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Have you ever thought that our world is crazy? If you have, you're not alone. All future decisions of mine came directly from a perspective adopted and initiated on my high school graduation day, June 1968. Based on a thought and question, I asked myself, "What the hell is wrong with this crazy world of ours?" That day's imprudent declaration to solve our singular wicked problem made me a freethinker for the whole of my life. My life was never the same after that wonderful day.
The resolution for this crazy world of ours stands with each person developing their human potential. There is no other way. As we can sense in daily life, we encounter moments when we feel we are on the verge of losing patience. Yes. A car honks prematurely as the traffic light changes, someone chews noisily behind us in a quiet library, or a co-worker repeatedly shows up late to meetings. When taken collectively, frustration, stress, and exasperation can produce a "craziness effect", causing more than a mere annoyance; maybe it is the only cause of pain and suffering. Let's examine this phenomenon by identifying the layers of personal growth that indicate the position of our challenges and opportunities for transformation.
While exploring craziness within the relationship between mainstream psychology and future-stream theories and ideas, the phrase "craziness trigger patterns emerge" stood out. By categorizing these triggers as physical, emotional, and mental, it becomes possible to see how each aligns with the levels of human development and can be integrated into an insightful personality development method. By internalizing this insight, a movement is initiated to lead one to a state often referred to as enlightenment. We'll talk about this later as the causal/spiritual dimension in the world of humanity, wherein even once profoundly ingrained annoyances can dissolve in that heightened awareness, leading to more peace, compassion, and self-control. This paper examines how the concept of a Craziness Scale, linking physical aggravations to spiritual transcendence, offers a practical intuition of personality and our collective growth as a species.
It helps to define what we mean by craziness: Driving me crazy generally refers to triggers that push emotional buttons. Triggers can include repetitive noises, disorganized workspaces, or constant interruptions, which might elicit persistent anger or irritation. We all know subconsciously what "Crazy" means. We all use it casually and frequently in conversation. We have become aware of how seemingly superficial disturbances often expose areas of personal vulnerability or unmet needs. The emphasis here is how unconscious everyday triggers can powerfully affect our wellness. For example, the person who feels intense annoyance at loud chewing could be reacting not only to the noise itself but also to a perceived lack of courtesy, a sense that their boundaries or comfort are being disregarded. Such physical disturbances can escalate into emotional frustration or even mental stress. Let's take a look.
From a developmental perspective, imagine a scale, what we might call the Craziness Scale, that helps track annoyances perceptible at different levels of personal growth as a guide through an ascending personality development process.
At the physical self level, annoyance energies spiral around contiguous bothersome situations and sensory perceptions affecting one's organism. The physical realm encompasses our most foundational interface with the world. People often complain about loud gum chewing, strong odors in confined spaces, or disorganized kitchen counters. Identifying as a physical being, one focuses on survival, comfort, and maintaining a tolerable environment. When physical boundaries are violated, individuals experience tension that can escalate into anger or anxiety, which is why certain physical disturbances might cause strong reactions even when objectively observed by another; they seem insignificant.
After becoming proficient at handling physical annoyances, for example, by politely asking a neighbor to reduce the volume on her entertainment system or learning to maintain one's personal space in crowded environments, one usually initiates the practice of identifying as an emotional being. The emotional self level of the Craziness Scale addresses how annoyances can be rooted in feelings such as disrespect, lack of empathy, or violations of social courtesy. People actively working on their personality development find that frustration is not only about the noise or clutter; it is more often entangled in our sense of dignity and how well (or poorly) we feel we are being treated.
If someone interrupts us repeatedly, our frustration is partly from being silenced and partly from not feeling acknowledged as an equal participant in a conversation. When a friend habitually arrives late at social gatherings, the irritation may reflect lost time and a sense of disrespect or undervaluation. Personal development at the emotional level begins with learning how to communicate objections effectively, saying something like, "I feel overlooked when I'm interrupted" or "It bothers me that our plans aren't taken seriously". The requirement is empathy for oneself (acknowledging our emotional boundaries) and others (recognizing that they may be unaware of the impact of their behavior).
Once development at the emotional level is initiated, we look to mainstream psychological theory: Emotional intelligence; interpersonal tools such as active listening, setting clear boundaries, and offering constructive feedback; and techniques taught in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and other modalities that can help individuals name their emotional triggers and replace reactive outbursts with measured responses. As one's identity and interests build as an emotional being, the gap narrows between emotional stress and calm resolution. The key at the emotional level is consistently applying empathy and communication rather than reacting in anger or shutting down. One learns that craziness often reflects unmet emotional needs for belonging, validation, or respect.
Continuing our ascension of the craziness scale, we enter the personality of the mental being and attend to cognitive annoyances. At the mental self level, frustrations follow inefficiency, disorganization, or lack of clarity; we're talking about the measurement of intelligence (see below). It can be maddening to sit through a poorly structured meeting or receive unclear instructions that waste precious work hours. Mental triggers often reflect challenges with planning, communication, or decision-making. The negativity that arises is less about personal insult and more about the frustration of dealing with a flawed process or system concept. In many work environments, these issues appear as tasks that could have been emails but were turned into lengthy meetings or group projects in which no one's role is clearly defined. The tension at this level is created by lower-level intelligence, as a "thinking" mismatch between how we think tasks and communication should be carried out and how they are executed.
At the mental level, development involves learning to streamline processes, clarify expectations, and cultivate robust organizational systems. When one's sense of identity expands beyond emotional reactivity to include problem-solving and proactive leadership, annoyances become catalysts for improvement rather than sources of chronic frustration. To thrive mentally and lead successfully, utilize tools to ensure that tasks run smoothly, recognize murky statements leading to confusion and friction, and communicate instructions clearly and concisely. Managing mental-level irritations requires honing logic, strategic thinking, and foresight, which reduce everyday life's chaos.
In this complicated section, I relied on future-stream theories to gain knowledge for our discussion on the measurement of intelligence. While attending to the craziness scale, developing human beings find that their ways of thinking (intelligence) are limited at the two lower levels of the physical and emotional before mastering the mental self. Here, at the mental self level thinking and thought are defined as the individual's activated consciousness at four ever higher main kinds: inference thinking, principle thinking, perspective thinking, and system thinking.
Yet, even after tackling physical, emotional, and mental triggers, many have the aspiration for the sense of wholeness/integrity to transcend these reactive cycles entirely. This overarching need suggests the human potential of what future-stream theorists call the causal self or spiritual level. Spirituality can mean different things to individuals identifying at any of the three previous levels of development, ranging from religious devotion to secular mindfulness. The hybrid mainstream and future-stream consensus is that a spiritual perspective employs a common sense beyond the fragmented sense of self as personality (ego); it advances a feeling of unity or interconnectedness with the world and cosmos; this being true would indicate that the individual's everyday triggers would have lost their grip because the self is no longer narrowly identified with body, mood, or mental interests.
In the various mainstream spiritual traditions, contemplative Christianity, Buddhist mindfulness, Integral Theory, etc., is the idea of "transcend and include." The notion is that actual growth involves incorporating lower levels into a higher awareness rather than dismissing or repressing them. Adding a future-stream perspective and utilizing the hybridization process, we find that an authentically enlightened individual does not ignore their physical body, emotional states, or mental processes but simply works to develop and then moves on to maintain the higher perspective of the causal self and the highest intelligence known to Man, intuition.
Intuition in the mainstream is misunderstood by being used to denote emotional impulses with a faint content of the lowest mental consciousness, inference thinking. The future-stream theory of intuition opens up the world of ideas for us. As an organ of knowledge, it gives us correct ideas and knowledge of reality. Very few human beings have worked their way up the layers of consciousness and succeeded in conquering the consciousness of intuition. Even most philosophers are still in the two lowest domains, inference-deductive thinking and principle thinking. One cannot speak accurately about intuition until the individual has acquired and mastered perspective thinking and system thinking.
With this ascension, the individual gains causation and control of the lower levels, and the experience is holistic. Thus, a loud sound can be recognized for what it is, a sensation in consciousness rather than an affront to personal dignity, and a co-worker's tardiness can be acknowledged without spiraling into anger or resentment. In other words, the causal being places even the most maddening functions of the Craziness Scale within the self-consciousness of human existence, offering understanding instead of a spontaneous judgment.
Some might argue that the idealized vision of dissolution of craziness, hinted above, is unattainable or naïve. After all, modern life is teeming with environmental, social, and economic pressures pushing us toward quick-tempered reactions. Nonetheless, even mainstream psychological research supports the transformative potential of mindfulness and self-awareness. Neuroplasticity studies indicate that consistent training in meditation or self-reflective practices can change brain patterns associated with stress and emotional volatility. Suggesting that the energy of tangible changes in cognition connected to personality (ego) flows through as the individual works on the higher-level thinking and intelligence of the integrated self, then beyond personality, beyond ego to the causal self, and takes on calm observation rather than hair-trigger reactivity.
It appears that future-stream ideas created strategically to accelerate the personality development ascension of the Craziness Scale are a match for today's "have it now mantra" and reveal what innovative thinkers are predicting: the emergence of tools that include AI-driven apps providing instant feedback on stress levels, VR simulations for empathy training, and advanced data analytics to streamline organizational tasks. These future-stream innovators see a world where a wearable device senses your frustration and gently reminds you to pause and breathe. Possibilities that technology, rather than distracting us, might evolve to support holistic well-being and personal growth.
Innovations envisioned by some organizations might become widely understood if leaders began to consciously address employees' physical, emotional, and mental needs within a shared environment. Providing calm, clutter-free workspaces and encouraging open communication could deter many day-to-day annoyances, not by enforcing rigid rules but by creating systems and cultures that encourage collaboration, courtesy, and lean efficiency. The push toward conscious leadership, already realized in some innovative companies, aims to blend rational decision-making with genuine empathy and a broader awareness of collective purpose. Such an approach suggests that as individuals and groups climb the Craziness Scale, they will find the climb eased by working synergistically toward a commitment to shared objectives.
Are our current, future-stream ideas and theories enough to resolve the singular wicked problem identified as our crazy world? Does the final integration of physical, emotional, and mental (an integrated self) free us from all the personality (ego) levels of craziness, or does it merely offer a means to create performance management tools? We also find the mainstream identity of spirituality that informs and emphasizes a state of total self-control or enlightenment does not suggest ignoring or obliterating life's challenges but instead presumes a resting in an awareness that observes them clearly without being swept away by negative emotions or overwhelmed by chaotic thoughts. In so doing, maintain annoyances as part of the human drama to teach us about ourselves, our relationships, and our environment. If we don't label them purely negative, mightn't we instead approach them curiously?
Future-stream ideas on personality development are concerned less with defending oneself from annoyances and more about continuous growth; from the physical level, we learn respect for the organism and the shared world; the emotional level cultivates understanding and empathy; the mental level advances clarity and intellectual discipline. Only the causal/spiritual level can lead the world to unity (dissolution of craziness) once the essential will to unity is activated. However, each level addresses aspects of craziness, so rather than burying them, just carry on, each emerges as an opportunity to refine the human being and collective humanity. We also learned that integrating the levels over time reveals that the craziness we experience daily has been less about external objective events and mostly about our level of self-consciousness development, our subjective perspective.
What is this tension telling me about my physical environment, emotional boundaries, or mental habits? My comprehension of the situation is that we can see the need to work on the hybridization of mainstream and future-stream ideas to reach the goal and the way out of this crazy world of ours, that is, the causal self, the prize at the end of one's personality development task. Whether or not these future-stream ideas are correct or specific mainstream theories are still viable; the main point is that the dissolving of crazy instances is not an external process; there will still be noise, lateness, and disruptive events. Instead, think of the dissolution as referring to the internal shift in processing and responding to the craziness triggers. Enlightenment, from any of humanity's perspectives and, however defined, is an integrated movement, so it takes full ownership of this shift. At whichever level, working up one's sense of identity will eventually grow beyond the reactive and limiting boundaries set by our body, emotions, and thoughts to embrace a deepening sense of calm and clarity. Work from this perspective, and you'll be fine.
Such a supposition has a lofty sound to it. Still, one need not be a professional athlete, mystic, ascetic, or mentalist to begin practicing one's self-research for self-development (intelligence). Simple mindful pauses, conscious communication, and respectful attention to one's environment can anchor any individual in a more integrated state over time as these practices become habitual, as does one's identity, concreting the way to self-realize the nature of our minds and the advantage of developing a craziness detection system. At its core, the developmental ascension of the Craziness Scale is about self-consciousness development.
The Craziness Scale system emphasizes the intricacies of human potential in development. It shifts one's attitude toward seemingly petty annoyances to clarify broader growth opportunities: Physical triggers teach us about our immediate boundaries, emotional triggers invite empathy and better communication, and mental triggers stimulate organizational abilities of greater intelligence. When developed holistically, this forms an integrated self in preparation for the possibility of ego transcendence at the causal/spiritual level, where identification with triggers loosens and peace emerges. While the mainstream world will likely continue to offer plenty of sensational reasons to feel crazy, the conscious individual is less likely to be inspired by them. Over time, the repeated choice to respond from a place of integration and wholeness rather than fragmentation leads to a life guided by compassion, self-realization, authentic self-control, and common sense. The Craziness Scale is not merely a model for categorizing annoyances but a mind map of holistic personality development that ultimately points toward the unity of body, heart, mind, and spirit.