Deepak Chopra wrote an open letter to the American people recently in which he said "Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that"… "Gov. Sara Palin is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses."... "In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that lies out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of 'the other' ".
He was speaking of course about the unconscious primitive ego that resides in all of us; the narcissistic, self-focused part of our psyche that we fear looking at or acknowledging because we are ashamed to admit that it is a part of our personality. Our primitive ego however should not be considered bad or shameful, it is simply the unconscious ego of our inner-child; a childhood part of our psyche that helped us to feel safe and cope with what was often a confusing and frightening adult world.
Because our primitive ego is focused primarily on survival and feeling safe, it makes choices and manifests behaviors toward others based on whether those "others" appear to be safe and supportive of our beliefs, or whether they appear to be dangerous or somehow threatening to our own ability to survive. Our primitive ego gets angry when others are critical of our beliefs or assume that we are wrong.
The bottom line---we are able to extend care and concern to others only if they are not threatening or asking for something that our primitive ego believes it needs for its own survival. Our primitive ego's compulsive focus on personal survival and its driving need for personal safety interferes with our ability to maintain a focus on the needs of others or manifest a sustained compassion for others.
In calling us to a higher consciousness, Barack Obama is threatening to the narcissism and survival instincts of our primitive ego. When he calls us to change, to become all we can be, rather than increasing our compassion for others and cooperating with the evolution of our national consciousness, our primitive ego "shadow" perceives a threat to its own survival and closes down into defensive fear.
Our primitive ego has a great fear of change and the "unknowns" that are often associated with change. Fear generates anger and aggression in our primitive ego and Deepak Chopra believes we are seeing this aggressive anger of our nation's collective shadow being expressed in the candidacy of Sarah Palin. He is suggesting that she is essentially the spokesperson manifesting our nation's defensive shadow response to Obama's call to embrace a new consciousness.
This aggressive and angry national response toward change and the threats to status quo that come with it will continue in our nation's collective primitive ego until it becomes obvious that the change Obama is calling for might actually represent a higher potential for safety than the current fearful retreat into the past. In other words, it usually requires a significant level of crisis or threat of danger before our primitive ego is willing to embrace the lesser of evils and accept that it might be time to embrace change.
I believe that we are indeed at that moment of crisis in global human history.
Our collective primitive egos are facing challenges that threaten our survival in ways that we have never experienced before as a species. As a result, we are experiencing a national awakening of consciousness in which our collective primitive ego is embracing more openness toward the possibility and need for change than any time in recent history.
I believe that the severity of the current global financial crisis is now awakening in American voters the need for change. Recent national polls are showing a growing support and willingness in voters to embrace Barack Obama and the change in national consciousness he is proposing.
This election is not only about issues; it is a referendum on our national consciousness.
I will briefly summarize the material from Deepak Chopra's letter to illustrate how Barack Obama and Sarah Palin appear to represent opposing sides of our human psyche.
The Challenges That Face Us
We are facing a multitude of global crisis, any one of which could bring an end to our human culture or way of life. The global financial crisis is current dominating our national attention at the moment, but right behind this crisis are the issues of :
- global warming,
- the growing shortage of fresh drinking water,
- overpopulation,
- the depletion of our planet's natural resources,
- the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan,
- the shrinking reserves of oil and other energy resources,
- the critical increase in the national debt,
- a weakening global economy,
- the threat of inflation and/or recession,
- our growing health care crisis,
- a rapidly growing global shortage of food,
- the intentional dismantling of our nation's middle class,
- and the rapidly growing gap between the world's wealthy and its poor.
There are other threats to our survival that could be included in this list such as the alarming and rapidly increasing extinction of plant and animal life on our planet…..but you get the point.
Barack Obama's Solution
Barack Obama's response to these growing crisis is a call to reach for our higher selves and step up to a higher consciousness, to increase our focus on social justice, embrace an openness to dialogue and communicate with those who disagree with us, to embrace the reality that we are all inter-dependent on one another, and to learn to work together for the common good; to essentially embrace a new worldview that could lead to the transformation of our nation's institutional values and ethics.
How Sarah Palin Shadow Reflects Our Nation's Collective "Shadow" or Primitive Ego
Gov. Sarah Palin represents the worldview of the primitive ego; the shadow part of our human psyche. For example:
- She gives voice to those American voters whose primitive ego unconsciously fears both change and people who are "different". Her own primitive ego appears unable to embrace the reality that we are a global culture inter-connected and inter-dependent with one another.
- Palin often projects shaming sarcasms onto Obama and his "terrorist" friends to reflect the anger and aggression generated by her black-and-white, either-or, right-wrong thinking process of her own primitive ego. Primitive ego "shadow" emotions are seldom expressed directly.
- She espouses the parochialism of small town values while ignoring the need for the United States to provide leadership in dealing with the many global crises that face us.
- Her relentless focus on "family values" is a thinly disguised tribal mentality that creates an invisible barrier that effectively ignores or denies social justice to persons perceived to be outside the "family" politically or religiously.
- Her stand on guns reflects an aggressive, wild-west, Marlboro man sense of rugged individualism; an early American west mentality in which "might makes right" and the individual always wins out over those social and institutional "others" that threaten or challenge them.
- When she talks about Obama's willingness to negotiate and dialogue with foreign leaders that openly disagree with the foreign policies of the United States her voice is filled with mocking contempt and heavy sarcasm. Her implication that such behavior is ignorant and unpatriotic clearly reflects the primitive ego concept that when you already have the truth, dialogue is a waste of time and energy.
- Her "patriotism" is the platform on which she stands to avoid dealing with the fact that the war in Iraq was wrong and failed to meet any of the stated objectives. Those who disagree with her are labeled as "them" and "unpatriotic" because they are critical and "unwilling to support our brave soldiers serving in Iraq". The primitive ego delights in either-or thinking and does not like being told that its beliefs might be wrong.
- Her idea of reform is not only aggressively "standing up to" and clearing out corruption and excessive spending, but also includes dismissing those who do not agree with her beliefs or ideology. This was clearly reflected in her attempt to purge Wasilla's public library of all Harry Potter books and Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice because she felt they were "inappropriate".
- She does not see the need to engage ideas that might challenge her own conservative religious beliefs. This is clearly reflected in her fear and negativity toward evolution and her rigid, non-negotiable, black-and-white beliefs regarding abortion.
In the words of Deepak Chopra, Sarah Palin simply represents the primitive ego "shadow" side of our nations psyche. Her popularity is due primarily to the perception that she is leading the charge back into the past that the primitive ego of many American voters would like to see.
Closing Thoughts
Historically, any shift to a new national or global consciousness has always been preceded by a compelling and urgent need for change. We embraced change and growth in our national consciousness during the American Revolution when we reached for self-determination, in the election of Abraham Lincoln when we confronted the issue of slavery, in the election for Franklin D. Roosevelt when we embraced the New Deal, and again in World War ll when Americans banded together with their allies in a unified and coherent effort to defeat the threat of world domination by Nazis Germany. In each case it took a significant need or issue before Americans were ready to embrace a new worldview.
As we move into the 21st century, I believe that the violent death of over 200 million people in the 20th century due to ideological conflict and violence, the current global financial crisis, our national health care system, the threat of global warming, and the depletion of global energy resources that threaten world stability, represent only a few of the critical global issues awakening us to the fact that we once again need a new worldview. Our awareness of these threats has finally broken through the denial of our primitive ego consciousness and brought our nation once again to the crossroad of change.
As human consciousness has evolved and matured over the centuries, we have reflected a growing ability as a species to manifest empathy, justice, nurturing, and compassion. Our ability to embrace life has expanded. Our world has grown larger.
Whenever we have embraced fear and retreated into the isolated narcissism of our primitive ego consciousness, we have lost the ability to confidently engage life. Our world grew smaller. Our love and compassion for others became conditional. Justice and our concern for others contracted to include only those in the tribe.
Choice is the gift of free will that is available only to a species with reflexive consciousness; the ability to be self-aware. Only when we choose to grow in self-awareness are we able to embrace an authentic spiritual growth; to enlighten our consciousness and expand our ability to manifest true compassion.
Since the creation of all form is always preceded by consciousness, every action, every behavior, every choice, creates a consequence and an ongoing chain reaction of new choices and new forms. That's is how we as Co-creators working with the Initiating Consciousness that created our universe; the Original Creative Principle we call God, create the future.
This is indeed an important national election for our country and our planet. As the world's most powerful nation, the choices we make on Nov 4th will result in consequences for many generations of our planets children. It will determine not only our own future as a nation, but also the future forms of our human culture for many years.
Thanks to Deepak Chopra, we are able to understand how Sarah Palin's popularity clearly reflects our nation's unconscious primitive ego "shadow" response to Obama's call for a new national consciousness. It is a very helpful insight and clarifies an important aspect of this election.
There is definitely a significant line drawn in the sand.
On November 5th, we will know which side of the line our nation has chosen to stand on for the foreseeable future. Regardless of who wins the election, it will clearly reflect the psyche and consciousness of the American people to the rest of the world.
It is important for us to understand that our unconscious primitive ego, and its obsessive narcissistic focus on safety and survival, is very limited in its ability to consciously participate in the unfolding evolutionary process we call "life". There is no form that has not been preceded by consciousness but all too often, our limited primitive ego consciousness unknowingly creates the forms called conflict, violence, judgment, and "conditional" love; forms that have the destructive ability to condemn our collective species consciousness back into the darkness of pre-modern times.
In this election, we have the opportunity to speak with one voice, to say clearly to the world that our nation is ready to embrace a new and more evolved consciousness; to provide a more cooperative and compassionate leadership as we work together to solve the pressing issues that face our human family.
But a positive outcome from this election is not guaranteed.
To embrace the status quo and avoid the anxiety that comes with change, our primitive ego may unconsciously attempt to convince us that our vote is not important; that we are too busy to bother voting on the 4th; that the election is no big deal. Don't believe it.
Unlike animals that survive and blend into the existing environment, humans have the ability to be self-aware and consciously create our own environment. We represent the community of "life" on this planet and the future of our species will be determined by the choices and decisions we each make, or fail to make, in every moment of our lives.
We have the opportunity, as reflexively conscious Co-creators, to actively participate in the on-going evolution of life and consciousness on this planet; the ability to intentionally and consciously create the future.
But to do so creatively, we need to remain aware and avoid giving in to fear and primitive ego thinking. This election is an opportunity to send a clear message to the world that America is ready to move into the future with a new and more compassionate understanding of what it means to be a creative part of this incredible journey called life and consciousness.
We do not know why the consciousness of Cosmic Mind created this universe, but we do know for a fact that our universe was exquisitely created to create and support life and consciousness. We are being given the opportunity in this election to join all those forward thinking people from earlier generations who, often at great personal sacrifice, made the choice to grow in consciousness and create new forms. Without their courage and vision, we might still be living in caves grunting at each other.
Few humans in history have ever had the kind of opportunity or experience that we will have on Nov 4th to intentionally take a step upward toward a higher consciousness. As Co-creators of form we are being given the ability to intentionally and consciously participate in the conscious evolutionary process of "becoming"; to participate in the conscious creation and evolution of our planet. We are not just voting for a President on the 4th, we are voting to embrace a new consciousness or worldview.
The world has the right to know the will of the American people. The consciousness that America chooses to embrace on the 4th will powerfully influence, positively or negatively, the future of the world for generations. So please let your voice be heard.
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Sit for a while under the stars and let yourself feel the amazing power of our universe….the overwhelming sense of "becoming". Feel the awe of knowing that you are looking at an evolving, conscious, living universe that has taken 15 billion years to create your own incredible gift of consciousness.
When you vote on the 4th you will "know" that you are taking an active part in the future evolution and growth of our species consciousness and the compassionate evolution of our universe. Like it or not, as reflexively conscious beings, each of us is a Co-creator capable of creating form with the Initiating Consciousness of our universe. Together we can create the future.
Consciousness is an incredible gift. It can create a universe.
Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
George Bernard Shaw
The awakening to the evolutionary impulse or the Authentic Self is not merely an ever-growing appreciation for the miraculous unfolding of the evolving cosmos that we are all part and parcel of….. it is the actual experience at the level of consciousness itself …. the felt pull toward the future…..a dedication to the delicate and all-important transition from the mere philosophical recognition that our cosmos and culture are evolving…….. to the direct, felt, living experience of the energy and intelligence that is driving the entire process.
A paraphrased quote from Andrew Cohen, EnlightenmentNext
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