Are you searching for the magic bullet? Or have you been enticed by people who seem to offer one?

I am getting increasingly hacked off with an industry that has grown rapidly in recent years. It purports to offer healing, mastery and raised consciousness and it is rooted in many of the same perspectives that you will find on Raising Consciousness Now. But it is sometimes fueled by hype, delusion, commercialism and greed. It has turned new-age wisdom and spirituality into snake oil.

If this starts to feel like a rant, please take it lightly. As I write, I notice my body. I am aware of anger and judgement. How spiritual am I being right now? And of course this is just my point of view. That doesn’t mean that it is reality. It isn’t my job to protect people from themselves or from those who would exploit them. There are no victims. We are all responsible for our creations. Etc. etc.

I even believe that many of those who might appear to be “perpetrators” are well-meaning and good-hearted individuals who genuinely believe that they are in service and passionately care about their approaches, toolkits, meditations, webinars, books, coachings and insights. Many of them are undoubtedly good at what they do. But too many of them are promising miracles.

Oh! What? I don’t believe in miracles? So what am I doing on a consciousness-raising website? Well, here’s the thing. I believe in the possibility of miracles. I believe that there are people who suddenly transform serious health conditions in one session. I believe that there are people who make major breakthroughs in very short time. I even believe that there could come a time when this is the norm. But I also believe there are lottery winners and that the time is not yet here when we all win every week.

I am not saying that consciousness work is a waste of time. It is the best thing I know to do for my life. Having pursued personal growth for over thirty years I now shift issues in days which used to take months. My life is happier, more blessed, more flowing than it has ever been. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. There are better tools available now and the field is getting less dense.

At the same time I still have challenges, still cannot manifest everything I desire with a finger-snap. I might count myself a failure if I could see my peer group doing better, but my peer group consists of many magnificent, dedicated, brilliant and insightful human beings who are also still working at it. We are almost certainly healthier, happier, more intuitive, more connected, more loving and more open to intimacy than the cultural average. And still, many of us still experience some relationship challenges, financial limitations and all the rest. We have all been required to make major unexpected changes that didn’t look like our plans. And as the saying goes, if you think you have reached enlightenment, spend some time with your family.

The field of awareness that we all inhabit is less dense but it continues to be filled with illusion, with denial that the non-material reality even exists. The viewpoints that bring us to sites like this one are still surrounded by weighty challenges from the scientific materialism that says we are flakes and believers in wu-wu. Twenty years ago I was marketing probiotics in the face of medical ridicule. Now their benefits are self-evident, advertised on TV. Breaking the hold of materialist thinking has been an uphill battle. We are gaining ground and there is some way to go yet.

Every step we take deserves congratulation. It is better to be part of the solution than part of the problem. We just need to accept the Piscean age, the Kali Yuga, the last Mayan epoch or whatever you might wish to label the past as being, has been operating for a long time. The New Age is still young. There was no instantaneous outward transformation in December 2012. I deeply feel that there has been an acceleration this year, that somehow we are now working with gravity and not against it. Or maybe we are working with levity. That sounds nice, but still not instantaneous.

So here is the point. For the time being we are still unraveling the threads of the old consciousness, still extricating ourselves from the fields of thought that we grew up with, still jettisoning the energies of personal karma, detaching from family patternings both conscious and unconscious, shaking off personal histories and traumas. So expect that this may take a while longer yet, and give yourself encouragement when it still seems challenging. It’s OK, and when you shift something for you it makes it easier for others.

Those who promise you instant breakthroughs will sometimes be successful because they will always time it just right for somebody. There is a lottery winner every week but the odds are still millions to one against. I hope you are lucky. Just don’t be naive; it is still a lottery even when you win and the lottery only costs you a couple of dollars. Most of all don’t judge yourself a failure because your transformation hasn’t been instant. That’s one of the things that bugs me most about the promises; people judge themselves by those unreal measurements. It’s not you! You are not doing it wrong. Please don’t beat yourself up because life with your significant other isn’t perfect yet and don’t beat him or her up either for not being that. Three is nothing wrong with you that you don’t even have a relationship at all or haven’t manifested the ideal living or the instant prosperity. And be very discerning about whose promises you buy into. It’s not what they sell it’s the way that they sell it. There are some fantastic tools and techniques out there but I don’t know any that don’t have to be worked with. There is a general rule about buying things.

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. And if you find any magic bullets or beans be sure to let me know.

About the Author

Jon is a visionary with a passion for propelling the change in thinking that will support us through the major transitions currently facing humanity. He has extensive knowledge of alternative health and personal development practices and a deep understanding of how human body-minds work. He is among the world’s leading trainers and practitioners in Spiral Dynamics Integral and a founding director of the UK Centre for Human Emergence. Jon’s greatest passion lies in cracking open our view of reality, replacing the matter-oriented scientific orthodoxy with a blended system of understanding which acknowledges the importance of Consciousness in determining the form that all creation takes. He views this aspect of consciousness-raising as a key to humanity’s future. Learn more about Jon here.

#consciousliving