Journey into the magnificent SELF

Story Time, Part 1

Of the many social characteristics that all human cultures share, one of the most prominent is the love of stories. Historically, stories have not only been used as vehicles of communication and teaching, but also as a primary source of entertainment. Whether it be some warrior, elder or shaman enthralling members of a tribe with spellbinding adventures around a campfire, an actor on a stage bringing the audience to tears of sadness or laughter, or a movie star keeping the viewers’ eyes riveted on the silver screen, people have been spellbound by the delivery of a good story. It did not, and still doesn’t, matter if the tale is pure fiction or non-fiction, all that matters is that it captivates the listeners’ imagination, stimulates their emotions and holds their attention from beginning to end.

Although the greater recognition is generally given to the more accomplished tale spinners, the fact of the matter is that all human beings are great storytellers. As soon as you ask someone, “what’s new?” you are laying the groundwork for him or her to launch into an account of his or her day, an amusing anecdote, a juicy piece of gossip, or the description of an unfortunate event or crisis. If you’re lucky you will hear something that you can pass on to others to kindle their interest or excitement. Sometimes you will be told of events you have already heard about – like watching a re-run on T.V. – and hopefully it will be a story you can enjoy a second – or third – time. Whether it is a comedy, drama, tragedy, or documentary, we seem to have an insatiable appetite for human narrative.

When you think about it, asking someone how it’s going or what is new in his or her life, is really asking them to read a few pages or even a chapter from a much larger story – the story of their lives. After all, when you are reading a book or watching a movie concerning people, aren’t you basically watching a segment of human life unfold in a particular way?

But besides the obvious purposes of entertainment and dispensing of information is there a deeper purpose to the sharing of, and attachment to, human stories? The answer to that would be pretty obvious to you if you considered that absolutely every aspect of your life is created to support your purpose for being here.

Once again I will refer to the two distinct stages of the human experience that YOU created for yourself; the first phase being the “Trance Stage”, where the infinitely powerful YOU, in order to have a complete human experience, virtually hypnotized YOURSELF into forgetting who YOU are, thereby becoming “you”, the self concept that you believe yourself to be. In the second stage you wake up from the trance and, over time, expand more and more in awareness of who YOU really are. (Have you noticed that the above description is in itself a story?)

In the trance state you use stories to reinforce your beliefs in yourself as a member of the human family, just one small part of a larger organism, many members of which you believe are more important, powerful, gifted and fortunate than you. Of course there are many whom you perceive as less fortunate and powerful than yourself as well, the recognition of which keeps you perceiving human life in terms of separation. Rather than living in a society of equality and individuality, you find yourself on some level of a pyramid, surrounded by people who are better than, or not as good as, you.

Then there are those few stories about some great soul who comes “down” into this world and after many trials and tribulations reaches a transcendent spiritual state of being. The story serves to convince you, the listener, that the hero or heroine dedicated his or her life as an example of your true potential. Billions of people who believed in the story tried to follow in the protagonist’s footsteps. Few if any reported reaching that same spiritual level. Granted, there are those who have declared that they have attained enlightenment, or some similar state, but actually, whether that is true really does not matter. They are just characters in the story you are reading or listening to. Throughout your life there have been many stories that fascinated you concerning the spiritual, emotional, financial, legal or military adventures – of others. In the meantime you are living out your own saga.

When you snap out of the trance, it may well happen that you will be filled with awe and appreciation for the amazing effectiveness of the stories that captivated you and helped you remain unaware of The Truth that was right in front of you all along. The best tale of all, of course, was your personal life story. When you review it from the beginning you are astounded by how perfectly it was laid out to convince you of your humanness, with all of its limitations and blindness. Even more amazing is the manner in which the real plot was designed to be hidden behind a ménage of sub-plots. It fooled you into constantly guessing at the point of the story. Were you, the protagonist, supposed to be searching for some great treasure, unlocking an ancient secret, achieving some impossible feat? Or were you meant to simply get a good job, become financially stable and raise a healthy, happy family? Was your body a sacred temple designed to house the Light of Truth, or was it designed to be a receptacle for earthly pleasure and pain? When you wake up from the hypnotic state you realise a key part of your story was to have you repeatedly asking yourself, “What’s the bloody point of all of this?”

Even after you snap out of the trance, your life story continues, initially with pretty much the same characters, situations and challenges that you were faced with in your trance, but the point of the story has changed drastically. Whereas the first part of your tale was designed to help you have a complete human experience by:

1. Instilling a sense of lack or incompleteness
2. Motivating you to act out of a need for importance and belonging,
3. Supporting you to create beliefs about yourself and the world, all of which were the opposite of the Truth.

 

YOU created a central character or protagonist (you), and placed yourself in a certain environment, surrounded by people who treated you in specific ways. YOU created all the events that happened to you and all the interactions with others to reinforce the identity and behaviours of you, the main character. Then YOU induced a kind of self-hypnotic trance and put YOURSELF into the story, becoming the virtual “you”. Everything that happens to you, from conception to death is part of the tale. Imagine, every thought you have, every feeling and sensation, every interaction has already been written down and put in a huge book. And there YOU are, not just reading the story, but experiencing every aspect of it down to the molecular and sub-atomic levels!

i love the chapter where i suddenly wake up from the trance and realise that i am actually ME - the writer, editor, and publisher of this great human adventure! That’s when the plot reveals itself, and you realise that YOU are not who you believe yourself to be.

Thus the second stage of your human saga begins, and the plot takes you in a whole new direction, whereby you find yourself:

1. Confronting your life story and realizing that none of it ever actually happened – that you are a fictitious character, created by YOU.
2. Being blown away with appreciation for the perfection of the story and how YOU created it to be so believable that it fooled even YOU!
3. Leading yourself to greater awareness of who YOU really are and what infinite really means.

 

In part 2 of this article we can explore how your life story, which was originally designed to support your trance state, can be used to support you to remember who YOU really are.