2016 Personality Lecture 03: Mythological Elements of the Life Story -- and Initiation

The stories we tell and act out have characters. Those characters are archetypal -- hyper-real, in a sense. Archetypal characters have archetypal adventures. The prime adventure (excluding romance) is the initiatory voyage.
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[@l_t_jn]

1:03:00 Reminds me of the golden rule of video games. If you are encountering enemies, you're going the right way.

[@ToskersCorner]

Your videos honestly are having a large impact on how I conduct and analyze myself. Being very anti-social I dropped out of highschool and just got my GED right after instead of putting up with the socialization in a public school and have primarily focused on money and pursuing my hobby in computer programming. For about 4 years I have signed up for college and never gotten past the admission process due to my horrible habbit of running from my fears. Your videos have inspired me to push past those fears and I now am on my way to starting school in January to pursue a CS degree. I have more things to push past but because of you, I have at least made the leap. Now to just stick the landing. I really wish I had teachers like you when I was receiving a highschool education, perhaps things would have been different.

[@K10T73r]

Tosker go and get em, tiger. 💯

[@invaderg3332]

ToskersCorner how are things going now? Any difference?

[@invaderg3332]

ToskersCorner great, glad to hear it. Im on a similar journey myself surrounding my social life. Good luck.

[@LINKAG3]

And how are they now? Update?

[@lilolmecj]

It is not too late! Sometimes I just look at setbacks as the universe asking if I am serious and committed. Even if you can only afford one class at a time you will be working toward your goal.

[@hoplite669]

I am binge-watching Jordan Peterson Lectures!

[@95TurboSol]

I've watched over 120 hours of his lectures now, I can't get enough.

[@albuslee4831]

We are unofficially Jordan Peterson's disciples !

[@TeamGambleBMX]

I'm 48, and I wish like hell that I had access to these lectures 30 years ago. I'm still benefiting hugely from them, as are my two early-teen kids. Thank you again Dr Peterson for making this content freely available.

[@albuslee4831]

I'm 35, and I wish like hell that I had access to these lectures 20 years ago. I'm still benefiting hugely from them, alone by myself. Thank you again Dr Peterson for making this content freely available.

[@rajab2852]

Grace, fluidity, profundity, brilliance, honesty and wisdom personified. Long live Prof. Peterson!

[@josephgrabowski6594]

It's a privilege to access these lectures considering where I'm from. Thank you so much for uploading.

[@stijn4311]

"God gave the sea the danger and the abyss, but it was in it that He mirrored the sky." --Fernando Pessoa

[@xpirate16]

dude...

[@pedrohmantelli]

Never expected to find a brazilian poet quotation in this place.

[@fglagoa]

@@pedrohmantelli its portuguese, not brazilian :)

[@atillacodesstuff1223]

thats really beautiful

[@AtAtFB]

I taught my first Mythology course (not knowing a whole lot prior) and by the end of the course we (students and I) realized we're living-out myths everyday, even before coffee. The course ended up being better than we all thought.

[@paulchadwick2142]

If your afraid and avoiding something in pursuit of a goal AHA a Monster! I am afraid and avoiding it a Dragon, that is where the treasure is! If your afraid it means your not developed enough to handle it, and you need to be. Damn great advice!

[@fidgetyrock4420]

You can just find a way to avoid the dragon also.. same reward, only it wont feel personal.

[@sunnystrawberrylove]

This was the single most profoundly important lecture I have attended so far at the University of Toronto. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas with us, Professor Peterson.

[@invaderg3332]

Sunny Wang You are making me jealous.

[@jacksmart8669]

@@invaderg3332 HAHAHA yeahhh....

[@rourkerothenburg323]

29:24 loved this part "it's coming - so" lol

[@symbolicmeta1942]

I wonder how often people start crying in your lectures. This is brutal.

[@fukluk88]

YEPPER! Brings me to tears now and again!

[@xpirate16]

Any time I find myself falling into a time wasting hole, I find a new Jordan Peterson video to listen to and immediately feel like cleaning my room, metaphorically speaking :)

[@marcinzajdel2140]

This is great lecture! I listened it at the airport and missed my flight :)

[@BrutalizeURf4ce]

These lectures are very interesting, thanks for posting them. I dream of a day where most professors record and post their lectures online for all to learn from.

[@budsyremo]

He should be given a noble prize for helping people by making them stronger . Thank you Mr Peterson , i wish youwere my teacher during my school years .

[@StalwartSpartan298]

It's super amazing that I can be getting a college-level explanation of psychology and personality while simultaneously working a full-time job. Thanks KZbin, and a huge thanks to Jordan Peterson.

[@Motormane]

It takes me a very long time to process all of the things that JP discusses, he does this amazing thing of being able to compress what I would describe in hours into 2 sentences, so much to learn.

[@ne0g3n3sis8]

Prof. Peterson I've just recently discovered your videos and I've already listened to hours of them. They're so thought provoking and I can really appreciate how you teach! I just wish you were my teacher but at least you kind of are through these videos. Keep up the great work! Cheers

[@pendejo6466]

58:00 to 1:00:26, wisdom.

[@sinistergeek]

From Nepal!! listening to you.. I feel like i am educated !! I learn a lot. Thank you!

[@mr_sn4k3s]

An absolute gift to this world

[@HaoJingChangZai]

I love reading the comments under Prof. Peterson's lectures since I feel this might be a group of people who may actually understand or at least are willing to try to understand each other, if communicating in life...

[@user-ux5mo2ng2c]

1:01:24 best laughing! (after the turning on!) so genuine! and he looks so happy!!

[@darkwolff2622]

Thank you i have been putting of something i wanted to do due to fear, this lecture has helped me realise that.

[@tiffanywilliams9283]

Thank you Professor Peterson for helping these videos be available for the general public. 👍

[@seaorshore]

Great lecture. Thank you, Professor Peterson!

[@Josh-pe5pl]

Love reliving my late '50s, early '60s college days, really! so many brilliant professors who got us stoked to learn

[@vosuil6705]

I would like to thank you for sharing mister Peterson. It gives me an opportunity to learn and to appreciate what it means to share!

[@ReidPink]

You're an incredible lecturer. Thank you

[@TheVanessalala]

god damn powerful speaker. rare gem you are Dr. Peterson. Thank you

[@frednations4411]

This is Gold.

[@aliyaizbassarova3783]

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! It's truly priceless

[@jman2697]

HAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHA "ITS COMING" oh my god i wish this dude was my lecturer jesus christ.

[@RahellOmer]

what minute? :))

[@jman2697]

cant remember someway halfway thrrough. but omg though this lecture was fantastic.

[@stijn4311]

+Rahell Omer 29:22-29:54

[@chickenshieee]

HAHAHA that was awesome

[@zilchbupkis3109]

J Man Your own Personal Canadian Jesus

[@Geyenneify]

Thank you for sharing, this makes me so happy! I'm looking forward to listen to all of the lectures!

[@thiennganguyen]

Brilliant professor for making so interesting and so easy to understand such a complex subject!

[@abbamanic]

These are wonderful to take in. The tragedy in life is explained-life is crap, but these lectures make you think why and just to be able to identify your personal Gotterdammerung can be enough.

[@HolyWisdom93]

The Great Nest of Being is a concentric structure showing degrees of interior depth. Higher spheres are experienced as being interior to, and deeper than, the lower, which are experienced, in comparison, as superficial, shallow, and exterior. The body is experienced as inside the environment, the mind is experienced as inside the body, the soul is experienced interior to the mind, and deep within the soul is pure spirit itself, which transcends all and embraces all (thus transcending inside and outside).

[@askefantenthefool8050]

How insanely this fits in my life Your knowledge must NOT be underestimated. THE MOMENT you know that the person is NOT the person/human i thought they where

[@mossestekle5952]

I love this man, man

[@xitzprofessor]

just incredible....

[@galdevina1224]

I'm so grateful to Jordan B Peterson for being who he is and for being out there to share his wisdom. I want to express my great admiration and deep respect. I need such an example of an amazing, courageous, witty, lively and giving individual as he is. I'm just grateful I've discovered him for myself.

[@mickallocco7948]

Hey Prof. Peterson, I'm really grateful for your videos. I think you're a truly great person. Have you ever read Hermann Hesse? He was a great admirer of Jung and wrote beautiful novels illustrating a lot of the ideas you speak of. If not, you'd find them fascinating (if you ever need a recommendation). If so, as a fan, I'd love to hear you talk about a book like Steppenwolf or Narcissus and Goldmund. Hesse and Jung really helped me through a lot of hard times years ago, just as your lectures have recently and continue to do so. Thank you! "It's easy to laugh, easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind."

[@fabian13333]

Thank you for the lecture

[@me_lero]

Thank you. You're helping me so so much.

[@rebecalouise9851]

this man is just brilliant! roughly speaking

[@user-md7zm3xq6e]

Thank you my wizard.

[@fatimamian4533]

you are the Guru.

[@BoomJitsu]

"God only knows what you'd be like if you turned your self completely on". - Jordan B. Peterson.

[@igieswainebragt]

what timestamp??

[@albuslee4831]

@@igieswainebragt almost in the end

[@tandome]

What you do, and how you do it... well what can i say, except its brilliant... thank you

[@vidupasamarasinghe8544]

Thank you !

[@victoria6030]

Thank you

[@evilmnchkn388]

You already know what you know so confront what you dont know. There are parts of you that you have no idea they exist until they absolutely have to surface. Voluntarily expose yourself to what you are afraid of or what you dont want to do which can develope into a broader development of you

[@shannonwantstosee]

Thank you.

[@hayien]

Pre Pop-Media Peterson is the best, damn

[@operator_dnb]

2:21 stories vs. science. | a.k.a. how to act 6:43 9:41 12:20 20:47 dexter 22:24 extremes 1:04:18

[@Jp.218v]

Thanks!

[@harkyo]

Great interaction with the students! What a treasure, but also a loss to the University of Toronto for losing Dr. Peterson.

[@morbidbushido]

Thank you JP, you have no idea how many ppl around the world see you as a father they never had.

[@MandA1900]

I only found your channel and posts recently but I’m totally hooked, I would love to attend a year of your lectures but I think I’m way to old I would be the OAP of the class 😂

[@lilnut7359]

This is so much better than pop philosophy u hear from adults

[@cristianstoica4544]

It's unbelievable how true the stories about the Romanian orphanages are. You never forget those images. I was 14 when they aired them on TV. You want to go back to watch cartoons but...

[@bedwere]

Thank you for your lessons, Professor, and good luck with the "dragon" of politically correctness.

[@JCResDoc94]

58:20 clinical application of the initiation ritual

[@KevinShamisen]

Keep sharing :)

[@one2foursix]

NOT YOU ? CONGRATS ! ITS COMING !!

[@amyjones4362]

I have always felt that the female initiation is childbirth. At least, that's how I understood it as a child. There is no need to brave yourself to hang from hooks or spend the night alone in the woods if you know that it is likely that you will experience the pain of labour. It always seemed like an inevitable and impossible gateway to me, and it is only recently that it has become normal for a woman (in this culture) to be older or to forego the experience entirely. I say this, but when I consider the fairytales and so on, it is often the way that the young woman has to prove herself through arduous tasks, often as the servant of a witch or similar. Is the female initiation really sustained self sacrifice (the heroine feeds all the animals in the barn before herself and so on) and housework? Or would the initiation point be where she conquers the witch with her cleverness (or occasionally purity) and goes on to fullfil her duty and then be free to seek her own fortune? I think I will have to give this quite a lot of consideration! Thank you for making your lectures available! I am a housewife who would normally not have access to this level of education and I am very grateful!

[@markpotze1848]

Amy Jones you’re probably one heck of a housewife

[@Creamy6oodness]

That's a great point but it strikes me as more abstract than what Peterson was alluding to. My impression is that he's implying a girls first period marks her initiation into womanhood. Nature makes it pretty obvious when a female is mature. As you said, only very recently have women had the privilege to put off having a child until later in life, or even put it off completely. A lot of the time, once a woman has her first period, she was married off ASAP, so childbirth probably followed the first period pretty quickly.

[@albuslee4831]

The moment you learn to make the ultimate " Sacrifice ", it must be for the women. It might be how to confront your own fear, to the men, in order to " Protect ". Those must be the ultimate role of female and male given by the nature.

[@maricamaas5555]

Yes, indeed, many things about everything that only God knows!

[@XxNoV4xAiRxBoRsxX]

thanks

[@onefugue]

Starting from 58:00 Peterson builds up to saying "it's not 'follow your bliss'" (58:38), a direct counter to that other modern champion of mythology and archetypes, Joseph Campbell. From Campbell I always got the impression that "follow your bliss" meant pursuing what inspires you, what you enjoy working hard at, what causes you to lose track of time, etc. Sounds wonderful, if a bit new agey and idealistic. And the truth is, we often don't do it. Why? Because there are many dragons out there that confine your life to a small territory. Dragons that will devour you if you get too close. How can one follow one's bliss with all these dragons getting in the way? Suddenly following one's bliss doesn't sound so nice and warm and blissful. We can sort of do it without facing our dragons, but rather weakly. How many artists are out there who never activate the bold daring visions lying dormant within for fear of criticism, spending a life circling it from a distance, "pursuing their bliss", but never fully realizing it? So in a way, the treasure the dragon guards *is* the bliss, or the exponential growth of it. Campbell just didn't focus on the terrifying requirement of his statement. Peterson says something like, "no this is going to scare the crap out of you, it *has* to in order to wake you up to your full potential. But it's more than worth it, in fact it's necessary if you want to truly live".

[@tristanmoller9498]

I'm supposed to do math... I just watched two lectures of this nonstop. This is good stuff haha.

[@trentw.3566]

Theodore Millon started out in math and ended up a great psychologist who is still studied in the field of personality psychology. Do what you love and it takes less effort to go further.

[@tristanmoller9498]

@@trentw.3566 Don't worry, I love math haha :)

[@peeewww]

1:01:20 "...and God only knows what you'll be like if you turn yourself completely on..." "...and maybe I can use a better metaphor" 🤣

[@investireocaminho33]

great ad infinitum

[@RekkyRex85]

Not every theory he holds is correct. The first thing I remember when he was talking about snakes, and how our fear of them is definitely innate, is me holding a snake as a 5 year old, with no fear. I was in the forest and my uncle was fixing something and I saw a snake (which I didn't know if it was venomous) and I just calmly took it. It was not courage from my behalf, just lack of fear...

[@jesusbagelthund]

I wish Jordan Peterson would watch the tv series Avatar: The Last Airbender. I think he would have a heyday with the psychology of the characters and the archetypes throughout the series.

[@vishvnaik2756]

Aaron Flahaut also game of thrones and bhagvad Gita

[@davyroger3773]

@@vishvnaik2756 Azula is the amalgam of every machiavellian magistrate whose ever lived

[@kike981000]

I think Dr. Peterson inspired the movie Bird Box at the minute 56.25

[@BigRed4231]

You could easily make a change of profession and become a coach for writers. I get many archetypical ideas from these lectures that would fit right into a novel. Nature is that which gives us life, but at the same time destroys us. So why should not we do the same to it? That´s the perfect antagonist villain, it´s a noble cause to end suffering, but completed in a twisted way. A Inversion of the Buddha dharma. Even God became possessed by this archetype - he flooded the world to end all the evil and suffering. And it´s quite possible that humans are doing it right now, with technology ment to make our lifes easier (causing climate change). It might seem that this archetype is not only rooted in us humans, but in nature itself. And we humans are the tragic greek hero, who means to do good but has an inherent fault causing or destined fall. It would be ironic if the world ended like a greek drama, cause ancient greece is the pillar of the modern world. It would mean that the artiststs and creative people of that civilization (in a way) prophesied it´s fall right from the beginning. That would certainly make Plato discouraged, as he saw drama, and poetics in general as a treat to the state.

[@avalonjustin]

7:36 This is why nobody mentioned that Jonah stepped on a pointy rock and got a hole in his left sandal. It's not the most interesting part of the story, but it still happened.

[@Someone2194]

"We should thicken up the damn ice!"

[@dexters19671]

When Jonah went to the King who has a socially greater position received information from jonah, he had to add weight to the argument so he said God sent me. Remarkably something he couldn't check and as a king he doesn't want to appear to not care so he agreed I would imagine as you said previously how am I going to tell a king this. This is how. I don't believe either whale story in full

[@jakejason4333]

i wish there were subtitles. I understand common english, but he uses qute complex and foreign words.

[@kenm3ng121]

So the rule of living a good life is to play monster hunter constantly.

[@OurLifeJourney365]

Note to self 15:00

[@JCResDoc94]

38:00 Jenifer. Ginevra. "Gwenhwyvar" (Welsh) pale & mutable. 13C.

[@JCResDoc94]

52:44 what success looks like

[@mikehobson4692]

Can anyone included the course work and readings associated with the lectures? Perhaps the required text books used.

[@statego]

Guess who is gonna watch a thriller tonight after that lecture

[@swack7557]

..........................thanks

[@HL19860410]

🔥

[@jonr4164]

Imagine if high school had discussed these things in class instead of sex ed, book club and how to wtite essays. Millions wouldve stayed in school and been better prepared for practical world. Psychology is nice but in its rawest form its life skills and human behaviour and applies to everyone. Not only clinicians.

[@andychow5509]

I have a question. Are spiders an innate fear? I had a nightmare when I was 2-4 years old about two spiders fighting in a white room. I overcame that fear, rationally, but if ever I see a spider, something deep down instantly triggers a complete activation and shoving of my blood into my muscular system. It lasts 1/10th of a second, and probably activates within 20ms-45ms of seeing the spider (i.e. before I can even tell what I'm seeing consciously). Then my regular self takes over and doesn't care. Is this innate or a non-structural (non-primal) construct?

[@MJsholocron]

43:14 45:19 - re-establish the rightful king, you are the living element, you revive your cultural legacy też o tym, że natura wcalnie nie jest taka dobra, a patriarchat chroni 53:15 1:01:00 dna 1:02:00 kompas!!!

[@saffigrey5887]

33 are sitting on rocks in the ocean filtering water through their gills...

[@Albeit_Jordan]

"The most important question that you have to solve as a living organism is not what the world is made of or how it operates but how you need to act in it to survive and reproduce -- that's how you be successful, from a Darwinian perspective." Yeah, well, Newton died a virgin, so.

[@MegaWinnetou]

1:01:22 🤩

[@KennyIsMyDog]

Hey Jordan, do you have any links to the studies on different genes being switched on in different situations? And how do you relate this to Jung's theory of archetypes, that is, what do you see as the relationship between DNA and archetypes?

[@TheMedWolf]

+Peter Lynch www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people/view/james-a-shapiro There's a lot more where that comes from - doesn't even begin to address horizontal gene transfer mechanisms or direct methylation/modification and transposons. Genetic change is mostly intentional and tightly regulated to environmental inputs - very little is "random" in time, space, or any scale.

[@MsSonya273]

That's what genes *are*. Genes turn on and off throughout the day. It happens when you wake up and go to sleep, when you're learning, when you're in a mood. When you take hormones, they turn genes on (think about this -- it means sex chromosomes, XY, are turning genes off, because we all have the genes for both sets of sexual characteristics). When you eat, it turns genes on. When you starve, etc.

[@KennyIsMyDog]

I could have been clearer, I didnt mean situations in general, as including for example those kinds you mention that descibe cellular environments and such, but situations as in new situations experienced at the level of consciousness, as Jordan alluded to in the video having an effect on epigenetics.

[@amypola5903]

At min 42:45 you drink a soda, I assume with caffeine, and I assume for the caffeine. Last year I got off all forms of caffeine, including chocolate, and one of the things I was affraid of is losing my ability to think, especially when writing. Caffeine dialates those lovely brain blood vessels, which is why its in Excedrin. But a caffeine high comes with a caffeine low, and the lows were the problem. The way I think did not change, except about caffeine. Thought I'd throw that out there. I also wonder if you drink it for partly the same reason, and Id seriously love to see how the transition off caffeine affects you in that way. The anhedonia up to month 5 was fun, then another bout later in month 9 but I suspect other aspects contribute to that for me.

[@noellogan6676]

Got that backwards Amy. Caffeine is a cerebral vasoconstrictor. It does not dilate blood vessels. If it did there would be an association with lower blood pressure. There isn't.

[@freeyourmind4349]

"God only knows what you'd be like if you turned yourself all the way on!" I laughed for a different reason. Amen. Only God knows...so the closer one gets, the closer they are to knowing God or what God knows...if one was to "turn themselves all the way on", they would realize themselves as God

[@Marcoscma]

Hi, anyone has the links of the researches about that property of our brain to synthetize new proteins that unlocks new potential, nem parts of us when we are exposed to certain circumstances? Thanks in advance!

[@ljph_9583]

10:42 Betrayal