X-Message-Number: 10994
From: "Timur Rozenfeld" <>
Subject: Self-esteem
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 09:00:25 -0700

I don't have any problem with what you wrote about Egyptologists, mental
processes, etc., but I don't see self-esteem as linking you with any one
particular thing. High Self-esteem is when you know that you can become an
Egyptologist or a computer-programmer and that you can succeed, because you
can meet the challenges of daily life. All the examples you listed are those
of low self-esteem. A person with high self-esteem does not need to
identifiy himself with any one type of knowledge or career, etc.

I don't intend to get involved in the self-esteem debate because I am
clearly on the Branden side and don't see any arguments attacking
self-esteem, only low self-esteem, which I agree with.

And I agree that the experiencer is not the experience. But again, I see no
relevance to self-esteem.

> If  know the magician was hiding the coin in his hand and it really didn't
"vanish", I don't
> need to prove anything about the reality of the coin.  I only need to know
that believing the
> coin vanished was an illusion.  What I thought was so, wasn't so.

You know that the "vanishing" of the coin was an illusion, because you
already knew what reality was. You admitted it in your own statement, "I
know that the magician was hiding the coin in his hand". You knew from past
experience, or if very clever, logic. Only because you knew reality were you
identify the illusion.

To summarize, I agree with much of what you say, but I see all of this as an
attack on a straw-man self-esteem, or really low self-esteem, because all
the examples you give are of people with low self-esteem.

Timur

PS: Pardon my grammar, I had to write this in a rush

Happy New Years!


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