There are many people that have been depressed for many years

and I get lots of letters.

Sometimes they say that

"I found no meaning in life, no purpose, and

you pulled me out of it."

I get a lot of letters like that

so the only thing I can say [is that] it's not due to genetics.

If it was due to genetics, I couldn't pull them out.

Does that make sense to you?

What is depression?

If you live vicariously through another person

(let's say you rely on that person entirely)

you live, and that person dies

you lose your identity

because you put your identity in another person

which isn't a good thing to do.

That's a kind of dependency. You know what I mean?

That's a part of depression, a little bit of it.

The rest is loss of identity.

You can lose your identity

if you're brought up with a philosophy of life

that doesn't reinforce you.

If you're brought up with a set of values: "Do the right thing

and everything will work out all right"

and if it doesn't work out all right, you become depressed

because you lose predictability. Is that clear?

If you have predictability about yourself and other people

you can anticipate certain things.

If you have no answer, if you look for answers in your own mind

it isn't exposed enough.

There's not enough in schools that give you a way of thinking

so you can solve problems.

It isn't that they don't want to. They don't have it.

They've never found a way of thinking they can solve problems.

That's why, when the businessman retires

he may become depressed

because he has no game to play.

All his life, say a guy that owns a jewelry store, that sells jewelry

and every sale makes him feel good.

Then he retires

and he has nothing anymore.

He has no identity, except 'sales of jewelry.'

Do you understand? That's gone?

What follows is depression.

There are some dogs that have been depressed

due to that they had a very close relationship with their master.

When the master dies

they sat next to the master and wouldn't go away

and bark at anybody that would try to take them away.

Their full identification was as a team with their master.

They had no identification when the master died.

They had no way of looking at it.

The difference between humans and most animals [is that]

most animals don't fear death. They don't even know there is such a thing.

They move away from animals that are larger than they are.

That's a reflex, but they don't know what death is

nor do they think of it.

So far, any questions?

Okay.

A person then asks themselves questions:

"Why did my wife leave me?"

and they can't figure it out, because everything they've done

was pleasing

and they don't understand that.

That is not necessarily a logical question.

Your wife may have left you for many different reasons:

that she likes a guy tall, with blond wavy hair

or stocky, or whatever.

If you don't meet that image, she might leave you.

The assumption that she won't leave you is what can depress you.

Your assumption about the world:

"Surely they won't have another war, while they're having a war now!"

you can't say that. You can say

"I'd like to see peace on Earth," so you work toward it

but if you hope there's peace on Earth

you might get depressed by the next war.

See, when people ask me, "When will the Venus Project be built?"

The honest answer is "I don't know."

I don't even know if we'll get there

but I can't accept what I see, so I try to intervene.

Intervening, does that mean we'll have a better world? Not necessarily.

Whatever you get is what you get.

Do you understand that?

The assumptions:

"Surely people can all see the logic of a one global society."

No, they can't!

That's a major problem

so you use different techniques

to try to get them oriented towards that.

Okay, so what is depression and how do you get rid of it?

If you're depressed it means

you're looking within yourself for answers

and you can't get that.

How did I get it?

I didn't find it in psychology books at all.

Here's how I got it.

I sat down, I said: "What is depression? " I said "I don't know."

How can I know what it is?

A depressed person always seems to have a low self-image.

Do you know what that means?

"I'm not getting anywhere in life. I'm not respected

three girls have left me. " Whatever it is

it's a low self-sufficiency to start with.

Instead of looking for 'the girl of your dreams'

you try to make her. Do you know what that means?

Educate her, in whatever way you can.

Does it mean it will work perfectly? No.

But it will work better than you doing nothing.

Do you understand that?

Therefore depression is not only loss of self-image

they have none.

A guy finds himself in the Marines

and he wants to be successful in the Marines

and that can't bring success

unless they give you medals and everybody pats you on the back.

That's your self-image: "I made it," you can say.

Or an actor, that does...

a theater actor that acts before a live audience

and they applaud after.

That makes him feel good.

[When it's] a movie, he doesn't know.

If he works in a movie, he doesn't know that people are going to applaud.

Do you understand that?

Therefore, he could encounter depression.

Anybody that does any routine:

a job, a jeweler, a plumber, an artist, a painter

if they don't get rewarded for their painting

like "You're a genius, you're good, creative"

that makes them go on painting.

If people say "What the hell is that supposed to be?"

If they paint because they like to paint that's much better

if that occurs.

If you go for a walk because you like to go for a walk

not because the doctor told you to go for a walk

everyday, for at least a half hour

but if you don't do it because you want to do it

Ii you go out for a walk through the country

and you smell the trees and you look around

and you're pleased by that, do it.

If it depresses you going for a walk

you have to restore the self-image.

In most instances there is no self-image

so you have to give them a self-image.

You have to talk about a lot of things [like] "I didn't know that

that water became ice suddenly.

I thought it was gradually how it became..."

Whatever it is, if you expose them to different branches of science

and they begin to find answers that satisfy them

their self-image grows.

If you make a Lutheran out of a person that says

"Have faith in God. He'll look after you"

if you put that faith in somebody you can't see or touch

it may carry you through

because you know there's somebody up there that loves you

even though nobody does

(that there is somebody up there)

and that helps some people

but it's not genuine help. Do you understand?

Because [he] says to the minister "What did I do wrong?"

If you believe in right and wrong, you can get depressed:

"I must have done the wrong thing."

It isn't the 'wrong' thing that you do.

It's a less valid thing that you do.

It's a less appropriate thing that you do. Do you know what I mean?

Not wrong. If you work on somebody:

"Snap out of that depression! Have faith in yourself

and confidence!"

Well, they might get fooled "Gee, you sound great!"

but that doesn't take away that self-image.

You don't take away the self-image. You add to it.

You understand what that means? Whatever the person is.

They only have no self-image. They don't know who they are.

(If you're in pain, that's different. I'm not talking about that.

If you have a tumor growing in your lungs and you can hardly breathe

that's something else. That's not depression.

That's physical disability.)

If you have your health

and you feel that you're learning something everyday

and don't ever assume that you can fix something too.

You can try to fix it: "I am going to try to fix it"

and if that doesn't work you come at it another way.

If that doesn't work, say "I can't handle it:

I need more information in that area."

That's what self-confidence is.

The more genuine information a person has in certain areas...

People that do feel "I can't get up before hundred people

and say something because

I worry about whether I'll 'goof'

and they'll laugh at me."

Here's how you handle that:

You never talk to people to win approval.

You talk to people to inform.

If you were in a building, in the hallway

and a big beam fell on fire, you'd go in for the thousand people

and say "Exit as fast as you can. There's a fire!"

and you won't feel bad about it because what you're saying

is essential to their well-being

but when you gamble and you say "I don't believe in God!"

at a church meeting, they'd all say "What?!"

They're not going to say "How do you account for all this?"

They don't even do that.

If they don't do that, there's no bridge. You have to build a bridge.

Even a religious person, when they get a [broken] window crank

and they crank it and the window doesn't open

they take it back to the company.

They need verification.

When they buy something the [sales] guy says

"If you buy this window it's hurricane-proof

because there's a sheet of plastic between two sheets of glass

so you can't smash it with an object."

You have to give the person with a low self-sufficiency

a high self-sufficiency by giving him a direction, or her

so they don't concentrate on themselves:

"I've been working all these years and I've nothing to show for it!"

"Did you assume that you would have something?"

What you have to do is engage in self-image and ask questions:

Why I am depressed? Why do I feel insufficient in a crowd?

Because I'm hoping the crowd will like what I say.

[As for me] I don't give a shit.

If they believe the Earth is flat and I find out it's round

I enjoy telling them it's round.

If they refuse it, that's their problem, not mine.

If you feel you are unsuccessful in presenting an idea

the assumption that you will be successful is depressing.

Do you understand that? That's what makes depression.

When you do something and nothing happens;

when you row a boat and it doesn't move.

If you get in a boat, and you don't know how to use the oars

and it doesn't move, you get depressed.

When you pull on the string and the motor doesn't start

you say "What the hell? " and you pull on it, until it does start

or you learn that you might have to change the spark plug.

It might have a shorter gap or a longer gap

and you bring the gap closer together so you have a spark.

If you don't know those basic things, you can kick the lawnmower.

We tend to project living human characteristics into things.