Jayke
29th July 2011, 21:47
I've wanted to write a thread on projection for some time now, after being introduced to the concept several years ago I've had a lot of time to play around with it and discover how profound it can be for anyone who decides to embark on a spiritual journey into self...
Understanding the mirror self is the foundation of gnosis, alchemy, buddhism...every spiritual tradition tells us in one way or another that 'the world is our mirror' yet even though people understand these teachings on an intellectual level...how many people can actually hold themselves to the levels of self response-ability needed to actually embody the core teachings of every genuine spiritual tradition that's ever existed...even the great masters fall short from time to time which is why forgiveness is stressed so much...we all do it, it's natural to notice differences and create judgments yet the enlighhtened master knows how to forgive just as quickly as they judge thereby allowing the river of life to continue flowing unhindered...forgiveness is just having the ability to let go of judgements (the barriers) that keep us separate from our whole divine selves.
Judgements and labels of any kind create karma, we can either create positive karma or negative karma depending on what seeds we plant with our thoughts. The things we teach in this lifetime are planting the seeds of karma that we can reap if we don't become enlightened now and have to reincarnate over again...do we really want our karmic seeds to be tainted with words of anything that's less than heart warming...a persons vocabulary gives great insight into what challenges they're working on at any given moment...when we recognise this we can consciously reflect a persons vocabulary back to them to see how well they're integrating those aspects within themselves...if they respond in good jest then it's a sign the projection is conscious and the word was chosen for a well-determined purpose...if we mirror a persons vocabulary back to them and they respond with yet more projections, it's a clear sign that the projection is outside their current awareness and they may not even realise they're having difficulty accepting those aspects within themselves...by understanding how peoples words are just a reflection of their own inner challenges it allows us to respond out of love instead of getting sucked into the inner dramatics of what a person may be going through at any given moment in time...
The concept of projection was introduced to the modern world by Carl Jung...Carl Jung was a student of the ancient tradition of alchemy, particularly that of the alchemical texts left behind by st germaine...in those texts it states that immortality of the spirit is gained by allowing the ego to assimilate every aspect of self...the positive along with the negative...and as we do that our inner power and sense of self expands so that we can grow and become one with the entire universe of experience...so that our consciousness becomes aware enough so that we may live on beyond death and break free of this matrix of illusion.
As a forum we can only communicate with words, without realizing or not the inner workings of our souls are being displayed for the entire world to see with every word that we type and if by what we type and read we have a less than positive emotional reaction to the words of someone else here then that's the perfect opportunity for us to begin to integrate that energy and aspect back into ourselves thereby bringing us one step closer to that goal of becoming a completed enlightened human being.
Debbie Ford was the person whose books have done a great job at bringing projection to my awareness all them many years ago so out of gratitude I'll finish with some quotes from her book 'the dark side of the light chasers':
Projection is a fascinating phenomenon they failed to teach most of us about in school. It is an involuntary transfer of our own unconscious behavior onto others, so it appears to us that these qualities actually exist in the other people. When we have anxiety about our emotions or unacceptable parts of our personalities, we attribute these qualities -as a defense mechanism- to external objects and other people. When we have little tolerance for others, for example, we are likely to attribute the sense of our own inferiority to them. Of course, there's always a "hook" that invites our projection. Some imperfect quality in other people activates some aspect of ourselves that wants our attention. So whatever we don't own about ourselves we project onto other people.
We see only that which we are. I like to think of it in terms of energy. Imagine having a hundred different electrical outlets on your chest. Each outlet represents a different quality. The qualities we acknowledge and embrace have cover plates over them. They are safe: no electricity runs through them. But the qualities that are not okay with us, which we have not yet owned, do have a charge. So when others come along who act out one of these qualities they plug right into us. For example, if we deny or are uncomfortable with our anger, we will attract angry people into our lives. We will suppress our own angry feelings and judge people whom we see as angry. Since we lie to ourselves about our own internal feelings, the only way we can find them is to see them in others. Other people mirror back our hidden emotions and feelings, which allows us to recognize and reclaim them.
We instinctively draw back from our own negative projections. It's easier to examine what we are attracted to than what repels us. If I am offended by your arrogance it is because I'm not embracing my own arrogance. This is either arrogance that I am now demonstrating in my life and not seeing, or arrogance that I deny I am capable of demonstrating in the future. If I am offended by arrogance I need to look closely at all areas of my life and ask myself these questions: When have I been arrogant in the past? Am I being arrogant now? Could I be arrogant in the future? It would certainly be arrogant of me to answer no to these questions without really looking at myself, or without asking others if they have ever experienced my being arrogant. The act of judging someone else is arrogant, so obviously all of us have the capacity to be arrogant. If I embrace my own arrogance, I won't be upset by someone else's. I might notice it, but it won't affect me. My arrogance outlet will have a cover plate on it. It is only when you're lying to yourself or hating some aspect of yourself that you'll get an emotional charge from someone else's behavior.
We project our own perceived shortcomings onto others. We say to others what we should be saying to ourselves. When we judge others we are judging ourselves. If you constantly beat yourself up with negative thoughts, you will either beat up on the people around you - verbally, emotionally, or physically - or you will beat up on yourself by destroying some area of your own life. What you do and what you say is no accident. There are no accidents in the life that you create. In this holographic world, everyone is you and you are always talking to yourself.
As long as we deny the existence of certain traits in ourselves, we continue to perpetuate the myth that others have something we don't possess. When we admire someone, it is an opportunity to find yet another aspect of ourselves. We have to take back our positive projections as well as our negative projections. We have to remove the plugs we've attached to others, turn them around, and plug them back into ourselves. Until we are able to retrieve our projections it is impossible for us to see our full potential and experience the totality of who we really are.
There is an old saying, "It takes one to know one." We see in others what we like and don't like in ourselves. If we embrace these parts of ourselves we will be able to see others as they are, not as we see them through our cloud of projection. There is another saying that the three greatest mysteries of the world are air to birds, water to fish, and man unto himself. We are able to see everything in front of us in the outside world. All we have to do is open our eyes and look around. We cannot see ourselves. We need a mirror to see ourselves. You are my mirror and I am yours.
Understanding the mirror self is the foundation of gnosis, alchemy, buddhism...every spiritual tradition tells us in one way or another that 'the world is our mirror' yet even though people understand these teachings on an intellectual level...how many people can actually hold themselves to the levels of self response-ability needed to actually embody the core teachings of every genuine spiritual tradition that's ever existed...even the great masters fall short from time to time which is why forgiveness is stressed so much...we all do it, it's natural to notice differences and create judgments yet the enlighhtened master knows how to forgive just as quickly as they judge thereby allowing the river of life to continue flowing unhindered...forgiveness is just having the ability to let go of judgements (the barriers) that keep us separate from our whole divine selves.
Judgements and labels of any kind create karma, we can either create positive karma or negative karma depending on what seeds we plant with our thoughts. The things we teach in this lifetime are planting the seeds of karma that we can reap if we don't become enlightened now and have to reincarnate over again...do we really want our karmic seeds to be tainted with words of anything that's less than heart warming...a persons vocabulary gives great insight into what challenges they're working on at any given moment...when we recognise this we can consciously reflect a persons vocabulary back to them to see how well they're integrating those aspects within themselves...if they respond in good jest then it's a sign the projection is conscious and the word was chosen for a well-determined purpose...if we mirror a persons vocabulary back to them and they respond with yet more projections, it's a clear sign that the projection is outside their current awareness and they may not even realise they're having difficulty accepting those aspects within themselves...by understanding how peoples words are just a reflection of their own inner challenges it allows us to respond out of love instead of getting sucked into the inner dramatics of what a person may be going through at any given moment in time...
The concept of projection was introduced to the modern world by Carl Jung...Carl Jung was a student of the ancient tradition of alchemy, particularly that of the alchemical texts left behind by st germaine...in those texts it states that immortality of the spirit is gained by allowing the ego to assimilate every aspect of self...the positive along with the negative...and as we do that our inner power and sense of self expands so that we can grow and become one with the entire universe of experience...so that our consciousness becomes aware enough so that we may live on beyond death and break free of this matrix of illusion.
As a forum we can only communicate with words, without realizing or not the inner workings of our souls are being displayed for the entire world to see with every word that we type and if by what we type and read we have a less than positive emotional reaction to the words of someone else here then that's the perfect opportunity for us to begin to integrate that energy and aspect back into ourselves thereby bringing us one step closer to that goal of becoming a completed enlightened human being.
Debbie Ford was the person whose books have done a great job at bringing projection to my awareness all them many years ago so out of gratitude I'll finish with some quotes from her book 'the dark side of the light chasers':
Projection is a fascinating phenomenon they failed to teach most of us about in school. It is an involuntary transfer of our own unconscious behavior onto others, so it appears to us that these qualities actually exist in the other people. When we have anxiety about our emotions or unacceptable parts of our personalities, we attribute these qualities -as a defense mechanism- to external objects and other people. When we have little tolerance for others, for example, we are likely to attribute the sense of our own inferiority to them. Of course, there's always a "hook" that invites our projection. Some imperfect quality in other people activates some aspect of ourselves that wants our attention. So whatever we don't own about ourselves we project onto other people.
We see only that which we are. I like to think of it in terms of energy. Imagine having a hundred different electrical outlets on your chest. Each outlet represents a different quality. The qualities we acknowledge and embrace have cover plates over them. They are safe: no electricity runs through them. But the qualities that are not okay with us, which we have not yet owned, do have a charge. So when others come along who act out one of these qualities they plug right into us. For example, if we deny or are uncomfortable with our anger, we will attract angry people into our lives. We will suppress our own angry feelings and judge people whom we see as angry. Since we lie to ourselves about our own internal feelings, the only way we can find them is to see them in others. Other people mirror back our hidden emotions and feelings, which allows us to recognize and reclaim them.
We instinctively draw back from our own negative projections. It's easier to examine what we are attracted to than what repels us. If I am offended by your arrogance it is because I'm not embracing my own arrogance. This is either arrogance that I am now demonstrating in my life and not seeing, or arrogance that I deny I am capable of demonstrating in the future. If I am offended by arrogance I need to look closely at all areas of my life and ask myself these questions: When have I been arrogant in the past? Am I being arrogant now? Could I be arrogant in the future? It would certainly be arrogant of me to answer no to these questions without really looking at myself, or without asking others if they have ever experienced my being arrogant. The act of judging someone else is arrogant, so obviously all of us have the capacity to be arrogant. If I embrace my own arrogance, I won't be upset by someone else's. I might notice it, but it won't affect me. My arrogance outlet will have a cover plate on it. It is only when you're lying to yourself or hating some aspect of yourself that you'll get an emotional charge from someone else's behavior.
We project our own perceived shortcomings onto others. We say to others what we should be saying to ourselves. When we judge others we are judging ourselves. If you constantly beat yourself up with negative thoughts, you will either beat up on the people around you - verbally, emotionally, or physically - or you will beat up on yourself by destroying some area of your own life. What you do and what you say is no accident. There are no accidents in the life that you create. In this holographic world, everyone is you and you are always talking to yourself.
As long as we deny the existence of certain traits in ourselves, we continue to perpetuate the myth that others have something we don't possess. When we admire someone, it is an opportunity to find yet another aspect of ourselves. We have to take back our positive projections as well as our negative projections. We have to remove the plugs we've attached to others, turn them around, and plug them back into ourselves. Until we are able to retrieve our projections it is impossible for us to see our full potential and experience the totality of who we really are.
There is an old saying, "It takes one to know one." We see in others what we like and don't like in ourselves. If we embrace these parts of ourselves we will be able to see others as they are, not as we see them through our cloud of projection. There is another saying that the three greatest mysteries of the world are air to birds, water to fish, and man unto himself. We are able to see everything in front of us in the outside world. All we have to do is open our eyes and look around. We cannot see ourselves. We need a mirror to see ourselves. You are my mirror and I am yours.