Observations about the world, part nine

Photograph of the Atlas globe

What is self-awareness?
Saturday – November 15, 2025

Self-awareness is really the ability to understand yourself in relation to the world, the material domain. Self-awareness is not only about your physical appearance: self-awareness does include such things as manners and the ability to read a room etc. But I hold that if you intend to gain advanced insight you need to start with yourself: I believe that you cannot understand the world unless you understand yourself. Indeed, it would seem quite impossible for a man to relate to the world without hierarchy as something that really should be considered a tool, something that can help you find your way in the world. I will admit that I never possessed much self-awareness when I was in the world so do take my advice with a grain of salt. But I do believe that one reason why I struggled, perhaps the greatest reason why I struggled in the world was because I lacked a lot of insight and that was mostly due to my inability to live a sane life in the world. I was quite frankly pushed out of the world, which isn't my fault if you ask me, but that's a story for another day; you can read a little bit about my struggles in the world here. But it is the case that you will struggle quite a lot if you refuse to understand yourself in relation to the world. I do also need to add that yes, to some extent you would have to surrender to the beastly form if you intend to be completely aware of yourself and it could also be the case that you would have to embrace the beast to become self-aware. This is partly because I believe that you cannot know the material domain without becoming a part of the material domain. If you seek to completely shut yourself out from the world, then my only advice to you is that you retire from the world. After all, there's not much I can say about a man that refuses to engage with the world yet who seeks to remain in the world. What am I supposed to say about this? Yes, the world is a harsh and unforgiving place, but this was always the case. Nothing has changed. But as I stated previously: you need to start observing yourself if you want to become more aware. I believe that a good start could be to take a photograph of yourself, because that picture of yourself will not lie. See, cameras capture how you look, and yes while there may be distortions, I do still regard cameras as better than mirrors, since mirrors do "mirror" the image and that is probably a larger distortion than what a camera can produce. But if you are worried about potential distortions from the camera, then I recommend that you back away from the camera as far as possible, or that you buy a better camera, or really a camera that is better suited to capture people form up close and that could maybe mean that you only need to switch to another lens. I am by no means a camera expert, but I don't recommend standing too close to the camera because that will likely make you appear very silly indeed. I always refused to appear before the camera, but this doesn't have to apply to you. I also refuse to use a microphone, but again this doesn't have to apply to you. But do remember that every time you use a camera and/or a microphone, you do take on the beastly form more and more. Just be aware of that. Another way of trying to capture yourself could be to ask someone to paint you, but that can be difficult because the painter could be a very bad painter or he could want to distort some of your features on purpose or he could just not be very fond of you. I do not recommend that you attempt to gain more awareness of yourself by relying on artists, since they're just notoriously unreliable, particularly those of the Bohemian and hip type. Another way of gaining awareness of yourself is to remember what you are thinking when you are feeling something strongly and why. Why are you angry? Well, you may be angry because someone's told you to be angry, and in fact very often that's the case: very often people are angry because they've been taught to be angry, often from such things that really could be labeled political in a broad sense of that word. Then finally, I do believe that you should ask people for advice and listen to their advice, because other people are often more aware than you, at least I believe that to be a sound assumption, especially in this very modern world, or really should I say feminine world, but that's a topic for another time.

    As I've described above, there are some things you can do to improve your overall self-awareness, but I do believe that some people are just less likely to be self-aware: for instance I believe that, on average, women are more self-aware than men. I also believe that while you can and should listen to other people's advice, that you should always ask yourself before you apply their advice whether or not this suits me(?). If not, then perhaps you should move on with your life. Do remember that what is labeled advice is often nothing but criticism. This is not to say that you should never listen to or acknowledge criticism, but be aware that criticism is often overly negative and motivated by negativity and sometimes even spite. So I do believe that if you intend to listen to criticism that you at the very least should moderate that criticism, but criticism can be advice of course.

    Again, if you fail to be self-aware, that's not going to end the world, but your life and your material circumstances will potentially be greatly and adversely affected by your seeming inability to adapt to the rules of society/the rules of engagement, if you will. Yes, you will acquire a more beastly form if you decide to become more self-aware, that's just an inevitability that follows from hyper awareness of the world, but in my view you are almost certainly destined for the beastly form regardless, at least if you remain in the world.

Reginald Drax – November 15, 2025.