How Stuff Works

Those who know me personally know that a big part of my personality is analytical – I’m always trying to figure out how things work. This is such a strong part of me that I have tried to apply it to every part of my life. It has solved problems for me, gotten me ahead in my career, and it has generally provided a foundation for how I understand the world around me.

There’s a lot of reasons for this, related to my personal onion layers, but suffice it to say for now that I primarily judge my personal success by how quickly I can figure out how things work.

Everything that I’ve experienced so far as a student of NextStage has been incredible, and well beyond anything in my previous experience. As a result of my analytical personality, I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how certain things work.

The problem now is that the things that happen to me aren’t so easy to figure out. Because I’ve never experienced anything like them before, I don’t automatically accept them, and I find myself defaulting to my primary analytical tools to help me understand them as quickly as possible. While this reaction may be natural for me, it isn’t a universally useful tool especially in the case of The Practice.

How do you figure out how entering Shamanic Reality works?

There’s no user manual, there’s no instructions, no schematics, there’s no app for that. I know it’s real, I’ve experienced it. But still, I try to figure it out. The result is confusion and frustration (ever heard of analysis paralysis?) because I can’t easily figure it out quickly. As a matter of fact, trying to figure out how something works in The Practice has stood directly in my way of experiencing it. My go-to tool is now sometimes becoming an impediment.

I’m realizing now though, that just because I don’t know how it works doesn’t mean that it can’t or won’t work. I freely admit my knowledge of physical laws of the Universe is limited. Western science doesn’t have all the rules figured out either – there are even new subatomic particles still being discovered. I don’t know how any of that works. I don’t know exactly how an internal combustion engine works either, but I absolutely accept that it does and that my car uses one to get me around.

The Practice isn’t magic (although it may seem that way to some), it’s just that the science and physical laws behind it haven’t been properly examined or explained yet. Accepting that I don’t understand has released me to focus on the experiences themselves, and to experience more.

My teacher Joseph often reminds me that knowing how something works is usually “the boobie prize”. Figuring it out often happens well later. Knowing that it does work, and most importantly that I can do it, are far more important. Experience is the ultimate proof of expanded awareness, and I’ve experienced it.

You can too.