All praises is due to Allah who has blessed us with this glorious gathering on this glorious day. All praises is due to Allah who has blessed us with iman and blessed us with islam and blessed us with ihsan. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah ila di hadana li hada. All praises is due to Allah who has guided us to this way wa ma kunna li nahtadiya lola and hadana Allah and we would not have been able to guide ourselves had not Allah guided us. We wanted to speak about the ways that we are like Ibrahim alayhi salam because the events of these days are focused around the life the struggle the trials of Ibrahim alayhi salam, his wife and his progeny and we are his spiritual progeny millata abikum Ibrahim the way of your father Ibrahim so he's not our physical father some he might be but most of us not not so but he is our spiritual father alayhi salam peace upon him so the ways we are like Ibrahim and the ways we should strive to be like Ibrahim alayhi salam one way we like Ibrahim is that like Ibrahim Allah subhanu wa ta'ala Almighty God has chosen us for this way Allah ta'ala says concerning Ibrahim alayhi salam that Ibrahim was a nation unto himself devoutly obedient to Allah naturally inclined towards monotheism he was not amongst the idolaters he was deeply appreciative to the blessings Allah bestowed upon him he was he chose him Allah chose him and he guided him to a straight path so Ibrahim alayhi salam was chosen by Allah subhanu wa ta'ala for the great mission that history has recorded him as fulfilling we should understand that we too were also chosen and when Allah ta'ala mentions that fact he mentions it in the context of Ibrahim or Ibrahim alayhi salam so Allah ta'ala tells us so strive in the way of Allah as should rightfully be the case he has chosen you and in this there are so many lessons we will just mention one before returning to the main one Allah ta'ala says strive in the way of Allah should rightfully be the case the right that Allah subhanu wa ta'ala has over us can never be fulfilled by our striving can never be fulfilled by our striving and therefore Allah ta'ala enters us into Jannah based on his mercy not our actions based on his mercy not our actions and when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam informed his companions of this they said to him not even you oh messenger of Allah not even you will enter Jannah based on your actions Allah ta'ala tells us he said not even me I will only enter if Allah envelops me in his mercy and his grace so we should understand but the actions are important the actions are important the actions are the key to the mercy and the grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so our actions are necessary not sufficient sufficiency comes from the mercy and grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that's what we strive for that's what we live for and that's what we will die upon inshallah ta'ala striving to our utmost for the mercy and grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so in that our actions in and of themselves will never be sufficient we can never fulfill that right and here we derive and benefit from a legal principle Allah we know our ulema tell us that difficulty calls for ease for facilitating ease so the difficulty that is involved in fulfilling the right we owe to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is compensated by the ease that Allah gives us and what he has asked of us so there's a right that we owe to Allah symbolically but there is a duty we have in fulfilling the obligations he's imposed upon us and those obligations are bearable those obligations are even easy especially when one's heart is filled with light and the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so after mentioning the magnitude of our struggle based on the right we owe to Allah wa jahirufillahi haqqa jahadi who is tabakum Allah reminds us but he has not made it difficult and he's made no difficulty for you in your religion so we were chosen and ibrahim was chosen and it's important for us to remember that we were chosen because sometimes we forget that fact and we live lives of no purpose if we understand we were chosen by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we were chosen to walk on the path that was laid down by ibrahim then immediately our lives take on a sense of purpose and we're not drifting aimlessly through this life being pushed tethered to and fro by the forces the vicissitudes of time and the vagaries of fate we live lives that infuse with a sense of purpose because we know we're walking in the footsteps of a giant and whenever one is cognizant of the fact that he or she is walking in the footsteps of giants he or she will never consciously do anything to disappoint the one who has laid down the path that they are walking upon because they realize that path was only laid down through sacrifice through struggle through effort overcoming hardship challenges and difficulties and when we realize that we don't want to be the one to deviate from that path because it would be an expression of ingratitude to the ones who sacrificed to lay down the path and the path that we walk upon was first laid down by our forefather ibrahim brothers and sisters we were chosen some of us are immigrants from other lands if that's your case ask yourself what did you do to get here in the first place what made you different from your neighbor from your former schoolmate that you grew up with from your classmate from your cousin your uncle your brother your sister who's still wherever you came from what made you different once you attain to these shores in many instances seeking a better material existence seeking education in many instances education for a better material existence what led you here today when you know there are five six maybe ten like you who came here who are at work right now seeking that better material existence what brought you here today what led you to spend your money to establish this center and hundreds of others if not thousands throughout this land what caused you to walk on a different path what caused you to sacrifice the money you could be spending on your bigger house the money you can be spending on your faster car the money you can be spending on your better home or garden what caused you to spend it see sabili la wasn't something you did or was it because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose you for a mission who watched the back home he has chosen you you didn't choose yourself he has chosen you and when you realize that you've been chosen again you will undertake the responsibility that you've been chosen for with purpose with direction with conviction with determination overcoming every obstacle that's placed in your path and some of us are converts some of us have converted to Islam again we ask the question what made us different than our neighbor our brother our sister who are still living lives with no Islam was it something we did were we more intelligent were we more virtuous were me we more obedient to our parents than they ordered Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala choose us and if he chose us we should understand he does nothing in vain he does nothing without a purpose he does nothing idly he has chosen us for a mission he has chosen us for a mission who watched the back home and that mission is to walk on the path of ibrahim that mission is to establish regular prayer that mission is to pay our charity that mission is to work to sacrifice to see that our people find the comfort in la ilaha illallah muhammad o rasulullah just as we have found the comfort in la ilaha illallah muhammad o rasulullah sallallahu aleyhi wa aleyhi wasallam as we reflect on the life of ibrahim aleyhi salam there's a powerful lesson for the young people many of the people here are young and that's beautiful that's wonderful but they're struggling to overcome the mentality that the modern condition bequeaths to individual there are young married couples here struggling to keep their marriages together struggling mightily to overcome the forces of individualism ibrahim aleyhi salam to go back to something he did we mentioned something he represents that we represent that we share with him he was chosen we were chosen and now we'll mention something inshallah that we should try to be like ibrahim aleyhi salam ibrahim smashed the idols he smashed the idols of his people and they saw the wreckage before them they said who has done this to our gods fairly he is a wrongdoer an oppressor they said we heard a young man conspiring against him he goes by the name of ibrahim so ibrahim and his youth he smashed the idols and we should also be idol smashers but as we look around we don't find the landscape that ibrahim find we found we don't find the landscape littered with idols with statues of wood and stone and terracotta and clay people prostrating to those physical idols that they have manufactured with their own hands we don't find that perhaps in a far corner of the earth perhaps in some remote jungle or some remote mountain village somewhere people are still prostrating to idols but that's not our dominant condition but the 20th century and the experiences of that century have bequeathed unto us another idol the idol of the self the idol of the ego the idol of the nefs and that is the idol we should be about the business of smashing because just as people were harmed when they prostrated themselves before idols of stone or clay or wood or whatever the case may be people are harmed when they prostrate before the idol of the self and we see that harm all around us the worship of the self is tearing our marriages apart the worship of the self is tearing our families apart the husband can't sacrifice for the wife the wife can't obey the husband the children can't obey the parents because all of them are prostrating to the idol of the self we have to smash that idol just as ibrahim smashed that idol and if he smashed that idol with a hammer or an axe or a bludgeon of some type or the other we have to smash that idol with the worship of Allah we have to smash that idol by committing ourselves to the sunnah of muhammed sallallahu alayhi wa sallam we have to smash that idol by elevating our souls beyond the lonely level level of the nefs al ammar of the su to the level of the nefs al mutma inna the soul that's contented with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the soul that's pleased with Allah and pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that is the weapon that we have to smash the idol of the self and when we smash that idol we will be the beneficiaries of the ensuing peace we will be the beneficiaries of the ensuing tranquility we will be the beneficiaries of tawhid because as long as that idol exists we can never actualize the true and deeper meanings of divine unity in our lives in our hearts in our beings in our consciousness and if if anyone doubts that this self can be an idol we remind you as Allah ta'ala has reminded us in the Qur'an have you not seen the one who takes the very inclination of his soul as his god and when that is the case Allah ta'ala sends him astray despite his possession of knowledge because that's how dangerous and pernicious and diabolical the worship of the self is brothers and sisters let us smash that idol so that we can be servants of Allah and servants of each other because as long as that idol exists we want we will want to be served because that god of the self like every god demands service there's only one true god who is rightfully served Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Almighty God Allah young people look at the life of this ma'id who was young like you and many of the events we commemorate the culmination the sacrifice when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us of what transpired when he says so as a young person a young teenager was asked by his parents by his father not to give up a girlfriend or boyfriend not to give up a pay ps three or four whatever number the ps is up to or to give up this or to give up drugs or to drink give up alcohol or to give up this or that dress style or to give up the purple streak in the hair ismail aley salam was asked by his father to give up his life so we asked our young people are you any is any one of your parents asking you to give your life up physically ask you to be killed ibrahim ismail aley salam was asked to give up his life and what did he say father do what you've been commanded i'm not here to make things make it difficult for you to be a muslim i'm not making it difficult for you to submit to the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala i'm here to make it easy for you young people when's the last time you said to your parents i'm here to make it easy for you ismail was saying i'm here to serve you young people when's the last time you told your parents you're here to serve them cognizant of the fact that they have served you they have served you when you were incapable of serving yourself and that is the meaning of when he reached the age the ulamas say they have that the child's being a burden and a source of difficulty for the parent is gone no more diapers to change no more running noses to wipe no more dirty rear ends to clean he the child he or she now can clean themselves can cook for themselves and in former days turner 12 that was the case as many of you know all too well who are old enough to remember those days is old enough to clean for himself and is old enough to start serving their parents after their parents had served them up to that point and right at that age when ibrahim is ready to benefit from his son he's asked to sacrifice him but his son says father do what you have to do you will find me set a jiduni inshallah i will be patient with what Allah has ordered you to do young people it's time for you to tell your parents i will be patient with what Allah has ordered you to do i will assist you in undertaking the commandments of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and i realize unlike ismail you're not asking me to give up my life you're asking me to give up something that ultimately will undermine my life if i continue on the path of companionship with these people if i continue on the path of drugs or alcohol or this or that or the other this is something that will harm me and so you're calling me to something that will benefit me and i will be patient in your obedience this is the society that we strive for these are the values that we want to perpetuate in the earth but we can't do it alone the old people can't do it alone it takes the young and the old working together with each other takes the young and the old so smash the idol of the self sister smash the idol of the self where you only have an unending list of demands for your husband husband smash the idol of yourself where you have these inflated ego is egotistical demands of your wife children smash the idol parents smash the idol so that we can go forth and build the kind of society that the prophets alayhim as-salam have bequeathed onto us this is what these days remind us of they remind us of the prophets ibrahim ismail muhammad sallallahu alayhim as-salam and their struggles and what they sought to bring into the earth brothers and sisters la ilaha illallah allahu akbar allahu akbar allahu akbar la ilaha illallah allahu akbar allahu akbar walillahi l-hamd in conclusion that we remind you you and remind myself to go back to the first verse we mentioned that ibrahim ibrahim was a nation unto himself devoutly obedient he wasn't amongst the idolaters and inclined towards monotheism he was an umma what does this mean it means three things first of all he was a paragon of virtue he embodied all of the virtues that might exist amongst the members of an umma and while we will never attain to the level of ibrahim as-salam in terms of our moral character or the level of muhammad sallallahu alayhim as-salam those are the heights we should be aiming for one of the sad and pathetic states of our time is that we've been oriented to look down towards the pits and engage in a race towards the bottom who can be the most degenerate who can dress the most sloppily muslims adopted you see muslim would are a vest on and their shirt tells hanging below the vest when they should be tucked into their pants but muslims get involved in that race to the bottom you hear muslims losing language that gutter people even in our poorest neighborhoods they think they're being cool young suburban muslim kids what up my nigga and gd this and sh that because they heard on some record recording and they think this is cool and this is being ghetto that's not ghetto ask anyone who was raised in a real ghetto not a hollywood ghetto a real ghetto about how hard their mothers in many cases and sometimes the mothers and their fathers strove to keep them away from that language strove to keep them beat and presentable cut their hair themselves bought a ten dollar set of clippers because they couldn't afford clippers to keep their hair neat and clean dress them neatly before they sent them out to school wash their mouths out with soap if they ever used any of that language that's not ghetto that's hollywood that's hollywood's exploitation of the most degenerate and abused and oppressed elements in our society to profit off of and it's a pathetic sad situation when muslims are following what hollywood has put out to follow if you want to be ghetto you go down to some of these churches and listen to what's being taught if you want to be ghetto you go to a home where a mother or father are struggling on a shoestring budget to make sure their children are neat and clean and if they come home with a tattoo or with their pants hanging off their rear end they face a severe punishment that's ghetto so if you want to be ghetto go down to the right ghetto the real ghetto and not the hollywood ghetto and you'll come back with some dignity you come back with your head handing standing tall you come back with a sense of appreciation for the blessings that you have you didn't grow up in roach infested rat infested dwellings so don't act like that's your upbringing you didn't have to sleep on a 20-year-old mattress that's been rotted out and the spring's digging into your skin don't act like that's your existence be a leader be an embodiment of virtue like ibrahim umma is also imam a leader be a leader for people we pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wa jaalna lin muttakina imama make us leaders for the righteous and that should be a sincere prayer that we make to be leaders a qadwa imam umma is a qadwa an example to be followed we should strive to be followed not following the most degenerate examples that are out there we should be an example of dignity an example of virtue an example of courage that is the muslim that is you brothers and sisters that is us brothers and sisters an imam a a moral exemplar in the ibrahim a qana umma qanita linna an imam a leader for the people and a guide and an imam is a had what he called the qawmin had and a guide for our peoples that is the role of the muslim in this world that is the role of the muslim and ibrahim alaihi salam in some opinions is the one who has given us this name he has named you muslim ibrahim alaihi salam some interpretations a lot a la before purposes let's work with ibrahim brothers and sisters don't let him down and in conclusion said i said that before this time i'll put the notes away you know i mean it in conclusion reflect on another thing related from the life of ibrahim ibrahim alaihi salam found himself before a tyrant nimroof or nimrod and that tyrant hated Islam and we find ourselves faced with tyrannical parties and individuals in our country not the majority of the people but there are groups and there are individuals who are tyrannical and they hate Islam and that tyrant threw ibrahim alaihi salam in the fire and when ibrahim alaihi salam was thrown in the fire he said something the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he tells us ibrahim said it when he was flung into the hellfire what did he say Allah suffices us what an excellent one to trust in so brothers and sisters as we find ourselves before these forces these pernicious and diabolical forces that would have Islam eradicated from this country that will have Muslims expelled from this country that are inciting hatred against Muslims against Islam against the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam let us say as ibrahim said let us say as muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam when he was sad to him Allah records in the Quran those who were sad too the people are gathering against you fear them and there are those who are saying to the muslim the people are gathering against you the host they're gathering against you all of these various elements we can name but you know their names are too well are gathering against you it only increased their faith and they said Allah suffices us what an excellent one to trust in why did it increase their faith because they saw miracles unfold just as ibrahim alaihi sallam he saw the fire become cool and he saw himself enveloped in peace and well-being with salama ala ibrahim and we see miracles unfolding but we are not cognizant in many instances to give you a small example the forces and the momentum was gathering against the muslims pointing people towards the dreadful day when this individual whose name does not deserve mention is going to have his infamous Quran burning and the climate is against the muslim the radio the television the media against the muslim and then what happens no Quran's are burnt rather the entire nation rallies behind the muslims and from coast to coast they're having Quran readings in the synagogue in the church in the parks on the highways the byways is that not true many of us participated in those is that not a miracle Allah is in control and when we realize Allah is in control we can look at the events and our faith is strengthened and we can say well do faith do sincerity do conviction Allah suffices us what an excellent one to trust in ibrahim alaihi sallam said it brothers and sisters let us say it and let us mean it let us believe it and let us live that reality has been allahu fa niam al wakil niam al maula wa niam al nasir gufranaka rabbana where they can maseer allahum subhana rabbika rabbil izzati amma yasifoon wa salaman al al mursaneem walhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa sallallahu ala sayyidina muhammad wa la alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam tasneem man kathira inna allah allahu akbar allahu akbar brothers and sisters may Allah bless you bless your families as you enjoy the blessings be stored upon you of shelter of food of drink think of those less fortunate not only those muslims less fortunate those who've been pushed by pushed out of their home by both manmade and natural disasters in pakistan and afghanistan and iraq and many other places kashmir many other places in sudan also think of the our brothers and sisters in humanity and places like Haiti the poorest of us will be wealthy in that society if we live in a homeless shelter we turn the faucet on in the homeless shelter clean water comes out of the tap we're not forced to drink cholera typhoid infested waters allahu akbar think of the less fortunate and we don't say this to make anyone guilty we say this to encourage us to remember the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon us and to give shukr for those blessings to give thanks thankfulness thanks for those blessings and our thankfulness is to work to extend them to others to work to the best of our ability and circumstance to extend them to others and may Allah bless all of us to do something meaningful to extend those blessings to others brothers and sisters may Allah bless you may he bless your families may bless this masjid may best make this a center that's alive that the the believers are constantly coming into and out of for various righteous purposes and all of the centers all of the masjid may that be the case may Allah we mentioned the immigrants and the converts may Allah bless us to build strong bridges and relationships between those two groups because only when those two groups are brought together will Islam fulfill its destiny in this land only then will Islam be a powerful force of good and virtue when those forces come together may Allah bless us to work to bring those forces together may Allah bless us to serve the people of the disbelievers may Allah bless the Muslims everywhere may Allah bless the Muslims in all times may Allah bless the Muslims brothers in Palestine, Iraq, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Shishan, Somalia, Iraq, Algeria And in every place, O Allah, we are supported by Allah in this country. Allahumma man arada khayran li hadhihil ummahin muhammadiyah, fa wa thikku ila kulli khayr. Wa man arada sharra laha mulil muslimin fa khudhu akhda, Aziz al-Muqtadir. Allahumma jaal tadbiruhum tadmiruhum. Allahumma alaika bi adaa il-Islam. Anta maulana fa unsurna alil qawma il-kaafirin. Allahumma unsurna, Allahumma unsurna, Allahumma unsurna. Allahumma barqlana, warhamna, wa'afu anna. Wa jalla min al-Muttaqeen, wa al-hikna bil-salihin. Wa jalla min al-Muttaqeen, min al-sabireen. Min al-Ladheena yamaluna layla al-manahara li qibmeti haadad deen. Wa'afu anna wa wafilana, warhamna. Anta maulana fa unsurna alil qawma il-kaafirin. Inna Allah ya'imru bi al-Ati wa al-Ihsan wa itaiz al-Kurba. Wa yannha anil fahshai wa al-Muqtadi wa al-Baghih. Ya'idukum, la'alikum, tadakkarun. Ya ayyuh al-Ladheena amaluttaq Allaha wa kunu ma'as sadiqeen. Wa kunu ma'as sadiqeen, wa kunu ma'as sadiqeen. Wa sallallahu ala shaydina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. La ilaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Wa lillahi l-hamd, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. La ilaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Wa lillahi l-ham, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar La ilaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar Wa lillahi l-ham, kula'a min, wa antum bi kheer, wa as-salamu alaikum Wa rahmatullahi wa barakat


My speech is a bit slurred, not because I've been drinking. Let me rephrase this, not because I've been drinking more than usual. I have been to the dentist and I came back with a breakthrough conclusion. If there's a group of people worse than narcissists, these are dentists in action. I have been tortured and tormented throughout the whole process. There was this beatific angelic smile on my dentist's face, under the mask I'm sure. Okay Shoshaneem, today we are going to discuss how to cure the narcissists in your life. Some of you, for some oblivious, self-destructive and masochistic reasons, insist to stay with your narcissists. Well at least let me educate you and edify you as what are the treatment options. Good luck dragging your narcissists into therapy. That in itself is a process which easily competes with any dental treatment. My name is Sam Baknin and I am the inevitable author of the one and only masterpiece, Pregnancy of Love, Narcissism, Revisited, which you can buy on Amazon if you don't have what to do with your money. And I'm also a professor of psychology in Southern Federal University in Wastov-on-Don, Russian Federation. And I'm also a professor of finance and a professor of psychology in the outreach program of the CS Consortium of Universities, CRS, Center for International Advanced Professional Studies. Thank you for listening and see you in the next video. No, I'm just pulling your leg. Stay. Why are you going? Why are you going? Hello. I was kidding. Oh my God. People take everything so literally. It's mind-shattering for those of you who still have minds. Today, as I said, we're going to discuss treatment modalities. Now, psychologists never can say anything normally. They can never use normal words. They don't say, for example, therapies or psychotherapies. They say treatment modalities because it sounds very scientific and excludes laymen from the fraternity of psychologists. So treatment modalities is another phrase for psychotherapies. And we're going to review the whole field. Once you had convinced your narcissist that he needs therapy, are there any realistic options out there?  Not really, actually. The situation is a bit better than self-styled experts online would have you believe. I can't resist taking a dig at these so-called experts with and without advanced academic degrees. All right. Let's proceed. This is an interview that I gave to News Intervention. And the unfortunate interviewer is Scott Douglas Jacobson. Not because he's not a good interviewer. He's actually a superb interviewer. But because he had to spend a lot of time with me. Poor chap. My heart goes out to him if I had a heart. Scott Douglas Jacobson, question number one. Narcissism seems lifelong immutable. You have commented eloquently, thank you, Scott, about narcissistic personality disorder and the lifetime devoured by it in an Instagram post. Yet your intervention call therapy is effective with narcissism and depression. What was the original insight into the first developments of call therapy? To which I answer that exactly like borderline personality disorder. Narcissistic personality disorder is a post-traumatic condition, a form of complex trauma. That was the insight that gave rise to call therapy. So call therapy is based on two premises. Number one, that narcissistic disorders are actually forms of CPTSD. And number two, that narcissists are the outcomes of arrested development or stunted development and attachment dysfunctions. Consequently, call therapy borrows techniques from child psychology and from treatment modalities, therapies which are used to deal with PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Having survived this answer, Jacobson proceeds. In call therapy and narcissistic disorders of the self, which is an academic paper I published in 2018, you list four misconceptions about pathological narcissists. Why have those been the misconceptions in particular? Vaknin, that's me. Pathological narcissism is not merely a regression to an earlier childhood developmental phase, although such infantalization is a core psychodynamic of the disorder. But there's so much more to it, there's so much more to narcissism than this. It is also, narcissism is also not only a psychological defense, although narcissistic defenses and cognitive distortions are, they play a key role in the pathology. Narcissism is not simply an organizing principle or a shema. Though, like every addiction to narcissistic supply in this case, narcissism helps the addict to make sense of the world, is hermenoitic, interpretative, and provides goal orientation and direction to his life. Narcissism comes replete with rituals, order, and structure, and in this sense, narcissism is an exoskeleton similar to a drug addiction. Finally, narcissism is not strictly a personality disorder, the personality is intact. It's actually highly adaptive. Narcissism is a post-traumatic condition, amenable to trauma therapies. Like in every other form of complex trauma, emotions get dysregulated or repressed, and conditions get distorted. Jacobson. How are narcissistic disorders complex post-traumatic conditions and forms of arrested development and attachment dysfunctions? In which way? How are both pampering and punishing a child or an adolescent forms of abuse in the creation of a narcissist? Vaknin. Answering. Pathological narcissism is a reaction to prolonged abuse and trauma in early childhood or early adolescence. The source of the abuse and trauma is immaterial. The perpetrators could be parents, teachers, and other adults or peers even. Pampering, smothering, spoiling, pedestaling and engulfing the child are also forms of abuse. Instrumentalizing the child, parenting fine the child. All these are forms of abuse because they don't allow the child to separate from the parent and to confront reality as an agent of personal growth and development. Narcissistic and psychopathic parents play a role in this, usually. The early childhood traumas of the narcissist prevent him or her from completing the process of separation, individuation. The narcissist is not permitted. Narcissistic child is not permitted to develop boundaries. He's not permitted to become an individual. He freezes in time as a puer a eternus, a peterpan, an eternal adolescent. The narcissistic child or the child that is about to become a narcissist reacts by avoiding the offending and hurtful parent, an insecure attachment style that becomes entrenched throughout his lifespan. The child who is about to become a narcissist creates the false self and outsources many ego boundary functions to the false self, rendering the child dependent on the appraising gaze of others to buttress his grandiose inflated self-image. Gradually, the narcissist develops an addiction to confirmatory input, a kind of confirmation bias, if you wish. He needs narcissistic supply because he cannot regulate and stabilize his internal environment without it. What's left of Jacobson asks, what portions of the nervous system in early childhood and early adolescence seem most impacted by the long-term abuse and trauma to create narcissism if it is known? No, it is not known, says the Vaknin. There are many studies about the neuroplastic effects of childhood abuse and trauma on the brain, but none of these studies is specific to NPD, narcissistic personality disorder. There are studies about brain abnormalities in borderline and antisocial personality disorders, psychopathy, but not about narcissism, or few about narcissism. Jacobson, how are narcissistic disorders interpersonal disorders rather than disorders of the self? Vaknin, the concept of individual which regrettably permeates modern psychology is counterfactual, defies the facts. We are formed fully via relationships with others. To conceive of the self as an outcome of narcissistic introversion, as Jung suggested, is disastrously mistaken. Disorders of the personality are therefore problems in interrelatedness as the object theory school in the United Kingdom in the 60s had postulated. Narcissism is no exception. It's a problem in relating to other people. It's a social disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Edition 5 had adopted actually this position in its alternative model of narcissistic personality disorder. I refer you to page 767, and I had been advocating this posture or these stunts since 1997. Jacobson, what are the goals of cold therapy? Ordinary Vaknin says, the main two therapeutic goals of cold therapy are to render the false self redundant and to drive it to atrophy, use it or lose it kind of thing. And the second goal is to eliminate the need for narcissistic supply and the dysphoria that accompany deficiencies in narcissistic supply. In short, to get rid of the grandiosity dimension in narcissistic personality disorder. Other goals are to process trauma via skilled reliving, to teach the patient or the client to own the trauma and to survive re-traumatization within the therapy. To foster more adaptive functioning that is not dependent on outsourced regulation, cognitive distortions like grandiosity and artificial constructs like the false self. To replace negative coping with positive coping strategies, negative coping strategies such as avoidance, withdrawal, defiance or fantasy. To integrate distressing materials, thoughts, feelings, memories, to lead to the internal resolution of dissonances resulting in an equilibrium and homeostasis, also known as health, help to be healthy. And finally to help the client to evolve or to develop life skills such as resilience, empathy and ego regulation. Jacobson, why are known well-established therapies effective in the treatment of narcissistic disorders? Well, the main reason they are not effective is that they treat the narcissist as an adult and the narcissist is a child. And the other reason they are not effective is that narcissists are in post-traumatic conditions and they don't pay enough attention to the traumatic aspect. But instead of saying this actually in the interview, what I did is I provided a review of how each therapy, each treatment modality fares. How it succeeds to tackle narcissism. Let's start with behavior therapy. It replaces problem behaviors with constructive behaviors via conditioning and reinforcement. Cognitive therapy changes negative automatic thoughts and automatic negative thoughts and shemas that lead to attributional and other biases. It also changes errors in order to alter problematic behaviors and dysfunctional feelings and behaviors. CBT, cognitive behavior therapy. It's a third wave of behavior therapy. The primacy of therapeutic relationship, learning principles, analyzing triggers and environmental cues, exploring shemas and emotions, utilizing modeling, homework and imagery, the all-part and possible CBT. A form of CBT is known as dialectical behavior therapy, DBT, developed by Lyman in 1993 to treat borderline personality disorder, but used with other personality disorders and also with disorders of mood, anxiety, eating and substance abuse. DBT deploys mainly with female patients and inpatient or residential settings, but that is changing fast. DBT emphasizes emotional and affect regulation rather than cognitions, unlike CBT, classic CBT. DBT is concerned with how were shemas formed via dialectic conflicts. It seeks to connect affect and need to cognitive inference processes and belief systems, so as to be reinterpreted with greater self-awareness. DBT identifies fixation or preservation causes caused by early developmental deprivation and protective attentional constriction. DBT examines effects, so negative reinforcement through emotional avoidance or inadequate coping skills, rewarded through the partial reinforcement effect. And finally, DBT involves individual therapy, but also group skills training, phone contact and therapist consultation. It is all pervasive, it covers the whole monopoly of the client's interactions. It focuses on using validation and problem solving to counter severe behavioral discontrol, issues of quiet desperation, problems of living and reducing incompleteness. DBT is one of my most favorite therapies. Cognitive behavior analysis system of psychotherapy, CBASP, developed by McCullough and adopted by Sperry, Lensperry. It is not used with borderline personality disorder. Clients in CBASP, clients learn to analyze life situations and manage daily stressors. They evaluate which thoughts and behaviors prevent desired outcomes. Elicitation and remediation makers, questions about the situation, the client's role and functioning in it, and the desired outcome. And these lead to the revision of counterproductive behaviors and cognitions. This therapy replaces emotional reasoning with consequential reasoning. Then there is mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, MBCT, it was developed by Tisdale. Forsters aware focus on thoughts, feelings and experiences in the present with an attitude of acceptance and without analysis or judgment. This is something known as pattern focused therapy, again developed by Lensperry, who was a very productive psychologist. The pattern is predictable, consistent, self-perpetuating style of thinking, feeling, acting, coping and self-defense. The pattern can be adaptive, competent or maladaptive, maladaptive, inflexible, ineffective, inappropriate, causes symptoms and impairs functionally and life satisfaction. The therapy consists of replacing hurtful, maladaptive patterns, situational interpretations and behaviors with helpful, adaptive patterns. A very famous therapy is Schema therapy, developed by Young, very powerful therapy and one of my favorites. The therapy changes maladaptive Schemas, 18 enduring and self-defeating ways of regarding oneself and others, arranged in five domains. Schemas are perpetuated through coping styles, Schema maintenance, Schema avoidance and Schema compensation. Schemas can be reconstructed, modified, interpreted or camouflaged. I will quote from Lensperry's handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Edition 5 Personality Disorders, Assessment, Case Conceptualization and Treatment, Third Edition, 2016, published by Rootledge. So, Spary arranged all the Schemas and his Table 1.2, maladaptive Schemas and Schema domains. Disconnection and rejection domain, Schema number one in this domain. Abundantment and instability, the belief that significant others will not or cannot provide reliable and stable support. Mistrust abuse, the belief that others will abuse, humiliate, cheat, lie manipulate or take advantage of the client. Schema number three, emotional deprivation, the belief that one's desire for emotional support and intimacy will not be met by other people. Defectiveness shame, the belief that one is defective, bad, unworthy, unwanted or inferior in important respects. Social isolation and alienation is the last scheme in this domain. The belief that one is alienated, different from others or not part of any group. The next domain is impaired autonomy and performance and scheme number one. Independence incompetence, the belief that one is unable to competently meet everyday responsibilities without considerable help from other people. Vulnerability to harm or illness, the exaggerated fear that imminent catastrophe will strike at any time and that one will be unable to prevent it. Enmeshment undeveloped self, the belief that one must be emotionally close with others at the expense of full individuation or normal social development.  The belief that one will inevitably fail or is fundamentally inadequate in achieving life's goals. The next domain is impaired limits or impaired boundaries. The first scheme in this domain is entitlement grandiosity, the belief that one is superior to other people and not bound by the rules and norms that govern normal social interaction. The next scheme is insufficient self-control, self-discipline, the belief that one is incapable of self-control or in frustration tolerance. The next domain is other directness. Subjugation, the belief that one's desires, needs and feelings must be suppressed in order to meet the needs of other people and avoid retaliation or criticism. Self-sacrifice, the belief that one must meet the needs of others at the expense of one's own gratification. Approval-seeking, recognition-seeking, people pleasing in a way, the belief that one must constantly seek to belong and to be accepted at the expense of developing a true sense of self. The next domain is over-vigilance and inhibition. The first scheme is negativity pessimism, pervasive lifelong focus on the negative aspects of life while minimizing the positive and optimistic aspects. Emotional inhibition, the excessive inhibition of spontaneous action, feeling or communication, usually to avoid disapproval by others. Feelings of shame or losing control of one's impulses. Unrelenting standards and hypercriticalness, the belief that striving to meet unrealistically and high standards of performance is essential to be accepted or to avoid criticism. Punitiveness, the belief that others should be harshly punished for making errors. So these are the schemas in the various domains. The next therapy is transference-focused psychotherapy, which was developed by the one and only Otto Kernberg. Infants form internal representations of self-objects connected via affect. A personality disorder occurs when positive and negative representations fail to end integrate later in life, and such splitting affects all relationships, including the therapeutic relationship. Transference to the therapist exposes the faulty relationship template, also known as internal working model, and allows for the empathic correction of this template. Identity integration is accomplished as the patient experiences negative emotions in a safe environment. The next therapy is mentalization-based treatment, MBT, developed by Bateman and Phonagy. Experience secure attachment in the therapy. This is the idea to experience secure attachment and enhance impulse control by empathically and insightfully reflecting on and correctly labelling one's state of mind, especially one's powerful emotions of empowering emotions and cognitive errors. And this leads to improved relational skills. Developmental therapy was developed mainly by Blocher, Citrite and Sperry. It regards problems in personal growth and need satisfaction on a dimensional continuum from disorder to adequate to optimal. I would add one more therapy, which I regret that I did not include here, and that's transactional analysis. It is emerging as a powerful therapy of personality disorder, and maybe I would dedicate a whole new video. That's not a promise, that's a threat. And of course, there's cold therapy developed by one vaknin, a professor of psychology and a YouTuber. Jacobson, what are the first steps in formal identification and opening treatments of a narcissist when he attends cold therapy? Vacnin, size and response. The client presents with a diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder by a clinician. Cold therapy consists of the retraumatization of the narcissistic client in a hostile, non-holding environment which resembles the ambience of the original trauma. The adult patient successfully tackles this second round of hurt and so resolves early childhood conflicts and achieves self-efficacious closure. Rendering is now maladaptive narcissistic defenses, redundant, unnecessary, obsolete, so they die away. Cold therapy makes use of proprietary techniques such as erasure, suppressing the client's speech and free expression, and gaining clinical information and insights from his reactions to being so silenced and stifled. Other techniques include grandiosity reframing, guided imagery, negative iteration, iteration, other scoring, the happiness map, mirroring, escalation, role-play, assimilative confabulation, hyper-vigilant referencing, and reparenting. Cold therapy is proving to be, gradually, an effective treatment for major depressive episodes as well. Jacobson, following from the previous question, as the series of therapy sessions conclude and as the patient lives out life after cold therapy, what are the preliminary outcomes from your early research? The vacuum. We have been following up on 63 clients over the past 10 years. The results are promising, but a caveat. The sample is way too small and self-selecting to provide any statistically significant validation to the treatment modality. Major depression and anhedonia have vanished without a trace. There's no remission ever. The need for narcissistic supply had disappeared entirely, and so we believe that the false self is deactivated, disabled, or dismantled. And the clients have altered their lifestyles radically, had re-established contact with estranged family and friends, and had become much more gregarious. At a loss for words, Jacobson says, thank you for the opportunity and for your time, Professor Wagner. And the ineluctable Professor Wagner responds shockingly. Thank you again, Scott, for your interest in my work. The article also contains references. Go to News Intervention or Google News Intervention, Vaknim, and you will find me all over there. And there, as I said, there are references. Oh, Keich Mad-Madim Veshovavim. I hope some of you have survived this overview, and if you have a narcissist, go no contact. If you are seriously self-defeating and self-destructive, continue to live with the narcissist and try to get him to therapy. Some behaviors can be modified. Behavioral modifications have been pretty successful, especially abrasive and antisocial conduct. But there's not touching the core of the narcissist. The narcissist is empty, so there's no way to act upon this core. There's no way to mutate it, to modify it, to transform it. There's nobody there, simply nobody there. It's a whole of mirrors. You're in love with yourself. Even core therapy can do little except to eliminate the grandiosity, the false self, and the need for narcissistic supply. So the narcissist becomes less grating than you probably will become less aversive. But that's, I think, the maximum that can be accomplished. Go away. Once you find out, pack your things. Move on.


Good morning friends. I am Purva and today we will work out the following question.   Let us begin with the solution now.  So let S be the sample space of the experiment. Then S is a set consisting of 10 black balls.  Here R represents red balls. Now this is equal to 10 plus 8 which is equal to 18 outcomes. Now let A be the event of drawing a red ball. Then we have probability of A is equal to 8 upon 18 because there are 8 red balls and total number of possible outcomes are 18. So we get probability of A is equal to 8 upon 18 which is equal to 4 upon 9. Let B be the event of drawing a black ball. Then we have probability of B is equal to 10 upon 18 because there are 10 black balls and this is equal to 5 upon 9. Now in the first part we have to find the probability that both balls are red.  This is equal to 4 upon 9 into 4 upon 9 because we have probability of A is equal to 4 upon 9 and we get this is equal to 16 upon 81. In the second part we have to find the probability that first ball is black and second is red. So the probability of drawing first black ball and then red ball is given by probability of B into probability of A that is probability of drawing a black ball into probability of drawing a red ball and this is equal to probability of B is equal to 5 upon 9 into probability of A is equal to 4 upon 9 and we get this is equal to 20 upon 81. Now finally we have to find the probability that one of them is black and other is red. Now probability of drawing one black and one red ball is given by probability that first ball is black and second is red or probability that first ball is red and second is black. So let the first ball drawn be black and second be red. Then probability of drawing first black ball and then red ball is given by probability of B into probability of A we have just seen in the second part and this is equal to 5 upon 9 into 4 upon 9 which is equal to 20 upon 81. We mark this as 1. Now let the first ball drawn is red and second is black. Then the probability of drawing first red ball and then black ball is given by probability of A into probability of B because probability of drawing a red ball is given by probability of A and probability of drawing a black ball is given by probability of B and this is equal to 4 upon 9 into 5 upon 9 which is equal to 20 upon 81. We mark this as 2. Thus probability that one of them is black and other is red is given by 1 plus 2 that is probability that first ball is black and second is red plus probability that first ball is red and second is black and this is equal to 20 upon 81 plus 20 upon 81 which is equal to 40 upon 81. Thus we have got the answer for the first part as 16 upon 81, answer for the second part as 20 upon 81 and answer for the third part as 40 upon 81. Hope you have understood the solution. Bye and take care.


Item number SCP-604 Object Class Safe Special Containment Procedures SCP-604 consists of a set of objects which all exhibit the same properties and are contained together. Access is restricted to authorized personnel, and anyone attempting to access the containment area without authorization will be immediately detained. All interaction and testing must be cleared with Site Command. Any staff interacting with SCP-604 must submit to psychological testing before and after interaction. Requests for reports on testing events, subject reactions, and audio-video recordings must be cleared with central records and may not be removed from the record-reviewing area. Description SCP-604 is a set of tableware and dishes, consisting of 19 plates of various sizes and designs, and 21 goblets, champagne flutes, and other wine glasses. Several are ornately gilded, studded with diamonds and rubies, or made out of fine materials such as porcelain, china, and crystal. Most are extremely heavy because of the weight of the rich metals. The cutlery, cloth, chairs, table, and other items that made up the banquet where SCP-604 was discovered have no anomalous properties and are not contained. Whenever an edible solid is placed onto one of the plates or a liquid is poured into one of the drink vessels, the food will transform into human flesh or the nearest equivalent organ, body part, or fluid. The change from one product to another seems to be based on similarities between color, smell, and composition, although vague symbolism and mental associations seem to be occasionally involved as well. For example, fleshy steaks will turn into cuts from the thigh and red wine or juices into human blood. This can vary between subjects, and the process as to how a change is determined is still under investigation. Because most of the plates are not large enough in diameter and circumference to create the entire form, most pieces manifest as human infant parts. Chicken wings as tiny burnt infant arms, chicken breasts as filleted infant pectoral muscle, or tissue from the buttocks, and so forth. However, tissues from adults do appear occasionally, often when the meat is placed vertically, sticking into the air. Based on analysis on the captured videos and logs, this is how longer, more mature parts were designed, although the plate's products seem only to be able to project beyond the surface, straight up, at a limit of one meter, around three feet. Vegetable and non-animal matter can be affected. However, this is often selective and will only affect the main dish. This means prepared meat will retain the herbs, spices, toppings, sauces, and garnishes, as it is transformed into human flesh. More than one piece of meat can be placed on SCP-604, but the results are varied, either creating separate pieces, incorporating them all together into one body system based on similarities and appearance, eggs and thin slices of beef turning into a female reproductive system, a pile of pig intestines and a cow's stomach melding together to form a human digestive system, or choosing one to focus on and leaving all the others untouched, ducks stuffed with Kobe beef becoming an infant torso stuffed with Kobe beef. The other unique ability that SCP-604 possesses is any living creature placed on its surface or submerged inside liquid contained within a goblet will metamorphose into a moving human body part. It will be capable of kinetic activity such as flexing, as in the case of a starfish that turned into a six-fingered baby's hand that opened and closed and grasped at touch or locomotion, no matter how awkward and slow it is. Severed areas do not bleed and tendons and muscles still function in normal ways, regardless of damage. Tissues will move by whatever means is available, such as inching and crawling forward by curling and extending their body, as the moving finger with an extremely long nail generated from a lobster did, or the floating penis in a large goblet did to swim. It's tip jerking up and down to allow it to propel forward. If no form of locomotion is possible, the flesh will simply squirm and jiggle, remaining slightly warm to the touch. A pulse can be detected, even when the object in question is not attached to a heart. Transformed items will continue existing as human tissue until consumed, removed from the plate for a long period of time, or expiring from shock and pain, as many seem to freeze and go into a catatonic state similar to shock when stabbed or bitten into, in the case of living tissues. Testing of stomach contents shows that transformed items remain human, if consumed. Acquisition. SCP-604 was acquired by Marshall Carter and Dark LTD operatives on... according to seized records. It was removed from a secluded abbey in the countryside. The monastery and the surrounding village practiced the rites of communion with SCP-604 and consumed human flesh and blood, said by priests to be that of Jesus of Nazareth, by placing wafers onto the plates situated on the main altar and drinking blood from the goblets. The wafers were described to have a light spongy taste, and both manifestations caused extreme religious ecstasy when eaten, and hallucinations of the smiling Christian God, lovingly offering his body, quoting relative scripture pertaining to the event, and speaking intimately of their sins and tribulations. It is believed that this experience is based on the individuals, as testing with identical properties has not reproduced this effect. Addendum 1. Extract from document SCP-604-XCH. Page 9. Marshall Carter and Dark LTD employed SCP-604 at some of their more exotic auctions, performances, functions and dinners during the meal portion. The likely reasoning behind it, supported by direct quotes, was that it was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and those attending were urged to partake in the cannibalism, for experience's sake, to safely test the waters of the forbidden, in much the same manner that adventure clubs offered bizarre meals, such as caramelized insects. The taste and novelty of the flesh was so popular that it was declared an exhibit by the directors of Marshall Carter and Dark LTD, and installed in a subsidiary restaurant, in the members only section. The highly exclusive restaurant where it was located was called The Cannibal's Banquet, and data expunged. Excerpt from supporting document SCP-604-XCH. Page 32. As living foods were in great demand, Marshall Carter and Dark LTD owned many specialized cooking and zoological facilities. Kittens, puppies, and breeds of tiny monkeys were used for child tissue creation. When larger parts were desired, guillotines were situated directly over SCP-604, as most parts continue vital signs, a few seconds after removal. Certain specimens were also raised from birth in special cages, causing their bones to grow in a certain way, and kept alive while crushed in specific outlines, and fed via feeding tubes, so Marshall Carter and Dark LTD could dictate exactly what size and shape the results would be. Addendum 2. Log SCP-604-2. A camera is pointing at a long table in a dim, crowded room. A waiter brings in a pig's head on a platter, and then slides it onto SCP-604-4.  Data expunged. Mail 1. It tastes like pork. Why does it taste like pork? Just because they used a swine. Well, this isn't really official, is it? Head server. No, sir. I assure you, that is what human flesh tastes like. Mail 1. But are you sure? Maybe it's just being contaminated or mimicking the flavor or something. Female 2. Honey, don't whine. Mail 1. I just mean, how do you know what human flesh actually tastes like? This could be completely wrong. Has anyone actually tried real head server? Don't worry, we have specialists. Mail 3. To women.  Rockus laughter. Addendum 3. Log SCP-604-3. Mail 3. Recovered from a handheld recorder. Man wearing cook whites. This is… And I'm performing test 12 on Curio B26. Several guests find the resemblance between the food's original form and its final human product repulsive, and I've been tasked to find a way to make the flesh look as appealing and realistic as possible, avoiding the bloody or red hues that it occasionally acquires. To do this, I've chosen several foods that can be easily colored and sculpted to look like a head. Test 12 will consist of me baking a cake and carving it into the aforementioned shape, and then frosting it with a hairstyle and skin tone. Data expunged. Cook. Bring it over. Focus his camera on the cake. Well, there we go. Man in suit. The eyes are especially excellent. Cook. Well, thank you. I used a dropper to get the blue just centered. Okay. Place it on the plate. The cake is placed on the plate. Automatically, it sags and appears to melt, covering it, and dripping off the sides. Cook.  Man in suit. If I were to venture a guess, I would say it turned into a pile of fats and sugars. Yep, pokes. You can see some soluble lipids right there, and the yellow. Addendum four. Log SCP-604-4. Audio and video. Cook one. Okay, sausages wrapped around the front, and the other slabs of steak are held together with gristle. Three cooks have put together some sort of meat sculpture in the shape of a human head. Cook two. Dabs of blood running down raw meat parts with handkerchief. Cook three. Let s just cover the ear area with the bologna. Cook two. Are you sure a thin slice of turkey pastrami wouldn t be better? Cook three. Positive. Gestures with knife. Pastrami would have to be pinned here, this way. It lets me slice off the top like this, so I can pour the brains in. Cook two. It s the attention to little details that can make the difference. Data expunged. Cook one. Okay, one, two, three. They lift up the meat sculpture, and place it on one of the plates. It turns into a perfect replica of a human head. Cook two. Nice. Cook one. Yeah, great work guys. Cook three. Needs hair though. Guests like to see that. Rip it off. Maybe put some tendrils of... Cook two.  Leave it be, man. It s fine. Addendum five. Log SCP-6045. Man in suit. Test 32 on Curio B26. We ve shoved various slugs together in a wire frame of a human head. A couple keep falling out, but let s see what happens. Places slugs on plate, along with Cook.  Man in suit. Seem to be little twitching gallbladders, and I would say that s an appendix. Cook. That one looks f***ing gross. It s oozing. Man in suit. Um, duodenum I believe. But, yes, I don t think it should be bursting like that. Addendum six. Log SCP-6047. Unidentified voice. Note, it is unknown if Curio B26 could create sapient creatures. When we finally successfully do get a living head, the mouth and eyes could simply start opening and closing randomly, and it would drool all over itself, or maybe, just maybe, it would be perfectly intelligent. I know some of our clients are definitely hoping for the second option, and I ve been instructed by the directors to bring it about as best I can. I would like to remark that when we placed a snake upright on plate seven, it did manifest as a human throat, and the bottom part of a mouth, tongue intact, and began screaming and shrieking. But it was all incoherent, even though extremely loud and piercing, could hear it all across the building. So I just don t addendum seven. Log SCP-60410. Cook one. Voice sounds strained and upset. The pile of leeches did not completely turn into a human head. The surface remained the same, but deeper down a human head was generated underneath the first two layers. Cook two. Help me get these things off it before it scares a guest. Head. Oh, Jesus! Oh, God! They re all over! Get them off! Jesus!  It has been determined by analysis that at this point, the head either began choking on some of the leeches or its tongue was covered and drained of blood. Addendum eight. Log SCP-60421. A waiter comes in pushing a cart with a wooden box on top. The box has several slots and holes opened in it and tubes trail out, connecting to IV bags and tiny batteries. A mulling comes from within. The box is lifted up over a plate, put on it, and then pulled off.   He has extremely pale skin and dark circles under his eyes.  Where am I? Who am I?  Begins looking around and turning up, down, and to the sides. Everything seems at a weird angle. Hey, what are you doing? Get that knife away from me. Waiter. Bon appetit, gentlemen. Head begins screaming. Lesson complete. If you missed the previous orientation, go watch SCP-603, self-replicating computer program, right now. Or for the complete course, watch this playlist.


Jacqui Javier Castellano made two clutch moves in the Kentucky Derby this year. This is how he won the Kentucky Derby. Okay, watch post position eight. White blaze down the horse's face, tail silks. He comes out of the starting gate and kind of has a little bit of traffic. Horses come together in front of him. He gets shuffled back a little bit. But here's clutch move number one. Ready for it? Watch those silks. Boom! Dives right down to the rail. He's gonna save ground along the inside because obviously that's the surest way around the racetrack. Fast forward to clutch move number two. He's the eighth horse between horses towards the back there. Those kind of teal, light blue silk. Watch him start to angle out. He sees that he has to go around horses. He doesn't want to get stopped right there. The horse in the navy blue, that's the favorite. That's Angel Vampire. He holds him in, hugs the horse in the yellow soaks in front of him and starts to set sail for Homer. But this was veteran. This was pro. This is why Javier Castellano is in the Hall of Fame. Him and Mage get their derby to the celebration.