EE Articles: Consciousness Revolution - The Youth Response to Technology

Meme Courtesy the Internet

 In reviewing the definite impact technology is having on our youth, our minds can easily become fixated on the negatives because of how prevalent they are. Sexting, virtual sex, streaming pornography and the easy ability to meet strangers online are all new realities made possible by the technology era.

Yet technology brings positives as well. Remote and online education programs are typically more flexible and more feasible. The large availability of data from various resources leads to more comprehensive research and more conclusive findings.

The exposure to different cultures and ways of thinking leads to greater tolerance and there are countless income generating opportunities for young writers, programmers and online entrepreneurs.

Let us look at the different facets of a teenager’s life and consider technology’s influence and try to identify the picture that is developing.

Home & Family

Children are now requesting laptops, tablets, cell phones and video games at younger ages and the increasing sales of these devices every Christmas shows that their parents are listening.

However children are not the only ones affected. Technology has changed the way of living and working for parents. Thanks to the internet and the many mobile platforms, parents can easily work from home. While this is still highly romanticized and touted as giving parents ‘more time at home with the kids’, what it really translates into is parents who are always working at home.

Even when not working, parents may tend to recreate online, visiting social media sites or playing online games.

What this means is that many people who share a home, very rarely share quality time together. Each person is plugged into their own device.

“Alone Together” is a phenomenon that psychoanalyst Sherry Turkle explores in her book of the same name and she discusses among several things, the sense of community and connection people now derive and expect from technology while expecting less from each other in person.

School & Education

For a long time the book was synonymous with education. That is no longer so. The nails on the coffin for books were firmly secured the minute the advanced search engine was created. Spending hours poring through the pages of various texts is simply archaic and a waste of time.

To make matters worse for the book lovers, the search engine’s results are also not only limited to text. Videos provide visual instruction and present opportunities to easily learn new skills without attending a course or institution of learning.

Education providers therefore are forced to change with the times and provide more visually stimulating computerized environments to engage young minds.

What this means or rather strongly suggests is that the brains of the young have been rewired somewhat. The old linear, sequential manner of processing information as is encouraged by book reading has been retired. Emphasis is now placed on information gathering skills which focus on how to skim large quantities of data from multiple sources and retrieve what is pertinent. Memory retention is also not as important as critical analysis.

Technology writer, Nicholas Carr has greatly supported this notion in his book “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains”. He states:

“...the argument is that online activities—surfing, searching, jumping from e-mail to text—actually change the nature of the brain. The more time we spend online, the more we are incapable of quiet reverie, not because of habits of mind but because of a rewiring of our circuitry.”

Pop Culture and Celebrity Stardom

The effects on this may still be downplayed by a media that does not yet wish to lose their venerated cash cows in Hollywood. However it stands to reason that the ability for anyone to become a star by posting a YouTube video displaying their talent will affect the perception of stardom.

Fullscreen, Inc. is a company which helps to finance videos for young creators, from any part of the world. According to their CEO, George Strompolos, any teenager with a web camera who can connect with an audience can become a millionaire and they have helped to create several. These internet stars, which are generally unknown to those over the age of 30, have their own substantial fan base and following and they can come from any part of the world.

What this means is that firmly rooted into the psyche of the new emerging youth culture is that you don’t need to go to New York or Hollywood to become famous. Literally anyone from anywhere can be a star.

Money and Careers

Online entrepreneurship is booming and even among the young. Almost anyone who has access to a computer can create a blog and again once the content is engaging, once a niche market can be found, money can be made. There’s also money in selling photography, web programming, affiliate marketing, virtual outsourcing to brick and mortar companies and of course these skills can be acquired – online!

What this means is the traditional way of making money, following the path of school, college and ‘5 day a week’ job is being booted out along with books. Anyone can make a lot of money at any age and from anywhere.

Views on Politics

For many people, religion and politics are hallmarks of what define you as an individual and are what gives you a sense of stability and belonging within a community. However a young person’s community is no longer just the people he physically meets in his neighbourhood at church, temple or mosque but rather anyone in cyberspace who share his interests.

In times past, governments attempted to control people’s thinking by controlling the media. Technology has severely compromised this control because for example, it is hard to gobble up the sensational media coverage of terrorism when video footage of serene images pop up for a region reportedly under bomb and gun fire.

2011 is recorded in history as the year of major social media organized uprisings. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all played roles in the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Bahrain as well as the Occupy Movements in the United States. Quite worthy of mention is the sharing of lessons learnt between the different activist groups such as when Tunisian Facebook users advised their Egyptian peers to ‘Put vinegar or onion under your scarf for tear gas’.

Image courtesy: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Essam_Sharaf

The London rioters used another telecommunications channel - the Blackberry Messenger service.

What this means is that young people are aware of the potential that technology offers and have been exposed to the power it can wield to influence political events. Various governments have responded by limiting and controlling internet usage and have even at times blocked cell phone connectivity. This response however has only pushed the younger innovative minds to go underground as there are talks of a new ‘off-the-grid’ network.

Views on Religion and God

I am from the Caribbean and most everyone I know attends church, mosque or temple and practice some fundamental religion but yet here I am belonging to the Light Body Travelers community, exploring energy work and practising meditation. I may not belong to the age bracket defined by William May when he introduced our focus on Youth Culture but I can see how the expansion of my views was partially affected by technology.

It is relatively hard to simply accept that those who don’t believe in God the way you do are doomed to hell’s fire when you have the opportunity to meet and interact with so many different people across various cultures.

The internet also provides easy accessibility to many holy books and teachings online, and discussion forums where one can be exposed to different dissecting views.

What this means is that young people have a unique opportunity to develop more comprehensive world views and are abandoning old dogmas and prejudices. Consider Will Smith’s children who are reading quantum physics and books such as “The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life”.

In fact I believe that religion is slowly but surely being replaced by a more all-inclusive, earth conscious spirituality.

                     

Views on Love

The children growing up in smart homes and heavily computerized environments are also the children of an alarmingly growing percentage of divorced parents. For many of those whose parents are still together, they watch them argue and fight and spend little to no time having meaningful interactions. And these are people who fell in love after growing up in the same neighbourhood or attending the same college.

On the other hand, these young people go online and can find someone they can connect with. This person shares similar world views and likes the same things they do. Thanks to video calling capabilities, they can see each other and fall in love from half way across the world.

For many, the hours spent texting and chatting long distance strengthens their sense of a soul connection and their belief in a ‘one true soul-mate’ or twin flame. The reality however is sometimes painfully disastrous.

What this means is that young people no longer see themselves as limited to only finding love or casual friendships in their physical location. Some of these ‘too good to be true’ relationships unfortunately are exactly that, which means that there is also a growing dissatisfaction with love regardless of where is found. They yearn for something deeper, something more real, truer even. Something connected to spirit perhaps?

So What Does This All Mean?

There are many articles that speak to the real psychological problems of depression and narcissism among young people who feel the need to constantly check how many likes their latest ‘selfie’ photo has garnered. Cyber-bullying has been directly linked to some teenage suicides and suicide attempts, and online sexual predators do prey on the gullible young.

However there are those who hold more optimistic views as far as technology and the young are concerned. Carr believes that there is an ‘incipient Net backlash’ which will be led by the idealistic young. Blogger Manel Blanco adds a spiritual element and sees the internet as ‘a platform in which we can create energetic webs’ that can help to raise consciousness. My view embraces these two.

I believe that a consciousness revolution is imminent and its rumblings are already starting.  I believe that this consciousness revolution will look a lot like Adam Bucko’s and Matthew Fox’s Occupy Spirituality and I believe that it will eventually lead to us discarding the internet. We simply won’t need it, not when telepathy, soul travel, acute intuition and psychic abilities all become available to us at higher levels of consciousness.

 

The off grid network that people currently seek has always existed and technology is nothing but a prelude to all this. We have arrived at the ‘the technological simulation of consciousness’ that Marshall McLuhan spoke of and it is only a matter of time before we recognize that the simulation is nothing but a poor imitation.

I believe too that it is the young - the ones who recognise the archaic uselessness of our current systems; the ones who are breaking down mental, religious and financial barriers; the ones whose brains are being trained for higher analytical thinking; the ones who have felt the pinch of being ‘together and yet alone’ and who are looking for a love that is real and spiritual - will be the ones leading the way.

What do you think?

Image courtesy: http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/book-review-occupy-spirituality

As originally submitted to Spiritualist International Magazine for their Youth Culture focus under the title - 'How Technology is Shaping Youth Culture'. Apologies to all those who had problems accessing it on their site. Their techies are busy working to resolve the Chrome compatibility issues!

Love, light & blessings,

Elizabeth Energy

Your Ego is Not Your Enemy

Image Courtesy: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/59250551321012711/

There are many people in the spiritually awakening community who would advocate that overcoming the ego is the greatest challenge for one on a path of Self-Realization.

This ideology does have many merits. The ego is the source of separate consciousness which opposes unity consciousness and it is also what drives competition, animosity, feelings of inferiority/superiority and a lot of what are termed to be ills or challenges for the person on a path of enlightenment. 

However the approach for overcoming the ego can't be to treat it as an enemy you must resist. Anything that you resist, tends to persist and  something that many of us need to get is this - 

Your ego is a part of you that exists to help you understand yourself! 

Simply suppressing the ego and the message it is trying to transmit will only force it to bring the message to you in a more forceful manner later on. This will lead to constant internal conflict, which is not good.

Image Courtesy: http://www.youne.com/how-to-stop-running-away-from-yourself/

Consider this typical office scenario...

Jane has been having a hard time. She's going through a divorce, trying to handle raising three kids on her own and on top of all that they're rolling out some new software at the office this week. 
Jane is usually on top of things and in fact, Jane has helped you several times in the past with navigating and using different software packages. 

You're on this path of awakening and self-realization which is making you more sensitive and so you easily discern Jane's distress even though she is several cubicles away. You head across and give her a much needed hand and she thanks you profusely even as tears threaten to well up in her eyes. In that moment your intuition sharply advises you to try to cheer her up (so that she does not break down there and then in the office) and offer to have lunch with her, should she wish to talk or just share a laugh. Jane readily accepts and your intuition is now telling you to discreetly walk away -

But then...you spot the boss rounding the corner towards Jane's cubicle and your ego sees an opportunity to promote itself.

Instead of walking away you loudly make an unnecessary comment to Jane that you are here for her any time she needs. The boss overhears and now feels the need to ask if everything is okay. You generously try to mull it over like it's no big deal but somewhere within your polite pretence, it comes out that you were helping Jane with the new software. 
The boss congratulates you and you feel pretty smug about yourself but unknowingly to you - you just made Jane feel a bit awkward and exposed.

It's no big deal! You still have your lunch date with Jane and you both share some laughs. No foul real right! Maybe - but it does not change the fact that -  you did not listen!

Forget Jane and her awkwardness for a second because she is on her path as well. Let's focus on you.

When your ego challenged you to try to impress the boss, you were supposed to walk back to your seat and then entertain an internal dialogue to discover why you felt you needed your boss' praise. Is this a pattern that needs healing?  Do you typically need people to think that you are a good person before you can believe this of yourself?

By succumbing to your ego you just missed out on the opportunity to make this self discovery. 

Here is what you should do the next time your ego raises it's head:

1. Acknowledge the ego - Acknowledge the fact that you are, at the moment, being tempted to feed your ego.

2. Interrogate yourself - What is the lesson to learn? Or what is the area of yourself that needs healing. Does this stem from a past hurt or something in your childhood?

Image Courtesy: http://www.itsallaboutwomen.com

3. Thank your ego - It is doing it's job! 

4. Talk to yourself lovingly and begin the healing process - Understand that you may have to confront your ego a few more times depending on how deeply ingrained the issue is within your psyche.

Know this - Love is the key to overcoming all our great obstacles which are usually fear based. In this case it's the fear that people don't know how good you are at your job.

So let's re-imagine the scenario.

You heeded your intuition and made a quiet and discreet exit. 
You then begin exploring a hidden part of yourself and you grow. That's it.

Soon enough as you continue accepting and healing yourself, you would realise that you don't need to seek out adulation. It flows to you naturally as a response from the universe to the new signal you are now transmitting!

For more reading on how to view your ego in a new and powerful way, check out this article from Howard Falco entitled A Powerful New Way to Understand Your Ego . I like how Falco offers that your  ego is really just a powerful automated process working from a script of your personal beliefs. He also submits that you just need to understand it and then you can make a conscious decision to change your script to suit who you are becoming.

So - love yourself and learn from your ego.

Love, light and blessings y'all,
Elizabeth 

P.S. - Additionally, there's really good reading on this page where I sourced one of the images ~ How to Stop Running Away From yourself

Mommy Goddess: Love Will Heal Your Child

Mothers are given special authority by God. As a mother, your body transported, nourished, sustained and eventually delivered into this world your precious little bundle of joy. That means a lot!

Image courtesy www.imgkid.com

The doctors may have cut the umbilical cord which connected you to your baby but an invisible cord forever extends from your womb to your baby. Have you ever heard a mother tell you that she knew her child was in distress because she felt it in her tummy area? 
Sometimes, because we are so disconnected from our wombs and poorly educated about our wombs, we may mix up signals that originate from the womb with the stomach region. However it is true - you are connected to your child in a way that a man can never understand. For approximately nine months, you felt those little (or big) flutters, kicks, flops, punches and you and your baby bonded in a way that can best be described as mystical.

When your little baby came into the world, the connection became more intuitive and even though it may have been frustrating at times (especially when they woke you every two hours!) the fact remains that if you could tune into your blessed feminine intuition you will understand your child in a special and unique way.

A Personal Story - You Be Love

A couple weeks ago my son was ill and in quite a lot of distress. I had carried him to the doctor several times, tried medication, tried natural remedies - I even tried the energy in my hands. Nothing seemed to soothe him. As far as my hands were concerned, even if I held them a few inches from his body and tried to send him energy on intention he would sense what I was doing (even with his head facing the next direction) and move my hands. I was trying to cure him - with the medication, remedies and energy - but that was not what he needed. Blessed little soul that he is, God was using him to communicate a very important lesson to me.

One night when he woke me up with his poor little sobs, I got frustrated. I was like "Really God! Mother God - Father God - anyone! You call yourself a God of love and yet you will see this poor little child in misery and not help him?"
The response was immediate 

"You call yourself goddess - YOU be LOVE to him."

I was taken aback and in that moment of pause, my son stopped crying - almost as it were to bring the point home to me. I obeyed and put aside my frustration - which no doubt was being picked up by my sensitive child and just patiently held him and let him know that I was there to just hold him and love him. I also let him know that it did not matter how many times he needed to get up - I would always be there, to lovingly and patiently hold him.

You know what - he did get up a few times again, but somehow he was able to quietly communicate to me in my sleep that he was up and every time I was able to automatically wake up and comfort him.

God communicated a powerful lesson to me that night. God is moving beyond the physical - God is concerned with healing at the level of the soul.

The next day my son was more than 90% recovered and I just continued giving him what he needed from me - love.

Dear Mothers - you have a special authority given to you from God. Don't ever underestimate it or deny it! 

Since that experience, I have noted a shift in my relationship with my child. It's as if our connection has gone deeper because it has. I truly love the truths God is revealing to me and I hope you could take something from this post that will help you. 

Image courtesy www.pixabay.com

We are all learning to walk in the light of who we truly are, at a time of great change such as the earth has probably never witnessed before. Even as we learn to walk in our true nature, we must continue to face the very real human-duality based challenges because we must overcome them, in love, to get to where we are going.

Learn to listen to your intuition and trust God. Trust love.



Love, Light and Blessings
Elizabeth Energy

The 'Dark' Side of Awakening

I don't know about you, but for me this awakening experience is, in so many ways, the most frightening and yet also the most awesome experience I have ever lived and experienced, apart from the natural delivery of my son.

I don't know - it's like some days I feel like I'm on the verge of something totally mind blowing and awesome and on other days I'm on the verge of depression and despair. Sounds a lot like bi-polar disorder except I know why I break down when I do.

Here is why I experience the dark side:

Photo courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fosforix/2708147364

• It's a very lonely road - it feels like no one is interested in what I'm now interested in - consciousness, spirituality, divine feminine, ascension. I have to actively seek out groups and communities online and while this is somewhat comforting, the people within arm's reach are the ones I really want to be able to connect with
• I've had to give up some friendships along the way - One of the things that happens when you start 'awakening' is that you realize how very toxic some people are. If you're not strong enough to hold a high vibration in their presence, you may find that you just naturally drift away from them as you seek more activities and company that nourishes your soul. Also too, they may simply be interested in harmful activities that you no longer enjoy so you drift away because you no longer have anything in common.
• Doubt is never far away - Sometimes you find yourself wishing you could go back to sleep. Feelings of nostalgia plague you and you find yourself wishing in part that things could go back to the way they were because you miss your old relationships and way of life.
• You're anxious to know the truth about reality- (I don't really battle with this but I know a lot of people do so I stuck it in) Even within the awakening community there are different perceptions about our reality. For some it includes reptilian aliens, the Illuminati and a plot that resembles the Matrix movie line and for others it's the eternal battle between Jesus and Satan and still others say - there is only love and evil is unreal. Personally I've always had an experience with Father God and Jesus and I am now developing a relationship with the Sacred Mother\Goddess (which many say has simply been represented by the Holy Spirit in the Holy Trinity). I believe that in essence, the full GOD head is truly ONE and is analogous to LOVE and that we are all extensions of GOD. I don't really bother about all the fear based theories out there since fear is the opposing force to love. 
• Being anxious to know the direction of my life - Now this is one I struggle with. I was given some instructions a while ago which I faithfully followed. I started this blog, check! Started back to sing, check! And I'm pursuing energy work studies, check! However somewhere along the line, I expected something else to happen. You know, something...big. Instead, it just feels like I'm marking time and waiting. I don't really like waiting- I'm fired up now and I want the consciousness revolution to happen right now in a big way across the planet! 

So, this is what I, Elizabeth Energy, a real woman, made of flesh of bone battle with at times as I travail in what many call the dark night of the soul. 

How I Overcome It...as recently as yesterday!

• I....cry - I have learnt over the years of being on this planet that crying is very therapeutic. I don't break down and cry every day or even every week but if I have been dealing with a lot and I feel a good cry coming on - I let it happen
• I seek out inspirational reading - Whether it be other souls further along in their awakening journey, or some other person with something uplifting to say - I seek these people out, visit their blogs, like them on Facebook, follow them on Google+. I know that the dark night of the soul is a real phenomenon and that it is an essential part of the soul's evolution but reading what these people have to share gives me great encouragement. 
•  I reach out to a trusted friend - I let them know that I'm not having a good day and I allow them to encourage me. I extend help to a lot of people and I can't be too proud to receive help from a friend in my time of need
• I get out into nature - Always an awesome spirit booster and I am blessed to live in the tropical bliss of the Caribbean:) Also many times when we feel overwhelmed, we need to check to see if we have been grounding ourselves.
• I meditate and go to sleep, in that order! - This right here is always effective. Anxiety means that my mind is way too active for its own good. Meditation helps me to still my thoughts and return to Source where an abundance of peace awaits me and helps me with developing patience and trust in GOD.
• I find someone to help or encourage - It's a proven fact that helping someone else is the biggest depression buster ever. Don't believe me? Try it the next time, you feel low. You're switching the signals that you emit from very low to very high and powerful anytime you choose to help or bless someone.
• I find something to be grateful for - Even on my low days I can find something to thank GOD for. I even thank GOD for the work being done in me to bring me into the awareness of who I rightfully am which includes going through this low period!

Truth be told, these low swings have been occurring less and less with time and I notice that the more regularly I engage in healthy practices like inspirational reading, exercising, being in nature, meditating daily, helping others, being grateful - that not only do they occur less but they are less and less severe!

In fact as I said earlier, I had a low spell yesterday and I found myself asking GOD "How do you want me to grow and stretch from this experience?"

I must admit, I am slowly turning into an optimist - so I find that I am naturally looking to see the rainbow behind the cloud.

With my anxiety to know or experience something big, I asked myself - Why am I so impatient? Especially with all the wonderful experiences I have had? Is there an ego based need for control that I need to let go of?

I look at my smaller circle of close friendships and I acknowledge that it may have decreased in size but it has increased in value!

So guys, I hope this blog entry will help you if you find yourself experiencing the lows. Let's just say that I know from experience, that the recommended activities really do help!

Love, light and blessings,

Elizabeth Energy