Inner and Outer Worlds

By Carol Roberts, MD

“It is insane to be normal in an insane world”

“Normality” is a relative term that depends on your degree of programmed conditioning into the culture you were born to. Recognizing that we have been programmed is not an admission of stupidity or naivete. Programming must occur for a child to be included in the culture it was born into. Education for the role(s) a person intends to fulfill must be done according to the prevailing wisdom, with updates as knowledge expands. 

The strength of one’s belief depends on several factors, - how much you admire, love -or fear- the people who are teaching you the basic precepts of life in your family/school/neighborhood/culture as well as your natural proclivities as might be suggested by your astrological chart. (I feel half my readers freezing at the mention. Bear with me, I will do an article on astrology next month.) 

But conditioning and education must always be open to review by you yourself. Graduation is only the beginning. To continue to learn beyond the diploma is imperative. Now comes the harder task - participating in life with an open mind and an open heart and always to question the things we prefer to take for granted. Or dismiss reflexively (like astrology perhaps?)

For example, materialism. When we were kids we knew for a fact that a baseball bat was solid, and could do harm to your head. Now we must grudgingly admit the bat, - as well as the head itself - are vaporous collections of mostly empty space, with a few vibrating “particles” that could be anywhere, - until you look at them, at which time they freeze and pretend to be solid. How disturbing! But demonstrably true nonetheless. Materialism disappears when you look at it, quite unlike the actual, “quantum” universe. At this point logic is of no use, and deeper levels of “knowing” are required. 

For example, the dissolution of so called reality when under the influence of a mind expanding fungus may be the way to experience, not only to understand, the true nature of the Universe. The shimmering aliveness and insane colors of the walls, the miracle of your fingers moving when you will them to, and the clear interactivity of the living world is something we must learn for ourselves. No library of books can have so profound an impact as one afternoon spent riding on a magic mushroom!

So there are two kinds of knowledge, the kind that feeds your intellect and builds your conceptual understanding and the actual experiences you collect in life. Many people ignore one kind and rely only on the other to guide decisions and illuminate their lives. Some people live in their heads - logicians, engineers, scientists, maybe you, - others never visit that territory. They are the dreamers, the artists, the visionaries. Both kinds of perception are valid and important. Put them together and you are complete. Inner life plus outer learning is the Yin and Yang that we need at this dangerous time, this exciting time, this time of profound change.

We know things must change, we know we should do something to help that change along. The single best thing to do is learn as much as you can about what excites you. Participate in life. Explore your inner being. Learn from silence. Explore outside your personal box, and inside it too. Bring your own joy to the people around you. Have it come from the deep joy of doing what you came to Earth School to do. Your job is not to save the world, but to do what you came here to do. Be nice. Be happy. 

THAT’S ALL YOU NEED - BE YOURSELF, AND BE HAPPY!