What is the nature of human energy…and can it affect us in a negative way? Do we have to protect ourselves from the incoming energy of others who can “drain” us?
Got a note yesterday from “Sara E.” on this blogsite. Said she…

Neale,
I have a question. Ok, a few questions. I don’t know if you have time to answer them, but I wanted to put them out there anyway. I am curious about your perspective on a few things.
Ok, so, it is my understanding that I am responsible for myself on all levels. I’m responsible for my behaviors, words, thoughts, feelings, experiences, and also my energy.
Once in a while, I’ll hear someone use words like “energy vampire” or “energy drainer” and they are used to describe people who are supposedly “exhausting” to be around, people who throw pity parties, etc. And there are people who call themselves spiritual teachers who ACTUALLY say that I should learn how to shield myself from taking on their energy. As if I should be afraid of someone else’s energy and be worried about unconsciously taking on their emotional stuff.
Honestly, this just feels like ordinary every day blaming to me. It just seems to me that taking responsibility for my own energy, my own emotional stuff, being aware of it and owning it, sort of eliminates this whole idea of needing to protect myself and my energy.
My understanding is that positivity and wellness are always unlimited and available to anyone and everyone who wants to experience them.
I would like your perspective on this, and I’d also like to hear your perspective about all this unconscious stuff I tend to hear. Isn’t the whole point that we GET CONSCIOUS of our thoughts and feelings and experiences AND own them???
When I hear the word unconscious, it sounds like there’s this part of me that I’m never fully aware of and is separate from me and my control. I don’t really buy that. I don’t feel that my Soul is some separate entity that is off planning the events of my life without me.
I’ve learned that when I track my thoughts and feelings and notice how my experiences reflect them both, that I have the ability to understand and love everything that has ever happened in my life. And from that perspective, it just seems that all this unconscious stuff is just some word that is used to describe a lack of clarity, a lack of understanding why something played out the way it did.
I’m curious.
Thanks,
Sara E.

Okay, Sara, let’s talk. Good questions.
First, on the energy thing. It’s my awareness that everything is simply energy, manifesting in differing forms. I am energy, you are energy, the tree is energy, the sky is energy. Everything is energy.
It is my further understanding that energy affects energy. That is, the Only Thing That Is plays its affect on Itself. So one energy can affect another energy. This we all know. You can walk into the room and feel the energy there and know immediately whether you want to stay there or get the heck out of there. We’ve all had this experience.
It’s not a matter of being “afraid” of the other energy, it’s simply a matter of preference. It’s about how you enjoy feeling. There are people who are exhausting to be around. No question about that. It’s takes a lot of our energy to be in their space. They require a lot of attention, a lot of focus, a lot of…well….energy.
I don’t think they actually drain our energy…that is not possible…but we might voluntarily give them a lot of energy, just because we want to; because we want to be nice, because we want to be kind, or sometimes because we feel that we just “have to” (although you never really “have to” do anything). But actual energy “draining” is not possible. CwG makes it clear that nothing happens to you and everything happens through you.
So it’s not a question of having to learn how to “shield yourself” from “taking on” the energy of others, it’s a question of learning how to stop yourself from giving your own energy to those others who keep asking/begging/demanding so much from you. It’s not a question of avoiding inflow, it’s a question of avoiding outflow.
The idea that we “take on” someone else’s emotional stuff is not quite accurate as it is stated. What actually happens if we have hear their emotional stuff and we offload our own. We add our own energy to the energy that is being projected by others. This is what exhausts us.
So the answer is to allow yourself to hear whatever it is that others want to share, without adding anything of your own emotional content to it. Stay aloft. Stay adrift of it. Do not attach yourself to it, and you can hear someone else’s “story” over and over again and not get “caught up” in it.
Counselors know how to do this. So do priests and rabbis and ulamas and other members of the clergy who regularly hear stories of woe and calls for attention and help. You can learn how to do this, too. This is not about being aloof. And it certainly is not about being indifferent. It is, in fact, about showing the highest level of love and concern by not adding your own emotional content to someone else’s.
I am called upon to do this all the time in many of the spiritual renewal retreats that I facilitate. When you learn how to do this, you can help many people. All that most people really need is a ear to hear them; a sensitive, caring, compassionate, understanding, and helpful person to listen to their experience and respond/react to it in a way that offers an invitation to move into greater clarity. You can’t provide a pathway to help someone else move toward greater clarity if they have to go through a corridor of your own “stuff” to get there.
My own experience is that it is not other people so much as the rapidly increasing pace of change that is appearing to drain people right now. And this has to do with your second question, Sara, about consciousness. I will be talking about at that some length here tomorrow. Right now i want to let you know of a CWG resource that is available to all of you if you are looking at a major change in your life right now.
I don’t know about you, but I am observing people everywhere going through huge changes – changes in their work life, changes in their financial life, changes in their relationship and romantic life, changes in their family life, changes in their social life, and changes in their spiritual life.
If any of these changes are affecting you right now, and you have sent a call out to the universe for some help, for some answers, for some comfort and clarity, you may be glad that you read this…
The Pace of Change has increased dramatically all over our planet. I know of very few people who have not been affected by this in some way. Every day I am getting emails and calls from people asking about how to apply the messages of Conversations with God in this situation.
From my thinking about all of this has emerged a new book, When Everything Changes, Change Everything, and from that book has emerged a new one-day spiritual enrichment program, which I have given the same name.
WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES, CHANGE EVERYTHING will be presented for the first time December 7 from 9 .a.m. to 9 p.m. in Medford, Oregon.
We’ve kept the enrollment fee at one-half of the regular cost of our single-day programs in order to allow as many people as possible to attend. If you’re facing major changes in your life right now and would like to join us for this new helping program simply call Will at 352-442-2244.
It’s the first program of its kind that I’ve ever done in Southern Oregon, and should be easy to reach for anyone living in the western states particularly. Just a short plane ride, or even a nice drive up from California or down from Washington or over from Nevada, etc.
And Sara, as I said, I will answer the second part of your question, about consciousness, tomorrow. Consciousness can “change” everything in an extraordinary way. It can equip you to turn loss into gain, and to use change as the greatest thing that has ever happened to you.
WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES, CHANGE EVERYTHING could change your life. So if this is something you are going through right now, mark your calendar for December 7 from 9 .a.m. to 9 p.m. in Medford, Oregon and call now to reserve a place: 352-442-2244.
TOMORROW: What is “consciousness,” exactly, and how can we use it to enhance our lives? Thanks, Sara, for these good questions!
And