A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM

The “samskaras” in Sanskrit are the habitual grooves our rational mind uses for “sensemaking”.

These are the neural pathways known as the ego fixation or the personality construct. [The enneagram system helps us by defining the 9 different samskara fixations of the nervous systems.] This is a physical/mental pattern – it is not “who we are”.

Waking up to seeing this happening within us can be shocking.

It’s not that we need to get rid of our samskaras or our personality, in fact, trying to get rid of them is the crusade of the classic “spiritual ego” – thinking we have discovered a problem within ourselves and becoming convinced that we must now “heal” it.

The truth is, the actual process unfolding is not at all about the information we glean from seeing the ego – it is all about the shock of energy which expands our being as a result. And our adaptability to gain an automatic competency in deploying such an energy.

Think of a loud noise going off, or an urgent deadline needing to be met.

The shock of such an event “shifts us into high gear”. Meaning, more of our Will gets onboard from its dormant state called darkness. Darkness is just the same Will, but hiding in the mud in an innocent shy terror.

When we are surprised, we suddenly allow ourselves to change the shape of our energy body – using the Will in an automatic way not driven by the mental filters.

The fact that our Will is mostly unconscious seems totally contradictory and counterintuitive, which of course makes total sense when we can clearly see how deeply confused humanity is about its own existence. If we don’t take it so personally, it is just an absurd theatrical comedy playing itself out. This is why a chapter in my book is called “The Whole World is The Quantum Theater”.

Unconditional love may appear to heal us, and this experience can be quite surprising.

And yet it’s not the love which impacts us. We don’t actually “need” love, that doesn’t really make any sense from an energetic standpoint. It’s the Will behind the love which makes the impact.

It’s our surprise of encountering a stable and supportive Will – and then trusting it and participating intentional with it – moving in accordance with a non-linear truth – this is what impacts our response to it from our tender parts.

In other words, it is our response to our response, either from our resistant IDENTITY or the alignment of our CONSCIOUS WILL which impacts us.

We are usually shocked into awareness – this is why it is traditionally difficult to plan for awakening to occur.

I’ve recently [been trained in and] started stretching people physically. It’s awesome to work on a physical level, when I am used to doing my work over Zoom.

I take clients ever so gently layer by layer, and each movement provides a gentle shock of aliveness into the system. This makes available more of their awareness of their Will which has been buried inside of a chronically tense muscle (Shadow Will).

This relies on our deep WILLINGNESS to release the meaning of the shock (from the identity) and to integrate into our awareness the power we have disowned.

This is why I’ve said that “Willpower is the WIllingness to be Powerful”.

This intersection of masculine and feminine is where our deeper unity is recognized rather than objectified.

If we align with the shock, it becomes an easily adapted lubricated ability – and the more resistance the more we need to be shocked into that alignment.

If there is a life event which challenges our identity, this shocks us.

If we feel a shift and say “Wow, I really learned something! I’ll have to chew on this a bit”.

Of course digesting our lessons is a beautiful thing, but it is still an overall rejection of the current moment.

The information in the moment shocked the nervous system – nothing is more valuable than a safe and loving wake-up call.

This gives us an opportunity to integrate the shadow Will perspective into our being.

We begin moving forward when we bask in and experiment with the far reaching consequences of our authentic Will – not to chew on or intellectualize the new perspective as [what we typically call intelligence can only intellectualize from within those old samskaras].

Higher intelligence is non-linear in the sense that it does not experience time in the same way as the filters in our mind – if you imagine how an insect or plant experiences time, the ineffable mystery of being. Our addictive self concepts require time to exist as a status quo, when these are challenged our conscious Will can occupy the space where they previously existed.

As the slave self transforms, reverts, and un-creates toward the original etheric energies which it siphoned away from our Truth, our physical bodies become more available to the raw power which [both] provides [and is provided by] the shock which awakens our deeper being.

This highlights the identity which feels separate from the shockwave.

Let’s look at this in real time as I write:

It is not the information I give you which matters.

For most people, it is the inability to fully process such information which offers a spiritual shock.

Because it is gentle and empowering, it is uniquely tolerable and so encourages the expansion of the Will.

The unspoken line in the sand of “what is triggering” is being danced upon.

This message is not exactly “harmless” – probably you can feel the edge I am dancing on.

It may feel like it could provide an intense shock at any moment.

But the shocks land somehow with a pleasant nature – and this is exactly what allows the resulting power from the shocks to be more deeply normalized.

I could have come from another angle and shocked you with totally different information.

It’s not about the information, it’s about the shock.

However, shocks can also become an addiction. For example, someone addicted to heavy metal music, or certain drugs, or drama, “setting my boundaries!”. Many people develop a seemingly empowering, alluring, but insidious coping mechanism for integrating such a shock – if we create an elaborate avoidance tactic and then we actually become addicted to that coping mechanism it is easy to stamp it as an “achievement”.

If we correlate the adrenaline experience of a temporary consciousness shift [such as I have seen in many plant medicine communities] it allows us to rationalize maintaining the continuity of an arrogant identity, proud of itself for being able to withstand such an impact. As such, we pat ourselves on the back for “being strong” when in reality we are only strengthening that which binds us to a false narrative.

This identity continuity simply cannot remain a persistent element of humanity.

From there, it is only True Peace which appears to be that ever looming unbearable shock.

The ability to get what you actually want therefore ends up being the shock which we avoid at all cost, without knowing even why we are using our Will in that non-buoyant way.

I recently learned: “When someone is being overly-aggressive they’re not feeling their own energy.”

I was struck by this, because when we can trust ourselves to gently confront someone about the impact of their energy upon us, this provides them the gift of a safe-feeling shock which inside of it is encoded the experience of coming back to their center.

In my writings like this, I have been accused of trying to trigger people – while actually this is the last thing that I am looking for.

This type of writing is meant to move us between worlds – normalizing the straddling of polarities without having to choose something either way.

A positive shock is known as creative inspiration, that’s more of what I’m going for.

In the image below (I’m not sure who made it), you can see one of the models I use in my new book explaining how certain competencies become normalized. In this context, “unconscious” means integrated into awareness in such a way that it is normalized and automatic – no longer an unconscious Shadow. The presence of competency defines the different ends of the spectrum.

To me, this is a really helpful way to understand the purpose of the shock and what “high vibe” actually means. True Health, from this perspective, is simply an automatic and resilient competency for adapting to power without having to think about it.

Thanks for reading, feel free to let me know if any clarification is needed.

Joshua