Friday, March 14, 2008
Positive and Negative
I want to share with you that in the physical world, everything is composed of atoms. Atoms come equipped with two things that most of us, as spiritual beings here having a human experience, struggle with on a regular basis: positive and negative. The physical world exists between positive and negative. It creates force and magnetism, which keeps things moving. As we all are aware, but also like to fight against, everything in the universe is in constant motion. Everything, from the smallest sub-particles, to the largest stars, planets and galaxies are always in movement, rotating and spinning, using energy, creating energy, always in relation to each other in some way, depending upon the distance and forces in operation between them. This is the cosmos. It is incredibly vast. Yet, the same basic makeup is used to make up the building blocks of the physical world that we all live and have our being in that are incredibly small. Its a strange place, full of laws and mysteries that have yet to be discovered.
Science has broken through many of the myths and mysteries already, but there is still a great deal that we dont know and may never know (what used to be called The Great Mystery). However, thats not what the focus of this story is about well leave that to those who study it in great detail.
What this story is about is about the positive and negative inside us and how we operate under their influence. Myself, I have had a very hard time getting out of the rut of negativity. Any thing you do over and over creates a path of least resistance and gets easier to do with time and usage. The same is true within our brains. If you constantly (or even oftenly) use negative judgments, it creates a path of negativity. If you rail against the way things are in the world, it creates a path of negativity. If you are critical of yourself and down yourself at every opportunity, it creates a path of negativity (PON). If, no matter what you do, its not good enough and you rarely give yourself credit or praise, it creates a PON. If you berate your looks, its a PON. If theres something you want to do, but because of the PON, youre not doing it, you get a double whammy PON. Then the original PON starts to get offshoots and then theres tributaries of those, and pretty soon, youve got a jumble of negative bull shit in your room upstairs, and its gonna be a struggle to untangle.
I, myself, am heavily involved in the struggle, and have been for some time now. Its like an old rust spot, that no matter how many layers of paint, it keeps bleeding back through. I can only assume that I havent yet reached the original PON, and have only been swimming upstream along the tributaries. Of course, I could be wrong. My PON wants to say: Well, of course, I could be so wrong on this, its not even worth writing about. Arent you writing a book on self-improvement? You dont know enough to be writing a book, you ninny. Whats wrong with you? And thats just how a PON works. As soon as you have a thought, another thought comes rushing in, like a team of prison guards whove been alerted a riot is in progress in Cell Block D (the rioters would be the occasional positive thought).
I wish I knew the real reason why this is so. Its damn inconvenient to think negatively. It doesnt do anybody any good, it stops most of us from even attempting something new, and it creates, at best, a feeling of unease, and at worst, hopelessness that can lead to suicidal thoughts, depression and criminal acts. Yet, we still entertain the little devils and sometimes even fight for their survival and argue on their behalf.
What the____? Our loyalty to a system that brings nothing to the table worth eating is unfathomable. Not only is it not worth eating, but its sheer poison. But, somehow, its become a comfort zone that is anything but comfortable. Its like laying on a bed of nails and pretending its not going to kill us to turn over. Oh, well, if this isnt the bane of the human condition, I dont know what is.
But, now that I give it a moment thought, I realize we do have somewhat of a propensity, a certain fondness for poisons. Every drug that makes you high, from alcohol to meth, is a poison. We seem hell-bent on killing off as many brain cells as we can, especially when young - another Great Mystery. Ive also noticed that the current trend seems to be toward becoming as brain-dead as possible, as is witnessed by so many things: college drink-til-you-drop parties (where people have actually permanently dropped); the Jackass movies (no explanation needed); addictions in every strata of society from soccer moms to models and movie stars to the homeless. Ive noticed many people of little means always have the money to feed their addictions. So, theyre successful at what they do, at least on that level.
Drugs, most likely, when first experienced, most likely give up a charge, drag up a feeling thats different than the everyday. They may even, at their best, give a temporary respite from the barrage of negativity circulating in the brain. But, alas, the feeling goes away, as anyone whose ever chased a high knows. There is no escape from negativity, at least not by means of chemical additives.
It does seem to be a trend that is gaining rather than losing momentum. Why? Whats the thrill in acting like an idiot? Whats the charge in spending money you cant afford to lose on something that ensures youll lose? Its obviously the little demons of negativity at work. And, when you identify with these little demonic dendrites, what you get is what well call the negative ego. It makes sure that being all you can be never happens. One of the conundrums Ive never been able to figure out is why would this negative ego want to do that? If it lives inside us and has its being in our brain and body, why would it choose to destroy its host? I guess once something, anything, is given life, it seeks to perpetuate that life and should it join forces with the positive ego, it would no longer have an identity. Thats why we have to be careful about developing habits. Any habit, no matter how small, will seek to perpetuate itself.
So, if you out there are focusing on other people (your husband, your kids, your boss, your in-laws, the sexy girl strutting her stuff down the sidewalk, the various people you look down on in some fashion), realize this: that is just your own negativity projecting outwards and claiming Id never be like that.
No, not me. Its them, not me, thats in the wrong. But, if you take a closer look, youll find somewhere in there a judgment or an attitude that is appearing to you in the outer world. (Its called mirroring.) Or, if youre really hangin out on the dark side, you wont even be willing or able to recognize this as a possibility, and then you have no hope of changing those persistent little demons into encouraging angels. But, youll have an excuse, so youll be okay. Its always somebody elses fault, and thats enough to make you, no, not happy, but able to accept your life as it stands. I used to think that little cartoon that shows a demon on one side and an angel on the other was just a figment of someones imagination, but then one day I realized it was perfectly true. Huh! Go figure.
So, once again, is there a way out of this morass? We all hope some miracle will take us where we want to be, that some fairy godmother will come along and zap us with her magic wand, that some prince charming will come along to rescue us from the doldrums weve habituated ourselves to in our everyday lives. Ive also been one of those, and in some cases, still am. But, once again, alas, its not gonna happen.
Now that we know more about quantum physics and how it works (that all things exist in potential and are affected by energy), it then becomes clear that theres only one way out: youve gotta change your mind. If you ever, ever, ever want to get out of the bog of negativity, its going to have to be by yourself, within yourself. That doesnt mean you wont have help. That doesnt mean you wont be offered paths that will get you there. It does mean you have to (eek!) actually put your shit on the line and go down the path itself.
You cannot take a drug that makes it look like youre on a path that youre not. You cannot pretend that youre doing the work necessary reprogramming), but really arent. You cannot escape by any means other than getting a good hold on your mind and forming some new dendrites. Youve got to stop the flow of the river of negativity, and place your boat in a positive stream. As there is no darkness in the presence of light, as there is no freedom in the presence of slavery, as there is no hope in the face of despair, there is no positive result in the presence of negative projection.
It aint easy. I believe it was Gurdjieff who called it The Work. Its really the only game in town. Some people even claim its what we came here to do: overcome negativity. Hummmm What a concept! But what a payoff!
So stop settling for what you dont want just because you feel you cant get what you do want. Youll for sure never get it that way, and then you get to do what? Feel sorry for yourself? Get to remain weak and helpless? Blame anybody and everybody else for what you cant or wont do? Judge others, even those who actually are doing what they want to do and are being successful? You can float along on the River of Negativity (whats that river in Hell called?), and upon entering abandon all hope, but as long as youre alive, as long as you have choice, you can change your mind. Thats what youve got to do, so you might as well get on with it. Reincarnation might have been invented for us remedial souls who just dont get it and havent yet gotten it done.
What is mastery? Becoming the Master of your own Mind. God cant give it to you, youve got to get it for yourself. Your free will says you dont have to, but your heart and soul pray you catch on and get a clue, sooner than later. Negativity is a game that gets very tiresome, and its a game at which you cant win.
Michael Webster 301 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach, CA 92651. Ph. (949) 949-7121. Fx. (949) 583-0154. e-mail mvwsr@aol.com. http://www.michaelwebster.net. Mr. Webster is a United States Citizen of Native American Heritage.
America's leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding, Trustee on some of the nations largest trade Union funds. Labor Law, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank - File Member Representative, Grievances, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative and a noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist Specialist and Business Consultant. Michael Webster is a world-renowned expert on global economics, financing, emergency management, preparedness and terrorism. He is the author of Venture Capital, the Christian Covenant the RedRoad, the LemonFast. And the United States Civil Defense Emergency Training Manual. Mr. Webster has Collaborated on a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) course having over 300 plus pages
