Palden's Archive | About doing consciousness work
Archive > Archive of Articles > World Work
About Doing Consciousness Work
Palden JenkinsWritten 1994
If you would like to play a part in furthering life on Earth and bringing about better conditions for humanity, here are some suggested guidelines for consciousness-work to raise worldwide awareness and change things. If you are already doing work like this, do continue with what you're doing – and if you have no previous experience with it, please use your intelligence and discernment to find out whether and how these guidelines are useful to you. Above all, just do it.
The issue is about affecting the collective unconscious in a wholesome way. This is an area of the psyche which even the most sophisticated controllers cannot round up and drive into a corral. It is the realm of collective values, both consciously subscribed to and unconsciously held, which continue to allow the many atrocities and negative tendencies in the world to continue – and which can be the source-point of their ending. It is people themselves who give away their power and awareness to the system, the Megamachine, for it to make use of, and it is people themselves, and only they, who can reclaim their power to determine and to create, and to co-determine and co-create, a new reality. Power-structures of the world exist and act in the way they do because people allow them to do so. Outrageous things are carried out because humanity colludes with them, ignoring them, feeling helpless, not wanting to step out of line, on a deep psychological level.
Rudolf Bahro, former chairperson of the German Greens, in a book on spiritual-ecological politics, outlines a notion he calls the logic of destruction, a system of thought-forms which has built up our civilisation as it is, and which gives the psychological foundations on which it may exist and grow. It's worth checking out his analysis of this [Rudolf Bahro, Avoiding Social and Ecological Disaster – the Politics of Transformation, Gateway Books, UK, 1993].
He also outlines a logic of salvation, which can completely replace this, giving the foundations for a world and a society which is not only sustainable, but deeply fulfilling to humanity to build and live in. His main point is that, to save our world, there must be a complete psycho-spiritual turn-around, as well as a political one, brought about by switching from a destructive to a constructive logic.
We can act to change the world in many ways. One is simple and existential, which is to work on our personal growth, seeking to transform guilt and fear-motivated negative patterns within ourselves, into life- affirming patterns of awareness and into true freedom of choice. Hereby, we render ourselves individually less controllable, since our will and intelligence becomes strengthened. Another method is to get involved in such things as organic gardening, recycling, social aid projects, and so many more areas of action and invention, which, eventually, when pieced together, will give form to whatever new civilisation we need to build. Another method is to enter into active campaigning, putting oneself on the line, seeking to affect legislation and public opinion, or to educate people anew. And the method I'm talking about here is direct consciousness-work to affect collective consciousness – 'hundredth-monkey' work.
The idea is this: if a seed thought-form is put into collective consciousness – for, at a deep level, the human race and its groupings are all one – and if it is positively strengthened and cultivated and, most importantly, if it is somehow in line with the 'universal flow' of things, then this thought-form and energy will grow of its own accord. The crucial factor here is the level of 'critical mass' at which this thought or energy spreads into the minds and hearts of the mass of humanity. The Council of Nine, with whom I've been working, [see The Only Planet of Choice, by Phyllis Schlemmer and Palden Jenkins, Gateway Books, UK, 1993] go further than this: they say that if but twelve people are together able to clearly and one-pointedly hold a positive and evolutionary thought-form for about ten minutes, they can change the world. Literally. Any of you with experience of meditation will probably acknowledge that holding a clear focus for but one minute is a massive challenge, yet, if we accept the words of the Nine, this principle suggests that, potentially, the controllers are indeed heading for trouble! It is what Live Aid was trying to do, and what healing circles and world meditation link-ups have been about – whether or not they have, to date, been markedly successful.
Here's a basic technique for working in this way. It is human, simple and bullshit-free, takes twenty-ish minutes, and can give you a fantastic feeling afterwards. It can be applied to any area of world issues, be it a war or a chaotic or destructive situation, a critical time of choice somewhere, an endangered species or an oppressed minority, the ozone layer, weather-patterns or earthquakes, or any situation you feel concern for and wish to play a positive part in. It has to do with simply re-visioning what is happening, laying new psychic tracks, and creating a path of least resistance by which easy, simple solutions may be found by the people or things involved. You can rest assured, also, that those forces which overlight planet Earth, and which seek to aid positive breakthrough and forwardness, however you see them, will be behind you. In fact, the issue here is to make ourselves available for them to work through – for if something needs doing on the physical plane, physical agents such as we are needed to do it.
This is no big deal. It is best done in groups, particularly twelve or more, but if done alone it all helps, and it is very meaningful. If you doubt what I say, just try it. To make logistical issues easier, it can involve a group of people arranging to do it simultaneously, at an agreed regular time, wherever they are. Those people with whom I do this practice carry it out at 7pm GMT on each Sunday evening.
Find yourself a quiet place, and sit down in such a way that you are relaxed and comfortable. Take a few deep breaths to clear yourself of jangle, and give 2-3 minutes to taking your attention to the rising and falling of your chest as you breathe, in your own natural way. This gets you out of your brain. Ask your soul or guardian or ancestors or divine forces to be with you, to protect you and support what you're offering.
Then focus on the situation you wish to work with. Give a few minutes to imagining it, and feeling the feeling-tones around it. If this is a war, visualise it happening, and pan onto those affected by it, their feelings about it, their vulnerabilities and hardships, fears and negativity. Feel them being in it, as if it were you. Stay with this for some minutes, taking in the full situation.
When you have explored this fully, start changing the picture. Imagine a solution dawning – the variations of solutions which can emerge can be many. Experience it in an ordinary way, as people in that situation would experience it. In our example of a war, imagine the troops getting tired and wanting to go home, imagine affected people wanting to restore normality and regain their basic security and peace, imagine the children who are affected, and get a feeling for the child within the adults too – even the generals and perpetrators. Imagine those guys just getting fed up, thinking of laying down their weapons and walking off home. Imagine them seeing the stupidity and pointlessness of the conflict, and giving up. Imagine their thoughts for their wives, children or home communities, for the things they love and truly wish for. Explore the hopes and fears which arise in connection with this.
Then start looking at the outcome of the choice which has been made. Imaginally, visualise them walking home, ending that war by abandoning it. Let the birds sing over a silent battlefield. Let nature move in on the devastation. Let families be reunited – see them doing ordinary happy things. Let babies be born in safety. Watch the guns being re-cast into new, useful things. See former enemies enjoying each others' company, and laughing over their sorry past. Feel the emotional difference. Feel how you would be if you were there. Feel the value of the precedent which is being created.
If it's an endangered species, envision it getting what it needs and being freed from whatever threatens it. If it is the Earth's atmosphere, see it getting cleaned, with the ozone-filters being reconstituted, re-woven. If it is floods in Bangladesh, see the forestry and agriculture and social infrastructure being rebuilt to take away causes of the suffering. If it is shady undercover operations, see the people involved becoming conscious and making new choices, and see the operations failing or achieving changed outcomes, and see the perpetrators softening up and seeing sense. If it is secrets or public lies, envision their public revelation and exposure, and the reaction of the public to this. And so on it goes. Always with a tone of forgiveness, understanding, realism, release, relief – never recrimination.
When you have gone through this re-envisioning for around 20 minutes, bring it to a conclusion. Make an affirmation something like this: May this become true and real, or suchlike. Offer thanks for the opportunity to carry this out, and gradually emerge from the process.
It is better to stay on one issue over a period of time than to chop and change. It's also better to achieve small things well than big things badly. If you've focused on but one kind of crisis, somewhere in the world, someone else will be covering other things! Also, this is similar to healing, inasmuch as focusing on healing one symptom of the world's negativity will tend to release overall life-energy amongst humanity, feeding through to other areas of crisis, holistically. The important thing to realise is that this does work, and that you will be unwittingly joining with many others worldwide who are doing similar kinds of work, each in their own neck of the woods. It is important also to know clearly that your contribution makes a difference. And to be clear about your own motivation.
Be sure not to interfere with the free will of others, by trying to think them into doing specific things they might not otherwise do. Search for their own solutions and ways through, as would a counsellor, and help them follow it through. Also, don't interfere with the 'universal flow' or 'The Force', but set out to facilitate and assist it. An example: you might want a war to stop, but, once started, that war might have underlying purposes which are important for humanity, yet invisible to us. In Bosnia, what makes the Bosnian tragedy valuable to human history is human learning, and if the Bosnian war were learned from, deeply, then it could stop future wars which could be far worse. So, in working to end war, affirm the choice that people have in that war, and envision them using their sense and choice. And affirm that 'The Force' has its own ways of doing things – and may its ways prevail. We cannot impose peace – peace comes if it is genuinely appropriate.
If, therefore, you are stirred by some of the information given in this magazine, and if you feel helpless to do anything about it, turn this around by doing some consciousness-work to help out, wherever you are. Don't make a big deal of it – just do it. 20-30 minutes a week for a year. Let it develop. It does make a difference, but some patience is needed. You can be re-setting the subtle patterning which makes things happen and reconstituting the beliefs of people, the thought-forms which influence humanity's view on life and the life-decisions by which masses of people steer their lives. Without being megalomanic about it, in all sincerity, you can change the world. And if folks like you and I don't start the ball rolling, how will the rest of humanity catch on to the forward-moving, evolutionary energy which can allow us to take charge of our world and re-create it in a new way?
© Copyright Palden Jenkins 1994.
This material may be downloaded, printed out in single copies for personal use and forwarded by e-mail or posted on websites unaltered and with proper attribution and a link to this site. All other uses require permission of the author, Palden Jenkins.
The Archive of Palden Jenkins
Privacy note: I'm not interested in your private data. This site collects stats of general traffic only. There's no capturing, mining, storing, sharing or selling data here. I don't keep a mailing list either. I'm happy you're here. Any issues, please contact me. Enjoy your visit!