Credit: Brian in Cleveland
As I walked in to the Avatar Course on the first day, in the La Fonda Hotel on the town square in Santa Fe, and sat down—name badge and registration form in hand, my “b.s. meter” was on high alert.
At 38, I had been through 24 years of promises by self-help gurus, promising that this—finally—would be “the” answer that would solve all my problems. I had been inspired, uplifted, and enticed by the possibility.
“Maybe this time,” I had thought—over, and over, and over again. The answer, the solution, the key I knew was missing.
Not only that—I was terribly suspicious of groups. What were all these people doing here, doing the same thing? Reading from the same book, saying the same words?
In my life, the world had seemed divided between the majority, who played by the rules, and did what they were told—and the iconoclasts, the “weird” ones, like me, who insisted—and worked hard—to think their own thoughts, do things their own way, and pursue their own purpose in life.
Thousands of experiences had taught me that a group coming together, all doing the same thing, was a sign of people who were not thinking for themselves.
And… they were all smiling so much—what was that all about? “Don’t let these people get to you, just in case their weird in the bad way,” I thought.
As the morning wore on, we did exercises—so simple, some familiar. We stared at an object for a minute. We walked around and looked at things. We had some interesting discussions.
But years and years of training had taught me to be very protective of what I let in. What were these people about? What were they doing here?
As we continued, I started to have more and more fun. I started to enjoy myself more. An amazingly simple exercise that made a past memory lose its power. Intriguing ideas about awareness, and how things worked.
Sometime after lunch, I began to notice—hmm… nothing showing up on the bullshit meter.
“All the people seem to be speaking from their heart? Check.”
“Everyone feels real and genuine? Check.”
“They’re not telling me what to think or believe? Check.”
“Hmm… Interesting.”
“But wait,” I thought to myself.
“I thought groups of people all saying the same thing was a sign of the mindlessness of our society—or worse, of a mindless cult.”
New possibilities began to form in my mind.
“What if,” I thought, “a group of people could choose to come together for a common purpose?”—As a loner type, this was a new concept to me. I had defined the world in terms of loners, and automatons. But… I was having so much fun! I was feeling better. This was so simple!
I had to re-frame my thoughts a bit. I relaxed. By the end of the workshop on Sunday evening, I felt so great, so full of possibility! I wanted more, I wanted to do the next step [Section II].
I had read Living Deliberately a few days before, and something struck me about the way he explained the ability to create beliefs. I wanted to know how to do that!
The following morning, I dove in to Section II, and after a lifetime of thinking about spiritual matters, I was inside it. I felt it. This was different.
One of the great many gifts I have gotten from Avatar, is that I would say I no longer have a “bs meter.” I mean, that I don’t have to worry about whether or not somebody is real or not. I can just feel whether they’re real or not. I can decide what kinds of people and ideas and attitudes I want to be around, and decide whether someone matches this, or doesn’t.
So it’s no longer a wall, it’s just a series of choices. Who do I want to be? What will help me get there? What won’t? All very fast, very simple.
I invite you to come, and test it out for yourself. Come, and explore past your assumptions of what’s happening, and see what’s really here. Because this is really amazing!
