Prayer To Transcend The TV Shadow

As a result of my post about Jack Canfield’s new novel, I wrote A Prayer To Transcend The TV Shadow (which you will find about half way down this page).

I did it because I have a dirty little secret: I love to read mysteries and I especially love to watch them on television.

Yet mysteries are always about murder, deception, greed – negative behaviors that are part of humanity’s shadow.

Do I not know that, due to the Law of Attraction, the ideas, thoughts, and scenarios with which I fill my mind can attract events in the “real” world that are vibrating with similar energy?

Yes, I do know this.

Do I not write about how important it is to fill the mind with positive thoughts and ideas, and with what you want as opposed to what you do not want?

Yes, I write about this.

So – how can I watch shows about murder? Do I want to support the presence of murder, deception, and greed in humanity? Do I want real-life murders – the fodder for such shows – to happen?

Of course not.

So why do I watch? Why do I give in to the temptation, the allure of the mystery or, for that matter, the tragedy?

I watch because the shadow in me loves this stuff.

So what am I to do? Say, “Down bad shadow – I’m not watching that. I refuse.”

Ha. It doesn’t work, at least not for long.

It’s like trying to stay away from a piece of cake when your shadow wants you to eat it even though you’re twenty pounds heavier than you’d like to be.

It’s like following up on all those well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions.

It doesn’t happen until you recognize and begin to heal that part of the shadow that is intent on sabotaging you.

So, what do you do when you know the shadow “has you?”

For we know TV programs and books about murder and horror are not good for us. They may be interesting, they may have beautiful settings and photography, they may get our blood pumping and get us feeling excited.

But they aren’t good for us.

Why?

Because such stories are not aligned with love, but with fear, revenge, nosiness.  They drag us through all sorts of dark feelings, make us anxious, give us bad dreams, and throw us out of alignment with our Source Energy.

Yet they appeal to us because they get our adrenaline going and that is SO addictive.

Plus, it can be argued that stories about murder and betrayal act as a catharsis so we can see and experience the shadow in a safe way. We get our “murder fix” in an acceptable way, acted out by someone on stage.

Yet what about those times when a person acts out what he has seen in the headlines or read in a story?

If story is merely catharsis and harmless, then why does that happen? Can it be that we do not really appease the shadow through our entertainments, but strengthen it?

We cannot answer that question until we understand the nature of The Shadow.

ME AND MY SHADOW

I define The Shadow not as a being – and certainly not as “the devil” – but as self-destructive programming that needs to be re-written, overwritten or otherwise corrected.

The computer Hal, in the film 2001: A Space Odessey, was a brilliant metaphor for how the subconscious works, and how faulty or mutually exclusive programming commands result in internal conflict, self-destruction and/or the destruction of others.

In The Shadow Effect, Marianne Williamson calls the shadow “a non-thing,” and, in fact, software is a “non-thing” as opposed to hardware.

A tricky non-thing, the Shadow has no substance and can shape-shift around your best intentions because it is programming that writes itself, and can adapt silently, when ignored or denied or confused, just as Hal did.

The rule of the Shadow is this: when you are unaware of your shadow behaviors – whatever they are – you will act them out against someone else, attract someone else to act them out against you, or you will act them out against yourself.

In exposing ourselves to the Shadow through media, we further program ourselves with shadow ideas, even though we watch murder and mayhem as a “mere” voyeur.

So, although there is no “real” violence happening in the room in which we watch, we do not escape the effects. We take it all in, fodder for the shadow’s matrix of programming that will – and must – out-picture in the world.

TO BE CONTINUED…

There’s a lot more on my mind about this topic. I’m going to write several more posts and back link.

Meanwhile, if you are concerned about the state of the world – and about the effect that television, movies, talk radio and all media may be having on you – look into shadow work. (Censorship does not work, and I will explain why, but not in this post. )

I composed a prayer of confession for myself, to begin my own work in the particular area of the TV shadow, and I share it with you, below.

I begin by acknowledging that my shadow has had a hand in choosing the entertainments in which I indulge.

Since my viewing preferences are likely to be different from yours, if you want to speak this prayer, simply substitute your own particular entertainment preference in that line.

Murder mysteries may not be your English cup of tea.

If you are reluctant to think of your entertainments as having any underbelly, all I can say is that, unless all that you watch and read is very positive – say on the order of Mary Poppins – the shadow has something to do with why you are attracted to it.

(I can’t resist putting her happy face in this blog post. Makes me want to smile just looking at that image.)

Admitting that TV programs or books you like have a shadow influence does not mean you’re bad.

It doesn’t even mean you’ll have to give them up.

This is just a first step to seeing what role these entertainments are serving in your life.

Simple awareness about them – and a good dose of humor – will open the door to truth, options, and more Light.

You may discover you begin to, just naturally, lose interest in a particular entertainment.

Or, you may simply choose to pray and bless your show and ask that your actions do no harm after indulging in them.

It’s your choice. Just be aware.

The cardinal rule for healing is that you make whatever you are doing your conscious choice.

When, instead, you let yourself fall into “default behavior” triggered by shadow programming, you become a puppet to an unknown and unpredictable master who, according to Marianne Williamson, “is out to destroy you.”

SHADOW PRAYER

Prayer To Transcend The TV Shadow

Dear God,

There are entertainments in this world that appeal to me,

And that I indulge in,

Even though I know they are not vibrating at the highest level.

There are television shows I watch
And books and newspapers that I read
That highlight the contrast of joy and pain
That exists in the world.

There are other things, as well, and I confess them here to you.

(Say your own.)

While there are entertainments that make me feel good and positive, yet there are many that do not.

Still, I cannot seem to keep myself from indulging in them.

I cannot seem to keep myself from dabbling in my guilty pleasures.

I tell myself they are harmless.

Yet there is something powerful in them that calls to me,
That has me in its clutches, almost addicted.

Give me the strength to see what this is.

Give me a sense of humor about this.

Let me not condemn myself for this behavior.

Let me, instead, see if it reveals a bit of humanity’s shadow that I did not know I contained.

Let me consider

That this might be allowing me to express the shadow within

In a safe way.

Give me the strength to see that, in some way,
My attraction to these entertainments
Is showing me a quality in myself
That I must own and face.

For instance, while I would never want to be a murderer,
I am fascinated by murder mysteries (or say your own).

Lord, I blamed myself for this and thought ill of myself.

I feared I was undoing my own Light.

Lord, You always love me.

Help me feel Your love for me in this moment.

Help me embrace more of Your Light.

Help me. Guide me. Illumine me.

Help me see and use these entertainments
In a way that furthers my healing,
And quickens the healing of the world.

For I know you do not expect me to suppress this part of myself.

Indeed, there is no suppressing the Shadow.

You invite me to expand the Light inside me

For, in doing so, the dark must naturally lighten.

It is through shining Light that darkness disappears.

I do this by admitting I have the shadow qualities,
reflected in these entertainments.

I know you do not expect me to stop being aware
Of the sadness and troubles in the world,
Of the false joys and excesses in the world.

I know you do not expect me to deny life experience.

Or deny that I learn what I really want
Through contrasting one experience with another.

I know you want me to be aware of the pain of others, and to do something about it.

Yet you would not have me suffer.

You would not have me focus so much on the pain of others that I create even more pain by mistake.

So help me turn all these experiences to good.

Help me understand that my Shadow is crying out for transformation.

Help me see that, as I heal my own Shadow, I heal the world’s.

Help me look at those things which need transformation,
yet not be brought low by them.

Lift me up so my Light shines brightly.

Align me with my Source Energy and my Divine Love.

Help me understand that I can be fully human,
Feel all my human feelings,
And lift them into glory.

That I can be human
And still aligned with You.

Help me play my unique role in the conscious evolution of humanity.

Let me not expect you to heal the world without me.

Guide me, instead, in accepting that I am part of Your answer

And my Light is the solution.

Remind me to not condemn myself for my interests or entertainments.

Help me, instead, to feel so closely aligned with You,
That I radiate joy, no matter what I see or hear.

I accept who I am and celebrate my process of healing.

I affirm I am growing into greater and greater wisdom and Light.

I recognize myself, first and foremost,
As a deeply beloved bearer of Your love and transformation.

I affirm that everything in my life leads to healing, joy and love.

I so cherish and enjoy this gift of life that you have given me.

I rejoice in my life, laugh at my foibles
And steadily progress toward Paradise on earth.

Thank You, Beloved Creator.

I am Spirit.

I am Soil.

I am Human.

I am grateful.

And so it is.

Amen.

Prayerforce.Org: Healing Prayer Since 2003