A proposal

[Bring4th_Austin]

I find the LOO traps people in their shells essentially and if they desire to see their desires on the face of the world in any significant way they must deal with a very large amount of their unprocessed catalyst (shadow).

And then they're rejected from the community ensuring that they walk a lonely path during this process.

The intention of your original post isn’t really clear for me. It seemed to me that you were going to try to embody a negative philosophy to help others reflect? Or to help yourself reflect? I didn’t quite grasp it.

However, regarding your statement here, there is some sadness and truth in what you say.

But – and I say this as an opinion, from personal experience, and not from callousness – shadow work is innately and necessarily a lonely path. Once we realize that there is a wealth of shadow within our unconscious that we have yet to become conscious of and process, the burden of responsibility can only be placed squarely on our own shoulders. That’s not to say a community cannot offer support and love, but is it fair to ask others to carry our burden for us? Upon the realization that we have shadow work to do, we should also realize that we’ve been unconsciously asking people to do this for a long time.

Also with this might come the realization that others are also unconsciously asking us to carry some burdens for them, by their projections on to us. In my eyes, this helps to bring context to disharmony. We choose what to do once we are equipped with this knowledge. It is still our responsibility to deal with how people approach us.

Self-work is necessarily on the self. We can hope that other people will do their best to deal with theirs while we deal with ours. There can certainly be some teacher/student, healer/patient relationships established where methods of projection and roll play can be effective, but it requires an extreme depth of consent and intimacy with individuals.

It seems to me that shadow work should be seeing how we are already, unconsciously playing less-desired roles and already, unconsciously asking others to be our punching bags, then dealing with that – instead of seeking more punching bags. One doesn’t need to literally embody a negative adept in order to discover the negativity within, and others don’t need a friend to embody negativity in order to experience negative catalyst.

That’s not to say that there aren’t methods we can implement to help the process. Creativity, art, journaling, writing, dream-work, active imagination, self-therapy, etc. – all of these can be used to exaggerate, accentuate, and explore negative distortions to help us heal and accept them without risk of hurting others or increasing their distortions in the process.

Regarding people feeling rejected from the forum: there is an eternal struggle inside of me regarding how people may feel rejected from the community. No community will feel welcoming to all individuals. It would be amazing if everyone could feel welcomed on Bring4th. But it’s just a matter of fact that some people will always act in ways that make others feel unwelcome. What you are trying to do with this thread (I think, since I’m not clear on your intentions) would make others feel unwelcome.

There’s a long essay about it here: https://www.bring4th.org/forums/showthre...?tid=11932

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There seems to be a constant theme on Bring4th about this extreme and pressing need to accept negativity and shadow, as if that is something that is uniquely lacking on Bring4th. I can understand frustration with what one might perceive as a denial or a “lack of progress,” especially when the community is focused around a material that espouses acceptance as a high ideal. I think this frustration can cause people to try to push boundaries and test just how deep the acceptance waters go.

But isn’t this world difficult enough already? Isn’t there enough catalyst and suffering in our lives outside of Bring4th for us to grow from? There is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to catalyst in this world. If we see others having trouble accepting something, is generating more of that thing really the best way to help them?

I know – it is inevitable that any gathering of people will generate catalyst. When we have a certain idea of what a community like Bring4th should be like, we will ultimately end up with dissatisfaction, and express that dissatisfaction, consciously or unconsciously, in many different ways.

We can all do better at handling our own s*** and helping people with handling their s***. That journey never ends, not in this density anyways. We’re all on infinitely unique paths and it can be hard to understand what others are trying to deal with. My request to all would be that if one sees what they feel is a potential solution for some perceived ills of the forum, do your best to figure out what your perception and your solution say about you on your own journey.

There is such a variety of needs, desires, opinions, and journeys here. It is literally impossible to accommodate them all. I think it would go a long way for us to consider, if we are hoping to serve the community or the members in a certain way, whether or not that service is being requested or desired.

And also ask ourselves if how we offer ourselves to the community is in accordance and respectful to the intent of these forums. People come here for different reasons, but Bring4th was created and is maintained with a purpose and intent. We'll never meet any ideal of what this community was intended to be, but if members consciously reflected on the original desire as they interact, it could help manifest that desire.

Love to all.