want to experience your higher self and have the most profound experience of your life? learn about our “awaken to self” journey at the end of this article or click this button and enter password 209098
humanity at crossroads
we are at crossroads. there are two prevalent competing themes in the world:
one of increasing government control/fascism, conformism, so called woke-ness and division on all levels from gender to sexual preferences to affluence to political orientation to narratives. it’s the theme of self/ego, separation, conflict, control, power and dominance. the oldest human story there is — a very un-evolved one.
the other theme is one of awakening, starting to grasp the big picture of the human journey and as a result seeking harmony and collaboration between people and with nature. it’s based on the understanding that we are not separate but really one organism experiencing itself through many different players. in this game, we are here to learn and grow with each other. it is a game that doesn’t end with one’s death and therefore i play it very differently.
i have previously attempted to lay out the case (see 61/ the biggest lie) why the evidence is overwhelming that we are more than our mind and bodies and therefore the reason we are here is not only beyond just competing and seemingly winning at the game of life but the opposite: it is about serving the greater self and from this place of service and unconditional self-expression, we find what we are all seeking: love, joy and fulfilment.
what has gone wrong?
the world is the schoolroom of god. our being in school does not make us learn, but within that school is the opportunity for all learning. — manly p. hall
so how come we are not taking this next step in human evolution and instead are keeping the status quo with wars, poverty, destruction of nature, division and fighting that led us to experiencing both the most affluent world ever (though ever more unequally distributed) but also the most miserable one with people that have everything materially suffering from loneliness, depression, mental and other diseases.
how come so many of us have more of everything than ever yet feel less satisfied? it’s the lack of meaning because the only thing that feeds on having more (wealth, power, control, status, sex, …) is the ego and the ego is what separates us from each other. i can feed my fear driven ego that never has enough or i can wake up from this never ending game (there’s never enough) that doesn’t give me what i truly want which is, i’d argue, to feel at peace, in harmony, in awe, joy, love and unity.
the challenge is not only in the world of business, politics and geopolitics. these are merely the symptoms of the underlying cause which starts with those supposedly closest to us: our family. the lack of love, support and harmony within the family structure is what ultimately shows up as fighting (in some form or shape) with everyone else for survival, dominance, winning, etc.
the crumbling of the family structure and the lack of individuation from our parents has meant that we are externalising the unconscious battle we are fighting within ourselves. individuation is the process of becoming your independent self without needing the approval of your parents and family members. to be yourself unconditionally, confidently and irrespectively of what others think. to have an adult to adult rather than a parent to child relationship with your parents and your children, once grown up, with you.
liberation through initiation
this used to be achieved through a right of passage, an initiation, once you attained a certain age. indigenous tribes, for example, abandon their young adults in remote nature. if you make it back home you become a man and are treated like one no matter that you will always be the son of someone. you move from a parent to child relationship to an adult to adult relationship. you become one amongst equals. while we still celebrate the passing of one turning 18 or 21, there’s no initiation nor do familial relationship really change. “you will always be my little boy/girl…”
not only do we stay emotionally dependent, we are also staying a victim. during early childhood, we all get traumatised by our parents no matter how well they mean. these mostly unconscious traumas keep us in a victimhood where we try to make up for our perceived lack in all kinds of ways including that the most successful people are those that have been traumatised enough to have a strong drive to compensate through success but not that much trauma that makes them a criminal (pretty much all the prison population comes from deeply broken families).
our deepest trauma: birth
but it gets wilder: as decades of research by stanislav grof show, our deepest trauma that then informs our behaviour throughout life is formed during the traumatic birth process. it says imho a lot about the level of our consciousness and therefore the problem pointed at at the beginning of this article, that despite all that we know about this topic it is not part of our mainstream understanding of self. watch this outstanding documentary on his life, psychedelics and the origin of our deepest wounds: the way of the psychonaut. it’s enlightening.
two paths to navigate life
the conscious person uses the world as a mirror to better understand and master themself. the unconscious person attacks the mirror because they do not realise it’s a mirror. — from the samadhi movie
just like humanity, we individually choose between two possibly life paths: reacting, fighting and trying to dominate and influence/manipulate our environment and the people around us or see everything and everyone around us as a mirror, a reflection that teaches me something about myself.
the first one is the easy, common, mentally and logically instructed path. the one most of us choose because that’s what we are taught and how 99% of the world operates. it’s the survival of the fittest path. really, it’s an animalistic path. we might look much more evolved than animals and we are good at covering up our motivations but underneath that cover the reptilian mind dominates and acts. as andrew grove, former ceo of intel, titled his autobiography: “only the paranoid survive.”
the other path, the path of awakening is the path of taking full responsibility for everything in my life and therefore becoming the empowered creator of it. yes, i can blame my parents for what they have done or lacked doing to me, i can blame my former partner, the government or friends that seemingly let me down — that’s what i am doing if i am on the first, easy path. but on this second, conscious path i am the creator of my life and i see how everything in my life is here to show me something about myself so i can evolve and expand in my way of being.
from victim to creator
this moves me from a reactive victim to an empowered creator. if have a heated argument, i ask myself what did i do to create this tension? what has been my role in this? this is not about being right or wrong. the opposite: it’s about moving beyond right vs. wrong to an understanding of how i need to change and evolve to bring harmony, love, connection, joy or whatever you like to call it into this relationship and life at large. this is the challenging and awakened way of being.
and it’s freaking hard. i don’t claim to be able to live up to that, yet. but i am committed to work everyday on becoming better at it, to be wiser. and as i do, i remove dissonance in my life and bring more of the good stuff into it: flow, gratitude, harmony, serendipity, synchronicity and abundance.
tuning myself to higher states
life is not what happens to me, it is what i create from moment to moment starting with my thoughts and attitudes. this is very hard for our logic driven thinking to comprehend. i like to think of it as a tuning fork. i can vibrate on a low frequency carrying all my traumas and wounds as an unconscious victim and living them out with others — or i can look inside (by taking note of how i respond to others and they respond to me), bring awareness to my issues, work through them and thereby raise my frequency, my way of being. the higher i vibrate, the more i attract other high vibrating "tuning forks” aka humans.
it’s about resonance. and it starts with every thought i have. think of everything around you as a giant mirror. it’s all there for each of us to become conscious of our ways of being and to elevate myself. and when i do, life gets more beautiful without anything around me needing to change. i feel better and no one has the power to change or take that away from me because i choose how i respond rather than i react unconsciously.
and as each of us starts moving from a victim carrying its wounds to an empowered creator taking full responsibility for everything i experience the world also transforms from one of animosity, competition and war to one of harmony, collaboration and peace. just like that. all i need to do is to transform myself and as i do the world around me transforms.
experience: awaken to self
september 29, 30 and october 1, we will be hosting one-day bufo toad ceremonies in portugal. not only will you get to connect with your higher self, pure consciousness, in this life-changing experience but we will be providing the support to help you translate this experience into tangible insights for your day-to-day life — during the experience as well as after.
i am joined by a wonderful group of souls including a board-certified psychiatrist, body workers and intuitive healers to help you find your own answers to: who am i? why am i here? how can i experience more love, beauty and peace? how can i make the most of my life? last but not least, it will take place at a breathtaking location.
we have put together all the information on this website — password: 209098
if this calls you, message me, fill out the application or join our q&a call on
monday, september 18
at 10am pdt, 1pm edt, 6pm uk/pt, 7pm cet
here’s the zoom registration link.
we will be happy to answer any of your questions.
though the experience is unique to everyone, i have written about mine with the toad here:
with love and gratitude for your presence
vincent
ps. before you go, enjoy this powerful be her now 60 seconds reel: heaven surrounds us in every moment. the awaken to self experience may connect you deeper with that truth. ♥︎
62/ awaken to self