Transformation: It CAN Work

You can't change people. When we speak of transformation, we're really talking about changing STATE, not changing SELF. But since we closely identify with our state, we all tend to think that we're changing ourselves when we change our state. So we say, I'M changing.

We all know that we can change state, because we've all been through more changes of state than we care to remember: happy, sad; high, low; skinny, fat; certain, confused.

Temporary changes of state can be created by any experience which raises energy. A little adventure -- doing something NEW or MORE -- accelerates our vibration and leaves us feeling revitalized and different. Such "risks" lead toward a new state of mind and a higher state of energy.

Energy boosts and quantum leaps

Now what most of us want to know is: Can a person change permanently or only just for a short time? Permanent changes of state -- transformations -- can and do happen, but rarely. We CAN change permanently by consciously raising our energy level and sustaining the increase over time. They don't happen often because most of us never accumulate enough energy in our system to create a quantum jump in energy level. That is what it takes to create lasting change.

Transformations occur in human beings in exactly the same way as changes of state occur in water. It takes a certain amount of energy to get a person from one state to the next, just as it takes a certain amount of energy to change water from a liquid to a gas. For a while, adding energy just heats the water, but doesn't change its state. Then suddenly, when the water reaches 212 degrees, it boils. (Or, in the case of a person, you CHANGE.)

Patience, grasshopper

People naturally feel disappointed that they work hard and raise their rate of vibration somewhat, but their "high" doesn't last. They complain, "I did the whole enlightenment weekend, and I felt great for two days. But now I feel the same as I did before. What a waste. It's not working."

Actually, it WAS working; it just didn't go far enough. You succeeded at raising the water temperature a little, and some of the accumulated energy lingered in you and made you feel better for a while. But transformation takes a certain exact amount of energy; not one bit less will do the job. So, ask yourself this, "How many times can a person heat a pot of water up to 200 degrees and not have it boil?" Answer: INFINITE times.

Just like a very large pot of water, our body/mind has a large capacity to absorb energy before changing state. Most people tend to quit their energy-raising processes before they come to a boil. Often, fearing real change, they may bail out purposely -- or perhaps unconsciously. If you want to be transformed, patience combined with hard work is needed to get the job done. You have to sit there on the hot seat, absorbing that energy, and let the total mass of your body/mind heat come all the way to a boil. Otherwise, "a miss is as good as a mile." You're just working on the beginning of what could become transformation. And maybe you never knew how close you WERE.

The cancel dance: Unconscious undoing

Transformation is like a house you can buy for a very good price -- one hundred thousand dollars -- but you have to buy it with CASH. How fast can you save up that much money? It depends on how much you earn; AND how much you SPEND. You could make five hundred thousand dollars, but if you spent all but two dollars of it, you would only be two dollars closer to your goal. So it's good to think about EARNING speed, but it's also important to be aware of WASTING speed. Otherwise, you could quite literally earn for the rest of your days, and never be able to afford that house.

"Some people work hard to transform themselves, get some good results, and undo it all as they go along. Others don't do half enough to make much difference -- which is less wasteful, actually. But both ways, you're working hard for nothing. Why not GO FOR IT, and SUCCEED?"

HERE'S the reason we work hard for nothing: to protect our egos. Remember, the ego hates change, so when change occurs, the ego tries to cancel it out, and offset the gains with backsliding. We call that "the cancel dance." For example: You go to the health club and work out, and from there, straight to the ice cream parlor to pig out. One step forward, one step back. Relative to unfamiliar experiences of higher states of consciousness, the cancel dance expresses the natural tendency to return to the level of consciousness we had before. Here are several variations on the cancel dance theme.

1. Too little heat. If you put a one watt burner under a tub, the water will never heat up appreciably, much less boil -- not in a billion years. There are a million one watt processes: do therapy for two weeks; go to church once in a blue moon; take an enlightenment seminar once a year whether you need it or not; have ho-hum sex twice a month; jog a quarter mile once a week; have a guru who lives on another planet; marry a man or woman who lives in a distant city; be halfway honest; take a third of a risk. There is no way you can be transformed that way, not in infinite time.

2. Turn off that nice hot burner too soon. Some people do some exciting things once in a while: go to the enlightenment weekend marathon; run a long way; take an emotional risk; get married. But if you don't keep doing it, you've only heated your pot halfway to the boil.

3. Throw in ice cubes. Get hot and then do some destructive behavior, indulge in extreme doubt or negativity, hang out with bad company. We cool off fast when we do anything foolish, destructive, depressing, or otherwise unethical.

4. Neglect to stoke the fire. If you start celebrating the fact that you have experienced something beautiful, or are enjoying a nice residual effect, you might start dancing around the campfire. But pretty soon, the campfire goes out. What happened? You forgot to feed the fire.

These are the ways that people lose the ground they've gained, lose their good feelings, and fail to reach the level of energy for transformation. Try not to do that stuff.

Ethics and the juice

There are many people whose lives are full of risk and excitement. They might be enlightened, if it were not for some serious cancel dancing. Often, they cancel their high energy away with ethical and social misbehaviors.

All too often, unethical behaviors seem to follow directly upon enlightenment experiences or high energy states. For example, a person who goes to an enlightenment seminar comes back excited and in possession of a brand new swelled head. The person will proceed to feel superior, and commit a number of social errors on that account; like talk too much and listen too little; or alienate people with selfish enthusiasm for some kind of continuing process; or take the skill learned in the seminar, and use it to exploit life or people in a fundamentally selfish way. All such misbehavior may be an unconscious attempt to reduce the unfamiliar high energy condition, to re-stabilize the ego-centered personality in a condition more like the familiar old state of being.

To the extent that we behave unethically, guilt and shame will lower our energy. Our friends may even withdraw, run away, or project resentment or other negative emotions at us -- all of which robs US of THEIR energy. And then, of course, if we become defensive in response, that further reduces our energy.

Successful transformation depends on maintaining the highest possible ethical orientation in life. High ethics create inner happiness, and draw a positive energy response on all sides from the people we have loved, taken care of, and taken into account. This is a real energy BOOST, not an energy DRAIN.

What to do

1. Keep the heat ON. You can't harvest your "Ah Ha" experience, much less your permanent transformation, until the heat you've added reaches a critical total. The accelerated energy you feel giddy about today needs to be fed and kept going until you make that quantum jump, and change state permanently. So be patient. Let your cool body/mind go on absorbing energy, absorbing energy, absorbing energy until suddenly -- boom -- you're different. Not progressively different; SUDDENLY different.

2. Tolerate feeling different. We have to get DISoriented to be REoriented. People tend to reject change like the body rejects a splinter. So when we start to feel antsy or disoriented, the temptation is strong to buck it off. If change is what we want, then we have to put up with feeling different. That can be a real challenge sometimes, but it's worth the effort!

3. Protect those precious gains. A residual effect gives you an experience of the next evolutionary state. Enjoy your residuals -- they certainly are enjoyable -- but more than that, conscientiously try to sustain them. Imagine you have finally brought a huge pot of water to a boil. You don't want to let it cool down, just to have to bring it to a boil all over again.

4. Press on. Good things come to those who persist. Continue to put energy into the system. When your pot boils you won't go back, and you won't have the disappointing experience that says, "This is my familiar old state again." You will get to the next quantum level, and stay there.

How long does transformation take?

If you put a HUGE amount of energy into your own body/mind, you could come to a boil in a short period of time, and be transformed permanently. The main limiting factor is courage. How do you think the astronauts feel when they're sitting on a six million horsepower rocket going skyward? They're probably thinking, "I don't know if this is a good career choice." But it takes every ounce of that horsepower to escape the earth's gravitational field.

So, how much daring have you got? When you are sitting on the horsepower that you can create just by doing something different, and you start to feel a little toasty and squirrelly, remember that it's a good career choice for you to become the person you want to be. Before you push the eject button, ask yourself, "Do I really need to go back to the way I used to be?" If you don't REALLY need to, don't. Ride that rocket. Get out and stay out, once and for all. If you do, you'll never see that old junk again -- at least not in the mirror.

Have the courage to keep the heat on. When you do something different and feel disoriented, don't try to get reoriented to the way you used to be. Instead, do it again, and more intensely this time. That takes courage, but courage is the key to transformation.

Go for it!

Going for real transformation is like an assault on a mountain. Don't bring sneakers and a bag lunch to Mt. Everest. Be serious. Get the thirty sherpas, mountain gear, oxygen -- the whole shebang. Once you know what you're up against, do it. Go for higher and higher energy states. Press on until you come out where you really want to be:

1. Freed from self-protective habits that are destructive and automatic.

2. Stably happy, and free of disturbing cycles of highs and lows.

3. Liberated to bring the love you feel FULLY into manifestation in real life relationships.

Bravo!

When people talk about transformation, what they're really after is a change of STATE -- not a change of SELF. The ultimate growth goal is self-realization. Transformation occurs in people much the same way as changes of state occur in water. The secret of transformation is to heat the "pot" of the body/mind by doing what it takes to raise our rate of vibration. Equally important, we carefully avoid chilling behaviors that can undo our efforts and return us to our habitual state.

Amadon is the founder of the Living Love Fellowship. Over the last thirty years, he has given personal spiritual direction to hundreds of people, in the context of committed, loving friendship. He seeks to serve each person's true self-expression and intimate relationship with God. He has written numerous articles, many of which can be found at the organization's website, http://www.soulprogress.com/

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