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Every Level of Awareness

Aperture | October 19, 2026



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Self-awareness doesn’t make any sense. When psychologist Tasha Eurich asked, 95% of people claimed to be self-aware. And it’s not surprising. You know what makes you laugh, what makes you snap, the songs you’d skip, and the friend you’d jump out of bed for at 3am. But after a decade of research, she discovered that only 10 to 15% of people actually are. And here’s the strange part: the people who are wrong feel exactly the same as the people who are right.

That’s because self-awareness isn’t a switch. It’s a ladder, and every rung feels like the top. So most of us stop climbing, never knowing there’s more above. So let’s see the whole ladder. Along the way, we’ll find the rung that traps almost everyone, what it takes to climb past it, and why a man whose brain was literally split in half holds the key to unlocking the final level.

00:00 Every Level of Awareness
01:11 Level 1 – Reaction
02:14 Level 2 – Recognition
09:15 Level 3 – Feeling
16:19 Level 4 – Reason
28:14 Level 5 – Reflection

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#awareness #selfawareness #psychology #selfimprovement #emotionalintelligence #humanbehavior #neuroscience #personalgrowth

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Comments

This post currently has 44 comments.

  1. @Sackless_Jack

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    So is "Choice Blindness" when Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd would go back and forth…
    "Rabbit Season!"
    "Duck Season!"
    then switch it around and watch him defend open season on him self haha

  2. @killurbob3295

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    I took a huge dose of meth.. the last one i ever did..

    Since that night. I see shadow people and rea translucent humanoids everywhere for 7 years now

    They look and act like demons.. I think tbey just might be

    Ive also encountered my Dopplegänger 3 times.. and i mean an exact copy not just a look alike

  3. @leafdriving

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    The Prime Directive – By Destiny

    1) Opinions are based on Facts, which requires a basis of Evidence

    2) Shallowness is the judgement of others, based on other than action, and must be called out when observed

    3) Perspective is everything. You will never change anyone's mind until you change their perspective.

    4) When it comes to Right and Wrong, Consequences are meaningless. What could possibly be worse than knowingly doing wrong

    5) We are all equal, regardless of anything

  4. @JuanGMedranoSixx

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    Self awareness is not a physical awareness. It's the understanding of how one's actions whether intentional or unintentional affect far beyond the self and why the individual self surrendering itself to any collective narrative and agenda without question negatively affects the collective by eliminating each individual self. Biological artificial intelligence at a cost of evolutionary consciousness. Self awareness has nothing to do with my feelings and everything to do with the conscious awareness the existence of life which exists regardless of "self" 15:30

  5. @JuanGMedranoSixx

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    Self awareness is lost in group think collective ideology. Curiosity is the key to the self as the quest to find the self is endless. Group think ideology eliminates curiosity by targeting and cancelling the curious which stand out as individuals in any group setting. 3:04

  6. @Mrsbellawitch

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    Being self aware sucks, and doesn't come without a dark night of the soul. Do you have any idea how crazy it is to realize everything from worrying about money to worrying about your health all comes down to a guy you were with 25 years ago that hit you? So yeah, I'm worried about my health because I don't want to be murdered. That's a fun realization. Thank you very much dr Monroe.

  7. @josephSwanson-w2c

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    How then did my dog understand this I shined a Lazer pointer to a mirror the dog ran to the mirror I quickly then pointed the laser behind him where he could only see it buy looking in the mirror he looked at the mirror then like he thought the laser didn't know he could see it in the mirror jumped around 180° and bit at the Lazer on the ground. Did this test multiple times same results he was a smart dog tho I could put sun glasses on him and he would run around with them on even pushing them back on his face when they started falling off have a video on youtube actually.

  8. @PrimalMindDocs

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    Chi tiết khiến mình ấn tượng nhất là nghiên cứu của Tasha Eurich: 95% người tin rằng mình tự nhận thức tốt, nhưng chỉ 10–15% thực sự đạt được — và nhóm 'tưởng bở' lại cảm thấy y hệt nhóm đúng. Điều này gợi nhớ thí nghiệm split-brain của Gazzaniga: khi thể chai bị cắt, bán cầu trái vẫn thản nhiên bịa ra lời giải thích hợp lý cho hành động do bán cầu phải khởi xướng. Dường như bộ máy lý trí ở Level 4 (Reason) được thiết kế để 'kể chuyện' hơn là để thấy sự thật — càng giỏi lập luận, ta càng giỏi tự thuyết phục mình rằng mình đã ở đỉnh thang. Có lẽ vì thế nấc này mới bẫy được gần như tất cả mọi người, và chìa khóa của Level 5 (Reflection) nằm đúng ở chỗ Eurich gợi ý: bớt hỏi 'tại sao tôi như vậy' mà hỏi 'tôi đang thực sự làm gì' — nhận thức chỉ đầy đủ khi nó hướng ra ngoài thay vì quẩn quanh bên trong.

  9. @ГригорийКрикун

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    Reading Elvar Oris’s hidden starseed knowledge felt like uncovering a secret portal to the universe. The way he talks about aliens and manifestation is so deep. After I applied what I learned, manifesting became so easy, I couldn’t believe how fast things started happening.

  10. @ice13cube77

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    Well said, one thing that has truly given me great perspective was consuming psilocybin mushrooms 🍄 by experiencing ego death,

    i can say with certainty that if someone was truly self aware, they would not be able to be a functional human being,

    Because when you are truly aware of the mental construct that builds your personal narrative, part of your reality collapses.

    You begin to realize that you are much more then what the world has lead you to believe,

    Are you a soul with a body or a body with a soul.

    Does freewill exist? Or is that an illusion like everything else in this world?

    I wonder…

  11. @stasisum

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    “the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing” ~ socrates

    the more you learn, the more you realize how much you have yet to understand

    stay curious, there's always another layer to discover

  12. @dudeatos

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    3:50 other people might have mentioned this, but many animals that fail the mirror test only do so because vision isn't their primary sense. Many animals who primarily experience the world through smell, like dogs, do much better with a smell-oriented version of the test.

  13. @jeffreystewart9809

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    Its really wild when you get to the point that you realize the scale is a circle. Its like you come right back around to realizing that there is no real "you" and that you're really still just an animal reacting to its environment. Only now you can think about it. 😂

    It's absolutely hilarious. You go all the way up the scale just to see that you never actually left level one, and that the staircase contains ALL the levels simultaneously. 😂

  14. @chrisklugh

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    Every psychological struggle you have is a conflict between who you actually are, and who you learned to pretend to be. That's it. That's the entire field and depth of psychology compressed into one sentence. Who you think you are, and how everyone thinks you are are two different things. You sufferer the most when they are the most not aligned.

  15. @phpn99

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    It's a meaningless question.
    "Who" and "You" : The individual in its frame of reference.
    Which frame of reference ?
    Which individual ? The residual/essential subjective self ? Or the objective self that occupies space and time ?
    Does it matter ?
    Answering the question presumes one would be able to hold absolute concept in one's understanding. I don't know if you've read Aristotle, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Hume, Schopenhauer, or even Merleau-Ponty… but don't you think there is a limit to one's capacity to know ? Have you read the "Critique of Pure Reason" ? Hume's "A Treatise of Human Nature" ; Merleau-Ponty's "Phenomenology of Perception" —

  16. @silentm999

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    20:45 Ages ago, I noticed the everyone always grabs things from the right side, so I always choose from the far left. Write and eat with my left hand, but sports and instruments are righty, and I do some things ambidextrous. Technically both handed.

  17. @blazingdisciple

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    This sounds basically like the Johari Window. I learned about it on Smarter Everyday and it has 4 quadrants of self awareness. All referring to knowledge about yourself: what you know and others don't, what you know that others do, what you don't know and others don't, and what others know and you don't. That last quadrant (unknown to you but known by others) sounds like that final rung you describe and it requires deep relationships in order to learn for yourself. That one is very tough for most people, including myself, because I don't have that many deep relationships and it's kind of hard to ask someone to really think and honestly describe traits that you don't know about yourself. It makes both people quite vulnerable and is a very intimate discussion that involves a lot of self awareness and introspection from the 'other.' I can't imagine having that conversation with someone, honestly. I wish I could.

  18. @popethyniawncariad6705

    October 19, 2026 at 8:59 am

    This was so helpful. The things i've learned here have been a blessing. I carve myself up pretty good, & maybe being without the mirror for a while can fracture you a little. But one probably unintended effect of "your you is only seen by you" was comfort for me, because feeling at home inside myself has been a labored part of the journey, and this actually stepped it up. But the whole mishmash might be part of the narration too.
    Very cool, …
    Funny side note: I love biking. As a teen and troubled (& coming out💟) I reached for the activity of getting up at 5 and biking alone down the long rural roads of N. Muskegon. It was a singular joy.🌌 The stars framed by trees, how long could i safely look up? It was dark so I didnt see Duck Lake but I felt it as I rode past.
    And when I got older i could feel so complete riding a bike in daylight i'd think 'the world and i and living itself makes sense this way'
    And when you asked if we knew how a bike worked, i shook my head with an emphatic No🤣 not a damn clue… (grateful for the follow-up😃)… but i'm a queer duck. Love this one, stupendous!!✨️☀️👏☺️

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