(Part 2) Best products from r/entp

Meditation.

Dis: Genius Consciousness - Super Nootropic Brain Booster Supplement - Enhance Focus, Boost Concentration & Improve Memory | Mind Enhancement with Alpha GPC & Lions Mane Mushroom for Neuro Energy & IQ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B45PSV8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_d1BWCb17GFCRQ

Dude this stuff works so well it's amazing!

It will help.

> How did you come from

Simple. I'm interested in the structure of myth, the structure of what Jung called the unconscious archetypes, and why the brain creates them, perhaps as some consequence of the human realization that we are destined to die. The dread of non-existence.

Most "pagan" religions in practice were deliberately invented in the 1960s. So to me they're not very interesting in that regard. The Wicca I've knowns are interested in is what color candle one should use to cast a love spell, and pretending that the Christians killed off the so-called Mother Goddess Witch Cult in the Middle Ages, rather than realizing Margaret Murray was just dead wrong about her theories.

> Have you been involved in nepoaganism? Do you know the research that goes into the recontruction of each branch? The books they base their research on?

You can't reconstruct what never existed in the first place. Wicca, the most popular form of modern paganism, is a sham. As is anything with "druid" in the name.

There are very few sources of authentic non-Christian religious practices from medieval Europe, never mind earlier. Most of the Norse sagas are all filtered through Christian tradition. The Slav religion is mostly lost to history except for a handful of names. Everything that survives is corrupted by Christianity.

With other gods? Well you cannot worship Aztec gods unless you perform blood letting and human sacrifice. Huitzilopochtli demands it to make the sun move. If you're not doing that, you're not "authentic".

If you argue that the gods can "update" what they want and no longer require scarification, bloodletting or ripping out the heart of a willing sacrifice, then any historical "reconstruction" is pointless to begin with -- because the gods may want something new or have changed over the centuries. So why bother? It's also a very convenient excuse to get rid of the parts you don't like (human sacrifice, which incidentally the Norse also are known to have practiced) and stick in parts you do. Of course, Christians have been doing this same thing for centuries.

> I mean, had you been a profane I would've brushed it aside, but you studied these things, you have no excuse.

Lol, a "profane"? Sounds good. One of my favorite scholars in this regard.

> You studied the documents upon which Hellenists and Asatruars base their knowledge.
And somehow, somehow you managed to dismiss them altogether.

Somehow? More like exactly because. I can actually read ancient Greek, and I know enough Old English to pretend I can read Old Norse :D

I contend it's actually impossible for anyone in the West to believe in these gods in the way they were historically worshiped, simply because we no longer live in a world where the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane was distinct. We humans of the 21st century cannot ignore our knowledge of the universe.

That is why these are merely "toy" religions. People light candles and say "norse prayers" and ask to get a job promotion, an easier pregnancy, do well on an exam.

For people practicing these religions in the Iron Age and later, their worship was a matter of absolute survival against the supernatural. For them, human sacrifice and other such barbarities was a necessity.


> Mind if I ask you exactly what you studied in occultism and Greek religion? You sound like someone who hasn't studied it.

Well, just looking at that bookshelf I count about 40 scholarly books on what I deem "mythology". So take that as you will. Most of what i know about Greek religion is about Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, which are of course later developments of the Eleusian mysteries, etc., and intercalated with earlier Christianity.

> It's not like Occultism is one singular path. Hermeticism, LaVeyanism, the Greek mysteries....get particular. What did you study?

Anton LeVey was an atheist and Hedonist. He uses Satan as a symbol in one part to represent hedonism, and in a second part to annoy the fuck out of Christians.

Otherwise I'm not sure what you're asking. I'm interested in the history and the myth, not in digging a pit in my back yard to do the taurobolium. Anton LeVey's Necronomicon is gibberish. I should know, because I've seen the real thing.

Im INFJ, but I had a similar experience actually. Took me a while to really understand the enneagram, with the help of this book, a few events I went to, and talking about it with my ENTP boyfriend. I’d check out the wisdom of the enneagram if you’re interested:)

The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553378201/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_9VDIAb3KJCTX6

Ok, last rant: " Generally, all areas of my life get better and I just feel so stimulated"

When you said that, it really resonated with me. You should definitely read psycho-cybernetics.

http://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Cybernetics-New-More-Living-Life/dp/0671700758/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406752729&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=psycho+cybternetics

I can send you a PDF of it. One of the great messages in the book is this:

"Human beings function like a bicycle. It can maintain its poise and equilibrium as long as it is heading forwards. With no place to go, it is difficult to maintain balance and the bike will be "shaky" in its balance."

When you are on your binge, you are growing and you bring equilibrium to all parts of your life. In other words, if you want to have a "better" life like you mentioned, you need to keep growing in some aspect. You can start growing/ go on a binge with this book. Seriously, its pretty cool and eye opening.

I take drugs for that (ssri nonsense). Works a treat. I used to find if I had mochas and panadol (tylenol?) I could go back to normal for a while, but soon the caffeine caused too much anxiety. Also quit drinking.

Ah also, graphic novels. Jesus does reading help with depression, but if you're too far gone to read a page, start with graphic novels, reread Enders Game or other young adult stuff, then go back into fantasy and scifi. Ease yourself into a new time sink.

Also, at the moment One Punch the anime is really good. I don't know if that's related. If anime is your thing, shinsekai yori is the best. Followed by Berserk.


EDIT: graphic novels I like: If you're into philosophy or science you might too http://www.amazon.com/Logicomix-An-epic-search-truth/dp/1596914521 http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Jim-Ottaviani/dp/1596438274

I think OP should look into meditation as well. For me the thought of having better control of your brain etc is exciting so I got this book. Meditation is now one of the things im most excited about doing/learning and it feels great.

Yup, works very well when you have to memorize something in a short period of time and long-term retention seems to work better than any other method I know of.

Personally, I just use places I know well (e.g. my house). Much easier than constructing an imaginary place.

If you're interested, Moonwalking with Einstein is an entertaining book about memory and memorization technique that deals a lot with memory palaces.

A follow up thought, skimming some of your other posts in this thread: consider the approach you are using to solving this problem. It sounds like you're looking for something outside yourself to fix how you feel and work. If it was that easy, we'd all have bought it.

You might get something out of reading Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The whole idea is about building personal character to achieve what you want, rather than looking for quick fixes and seeing yourself as a victim of your circumstances.

Getting things turned around and dealing with life however you want is not going to always feel easy. It doesn't feel easy always to the people who are successful, either. If that is what you are looking to find, you are going to have a hard time of it...

One interesting principle from the 7 Habits book (which I am currently reading myself to get some direction in overcoming some of my own procrastination), is the production/production capacity (P/PC) principle. You need to take care of both producing/harvesting what you want, and protecting/nurturing your ability to produce in the future. So say you want to produce work/earn money... You not only need to put in the effort to get that product, but you also need to take care of yourself (e.g., sleep, rest, relax) in order to protect your capacity to put in that effort in the future. If you work yourself to exhaustion or apathy, you're going to lose the ability to produce what you want.

A book I would recommend is The Art of Seduction.

It has helped me a lot in learning what to pay attention to. This is not a book on how to hook up with women. It is a literature rich guide on the finer points of building an erotic (eros based) relationship. One of the things it helped me most with is figuring out my negative qualities.

This book showed me the potential elaborate complexity of romatic/erotic relationships and how to better understand and enjoy them. I was able to apply what I learned from this book beyond just speaking with women. It really opens the door to the complexity of interpersonal relationships.

This is an empowering book. It's not for the nice guy idealist. This sort of thing is for sharpening your skills.

Edit: Think of speaking with women as a dance, and this is book contains a great list of potential moves.

Not a psychologist (even better imo, a psychiatrist) but Games People Play by Eric Berne, M.D. is the best book I've ever read about the lowest level of human social interaction.

If anyone here is interested in human social interaction explained in a very Ti way, (by a brilliant INFJ) this book is absolutely a must-read.

I read u/iChugVodka's post and I have to say unequivocally that YMMV. I joined late in the game (age 23) and chose the Marine Corps because of the damn chess commercial.

Besides our core values, (Honor, Courage, Commitment - Navy shares this with us.) we pride ourselves on the ability to Improvise, Adapt & Overcome. Creativity can be displayed in a variety of ways. You just have to be sharp enough to know when and where to apply it.

I'll give you an example: As a Lance Corporal (E-3) amongst 30 others, we were tasked with preparing for a wall locker inspection. We all pressed and prepared our uniforms as we were instructed. Instead of the shitty plastic/wire hangers everyone had, I went and bought the kind that grown men use for their suits. I thought it was appropriate for my Alpha blouse and my Dress Blues (Platoon Honormen were issued these before they were "gear common to all"). My room was spotless. The only "hit" I left out was a fresh Playboy underneath my pillow barely visible. My Corporal walks through before my Sergeant and keys in on that. He's not mad. He knew I left it there intentionally. It was a distractor for my inspector. He realizes I am starting to PLAY the game.

My Sgt walks in and sees the Cpl with the magazine in his hand and asks me who gave me tip about porn. I lied and said, "No one." He goes through my wall locker and finds not only the extra care and attention to detail, but the upgraded hangers and leather uniform shoes, instead of the plastic "corframs." As he's leaving the room satisfied he says, "Don't dream about leaving that skin mag out when Gunny's walking through. You could offer him a beer, though."

Now, bear in mind this is a garrison story, but the principles are relevant once you realize (at least in the Marine Corps) that it's all a game, albeit a precarious one, to be played. You can and should retain your humanity, humor, individuality, creativity and personality.

The punish the many for the actions of a few will be there, but only in the case of incompetent leadership. Grab a straw and suck it up, until such time as you are in charge and capable of shaping the environment for your subordinates. I've been in for 15 years now and I've never allowed my rank to be a limiting factor.

Books man. They're far more comprehensive and build knowledge in a stepwise ordered fashion.

These are pretty good: https://www.amazon.com/Web-Design-HTML-JavaScript-jQuery/dp/1118907442/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469732498&sr=8-2&keywords=html+css+and

Then you just have to MAKE STUFF! It takes years to really learn what you're doing, but once you have the fundamentals down the world is your oyster :)

If you're going to spend 2k hours learning to do something, pay 40 bucks to make it easier on yourself.

Here's the thing, though. Most famous writers don't have great discipline. Earlier this year I read a book called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. Some of the writers in the book were organized, but some also went on methamphetamine-fueled writing streaks, and many simply waited for inspiration to strike.

In fact, what struck me most was the lack of a stereotypical routine. It varied from artist to artist. And each artist's routine reflected his or her personality. The ones who were naturally more rigid had more rigid routines. The ones who were naturally more free-spirited—probably Ne and Ni doms—structured their lives to give them lots and lots of free time so their ideas could simmer and they could write when inspiration struck.

>However, the only way a book can train Ti is if it somehow teaches you to reason differently.

u/lightfive addressed it already, but I have no idea how you reached this conclusion. Reading teaches you to think. Personally, my Te is nonexistent, but I can still make a living editing books. My Ne helps me see the big picture of the narrative, and my Ti helps me enforce the consistency of that narrative.

Practise discipline. You're not a slave to your personality type, like many people on here make it seem. It explains your personality, it doesn't govern it.

Disclipline is the most useful thing I have learned as an ENTP and had me going from a weed smoking insufferable wannabe intellectual on the couch, to a weedsmoking insufferable wannabe intellectual with two profitable businesses and head of marketing in a ski-resort

I still struggle with entp things, but my productivity is snowballing the more disciplined I get.

I know this isn't a detailed answer. But how you discipline yourself is up to the individual. For me it was mindfulness and just... doing anything instead of nothing.

And I recommend this book
Procrastination can be a perk of you use it right. It's going to show you that procrastination is a good thing.

I have found meditation to be extremely helpful, but I don't schedule it or anything. I use it to get in touch with how I'm feeling. The best way is with some chill music, and a quiet environment.

This book helped me a lot:
http://www.amazon.com/Buddha-Blue-Jeans-Extremely-Sitting-ebook/dp/B005ZZ2T2C

Another "test" of sorts I thought of: Can you introspect for most of the day without getting at least a little bit antsy or wanting to talk to another human being?

Another one: Is there a solitary activity that you enjoy doing, such as programming, and could you be happy doing that the whole day or do you need more variety than that?

Another one, this time from JH Van der Hoop: Would you describe yourself as fairly impulsive when you converse with others, ie speaking before thinking? Is thought an end in itself for you or just a means to an end?

In my experience every type can "draw energy" from interacting with other people, but I think for ENTPs if they don't get some of that every day, they will be dissatisfied. I don't think the same is necessarily true of INTPs. Again with your condition though, this one is a toss-up.

I would suggest reading Conscious Orientation and Character and the Unconscious by JH Van der Hoop. Both are available online:

https://archive.org/details/ConsciousOrientation
https://archive.org/details/characterandtheu032079mbp

Also recommend Marie-Louise Von Franz's Lectures on Jung's Typology. You have to buy that one.

http://www.amazon.com/Lectures-Jungs-Typology-Seminar-Marie-Louise/dp/088214104X

This book is good. It gets quite repetitive, but it is exciting and it certainly makes me want to work for Ideo.

This book is absolutely fascinating. Despite a title and cover that markets it as such, it isn't only about sex. It discusses how and why human sexuality, social structures and societies have changed over time, and explores what our natural social and sexual tendencies are (or may be). To this end, it explores a wide variety of human societies over the course of our existence, and compares us to are nearest genetic relatives--chimps and bonobos.

If anyone's interested, I can post some of the most revelatory ideas proposed in it so far. I'm not finished reading it yet.