God made me an atheist, or I don't know, at least an agnostic. Don't worry, this isn't a post about religion. It is about how sad I get when I see people put their faith in something other than themselves.
There was a study done by Martin Seligman where he conducted experiments on dogs (this is sad but very insightful*) by shocking them and no matter what they did they could not avoid it. When these same dogs were then put into another environment they still cowered in fear because even though there was nothing that was going to shock them they had been conditioned into learned helplessness. As part of my next book I have been observing the energy flow in myself and others and one of the things that is so clear is when people give their power away. Relying on a spouse, a job, a guru, or God instead of realizing it is them that holds the power. How many people were born, married, or walked into a bad situation then let themselves remain powerless when they had long been able to take control?
Does that mean we can control everything that happens in our life? Of course not. But we do have control over what attitude we bring to a situation, what energy we give off, what we tell ourselves about what is happening, and how long a bad situation is going to affect us.
Last Friday I was lucky enough to attend a taping of Oprah's Lifeclass at her Harpo Studios. It was a great night and I was very inspired by the conversation. Oprah was talking (not preaching) about how at one time she was waiting on God to bless her life, but now she now knows God was waiting for her to take control of her own life. Her point was we are each responsible for our own lives, which I totally agree with; to think some outside entity is ultimately controlling our lives seems silly and destructive to me.
People like to put their faith in God because it is easier to rationalize that then the world is made up of energy that starts with pure luck then mixes in a good dose of karma and randomness- and is often not understandable, and sometimes cruel. I do believe in a universal karmic energy that flows thru my life- returning much of the energy we put out in the world. But to me the key is it all starts with us; and waiting on something outside of us is not having faith, it is having lack of it. If we're going to have faith, let it be first in ourselves and then in others... and if we need God in our lives let it be to thank him for building strength into us not randomly showing up when we're begging for it.
Oprah often quotes the movie The Wizard Of Oz when Glinda shows up and says: you've always had the power. Well YOU do have the power and you don't need to wait for an Oz or a big O of any kind to use it, just have faith in You, I do!
*love this summary from Brian Johnson of Philosopher's Notes
