Content vs Structure - Going Meta Is A Super-power

• Content vs Structure - Going Meta Is A Super-power:
• - Leo Gura introduces a significant concept called 'content versus structure distinction', emphasizing the importance of differentiating between the two.
• - He uses numerous examples to illustrate this point, such as DVD Discs, the NFL, the English language, TED Talks, video games, and schools where the structure refers to the set rules, formats, or constraints while the content depicts the specific elements in the structure.
• - He discusses how people often focus more on the content, neglecting the underlying structure. An instance of this oversight is when people are engrossed in a dream (content) and fail to realize it's just a dream (structure).
• - Gura also introduces the idea of 'going meta', which involves stepping back from the content and observing the structure, resulting in what he describes as akin to a new and hidden dimension. The concept of 'going meta' can be applied in various fields such as science and religion. This change of perspective allows for deeper understanding and insight, potentially leading to transformation and evolution.
• Absorbing Content Versus Examining Structure: Leo Gura explains that people often become engrossed in the content of something (like religion or culture) without recognising the underlying structure. He describes "going meta" or "transcendence" as the process of stepping back to understand the underlying patterns and constructs of the elements we immerse ourselves in, leading to a broader, deeper understanding. This method can be applied to varying areas from movie critiquing to buying used cars, helping identify new dimensions or patterns that usually go unnoticed when absorbed in the content.
• Effects of Going Meta: Embarking on the journey of "going meta" allows for a richer understanding of content, but it can also lead to disillusionment, breaking the magic or illusion of reality, making us less naive about the thing we're observing. People often enjoy the surface-level content without wanting to know the underlying structures or how they are made. Knowing too much about the process or structure may interfere with our ability to enjoy content.
• Hypnotising Nature of Engrossing Content: Interesting and engrossing content can be hypnotic, making people lose sight of the time and reality when absorbed in it. However, understanding the structure behind that content shatters the illusion and can cause discomfort, fear, and even anger, especially if the content is something they are emotionally attached to, like culture or religion.
• Shifting Perspective to Structure: Gura stresses the importance of shifting perspective from specific content to the larger patterns and structures, whether in cases of cultural biases, religious doctrines, or enjoying movies. A structural perspective provides a different layer of understanding and appreciation.
• Nested Realities: Gura makes the observation that reality features structures within structures, and content within content, which he describes as ‘nested’. Going meta or understanding the structures can lead to the discovery of new dimensions or layers of reality.
• The Arbitrary Nature of Culture: Leo explains that being engrossed into a particular culture can lead individuals to believe that their culture is superior. He clarifies that all cultures are arbitrary, with pros and cons, and none is 'the best.' Such a broad perspective is only possible when one goes meta, transcending individual cultural norms and evaluating them from an overarching standpoint.
• Different Perspectives of Same Culture: Everyone tends to believe that their own culture is the best, and often, individuals are so attached to their culture that they fail to understand the bigger picture. People, who appreciate their culture, often have a set of rational justifications for thinking it is superior and ignore the fact that individuals from different cultures feel the same way about their own culture. This illustrates the hypnotic power cultural content can have, leading to intensely defended identities and conflicts.
• Science as a Narrow Lens: The scientific approach to reality can be viewed as a keyhole, providing a very specific and narrow perspective. Scientists can get so involved in the research content that they fail to acknowledge the particular structure or lens that is shaping what they see. Science has a specific structure, favoring certain content, and ignoring the elements that do not fit within this structure. The differences in structure can inform more about the realities of subjects than differences in content.
• Christianity vs Islam: On a surface level, Christianity and Islam seem fundamentally different due to distinct practices, holy books, prophets, etc. However, if one goes meta on religion itself, they realize that they share a deeper structural similarity in being ideologies. The content differences distract from seeing the similarity in structure.
• Sunni vs Shiite Muslims: A minor difference in belief about who was the successor to Muhammad creates a significant discord within Islam. Standard Sunni and Shiite Muslims believe in the same prophet and Allah, but they've held violent disputes due to difference in lineage. To resolve this issue, they need to understand the core problem lies not in the content but in the structural level.
• Atheism vs Theism: Atheism and theism, despite looking like polar opposites, share a deep structural similarity—they are both belief systems. Each side believes they are correct and the other is wrong. These content differences prevent both from seeing their metatheoretical similarity—both are belief systems—enforcing further their potential disagreement.
• Drugs vs Psychedelics: Drugs and psychedelics are often conflated due to their surface appearance, but they are structurally different. Drugs can be addictive and harmful, while psychedelics can be healing and introspective. Societal perceptions stem from focusing on content instead of structure.
• Understanding Psychedelics and Typical Drugs: Psychedelics and hard drugs (e.g. heroin, cocaine) are structurally very different. Psychedelics are non-addictive, often have a tolerance build-up, provide a mechanism for introspection and even serve to help break addiction while hard drugs are often addictive, harmful to organs and used largely as an escape mechanism. Significant differences exist despite both of them being categorized as drugs.
• Politics and Appearence: Electing leaders based on identity or appearance is being stuck at the level of content. Structural aspects like policies, cognitive and moral development and ability to run the government are critical for understanding a politician's capabilities.
• Hypnosis and Content: People tend to be hypnotized by appearances or content rather than questioning the structure or going meta. Structures like government, policies, or news formats shape our perception of reality in ways we often do not realize.
• Structure of Cable News: Cable news has a specific structure which prioritizes breaking news, shock value, mass appeal and suiting advertisers, thereby filtering and biasing the content shown. This leads to a skewed perception of reality, focusing mainly on negative and shocking events rather than in-depth news or positive events.
• Indoctrination through News: News organizations, regardless of political alignment, can unknowingly indoctrinate viewers by not making them aware of the larger structures at play. It can hinder viewers from adopting a broader, more critical perspective or a 'meta' view, leading to a distorted understanding of reality.
• Content vs Structure and the Importance of Going Meta: People often get absorbed in content and perceive it as reality, without realizing that it's an illusion structured a certain way. This can lead to skewed worldview as seen in people who only consume content from one source, such as Fox News, without questioning or comparing it with other sources.
• Structures and the Trade-offs They Come With: Every structure, like cable news or Facebook, has its pros and cons, trade-offs, and limitations. For instance, foreign countries might exploit Facebook's structure to manipulate elections, which would be beneficial for them but harmful to others. Similarly, Facebook's algorithm can feed users with content aligned with their own ideologies, creating ideological bubbles.
• Religion, Universities and Academic Philosophy as Structures: Religion, universities, and academic philosophy are structures that have their own specific parameters and work in very specific ways. For example, academic philosophy may be restrictive in its approach, not conducive to truth-seeking and more focused on preserving its own structure.
• Healthcare System as a Structure: The healthcare system is a structure that is beneficial to some, such as doctors, insurance salesmen, and pharmaceutical companies, but dysfunctional for many others. The need for systemic change, rather than content change, is highlighted, as the system educates and arguably corrupts doctors during their training phase, making them more focused on treating symptoms rather than curing diseases.
• Different Mediums and their Limitations: Society often limits itself to certain mediums or structures such as Christian beliefs, science specialization, education, and indoctrination, thereby missing out on a diversity of experiences and knowledge. True education encourages discovery and inquiry, rather than rote memorization, but implementing such structural changes in a broad education system would be challenging.
• Unique Psyches and Minds: Humans have different genetics, brain structure, and biology, which leads to variation in modes of cognition, memory, language processing, and reaction to substances like psychedelics. This structural difference in human minds is often overlooked, leading to the wrongful assumption that all humans perceive and experience reality in a similar way.
• Perception of Religion and God: Various religions may appear very different on the surface, but share a common structure beneath. Atheists often criticize the different beliefs and contradictions within religions as a basis to argue against God, but a deeper, structural understanding reveals a significant commonality across religions worldwide, potentially indicative of a deeper truth beyond surface content.
• Misconceptions around God: Use of the term "God" can mean different things, and can be easily conflated with Orthodox Christian or Muslim conceptions of God. Some perceive "God" as a belief, while others refer to it as a direct experience. Understanding this structure is essential to avoid misinterpretations and biases.
• Need for Deep Study of Religion: The discrepancies between religions often used as arguments against God can be better understood by studying the religions in depth. Every culture across history and geography has spiritual beliefs and the idea of God, indicating a possibly deeper, universal truth that is missed when focusing on content differences.
• Understanding Structures in Various Aspects: When considering science and religion, despite surface differences, both have a shared structure in the sense they both extensively rely on authority figures. The mechanisms behind them vary, but their core structural element stays the same- trust in an authority figure to guide truth.
• Survival and Economic Status: Leo illustrates that survival is a core element of life, irrespective of being rich or poor. Both groups face survival concerns, albeit at varying levels, which influences their daily decisions and stressors, and thus, their overall life structures differ.
• Materialistic Survival within Economic Groups: Poor individuals focus on fulfilling basic needs through survival, while rich individuals maintain a luxurious lifestyle including golf memberships, luxury cars etc. to foster social networks that ultimately maintain and increase their status and wealth. This illustrates that even the concerns and problems change based on the socio-economic status of an individual, they're still bound by the concept of survival.
• Using Familiar Branding While Varying Structure: Using the example of Nintendo games, particularly the Mario series, Gura highlights another aspect of structure and content. Despite criticism about Nintendo reusing the Mario brand, the company posits that each game is unique in its structural design and mechanics, and the Mario brand is simply a 'wrapper' that draws in audiences due to its familiarity.
• Concept of Content vs Structure in Video Games: In this section, Leo Gura describes the difference between content and structure in terms of video games, using Mario games as an example. He explains that while some Nintendo games may appear to be similar due to the reoccurring character, Mario, they have diverse structures that make them unique. Even though these differences might be overlooked due to the focus on content, it is the structure that determines the uniqueness and overall success of the game.
• Success of Companies Through Structural Advantage: Gura states that successful companies, including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix, share a common trait: their success is largely attributed to their optimal structural setup rather than the quality of their content or their work ethic. These companies have established themselves as monopolies, ensuring their survival and dominance in their respective markets primarily through structural advantages.
• Wealth and Fame as Structural Achievements: Gura argues that wealth and fame, like the success of big corporations, are highly structural. He suggests that millionaires and billionaires have achieved their wealth not only through hard work, but more importantly, by exploiting and navigating the structures in their favor. Gura adds that this structure is pyramid-like and can't be universally sustainable, thus leading to a need for an ideology to maintain the structure and combat its natural tendency to collapse.
• Understanding the Structural Basis of Success: Gura encourages viewers to develop the ability to differentiate between content and structure to avoid causing themselves and others suffering due to being hypnotized by the illusion of content, which can blind us to the underlying structures that guarantee success. He emphasises the importance of honing the ability to step out of the content plane and scrutinize structural issues underlying it - what he refers to as "going meta".
• Consciousness as Primary Meta-structure: Gura asserts that the ultimate structural entity is consciousness, within which everything exists as content. He emphasizes that understanding the structure of consciousness is paramount to fully comprehend life and to gain control over it. Without understanding consciousness, people are adrift in an "infinite sea of content," bewitched by the dynamic reality of life and subject to suffering.
• Parallels Between Different Ideologies and Political Perspectives: Gura provides examples ranging from different religions to the comparison of liberals and conservatives, noting that while the content of ideologies and political perspectives varies, they share similar structures. He asserts that both religion and science heavily rely on authority and belief systems, although they exhibit certain differences, like the willingness to evolve and adapt seen more in science. He further argues that the structural and psychological dissimilarities between liberals and conservatives are often overlooked, which leads to a misunderstanding of their perspectives.
• Examining Structure for Personal Development: Gura culminates this section by emphasizing the importance of understanding and working on one's psyche's structure for personal development and lasting fulfillment. Instead of being swept by the currents of life's happenstance, people can cultivate a sense of control and freedom by decoding the mechanisms of consciousness and life.
• Understanding different stages of cognitive, moral, and spiritual development: Leo Gura explains that the differentiation between liberals and conservatives isn't just about their content differences, but about their varying levels of cognitive, moral, and spiritual development. He emphasizes that understanding the structure of these developmental stages provides a more insightful perspective on the dynamics between liberals and conservatives.
• Structural commonalities among cults: Different cults have unique beliefs (content), but they share common structures and mechanisms for indoctrination, control, and advancement of their agendas. Understanding these common structures gives one the ability to recognize, critique, and not be fooled by the manipulative tactics of any cult.
• Nationalism and clan warfare as structural issues: Nationalist movements and clan warfare might differ in content, based on the specific groups involved, but they share a common structure. The conflict arise due to a strong identification with a particular group and the subsequent demonization of the 'other'. The resolution of these conflicts requires a shift of perspective to recognize the shared underlying structures.
• Evil as a matter of perception: Evil isn't a tangible entity; it's a perceptual construct, created by our minds. The attempts to stop evil are often carried out under the guise of 'good', yet these efforts unintentionally perpetuate more evil due to the lack of understanding of its structural nature. Eliminating evil requires an in-depth understanding of how our minds construct the notion of evil, a shift in perspective, and personal growth to transcend our limited ego identity.
• The importance of structure in fighting evil: Attempts to eliminate evil in society by punishing and removing evildoers often prove futile, as this approach is addressing the problem on a content level. Instead, understanding the deeper structural issues contributing to the prevalence of evil, such as selfishness and lack of self-acceptance, is crucial in creating significant and lasting change.
• Structural issues in relationship problems: Recurring patterns of dysfunctional relationships stem from deep-seated structural issues within an individual's psyche. Changing these problematic structures helps break the cycle of bad relationships.
• Islam and terrorism: Terrorism and strife in the Middle East are structural rather than just content issues. The attachment to content, such as specific religious beliefs, leads to oversimplification and misinterpretation of the root causes (geopolitical factors, low cognitive development).
• Wealth and power dynamics: The system that enables the wealthy to exploit others for personal gain is a structural problem. Wealthy individuals often use resources to maintain their wealth and power, believing their interests are more critical than others'.
• Prosperity gospel and religious materialism: The prosperity gospel preached by many televangelists overlooks the structural issue of materialism, reducing spirituality to acquiring material wealth. Emphasizing material possessions in religious teachings perpetuates religious materialism.
• The route to true spirituality and transcendence: True spirituality and transcendence can't occur at the level of content. Going 'meta' or beyond surface level thoughts and beliefs is necessary to surrender attachments and ideologies, facilitating spiritual growth.
• Various ways of going 'meta': Techniques like meditation, psychedelics, visualization, reading, and systemic thinking all help with understanding and altering our perception of reality from a structural perspective.
• Importance of transforming thought structures for happiness: Lasting happiness and fulfillment comes from changing our thought structures, rather than through external factors like money or accomplishments. Continuous personal development and self-awareness are crucial for making these necessary structural changes within our psyche.
• The danger of indoctrination: Sending children to specific religious or scientific institutions can be a form of indoctrination, a structural problem. Freeing individuals for independent inquiry into different domains of knowledge leads to a more open-minded and less biased society.
• Mastering emotions by understanding their structures: Being aware of the structures behind our emotions can help us transcend them. Instead of getting caught by the content of our emotions, understanding the patterns and underlying structures gives us control over them.
• Understanding and Going Meta on Murder and Evil: Leo Gura explains that understanding the deeper structural issues behind crimes can lead to compassionate solutions. He states that people often refuse to go meta on situations due to attachments and biases. Being addicted to the identity of fighting against "evil" can lead to a denial of one's own harmful actions.
• Applying Meta-Understanding in Dating and Attraction: Gura examines the dating scene and emphasizes that attraction is less about verbal content and more about sub-communication (structure). The way one presents themselves or even their mood can influence the interaction more than the words they speak. He warns that navigating these socially sensitive situations requires experience and context sensitivity and cautions against crossing the line.
• Money in Politics as a Structural Problem: Both Democrats and Republicans can be influenced by money due to its fundamental survival value, marking it as a structural issue. Leo highlights that both parties resist campaign finance reform due to selfish reasons, although liberal parties generally show less prone to corruption.
• Conflation of Structure and Content in Political Debates: Leo criticizes the conservative argument equating Scandinavian socialism and Venezuelan socialism based solely on the term 'socialism.' He asserts that the structure of these countries differs significantly based on factors such as socioeconomic development, political climate, and corruption levels. Hence, socialism's impact varies depending on the structure it is introduced into.
• Relevance of Context in Social Interactions: Leo stresses the importance of being context-aware in social interactions, especially in more daring situations. The same behavior can yield different reactions depending on various factors like environment, the mood of the individuals involved, and the level of trust established. The ability to navigate these situations comes with extensive experience and learning.
• Understanding Structural Similarities and Biases: Leo Gura discusses how structurally, America has more in common with Scandinavian countries than with Venezuela, debunking right-wing fearmongering that adopting socialism would turn the U.S into Venezuela. He criticizes this perspective as lacking in structural understanding of government, politics and economics, and simply serving as a straw man to defend conservative ideology. Gura also discusses the structural similarities in religious indoctrination across different faiths, from Catholic schools to Muslim madrassas, pointing out that the degree of indoctrination may vary but the structure remains the same. This may not be apparent because of self bias which makes one perceive their own indoctrination as valid because it aligns with their beliefs. Furthermore, Gura criticizes indoctrination in scientific education which promotes a materialistic and rational thinking, he opines that true education should allow for personal inquiry and independent choice. He applies the same analysis to repeat patterns in relationships, explaining that changing the partner (content) does not solve the problem but making structural changes in personal psyche does. Gura emphasizes the importance of understanding and adjusting substructures to address problems effectively, ascending beyond content details to attain structural awareness.
• Mastering Emotions through Structural Awareness: Gura underscores the need for structural awareness in dealing with emotions. While emotions are content, controlling or mastering them requires understanding the structures behind them. By becoming detached from emotions and developing an observational viewpoint, one can analyze the meta-structures that result in these emotions and thereby transcend their influence.
• Content vs Structure in Politics and Terrorism: Sam Harris, a critic of religion especially Islam, focuses more on content problems (specific teaching in religious texts) rather than underlying structural issues that cause terrorism and extremism. Harris attributes terrorism to what is written in the Quran, whereas Gura refutes this and states that the root cause is low cognitive, moral, and spiritual development due to a host of historical and geopolitical factors. He emphasizes that blaming the problems in the Middle East solely on the Quran or Islam is a simplification and overlooks the deeper structural factors.
• Understanding geopolitical factors: The geopolitical factors, climate, geography, agriculture, and other elements shape societies in significant ways. Reducing the complex influences to a couple of phrases in the Quran is an oversimplification and fails to consider the overall structure.
• Cult psychology: Sam Harris tends to focus on the specific content of different ideologies, particularly Islam. However, he fails to see the structural similarities between ideologies such as Islam, Christianity, and Science - all are susceptible to cult psychology.
• Structural Corruption and Trump: Trump supporters are blinded by their agreement with the content of his policies that they fail to recognize the structural corruption. Trump's corruption is the result of his selfish and impulsive nature. He believes he can drain the swamp by making content changes, but he fails to address structural corruption.
• Shared Structure in Evangelicals, Nazis, and Islamists: Despite their different beliefs, evangelicals, Nazis, and Islamists share a similar structure: dogmatic, tribalistic, and nationalistic. True spirituality such as that demonstrated by Christ is achieved not through content but changes in consciousness structure.
• The dilemma of Materialism in Spiritual and Scientific beliefs: Both scientific materialists and those with religious beliefs often share the same attachment to material wealth, demonstrating that one’s materialistic measurement of success is a structural aspect of the psyche rather than content-focused. This is evident in prosperity gospel preached by some televangelists, which contradicts the teachings of Christ on wealth.
• Transcending Content-focused Mindset: Achieving higher levels of consciousness, like Christ, requires transcending above one's dogma and indoctrination and focusing on the structure of consciousness rather than content. Christianity and belief in Christ are often misunderstood and practiced at the level of content, whereas Christ's teachings were about transcending beyond content.
• Understanding Structural versus Content Issues in Spirituality and Life: Spirituality is about the structure of your consciousness rather than the content within it. It involves going "meta," or transcending content and deeply analyzing the underlying structures. This process includes surrendering all attachments and beliefs, including the notion of physical reality. When this level of surrender is achieved, one becomes one with God and experiences infinite love and fearlessness.
• The Role of Survival and Attachment in Maintaining Structures: People tend to hold onto structures, such as wealth and material possession, as a means of identity and survival. This can occur even in religious settings, where individuals justify their material desires in the context of their faith, failing to recognize the structural issue at hand. When one is able to let go of these material desires, they can reach a spiritual growth at a structural level.
• On False Structures and Recognizing Devilry: False structures can be created to serve personal interests and survival needs. For example, a preacher can abuse their power while maintaining a veneer of spirituality. These structures can lead to harm and suffering and are fundamentally at odds with true spirituality.
• The Challenge and Importance of Transformation: To achieve holistic transformation and higher consciousness, one needs to move beyond the content and focus on structural awareness. This process requires immense consciousness, detachment from all aspects of life, and surrender, which can be difficult and take time.
• Multiple Paths to 'Go Meta': Various practices such as meditation, psychedelics, visualization, contemplation, journaling, and yoga can aid in going "meta." Further, reading, learning about systems like Spiral Dynamics, and regular self-introspection can boost one's ability to transcend the level of content and delve into structures.
• Structural Problems in Society: Many societal issues including corruption, racism, intolerance, indoctrination, violence among others, are fundamentally structural problems and are not perceivable at the level of content. Attempts to solve these problems without a focus on their underlying structures can be unproductive as it would just be repositioning content.
• The Role of Perception, Worldview, and Metaphysics: The primary problems lie in how we perceive and frame our issues, which links back to our worldview and metaphysics. To truly resolve issues, there is a need for structural understanding and transformation.
• Understanding the Structure of the Mind: The most important structures to study for personal growth and understanding—not just government or business—are the structures of the mind. These include mechanisms such as projection, denial, ideologies, biases, paradigms, self-deception, among many others.
• Achieving Happiness: Happiness is not solved at the content level—no amount of money, fame, relationships will result in permanent happiness. Happiness is a structural issue and requires change in the structure of the psyche. For instance, substances providing temporary bliss do so by temporarily expanding consciousness, bringing shifts in life's structure, but this state of happiness is not sustainable.
• Using Psychedelics for Altered Consciousness: Psychedelics can trigger extremely blissful states owing to their ability to expand consciousness and allow you to perceive life from a new structural perspective. However, without deliberate and sustained effort to transform oneself and alter the psyche's structure, this state of elevated consciousness is not permanent.
• Inescapable Self: The most integral structure one carries everywhere is themselves. One's happiness and overall life experience are significantly shaped by their psyche structure. Changing this structure fundamentally is critical for genuine transformation and happiness.
• Misunderstanding of Actualized.org's Goals: While Actualized.org does deliver a lot of content, its meta goal is to point toward deeper structures. The danger lies in consuming and memorizing the content without grasping the deeper structures being highlighted. True transformation comes from structural changes in the psyche, not mere absorption of content.
• Investment in Personal Development: Consistent personal development and transformation require investing in resources that promote structural—not content—change. Reading self-help books or advice that introduces content changes are insufficient for deep and transformative changes. Revisiting resources multiple times can lead to deeper comprehension of structures rather than mere familiarity with the content.
• Difficulty of Achieving Structural Changes: Implementing structural changes is a demanding process, with the consumption of self-improvement books and advice constituting only a fraction of required work. Repeated consumption of helpful resources, like Actualized.org's content, can yield deeper understanding and initiates gradual but significant structural changes in the psyche.