Reviewed by Nancy Martin

PART I – Deepak Chopra

 “The Shadow” is a term coined by Carl Jung, the noted follower of Sigmund Freud, for the unwelcome parts of ourselves that we hide from conscious awareness. This dark side is often explained as a judgment—what we reject in others is what we cannot accept within ourselves. Dualism is the framework, e.g. right/wrong, good/bad, win/lose, hope/resignation, etc. We don’t want to accept as ours the thoughts and behaviors that go against our value system. The more we repress our dark side, the easier it is to present a persona that radiates all “goodness” and light. The unconscious, which Freud saw as the individual’s construct, Jung envisioned as impulses and drives coming from the entire history of mankind. Therefore it is a collective unconscious, shaped by all and incorporating the shadow of all.

 By ignoring our dark side, we only intensify its power over our conscious choices. This is witnessed in violent behavior as well as in mild, socially tolerated ways. When consciousness is no longer divided, when what we see is one self in all directions, “a new self and eventually a new world can be born.” Growing beyond our self-imposed limitations of the illusions our dark side imposes, we can gain compassion for self, courage and freedom. The goal is to be empowered with our wholeness, open to expressing our passions and realizing our dreams.

What is the evidence of the collective unconscious behavior in groups? The beginning came through body-mind medicine, the discovery of ‘messenger’ molecules that show how the brain translates emotions into a chemical equivalent, affecting our organs. Studies at Stanford University established the social contagion theory through bad conditions in a prison experiment that let dark forces emerge. A class of students was divided into two groups:  guards and prisoners. The ‘guards’ began to severely mistreat the ‘prisoners,’ even though they were all considered good kids studying at a prestige university. They weren’t bad apples–they misbehaved through adopting that “us vs. them” mind-set, where people lose their individuality, becoming just faces in a crowd. If there are no consequences of one’s bad actions, the loss of individuality increases.

N. Christakis and J. Fowler from Harvard analyzed  data from the three-decade study of 5,000 people in Framingham, Mass., and found invisible connections that run through a whole society. “When one person gained weight, started smoking, or got sick, close family members and friends were 50% more likely to behave the same way.” Any behavior can be contagious, and three degrees of connection became evident: “a friend of a friend can make you prone to smoking, unhappiness or loneliness, even though you have never met this friend of a friend.”

Our impulse for separation is behind the contrast—light and dark, divine and the devil, saint and sinner. Chopra suggests life has no juice, as in electricity, unless one pole sends a current to the other. He sees the shadow as the separation impulse and the divine impulse as one that seeks unity. The new reality we seek calls for a holographic impulse, one where the whole is represented in each part, no matter how small. Resolution and freedom come from recognizing the shadow is part of our psyche and that whatever exists in it is within our power to dissolve. The shadow tries to keep you unconscious because it’s the hiding place of pain and stress.

The process for nurturing the shadow includes: “keeping secrets from yourself and others; harboring guilt and shame; making yourself and others wrong; needing someone to blame; ignoring your own weaknesses while criticizing those around you; separating yourself from others; struggling to keep evil at bay.”

Choices for diminishing the shadow’s power deal with stopping our projecting, detaching and letting go, giving up self-judgment, and rebuilding your emotional body, which he describes as “the lightness of being,” becoming more whole. It exchanges judgment for the real experience of compassion, love, and forgiveness.

A new worldview is needed—the entire universe is made of consciousness, “infinite, all-embracing, all powerful, and all knowing.” He speaks of coordination of all action: information shared with all parts of the whole in instantaneous communication, energy is perpetually reshaping but never lost, evolution continually produces more intricate forms, and consciousness expands with more complex forms.

Wholeness and healing are very closely connected—always seeking balance within your body, within your life, within your world, as change and the laws of nature progress through transformations. Letting go of the split self with all its dualities is experiencing wholeness and being able to value the dynamics of each without being a slave to any.

Transcending the shadow brings the realization that “the level of the problem is never the level of the solution.” Going beyond the conflict brings a new perspective, a broader context that opens the way to resolution. Willingness to surrender your thinking mind to meditation, switching your focus from mental chatter to perhaps your breathing or chanting a mantra. frees your potential for limitless possibilities for peace and ever expanding consciousness.

PART II – Debbie Ford

Making Peace with Ourselves, Others and the World 

A familiar picture is presented of people who pray, wish, and desire to change some vexing behavior—procrastinating, overspending, overeating, resenting .  . .while hiding their discontent with a cheery countenance. With this simmering distress often comes forgetting they ever wanted anything other than what they had.

Our egocentric self believes that some change in a stressful person or thing will bring us happiness. Looking outside the self precludes lifting the veil within to see “who we think we are and who we really want to be.” Defending the former image prevents us from discovering our true self, our wholeness. The shadow, our dark side, the part we can’t imagine has anything to do with us and don’t want anyone, especially our loved ones, to see, becomes the major obstacle to realizing our true nature of greatness, compassion and authenticity.

She recalls her inner turmoil of opposing voices when she transitioned from an awkward preadolescent into a pretty young teen—“You’re an idiot.” and “I’m better, prettier, smarter and more talented than everyone else.” Attempting to feel better led her to a sugar addiction and progressed to cigarettes, Pot, pills for uppers and downers and psychedelics.

Success at masking her true feelings and imitating the girls who seemed ‘to have it all together’ deceived herself as much as others until her world crumbled. Finally, at the age of 27 in a drug treatment center, she began to see the havoc of her battle with the dark side. Ultimate surrender in that war revealed a passion to help others on the journey through the human psyche to value their wholeness. The realization that “we possess every human characteristic and emotion, whether active or dormant, whether conscious or dormant” levels our field of reference.

The panoply of self-expression brings the gifts our wholeness manifests, making possible infinite means of well-being and peace—the freedom to truly be and extend love to our oneness. Integrating all the aspects of our journey expands the richness of our days and builds on our potential for gift giving and receiving.

Her beliefs now are that forgiveness, happening in our hearts not our heads, is the “hallway between the past and an unimaginable future; everything happens for a reason; we are always evolving and though oftentimes painful, it serves an important purpose; there is wisdom in every wound; and we are more than we ever dreamed possible.”

PART III – Marianne Williamson

Only Light Can Cast Out Darkness

 Struggling over the juxtaposition of so much tender beauty in the world—from sleeping babies and bounteous bouquets of blossoms, love on earth—to wars and inexorable suffering and destruction of living things, she acknowledges an antiforce that gets us to do its bidding because we have forgotten who we are and “thus act as we are not.”  This darkness represents not a presence but an absence of light. “And the only true light is love.”

 Separated from love, our wholeness and God, we perceive our anger as justified, blame of another is only reasonable, and attacking someone is righteous self-defense. Fear takes over and threatens to crush the soul. The antidote is to change our thinking to a higher frequency—loving unconditionally and unwaveringly, involving radical truth telling, and expanding our sense of love beyond the personal, social and political implications.

Metaphysically, through her work with Course in Miracles, she accepts “Nothing but God’s love exists and what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.” Practically, however, understanding the creative power of our thoughts and words and our propensity for separation, she sees God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, the Illuminator, as a bridge between our shadow and our light. This reminds us that the darkness is not real, and through prayer with the willingness to separate the truth from illusion, we are open to seeing others and ourselves differently.

Cultivating the sacred in our lives gives us space to stay connected to our spiritual reality, seeing how busyness can be our enemy and how communing with others in a holy space can bring balance and peace. With awareness of the ubiquitous negative thoughts, you can place yourself in the flow of gratitude, eliminating self-hatred and affirming others at the same time. “Prayer is a force; meditation harmonizes the energies of the universe; and forgiveness transforms the heart.”

Energy created in a group is a collective shadow, magnified and growing exponentially–with fear or love. The challenge is to love with a greater conviction than to the hate and fear of terrorism. The illumination of our true needs comes not from rational evidence but from a mystery for the realms of pure potentiality.

Apprehension about our shadow is easily seen and felt until we come to see that our darkness also hides our light, and “It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We are powerful beyond measure.” Our consciousness and our choices expand to embrace our wholeness and the love our Source has given to us all.

In Part 1 of “The Bond, Connecting Through The Space Between Us” – Lynne McTaggart sets out to demonstrate how we exist in relationship to each other via our bonds as well as with the universe itself. Beginning with an account of the scientific explorations on the observer affect pursued by Wheeler and others, Lynne McTaggart challenges our thinking about where we end and the universe begins.  This is indeed a great struggle for advanced meditators who are able to shift their state of awareness from oneness (I am) to interconnectedness (we are) and back again to the state of ‘I am.’   “The Bond” makes the case for expanding our ability to think from the perspective of a unified ‘we’ versus a solitary ‘I.’

This section of the book also opens an interesting discussion on the topic of genetics and how genetics alone does not shape our life or destiny.  Rather, it is our positive or negative environments as much as anything else that determine who we are.

Lynne McTaggart’s account of the theories of the Russian scientist Alexander Chizhoevosky in 1921 was most fascinating.  He had proposed that many of the world’s upheavals in history were the result of solar activity and solar flares.  At the time his theories were not well accepted as political regimes preferred to think of a revolution as the result of the people rising up against the status quo.   The poor man was sent to the northern reaches of Russia, where he could not expand his theories. However, 30 years later, his work was revisited by scientists who felt he was quite possibly right after all. It turns out that there is a correlation between the sun’s activity and many social phenomenon.  We are linked to solar weather and all kinds of geo-magnetic activity of the solar system manifesting as increases in crime, heart attacks, car accidents, mental illness symptoms flaring up, and swings in the stock market to name a few.

In the final section of Part 1 Lynne McTaggart discusses our shared circuitry and how the emotions of another may be mirrored in ourselves via an empathic response.  We can relate to others in distress because we put ourselves in their shoes and literally feel their pain as if it were ours.  Repatterners, who have felt the physical pain of others, will find this section fascinating and informative.

Her conclusion is that we are hardwired to connect with others to survive and be our true selves.  We are born to play as a team.  Our tendency toward competition is self-destructive, and harms us more than we realize.  We have the predisposition to be collaborative with no inter-conflict and in that state for all of us to flourish.

Submitted by Carolyn Winter

Past president and current RPA Volunteer

 BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION: 

What Are Your Thoughts? – Your comments on this post in general are welcomed or on any of the book club questions below.  To get to the comment box, be sure you are on the page for this post by clicking the title above.  That will take you to the page with a comment box and where you may share this article on your Facebook/Twitter or other social media network.
Book Club Questions:

What has been your experience of ‘shared circuitry’ in your life?

How has community life changed for you in your lifetime?

What is your best experience of community or shared circuitry?

In what ways have you repatterned a bond of belonging?

Related Links: General Book Review | Part I “The Superorganism” (this Post)| Part 2 & 3 Coming this November

Book Trailer Video 

Lynne McTaggart is the author of several books including “What Doctors Don’t Tell You,” “The Field – The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe” and “The Intention Experiment.”  You may remember Lynne McTaggart as one of our virtual conference guest speakers in 2008.   For anyone wanting to understand more of the science behind why repatterning works, any of these books are highly recommended.  In her newest book “The Bond,” journalist Lynne McTaggart tackles her topic by sharing the explorations of science that support her proposition that we are more than individuals but owe our identity and being to our connection with the many bonds in our life and ultimately the universe itself.  More than that, it is the space in between these bonds where the connections are forged.  As a first-rate storyteller, McTaggart recounts the scientific trails that lead scientists to particular conclusions with the tone of a good mystery cliff hanger quickly drawing the reader into each chapter.  It soon doesn’t feel like a technical book at all as you race to read the next chapter to find out where the next piece of evidence exists.

This book is about the innate resonance or energy that is available to us through our entrainment with each other, our groups, our community, our culture, the world. In repatterning language, it is the entrainment frequencies that may have weakened for many of us depending on where we live, or our cultural ties or group. In western society McTaggart makes the point that the pull towards individualization, me first, and qualities of greed, dishonesty, and competition have weakened our bond with each other and with the world. According to the studies outlined by Mctaggart we suffer with greater mental health issues, physical health, our happiness and longevity.  We may die having the most money or stuff or both, and think we are really the winners when, in fact, we have lost more than we know.  Lynne McTaggart successfully argues how it can be much different.

Throughout “The Bond,” McTaggart outlines many rich examples of people, groups and societies with a much different world view that illuminates our bond from nature itself to each other and our group.  Her purpose in writing the book is ‘to prove that we are living an outdated set of rules and to demonstrate how easy it is to live in wholeness.’

After reading this book and the many stunning examples, you too will conclude that Lynne McTaggart has accomplished her intention.

Resonance Repatterning professionals may enjoy many parts of the book that support our understanding of some of the repatternings learned in the “Healing the Family Systems” repatternings by Magui (formerly Carin) Block as well as her many references to resonance, coherence and patterns.  It may help you to broaden your perspective in some of these repatternings.

For everyone who has lived in an active community, this book will help you to understand the value of your connection there and to your life.   Lynne McTaggert’s questioning style allows the reader to take each chapter and reflect on its meaning in their own life experiences.

I highly recommend “The Bond” and invite a book club type discussion over the months ahead using this blog publication and these posts. There is a post (or will be) for each of the 3 sections of “The Bond” where you may comment or ask questions and share opinions with everyone reading along with this book.

Carolyn Winter 

RPA Volunteer

  “We can’t teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.”

            Galileo Galilei – Preface 1995

    Dan Millman states: “All journeys are true, but not all are factual.” We           find the laws on the winding paths of life within our intuitive wisdom and     without in the natural world.

 This is an adventure story, an encounter in the wilderness of northern California between the author and a mysterious woman, a mountain sage who offered to share with him her secrets of alchemy. Her secrets were not of turning lead into gold but of transmuting one’s fears, confusion, concerns and difficulties that arise into “the gold of freedom and clarity, serenity and joy” in the laws of Spirit. She explained she had found Spirit in all religions and its laws functioning throughout the universe, as do the mechanics of the universe.  Following these laws leads to prosperity and fulfillment—peace in the light of higher understanding; resistance leads to challenging consequences.

The Law of Balance is first, reminding us we can overdo and underdo on all levels of our being. Her examples are experiential, such as imagining the feeling of calm the egret experiences standing on one leg at the edge of a pond. We learn to discern the difference between ‘normal,’ which could be high tension, and what is true balance and inner peace. The way to find that serene center is through doing and becoming more aware of the imbalances of living your life that need balancing.

The Law of Choices allows us to reclaim our power—choosing our response to circumstances in life and taking action to follow through with it. The sage’s declaration that all choices serve in their own way is a comforting thought, however it feels in the process.

The Law of Process addresses the steps and awareness involved in bringing change, achieving a goal, as well as honoring the completion of each step of preparation toward what has special meaning to us.

The Law of Presence is exemplified in Margaret Bonnano’s quote, “It’s only possible to live happily ever after on a moment to moment basis.” Dealing with what is in front of you is where your body is in the here and now.

The Law of Compassion is defined as “the recognition that we are each doing the best we can within the limits of our current beliefs and capacities.” This freeing thought precludes our judgment of others when we realize Carl Jung’s adage that we reject in others what we cannot accept within ourselves. Acknowledging such tendencies within us brings our shadow side to the light, where compassion and healing can benefit all. It starts with forgiving ourselves. When faced with violence and human cruelty each of us can decide what kind of energy—love or hate—that we want to project into our world. We can learn to see all people as teachers.

The Law of Faith is about trusting in Spirit, universal love and wisdom working through us all. The sage speaks of God as a feeling of wonder and mystery rather than belief and accepts whatever happens can serve a higher purpose for our well-being regardless of how it appears. Awareness of your faith comes from listening to the intuitive wisdom of your heart, not from books, teachers, scientists and psychics. So often we seek outside us for what is within from our birth. External influences can guide you to your internal treasure. Your path may present obstacles, and your faith brings you the willingness to risk, make mistakes and move forward in the process of life.

The Law of Expectation expands our reality. Imagination, assumptions and beliefs at the deepest level determine your experience. Blocks to the realization of what we want come up as doubts in the possibility of achieving it. By expressing aloud all the reservations involved and reassessing can clear the mind’s energy. The perception and focus shifts so that negativity doesn’t hold you back. Our limitations are only in our beliefs in problems; beliefs in solutions change our life and our world.

The Law of Integrity is described as living our truth, our authentic interior reality expressed by our example, not only our words, for our own as well as others’ awareness. Completeness and unity are inferred in being yourself and knowing that is ‘enough’ even with our vulnerabilities.

The Law of Action is demonstrated beyond the thought and into our behavior, the doing that leads to understanding and moving into life. The sage delivers the message: “It’s better to do what is best than not to do it and have a good excuse.” Still, options require consideration that nonaction may be best in certain circumstances. Key is turning to your heart’s wisdom and being aware of your tendencies of impulsivity or inertia.

The Law of Cycles speaks to us of nature’s patterns in time and space. As Kahlil Gibran wrote, “In every winter’s heart lies a quivering spring, and behind the veil of each night waits a smiling dawn.” Change is life, and we often cling to the familiar, comforted in the assumption of control and order. The lessons from nature, e.g. seeds produce only their own kind, you reap what you sow, and cycles end before another begins, enhance our days and our own evolution, a ripening process.

The Law of Surrender points to acceptance of a higher will that involves receiving what is in the present, including your body, mind, and spirit and your life without resistance. Belief in the wisdom of your heart leads to spiritual growth and greater consciousness. “Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does.” was the instruction of Epictetus, the ancient Greek philosopher, to his students. By relaxing the body surrenders to the moment versus rigidly holding to what ‘should’ happen. With practice, we can perceive all we behold as Spirit and that life is a mystery beyond our comprehension.

The Law of Unity awareness requires a shift in perception on a higher plane—coming to realize that we re not separate beings on an earth of infinite diversity but rather One Being, One Consciousness. The paradox depends on seeing both perspectives on the state of our awareness—the individual entities vs. parts of the whole. The choice becomes ours. The concept begins as incredulous to our comprehension. The sage, however, suggests being open to feeling it—a sense of deep connection to your presence at that moment, bringing pure peace and joy. How would your life, your reality change by embracing a vision of humanity as One? The oneness dissolves the wounding and heals the wounded with compassion for all creation.

The Laws of Spirit are intended for bearing courage, love and understanding. Yet powerful as these laws are, the sage concludes, without the Law of Love–your connection to your heart’s wisdom–they are secondary. Her prayers for us all: “May you find grace as you surrender to life. May you find happiness, as you stop seeking it. May you come to trust these laws and inherit the wisdom of the Earth. May you reconnect with the heart of nature and feel the blessings of Spirit.” All together they light our journey and remind us of the love that surrounds each of us and the peace that perpetuates.

Nancy  B. Martin

Certified Practitioner