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As we begin to align our life with
our creative passion and the
reason for our current incarnation,
one begins to access the depth and breadth of our
creative power and creative ability. In arranging our life to move more into this
alignment we will being to see how we have given our creative power
away and to whom, or what, and why. In this awareness we can take
back our power to manifest the life experiences of our choosing.
However, often we find we have been living in, or with, a
victim consciousness. A victim consciousness robs us of our creative power
and is simply no more than giving our creative power away to some
perceived external cause. One of the more common ways in which we
give away our creative power is to allow someone or something external
to us to determine how we feel. It needs to be remembered our
creative power lies in feelings and having the passion to act. When
we allow others to determine how we feel, we give away our creative
power and make us a victim of their actions.
We must go back into our past to recover what was given away.
Whether the loss was physical or non-physical, we must literally or
symbolically go back and reclaim that part of ourselves or that
aspect of energy that we allowed to be taken from our control.
The deepest origins of
victim consciousness go back to when we were an infant. As an infant, we had not yet developed a conscious
mind
to control what we do. Internally we were free to do whatever we
felt like doing. In innocence, and if we were innocent now, there is
nothing we would see that would cause us to feel threatened.
Pain
and suffering were unknown till we experienced it. Since we had not
yet developed a conscious mind to create the tension between what we
felt like doing and what our mind wanted to do, there was no
internal pain. Hence, anything and everything that threatens us came
from the external world. As an infant, we felt no constrains on any
of our actions until there were constraints somehow imposed from our
external world.
As discussed in the topic “Loss of Creative Play,” we developed
response patterns to protect ourselves. However, something else
often also occurs. That is, we develop a
victim consciousness. Since
we did not have a conscious
mind and sufficient experience to know how to respond in a way that did not give away our creative power,
often the response patterns we developed put the control of the
situation with the perceived cause of our
pain. We consciously or
unconsciously saw ourselves at the mercy of whatever was causing our
pain. As this very young child, we had no awareness as to how we
could have prevented the pain we experience, so we see all the power
external to us.
What is important to realize here is that not all of our response
patterns created a
victim consciousness. Some were simply to protect
ourselves and not give away control of the situation to the external
cause. However, frequently we also gave away control of the
situation. So, in addition to dealing with a response pattern that
does not
serves us, we may also have to deal with the fact we carry a
victim consciousness relative to what the response pattern was
designed to provide protection.
As we grew in life and our conscious
mind developed, we began to
develop likes and dislikes. Having a like or a dislike is always
based on some past experience. We have no basis to make any judgement about the unknown as to whether it will be something we
like or dislike. In addition to developing response patterns to
protect our
creative spirit from being thwarted in its creative
expression, we began to experience the fact that there are things
that we are lead to do but our care givers felt or thought
otherwise. In addition to response patterns we developed we also
began to overlay judgements of likes and dislike. We now also
started to have associations of like and dislike and/or good and bad
on what we saw controlling our actions. This in turn started to
overlay judgments of like and dislike and/or good and bad on that
which was controlling us.
Depending on how we are raised, some of us were gently lead to learn
particular patterns in life where as others of us were forcibly if
not violently lead. What we experienced from our care givers, many
times was based as much on our own temperament and desires, as much
as what was done to us. We either became to feel very controlled and
dominated and not free to express ourselves, or we felt loved and
nurtured, and of course, with a infinite number of shadings between
these extremes. As a child we craved love, affection and attention.
We desired to be nurtured even if we did not understand what we
needed to be nurtured. If we didn’t get that love, affection and
attention, we felt a type of
pain. So there are many things we learn
to suppress within ourselves to ensure the love, affection and
attention of our care givers. Few of us had been loved
unconditionally.
Whether our care givers realized it or not, they expected us to grow
a certain way which they considered normal and/or the way they
wanted us to be. They did what they could to help us to achieve
their definition of normalcy. Their expectations may have been
something as simple as our care givers expecting us not to cry when
they were busy attempting to do something other than give us
attention. So early in life, we learned to choose in such a way that
the external world gave us a
pain free life and that we got what we
wanted - love and attention. The question is, in how many of these
cases did we also give away our creative power such that we were at
the mercy of others to get what we felt we needed.
The deepest origins of
victim consciousness lies in the fact that we
had to give up our preferred way of being and doing in the world to
get the attention and affection of our care givers. We had to give
up what we desired and wanted in life as we explored life. Three
questions ultimately need to be asked of this process. The
first question is, “Did we learn to deny a part of ourselves in this
process?” The answer of course, is "yes." The second question is then,
“What part did we deny and how much did we deny?” The third question
is that of victim consciousness, “In denying a part of ourselves, did
we give the power in an attempt to regain that part of ourselves
with another.”
A classic example would be a care giver saying, “you are a useless
little kid.” Our response would then most probably be to no longer
do whatever it was that caused our care giver to call us useless.
That of course denies that part of our being. We then would act in a
way to please the care giver to get the love and attention we
desired. This response then creates the response pattern we develop
to please others that may not
serve us
as an adult. If we also look
to the care giver as the criteria to determine if we are useless or
not, we create a
victim consciousness. If we think and/or feel we
need our care giver to say how useful we are in life before we think
or feel useful, we carry a victim consciousness. That part of our
being can never be regained unless we hear words from a care giver
proclaiming our usefulness. If however, we know we are useful and
don’t really care what a care giver thinks, we have no victim
consciousness.
In any case, no matter how supporting and loving our care givers may
have been, the fact is that our consciousness inhabits a body. We all
have learned to feel the control by our bodies in some way. We feel
its
pain, we feel its hunger and we feel its tiredness. Although we
many not want to feel pain, feel hunger or feel tired, our
consciousness seems to have little control over the body. So, as a
minimum, we can expect that most of us feel somewhat controlled and
dominated by the needs of our bodies.
The needs of the body also causes us to tend to identify ourselves
with our bodies. Many of us come to feel and think we are our bodies
because the needs of the body and the experiences of the body are so
dominate in our early life. One of the most significant ways we have
been controlled by our bodies is by
pain and the fact that we are
susceptible to feeling pain. In fact, feeling pain has been used by
many individuals in authority over us to create pain at some level
of our being to control one or more aspects of our being. It is only
natural to develop defense mechanisms or methods of protecting
ourselves from pain and/or perceive pain or painful conditions. The
question is, do we develop a
victim consciousness to go with our
response to these individuals in their use of pain?
The main reason why we develop a
victim consciousness is because our
consciousness comes to believe we are our bodies as opposed to
seeing ourselves as the creator of our experiences. Consciousness
defines itself by the experiences it has. Since we awaken in a body,
and so many of those early experiences are of the body, we identify
with the body and treat aspects of our consciousness as if it
functioned as the body.
The process is relativity quite simple. The brain of the body is the
central processing station for all the sensors the body possess. It
is the brain that assimilates and integrates all the sensor input of
the body into a composite picture of the condition of the body and
its environment. The brain’s primary function is to assimilate all
the sensory input to protect and regulate the body and assist the
body in living its physical existence. The brain is also the
location of where our consciousness and
mind seems to, or are
perceived to, reside. It is the center of our thinking and seemingly
our awareness. Individuals with dis-functional brains, will not
exhibit the type and kind of awareness and mental capabilities that
we consider as being a normal human. Hence it is only natural to
see the reasoning portions of our mind and the brain as determining
what it means to be a functioning human being.
Since most of our early life experiences were focused on learning to
utilize and manipulate our bodies, we tend to define ourselves by
the external experiences we have rather than by what experiences we
may have internal to our being. When we are young, and frequently
encouraged by our care givers, we tend to dismiss internal
experiences as the product of our imagination and not real even when
and if they are a correct assessment of the situation we face. So
quite naturally, we associate our
mind, that thinking, judging and
analyzing part of our consciousness with the brain and head and
attach the identity our consciousness forms about itself, the
ego,
to the body and the functions of the brain and its sensory input.
Our
mind believes it is the experience of its sensors and our
ego
comes to believe it is the experiences it has had. Since the brain
and the awareness of our mind is so focused on protecting the body,
the mind learns also to protect the ego it creates from the
experiences it has in the body in the same way it protects the body.
However, the mind in protecting the body from the external influences
creates the seeds of a
victim consciousness. That is, our
consciousness suffers and feels
pain as a result of external
influences. It creates a perceived identity, the ego, based on what
it experiences. But, the identity of the consciousness is not
determined by the external world, unless it choose to be so affected.
Whether or not our consciousness becomes a victim consciousness
depends entirely as to whether or not we feel we are powerless to
negate or remove the controls of the external world and/or the pain
and discomfort that we feel within our being.
A
victim consciousness is where our consciousness thinks its
identity is controlled by our external word and that we are unable
to do anything about the identity we have and are at the mercy of
these external influences. But nothing could be father from the
truth. Our conscious awareness is what creates the identity we have.
Our identity is not what creates our conscious awareness.
The easy and seemingly simple approach to removing a
victim consciousness is to first remove ourselves from the external power
that has control over us. It would appear we only need to follow the
recommendation that is repeatedly emphasized to us that we can drop
the past for we are not our experiences - that is to forgive and
forget. But, unfortunately, it is not that simple. The experiences
we have is what determines how we frame or interpret the energy that
we experience.
The fact that we have removed ourselves from the experience and have
forgiven and forgotten does not remove from our
mind the fact that
it may have no other way to characterize the energy that we
experienced as being a victim. Although we have seemingly forgiven
and forgotten what may have been done to us, the victim experience
that we had, suffering at the hands of another, may be the only
experience we had with that type and kind of energy represented by
that particular type and kind of person. This means that every time
we experience that type and kind of energy, our mind frames it, or
characterizes it, such that we have victim’s response to that energy.
Or we see ourselves as a victim. This means we implement whatever
defense mechanism that we developed to respond to the victimization
that we had.
A simple example may help. Someone leaves a metal rod half lining in
the hot coals of a fire place. They tell us to take it out and put
it on the stone ledge surrounding the coals. Since we never done
that before, we follow their direction and we grab the piece of
metal and we get burnt. We get angry at the person who told us to
pick it up because they did not tell us it was hot. We may forgive
them and forget that they ever told us to pick up the hot iron. But
every time we go to pick up a piece of mental in what seems to be in
potentially hot coals, we will use something to protect our hand for
we will have experienced the energy of the situation as something
that can be hot and painful unless we are protected. Similarly,
every time someone tells us to pick up a piece of metal near
something hot and doesn’t tell us it is hot, we wonder if they are trying
to harm us.
The protective action that we implement to prevent feeling
pain will
be carried with us into the future in both ways. It is very
difficult to break the habit and trust that every piece of metal
half in hot coals will not be hot and that the person telling us to
pick it up without telling us it is hot is out to harm us. We will
follow our experience and our experience suggests the iron will be hot and
without the individual telling us it is hot, we believe they are out to harm
us, or at least they do not have our best interest at heart.
We do this same type of thing for every experience of
pain that we
have at every level of our being. It makes a lot of sense to
continue to utilize techniques of the past when there is a real bonafide hazard. As long as we are guaranteed that the energy of the
situation will ways flow the same way, this is a very wise way to
live. However, the energy will not always flow the same way in any
given situation, even if it appears that it will. It will always flow
or follow the
path of least resistance unless there is
free will and
ability to change the energy of the situation.
When dealing with what we call the inanimate forces of nature, we
can almost always guarantee the energy will flow the
path of least resistance. That is the whole basis of physics, chemistry and
astronomy. The evidence suggests that it is a correct
understanding for how successful physics, chemistry and astronomy
have been at predicting the outcome of any given arrangement of
energy it studies.
However, when it comes to
pain that has been inflicted by another
individual which has a
free will and consciousness unto themselves,
although the energy that is being experiences may feel the same, we
need to look carefully as to whether or not we are open to what is
as it is or we are judging the energy from past and our
ego. When
free will is involved, the energy no longer necessarily flows along
the
path of least resistance. It flows in the direction of where the
consciousness has focused it attention and awareness. Or
alternatively said, a person’s focused attention and awareness
changes the path of least resistance This is true for us and/or the
other individual.
When individuals are
out of mind; the thinking, judging, analyzing
and controlling part of their being, the energy will flow according
to the
path of least resistance for the arrangement of objects. When
we are in our thinking, judging, analyzing and controlling
mind, the
energy flows according to where and how we have focused our
attention and awareness. That is, we can change the path of least
resistance for the situation at hand for we change the conditions of
the situation by our observation. Hence, if we have a perception and
view that is characterized as being a victim, a
victim consciousness, every experience of energy we have we will be
experienced as a victim to some degree. Because we have focused our
attention and awareness on being a victim, that is how we will
experience the energy. The fact that a big powerful person gets
excited and forcibly tells you to stop doing something does not
necessarily mean they are trying to control us. They may only be
personally excited and are trying to prevent us from harming
ourselves. However, our experience of the past has interpreted that
excited energy as being another attempt by a powerful person to
control us.
The
ego is simply how our consciousness has chosen to define itself
based on the experiences it has had. It is who we think we are and
how we think the universe operates. However, the consciousness that
created the ego is much more than the experiences it has had and
used to define the ego. Only the ego and the physical body are
touched with anything that happens on the physical plane. The
consciousness that is witnessing the experiences we have is
untouched and unaffected unless it chooses to be affected. The
consciousness is never touched.
The
ego is very subject to injury and much like the body in this
regard. If the ego perceives someone intends harm, it will defend
itself whether or not the individual means harm or not. However, the
ego is normally very wounded. It exist almost as an open wound
because it has been so hurt by the experience of life. It remembers
all that has happened to it for what has happened to it is what
defines it. In the same way a cut will bleed blood, the ego that is
wounded bleeds
creative life energy and literally and figuratively
drains the energy that we use to create and sustains the reality
that we experience. We only need to touch one of its painful
memories and it will respond and remember the
pain and, in doing
so, it will response in anger, withdrawal or some similar defensive
action. That defensive action drains our power to respond. A simple
word or a gesture by another, that other person may not even be aware
of making, may be sufficient to cause a response. The ego always
thinks the other is responsible for causing its pain because the ego
is defined by what you have experienced from your external world.
Obviously we feel pain when someone or something external to us
invades what is ours - our body, our beliefs, our opinions, our
space, our property. We carry our wounds with us.
Our whole
ego is constructed of many wounds. We carry it around
everywhere. Our consciousness moves to stop the bleeding of our
creative life energy though these wounds by some type “protective”
action or defense mechanism. The ego itself is not the problem, the
mind defending the ego and protecting it from the wounds of the past
is the problem. It holds to these defensive actions no matter how
inadequately they
serve us. In reality we safeguard and protect our
wounds rather than healing them for our actions tend to be based on
protecting our ego from getting wounded again rather
than healing the wound.
It takes energy to maintain these defenses and thus less energy
is available for creation. When we are capable of living without
ego,
there is no ego to defend. There is no ego to be wounded. There are
no open wounds of the past. In this case we are healthy, healed and
whole. We have access to all our
creative life energy.
We need to become aware of our wounds and not help them to grow or
to continue to bleed. Wounds only heal when we move to address the
root of the wound and remove the protective actions that we
implemented that do not allow them to heal. The source of the wound
is what the
mind hold and remembers. When we move
out of mind
we
move away form the wound and the wound heals.
With no
mind or
out of mind
there is no wound on which to hold. When
we feel hurt we become disturbed and our attention and awareness
focus on the
pain. That weakens our
creative power and creative ability because it directs our energy into how to stop the pain,
and/or how to get even or obtain justice. We are hooked and giving
our power away. That is, we focus our attention and awareness toward
those who appeared to cause our pain. We can spend a whole life time
of energy the more we nurture the wound and “want justice or
accountability” in that other individual.
No matter what happens to us and whatever
pain we feel, nothing can
take our power away unless we give it away. We give our power away
by financing those memories that demand justice for the pain we have
been given and/or experienced. In demanding that justice, our power
is taken away simply because we focus our attention and awareness on
those memories. Only we can recall and reclaim our energy. It is
about learning to forgive and forget. But it goes deeper than that.
It is about changing how we are allowing ourselves to experience
that energy that caused our pain. We will continue to have those
experiences that rob us of our energy. We will experience them for
as long as we hold onto to them as the way we experienced the energy
for we manifest that on which we focus our attention and awareness.
For us to hold the
pain of the past , we create an endless life of
pain. Only in letting go do we free ourselves from the pain and
regain our creative power. To let go we need to see ourselves as the
creator. We need to realize we created the experience or agreed to
participate in it for some reason. Only by going within and looking
can we find the reasons why we created the experiences we do. In
looking within, we may come to realize
creation/Creation cannot be
done alone. It just may be we loved the other sufficiently to give
them the experience they needed to have, even if it causes us some
pain.
Related topics
Victim consciousness
Pain
How we create our experiences
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