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Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft.
I roar at the void.
This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate.
The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel.
Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights.
The scars my key, hermetic and stark.
To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear.
through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.
The poem is Angels with Rifles.
The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini.
Check out the entire song at the end of the cast.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life podcast.
I hope everybody's having a beautiful day.
Hope the sun is shining.
The birds are singing.
And I hope that you get to spend some time with the people you love.
the shadow ladies and gentlemen that's what we're talking about today we had a bit of a scheduling
air with our friend stephen toig so maybe he'll show up here a little bit however if not we'll catch him
on the rebound let's talk about the shadow ladies and gentlemen you know that thing that you see on a sunny day
you know the thing that you think about when you are alone in a room and thinking about some of the
things you may or may not be proud of yeah that thing the shadow it's a very interesting concept
to think about. I want to read you just a few lines right here to kind of get you thinking,
okay? This one's on time. I want you to incorporate the shadow into this. The more changes
during a period of time, the faster the rate of change. The more of the landscape that
changes, the greater the scale of the change. The higher the level of organization the changes,
the greater the significance of the change. Think about that for a minute. I want everyone to
focus on the idea of the shadow, time, space, and level. When you think about your shadow,
what do you think about time? Well, depending on where you are in life or geographically,
your shadow changes. Think about that for a metaphor for life. As you're going through your life,
sometimes you can look down and you see your shadow's been elongated. Sometimes it's fat like it's in one
of those carnival mirrors or something like that. But what does that mean when you think about it?
you as an individual have thoughts about your shadow? Do you think dark thoughts? Do you think about,
hey, who's this guy always following me around? Do you think that maybe, hey, this person never leaves me?
Well, they're interesting thoughts to think about, right? I want you as an individual to think about
a little, we're going to go a little dark here for a minute, so bear with me. Have you been alone
in a room and thought about maybe some things you're not proud of before? That's what I think
about when I begin to think about the shadow.
It doesn't end there, but it begins there.
Because there's this dark form that seems to follow you around.
Sometimes it could be looked at as depression.
Sometimes it could be looked at as anxiety.
Sometimes it could be looked at as thoughts you're not proud of.
But if you take time to embrace your shadow,
if you take time to confront those thoughts that you may not be proud of,
I think that you can get some real work done.
I think that you can begin to see not only those dark thoughts that may be your shadow, that you may not be proud of, that may not be something you want to talk about, but if you take time to think about them, I think they'll point you in the right direction.
Sometimes those dark thoughts that we have are years and years of not confronting something that bothers us, whether it was something in our childhood, whether it was something in our relationship,
or whether it's the way we treat ourselves.
It's an interesting thought to think about the shadow that way.
And my hope, excuse me,
is that people can begin to understand that you do have a dark side.
And if you need to be reminded of that dark side,
all you need to do is go outside and look down on a sunny day
and see that dark side reflected back at you.
It's nothing to be afraid of.
In fact, the earliest thoughts of the share,
for most people are the monster under the bed.
Remember that?
Maybe you have a kid and they think they have a monster in the closet or a monster in the bed.
I think it's a good metaphor for the shadow.
And if you do have a kid or maybe you, listening to this,
are still afraid of that monster under the bed or in the closet,
or sometimes it kind of comes out in relationships.
What you want to do is try to make friends with that monster.
Understand that that monster is a part of you.
It has dark thoughts.
It's capable of dangerous things.
It's capable of hurting other people.
It's capable of hurting you.
And if you don't control it, it will.
Not out of malice, but out of the ability to go unchecked.
So we've spoken a little bit about the idea of the shadow as a personal assistant,
as someone who is there to remind you of not only the dark side of you,
but what you can do if you confront that dark side of you.
I want to introduce you to the shadow of society.
Okay, so bear with me.
What you guys see right here, this book is called the DSM4.
I think there's a new one out here.
It's the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.
And look how thick this thing is.
Like this is, what, 1,000?
No, it's almost 1,000 pages.
It's like 800 pages.
And what this is, it comes from the American Psychiatric Association.
And the further we go into the future, the thicker this book gets.
I want you to think about that for a minute.
How many mental illnesses do we have?
Like there's a thousand pages of them.
Like, look at this.
A thousand different pages of people who are sick, who are mentally ill, according to doctors.
And if you have one of these, if you have one of these illnesses in here, then you can get paperwork that says you're certifiably have this disease.
It makes me kind of sad.
You know what this looks like to me?
This is like a Sears catalog for diseases.
Remember when you were little and you would sit down with the Sears catalog and you could like circle the stuff you wanted if you were a kid?
Well, this is a direct reflection of our society today.
We have a thousand page book of mental illnesses and you can go into a psychiatric office and you can try one on and if it fits you.
Guess what? You can get it and the person can subscribe it to you.
And if the psychiatrist is really good, they'll come up with a brand new one for you.
Just think about that for a minute.
How can it be?
How can it be that every year we find new mental diseases for people to wear?
They wear them like clothes.
They wear them proud.
They say, hey, look at my mental illness.
Look at this thing.
What I have.
Yeah, I got a new one.
That is the shadow in our society.
And sometimes the shadow is a place where nothing grows.
Sometimes the shadow is something that is so dark that you can't see in it.
But in a way, it's still a reflection of you.
It's like the dark reflection of you.
So I want you to, I'm going to roll this together here, so stay with me.
If we look at the psychiatric disorders in our world today and we look at our system,
what does that say about our society?
Is it that the world we live in is becoming more and more neurotic?
Or is it the fact that we're trying to live in, or that we're being more neurotic?
it seems to me that the system in which we are supposed to function is failing.
You see, all these diseases, all these mental illnesses, these are symptoms of the sickness that plagues us.
It's not that you as a human being have a mental disorder.
It's that the society we live in has a mental disorder.
It allows the very few people, most of whom were born into a result.
resilience that is almost, that is very uncommon to continue to function where the rest of us
cannot function. And so people begin looking for ways to figure out, hey, what's wrong with me?
Hey, how come I don't have what the people on TV have? Hey, how come my kids struggling? Not like the
kid on TV. Hey, how come I don't have as much as these people on social media? You see,
these are all things that lead one to mental illness, this desire to
want, this desire to attach me, this desire to think that someone you don't even know on a social
media program or a TV program or your neighbor or this person that you've read about in a book
that they have so much more than you, that there's so much better than you.
Like that is a symptom of the sickness that plagues our society.
And that's why we have so many mental illnesses.
And so I think that the antidote to that is the shadow.
I think that the shadow, if you take time to think about it, it speaks to the complexity of
interpersonal relationships and their role in thought. I know that's a mouthful of words,
but let's just break it down step by step. The complexity of interpersonal relationships.
What does that mean? What does that mean, George? What are you talking about the complexity
of interpersonal relationships? Well, think about the close relationships you have. You have your
mom, your dad, your kid, your wife, your husband, maybe a few best friends. There's a lot of moving
parts in there, though, right? You don't always feel like having a great conversation with your loved one.
Maybe you're tired. Maybe you're exhausted. Maybe you're thinking about something else. Maybe you just want
some alone time. What do they want? There's so many different moving parts in every relationship.
And so that's what I'm beginning to talk about when we talk about the complexity of interpersonal
relationships. The reason that ties to the shadow is because you can have that same relationship
with your shadow. And if you can begin to incorporate your shadow, all these dark feelings of,
I don't want to talk to people, or maybe I'm sick, or, you know, all these negative emotions,
once you begin to incorporate your life and your thoughts and your ideas into your own shadow
or begin to incorporate your shadow into your life, then the world of interoperate,
personal relationships begins to open up to you. Then it's like opening up the back of a watch
and seeing all the moving parts in there. And you may not understand what they do, but if you just
take time to look at all those little, you know, those little circles and all the little rigs in
there that are moving, all the hands that are interconnected, pretty soon you can get an idea of what's
going on in there. And I really think that the shadow in your life are those interchangeable working
gears that move together, right? And if you can understand your relationship to the shadow,
then you can begin to understand your relationship to everything else. I really think that there
is a lot of incredible information that can be gleamed from your relationship with your shadow.
And you don't have to do any of the things I'm talking about. Just do this. On a sunny day or at home,
if you have a little bit of alone time, if you find yourself meditating, just think about your
shadow. If you go outside, look down and take a look at it. Does it lay to the right of you? Is it
elongated? You know, what, just look at it and your mind will start working in a way that hasn't
been working before. It's a great way to do a meditation. It's a great way to begin understanding
more about yourself. If you're quiet, if you're observant and you take time just to think about
your shadow, then I believe your shadow will begin sharing information with you that maybe you knew
deep down subconsciously, but it'll really bring it out into the open. I think on another level,
hey, my cat's getting in here. He must be talking about my shadow. What's up, buddy? So if I were to
try to think about a way to integrate my shadow, I'll give you an example of how I think and something that I do.
for me, I'll take maybe three or four grams of mushrooms.
Sometimes it's one gram of mushrooms, and I will spend maybe in the first hour is kind of a come-up,
but maybe the second hour, I'll begin thinking about my shadow.
What is it that I see in my shadow?
And for me, what I see in my shadow, I begin to see in myself, and then I begin to see in other relationships.
I've told the story before, but I'll tell you again.
there was a gentleman at where I worked at that was he was a really, really nice guy.
And I was always really mean to him.
And I didn't understand it until somebody pointed it out to me.
They were like, George, why are you always so mean to that guy?
And it took it kind of hurt because I didn't realize I was doing it.
But once I did, I had to take some time to figure it out.
And what I came to the conclusion is I didn't like that guy because he reminded me about
things about myself that I didn't like. That's an example of the shadow. That's an example of what
you can see. When you see the dark parts of other people, and you and I are really good at this,
it's really easy to judge other people. But when you're doing that, you're really judging yourself.
Because how can you recognize something negative in somebody else unless, of course,
you recognize that thing in yourself? It's a great exercise. And you're a great exercise.
If you begin doing it, I think you'll become less judgmental, not only less judgmental, but more forgiving.
Because if you want to judge people less, you have to forgive yourself.
Does that kind of make sense?
It goes back to the idea of whatever you see in other people are things you recognize in yourself.
And that's something that you can look at or understand by looking at your shadow.
In fact, those negative traits in other people are a reflection of the shadow of your shadow in them.
And it's a great sort of exercise to begin understanding that.
You pretty soon you can begin laughing at it.
Like, oh, it's just my shadow over there.
The same way that, you know, there's that old sort of wives tale that says the dog barks at his own shadow or, you know, the cat's afraid of their own shadow.
Well, the truth is the same is for us.
When we see something dark in other people or we see something dark in society, it's usually not always not always.
but it's usually something that reminds us of our darker selves, or it's usually something
that reminds us what we are capable of. On a giant scale, if you look at the weight of the world
right now, if you look at the conditions of the economy or the conditions of the war that could be
happening, those could be a type of shadow. Let's take war, for example. The idea of war, to me,
is a reminder of our shadow.
It is this idea that we have an incredible dark side
where we're willing just to go and kill and obliterate anything
when we're scared.
The same way the dog barks at his shadow,
so too to human beings go to war when they see their shadow.
They don't want to be reminded of all the responsibilities.
They don't want to be reminded of all their failures.
They don't want to have to take responsibility for their actions.
When I look at the economic models,
of today. I see that as the idea of failure. When I see the shadow of, like, think of the shadow
economy. Like, we've all heard this term, right? What is the shadow economy? The shadow economy is
where we sell like illicit drugs. We sell all these things with bad behavior, all these things
that are technically illegal. Well, the shadow economy is probably doing a lot better than the
regular economy because at least the shadow economy in his own way is honest with itself.
Like they know what they're doing. Hey, yeah, we're doing a lot of illegal things, but they're not
lying to themselves. We're in today's economy, if you look at, you know, any sort of like stock
market valuations or, you know, boards of directors buying back their own shares, like, yeah,
our company's doing great, man, we're crushing it. No, you're not. You're not crushing.
You're sitting around lying to yourselves. And that's something where when you, when you're
you do that, whether you're a large corporation, whether you're George, or whether you're the
listener here, you know, when you're dishonest, you're empowering the shadow. When you lie to yourself,
you're allowing that monster to grow bigger and bigger and bigger until all of a sudden there's this
giant thing with fangs out there that wants to kill you and your family. But that, it's only the
shadow. All you need to do is recognize it and you can begin to reduce it to something that is
manageable. But too many people, myself included, have gone through life where we don't confront
the shadow. We don't take time to understand what is bothering us. We don't take time to understand
what we can do to make ourselves better. We don't take time to understand why our relationships
are not working. And I'm telling you, I know it sounds crazy, but a simple reflection on your
shadow, if you're honest with yourself, we'll begin to alleviate all of those symptoms.
It's a fascinating thing. It's an easy sort of meditation that you can begin today that will
help you understand where you're at in life. It'll help you understand what you're afraid of.
It'll help you tell the truth to yourself, to your loved ones, and make the world around you a little
bit better. That's what I got for today, ladies and gentlemen. I just kind of wanted to come out
here and share a meditation with you today. I wanted to share an idea of what the shadow can mean
to me, can mean to you, and what the shadow can do for you if you're willing to use it as a positive
thing and not be afraid of it. Understand the unconscious patterns in your life by looking at the
shadow, incorporated into your life and use its power. So we got for the ladies and gentlemen,
aloha.