An interesting point is that the godlike being up at the top of the pattern kicks back against the enduring people. You can see this in the early books of the Bible where God is always saying that the Children of Israel are a stubborn people and he keeps pushing at them to bend them to His will.
This oppression of enduring people means that when you were godlike, you could not endure and therefore ensures that the goal will decay. Also, you are continually bothered by the free beings who are out of your control and eventually you commit terrible overts against them. This is how the cycle starts.
Note that the people you might think are enduring or free in this example do not necessarily have those goals as their own GPMs. If you're being godlike and someone really gives you trouble, there is a tendency to assume that they are free beings (because the implant suggests it) when really it might be someone who is working on, lets say, the goal to be popular or even another person working on the goal to be godlike (but they look like they're free from your viewpoint).
There are earlier universes before this one (see the "Cosmic History"). Each of the last few universes had its own series of actual GPMs which formed the anatomy of the game in that universe.
The underlying goal of this universe is to survive. And it includes the twisted false idea that only one can survive, so you have to be superior to others.
The previous universe was the Magic Universe. The underlying goal there was To Enjoy. It was a hedonistic universe. The twisted false idea was that you gained pleasure at the expense of others. In other words, it was good to screw but bad to be screwed. This idea is still around even though it is blatantly false. All sorts of undesirable impulses ranging from sexual craziness to wanting to make others into slaves stem from this earlier universe.
When you came to this universe, you accepted the current goals series and it became the primary motivating factor. But just because you're living these GPMs doesn't mean that you completely abandoned the magic universe goals series. You continued to live them as well but they faded down to being a secondary factor and you tend to move through the items slowly and with little emphasis. Also, these earlier goals are very decayed because they have already been lived so many times and gotten worse on each cycle through the series.
I don't yet have a good handle on the magic universe goals series. It is obscured by the current series of actual GPMs. You need to know about these because you will see an occasional loose end sticking out that comes from there (the PC is living the goal "to be responsible" but he has a terrible urge to get drunk tonight, etc.). Don't go chasing off after the occasional stray bit of an earlier GPM that doesn't fit logically into the actual GPM you are running.
The individual's own causative behavior (as opposed to what he is forced into by others) stems from the following sources:
a) The current actual GPM.
b) The other GPMs he is still living in from earlier universes.
c) His own prior postulates which he believes he has to live up to.
d) Free Will. Never make the mistake of thinking that all behavior stems from aberration. The person can become interested in something. He can decide things without any prior cause. The difference here is that he can think about these things and change his mind if he wants to.