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THE TRANSFORMATIONAL
OPPORTUNITY OF "STORIES"
An Approach to the Evolution of the Mind
Vywamus channeled through
Patricia Marston-Snow & Halsey Snow
What is "Story?"
Welcome, My Friends, this is Vywamus:
When we talk about "story," what is it we mean? Everyone has
numerous "stories" which they play with in their head, sometimes
consciously, often unconsciously. For example, we all have stories
about our family, our upbringing, our teachers, our friends, our
work, what we like and don't like, how we see ourselves, how others
see us, what we believe we can or cannot XXX be, where we are going,
where we have been, how change does and does not happen, etc., etc.,
etc. Some stories are more interesting than others. Some stories
hold really big emotional "kicks," and these we usually share with
many people by speaking, writing and/or acting out. And some stories
we would really like to change, but how is that possible? Can you
change a story which seems to be based on the past, on what cannot
change, on what seems to be "true?" The answer is yes you can. How?
With the use of “creator consciousness”.
A major step in creating change in a story requires you to
acknowledge that Self is the creator of the story, regardless of
what the story is about, the timing of the story and the other
people involved in the story. Although we think about and speak our
stories with great knowingness of our “TRUTH” regarding the facts of
the story, there exists little awareness of what these stories are
really composed of, and the effects which they are having on us.
This is a point where a change in the understanding and use of the
common term "story" can assist oneself in relating to Self
differently. We need to begin with an understanding of Self as
Creator, which is embodied in the First Principle of Manifestation:
You are the creator of all you experience.
The power of creation resides in each one of you. This "power" is a
form of energy which you are not usually conscious of, and I will
use the words "choice energy" to refer to this power. *** (People
tend to assume that the phrase ‘choice energy’ is the same as the
mind’s ability to make a choice, hence a decision. It is different.
Choice energy is an energy of creation, of manifestation. The
decision making process of the mind does not play with “choice
energy”, it plays with the manifestations within the mental realm
known as thoughts) Remember, your creation of your experience is
happening all the time through your use of this choice energy, you
are doing it, AND you are unconscious of it. Now when this energy
moves into manifestation, it does so in many, many different
dimensions SIMULTANEOUSLY. That is correct - it is not a "top -
down" model of creation as you may have heard about or read about.
Creation happens simultaneously. And of course, you all know that in
the human experience, you are attuned to, primarily, 4 dimensions:
the mental, emotional, physical, and the spiritual. Of course, the
"spiritual" dimension, when you refer to it that way, is really just
a shorthand term for "all those other dimensions which I am not very
aware of and do not know specifically what they are," etc. So we use
the term "spiritual dimension" with that understanding, that it
covers a lot of territory.
Now we have the energy of creation, "choice energy," or we can just
say "choice," which moves into manifestation and does so
simultaneously in all dimensions. The 3 primary dimensions of
manifestation which you need to be concerned with at this time in
your spiritual development are the mental, emotional and physical,
for these are the dimensions which the
personality/ego was created to experience in and learn from. What
are the manifestations on these dimensions? In the EMOTIONAL
dimension, choice energy manifests as feelings (conscious and
unconscious.) In the PHYSICAL dimension, choice energy manifests as
all the physical objects and experiences which you have (including
your body), and the unconscious physical manifestations you are not
aware of (which is everything you believe you do "not" have, and all
the things which are "not" yours). And in the MENTAL dimension,
choice energy manifests as thought (conscious and unconscious.) You
have the experience of thought, and that is the manifestation of
your "choices" in the mental dimension - at least that part of the
mental dimension which is accessible by your mind.
CHOICE MANIFESTS - this is a universal law or truth or however you
want to perceive such things. There is no such thing as "partial" or
"incomplete" manifestation. Every choice has its own particular
forms of manifestation in the different dimensions. In fact, there
are no "better or poorer" manifestations when it comes to choices.
You could say that "all choices are created equal" regardless of
your opinion or judgment of the choice/manifestation.
One particular choice that humanity plays with in great abundance in
almost every experience is the choice of denial. And I bring this to
your attention primarily due to the fact that when denial manifests
in our reality you are not usually aware of it even though the
choice of denial affects other manifestations. The choice of denial
is stimulated by the intention to HIDE something from your conscious
awareness. And the choice of denial when manifested does this very
well. There are many different forms of the choice of denial, all
which you are very familiar with, all hiding something (other
manifestations) from your conscious awareness. I am sharing with you
a list of the principal forms of denial which I have been using with
my students, which shows how extensive the use of the choice of
denial is and the different FORMS which the choice of denial takes
in manifestation. Each one is a different way you have of hiding
something from your conscious awareness. One usually hides something
from one’s conscious awareness because there is some form of
reaction to it or judgment of it.
So, you are creating with the "power of choice," and your choices
are manifesting, and you are creating with the choice of denial -
ALL THE TIME. It is important here to take note of some relevant
points regarding the use of the choice of denial in your creative
process. First - denial is not wrong. And I realize that this point
will take some time to receive in your consciousness, for there has
been much said and written to the contrary, and there is much belief
in the mass consciousness that denial is wrong . But it is not
wrong, it is simply another form of how you use your choice energy
in manifestation. Secondly, the use of denial is not "bad," but
again - like the judgement of "wrong" this goes against much story
about the use of denial in the mass consciousness. And third, there
is something hidden in the denial itself (which is being used to
hide other manifestations from your consciousness) which cannot be
received until the judgements against denial are released, and a
deeper understanding of denial is received.
A useful analogy to understand choices and denial is this: let's say
that your different choices are represented by different colors.
When Self creates colors, each one has a different vibration and
manifestation, or effect. So Self has created many different colors
with many different effects or manifestations. Each CHOICE has its
own manifestation, which is unique to that choice. The choice of joy
creates the experience of joy. The choice of blue creates the
experience of blue, and so on. Self creates many different colors /
experiences. Then one day, Self discovers that a new choice /
experience can be created, and this choice has a very unique and
different effect - it hides other manifestations from awareness. It
appears as a "magic" choice, because when it manifests, it is
"invisible" to the mind, and also makes other
Manifestations appear to be "not there." This is the choice of
denial. Now remember it is just another choice - another color in
the creative palette of Self. And once choices are created, they are
not "un-created”, they evolve. " There is no way to "un-do" a
manifestation, just as you do not "un-create" a color. You can
choose not to use it as much, and you can choose to forget about it,
but that does not mean that it is gone or no longer a part of
creation. Thus it is with the choice of denial.
What does this have to do with story? Well, what is story? It is all
the thoughts you have in your mind - both conscious and unconscious.
And what is thought? It is the manifestation of your choices in the
mental dimension. In other words, your mind (which is the aspect of
self which allows you to access the mental dimension). So, what we
have are a lot of thoughts. Pick an area and make a list of all the
thoughts you have about that aspect of yourself or your life - you
will find that there are very many, for you are very creative in all
areas of self. And these thoughts are the mental manifestations of
your choices, both "regular choices" and the choices of denial. And
the choices of denial simply mean that there are many ways in which
Self desires to hide something from self, usually without knowing
what is being hidden or "why" the hiding is taking place. These
thoughts are what story is composed of. And when you put all the
thoughts about a particular area of Self together, what you have is
what we call the Belief Structure of that area. Your Belief
Structure can be seen as the manifested framework of all the choices
you are currently energizing within the Self.
And from what I have told you thus far, you can see that in every
story there is much which Self is doing - creating - and hiding from
Self - hidden from your conscious awareness. Now let us look deeper
into the process of "story" and what it actually holds for you.
Stories and the Soul
What does your favorite story of pain and suffering have to offer
you besides a constant flow of "I can’t, I don’t have, I will never
have, I have lost, etc"? Each of us are born with “old, old stories"
that are energized by the soul for the purpose of transformation of
specific points within our belief structure. But as we seek to
“understand” and relate to the story through our logic, this process
simply loops around itself due to the denial present within the
story never addressing the issue that the Soul is seeking to evolve.
In other words, "understanding" of a story is a transformational
"dead end." The understanding, the “knowing” of the story never
leads to change, because the purpose of every story is to "explain"
to the mind "the way things are," and "why they cannot, will not, or
do not, change”. And we are using our mind to constantly energize
our stories. What would be the purpose of this? Perhaps the Soul is
seeking to create change in the area of the story and utilizing the
mind in an attempt to do so. So why can’t the mind with its logic
change the story or see what the story is really about? Usually it
is because of the unacknowledged presence of some form or forms of
denial, which need to first be recognized and acknowledged for what
they are - forms of hiding from Soul / Self, games of "pretend"
which Soul is playing with Soul.
How do you process story? How do you relate to story if you are a
person who is seeking to go beyond the story that you have realized
is not true, has no real basis, and only loops you deeper and deeper
into your past, or presents a view of the future that is hopeless
and dysfunctional? What do you do when you come upon such a flow
within yourself and your awakening process?
One way to look at "what we get" from our stories of pain and
suffering is to consider the emotional states which we have linked
to the story. Feelings that come with each story are not
created by the story itself, nor are they created by the past
experiences which the story is based on, nor are they created by
other people, who are usually major players in the story. NO, my
friends, all the emotional experiences and feelings which come with
each of your stories are YOUR creations, separate from the stories
with which they are linked. And there is a separate step of choice /
creation, in the form of linkage (which is then made unconscious) to
combine these feelings with a story, and then pretend that Self is
not just creating those feelings for the sake of feeling them, but
that they are "coming from" the story. Can you imagine creating
feelings of rejection, emotional pain, abandonment, hurt, shame,
etc., just for the sake of feeling them? This is not how the MIND
sees it. No, in the mind, "I would not have these feelings if I did
not have these experiences which are recollected / remembered /
retold in my story." Thus says the mind. And in doing this, we have
very quickly created a great play with denial, and linked these
feelings to a story, and gone unconscious about the whole process.
The truth is, my friends, that the majority of humanity is hooked on
a drug, and it is an addiction to the feelings of what I will call
simply "non-reception." And there are immense feedings of these
feelings to the Self, to the Soul every day. And the way that these
"feedings" are justified, is through the use of stories. On one
level, then, stories are used to justify the "beating up" of Self,
of Soul, feeding Self with enormous quantities of self-judgement and
other feelings of non-reception, because Self, the Soul has a hard
time feeling too much RECEPTION for Self. This is one realization
which many people will find amazing, but the truth of it is apparent
once you begin to look at what emotional states you have linked with
your stories, and acknowledge that it is YOUR CHOICE what you CHOOSE
to feel about any particular story. There are no "sad" stories, or
"happy" stories, or "joyful" stories, or "painful" stories, other
than what YOU decide to make of them. As difficult as this may be to
imagine, that is how you are doing it, and pretending you are not.
Some people attempt to simply ignore the stories that they play with
all the time, primarily because they have decided that the story has
nothing to do with their spiritual growth and enlightenment. For
example, "My dysfunctional family upbringing showed me what NOT to
do to make myself happy. I'm really glad that I'm beyond that now."
In fact, they believe the story simply distracts them from the more
“positive” aspects of their life, therefore they try to ignore it,
and every time that they become aware of it, they seek to take their
attention elsewhere because they have decided that what is in their
past is really not relevant to their spiritual development at this
time. Yet the story remains in consciousness.
A question to ask oneself is: why would a creative being such as
yourself create the “story” in the first place if it was to be
simply ignored? Why would the Soul seek to communicate such a point
of interpreted pain to the personality/ego if the only value was so
that the personality/ego could then criticize itself because of it,
or add more denial in the form of “it really doesn’t matter" on top
of it? To blame one's experience of the past for the presence of a
story in one's consciousness in the present is a very interesting
form of - denial? What is Self hiding from Self here? Maybe it has
nothing at all to due with the past but what is happening in the
present, the NOW. You, the Self, the Soul exists in the present.
That is where your body is, and that is where your consciousness is,
and to play with stories of the past and future, and then to blame
them for what is going on NOW in the present, is a very popular form
of avoiding the experiences that Self is creating in the present.
Think about this…For what purpose would you be re-creating the
stories now that you have created before, if the stories held no
importance to your enlightenment now? Perhaps the fact
that you create a story in the now is because it has some value for
you now. But how does one find the hidden value of the story? Most
people interpret story through the eyes of denial, meaning they
focus it either on the past or the future and they forget that they
are creating the story right now, in the present. They look at the
story from what has been done to them by others, hence they play the
victim. Or they focus on what they have done to others, and they
play the perpetrator. Either way they do not see that they are
really looking at what they are doing to themselves right now. That
the stories that we all create that always involve others - friends,
parents, family, employers, strangers, aliens, authority figures,
teachers, etc. - are stories that we tell ourselves in an attempt to
communicate to ourselves what we are doing to ourselves, by
ourselves, NOW. Yet when we listen to our story of pain and
suffering at the hands of another, or due to another’s insensitivity
and unconsciousness, we never consider that We, the Self, the Soul
is attempting to communicate something that we are doing to
ourselves that needs to be brought to our attention now. It is
crucial that this behavior - as translated by the Soul to the
personality ego – be recognized by the personality/ego so that the
personality/ego can respond differently to the situation than it has
in the past. One of the strength’s inherent in the personality/ego
when it is working consciously in a co-creative flow with the Soul,
Higher Self or Mutli-Dimensional Self, is it’s ability to
consciously re-direct it’s energy, it’s reaction, in a manner that
creates a different internal response, hence a different ending to
the story…for the purpose of transformation. Yet most personality
/ego’s interpretation of the story is very literal and filled with
denial, so that it’s attention is taken from the story within to the
story on the outside.
How do you change this unconscious behavior? By adding a bit of
consciousness that would interpret the story differently than the
"logic" of the mind, which "understands" the story as being [1]
about the past (rather than about the now), and [2] about others and
me (rather than all about me). Your story is really about the now
and all about you, and to begin to see it that way is to take a
major step into a different level of consciousness. How do you do
this in a practical level? Very simple. Write down one of your
"favorite" stories - one that you have a major reaction to. Now
change every reference to the past or future to reflect the present,
and change every reference to "others" to refer to yourself (me, I).
Read it again and listen to what you are telling yourself that you
have been hiding from yourself in the story. This is the first level
of "Reflective Process" analysis, which begins to insert
consciousness into a space that has been dominated by the mind and
the effects of denial.
What do I mean by this statement? Consciousness is different than
logic. I realize that that statement may stimulate the conscious
response of “I know that,” but I want you to consider what that
statement really means here. What is consciousness and how does it
differ from logic? Most of the time we use logic to communicate our
stories For example….this action begat this response, and that
action begat that response, and therefore this experience happened
to me, etc. Although we communicate consciousness with the use of
the mind, consciousness is at a vibration that one is able to
recognize the manifestations of denial and deal with these
manifestations differently than that of logic. When we add
consciousness to story we recognize that each action within a story
- whether spiritual, mental, emotional or physical in nature - is
complete within itself and that whatever response we have to that
action, is a different action, also complete within itself. And it
requires a choice of denial manifested in the form of linkage to
"create a relationship” between the different actions. When
consciousness is added to an experience then we begin to relate to
that experience from a framework of Creator rather than from a
framework of victim / perpetrator. Also when we add consciousness to
a story, the denial in the form of the past and the future within
the story is recognized and we move the story into the present. to
Using these tools of consciousness,
let’s discover what is being hidden within the following story and
spark a point of transformation within.
The story is as follows…
“My mother never really understood me or appreciated me. She was
always yelling at me and complaining about her life. I am so tired
of listening to her. Even now she keeps bringing up the same old
stories about how she cannot have this or cannot do that. She is
always complaining about my dad. He just tolerates it. I do not see
how he can constantly stand to listen to her, I certainly can’t. I
do not know why I had a mother like this. Why couldn’t I have a
mother who really cared about me rather than always focusing on
herself? I feel I ended up being a mother to my own mother and I
really resent that now. “
A response to this story from a framework of co-dependency (i.e.,
logic of the mind or "healthy response") … "I need to distance
myself from my mother because she is so unconscious. And if I am to
evolve and go beyond her stuff that she keeps dumping on me now, I
need to rise above it and set better boundaries as to what I am
willing tolerate and what I am not willing to put up with. I
couldn’t do it as a child but I can certainly do it now. I must have
done this same thing to her some time in the past and I am now being
punished for my past choices. [idea of karma] Eventually it will
change but right now I must be willing to communicate what I need. "
The meaning / interpretation of the story by the mind (which is
actually more story, but seen as "what is really going on
underneath") … "The issue here is her unwillingness and
inability to change herself and her unconscious anger
toward herself that she keeps trying to change by
expressing to myself and my father. I can pray for her, send
her light and love, and when she talks to me, I can attempt
to communicate some different ideas, but that doesn’t happen to
often."
We have three pieces of process here – the original story, the
response to the story, and the mind’s interpretation of the story
and the response. All of these are aspects of the same story, just
different perspectives on it coming from Self. It doesn’t matter
which part you start with, every one of them is a part of the larger
story of this woman’s relationship with her mother – the mirror of
that part of Self which nurtures Self (which is what the mother
reflects to Self.)
If we add consciousness to the above original story we will discover
something very incredible about our self that we have been hiding
from ourselves You can do this same process with the response to the
story and the mind’s interpretation of the story…So let’s see what
we can discover about Self here…
1st step…Change everything in the story that relates to the past or
the future to the present. When we do this, the "story" becomes:
My mother never really understands me or appreciates me. She is
always yelling at me and complaining about her life. I am so tired
of listening to her. Even now she keeps bringing up the same old
stories about how she cannot have this or cannot do that. She is
always complaining about my dad. He just tolerates it. I do not see
how he can constantly stand to listen to her, I certainly can’t. I
do not know why I have a mother like this. Why can’t I have a mother
who really cares about me rather than always focusing on herself? I
feel I am being a mother to my own mother and I really resent that
now. “
Now we change all references to “others” to refer to Self, and the
story becomes:
I do not understand me or appreciate me. I am always yelling at
me and complaining about my life. I am so tired of listening to me.
I keep bringing up the same old stories about how I cannot do this
or do that. I am always complaining about my spark (symbolism in
this case for "father") And I just tolerate it. I do not see how I
can constantly stand to listen to me. I certainly can’t. I do not
know why I am like this. Why can’t I really care about me rather
than always focusing on me? I feel I am being a mother to me and I
really resent this now
We have applied the first steps of the Reflective Process in which
we have discovered something very different than the original story
. There are several more steps to go which would ferret out more of
what is hidden within the story that I am not going to describe at
this point in time.
Now you would ask yourself the question: How am I doing this to me
now?" This question stimulates you to look within yourself and your
current behaviors. In this case, what has been hidden from Self is
the Self-Responsibility for the treatment of Self which the
story-teller has been experiencing in the "mirror of self" (her/his
mother) but has been in denial that it is HERSELF/HIMSELF who is
doing it TO HERSELF/HIMSELF. She/he is treating herself/himself this
way, and refusing to acknowledge it, but instead playing the victim
to the mirror which is an all too common a game within humanity.
Using the above example, when we look at what Self is doing to Self,
and we drop the defensive reactions which are usually stimulated
when we begin to do this, we could ask Self the following questions.
● How
do I not understand or appreciate me? Some answers might be 1) I do
not understand nor appreciate all that I do for myself in the form
of nurturing. 2) I do not understand nor appreciate my feminine or
emotional aspect. 3) I do not understand nor appreciate my emotional
experiences.
● How
and when am I complaining to me and yelling at me (inside) and not
listening to me, so that it shows up in the mirror? Some answers
might be 1) when I feel something 2) when my experiences of the
moment are different from my expectations.
As we re-read our newly framed story we could have the following
realizations…
● It is
ME who is always bringing up the same old stories about my inability
to create or have what I desire in my life.
● I am
in judgement of my spark - my initiative, my willingness to take
responsibility for my life
● And I
have been ignoring me, "tolerating" this state of me inside, not
willing to listen to what I am saying to me inside
● I AM
the mother to me and I am in denial of this, and I have been blaming
the mirror of my own mother which has shown me my own beliefs and
denied actions to myself, and I have been in non-reception
(resenting) of this
As you can see, this is a very different process which can reveal
many things to you about you. It also begins to awaken and make more
space within your waking state, your Creator-consciousness. This is
an aspect of what we call “enlightenment”, the act of spirit
evolving beyond what it is. You may also find there exists within
you a counter-response, a reaction which comes from the part of Self
which doesn't want to know that it is Creator, that wants to stay in
the state of victim and wait to be rescued by something, someone
from "without," which seems to take forever to happen. But believe
me, my friends, there is always room for the
state of victim within Self, and in reality giving some space to the
Creator-consciousness within you does not take anything away from
the victim, for they are not in polarity. Just different parts of
Self. So if you find yourself having a reaction when you use this
process I have given you, remember that it is just a part of Self
having a little "temper tantrum" because Self has become aware that
there is more to Self than Self had thought there was. Don't be
afraid to look in the mirror and own that what you are seeing is
YOU. And the mirror is very big - as big as you are willing to
acknowledge for you are only looking at you.
Copyright © 2007, The Vywamus Foundation, Cumberland, Maine, USA
All rights reserved. No reproduction in any form without permission
Originally published in Sedona Journal of Emergence, August 2007
Light Technology Publishing, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
