Personality Flaws

2003-11-11 06:19:00

Bryan 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.

Yesterday I asked: What in the world do the tactics of personality strong comics have to do with the tactics of a Dark Brother?

John C gave us an interesting insight into comics. He said:
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 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 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 his 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."

Intestinally 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 Robbin 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?


I saw a sign: "Rest Area 25 Miles". That's pretty big. Some people must be really tired. Steven Wright