Dreamer Awake!

Module 2: Shining the Light on Shadow

Before you truly step into your own divine, limitless power, you must first meet your Shadow Self, face-to-face. This is what happens in the Shining the Light on Shadow module of Dreamer Awake! With love and compassion you will come to integrate this part of yourself. You will understand how and why this version of self came to be, and you will return it to full Selfhood, so that it might cease to act in disharmony with you.

Thus integrated, you will be ready to take up the incredibly powerful Tools of Creation, the third module of Dreamer Awake!

An Introduction to Shadow

If your computer begins behaving erratically – randomly doing unexpected things in a way that makes it dysfunctional – you would, quite rightly, want to know why. Perhaps you'd wonder if your computer has a virus. A sensible choice would be to run a specialist virus-seeking program to find, and then expunge, the intrusive code from your machine and get it back to good operational order.

A computer virus is a good analogy for the Shadow. As we proceed through life, we all eventually become aware of anomalies in our own thoughts, choices, activities and responses. We do things that are not merely a little irrational, but often outright self-destructive. We all have our addictions (whether or not they are to socially acceptable things). We make choices that are not in our own best interests. We all do things that we ourselves don't actually understand, and respond to others in ways that surprise, and sometimes even shock us. These are just some of the effects of the computer-virus of the mind, the Shadow, in action. Some of the effects are relatively benign, but some of the effects are totally debilitating and devastating.

We all have a Shadow. All of our lives are affected by our Shadows.

But... who is this Shadow?

Who is Shadow?

Just as a real shadow is merely an absence of light, in the same way mainstream psychology takes the view that the psychological Shadow is merely an absence of awareness; that the Shadow is merely the unconscious, hidden part of the psyche... that the Shadow is inanimate... an effect of the mind. According to the renowned psychiatrist, Carl Jung, the Shadow is a metaphor for the powerful effects of the unconscious on the conscious, and that it is, quite simply, an effect of non-awareness. Hence, Shadow is diminished, and can eventually disappear, with sufficient self-awareness.

Although I have the greatest respect for Jung's work, my research very powerfully leads me to the view that, while indeed, the Shadow does reside in the unknown and unobserved parts of the mind, it is actually a someone. There is a separate consciousness there. A will. A drive to survival. An intellect and reasoning ability, quite separate from your own. I am, in point of fact, quite certain that your Shadow is its own whole being, every bit as real as you are.

So, you have your Shadow and I have mine. But I have discovered that many similarities seem to exist amongst all Shadows: they all arise in the same way; they all act on the mind of the conscious being in similar ways; the effects of their actions have sufficient similarities that they can be described and understood; Shadow is made denser and stronger in the same way and, in the end, there really is only one way to cease being a victim of Shadow and for each of us to find wholeness and oneness within ourselves.

Shadow can be studied, understood and appropriately responded to. Healing for the psyche and its Shadow is possible.

Why Shadow Requires A Response

Perhaps 90% of all my clients find their way to me for Soul Re-Integration or some other similar spiritual healing intervention. At root, the reason they have sought me out is, quite simply, because they have become aware of Shadow's activities in their lives. A discussion with a clinical psychologist corroborated this: all clinical psychology patients seek help because of the effects of Shadow in the client's life.

I cannot state this any more simply than this: ALL spiritual pain arises from conflict between the conscious self and Shadow. When you and your Shadow disagree, it can get ugly quite quickly. And the battlefield is your mind, your life, your body, your relationships. A raging battle with Shadow results in catastrophic circumstances in your life. Every truly negative experience I can think of that one might have in this life, has Shadow as its deepest root cause.

Of course the client seeking help is not at all aware that it is a battle with Shadow that ails them. By Shadow's very nature, they are totally unaware of its existence. The client reports this or that symptom: relationship issues, body issues, self-perception issues... an infinite number of different symptoms are reported but, at root, all such psycho-spiritual issues are truly simply the effects of Shadow in action.

And when we understand that spiritual distress underlies all other problems, including emotional imbalance, ill-health, relationship problems and financial and career woes, then it becomes apparent that, truly, all of our problems are actually Shadow problems. And Shadow problems can be pernicious indeed as one cannot fight Shadow without making it stronger, and if one surrenders to Shadow, you make it stronger too! So clearly one must do something about Shadow... the question is quite simply, what can one do?

Fortunately then, you can consider Shining the Light on Shadow to be an anti-virus tool-kit for your mind and soul. Over the course of the six parts of Shining the Light on Shadow, I will be introducing you to the concept of the Shadow-self so that you will understand very clearly what exactly this is. You will understand how Shadow arises and is created, you'll understand how it becomes more dense, more powerful and more devastating in its activities. You will understand what it does, how it operates and why. And when you understand these things, then you will be ready to understand your own Shadow. Then you'll be ready to see where and how your Shadow is acting in your life. And this first awareness is the beginning of the end to Shadow's nefarious activities. Then I will lead you to a complete understanding of exactly how to deal with Shadow. There is a “right way” to respond to the Shadow and there are some desperately self-destructive “wrong ways”. I will be showing you how to respond to your Shadow in a way that, quite simply, cannot cause you any harm, but most certainly can lead to your wholeness and psycho-spiritual growth. The tools we will be using will be love, insight, love, awareness, love, compassion and love. I will be pointing the way for you to follow your own heart to your ever unfolding healing.

The path of Shadow work is quite an intriguing one. When it begins, you think that you are going to heal and repair some hurt part of yourself. As it proceeds, you find yourself discovering some surprisingly new things about yourself, and as it concludes you realise it has been, perhaps, the most rewarding thing you could have done. You will find, on the path to dealing with your Shadow, that you have uncovered the very brightest jewels of your soul.

The path of Shadow work never leads where expected. It is often more challenging than expected and always yields greater rewards than expected. And when you think it's over... it isn't. Each time you think you have gotten to the bottom of your Shadow, you will find that there is another layer. For truly, you are not done with Shadow until you are done with separation.

Shadow and separation are actually intertwined concepts. You leave separation by integrating your Shadow.

And so the nine parts of Shining the Light on Shadow that play out over nine weeks will not take you to the end of your Shadow. But they will point you towards a whole new wonderful love relationship with yourself... your true self that includes Shadow and all else that you really are.

Welcome to Shadow work.

Welcome to your journey Home to all that you truly are...

Now Available!

As the second module of Dreamer Awake!, Shining the Light on Shadow builds upon the work done in Heart and Mind Aligned. If you are interested in doing Shadow work, please enrol for Heart and Mind Aligned first. It really is necessary to do that work first before tackling this challenging, more advanced work.