I believe in the collective unconscious. Jung’s concept of the hive mind. The universal ‘knowing’ that is accessible to and part of all of us. You can meditate and ‘download’ from it or you can still your mind and become a vessel for wisdom you didn’t know you had. A quiet moment can change your life.
It happened to me. The last time I was in New Zealand I was watching a youtube video in bed, very half heartedly, only half awake. One scientist says to the other “us having this conversation is just the universe trying to figure itself out’. I understood immediately what he meant. That we are all the same. That the cosmos they were studying is what we are made out of. That we aren’t apart from nature and the world but we are nature and everything we need to know is just beneath the surface of our busy, distracted, minds submerged and blinded in local cultural programming.
We know this because when we think of complex ideas we close our eyes and try to form them in our minds. We know they’re there, we just need to uncover them. When we’re trying to remember a song we untangle it from a net in our minds. When we’re brainstorming we group together to carve David out of the rock. David was always there. We just need to carve away all the parts that aren’t David, as Michaelangelo famously said of his creation.
Music producer Rick Rubin says that an idea’s time comes. We can be the vessel for the expression of that idea or it can pass us by. When we get into flow we are casting our net into the void and pulling the idea into reality. We need to do the work to have the skills to catch it. Hard work is rewarded. Nature loves courage as Terrance Mckenna says.
When I go riding I slow down. I relax. My mind opens up. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned about myself and realized about the world riding in silence in the middle of a mountain range in central asia or south patagonia.
All cultures understand this and we have forgotten how to access this in our modern western cultures. The father of psychology Carl Jung knew though. The hindus and buddhists know. The chinese that follow the Tao know. The sufi muslims know. Those that travel a lot know because they’ve overcome their cultural programming and have seen enough of the world to know it’s what is common between us that is most interesting and true. We have different languages and vernacular to describe the same thing but self actualization is a common goal. Finding ourselves and the unique set of skills that we, as the physical manifestations of the universe at the precise time we were born, has to offer the world.
If you learn how to channel and direct your thoughts with intention, a whole new unknown world opens up to you. Discover who you are and then trust your intuition to lead you to where you are supposed to be.
But you need to discover who you are first. You can’t do that while your primary needs aren’t met. If you’re depressed, unable to cover your costs, if you’re yearning for more material wealth, if you sedate yourself with alcohol or drugs - you can’t get there. Step out of the game and everything becomes easier.
That’s why the horse riding is such a reset. You’re in nature. Being yourself. Trusting your horse who is acting like a bullshit arbitrator, only giving you peace if you come to them authentically. I get asked all the time if I want to pair up with therapists and create a therapeutic ride. I don’t think it’s necessary.
If your heart is in the right place and you’re ready, you’ll connect directly with yourself and everything you need to know is already inside you.
That’s the whole point.
From Timothy Leary:
“Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?”.
Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others…”
From Rick Rubin:
“If you have an idea you're excited about and you don't bring it to life, it's not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn't because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea's time has come.”
From Terrence McKenna:
“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.”
Recommended Reading / Watching / Listening:
Terrence McKenna: Nature Loves Courage