Embracing the Unknown

You may make copies of this writing and distribute it in any media you wish, so long as you do not charge for it or alter it in any way. You must credit the author and include this entire copyright notice. While the text may be shared, no audio files, including lectures, music and/or sound meditations, may be posted on any site for any reason without written permission from the Power Path.

Most of us human beings have had some trepidation of the dark. We come into this world from a timeless place of unconditional love and support and are delivered into a deeply dense environment of uncertainty and the potential for pain and suffering. We no longer have the kind of telepathy that exists in the Spirit world and we no longer have the sense of all knowing that is like clear bright light where there are no secrets, no skepticism, and no doubts. For this reason many children have a fear of the dark and want someone there when they fall asleep or perhaps a light on in the hall just to give them a sense that they can see what is around them. Who knows, the dark may hold alligators under the bed, ghosts coming from the closet, or demons climbing through the window. Even adults can shy away from the dark and have occasional moments of panic on a dark street, or in a garage, attic, or basement, fearful of thieves, muggers, or murderers. The dark seems to be full of mystery, the unknown, obstacles, and of course our minds tend to go with the bad possibilities rather than the good. We are more likely to think of a rat or a heavy, hairy spider in the dark than a good fairy, angel, or bouquet of flowers.

At a deeper level this translates into the need to know. We flick on the lights to make sure none of these horrors exist or are lurking ready to pounce on us. We associate seeing with knowing, and when we cannot see what is there, we fill with anxiety and doubt. The instinctive center becomes triggered and the body goes into survival mode, ready to fight or flee. By the same token many people turn on the TV, computer, or radio in their cars for 24-hour news as if hearing sound bites will lesson their fear. Talking heads endlessly analyze each event yet even so no one feels safer, rather they feel just the opposite because the media wants to sensationalize to sell product.

Humans are addicted to predictions and prophecies because they fill the need to know, even if it is a warning about something not so good. At least “Beware the Ides of March” tells us when to hide out and stay out of trouble. People that analyze and try to predict the stock market are in great demand and make piles of money because they attempt to take the uncertainty out of what will happen. This is also why people go to astrologers, psychics, mediums and the like because they want to know what they might be overlooking or missing, signaling more discomfort about being in the dark.

As many prophecies have predicted we are now in the Kali Yuga, the deepest and darkest of times just before the dawn’s earliest light. The wrecking ball is out and we are deconstructing our world much to the dismay of all the vested interests in the status quo. Accompanying this chaotic time of dissolution is lack of clarity, uncertainty, unpredictability, lack of focus, and of course this all brings up a great fear of the dark and the chaos of the void. Where are we going? Where will this all end up? Is there any hope of surviving all this? Are we going off the cliff? Is Ebola going to take the species out or is something else coming in its wake that will kill everyone? Is the Islamic State going to take over the world or will some other nation apply force and destroy the United States, the European Union, or the rest of the world? Is the dollar finished and what will happen if it crashes? Is everyone going mad and will we all kill each other with guns? Will there be any ecosystem left to support us or is it all going down? Is global warming going to make this world unlivable? And on and on! No one has the answers it seems. Perhaps never has there been such dire uncertainty as now? Never have there been so many events and situations converging at once that could lead to annihilation of the human race. Fear of the dark, fear of mystery and chaos, fear of the unknown is the context of our world right now.

A blind person gets used to the dark. For them there are no dark rooms, dark alleys, dark places because they have become accustomed to evaluating their surroundings according to entirely different criteria. This is not to say that they do not have moments of anxiety when they have lost their bearings, their landmarks, the context of where they are. Yet some blind people have developed special senses and abilities that allow them to always know where they are and how to navigate a world they cannot see with their eyes.

Perhaps this is a time we need to take a page from their book. We need to become like the blind and let go of our typical requirements for knowing what is happening. Our leaders and experts don’t know anything anymore. Either we go stark raving mad or panic because we can’t see clearly or we adapt and change our criteria for knowing. There are times in life when we take a vacation from knowing and we actually like it. We read mysteries, we go to movies with surprise endings and don’t want a spoiler to tell us what happens before we see it. We travel to different cultures and countires just because we want to be surprised and delighted at something different. We go to a restaurant that serves foreign food because we want to try something new. Maybe we won’t like it and maybe we will be hugely surprised and discover a whole new cuisine. We go to a social gathering because maybe there will be a mystery person there that we could meet and have an unexpected romance with.

In other words our lives are always filled with mystery and we don’t want them to be too predictable because that is boring. As children we were delighted by surprises and looked forward to them. This is a time we need to get back in touch with how exciting and interesting mystery and the unknown actually are. Security must take a backseat for a while because it is just not available in this world right now. We can relearn to live with that. Perhaps we have grown soft and weak with the false sense of security that our world has given us in recent years. The lives of our ancestors were far less secure and yet they enjoyed the adventure of their lives. After all they were simply earlier versions of us.

There are some things that we can know and will continue to be able to know if we let ourselves. In some ways these things that we can know are tried and true and yet many have lost touch with them in modern times. There are a series of three powerful phrases channeled by the medium Paul Selig that point directly to this way of knowing. They are totally appropriate for the times we find ourselves in. The first phrase or mantra is “I know who I am.” Now you might say, “No I don’t know who I am” but somewhere there deep inside you, you do know, everybody knows because its true for everybody no matter what the local personality thinks. The ancient answer is “I am Spirit.” Other ways this has been expressed in different contexts is “I am a child of God, I am who am. I am a child of the great mystery, I am the Buddha nature, I am the rainbow light, I am a perspective of all that is” and so on. When you can say this it immediately puts you back into the drivers seat. Your personality may not know anything for the moment but on an essence level you do know who you are and that can never be destroyed or taken away by anyone. It is permanent.

The second phrase is “I know what I am.” This is a totally different phrase even though it sounds somewhat the same. “What” refers to a local condition. It has to do with what I am doing right now. Right now I am being a woman or a man who is an American or an Italian and so on. It is not who I am, it is what I am. So the truest answer for those of us living on this planet is, “Right now I am being a Human. That is what I am” as opposed to a bear, a Martian, a ghost, an ant, or anything else. The key point is that what I am being is temporary. I do not have to worry about it in the long run. What I am will change, will evolve, and is impermanent. That is a given. So I can embrace change and transformation because it is part of my destiny.

The third phrase is, “I know how I serve.” I could give all kinds of answers to this question and perhaps many of the answers would be right. I could say, “I am a truck driver and I serve the public by bringing their goods to them or I am a nurse and I serve by physically taking care of the sick or I am a waiter and serve people food. There are literally millions of different ways we serve. Yet we are looking here for the most true answer, the answer that is the most basic, most universal, whether or not a person is in touch with it, is doing it right now, or is aware of it. The truest and longer answer to this question about how I serve is, “Since I am Spirit, temporarily being a human being, I serve through being aware that each person I see is actually Spirit pretending to be a human being, and I forgive them, unconditionally accept them, love them, and bless them. As I remember to do this, I actually allow them the possibility to remember this truth too and to get back to being that consciously. If I forget and curse them instead with judgment, criticism, and perhaps loathing, I actually drive them further into their illusion and I curse myself with illusion as well.

When one fully understands this it becomes immediately apparent how insane it is to criticize and hate. It reminds us of the Buddhist saying that to judge someone is like drinking a glass of poison and expecting the other person to die. There is no sane alternative than to forgive, to accept, and to love even if right now they are behaving in a way that to you seems awful.

This is ultimately all any of us ever really need to know. The rest is just gravy or as they say, icing on the cake. This is the solution to the great unknown, the dire times the planet is facing, the great mystery of where we are going. There is no mystery after all. We are all beings of Spirit pretending to be humans, trying to behave in a way that is appropriate to whom we actually are. We are all eventually going home after having a bit of a journey being a stranger in a strange land.

The Earth is a hard game. This dimension is very dense compared with other dimensions. There are many beings that refuse to come to this earth. They say it is just too hard but they greatly admire those who have chosen to take on the challenge of being human because of the great courage it takes. Of course the rewards are commensurate with the challenges. So here you are, a human being, faced with enormous obstacles and armed with even more enormous tools and problem solving ability. This is not a game meant to defeat you. It is meant to challenge you to the limit. It is what Joseph Campbell called the Heroes Journey, the Hero with the Thousand Faces. You agreed to play the game, you are responsible for everything that happens, all the tests, all the initiations. Deep in your psyche you know there will be moments when all seems to be lost but like in every fairytale it is not. All you have to do is wake up and become very committed that no matter what, Spirit will prevail and it will.

Give thought to comparison and superlative methods and strive to stay away from double methods (e.g. Your ideas tend to be much deeper now.) If you do this you will not go crazy, you will not become self destructive, you will not feel hopeless and defeated nor will you be apathetic. In fact you will receive enormous help, beyond anything that you might imagine. Remember the shamanic dictum, “Never accept appearances.” No matter how bad it looks, it is an illusion meant to test you. Will you pass the test? Of course you will, sooner or later. Why not sooner?

You do not need to know all the details and all the facts. All you need to know is that you are on a hero’s journey, a journey you concocted with the help of many guides and teachers before you were born. You knew the nature of the obstacles and you created scenarios that would bring those obstacles to bear so that you could overcome them, no matter how dire the straits. Then you agreed to amnesia so it would all seem real and a give you a chance to exercise choice. You have options to run away, resist, freak out, and other choices or you can look at all challenges squarely in the eye and smile knowing that you are the hero, heroine of the fable you are in. Freaking out and running away just delay the inevitable and lengthen the storyline but in the end the outcome is the same, no matter what. You will graduate! So embrace the unknown with relish and a great paradox will happen. You will end up knowing what you thought you did not know. You will remember.


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José Stevens


José Luis Stevens, PhD is the president and co-founder (with wife Lena) of Power Path Seminars, an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and indigenous wisdom to business and everyday life. José completed a ten-year apprenticeship with a Huichol (Wixarika) Maracame (Huichol shaman) in the Sierras of Central Mexico. In addition, he is studying with Shipibo shamans in the Peruvian Amazon and with Paqos (shamans) in the Andes in Peru. In 1983 he completed his doctoral dissertation at the California Institute of Integral Studies focusing on the interface between shamanism and western psychological counseling. Since then, he has studied cross-cultural shamanism around the world to distill the core elements of shamanic healing and practice. He is the author of twenty books and numerous articles including Encounters With Power, Awaken The Inner Shaman, The Power Path, Secrets of Shamanism, Transforming Your Dragons and How To Pray The Shaman’s Way.

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You may make copies of this writing and distribute it in any media you wish, so long as you do not charge for it or alter it in any way. You must credit the author and include this entire copyright notice. While the text may be shared, no audio files, including lectures, music and/or sound meditations, may be posted on any site for any reason without written permission from the Power Path.

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