Item-chains . . . one of the most significant types of non-ideal.
While there are other types of item-chains, the main type I will be talking about here typically has a circular-chain of exactly five items. There are other similar types of chains, such as implanted ones which are sometimes much longer (and some other types of non-ideal can also be seen as a sequence of items), but the circular 5-item chains are what I will be referring to here.
These item-chains are a major cause of ones personality and other limitations, and are of considerable significance in advanced Deep-clearing.
The template for these, and the insistence on using them was part of the non-ideals that a being had to agree to for the standard entry to the second half of the Magick-universe (the one above this universe), where a lot of significant non-ideals were added.
What the item-chains were a response to was out-of-control life near the end of the first time-line of the Magick-universe. One way of handling these outbreaks of out-of-control life was to implement a complete Stop to their growth. The problem with this was that the Stop was “forever” (a Stop is an opposition to a flow, by placing an equal and opposite flow against it) . . . and with enough of the Stops being implemented to control the out-of-control life, the whole game came to a stand-still, and there was no easy way out of that.
The response to that was to implement the item-chains, along with the down-only decay-scale. Before that, with clean building-blocks available, decay would spontaneously undo, but when totally clean building-blocks were disallowed, decay became unidirectional (unless handled effectively from senior to that system).
The item-chains were designed along with the specific goal-decay scale, so that when one decayed to the bottom of the scale on one item, one would then find oneself at the top of the decay-scale on the next item in the circular-chain. Thus the problem of permanent full stops was solved, and instead one follows an endless sequence of items, never coming to a complete stop, due to the design of the bottom of the decay-scale linking to the top of a new item.
At this time on this planet, the typical length of usage of one item in a chain is a few lifetimes. Some can decay and switch to the next within one lifetime, and some can last longer, but around 3 lifetimes is an average length of time for using one of the items, decaying down the decay-scale on it, then switching to the next item. Each individual might have many different item-chains running, with many different items at different stages of decay, being implemented at varying degrees of power.
Each item in the chain can be represented as a pair of pairs of Physical-u Matrix items, but that only specifies the copy of the item used in this universe, and for a complete erasure it is better to work with the original item (in the Magick-universe). One can also see how one has conflicts (such as hatred of personalities who express them) with the items before and after the one that one is currently on in the sequence.
In terms of structure, there is also a single item above the ring of 5, for each of these chains. If one has progressed enough to be free from opposing other things in general, one effective handling is to add all-options to every item in the structure (thus making them neutral).
Working with these item-chains should only be done when one has enough awareness and ability to do so safely (several people died during early research into these things).
These item-chains are what will mainly determine the personality that one “chooses” near the end of the Between-lives area just before one takes the next human body. While the Between-lives area will take some spiritual-charge off some of the things that happened in the previous lifetime, it won’t make much difference to the Item-chains which can be considered to “float above time” rather than having a location on the time-line (although one can find times when one started using the current chains, and the time and location when one agreed to use item-chains in general).