Using Personality
A reader quotes a teacher he respects as giving advice on recognizing one who is in the dark. He says:
“They won’t listen to you, or see your point of view. They don’t care what your point of view is. They are not interested in getting inside your shoes, or understanding what makes you tick.”
Question: Does this mean that if a teacher shows interest in your point of view and seems to have empathy for you that he is in the light? Explain.
If he does not seem to see your point of view does it mean he is in the dark?
JJ: While it is true that a true teacher will feel empathy for another point of view as well as tune into the emotions of another, it is also true that a worker of darkness attempts to feign that which is good.
Not only that but he will use exuberance from his emotional body to make his point with more energy than the worker of light in an attempt to deceive.
A worker of light may merely grab or shake another’s hand and state frankly that he feels for his brother in a certain situation.
The worker of darkness tends to be a showman and will give a big hug, share an emotional story and maybe cry a few tears.
Keep in mind that there is no black and white rule here as both brothers are attempting to reach their desired ends and may use various overlapping methods. For instance, enlightened people may hug a lot, but there is one difference between the two approaches which is black and white.
The Brother of Light is sincere. If he shares empathy, he means it. If he hugs he means that. If he sheds tears, they are real tears.
The Dark Brother, or a pawn, is an actor who uses his personality to further his own ends. He can bring the tears on demand to create the desired effect.
The dark disciple may therefore listen intently to your side, look you intently in the eye and hang on your every word if it suits his purpose.
The Brother of light is generally easy going, but if he doesn’t agree with you he will be honest about it and often when one disagrees he is looked upon as not seeing your point of view. Sometimes the point of view does not seem to be seen because the one giving it does not make sense and other times the one hearing it has a fixation on his own dogma.
The real test is not that one will see your point of view, but to pick a principle or teaching that you have received from your soul and seek to discus it with another. If he is in the soul he will generally sense through the soul where you are coming from and understand what you are saying.
Question: This gives us an idea of a tactic that an earthly teacher can use to deceive, but how does an other-worldly entity deceive through the personality?
My favorite comic, Steven Wright, uses very little personality in his delivery because his words can stand by themselves. But name three comics who use a powerful personality to make people laugh.
JJ: The reason I asked you to name your favorite comic is that a comic with a strong personality can illustrate to us the power of personality to convey as meaning much beyond the actual words spoken.
Does this mean that comics with an exuberant personality are headed toward the dark side? Far from it. In fact one of the characteristics of a Dark Brother is a lack of sense of humor.
Even so, the comic with lots of personality does illustrate the power of the astral to draw attention to himself and win the audience over.
You have given an interesting selection of comics. Sounds like some of you are older than me.
Among the older comics those who did not rely heavily on personality were Will Rogers, Jack Benny and Bob Hope. Examples of those who did rely on it were Jerry Lewis, Amos and Andy and the Three Stooges.
Among today’s comics Steven Wright may be the lowest personality comic in history. Dennis Miller also relies on his words more than his personality. High personality comics are Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Bean, and perhaps the most exaggerated personality of them all – Roberto Benigni.
Any of these guys could take a statement that seems dry by itself and then by the power of their personality they could leave the audience in stitches by stating it while doing certain physical and emotional maneuvers.. They indeed illustrate the power of the personality to transform the mundane into a topic of extreme interest.
The question now is what in the world do the tactics of personality strong comics have to do with the tactics of a Dark Brother?
Here is an interesting comment received on this:
“A non-personality-driven comic points to something outside himself, something we all experience, and gets us to see it in a different way. He draws attention AWAY from himself. A personality-driven comic will draw attention TO himself and get us to laugh at him. Same with teachers. A true teacher will draw attention to a principle, but a false teacher will draw attention to himself.”
Now let me stress again that because a comic has lots of personality does not mean he is on the dark side. But the reason we are talking about personality here is that this is the vehicle that the Dark Brother, or his disciple, must use to influence others. He is unable to rise to the level of the higher mind or soul so this must be his tool.
Personality is like money. It is neither good or evil by itself. It can be used as a tool for service and love or it can destroy. It all depends on the intent of the user.
Speaking of personality I am reminded of a time years ago that we had several friends showing great interest in a lady guru who was visiting our fair city. She was charging around $300 (in 1990 dollars) for her intimate session where she was going to take participants on some spiritual journey. She was giving a free introductory session so my wife and I attended to check her out.
She was a beautiful sensuous lady which explained some of her charisma right there, but in addition, when she spoke and guided us through a meditation, she spoke in very hypnotic tones and seemed to garner around herself a mystic aura in the minds of many who attended.
The guy next to me in the circle was the husband of a friend of my wife and before the meeting started I asked him if he was going to spend $300 to attend her class. He said definitely that he would not – that his wife dragged him along and he thought she was a phony. That pretty much echoed my sentiments as I also perceived her to be operating from high glamour in the astral zone.
But then something interesting occurred. After the guided meditation when everyone was silently thinking she went around in the circle grabbed each member by his two hands, looked in their eyes and whispered something. I couldn’t hear for sure what she was saying except I did notice that each person seemed impressed with what she said to them.
Then she grabbed the hands of the skeptic that was next to me and this time I did hear what she said.
First she stared intently into his eyes for about a minute and then approached very closely to the guy and whispered, “Do you remember?”
Then she drew back, not taking her gaze away from his and after about 30 seconds he bursts out like a woman having a climax: “Yes.”
Interestingly, this skeptic eagerly signed up (later that night) and gave her the $300.
After she worked her magic on him she then approached me. She looked me in the eyes for about 15 seconds, smiled and moved on. I almost felt cheated, but I felt at the time that she knew how to recognize those she could manipulate and those she could not.
This was indeed a teacher who gathered attention to herself more than the teaching did and was charging big bucks for the privilege of being in her presence.
It is interesting to watch Robin Williams on the Jay Leno show. Half the time he seems to be squirming in his chair and then he’ll get up prance back and forth, imitate a few people who are in the news, crack some jokes while making obsessive hand motions and then sit back down. His witty dialog with his effervescent personality keeps the audience laughing.
Those who manipulate from the unseen world also use personality influence, but it is no laughing matter. But instead of putting attention of their own personality they will look for weakness in that of the seeker and use it as leverage to control him.
It doesn’t matter if they contact by vision, some appearance, a presence or through a disciple they will generally exploit the seeker through the following personality weaknesses.
(1) “You are special.” The seeker will be told that he has been specially chosen in a way that appeals to his ego. He will then be tempted to see himself as “better” than his fellow seekers and should be followed because of who he is rather than that which he teaches.
(2) “Follow your heart,” or “go with the flow.” This is spoken to the seeker who lacks the discipline to follow the path of the Master and has the desire to fulfill his personality desires more than to find the doorway of the soul.
(3) In a past life you were some great being and have a divine right to be followed in this one. This, of course, strongly appeals to an ego out of control.
(4) “You are nothing but with me you’ll be somebody.” This works on those with lack of confidence, but also appeals to his ego. By leaning on the dark brother he will now find praise from his fellows.
(5) “Your thoughts are the thoughts of Gods therefore you are always right.” Every decision you make is correct. This logic leads the beginning seeker into many detours that can sometime cost him lifetimes of progression.
Assignment: There are other items that could be added to the list. Can you think of any?
A reader mentioned that putting too much attention on the Dark Brothers bothered him.
It is true that energy follows thought and one must be careful as to how one directs his thought as he is discussing anything negative.
Remember the Principle of Attrition from Book III? This is an important principle to apply to neutralize the negative, even as one is discussing it.
And how do we do this?
The answer is that one must discuss negative energies as if we are viewing them on a movie screen. Watching a scary movie can actually be an enjoyable experience if one realizes that it is only a movie and only gets involved enough to enjoy the story. But if one forgets it is “only a movie” and gets emotionally involved he may experience real fear that may stay with him for some time. The movie will thus not be a positive or fun experience.
It is essential for the disciple to have a working knowledge of the dark as well as the light if he is to overcome all things, but in gaining this knowledge he must follow several principles.
(1) As we said he must detach himself from emotional involvement with the dark forces. Take the viewpoint of the observer as if watching a harmless movie.
(2) He must not get involved enough to feel fear when discussing the subject. If he feels fear, and cannot neutralize it, then it is best to not even talk about the subject until the fear is gone or at a safe level. He must face this fear eventually and should examine the subject in bites he can handle until he can detach himself and learn without fear.
(3) He must only spend the time and thought needed to learn that which is necessary to deal with the dark forces. Excessive attention to any subject will make it difficult to maintain the vantage point of the observer and tempt him to get emotionally involved.
(4) Knowledge dispels fear. Therefore, never shy away from learning about the principles that govern all things.
I saw a sign: “Rest Area 25 Miles”. That’s pretty big. Some people must be really tired. Steven Wright
Nov 9, 2003
Copyright by J J Dewey
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