MBTI Listings

How do you find the MBTI/Enneagram community these days compared to before?

I'm trying to help my spouse out with medical expenses, and I'm the only one of us with a job at the moment. Any and all help is appreciated!

Thanks to those who donated! Though we're still a ways off from our goal~ I'd appreciate if this could be signal boosted.

My spouse has had some of her dental work done, but still needs to get more fillings to have her teeth in good shape and help her tmj related issues.

The scans of my chest and abdomen were clean and the issues there turned out to be from a back injury (improving with exercise but I still have bad days), but I still am struggling significantly with the jaw dysfunction - it is bad enough that I have near-constant ringing in my ears which makes it difficult to concentrate on much of anything for long and is especially annoying when I'm trying to do anything related to music. It also causes recurring sinus inflammation, earaches, and sore throat all w/o infection. It is one of the biggest nuisances I have ever experienced.

I get the rest of my fillings tomorrow night (was supposed to be earlier this month, but my dentist went on paternity leave and had to reschedule). My dentist allows for payments, but two rounds of fillings, plus two wisdom tooth extractions and a custom nightguard mold (the last of which I can't get until all the fillings and extractions are done) will definitely end up costing me a pretty penny. I'm returning to work within the next couple weeks, but it will be part-time so as not to put too much strain on my back, which is still healing.

“Petition to the Government of Canada for:

1. Paying for the cost of ground-penetrating radar to investigate all former residential school properties, with the expectation that additional Indigenous children in unmarked graves may be properly identified and laid to rest;

2. Releasing all documents related to deaths and burial grounds at all residential schools, and compelling the churches and other levels of governments to do the same; and

3. Securing the grounds of all residential schools, until proper searches for burial sites can be conducted.

4. Empower Indigenous communities to lead these efforts and provide support that it is meaningful and ongoing, until all the children are properly taken care of.”

Remember that there’s more than can be done in addition to signing petitions! Such as following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, financially supporting local Indigenous initiatives and communities like Indigenous businesses/women’s shelters/homeless shelters/etc, educating your peers about settler colonialism and residential schools, and many more.

As an immigrant, settlers of colour like myself also have as much responsibility as anyone else to follow through with these actions and doing what we can to mitigate any harm we might be reproducing while existing within settler colonial institutions. We need to be doing more than just expressing outrage.

The following are some articles that are also worth reading:

Indigenous Issues 101

https://apihtawikosisan.com/aboriginal-issue-primers/

Beyond Territorial Acknowledgements

https://apihtawikosisan.com/2016/09/beyond-territorial-acknowledgments/

Solidarity as a Settler Move to Innocence

https://blogs.brown.edu/amst-1700k-s01-2019-spring/solidarity-as-a-settler-move-to-innocence/

Accomplices Not Allies: abolishing the settler industrial complex

https://www.indigenousaction.org/accomplices-not-allies-abolishing-the-ally-industrial-complex/

No. A general point: The way many people learn about personality type is by picking up disorganized bits and pieces all over the internet (sometimes from dubious sources) and then they wonder why they get confused. One of the learning problems I commonly see in students is trying to run before learning how to walk, which should be remedied by learning things in the right order and with the most effective methodology. I see people try to identify specific judging functions like Te vs Fe when they haven’t even understood the basics of what T, F, and e are to begin with. Or people try to apply type theory without knowing the technical meanings of academic terminology, so they get lost in misconceptions. In your case, you’re trying to understand the advanced concept of Ti without a good grasp of basic principles, and you lack clear definitions of the words you’re using, like subjective, irrational, personal.

Though many characters in it were undeniably awesome, I’ll go now with a few highlights on Spartacus himself:

• How freaking much he loved his wife. • What a brave visionary he was. • How incredibly EPIC.

When Gannicus says, “I once thought you a reckless fool. Now I see that bold strategy is the only reason you’re not already dead.” I felt that on several levels. And when Gannicus asks him, “What would you have me do?” And he answers, “The impossible.” God damn!

Like, say what you will because he was just a slave or the enemy of the state or didn’t succeed at everything. But that man had unmatchable will power against all the odds and that I deeply admire. 

I’m taking a break from watching horror films and series, so I joined my housemate in rewatching Spartacus. Almost done with the second season of it, one episode left.

Aside all the tits, pussies, dicks, and asses out. As well as all the times the word ‘cock’ is used and Jupiter’s cock cursed upon (you’d be soon wasted if you take a shot of alcohol for each time someone says ‘cock’). Something that stood out for me is how four of its predominant characters have the Enneagram’s Sexual Instinct as first or second in their instinctual stack. Four of the finest gladiators, nonetheless!

Then, who are these sexy beasts?

• Oenomaus (Doctore) [Sp/Sx]

• Spartacus [Sx/Sp]

• Crixus [So/Sx]

• Gannicus [Sx/So]

(Though, as a Sx/So myself, I’m against screwing with people who already have a (monogamous) partner - or even the prospect of one - but can understand experiencing strong feelings that are hard to push down or vanquish when that’s the *rare* case, as it seemed to be here.)

There’s also another character that I want to bring up, whom is often seen lusting regardless.

• Ilithyia

MBTI & Science Lisa Feldman Barrett: ENTJ

“Lisa Feldman Barrett (born c. 1963) is a university distinguished professor of psychology at Northeastern University, where she focuses on affective science

She is a director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory. Along with James Russell, she is the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Emotion Review (…)

During her graduate training, Barrett developed the initial insights for her current theory of constructed emotion.

She highlights differences in emotions between different cultures, and says that

emotions “are not triggered; you create them. They emerge as a combination of the physical properties of your body, a flexible brain that wires itself to whatever environment it develops in, and your culture and upbringing, which provide that environment."”

What happens when psychedelics make you see God (Sarah Scoles, Popular Science, Nov 09 2020)

“Following this toe-dip back into mysticism, the Johns Hopkins group continued to investigate the links among psychedelics, spiritual episodes, and quality of life.

In a follow-on from 2011, the majority of participants had complete mystical experiences, which produced “positive changes in attitudes, mood, and behavior” that stuck around long after the compounds were metabolized.

In a study the same year that looked into personality traits, people who had had a mystical experience scored much higher for openness after the trip than they had before. (…)

To gather a wide variety of accounts—from a larger number of mind-altered and sober subjects than they could accommodate in the lab—

Davis and his Johns Hopkins colleagues created an internet-based survey to find out about people’s “God encounter experiences.”

The survey asked individuals about their most memorable rendezvous with a supreme figure, either when sober or when they had taken a psychedelic. 

More than 4,000 responded. They published the results in 2019.

The sober group was more likely than the other one to label the being God. The psychedelic users instead tended to call it Ultimate Reality.

But both sets generally agreed that whatever they’d encountered was “conscious, benevolent, intelligent, sacred, eternal, and all-knowing.”

And the majority said the experience left them with more purpose and meaning, greater satisfaction with their lives, and a decreased fear of death.

Perhaps the most striking result, though, involved people from both groups who hadn’t subscribed to the idea of a higher power to start with.

After their hangout with an omniscient entity, more than two-thirds became believers. (If you’ve ever tried to change an atheist’s mind, you know how big a feat that is.)

The shift means, essentially, that they thought the experience revealed something true about the world.

As the paper put it, “The majority of both groups endorsed that that which was encountered existed, at least in part, in some other reality and that it continued to exist after the encounter.”

One participant, a data architect in his 40s who wished to remain anonymous because his substance use occurred outside a clinical setting, has had plenty of mystical encounters, but he views these chemical creations as internal. 

“Psychedelics allow you to explore your own mind,” he says.

For instance, when he met Jesus Christ while under the influence of ayahuasca, he believed he was simply meeting “the construct of Christ that exists in my own mind.”

Being controlling and manipulative can come intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously. Whether we like it or not, we have the ability to influence others and the sooner we realize this, the sooner we can free ourselves from its excesses (whether we’re doing the influencing or being the influenced in a controlling and manipulative manner).

“You are so selfish!” Are you? Or is it them selfishly wanting to get more from you?

“You are so stubborn!” Are you? Or is it them stubbornly trying to get you to think like them or like they’d like you to?

“You’re so weak!” Are you? Or is it them weakly “keeping it together” by resigning to abrasive and destructive behaviors?

“You’re so embarrassing!” Are you? Or is it them embarrassingly caring too much about appearances?

“You’re so arrogant!” Are you? Or is it them arrogantly keeping you inferior?

Surely, you can think of more accusations directed at one’s character that produce shame and guilt that is unmerited depending on the context, including ones phrased differently. Take the time to check where they’re coming from and where they’re going to see whether there’s any truth in them or not. If they don’t apply to you, then don’t apply them to you.

The Science of Nerdiness (Scott Barry Kaufman, Scientific American, Oct 25 2020)

“Dopamine is often labeled the “feel-good molecule,” but this is a gross mischaracterization of this neurotransmitter.

As personality neuroscientist Colin DeYoung (a close colleague of mine) notes, dopamine is actually the “neuromodulator of exploration.”

Dopamine’s primary role is to make us want things, not necessarily like things.

We get the biggest rush of dopamine coursing through our brains at the possibility of reward, but this rush is no guarantee that we’ll actually like or even enjoy the thing once we get it.

Dopamine is a huge energizing force in our lives, driving our motivation to explore and facilitating the cognitive and behavioral processes that allow us to extract the most delights from the unknown.

If dopamine is not all about feeling good, then why does the feel-good myth persist in the public imagination?

I think it’s because so much research on dopamine has been conducted with regard to its role in motivating exploration toward our more primal “appetitive” rewards, such as chocolate, social attention, social status, sexual partners, gambling or drugs like cocaine.

However, in recent years, other dopamine pathways in the brain have been proposed that are strongly linked to the reward value of information. 

People who score high in the general tendency toward exploration are not only driven to engage in behavioral forms of exploration,

but also tend to get energized through the possibility of discovering new information and extracting meaning and growth from their experiences. 

These “cognitive needs,” as the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow referred to them, are just as important as other human needs for becoming a whole person.

How active is your nerdy dopamine pathway?

If some or all of these statements describe you, dopamine might well be flowing strongly to your prefrontal cortex:I love spending time reflecting on things.

I am full of ideas. I have a vivid imagination. I am interested in abstract ideas. I am curious about many different things.

Don’t understand why everyone else around you is so interested in sex, drugs and money, and why you get so turned on by stimulating ideas and learning new and interesting things?

Posting as quick reference for those of us who’d rather steer clear of sociopaths’ bullshit.