Shadow—When someone else is living your life

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He may be mad, but there's method in his madness. There nearly always is method in madness. It's what drives men mad, being methodical. ~ G. K. Chesterton

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[Justin]

Let's talk about shadow.
I saw this trailer last night. I found it a bit off-putting. Shadow? I'll need to watch the full thing now.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/jbvnyrsL_CE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/jbvnyrsL_CE</a>

The topic remains elusive and confusing. To date, Marc Gafni seemed to provide the best description at ISE1 when he said:

"Shadow is when someone else is living your life"

I felt somewhat of a shock of understanding when he spoke those words however that still didn't hit the home run I needed. Ken Wilber provided 're-owning of our dis-owned self'. Okay, that's helpful and nicely packaged, but still not really getting at it. Robert Bly didn't contribute anything helpful in his imagery of the ol' proverbial bag of dead weight and drag behind us. Hmmmm.

What we do have is at least a pretty good understanding of a 'shadow attack'. When triggered, there is always a reactive response sending the body into some highly agitated and perturbed state. There are a variety of symptoms with a shadow attack, such as increase heart-rate, shallow breathing, sweating, trembling and perhaps some form of fight/flight/freeze response.

Does this suggest every reaction is a product of shadow? Still, this is a very visceral experience, where do those shadowy projections come in which Gafni alluded to?

It seems important to differentiate between shadow and trauma/toxins/blockages. That said, a 'shadow release' does not exist. I can gather we're not purging shadows but claiming them. However trauma/toxins/blockages can create the same symptoms throughout the body-mind system.

And this is where the edges begin to blur.

[jimtzu]

well... that trailer is way, way overdone and over produced. in fact, you could say it totally represents the shadow side of the spirituality biz. 

to me the shadow is the negative side of the ego.

[Michael]

Interesting trailer, thanks for sharing that.  It always strikes me as funny, and sometimes hilarious to see the "luminaries" that I've been having some small dealings with over the years go all Hollywood on us.  Or in this case, role up as "Warriors of Wisdom".     It took me a little while to get that this isn't a spoof thing, but is supposed to be taken seriously.

Be afraid!  Be VERY afraid of your SHADOW !!!   

Does this suggest every reaction is a product of shadow? Still, this is a very visceral experience, where do those shadowy projections come in which Gafni alluded to?

It seems important to differentiate between shadow and trauma/toxins/blockages. That said, a 'shadow release' does not exist. I can gather we're not purging shadows but claiming them. However trauma/toxins/blockages can create the same symptoms throughout the body-mind system.

And this is where the edges begin to blur.

It seems like the question you ask is about the source or cause of shadow.  So any behavior that has unconscious origins is shadow right?  Or reactive or compulsive behavior that is later regretted I suppose.

Seems like those things can be accounted for by "personality splits" as caused by trauma/toxins/blockages, or possibly by other things not easily accounted for by conventional psychology, such as transpersonal type things.... such as past-life stuff etc.

[henry]

"The Whole shines through by its own light alone, pervading everywhere, having all powers and eternal forms"~Abhinavagupta....Heartminders who endured all the conversations running through the IN forum, Gaia, Zaadz, etc., got a little more shadow education than we signed up for ....Carl Jung did the original shadow scholarship, but he might be dismayed by the current geeky celebrity "integral rock star" experts ruling the twilight roost 

[Michael]

(....Carl Jung did the original shadow scholarship, but he might be dismayed by the current geeky celebrity "integral rock star" experts ruling the twilight roost 

And Swami B might call that movie the dark side of the farce. 

[Jana]

The movie probably misses the point that humans are a generally fucked up species, and becoming more fucked up. Only nature heals/wholes, and so healing our fucked upness can only really occur via "filling up" on nature and light. Our being is only held together by the bandages we use to cover our broken parts, if we take off the bandages, Humpty Dumpty will fall to bits, and there is no-one to put him together again. Poking around in shadow without a deep connection and grounding in nature is stupid, for it just creates more shadow. Heal in nature and shadow is eliminated...for shadow is a mal-response to inadequate lifeforce voltage and general insanity born from separation from the intelligence-frequency of nature/cosmos. Shadow is born from lack of light, voltage or love.

[Michael]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/O2zX2mQKDoI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/O2zX2mQKDoI</a>

[feral]

Heartminders who endured all the conversations running through the IN forum, Gaia, Zaadz, etc., got a little more shadow education than we signed up for

Well isn't that fer damn sure.

Sorry I haven't been here much. I've been traveling a lot. After a bit of champagne on New Years I was determined to call Henry and wish him happy new year, but alas, I couldn't find the phone number. Consider yourself "Happy New Yeared", dear henry!

[henry]

Yay rev. Rhonda! . I promise to do advanced shadow therapy if you will check in here every couple of months or so. M and Steven may have my number but i'll make sure you have it. Big Best Wishes for this important new year

[Jana]

I wonder what the bottom line of that movie is...
It should be something like go plant millions of trees to redeem yourself. I respect the tree planters like David Sereda to bits.

[marianthi]

Henry:

Threatening here to USE your number...

[Justin]

Seems like those things can be accounted for by "personality splits" as caused by trauma/toxins/blockages, or possibly by other things not easily accounted for by conventional psychology, such as transpersonal type things.... such as past-life stuff etc.

Agreed.

It seems the shadow can be totally conscious but not fully integrated and re-owned. From what I have come to understand working with trauma/toxins/blockages is where we hit those home runs for full visceral embodiment. Shadow work like 3-2-1 seems to be the type of micromanaging that keeps perpetuating stories rather then dismantling them and seeing through them. I have never found it transformative—perhaps a tad insightful and mostly entertaining. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

Shadow is born from lack of light, voltage or love.

Wilber and the experts at ISE say the greater the light the greater the shadow. I dunno.

[Michael]

Just curious Justin - have you done the Byron Katie work at all?  I found that to be VERY useful at a particular time in my life...  so much so that I notice that I seem to have rewired my neurals from that work, such that I automatically react with a turnaround in typically reactive situations, where "shadow personality" tends to take the reins...  Very interesting.  So that my reactions are split (if that's the right word), into both the Byron Katie reaction, and the usual fight or flight reaction - more or less simultaneously.

Wilber and the experts at ISE say the greater the light the greater the shadow. I dunno.

I take everything from Wilber with a large dose of salt anymore... for reasons fairly well documented on this forum, if anyone had the insane time or persistence to go through it all    - especially about evolution and shadow.  I still reel when I remember a wildly inappropriate quote within a particular context, where Wilber said that "Teal's shadow is its own greatness".  I know, you had to be there, but it struck me at the time as one of the most grotesque gaffs I've ever had the perverse pleasure to marvel at.

[Jana]

Ah yes, but Gaffs are their greatest boons! It is only by seeing what fools we all are that we are truly free to be noble. hehehe, did I say that?
How we thrash and contort within unnatural constraints and work against our own true and deepest nature, points directly to a parallel universe where we do indeed live our dreams.

Me too Michael...noticing the division between projecting and owning. I actually use owning like vallium...works everytime, but puts me to sleep. Owning also pisses others off cause they have nothing to "fight and push" against.

[Jane]

Michael, that is funny, Teal's shadow is its own greatness!  No wonder you are loading on the salt, and I would also send a few doses of humility into the blend.  The thing is,  the only way to move beyond shadow is to live with a truly broken heart... a heart broken open to all of the situations we find ourselves in..... Any 'teal aspirant' cannot move to 'this place beyond' without this kind of heart-broken-openness:  the woundedness, the sadnesses, the utter losses beyond any person's imaginings, the pain, the death, the gnashing, the railing, the weeping, all of it, is served up and included.   Shadow comes from not consuming the whole fare/fair, from picking and choosing, accepting some and denying some.   There is a lovely story somewhere of a master whose 12 year old son dies.  The master is inconsolable in grief and despair.  His disciples come to him and say, 'master why are you so grief-stricken.  You have taught us that all of life is an illusion of impermanence.  Why are you so caught now in your own grief?"  "Yes," the master said, "it is all an illusion.  And the death of a child is the great illusion of all."  It takes an incredible fortitude and clarity to be open and vulnerable to  the grief and sadness that is everywhere around us and more deeply embedded into the very stories of our lives, to refuse to shrink in contraction and shadow and instead to keep our hearts open, even in the face of the death of our own children, the death of our Beloved, the death of everything we hold so dear.   Even when the boon is enlightenment, nobody would ever willingly "choose" the tragic conditions to happen that allow for the emergence of an awake person.   And yet, without the tragic conditions, these gaffs are bandied about.... oh, I shutter to think of what will come next when the heat is turned up.

As an aside, the only way that I briefly got rid of my shadow was in a geographic cure.  I stood under the noon day sun on March 21st in Ecuador on the equator.   

I actually have this movie, the Shadow, sent by accident in a mail order.  I watched it.  It is meant for a certain kind of audience, and I think, as such, it is useful.  Lots of people have never considered 'shadow' let alone the 1-2-3 process or Byron Katie's work.  It is a primer to encourage those who might be ready to look deeper.

Jane