Holistic-Personal-Development.com

For the last week I have been reading The Bourne Ultimatum. I finished it this morning after reading the gory details of over 100 killings by the ultimate antagonist. An interesting story but what an assault on my mind.

Last night, for example, I had a dream that I was the owner of an AK-47 assault weapon. What is that about? I’ve never owned a gun in my life, nor do I want one. Is consciousness that impressionable? According to David Hawkin’s book Power vs. Force, reading a book like this has a dire influence on consciousness. I agree.

If the purpose of life is to align consciousness with God, then reading a novel of over 600 pages with so much killing is sure to take anyone off track. Literature has the potential to create a shift of energy in readers. Therefore, we always need to be aware of what type off shift we are inviting into our consciousness through our choices of reading material, or movies or television. I don’t need anymore AK- 47 assault weapons in my consciousness.

If you want to achieve a shift towards love and compassion, then you don’t want to read a novel about people getting their brains shot out. You need to read about love and compassion. We become what we think about. Like attracts like. Images, words, thoughts, ideas all have the power to change our vibratory alignment of consciousness.

When I cook, if I want to make the dish spicy, I add spices. It’s the same with our consciousness. If you want to suffuse it with love, give it love. How do you think the minds of the mass killers got the way they are. Not by reading love stories, that’s for sure.

A positive mental diet is worth striving for. Otherwise, our consciousness has no way to progress. You can be moved to the heights of love through inspiring words and thoughts and then you can fall from the heights you climbed by filling your mind with images of senseless violence. And after a while you become desensitized to it and you don’t even realize the negative impact it is having on you.

But the negativity is there. Perhaps you notice that you’re not as happy. Or perhaps your words are a little more critical to those you love. Perhaps the joy in your life just disappears.

Don’t accept this as the normal state of affairs. Just because you live in a society that consumes violence in its entertainment industry doesn’t mean that you have to. If joy is missing in your life then take a look at the literature you read and the television and movies you watch.

Some of you might remember years ago a highly publicized heavyweight boxing title fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, fought in Manila, Philippines. It was called the Thriller in Manila. And it was carried on network television in the United States. Huge ratings. And guess what else. That night, domestic violence went up to an all-time high. Coincidence or direct influence?

I contend that it was an influencing factor. Perhaps it has to do with our ancient evolutionary heritage, that the aggressive nature of our ancient past is still buried deep within the psyche and witnessing violence awakens it. Think about it. Millions of people were cheering for their favorite fighter to cause bodily harm to the other.

Is there a connection between violence in the world and the amount of violence in the entertainment industry? How many killings does a young impressionable person see on television in the first 17 years of life? Thousands. Do you think there is a desensitizing to life going on during that process? How could there not be?

Don’t take my word on any of this. Find our for yourself. Do an experiment. For one week, read the most inspired words you can find. Read uplifting true stories or fiction, or mystical poetry. Watch inspiring movies.

After a week of this, check in with your emotions and see how you feel. Unless you are a hardened criminal, I bet you will feel uplifted, optimistic, joyful and relaxed.

Now take a week to read the most violent books you can find and the most violent movies you can find. Don’t allow any uplifting words to influence you. Then check in with your emotions again. How is your anxiety level? How do you sleep at night? What kind of dreams are you having?

I went through this process over the last two weeks. The first week I was reading books about higher states of consciousness and mysticism and it was filling my consciousness with bliss. It was so blissful that sometimes I couldn’t sleep. I was just in awe.

And last week, I read The Bourne Ultimatum. The bliss faded away and last night I had the dream about the AK- 47 assault weapon.

Enough of that kind of influence in my life. I’ll take the bliss over an assault weapon dream any day.

What about you? Do your own experiment and let me know how it goes.