“Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.” Ludwig Börne.
When I was at University I studied politics and became very intent about questioning everything: dismantling and shattering the illusion of everything we take for granted. I realized that reality is shaped by our perceptions and the meaning that we assign to it. Our perception of reality, our lives and what we think we know are constructed by myths, doctrines and ideology. This is propagated by the mass media, institutions and other authorities. It’s important to remain vigilant about this and not become fixed in our views or set it our ways. When people say to me, “that’s just how it is”, “it’s the thing to do”, “this is reality” I’ve learnt to question it, especially if it doesn’t resonate with me. There was a time when I didn’t. I went along with things just to maintain the status quo and to avoid a confrontation. It’s what a lot of us do. We can feel pressured by family, culture and peers to steer a certain a course and because we fear their rejection we compromise our dreams. If you are compelled or attracted to do something that is outside of mainstream norms fear of rejection is further compounded. This fear cannot be trivialized however, as it is a basic human need to feel love, approval and acceptance. However, when we look to the great minds of our time, they often faced opposition and even threats to their personal safety for daring to think outside of the box. Darwin and Galieo who’s ideas, though controversial at the time, were essential to the advancement of science and physics and are largely accepted today.
Never before, in this information age, have human beings had access to so much information that is literally at our fingertips. Not only do we have to contend with the pressures from family and friends but process the information that streams to us from the media. Bamboozled with this information overload it is sometimes difficult and confusing to know where you stand. When we feel depressed, muddled, smothered, stuck and stifled it’s often because we are listening to these outside influences. It's difficult to hear your true self through all the noise. We realize, deep down, that something isn’t right, it’s tugging at us but we can’t put our finger on it. So we numb ourselves with alcohol, drugs or overeat, anything to distract us from acknowledging our feelings. Our energy needs to be directed in positive and creative ways, otherwise we stagnant, the energy has nowhere to go, so it simply implodes and we end up feeling down and stuck. This is when we have to say no, reclaim our power back, de-hypnotize from the illusion which we ourselves have helped to create. This is why it is important to take a step back every once and a while, question how a situation appears and evaluate it from a different perspective. Also think about making different choices in terms of what ideas you are consuming. Are you watching too much T.V, news programs, reading only gossip magazines, visiting the same old shallow internet sites? What are you drawing into yourself? What is your inspiration – the sources that feed you?
I love the movie the Labyrinth (yes the one with David Bowie in the leggings) because it is essentially all about shattering illusions and aligning with your true purpose. I love the scene when Sarah eats the peach and then descends into an illusory world represented as the glass bubble. I think we can all identify with this scene to some degree. We’ve had times in our lives where we’ve lost ourselves in a fantasy, have become enamored with a person or group, attributing them with special powers, in turn surrendering our own. Watch the scene from the movie.
As the clock strikes the hour Sarah hears her purpose calling her and breaks out of her bubble. After shattering the illusion she abruptly lands on the junkyard and meets a Goblin Lady with a pile of junk heaped up on her back like a shell. The goblin represents the saboteur inside all of us, the part that tries to undermine us. The shell of junk represents all the things: the stories, thoughts, beliefs that we attach to ourselves to form our identity, the emotional baggage we carry around which burdens us. The Goblin Lady asks Sarah “And where were you going? Hmmm?” she replies, “I don’t remember.” The Goblin Lady taunts, “You can’t look where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re going.” Sarah only knows that she was searching for something. The Goblin Lady takes advantage at this point to distract her from her purpose by lulling her back to the familiar, pulling out Sarah’s teddy bear Lancelot from her shell of junk, she offers it to her. “That’s what you were looking for wasn’t it, my dear?” Sarah accepts it and is comforted by what she recognizes.
The Goblin Lady returns Sarah to her bedroom, things are familiar, comfortable and safe, but deep down she knows that something is wrong. The Goblin Lady heaps all the toys and trinkets on top of Sarah by way of attaching them to her, trying to reaffirm her old identity: "You like your little bunny rabbit. Oh, and there's Betsy Boo!" When going through a transformation sometimes friends, family or work colleagues will attempt to do this to you too. “You’re not that, you’re this, this is who you are.” will be the general tone of what they say. It is tempting to allow ourselves to be subdued into a false sense of security by returning to the safe and familiar or pleasing others by assuming the old form that they know and love, but it never gets us anywhere.
The Goblin Lady is determined to mislead Sarah: "Here's your panda slippers. You know how much you like your panda slippers. You never wanted them thrown away, did you?" The slippers again represent the comfortable, the things we no longer need yet hold onto and are reluctant to discard because they are familiar and give us a feeling of safety and security. We do this with our thoughts and behaviors too. They no longer serve our highest good, yet we cling to them because they serve a positive function providing us with a sense of protection and comfort. The junk lady insists: "Better to stay in here, dear. There's nothing you want out there", "Everything in the world you've ever cared about is all right here". Her words seem reassuring yet conjure fear. Better to stay with what you know than venture out and discover new opportunities and possibilities. But Sarah realizes this is all an illusion – "It's all junk!". She has to reject it. Watch the clip from the movie below.
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In order to uncover your true purpose and tap into your potential it is necessary to shatter the illusion, discard all the junk, the thoughts and beliefs that are no-longer useful to you and get back on track. To step into the unknown takes courage but you are never alone, as in Sarah’s case she has friends and allies that help her on her journey.
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