Have you ever, in your whole life, seen anybody sitting by a pond looking at his/her own reflection in the water? (I've seen children do that...I saw an Indian do it in a movie, and saw a dog do that once.)

On the other hand, who hasn't seen narcissists flashing on each other at parties, or competing for attention in schoolrooms, or working as performers and actors, rock musicians, fashion models and politicians?

I wonder how many narcissists enjoy labeling cans in grocery stores, or working as janitors, electricians, nurses, gardeners, carpenters, house painters, etc.?

It seems fairly obvious that the natural setting for a narcissist is a situation where the attention of other people is focused on him or her. The famous moment by the pond -- the moment of preening in front of the mirror -- is just the setup for the moment in the spotlight.

Psychology tells us that narcissists, in general, have a distaste for solitude, and feel lonely and uncomfortable by themselves.

They are enamored of their own image, for sure, but the proof and justification of their self-love is not in solitude -- it is in seeking the notice and attention of others.

Narcissus doesn't isolate himself...just the opposite. Narcissus is afraid of being alone with his nothingness, with the void of his own ego. A narcissist does not do well in a monastic cell.

It takes a strong heart to live in solitude. You either get lucid or you start talking to yourself and eventually go crazy. A narcissistic personality needs people around him, paying homage to his self-image, helping him know that he exists.

To be a "nobody", to live a simple obscure life with family and friends, is not the first choice of a narcissist. (In fact, the family and intimate lives of narcissists tend to be unhappy and chaotic, full of conflict, jealousy, abuse, etc.)

Narcissus greatest fear is that he does not exist, or that he might not be remembered. So Narcissus builds monuments to himself, temples -- even religious cults.

Narcissus wants to be a Star, and he wants to be remembered as the Great One in a story of his own devising.

[The myth of Narcissus, by the way, was created before the invention of the camera, that mirror that multiplies what it sees for the eyes of the world. Thanks to the camera Narcissus can be the focus of attention everywhere, and he can even, theoretically, become the center of all attention. At any given moment, 98% of the world can know of his existence or be looking at his face in a movie theater or on television or in a magazine...]

Adi Da, the Promised Narcissist, Honors Himself Above All

Traditionally the spiritual hero -- everyone from Buddha to Ramana Maharshi -- expressed humility, discouraged adulation, and turned the attention of listeners away from himself to his message, which was that Truth is found not outside yourself, but in your own heart.

And in traditional religion, all the ceremonies and temples and monuments came after the original teaching and heroic acts of compassion of the great Teacher.

Take a simple example from secular society--

In 1862 Abraham Lincoln -- one of our greatest Presidents -- signed the Emancipation Proclamation which declared that the Civil War was being fought "to free all persons held as slaves". Did Abraham Lincoln ever ask the American people to build a memorial to him?

No, after he was gone, after he was assassinated, people remembered him with such love and respect, that they were moved to erect memorials to his memory.

So with Jesus. A simple meal the night before he died is now a complex religious ceremony enacted in great gothic cathedrals erected to honor him and his message all over the world. (One surmises that Jesus would not at all condone the pomp and circumstance that has grown up around his teaching.)

Some of us have noticed that Frank is not content to wait for history to honor him -- he does the whole show himself.

He builds the statues, erects the religion institutions around himself, and accumulates and spends the wealth. He looks for sychophants as disciples, and practices well-worn psychological techniques to control their minds and gain their hysterical adulation.

He has given himself the honorific of "The Liberator of All Beings", and yet we don't find any liberated or enlightened people around him -- NONE.

We do find people worshipping him according to his rules, and bowing to photographs he ordered taken. Virtually all his "recognition" is self-generated. He owns the printing press and he prints the books. He micro-manages the magazines, he chooses the photographs, and he controls the lives of the community of devotees from morning to night. (I remember, as an employee of Dawn Horse Press, hearing him screaming on the telephone to my supervisor about the most minor details.)

By the standards of traditional society, Frank is like the man in the madhouse claiming to be the Second Coming of Christ who has taken control of a few other patients and convinced them that he is in fact the Messiah.

People walking around outside the walls of the asylum say "Yes, you think you are Jesus Christ, but we don't think so. You claim to be the Most Enlightened Being Who Ever Was and Ever Will Be, but it just doesn't add up. Your behavior doesn't add up. Your pomposity and your self-important declarations do not add up. By even the most liberal standards, you are quite insane, totally nuts, absolutely bonkers, a real nutcase..."

Frank is one man against the world...and less than a thousand people have bought his tune. Like the rats of Hamlin they have followed the mad piper into the mountain of doom.

Frank's devotees are entranced and already mind-gone to the Bardo of Moonlight where the Mad King rules with the hand of jealousy and contempt for human beings (whom he calls "pigs") and where his baroque and bizarre religious fantasies have replaces all things merely human...

So it is.