Gary Null’s next set of categories are of far fewer individuals, and these he calls the dynamic energies. These people are the leaders, what they call the movers and the shakers of the world. Any famous historical name, with the exception of artists and writers and actors and some scientists, would most likely be someone from these dynamic energy types.
We won’t find any adaptive supportives or even adaptive agressives or assertives among generals or chiefs of staff of the world, and while we might find some adaptive assertives as legislators we won’t find them among the presidents or the prime ministers of the world or the top scientists or social reformers.
Joan of Ark, Gandi, Martin Luther King, these people broke the mold by thinking out of the box, they were dyanmic assertives. If you say that two of them met tragic ends, well that is sometimes the fate of those whom the system fears, no matter what system you are talking about. However, once they have broken the old accepted mold, the set of long held common conceptions, the creative assertives and the adaptive aggressives can bring the new visions (as new molds) down to the less imaginative masses of humans and changes come into society, especially once the adaptive assertives establish and bureacritize these changes.
The Kabbalistic name for this energy is Chesed or unlimited kindness but it also has a meaning of expansion, and openness. It is the openness of ideas and concepts, which by themselves are too big for the system. Rabbi Mannis Friedman, a radio personality in the Cleveland area in the 1970’s a 1980’s, (a kind of very hip Rabbi who would show up anywhere in his old leather jacket) once explained Chesed with this parable: that say you want a glass of water, you need the water, but do you want the whole Atlantic ocean in your cup? Of course not, so you need that the fullness of this good, this kindness, to be limited and so the other Sephirot put limits on it, so that you can have just a glass of water and not your whole house washed away.
Chesed is the driving force of the energy of the dynamic assertive-- so you would expect a personality that can bearly fit in a body-- a highly charged lightning sort of soul, and you would be right. In Kabbalistic terms everything is combination of a light within a vessel or in 20th century terms a current within a wire.
In people who are dynamic assertives, and other dynamic personalities, the light or the current is a bit more than the vessel or the wire can comfortably take. So they are personalities that dazzle, fascinate and interest the rest of us, but they can confuse us as well.
“They are the ones who show the way…Dynamic Assertives seek to guide us, but they do so by using only their highly developed powers of the mind and of self expression, never by force or coercion.” Gary Null goes on to further define this type by saying that maybe one in a hundred people is a dynamic assertive, that they have very magnetic personalities and that they ‘transform existing systems by challenging the status quo. Without them, society would not progress.” He calls them a “powerhouse of an energy group”, they are the ones who make the breakthroughs in all fields . “They are spiritual, ethical and intellectual illuminators, human beacans lighting the way to social change”.
Dynamic assertives see the whole picture of society and see its problems and then they see how the society can be changed for the better and they promote these changes, which are not at all frightening to them, as changes can be for the rest of us. Gary Nulls lists Ralph Nader, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt, Washington Carver, all dynamic assertives in different fields who made changes in the world.
He goes on to say, however, that not all dynamic assertives are well known, some of them just hold down regular jobs while ‘manifesting this energy. “Have you known any?.. You will surely have vivid memories of them because they tend to be, in the Rider’s Digest phrase our ‘most unforgettable characters.” He goes on to explain that dyanamic assertives don’t hesitate to show exactly how they feel about anything, they are not socially acceptable or polite.
“They can also be called just plain weird.” (Gary Null himself is a dynamic assertive by the way.) Gary Null says that dynamic assertive may be calm when everyone else is freaking out, or the opposite be very exited about something that nobody else is paying attention to, and that may be because this energy can see the potential in many things that others can’t.
My own father was this type of energy, and I remember that in the middle of the 1950’s he was very angry about the way society was going: all the one parent families, artificial insemination replacing fatherhood, the disintegration of the concept of the family, --non of which was happening then or even during his lifetime. When I was a child, his rantings about these things impressed me –but at the time I didn’t know why he was ‘imagining’ all these strange happenings. I didn’t realize that he could see trends that would only manifest 30 to 40 years later in the future. He and one of his good friends also anticipated many good things that would later actually happen, also not in his lifetime, --he was on the button about so many things that the rest of his generation did not see.
Gary Null also mentions that dynamic assertives never really grow old, not intellectually and emotionally, they remain alive and vital and enthusiastic and creative, the real hip grandpas and grandmas of the world.
The next category, most of us never meet in person. These are the dynamic aggressives. In Kabbalistic terms this is the Sphira of Gvora, strength and harsh judgement, and control. “Dynamic Aggressives are society’s leaders and policy makers. They are competitive, action-oriented individuals with the ability to motivate and lead others. They actively seek to control people and even influence the course of history.” He goes on to say “They’re the ones who lead us as presidents, ministers, CEO’s, heads of religion, and self-employed businesspeople and entrepreneurs. On the seamier side , they’re the ones who take advantage of us as con artists, religious charlatnas and dictators.”
Gary Null says that these people want to win at all costs, and they can be “insensitive, manipulative, stubborn and arrogant,’ and that they are usually much richer than the rest of us and attract us to them to be their followers and go-fors. They see the whole picture “Dynamic Aggressives have gestalt minds—everything is instantly seen.” What do they need the rest of us for? to help them with the details, for they don’t have the patience for the details and delegate that to others. They are not usually highly educated either, he says, because they are impatient and academic work has too much detail involved, so they motivate others with the degrees to work for them. They have no trouble amassing loyal followers for they are charming and magnetic, but while they generate loyalty in others, their only loyalty is to themselves and when they are dissatisfied with their underlings, they can be extremely demanding, cold and critical.
“Power is everything to a Dynamic Aggressive.” They are not afraid to fight for what they want and risk everything being “practiced warriors” To sum up the level of personal power we quote Gary Null again “ And the Dyanmic Aggressive is like the great white shark—without natural
predators.”
There is another dyanmic personality type, the energy of the dynamic supporter. This type is much more likable, and they in turn tend to like us, and we do get to meet them as “ healers, concilliators, teachers, and clergy” as well as “good therapists, medical doctors, chiropractors and social workers” and even salesmen. Gary Null says “if you meet someone who’s immediately likeable there’s a good chance that she or he is a Dynamic Supportive.”
They are compassionate and charismatic and give off an equal opportunity sunshine, they do not try to control others or lead others but “they motivate by example”. Gary Null says that they are very empathetic and but they have a strong sense of self “Other people and situations do not intimidate them.” On the other hand they do not like taking leadership roles.
The Kabbalistic name for this energy is Tifferet or beauty and balance, and is the higher form of Neztach the energy of the adaptive assertive.
These sunshine people however can get depressed and melancholy about themselves, while at other times they are very optimistic, and they have a good sense of humor “Their observations and comments are usually relevant and funny because they have a terrific sense of humor.” Gary Null also says “…the term ‘laid back’ seems custom-made for the Dynamic Supportive.” Their problems happen when people constantly except their help and try to take advantage of them and even act offended when unnecessary or impossible help is denied them. Dynamic Supporters have to protect themselves emotionally from this type of demand or they can become drained and sick.
How do you identify a dynamic supporter? Gary Null says “ …that you can tell where a Dynamic Supporter lives by his yard…the fence paint yellowing and peeling, ..a picket of two is gone,.. the lawn—well its couldn’t be edged because it has no edge…sort of fades into mud because the Dynamic Supportice …likes big shaggy trees the way he or she like big shaggy dogs… the trees rain leavs all over the place in the fall…” Even their lawns are laid back.
So where on this pyramid of energies do the creative assertives fit? Well, let’s say hovering over the top and forming small clouds around the whole structure.
So after getting through this whole over long series of three postings. Can you immediately answer these questions with authority?
1)Whom would you hire as your long term trusted secretary? An adaptive supportive, or a creative assertive?
2)Which salesman would you be more likely to trust and escape with your bank account in good shape? The adaptive aggressive or the dynamic supporter?
3)If you had a problem with your 16 year old son who insisted on growing a ponytail and now wants it dyed green, and already has three piercings –to whom would you want to go for mediation, the adaptive assertive principal of the school or the dyanamic supportive school counselor?
4) Who would be the worst husband for your creative assertive daughter who just left a good college to be an artist in Soho? The dyanmic aggressive young colonel who is madly in love with her, or the dynamic supportive social worker who live in the garden penthouse above her studio?
