We Created It

While many of us have been busy arguing about how to deal with the coronavirus or where it came from (notice I said “us” yes, me too), we seem to have forgotten about one of the biggest lessons of our time. One that will, in my opinion, help us deal most productively with our current circumstances. Or any circumstance for that matter.

If you’ve spent more than five minutes on social media, you likely ran into some of these..

“This pandemic is deadly and it will overwhelm our hospital system!”

“It’s not worse than the flu. They are manipulating death tolls.”

”People who don’t wear masks and disregard the lock-down only care about themselves.”

“People that support the lockdown don’t care about others because isolation and mass unemployment are more deadly than the virus.”

“We can fix the economy, we can’t fix dead people.”

“Do you want a fascist orwellian dystopian society?? Because this is how you get a fascist orwellian dystopian society!”

“I lost my aunt to this virus, you wouldn’t be saying this is a conspiracy if it were you or your family.”

“99% of people in Italy were already sick and they were 80 years old on average, so they were gonna die anyway.”


Can you feel the tension, just by reading those statements?

*Deep breath*

Arguments like these have been rampant on social media. And in the first couple of weeks of the lock-down, I was one of the people fueling them.

After a half-dozen posts and some comment debates, I brought my keyboard activism to a halt.

I did take away two important things from all of it though.

First, making other people wrong for their opinion while trying to make them change it, is highly ineffective. It’s like trying to eat soup with a fork.

Here is the important point though, whatever view or opinion another person has about the pandemic, or anything else, it’s perfectly ok that they have it. We can only be so arrogant as to think that other people should think the way we think they should.

That’s the point of view they wound up with. Everything in their life led to this present moment and to them having that particular point of view. Just like me, and just like you.

We all have a point of view, and it’s simply that, a point of view.

Mine isn’t better than yours, and yours isn’t better than mine, and no one’s is better than anybody else’s. 

“But what if mine is right?”

Then it specially isn’t better than anybody else’s.

If yours is right, that means others’ are wrong. You have arrived at a conclusion. People that have arrived at a conclusion are difficult to listen to. Trust me, I’ve been that guy.

Even our most widely held beliefs in science are theories.

And even what I am sharing with you now, is simply another view. Take it all with a grain of salt.

Second, while people may have entirely opposite opinions on this subject, and even go to the extent of calling each other names, what I have observed is that all those people having these arguments on social media actually have a huge commitment in common.

They want the best for people.

Those that support the strictest containment methods, the lock-down, the masks, the social-distance.. They simply want others to be healthy and avoid getting sick, so that people may live full rich lives.

Those that are worried about a government that oversteps boundaries of power and media that manipulates information.. They simply want others to be safe and free, so that people may live full rich lives.

Pretty ironic right? Same underlying commitment on both sides, yet people unfriend each other, both online and in real life, over these escalated disagreements often in all-caps yelling matches.

It’s sad to see two people that always got along great suddenly start being rude to one another over a difference in opinion.

There is not much we can be sure of right now, but if there is one thing that we can be sure of, it is probably that causing more division is not the answer.

Taking sides and fighting against each other is what we have always done. I think we can conclude that it doesn’t make the difference. 

So then what do we do?

Isn’t that what activism is all about? Changing other people’s opinions, and getting them to see the light?

I don’t know, maybe.

Maybe we need to rethink activism. Give it a little tune-up.

Here is where our often forgotten biggest lesson of our time comes in:

WE CREATE REALITY 

Or as author Stephen Richard put it:

“Reality is a projection of your thoughts or the things you habitually think about.”

It’s pretty rare these days to come across someone who has not heard of “The Secret” or the Law of Attraction. It’s almost commonly used in conversation. Many people will proudly share about their latest manifestation, whether it be a promotion, a new house, a new car, or a boyfriend.

We seem to take a lot of credit for manifesting the nice things.

Well, what about everything else? Where did all the rest of it come from?

When something undesirable happens, whose creation is it?

Does our manifesting power only shop at Bath & Body Works, Tinder, and Remax?

If we call something a “Law” of the universe, then it doesn’t just work some of the time. The Law of Gravity doesn’t just work some of the time. (Legal disclaimer: I am not liable for anybody trying to prove otherwise.)

I can understand though. For the most part, we don’t live in an environment that constantly reminds us of how powerful we are. It can seem like quite a stretch to try to wrap your mind around the idea that you manifested this whole world and the current reality.

Our good friend Albert Einstein said:

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

Yet as persistent as it might seem, my invitation to you today is that you consider the possibility that you created it. When I say “it” I mean life, with all its contents. The whole thing? Yes, the whole thing.

Just how far-reaching do you think your creative power is?

By the way, this is not blame. I’m not saying it’s your fault that people are suffering.

It’s up to you to decide just how much of this reality you are willing to take responsibility for.

The extent to which you choose to take responsibility for it, is the extent to which you will have power with it.

“But what about other people though? Aren’t they also creating? How can I control what others create??”

Sure they are, but no, you can’t control other people. But how do you know their “creating” isn’t happening inside of your creation? Meaning, as a function of yours.

I don’t mean to get all metaphysical here. I’ve actually always been reluctant about the woo-woo stuff.

But this isn’t woo-woo anymore. Quantum physics has been flipping almost everything we thought we knew about reality on its head, and the idea of a creative consciousness is making more and more sense. In 1998, the famous Double Slit Experiment proved that by the mere act of watching, the observer affects the observed reality.

I think of the phenomenon of manifesting reality as an anology to the old filmstrip movies in the movie theatre. Reality, as you see it around you right now, is the picture on the screen. Our conscious and subconscious mind is the filmstrip. As we alter the filmstrip, we eventually alter the picture on the screen.

So what’s the point here? Why are we talking law of attraction and creation?

Two reasons:

1. It’s useless to get mad at your creations.

If you bake an apple pie, and it tastes like dirt, do you get upset at the pie? Do you blame your neighbor for it? Do you blame republicans for it? Do you go on strike against it? Do you try to fix or change it? Probably not?

So what do you do?

You will likely do the most productive thing to do. Bake a new one!

So just the same way, consider that we created this reality. Blaming others for it, the government, the media, the Chinese, the people who just won’t stay at home, none of that will make a difference.

When I lost 85% of my income at the beginning of the lockdown, I thought I had to convince people to boycott it, and try to change the situation. I became attached to reality being another way than the way it was.

Eventually it hit me. I created this reality as a reflection of my consciousness, I can create a new one. Not by fighting against the current one, or trying to change it, but by creating a new one!

By altering the filmstrip.

Stephen Richards also said:

“You willed yourself to where you are today, so will yourself out of it.”

It doesn’t matter where the virus came from, or how severe it is or isn’t, or how honest or dishonest the government and media might be being. Either way, we could agree that it is an undesirable reality for most of us. AND we created it.

Wait, so how is it that we create reality again?

By the energy we are broadcasting or projecting into the universe in who we are being (manufacturing the filmstrip). In other words, if you are angry, you are projecting anger. If you are fearful, you are projecting fear. If you are being loving, you are projecting love. And by your thoughts, words, and actions. In short, by everything you be and do.

When?

All the time. You are a broadcasting center without an OFF switch. You can only control what you broadcast.

Esther/Abraham Hicks said it this way:

“You live in a vibrational universe. You have control of the signal that you emit.”

2. Anger and Fear begets Anger and Fear

So now you might start to see the importance of avoiding causing more division. It doesn’t mean we need to agree with everyone or even trade-in your point of view. But you could start being more inclusive of others’ opinions and views. We get too easily triggered by someone else saying or doing something we don’t agree with.

Remembering that everything that is showing up in your reality is your creation, might help you slow down on the reaction trigger.

Like I said before, separation and division is what we have always done, and it has caused a lot of anger in the world. If we separate and divide further, we have already lost.

Lets try something new now.

First, let’s create unity. Let’s accept the fact that people have different views than our own and that is not only inevitable, it is also perfectly fine. Embrace others with diverse opinions and welcome their disagreement with your views. I’m not saying you need to be best friends. I’m saying you could be kind, polite, and loving. It might not be easy at first, but you will be happier with yourself in the long run.

Lastly, whatever your point of view is of our current circumstances, whether you see a concern for a deadly virus that has already killed a lot of people, or whether you see a concern for fascist and authoritarian government, or a concern for financial hardship for many, or whatever threat you are present to, let’s refer to all of it as “darkness”.

Instead of trying to fight against the darkness out there by blaming, trying to fix, or change the current reality, let’s turn our attention inward, and introspectively inspect where we might be harboring darkness in our own life.

Don’t get me wrong though, darkness is not bad or evil. It is part of our world just like light is. One isn’t better than the other. In fact, they need one another. As you’ll notice in the Ying-Yang symbol, one contains a speck of the other. What we are aiming for here is to restore balance.

We can shift the reality of our exterior world, by bringing light to where there is darkness in our interior world. In the Shamanic tradition, they call this “shadow work”.

Wherever you find grudges, guilt, shame, anger, bitterness, and resentment, start to replace them with love, forgiveness, acceptance, and compassion.

Don’t fall for the illusion that you are powerless at the effect of a physical world.

Cultivate love everywhere you go. And wherever you find it challenging to do so, that is where your work lies.

I believe that humanity is already amidst a great awakening, and we are starting to remember that love is our nature. 

Thank you for reading. Lets go create a loving world.

Man moves in a world that is nothing more or less than his consciousness objectified.

― Neville Goddard