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bearing grudges
October 2009 
Is God on holiday?
Posted on Nov 25th, 2007
by 
Jena
Jena
I read this amazing quote the other day:
Holding a grudge against someone is like taking poison
and then waiting for the other person to die!
This is so true it isn't even funny!
We poison ourselves all the time and then wait for others to die, or to rescue us or to do something, anything......wring their hands, shake their heads, write a poem, applaud?
So what has manipulative behaviour got to do with God being on holiday? Stay with me a minute,
I'll explain.
I remember as a child seeing a movie about an extremely manipulative woman. Her final 'piéce de resistance' was to kill herself so that the others felt eternally guilty. I remember being blown away by the idea that someone would actually go through with this.
Bit of a gamble don't you think? What if they didn't feel guilty but instead cracked open some champagne and celebrated? You can't exactly come back and say, hey mate, I think you missed the whole point here! Or bonk them over the head (well, as far as I know you can't but then we'll never know will we?).
Thinking about manipulation reminds me of those Skinner box experiments they do with pigeons and mice and other animals. I remember once watching a video of pigeons playing ping pong just because they knew they'd get a food pellet at the end. There's that classic one where Skinner (or whoever) wanted to go away on holiday and dreamt up a scheme to leave all his highly trained animals unattended. He put the pellet feeding device of all those highly trained animals onto a timer. Every half an hour or so a pellet would pop out into the food tray irrespective of what the animal happened to be doing at the time.
When Skinner (or whoever) arrived back from holiday he/she came back to a wonderous sight. All the animals were doing really bizarre things and each one something cpmpletely different. One animal was turning in circles, thinking that this is what caused the pellets to arrrive. Another was hopping on one foot, another was lying on its back kicking thin air, another plucking out its own feathers out or whatever...you get the picture. Basically the animals thought that whatever activity they were doing when a pellet arrived was what caused the pellets to drop so they kept doing it until another pellet dropped ad infinitum. Which just goes to prove they had the system cracked, didn't they?
So, maybe it's the same with us. Maybe every now and then God actually goes off on holiday and puts the pellet dropping device on a timer. We think the pellet's dropping because....well...you tell me?!
Superstitious? Who me? Manipulative? Who me?
I think being manipulative is what defines humanity. Let's blame it all on our opposable thumbs. We are built to be manipulative. To break and re-make things around us.
We've even taken this idea to it's logical extreme. Our thumbs are an illusion. What we actually do with them is just a shadow play of our thoughts.
I think the real question is, do we act or re-act?
What are the real reasons behind the choices we make?
To what extent are we proactive rather than just reactive?
That's the basic choice we face every moment.
What's motivating us?
Need to control or need to be?
Fear or fun/love?
If the pellets are coming out anyway we may as well be doing something that gives us pleasure and a deep sense of fulfillment.
It sure beats pulling out our own feathers.
Or someone else's
Access: PublicTagged with: Skinner box, manipulation, opposable thumbs, superstition, bearing grudges, proactive vs reactive
Jena, love the creative and insightful way you expressed this!
Lots and lots of hugs and, of course, peaches :)
Sprite
I love getting peaches from you dear puddingsprite!
Rats. There you go making me think again. And I was sure I was done for the night. I'll have to absorb this and get more down on paper (well, you know what I mean) over the next few days.
You rattled my cage. Your pellet thought reminds me that I'm down on caretaker government. Write your congressman.
These are wonderful thoughtful and very personal questions. Thanks for asking - my dear Jena! I am delighted to answer that personally, I think god, goddess is not on holiday and is in fact very much PRESENT and struggling to reconnect with each and everyone of us. The truth of the matter is that our brains have been distracted by many things in our current society. As a result, WE have been on holiday. I think that we, I, us… have been led astray … and the journey towards getting back on track is again very personal and for some of us may never happen.
Yeah, your questions are probing and far-reaching … but actually very simple to answer.
I love you for your ability to dig deep and yet do so with playful humor!
I don't like to react, I don't need to control - I want to embrace and I search for pleasure and fulfillment. If any feathers are pulled - let's make a head-dress!
Love and hugs,
Peri :-)
If any feathers are pulled - let's make a head-dress!
I like that!
'…and for some of us may never happen' I disagree totally.
xx
so, maybe I need some awakening about how some of the souls that I see get lost …
as I work in the mental health field with some folks with limited capacity to be present/understand/connect and I see people who are very cut off from others …
I see people abused by very dangerous, violent, controlling, evil people who need to be locked away so that they cannot harm anyone else.
What can you offer me that will help me offer hope and insight?
I'd like to know?
What can you offer them?
the real issues need to be addressed.
Firstly there is no such thing as a person of 'limited capacity'.
Every single human is a genius of infinite capacity
If you are infinite and others perceive you as 'limited' or if you perceive that others are actively trying to keep you limited, your anger/rage/madness is understandable. Maybe not justified, but certainly understandable.
Secondly, we are spirits at play. We are always collaborating in each other's movies. Sometimes this requires holding the dark so that others can shine.
We are the dreamer, the creater, the producer, the backstage support, the actors and the audience in our own movie.
Everything starts with a simple choice. A thought. Or rather a choice of one thought over another thought? And each thought is like a pebble dropped into a pond. It causes waves. What pebbles do you choose to drop and why?
Back to 'limited capacity'. The conscious mind is like a tiny crust on the surface of an infinite resource, the collective unconscious or infinite wisdom. Let's call the crust a boat and the infinite resouce the ocean. Some people have better boats than others but they all have access to the same infinite resources. The conscious I is the skipper.
You might be perfectly happy with your liferaft until you pull into the marina and see a luxury cruise liner with helicopters on it and tenders, champagne and crew that snap to attention. But what you don't see is that the owner of that 'liner' has an enormous amount of responsibility to others. he has to give up an enormous amount of freedom and develop an enormous amount of disciple and self mastery to get there. If someone was just given the ship and had no resources to maintain it or disciple to pay staff and do maintenance it would be a wreck in a few months.
The question is for people to get perfectly clear about what you really want. And whether you are prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to grow to that level.
Also people have to stop being lied to. They need to be taught how to step beyond their conscious minds to access their infinite minds. You have to 'empower' who you already see as too powerful. If they are put in touch with their infinite genius perhaps (?) they will no longer feel the fear which drives their abusive behaviour.
Some of the most important work that I know of being done in this field at the moment is by Paul Scheele. http://www.learningstrategies.com/ developed photoreading.
Photoreading is not speed reading. Scheele demonstrates that you can read any book you like in a few minutes if you step beyond your conscious mind. You could learn to teach his methods. He has a training program for teachers.
I add a question mark above for one reason only. We are collaborating.
What is the deal? How and why?
This is where hand analysis can help. Your finger prints show issues you are here to work on. Very often there is an abuse pattern that shows up in a person's fingerprints. The people involved are exploring this particular theme in this particular life time.
I am not condoning their behavior by saying this, They need to be taught, they can learn through joy or through pain. They don't have to choose pain. This goes back to the thought pebbles. You can teach them to sew positive thoughts of joy to ensure they have better, happier futures. Or you can hold their hand while you watch the conseuqences of previous pebbles. maybe try offering Sanaya Roman's book 'Living with Joy'.
hope this helps,
with love
regarding not being lied to: here is something from Mike Litman you can listen to today:
Correcting The Injustice: How To Unlock Your Best Self
Saturday, December 15th at 10am EST, 7am Pacific
Dial in information is here:
http://mikelitman.com/saturday.html
Patty sorry, seems I was on a rave. i don't think I answered this very well.
what about the children? victims rather than the aggressors.
I think we can teach them that the more they manage their energy/ increase their vibration the more they can attract positive experiences rather than negative ones. The bad guys will just disappear on their own. The vibrational level just won't match any more.
All they have to do is learn to shift their energy upwards.
Teach them how powerful and in charge they really are.
Teach them powerful skills in energy management
love you