Then, on Wednesday, it hit me. As I watched the scenes from England and experienced the great outpouring of emotion from people not in the least renowned for showing their emotions, especially in the open, I suddenly realized what Diana’s spiritual mission had been. The overarching purpose of her incarnation had been to open the heart chakra of Great Britain and, by so doing, greatly accelerate the spiritual evolution of the British people, no less. I had no doubt whatsoever that she had achieved exactly that.
No one who watched the events of that week could ever doubt that she had single-handedly transformed the country—and indeed, much of the world—at the heart level. Only a very few people in all of human history come to mind as having had such an effect on the world purely through the expression of love energy: Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela perhaps; Mother Teresa and Jesus Christ, certainly. (No wonder the Queen of England bowed her head to Diana’s coffin—something never before witnessed.)
While in terms of human achievement and spiritual example in life, any comparison with Mother Teresa would be unfair. It is nevertheless interesting to note that the death of Mother Teresa, whose life and work, in most people’s eyes, brought her close to sainthood in her lifetime, did not take the spotlight off Diana for even a moment. That two women whose lives so deeply touched the world through authentic love should make their transitions within days of each other has enormous spiritual significance.
Even though the British people had been through two wars this century, suffering and grieving enormous losses, they had come through it all with their legendary sense of humor and proverbial stiff upper lip intact—but not, I think it is fair to say, with an open heart. That had to wait, not only for the coming of a people’s princess but for her divinely planned and, to us at least, untimely and tragic death.
Since then, commentators have tried in vain to explain her effect on the world in terms of our fixation on, and willingness to almost deify, celebrities we know only through the media. Jonathan Alter, in Newsweek, came closer than most by referring to what Richard Sennett, in The Fall of Public Man, called the ideology of intimacy, in which people “seek to find personal meaning in impersonal situations.” It is true that people did not know her personally, and to that extent it remains an impersonal situation. Yet she transcended those limitations imposed by time and space and somehow touched everyone’s heart very deeply in a way that cannot be easily explained.
The key to understanding her power as a human being lies in the archetype of the wounded healer, which teaches us that our power lies in our wounds—in the sense that it is the wound in me that evokes the healing in you and the wound in you that evokes the healing in me. We are all wounded healers, but we don’t know it. When we keep our wounds hidden and totally private, we separate from and deny healing, not only to ourselves but to countless others. The stiff upper lip is a terrible way to withhold love. It atrophies the heart and cripples the soul. Through her willingness to share her deepest wounds with the whole world, Princess Diana evoked the healer in all of us, opened our hearts, and healed our fractured souls.
The whole world watched as people took their cue from Diana and opened up, sharing their grief and their woundedness, just as she had done. She gave the people a language of intimacy they could use to express feelings openly and authentically. I don’t recall seeing one display of emotion and feeling that was not truly authentic; and on television today, that is indeed unusual.
As we each begin to emerge from behind the pain of loss and the rope burns of grief, anger, and projection of guilt regarding our insatiable appetite for Diana’s image and curiosity about her life—which the press and paparazzi merely reflected for us—we begin to discern, through the mists and veils, the divine perfection of it all. The more we contemplate the mission she accepted and the extent to which she succeeded, the more we are able to surrender into that perfection.
We find ourselves experiencing a new level of peace as we move beyond the emotions and thoughts that once would have tied us to the World of Humanity forever and held us hostage to the victim archetype; we move toward accepting the fact that it all had to unfold in exactly that way. The mission absolutely required the upbringing she had, the marriage that went terribly wrong, the rejection she suffered at the hands of the royal establishment, the criticism by the press, the hounding by the paparazzi, the dramatic and violent death—everything, down to the very last detail.
As the future unfolds, you will notice that now that Diana has returned “home,” having completed her mission, the energies that held all those dynamics in place will begin to disperse. Not only is she released from those dynamics, so are all the other people who were involved in the drama we know to be only an illusion. Charles is now free to become warmer, less distant, and a more loving father to his two boys—and he undoubtedly will. (The press will say that he changed because of what happened, but we will know the real truth.) The Queen will probably become less stuffy, more open, and not quite so irrelevant. The monarchy itself will transcend the cult of personality and will become a stronger, more meaningful institution, not as a direct response to what happened but because of the energy shift that occurred when the mission was over and the transformation complete.
But just because someone opens his or her heart chakra, there’s no guarantee that he or she will keep it open. That remains a matter of choice at every moment. The same is true of the collective. The British people, and others around the world, will either stay in the love vibration that Diana’s death catapulted them into, and use that power to transform themselves, their royal family, and their society, or they will focus on the illusion of what happened, blaming Charles, the royal family in general, the driver, the press, and others. If they choose the latter, that will be their choice and perfect in its own way, but it will cause the collective heart chakra to close again.
Perhaps this book has a part to play in keeping the collective heart chakra open. Maybe the insight you have gained by reading it will enable you to remain focused not on the illusion of what happened in the tunnel that night in Paris but on what is real in the Princess Diana story, from beginning to end, and the mission that gave it meaning and significance.
Maybe everyone who reads this book will truly recognize and acknowledge that, just as Jeff played his part for Jill in the story in Part One, Charles played his part beautifully for Diana—as did Camilla Parker-Bowles and the Queen. Maybe it will be clear to everyone who reads this book that the drama called for such loving, courageous souls to play those parts in exactly those ways and, let it be said, at great cost to themselves. (Charles’s sacrifice for the sake of the opening of the heart chakra of Britain was absolutely no less than Diana’s—in fact, in ordinary human terms, it was probably greater. It may have cost him his crown, no less!)
Maybe, too, it will be obvious to everyone that it was all agreed upon in advance, prior to each character’s soul incarnating into this world, and that the paparazzi also played an essential and loving part in all this, as did the editors who paid for intrusive pictures of Diana.
Those who are indeed able to do the Radical Forgiveness reframe to this extent, recognizing that there were no victims here, will be a great beacon of light to all those who might otherwise choose to focus on the illusion, close their hearts, and lose the love vibration. It is my fervent hope that every reader who is changed by my book will become a beacon of love—taking over where Diana left off, helping people to stay in this new and higher vibration that her perfectly timed transition triggered.
11
Transforming the Victim Archetype
As we saw in the last chapter, our primary mission is to transform the victim archetype and raise the consciousness of the planet. But what does it mean to transform anything, and how does it raise consciousness?
The first thing to understand is that we can transform something only when we choose doing so as our spiritual mission. And we make the decision about our mission not in this w
orld but in the World of Divine Truth prior to incarnating.
The second thing to realize is that transforming something does not mean changing it. In fact:
To transform anything we must experience it fully and love it just the way it is.For example, maybe your individual mission involved being born into an abusive family to experience the abuse firsthand and to know it either as a victim or as a perpetrator. Remember, once you incarnate, your memory of your agreed-upon mission disappears. If you recalled your mission, you would not experience the energy and the feelings of victimhood as fully. Only in the experience of being victimized can you possibly come to realize what lies behind the illusion of victimhood—the projection of your self-hatred. If you are able to look beyond the illusion of the perpetrator and recognize these actions as a call for love, and if you respond with love and complete acceptance, the victim energy is transformed and the consciousness of all involved is raised. In addition, the energy that holds the pattern of abuse disappears and the behavior stops immediately. That is what transformation is all about.
On the other hand, if we do not recognize the truth in the situation or do not see beyond the illusion, and if we try to change the physical circumstances, we lock up the energy that holds the pattern of abuse in place and nothing changes. What you resist persists.
ONLY LOVE TRANSFORMS
Only love has the ability to transform energies like child abuse, corporate greed, murder, and all the other so-called evils of the world. Nothing else has any impact. Actions taken to change such situations—such as removing a child from an abusive environment—while humane in and of themselves, do not create transformation. The reason for this is simple. First, such action arises from fear, not love. Second, our intervention and judgments maintain the energy patterns of abuse and lock them up more securely.
This explains why the decision to transform something can be made only from the World of Divine Truth. We humans are so locked into our beliefs about pain and suffering, fear and death, that even while we may believe that a particular child’s soul came into this world to experience abuse and actually wants to feel abused, we simply cannot stand by and watch this happen. While the mission looks easy from the World of Divine Truth, it appears quite different down here on the physical plane. Who could possibly leave a child in an abusive environment? We cannot help but intervene. We are human!
As we saw in an earlier chapter, we need to surrender to the idea that Spirit knows exactly what it is doing. If it were not in the child’s highest and best interest for there to be an intervention on its behalf, Spirit would set things up so that no one notices the abuse. If on the other hand, Spirit decides an intervention serves the soul’s highest good, it will arrange for that to occur. But this is not our decision. We as human beings must always respond in the way that seems most humane, most caring and compassionate, while at the same time knowing that love is contained in the situation.
Radical Forgiveness Transforms
This is not to say that we as humans cannot contribute to the transformation of such energies as those that create child abuse. We do so when we apply Radical Forgiveness to the situation. If we truly forgive—in the radical sense—all those involved in the abusive situation, we definitely have an impact on the energy pattern. Ultimately, the child will have to forgive in order to change the pattern, but each time any of us, in any situation, whether we are personally involved or not, chooses to see the perfection in the situation, we change the energy at once.
I was once asked to address the National Society of Mediators at their annual conference. I was only to have about forty-five minutes and they were to be eating lunch while I spoke! I went early to listen in on their discussions and try to get a feel for their way of thinking. I determined that, in terms of background, about 50 percent of the attendees were lawyers and 50 percent were counselors and that their commitment to mediation left them fairly open-minded and flexible in their approaches to problem-solving. (FIGURE 9)
FIGURE 9: Mediation Energy Fields
For the first twenty minutes or so, I did my best to explain the concepts and assumptions underlying Radical Forgiveness. Then I drew the diagram above to represent the energetic relationship between them and their clients.
I then put it to them that their perception of the situation they were mediating was likely to be such that what was happening to Clients A and B was unfortunate at best and tragic at worst. I also suggested that they saw their role as mediators as trying to make the best of a bad job and resolve the situation in a way that would be the least damaging to both parties and their dependents.
They agreed that this was a fair characterization of their task and that the energy field around the situation for the clients was one of hostility and mistrust. Had it been otherwise, they wouldn’t have needed a mediator.
Then I factored into the situation their own energy. They saw that their energy field would normally contain thoughts and feelings related to the perception that this was a “bad” situation. I also suggested that, even though they were trying to mediate and help both clients, their perception of the situation as “bad” fed into the clients’ energy field and reinforced their victim consciousness.
“What if,” I asked then, “instead of seeing this situation as tragic and undesirable, you became willing to entertain the idea that this is a divine plan unfolding exactly as it needs to unfold, and that each of the parties, including the ones on the periphery, are in actuality getting exactly what they subconsciously want at the soul level—and that this is true no matter how this situation works out?
“Do you think that would make a difference? Your energy field, instead of being filled with fear-based thoughts and emotions, would be filled with love. Do you think that would have an effect on how the situation would finally become resolved?”
Surprisingly, they understood. Even the lawyers got it! There was broad acceptance of the idea that the way they held the situation in their own minds was a powerful factor in determining how the situation came out. They saw it from a cause-and-effect standpoint. It was not that anything would be done differently or overtly changed; it would just be that by their holding the idea that everything was perfect, the energy would be allowed to move—without as much resistance—in whatever direction it needed to move. That is what transforming energy means.
MORPHIC RESONANCE
What I have just described draws on Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic fields and morphic resonance. Sheldrake is an English biologist who postulates the existence of fields which are self-organizing and self-regulating systems in nature that organize and sustain patterns of vibratory or rhythmic activity. Elements are attracted to each other by morphic resonance to create these fields, which are constantly changing and evolving. When one element in the field changes, this affects the whole field. The concept seems to be applicable at all levels, from quantum phenomena to social group behavior.
In the human context, morphic fields link individual members through extrasensory and energetic resonance (consciousness), a process that is independent of time and space. This is why when someone forgives, the effect is felt immediately by the person being forgiven no matter how far away he or she may be.
Returning to our situation with the mediators, we can think of the situation they most often find themselves in as a morphic field in which the individuals are held together, through morphic resonance, by a victim consciousness. As soon as one member (the mediator) shifts his consciousness in the direction of love and acceptance of what is, as is, the field immediately undergoes a transformation and evolves into a new vibratory arrangement of a higher order. Through morphic resonance, the other members of the group have an opportunity to become realigned in the same way, and the situation can evolve on completely different lines from the way it would have had the consciousness not been transformed in this way.
I mention Sheldrake’s work to show that the way we talk about energy and consciousness has a firm foundation in mo
dern scientific research and theory.
Nelson Mandela Has Shown Us How
The way Nelson Mandela handled the South African situation when apartheid finally ended in the early 1990s is an object lesson in how to transform energy through Radical Forgiveness. Apartheid, the white-dominated political system that had been in place for three-quarters of a century, kept blacks and whites separated—the whites in luxury and the blacks in terrible poverty. Mandela himself was imprisoned for twenty-six years. Upon his release, he became president of the country. South Africa was ripe for a bloodbath of revenge, yet Mandela brought about an amazingly peaceful transition—the hallmark of which was not revenge but forgiveness.
It was not so much what he did that prevented the predicted bloodbath from occurring, but how he handled the energy. He refused to take revenge, and on behalf of all the people he transcended the victim archetype. This, in turn, collapsed the energy pattern of potential violence already in place and waiting to be triggered. South Africa remains in transition today and not without problems, but it has progressed much farther than we could have dreamed possible a few decades ago.
Our collective mission to transform the victim archetype demands that we all follow Mandela’s lead and move beyond the experience of victimhood. If we do not, we will stay hopelessly addicted to our woundedness and to the victim archetype.
Spirit Nudges
Deep inside our subconscious mind, we are in touch with our mission. Spirit keeps presenting opportunities to transform the victim energy by bringing things like incest, child abuse, sexual abuse, and racial hatred to the surface. Each one of us can embrace this mission by practicing Radical Forgiveness in any of these situations. If achieved by enough of us, the shift in perception that allows us to see the perfection in the situation will transform it so that the need for such energy patterns disappears.
Radical Forgiveness Page 9