when you yearn to understand and reach new potential yet you're blocked by limitations you don't know are necessarily there but by awareness from social systems. This I believe results to constant doubt of things around you, which is why I believe you question Steve's growth path, and in my current case - whether I need really spend three years on an education at university I could well easily complete in one year with better alignment to truth, love and power.

So, to answer your question through my perspective (in the aim of offering more perspectives to increase your awareness of possibility =) ), maybe you can simply jump to whatever "level" you want - depending on how you view progression/growth.

I've been reading a lot philosophic integral material recently (specifically, Ken Wilber) where to my current understanding he states the fundamental law of reality (or should I say growth?): every emerging thing (holon) transcends but includes its predecessor. So everything works in hierarchies (holarchies).

So lets apply this to the observation you've made about Steve's growth:

His early blog entries are about self-discipline, procrastination, overcoming fear etc. (plus the series on polyphasic sleep, of course!). His recent blog entries are about subjective reality, intention-manifestation, polarisation, etc.

Without self-discipline and overcoming fear can the stages where capacity for intention-manifestation, polarisation be reached? Polarisation?

With my current belief set, I would be inclined to state no. At this stage, I believe you need a strong alignment with courage (self-discipline, overcoming fear) to even contemplate and act on the high-level concepts such as subjective reality and polarisation.

Try it. Best way you'll find out is to jump in. Do you have the discipline to to sit down and read the material? Does fear stop you from holding/understanding new beliefs? Taking action? I see it as a block of Jenga, with self-discipline and overcoming fear the fundamentals to the "higher levels" of the structure. Take out self-discipline, and most of the structure collapses.

But, personally I keep questioning whether reality is really like that, I guess the most effective way for me to continue is to explore all the avenues and pathways intelligently, using results as guideposts. Isn't the path to conscious growth just great?

[Lenie]

I think you can go ahead and start your own growth, Keith.

If you're true to yourself you'll find your own path. It may be like Steve's, but probably not.

[Warping]

I think his older posts dealt with lower level issues while the new ones are broader higher level ones.

Personally, the best way to use his ideas are to integrate the higher level ideas, the ones that work for you and at the same time applying the lower level concepts.

For example, take a goal such as "weight loss".
You could use intention-manifestation and polarisation all the while still implementing self-discipline, overwhelming force, etc.

I kind of see Steve's work as holistic, in a way, you can use what works for you.

Low level tweaks (nitty gritties) + High level concepts = EPIC WIN!

[The David]

Steve is a product of his own personal (read: unique and a little bizarre) chronology of events. Not only are you not in the same place he is at any given time, and therefore not learning the exact same lessons, you have a wealth of information on the internet that he did not when he was first beginning PD. So do whatever you feel like doing with whatever you find.

Oh, and don't forget, Steve is not a deity to be emulated at all times.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Keith

Steve has obviously evolved significantly since he started this blog.

His early blog entries are about self-discipline, procrastination, overcoming fear etc. (plus the series on polyphasic sleep, of course!). His recent blog entries are about subjective reality, intention-manifestation, polarisation, etc.

So: Is the early stuff a necessary foundation for the later stuff?

No, it isn't.

If you want to maximise the value Steve's site delivers to you, I recommend that instead of subscribing to Steve's methods, ideas, processes, and anything that may be tied to a certain point of development in his life, you instead subscribe to Steve, the person--the source of the methods, ideas, and processes you'll find on his site.

I'm very familiar with Steve's content. When you combine excessive amounts of immersion in Steve's content along with a few of my specific talent themes (Individualisation, Achiever, Input, Maximiser), beyond-average familiarity is the result.

Though despite my high level of familiarity, I apply almost zero of the specific content Steve writes about. Why? Because Steve is sharing his own journey through personal growth. If you look at Steve's blog posts, you'll see that the majority of what he shares is very tailored to his specific style, his strengths and talents, and also his life situation (although less so on that last one). Often I read something from Steve and think, "ah, no, that isn't for me at all." In fact, I had that reaction today when reading Steve's recent newsletter about how to handle competition in creative fields.

At a certain point I may have thought that I'd get great results, but eventually I started putting Steve's site into context: Steve is a great example, but I will grow the most by staying true to myself. I've been doing that pretty consistently for about a year now, and the results of my initial internal work are really starting to show (they were non-existant months ago, but I knew what I was doing was right, so I kept doing it, even if it was challenging, often uncertain at times).

Interestingly, now that I look at those results and have become more conscious of what I'm actually doing to get them, I see a lot of Steve's example in there. But it wasn't that I was so much influence by Steve, but that in Steve I saw a part of myself, and in finding that part, something previously dormant came alive. If you look at this through the lens of oneness, it wasn't so much Steve expressing himself to me through his website, but part of myself expressing itself to me, guiding me to greater alignment with myself. What "self" was I aligning with? Well, some people may say that the lower-self "you" is different to the higher-self "You" and the universe, but I'd say they are the same thing, just through different lenses. You can't not be yourself, so you might as well align with it.

My advice to you is that you start listening to yourself a lot more than the sources of information outside of yourself. It will take some time for you to develop ability to read your internal feedback accurately--I'm only just starting to get it, and even then, I still have my days and much to learn--but much like walking or learning to eat without getting food all over yourself, it's something that's well worth doing (although with getting food all over myself, like reading internal feedback, I still have my days ). After you put an importance on what you have to say and how you feel you should do things and on what works for you, eventually patterns will become clear, and you'll need the guidance of others less and less.

The great thing about this is that everyone can do it, and I think that's what we're moving towards as a people. It's a model that is very empowering, and it also includes the expressions and guidance of others, it just interprets them differently. Instead of looking for something outside of yourself and looking for a process or method to reach a goal, you learn to identify external things that already resonate with you internally. From there, I find I don't really need any specific guidance; I just need to "plug in" to this new example I've found--this part of myself--until I feel I'm ready to continue on my own with a new, more complete part of myself. When I do this, I never feel like I've gained something more; I feel like I've become more of myself.

I see people around me crying for external sources to come to their aid, but they don't need that. It may seem like they do, but that's a belief that will only perpetuate their position. Seeking aid from external sources to make improvements in your life is like holding a cardboard silhouette cut-out in front of a torch, shining it on the wall, and asking people to make the light shining on the wall more complete. It's not about fixing the projection--that's just a natural result of the torch. It's about letting go of what is obstructing the torch in the first place, or in the case of humans, choosing to align with yourself instead of the limiting and inaccurate beliefs, and the fears that cause you to be less than what you are.

You're the one who has them in front of your torch; it's up to you to let them go. You just need to make your uniqueness and your unobstructed authenticity more important than the calls of the world and the various limiting beliefs and expectations you let influence you, and thus, embrace yourself. It's a challenging thing to do, but honestly, what else could be more worth doing?

[RT Wolf]

There are no "have to"s in life. However, as someone who spent a long time working with IM, I'd suggest you build a strong character foundation first, become really clear about your goals (and try not to go for socially inherited-ones, even those inherited from Steve, unless they really resonate with you). But most of all, have fun with it.