The Dark Side

Today I am going to introduce you to your Dark Side.

Many of my customers talk of the strengths of their Hi-Fi system and tell me they have a system that is great at reproducing vocals or great at reproducing dynamic punch or layering. They fail to see their own system's weakness when when I listen to it, to me the problems are blatantly obvious.

I have often sat and asked my self why is this so... there must be an underlying reason why so many of my customers suffered this flaw as it was and is not an isolated case and this has lead me to liken this phenomenon to the Dark Side or The Human Shadow.

The Dark Side or The Human Shadow as Dr. Carl G. Jung coined the term 'The Shadow' to describe a particular aspect of ourselves that is almost entirely unconscious. As the name suggest this part of our inner selves can be a dark and elusive frightening thing.

As we grow up we are confronted by parents and other authority figures that tell us that certain things are bad or wrong and that we are bad or wrong for even thinking those things. As we develop we repress these important and different aspects of ourselves and put them into the shadow. We calve them off of our personality and we make them not us. But guess what; they stay in there.

We can only become aware of our Shadow and have any chance of banishing it into darkness by watching carefully for it and taking advantage of the fleeting moments it sneaks up and rattles our world. Be forewarned; it is the most treacherous and cunning of all Beasts. The Shadow can only be seen and thus defeated by commanding it to look directly at it's own Shadow. A moment of intense irrational anger, a murderous thought, a feeling of envy of someone we want to be like are all strong clues that your Shadow is very much active and waiting to take control of you and claim you as it's mortal slave to do it's sinful bidding. Every man must face his own demons head on and alone and it will take all of your courage and mental toughness to be victorious in this greatest of battles. The Devil is the most formidable and ruthless of all opponents which you will ever encounter. For he will stop at nothing to try and defeat you and win control of your soul at all costs and if he is victorious, he will show you no mercy or forgiveness in your defeat. You must beware of anger, fear and aggression, the Dark Side are they. Once you start down the Dark Path; forever will it dominate your destiny. Do not be fool enough to underestimate the immense power of The Dark Side of the force (Human Nature).

I believe the Shadow is where your Personal Gold is. It is the place where your greatest treasure waits for you. As you get to know your Shadow it is important to embrace, welcome and integrate it into your life. Make your Shadow your closest friend; because it is the biggest and most ferocious enemy you will ever have to face. By simply taking the weak but seemingly easy way out and denying your Shadow's existence you fall into it's trap and only act as it's servant to make it stronger by tenfold from your own blindness. It is there waiting patiently in the darkness for any change to raise up and claim you as it's prey. Only by including and admitting your Shadow is there will you have any hope of being able to transcend it's sinful power and turn the hunter into the hunted thus becoming; it's Master. The Shadow can NEVER be totally destroyed as it will always be there but it can be banished it into darkness from which it came by those strong enough to rob it of the rage from which it feeds to gain it's strength and power. You must stay ever vigilant, for as long as there is the potential for good, there is an equal potential for evil to thrive in the Universe.

The personal Shadow develops naturally in every young child. We identify with ideal personality characterises such as politeness and generosity which are reinforced in our environments and we bury in the Shadow those qualities that don't fit our perceived self image such as rudeness and selfishness. It is important to realize that the ego and The Shadow then develop in tandem creating each other out of the same life experiences.

All the feelings and capacities that are rejected by the ego and exiled into The Shadow contribute to the hidden power of the Dark Side of the force. However, not all of them are what I would consider to be negative traits. Every virtue has a Dark Side, especially when taken to an extreme. Every strength can turn into a weakness, a fatal weakness. Confidence can become over confidence and then hubris, hard work can become an addiction and turn into workholism. Do not take any strength in your life too far because it will turn into it's opposite and possibly destroy you.

The bright side of everything. Just like everything can have a Dark Side everything can have a bright side. Arrogance can be toned down and turned into strong confidence, liars are often fantastic at building rapport with people and persuading. A young child that starts out breaking everything by taking it apart often grows up knowing how to fix everything as an adult.

The irony of becoming very powerful and very strong or very good at something is that 'it' can take over, 'it' can go too far and then 'it' can turn into an Achilles Heal that destroys you. Most people do not realise this. I have watched over and over and over and I have paid careful attention to a lot of people in my life who are my personal friends, associates and even family members who have allowed their own lives, personal life, financial life, health or whatever to be destroyed because they took something too far and they just didn't temper it. They just didn't understand and comprehend the enormous power of The Dark Side of the force.

The aim of this article is to get you to Use Your Own Good Judgement when it comes to honestly evaluating things you see. The importance of which has gone way beyond your Hi-Fi system and what I intended when I first started writing this. Too many people only see the good in others and ironically allow this Shadow trait to harm themselves over and over again. They allow their own Shadow trait of ONLY seeing the good in others to destroy them! We all like to see the good in others, we don't like to see the negative. We often blind ourselves from it as we are not prepared to deal with it's ramifications.

A close friend and personal mentor of mine taught me something very interesting. He said that everyone has a Dark Side, everyone has negative traits and characteristics. The challenge is that we typically don't see that side of them, they don't show it to the world, they keep it private, they keep it well hidden. Some people have a little Dark Side, some people are half dark and half light and some people have a huge Dark Side. Huge. What we tend to do as people is we tend to look at them from one angle, head on. When you do this you only see the light side of all of them. They all look light when you are just casually looking but what my mentor taught me is that you need to look at the person from every angle. Because from a more objective perspective when you know the Dark Side exists and you are just looking for how much is there you are being realistic and you are no longer being too idealistic. This is where your greatest personal power and strength comes from and THAT's when you can see how much Dark Side is really there.

So, I am saying don't let seeing the bright side of people and assume from your own false projection only good traits of other people become your biggest weakness. This warning especially applies to yourself; because guess what.... Most of us only consciously like to look at our own bright sides.

We don't like to look at our own Dark Sides. We don't like to even acknowledge they exist. Which guess what...? Only makes them stronger and more powerful than ever and thus impossible for you to ever defeat.