How life happens through peak transformation

by Shiri Godasi

When we review historic events we often wonder how people lived through those times that can seem to us as insanely difficult, if not impossible, to navigate. 

How have people and communities survived the holocaust, slavery and civil war, Hiroshima, or working in the WTC on Sept. 11?

The world and the collective were never the same after these events. Picking up the pieces and rebuilding a new & different kind of temporary normal, humans have made it through. New eras were catalyzed. 

This is not unlike when we reflect on profound psychedelic journeys in our integration process and tap into the multidimensional experience that in hindsight, may seem as in improbable occurrence; but in real-time, somehow, it made sense. 

For the past month, the world has been polarized, following a rude awakening that has shattered one of the greatest universal illusions that humanity has been sheltered under. We have become complacent of evils and were jolted to alert, our values put to trial. 

The intensity of this awakening, a collective ego-death if you will, is dependent on each individual’s heart proximity to the illusion. 

The reaction, dictated by communal and ancestral trauma and its degree of transmutation to date. 

The possibility and depth of healing, guided by our capacity for cool discernment. What is the quickest path towards peace: justice or forgiveness?

The potential for light-powered transformation held in our field, is to the degree in which we are able to be “on” the moving energy, and less “in” it. 

Witness and manage it, or be taken on a ride. 

Between inner-experiential and outer-observational existence

For me there has been a volatile oscillation between the inner-experiential and outer-observational existence.

Moment to moment through monumental, paradigm-reprogramming transformation, looks like:

Check ins with family and friends actively coping with war (active as in helping my mom through anxiety developed by running into a bomb shelter multiple times a day, frightened by constant bomb explosion sounds, and the rocket that fell in my parents parking spot and only damaged their car, luckily)

Sleepless nights scrolling news outlets processing devastations that no human should as much as fathom

Heart skipping a beat for each openly, proudly, violently antisemitic act spreading across the globe 

Heart breaking for every video of a Palestinian family marching white flag in hand, caught between fires of warlords

Breaking again with every thought of abducted babies trapped in underground tunnels. And then of their mothers

Shaking disappointment from the silence… Oh the silence and/or utter ignorance of the consciously-inclined community. Visionary landscaping concealing plain ol’ spiritual bypassing

Bouts of gratitude for living in the gentle land of Costa Rica, a pacifist country with no military

Being horrendously sick with dengue, dealing with a moldy house in our humid rainy season

Baking tears and prayers into bread

Leading community in song and dance

Navigating divorce

Keeping up with the usual work, home, life obligations etc…

Being a mother

Murmuring at the notion that my daughter gets to sleep sweet in a cozy bed, and that I get to watch her, hold her. 

That one alone, will fuck with you. 

Our world is in a fucked up place. 

Life still happens. 

Life is conflict before harmony

Amidst the cray I managed a momentary escape to the amazing and lively CDMX with my mini. We explored, indulged, shopped. Hunted for the best tacos in the world and found them. Played our way through a rich history lesson in an equally indigenous and cosmopolitan city of 24 million.  

The stories of conquest, occupation, enforcement of religious law, resistance—weave through nearly every country and culture on the planet; as do healing, rebuilding, recreating. 

Perhaps it’s a mechanism of global evolution, an accelerated and necessary transition towards another era. From our ant’s view, what do we know? 

We come and go. Somehow humanity at large lives on and only the land itself remains to share these tales. 

Nature is in harmony and will remain so, despite our efforts to rebel against it, to destroy it. 

If change is bigger than us and is ultimately inevitable, why do we hold on and insist on suffering through the change? 

Why do we resist it, fight it, become enraged, violent towards ourselves and others? 

Why do we attempt to cover up parts of the truth? Erase reality as if it never existed? 

Run towards resolution without paying some respect to the pain?

Pain and conflict are inconvenient. And they are here to teach us something. 

They are part of divine harmony and an integrated existence. They are here to stay. 

The enormity of “truth” as a representation of All, different from fragments of what is “true”, is a lot to contend with. 

To hold the pain of All and not close our hearts to some, 

to remain aware of our unconscious prejudices and the ways we are resisting nature– change and harmony alike– 

and make the choice to find forgiveness to the reality of what is, 

is all a big ask. 

But this may be exactly what we are being asked. 

In our ability to honestly answer this call, we will meet our human limitations, our inner conflicts and struggles. 

To hold and navigate through the entire field of the multidimensional psychedelic experience, is an art. 

Can we hold the All and not lose our shit?

With all the pain and uncertainty, in my heart I’m convinced this global conflict is a good thing.

Conflict is the essence of the human experience… Our spirit clashes with the limitations of the earthly experience. Right in that nuke of struggle, there is creation. We evolve. 

If so,

Life is not about avoiding conflict. But about learning how to interface with it. 

How to be “on” it, not “in” it. Yet be there, in both levels of awareness. 

Massive change is happening now. Somehow we are living through it. We can decide how to navigate inevitable change.

How do we remain sane through monstrous transformation? How can we remain “on” it, without dismissing, avoiding or erasing truth for convenience?

For us psychenauts, it is the same way in which we move through ceremony. 

We can decide to hold the complex reality of change and navigate its multiple dimensions of existence

We can decide to accept All of it, as truth. If we see it, it is a reality; one reality, out of infinite realities.

(Deciding not to, is a choice too). 
 

We can practice developing presence with All…  

The emotional & mental landscapes

The limitations and needs of the body

The requirements of daily human living

The family and community

The spiritual ideologies

The prayers and wishes

The ineffable, unspeakable

The individual, subjective perception

The collective dream

The inner child that demands playtime

Even the occasional dissociative ‘F-it’ stance

We navigate all realities of the human condition and somehow, if we are so privileged, we live through it.

 

Making peace
 

Most important - 

Change is not black and white. 

It is not either/or, one side vs. another

There is no one way of experiencing life

All dimensions of existence, whether we can agree with them or not, validate them or not - 

They are real. 

Justice and rectification for all that has happened across thousands of years, is unlikely. 

So conflict will happen. 

All-encompassing world peace, may never happen in our lifetime. 

And yet 

Peace within us, in our individual lives, and our communities, is within everyone’s reach. 

A new reality and paradigm is being birthed through our daily actions, small practices of awareness, of forgiveness, of choice to lean into life’s riches within our current conditions, and to cultivate peace and creation. 

If you are reading this article you have this privilege. 

In my desperate moments being at complete loss facing the inconceivable pain, remembering this privilege has been my most reliable ninja tool to navigate through these times, as new eras are being architected. 

One moment you have it, then you don’t.

Living in relative safety, with our children sleeping in bed, is now a gift that can no longer be taken for granted. 

Every moment now, feels like a universe of opportunity. 

So I have become more motivated than before, not just to be grateful for these gifts, but to take full advantage of them, as I Am one of the most privileged people in the world right now. 

With all of my personal trauma and struggle, I have been given the precious opportunity for a peaceful life. 

Practicing leaning into every moment, making the most out of my time, motivated to experience and create, has become my way to both grieve and honor every life that has been affected by the conflict. 

It is how I make peace. 

And reality awareness, 

Resistance, 

Ego disillusion, 

War, 

Surrender

Acceptance, 

Forgiveness, 

Healing, 

Transformation, 

Integration,

Evolution… 

Are all happening.