What is a consensual nightmare?

Consensual nightmare is a term we coined to describe those bed-rock collective beliefs that keep us collectively in a state of suffering. It is what “everybody” knows, how “everyone” behaves, and it can be quite challenging to step out of the frame.

Individually, in addition to our own processes of awakening and self-realization, we live in a world of consensual beliefs: orphan beliefs that spiral on between us through constant, unawakened affirmation.

These beliefs put us to sleep as young children, and they seduce us back to sleep as adults. They can hit us at any stage of our lives, feeding off our deep and natural need to belong.

In order to move out of consensual nightmares, we need to move through a dark layer of ourselves connected with being “wrong”, “guilty”, or simply condemned to life as a human. The more deeply we become innocently human, the less hold the consensual has on our minds, hearts and direction.

Why “nightmare”?

Simply because the consensual, pleasant dreams contain far less suffering. They even have creative potential. If we all believe the world is naturally as peace and man is naturally forgiving, in no time it would be so. If you all believe happiness is a natural state, then happiness could become a natural state. In addition, we awaken more thoroughly from our nightmares, Through our nightmares, we open our eyes in the depths of night to check who we really are. In pleasant dreams, we are drugged to indulge, even though we know they are not real and even though we know that every pleasure carries pain on its tail. The impetus to awaken to our true strength is less.

So sit back and reality-check the selected six. Really, check out the core beliefs!

This is not law – but an invitation to inquire into the deeper truth of how we believe our world to be, beliefs which are affecting our experience of living.

[fresh_dropcap]1. Service[/fresh_dropcap]

Belief:

Service is an act of inferior people towards their superiors. Through service, we lose our freedom. He who serves is a sucker.

Inquiry:

The Queen of England is a servant of her people. The Dalai Lama is a servant of humanity. Service involves giving, transmitting something that is needed, working for the benefit of the whole rather than the limited “I”.

Could it be that service – from equal life towards life – is one of the deepest expressions of life? Could it be that human life itself is a movement of service to a greater whole?

[fresh_dropcap]2. Silence[/fresh_dropcap]

Belief:

Silence shows weakness. Silence means there is a lack of common ground between people. Silence is just an awkward space between words.

Inquiry:

Silence precedes, underlies and determines every sound. Every sound is created by which syllables and frequencies are left out.

Why is it so testing to share silence?

When silence is so honest and more dependable than any articulation, why does silence create fear?

From the womb to active adult life, to the end of life, silence prevails – in space, in nature, in the earth. It is the predominant, never-ending basis from horizon to horizon. Even in the most talkative relationship between people, silence is there in greater quantity.

Who or what prevents us from allowing that which is so prevalent as part of who we are?

[fresh_dropcap]3. Separation[/fresh_dropcap]

Belief:

As individuals, we are separate from the whole. Our very individuality depends on our being separate from others and from the universe. There is a fundamental conflict between individuality and unity. To become ONE we must sacrifice our individuality.

Inquiry:

Unity is found at the core of the individual. This means, the more that unity is allowed to exist with others and the perceived “outside”, the more dazzling, unique and special the individual becomes.

The more individuality is allowed in its inner core, the more a unity is found  as utterly indivisible from the ONE and the whole tapestry of creation.

The conflict does not exist, except in the mind, traded through emotional programming designed to avoid the suffering of the so-called “other”.

[fresh_dropcap]4. Love[/fresh_dropcap]

Belief:

Love is something to be searched for, out there. Its source is from outside ourselves. “One day, I will find love.”

Inquiry:

What is love? Where is it coming from? To whom does it belong? Can I be loved without loving?

Is there a difference between “my” love or “your” love? Or does the difference only appear within our way of feeling it?

Can love ever compete with itself?

[fresh_dropcap]5. Peace[/fresh_dropcap]

Belief:

Peace is the opposite of war.

Inquiry:

Could it be that peace is there irrespective of all that is happening and all that has ever happened?

Could it be that it is not something to be “got” but that which needs to be allowed?

How many wars have been fought with the agenda of peace?

How does the allowance of peace as an integral part of every fiber of existence and every moment of perception affect the way we find form, and our attitude towards our own form and that of others?

[fresh_dropcap]6. Status[/fresh_dropcap]

Belief

We are all organized into superior and inferior. If someone else is “more”, “better”, then I am less and worse. Therefore, my survival depends on my superiority to others. If I find myself inferior, then this also makes me special. My inferiority is superior to the inferiority of others.

The teacher is superior to the student.

The one who tells is superior to the one that listens.

The rich man is superior to the poor man.

Inquiry

Where do I feel myself as superior or inferior to another? Who is the one that feels this difference?

How am I measuring myself and the self of the other in order to believe in this imbalance? What makes me believe I am less or more than others? What is the drive to seek this fixed position?

What would happen if the tools of measurement dissolved, for a moment? Utterly and totally gone, irrelevant. Where is the other then? Where are you?