The Alchemist

The Alchemist

In a day and age of self-discovery, of people who have already felt overwhelmed by the internet and disconnection from connection, are some of them finally waking up to the idea that we are all able to create our own magic? In my lifetime I grew up in childhood outside all day, having the run of the neighborhood and only coming home when it was getting dark to eat and check in before going back out on a summer night and playing outside at night. On the surface, it probably does not look or sound great, sounds potentially dangerous right? Surely a similar percentage of the population who are unsavory characters existed back then as do now, it’s just that now it’s in your face, in your mind every single time you open up a social media app or read the news. Exposure, that is the difference. In this exposure it creates an element of fear, which is a powerful emotion that can be beneficial if managed well just like any other emotion. However, if you let fear take root in your being and it takes up permanent residence in your house (mind) instead of being a visitor delivering a clear message, that’s when things get taken too far. These days there aren’t kids playing at night or having the run of the neighborhood because there is always somebody watching, ready to virtue signal and feel their doing their “civic duty” by reporting these “lost” kids, after all “Where are their parents”?! Sure there are times where this is a legitimate concern, what isn’t a legitimate concern is when a mother faces losing her kid because she allowed him to walk one-tenth of a mile down the road to the corner gas station for a snack, someone sees this “loose” child and reports to the cops, who then have a conversation with the mother. Surely seeing your mom questioned by people in uniform can be a formative experience in the eyes of a child, especially when the nature of the conversation is that your mom did something bad.

Point I am trying to make is that back when I was a kid there was no expectation that something bad would happen to us, thankfully nothing ever did. We had about two-three blocks as free run as well as the church/church parking lot across the street as boundaries. Looking back those were big boundaries, but we never thought of it that way. We were just having fun creating our own reality as nothing bad was ever expected. This is where things have taken a sinister turn as we advanced into our modern era of social media/24-hour new cycle. Anything bad that happens in or around your city/state, not even neighborhood, you receive updates at the tips of your fingers. Just as was always the case with news, it delivers on the pessimistic items to make the public “aware.” Negativity bias is the term often thrown around as to the why behind this phenomenon, because people will pay more attention to news reporting bad things versus good things. As news outlets are often for-profit it behooves them to report on the negatives. None of this is breaking information. The point I’m merely trying to make is the implementation of the 24-hour news cycle, mixed with social media has infected our minds with constant hits of negativity, which poisons our minds that only negativity can exist. Our minds create our realities and just like that, a mother is questioned by the cops for letting her son walk down the block to the gas station. How did we get here?

24-hour News

Perhaps one of the most vestigial inventions of modern times is the 24-hour news cycle. As already noted, news outlets profit off negativity bias as that is what gets the attention of the most eyeballs. News used to get 30 minutes of primetime television to provide updates on political events or what’s going on around the world. Now it is never-ending. Think about it, with every day all day news it means literally all day every day you see/hear stories of how terrible, dramatic, unsafe things are in and around the area you reside. Mix this development with the advancement of smartphones, which have become so commonplace that over 90% of Americans have one now.

With 24-hour news at your fingertips, it is full blown hysteria creation. Cries of anarchy, threats to democracy, the precipice of war headlines are thrown at people daily creating an event in everyone’s minds wondering how the world has gotten so bad. Blaming anyone and everyone who the news tells them to blame for how bad things are in the world, and for you, the American consumer, you’re left with feelings of anger, fear and sadness. Intense emotions that have no intention or need to be evicted from the mind. When these emotions hit you so repeatedly they take root in the mind which then creates reality surrounding it. So now you have a population walking around consumed by fear, anger and sadness, strong negative emotions all creating a reality of negativity themselves. While placing the blame on anyone else except the source of it all. This is exactly the type of environment the powers at be want, as it keeps everyone distracted.

Keeping people anchored by these intense negative emotions would prevent them from seeking a lighter path, thus illuminating the darkness that shrouds the elites. Good news is this can all be mitigated once people can see the forest through the trees. Awareness will need to be prevalent before things can change. Every single person has a choice of what their reality looks like, even if that does not seem to be the case. We are all alchemists of our own creation, which is why it is vital we understand our thoughts do control our experience. Elites and the powers who control the world know this and wield this power. We all have an opportunity to tune out the noise and go within to truly identify what resonates with you. This is a difficult, non-linear process, but one that can be achieved. It’s easy and safe to stay in the matrix because you know your role and where you stand. Uncertainty creates anxiety, but through the forge comes the brass. Even a hint of awareness can be enough to listen to your gut when it pulls at you to put your phone down and stop consuming it all. All it takes is one time, then it becomes easier to identify. As this is practiced more the easier it becomes and you can fight your way out of the loop of negativity. That is when all things become possible.

Social Media

Since the birth of social media there have been questions surrounding the impact on society as a whole as these were uncharted waters. It started out innocently as a way to stay in touch with lost friends from high school, distant family members and neighbors who’ve moved away. This layer of innocence and connection does still exist even today. However, it’s now been overshadowed by the dark cloud of comparison, narcissism and addiction that have created a divide of disconnection so deep that a whole new era of “influencers” has been created. Social media has turned parasitic to the point where it’s destroyed the lives of people who lost themselves as they were mired in trying to keep up with something unattainable. It’s become a dangerous breeding ground as intentions surrounding it have become overwhelmingly negative. Have you ever noticed someone recording themselves for a reel? Or Facebook Live? Then the second the camera turns off the smile fades and everything they were projecting was not real at all. Consumers of those videos don’t know that though, then take it in as truth that they need to keep up in society to attain the level of happiness/wealth that was being projected in a video that was never true to begin with. Then the consumer takes hits to their self-worth all due to a video that was never real.

As humans we are hardwired to keep up with status so we may feel a sense of belonging. This is why you see people on social media projecting out the perfect life of happiness and success because they want people to associate them with status and success. Even if it’s all a lie and they are unhappy behind the screen, their life on screen and social media could never portray that. Humans want to be recognized as high status, and I’m not necessarily stating this is a bad thing. It only becomes a bad thing when the intention behind it is nefarious. That’s what all this comes down to is intent.

Intention. At the fulcrum of all things, it comes down to just that. It appears to me social media as a whole has devolved into a high level of malintent, narcissism. This is the “below the line” level that has come as people have found out they can use social media as a way to evoke emotion/energy out of people under the guise of truth. “Look at me” energy is at an all time high as people continuously try to one-up each other to prove who’s better than who. This is where comparison comes in with complete disregard for truth. Now you are seeing people around you or in your feed that have all these milestones of a great life and by nature you compare your own, albeit realistic life, to them and if it doesn’t measure up you start to feel bad. This is the danger. These feelings can lead to depression and shame where the source of the feelings were not even born out of truth. Meanwhile, people who project the ideal life on social media develop severe cases of narcissism, bleeding into their daily lives and consuming the energy of those who do not know any better and may just be seeking authentic connection.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. These are merely observations made as we are entering into a world where generations are growing up with social media and how dangerous it can be. Awareness is the first step in correction. There is still a subset of people that use social media responsibly to keep in touch with distant family/friends (typically the ones who didn’t get into it until well into their adult lives), however even they are not immune to the negative feelings that can be drawn out of them by comparison to others. Being mindful of these side effects can help create a barrier to them. Being intentional about things you share (I always propose caution when sharing personal things) and who you intend to target would be a good place to start when it comes to using social media as a tool to enhance connection. Intention. Truth. Awareness. IF you can exist in social media with these factors in front of mind then the light of social media may shine for you. Stay vigilant in that.

Conclusion

I know this is a long commentary and am aware that’s not commonplace these days, but again my intent with these projects is to bring back some old forms of sharing ideas/thoughts. Sometimes, there are many.

To summarize the overall idea of the Alchemist, we are all masters of our own reality whether we believe that or not. We have the ability to alter our existence. We’ve been trained and distracted through things like the 24-hour news cycle and social media to not believe this to be true, because at the end of the day, if we all knew we had this power then the control we are under would be threatened. What if things aren’t as bad as they seem? What if we use social media as a way to lift all boats? What if people started to awaken to the fact these distractions are thrown at us so we forget our power? In order to become immune to the impacts of these distractions you must become intentional. It doesn’t mean dropping them altogether, it means becoming aware of them and why they exist the way they do. Awareness after all is the first step to change. Stay vigilant.

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