"You create your reality"

[Bring4th_Austin]

This thread deals with some of the broadest and most ingrained social issues we face in our society. It's encouraging to see such passion going into the discussion and how to reconcile these things with the Law of One and other Confederation teachings. In fact, I'd say these discussions are inevitable, and disagreement is also inevitable.

To speak to the heart of the OP, the idea of "creating your own reality" is an incredibly common theme within the New Age community and beyond. There are many varying interpretations of this statement, a lot of them being incompatible with each other. What most people can agree on is that the statement is true, what is disagreed on is what the statement actually means.

The idea can certainly fit nicely with the Law of One. Ra consistently speaks about our own nature as the Creator. The Creator! What can be more empowering? We exist, innately and by birthright, as the One that is All, that created All, and permeates throughout the entirety of existence. Each and every one of us exists as this Creator. This presents a sort of radical equality as well. It's not just me that is the Creator – all things, all people, all other-selves – ALL is the Creator. We are ultimately empowered and ultimately humbled by the realization of this truth.

But then we sit with that concept and it starts to create a bit of trouble, especially the type of conundrum being faced in this thread. If we truly are the Creator, then do we create the bad things that happen to us? Why do bad things happen at all? Do we really choose them? Does a person really choose to be assaulted?

I think that most of us come to this material because of the strong resonance and empowerment of this ultimate truth. We know, in our hearts, that everything is connected. We know that we share a common foundation with every aspect of this universe. This necessarily includes the good and the bad. The most difficult thing to reconcile is where exactly we fit in with that "bad," how exactly do we share this baseline connection with such horrible things? Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, rape and rape culture, abuse and hatred and murder and war.

[Aside: I think the most important thing to realize in discussions like this, which tend to get heated, is we are all attempting to figure this out for ourselves. It's maybe one of the hardest things to do here on this particular planet at this particular time, especially for seekers like us, perhaps many wanderers, who are particularly sensitive. And it is really an intensely personal thing to attempt to internalize these things. The types of barriers around beliefs we hold in order to cope with the harshness of this reality are probably more hardened than other types of beliefs. That makes discussion difficult.]

It seems to me like the discussion here has boiled down into two questions:

1) Do we really ultimately have a hand in the bad things that happen to us?
2) Are we perpetuating bad things when we put our focus on the dynamics involved in those bad things?

I can't say my opinion on the first question is very eloquent or intricate. I trend greatly towards Octavia's eloquently expressed opinion, in that it might be ultimately true that we are the Creator, that which creates all things, and some level of our being creates the situation we experience. However, we simply cannot understand the dynamics of how this really happens. I simply do not find the concepts discussed in which a person "attracts" these things to themselves to be useful unless that attraction can, in some way, be distinguished and recognized (which it cannot). We add in the fact that we exist in a reality with billions of other individuals "attracting" things and we get a very vast and impenetrable system of intermingling "attractions." The majesty of such interconnected metaphysical dynamics does inspire awe, but I really can't believe it is as simple as has been spelled out anywhere in this thread.

(It may be useful to point out that Ra talked about random events and catalyst – perhaps only seemingly random, but random enough for Ra to call them such. Meaning that for all intents and purposes we could possible experience something both random and traumatic.)

When the perception of this complex dynamic of "attraction" is so muddled, I think it does a disservice to those who experience traumatic or hurtful things at the hands of others to pop up and remind them "Hey, you created this!"

(There are some rare situations where such a statement will help the person shed the identity of victim and find the ultimate power to overcome their trauma, but this is quite exceptional.)

Getting to the second question, to tell a victim not to dwell upon their incident also completely ignores the mysterious and impactful nature of trauma (both personal and cultural). It's impossible to "just not dwell on it" when there are constant reminders, whether from your outer environment or inner environment, of the things which continues to affect you. This could be true of a victim of rape or also on a broader sense of those who fight against things like racism. To place responsibility of a trauma on a person because they are "dwelling on it" hurts far more than it helps. And the unfortunate thing is that this so often (though not in every case) comes from the type of person who will consistently dismiss the aggressor and focus only on the victim.

This idea of "just don't dwell on it" comes in many forms. One is a dismissal of a victims experiences because other people experience bad things too. This is common when discussing things like sexual abuse, racism, homophobia, etc. It happens when a person or group points out racism (necessarily discussing race and racial identity), and is met with replies like "everybody experiences things they don't like" or "there are men who had truly bad experiences themselves,"

Yes, true! And I think everyone is aware that experience is innately subjective, meaning that each person has a "most horrible" experience in their life that is probably quite awful. But what good does it do to dismiss racism, sexual abuse, and things of that nature just because other people experience bad things too? Why even bring it up? It's like going to a breast cancer awareness benefit and saying, "Sure, you have breast cancer, but you know some people have bone cancer." What perspective does it add?

These issues of racism, sexism, etc. are systemic and real and have to be acknowledged before anything can be done about it. Some individuals may be able to happily say, "I don't experience boundaries built upon race." Then they feel that all it takes to bring equality is to share this perception with victims of inequality. The intentions are good and the truth is ultimately valid – in the end, we are all radically equal. But this equality has yet to manifest for those who experience racism. The fact is, these people experience constantly and consistently boundaries built upon race, and to tell them to stop dwelling on these boundaries because they are creating them by attempting to call attention to them sounds like, to them, the same as saying "Just take it and stop complaining."

This is similar to rape culture. I would personally not understand rape culture and its effects unless it was discussed so heavily by feminists. Rape culture, without a doubt, contributes to both sexual assault as well as dismissal of victims of sexual assault. I find it incredibly difficult to buy that discussing rape culture, or focusing on that which isn't wanted, then creates the conditions for it to perpetuate. The condition existed before it was discussed. The condition perpetuated itself before it was discussed. It is such an ingrained aspect of our culture that there is no way to bring light to it except to point it out and discuss it continually, wherever it is seen. In doing so, culture may slowly shift to where these unconscious (and conscious) behaviors are brought to light and will eventually shift or cease. This will inevitably decrease the instance of sexual assault.

Thus, focus upon the cultural injustice does the opposite of perpetuate it – it helps to change it.

Of course, there is the potential in pointing out how differences are used against those less privileged to cause further distortion and increase the chasm. Everyone is responsible for how they communicate, and if it is clear that what you are communicating is not serving your goals, then you share responsibility for the repercussions.

This mentality, however, similar to that of informing a victim of their hand in their experience, often ignores the aggressor. Yes, perhaps approaching social justice issues with a certain tone causes people to recoil and be closed off to your ideas, but those people who recoil are driving the separation just as much (if not more) than those attempting to bring attention to a social issue. The burden, in my mind, is on the socially privileged to be more accommodating and patient.

There is wisdom in remembering the ways in which we are similar instead of focusing totally on how we are different, but this does not bring about awareness and change of discrimination and abuse.

Perhaps, once things like racism and rape culture are a thing of the past, when there are no more aggressors, then the boundaries these issues deal with may be erased for good. But these things are cultural in nature, a culture which is multifaceted and ultimately built off of the dynamics of differences between us. These differences can be acknowledged and accepted, but they are not accepted yet, and to stop paying attention how these differences are used against certain people would be premature.

I think this is easily evidenced by pretty much any successful social justice movement from the past. The Civil Rights Act was passed because of consistent focus on the issue of discrimination. Many people were brought to awareness because of the loud protests and continually pointing out how race was being used against people. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom did not create more discrimination because so many people focused on the discrimination, but rather brought light to the discrimination and helped culture shift towards justice. The same is true for pointing out cultural conditions that create today's victims and aggressors.

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It touched me when SMC shared about herself, like I said, but sharing stories of others is trying to make it not about her own healing.

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SMC came to this thread and shared what she shared not to seek healing, but to deny that she creates her reality through an attempt at making others disbelieve they create their reality through the use of examples of people who are unrelated to this forum.

I cannot imagine where you get that idea from or how you presume to understand someone else's intention in simply sharing a story. Sharing testimonial of people who have experienced something similar, something traumatic, and something systemic is a way to show how it is systemic, how it exists beyond an individual experience. Perhaps someone resonates with a story of someone else's experiences and thus shares it to better express their own feelings or experiences. It's up to an individual to determine what is in support of their own healing.