Namaste.
The spiritual path is by nature an alternative one.
When we embark upon the spiritual journey,
We are usually choosing to explore and adopt alternative ideas,
To what we may refer to as the mainstream.
The mainstream being the societal norms that have been collectively decided to be normal.
And so we begin to realise that there are incredible ideas outside of what is considered normal,
Or even acceptable by mainstream ideologies.
We even see that there are strong defences around mainstream ideologies,
Towards what is considered alternative.
Many of you have probably discovered this along your journey.
When you believe in something that is not universally accepted,
It may be ridiculed or laughed at,
Or indeed become a threat.
When I first began accessing what I call the alternative movement,
I was fascinated.
Here were so many ideas and concepts that I had never encountered in school.
These ideas were indeed expanding my mind and consciousness,
And allowed me to have unparalleled growth.
During this time I did indeed encounter resistance to these ideas from those around me,
As it was so counter to what they believed in,
Society believed in,
What was classified as normal.
Even so I dug in,
I labelled myself as alternative,
And for the most of my initial spiritual journey,
I began to become very resistant to what I refer to as mainstream.
I joined social activist groups and my spirituality was deeply founded upon the idea of being alternative.
So anything normal was a problem.
This included all of the things I grouped together as being normal.
Living a normal lifestyle,
A western lifestyle,
Money,
Ambition,
The so called matrix.
Over time I began to realise I had become just as defensive,
Judgemental of those who held mainstream ideas,
As those I had first encountered when I presented my alternative ideas.
Here is the shadow in play,
And this is where polarisation teaches us so much about our belief systems.
As I have spoken about previously in the unity consciousness session,
Whenever we lean towards one side,
We will need the other side to play the role of the enemy,
In order for us to maintain being on that side.
Consequently what can happen is that we decide anything that isn't alternative must be wrong.
When we venture into areas such as health,
This can perhaps be the most highlighted,
And I will use this as an example to illustrate this point.
Western medicine bad,
Alternative practice is good.
On the offset this makes sense,
It seems like a return to our natural state of being,
Where anything manufactured,
Artificial,
Is seen as unnatural.
When we look at the world with polarised eyes however,
We will indeed decide what is natural and what is unnatural.
However life doesn't work that way.
When I reflect upon my own journey,
To give an example,
I had conveniently ignored something quite pivotal that occurred to myself when I was two and a half years old.
I had meningitis,
Which if you are familiar with is a very serious and often fatal disease that often affects young children.
Had it not been for western medicine,
I wouldn't actually be here right now.
In fact it was during that experience that I had a near death experience,
Which is how serious it actually got.
Yet with weeks of medicine I fully recovered.
For a long time however,
With my strongly identified alternative mindset,
I saw doctors as the enemy.
I had experiences where doctors were either misdiagnosing me,
Or just not aware of the human holistic system as I wanted them to be,
And were resorting to quick fix medicines to solve a problem.
I saw the medical community as the enemy,
And it became political as I looked at the pharmaceutical industry as the enemy,
And so on.
However this is the issue with the polarised mindset,
It only deals with absolutes.
This is good,
This is bad,
There is no colour spectrum in between,
It doesn't allow for the nuance which is actually where life occurs,
And it certainly doesn't allow for compassion,
Which is the teaching tool to see the world through higher,
More aware eyes.
Now when I reflect upon that experience I had as a child,
I am of course immensely grateful for the medicine,
The doctors,
The nurses,
And so on.
As I reflect back upon my strong mindset,
I had closed my heart,
Because it was only possible for me to have views so extreme whilst having my heart partially closed.
Compassion cannot operate in its natural flow when we need an enemy present.
The point here is that this issue,
Health,
Which I use as an example,
Reflects all themes.
It isn't black and white,
It's nuanced.
It is in the field of unified consciousness where we understand that all things play a role.
It doesn't mean that western medicine has all of the answers,
It certainly doesn't.
Yet western and alternative medicine practices play a role in taking us as humanity further.
And isn't this what we truly want?
All polarised themes are controversial.
They trigger us,
Because they stir our strong,
Extreme belief systems.
What I have since learned is that any strong belief system that I have,
That feels threatened,
Is more likely to be polarised than not,
Which is why it is threatened.
These strong belief systems create our identities,
And that is really what is being threatened here.
Which brings us back to the core of this theme.
If we wear the mask of being alternative only,
Then anything mainstream or traditional will threaten us,
Therefore it has to be our enemy.
We require the conflict in order to maintain the mask we are wearing.
If we begin to let go of our polarised lenses,
Then life becomes far richer and far more interesting.
We are not held back by first assuming what is right and what is wrong,
We are actually free to meet each experience and decide if something is right for us.
And that moment invites intuition into the experience.
And it is the difference between a static,
Linear experience and a multidimensional one that is founded upon openness.
As I began to let go of this idea of needing to be alternative,
I began to see the mainstream very differently.
No longer was I judging these people as being stuck in old ways,
An older consciousness,
The matrix.
They now became my mirror for teaching.
It is a common thread within the spiritual movement of seeing the mainstream as less than.
This isn't to judge our behaviour either.
The most powerful aspect however,
As I mentioned in the Unity Consciousness session,
Is that our polar opposite has the greatest to teach us.
This is the beauty of the shadow,
It isn't there to make you feel bad about yourself or ashamed,
It is there to show you the doorway to your own equilibrium,
Essentially your own freedom.
The shadow of the alternative movement is the mainstream,
And vice versa,
And the mainstream hold the answers of how to live in this world,
How to be human,
How to enjoy the experience of life and much more,
Whilst of course balancing the beautiful concepts born from the alternative or spiritual movement.
As I embraced this mirror aspect of myself,
I began to recognise that I had indeed not been living in this world,
Something that I will explore in many sessions to come.
Today I try to see my journey as independent of labels such as being alternative or belonging to any group ideology.
What I realise happened is that my heart began to open in a way that it hadn't before.
I didn't realise how closed I was due to my ideas,
In fact I thought I was heart open and spiritually awake,
Yet I was hiding within an idea,
Because deep down I was afraid of integrating other parts of me.
It is easier to project them outwardly and judge them than integrate them,
And initially this is entirely unconscious,
We simply do not know we are doing this,
Yet once we begin to integrate,
Once we begin to open our heart to life to others,
Once we bring in more humility,
Life becomes a place of wonder again,
This is the path of unifying our consciousness.
Blessings in your journey,
Namaste.
