This is a big deal — seems rampant! So I tuned in, but I don’t fully follow Stefan’s explanation of how one loses their true self — by doing what they’re supposed to do while young — because that would be virtuous. So how does it really start?

I agree with this. Stefan says that when people have lost their virtuous self, they need some way to feel like they have value, so they may champion a cause (even patriotism), or pursue status, wealth, beauty…. But beauty is fleeting as people age.

Stefan calls this: ‘false-self validation;’ “selling other people a false identity;” getting others to envy, so they can feel like they have value.

At 07:00, Stefan tells how those who have killed their true self will attack those who have not, because those who still have integrity remind them that it was a conscious decision that they became false. It is possible and right to not succumb to falsehood:

“So that when you see someone who is honest and direct, and courageous, has integrity, you want to attack them because they remind you that what you did, in allowing the triumph of the false self, was a choice. It was not an inevitability, and it is not a wise thing to do. You just told yourself that so that you could live with what you did.”

Stefan’s closing statement:

“So stop transferring resources to the false self. Be honest; tell the truth, and shame the Devil himself.”

• • •

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNi94wWUpIE