Power

There is so much talk and advertising in the West of how we can create our own lives, how we can be successful, the secret of happiness, and the power we have of creating what we want. True we have extraordinary potential, but it only becomes real when we remember where we stand.

We are not separated from other peoples life, will, splendour or their problems. We are none of us separate. Do you make your own clothes – and even if you do, do you make the threads and material? Do you grow your own food, build your own homes, produce your own electricity, gas, and education?

We are all a part of Life and a super-organism, and we would find it difficult to exist alone. Even if we lived on desert island we could not exist without all the chain of life that supports us and the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe.

True we are remarkably creative. We can create our own hell or heaven, but meanwhile we are in the midst of billions of others who are also creating. Sometimes they are creating havoc, war and we might be mixed up in it. Or they might be creating peace, plenty or sharing their wisdom – and all that is taking place all the time and the whole world, in fact the universe is changing. Every little thing we do adds to this change – one way of another. So we need a little humility when we start seeing what we are capable of and what power we have.

In today’s world our power depends upon cooperation with others – or else conflict with the enormous will power of the billions – or even a conflict with the process of life without which we would not exist.

To arrive at your creative power you may need to deal with the attitudes or fears that prevent you being your best in waking life. The psychiatrist and dream explorer Carl Jung described the unconscious as something we must not ignore. He said it is as natural, as limitless, and as powerful as the stars.  Some years ago I taught dreamwork at Atsitsa on the Greek island of Skyros. Windsurfing was one of the activities there, and I watched raw beginners struggle to keep balance and repeatedly fall into the warm waters of Atsitsa bay. But by getting back on the board and trying again, in a few days a transformation took place. The waves were the same, the board was the same, but now the surfer was in balance and harmony with the forces of wind and waves around them, and they flew over the sea. This is exactly the relationship we are seeking with the powerful forces you will meet as you cross the frontier of sleep – not control, but learning to ride and move with the energies within you to the goals you wish to reach.

The danger of this lack of understanding applies to lucidity also. You are dealing with powerful mental, emotional and spiritual processes. It is important to understand what the dream process is capable of and what it does.

That there is another power active in your life other than your conscious thinking and will.

It sounds like just another investigation into the paranormal, but the Wiseman-Schlitz study represents something of a watershed. The sceptic-versus-believer experiment is designed to nail down one of parapsychology’s longest-standing controversies, the “experimenter effect”. This is the curious phenomenon whereby the outcome of an experiment hinges upon the beliefs of the person running it. Believers tend to get positive results. Sceptics don’t.

Nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. This quote is a reminder of the often awful power that huge corporation, public opinion, religious beliefs and media have in our live.

Idioms: balance of power; power to burn; power play; grey power; more power to you; power trip; power user; powers that be;

Useful questions or hints:

Do you feel you have to be in control of the powers you face?

Have you learnt to easily bend and move in adjustment to your inner and outer world?

How was the power shown in your dream?

What was the result of the power?

See Inner World – Learning to Allow Yourself – Meditation with Seed – Martial Art of the Mind