Got Power?

Power is a very misunderstood concept. Many people carry the subconscious belief that power is bad (you’re heard the phrase, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”)

Many of us fear power, our own and the power of others.

We fear that we either will use it to manipulate or dominate others (which would make us “bad”) or that others will try to manipulate or dominate us. We generally don’t like either option and so we will tend to fall into one of two patterns: when it comes down to it, we will choose to dominate others rather than allow ourselves to be dominated, or else we will choose to play the disempowered victim, also known as a martyr.

In the end, neither one of those scenarios will ever yield what we really want, which is to be able to accomplish our spiritual purpose in this world successfully.

But in order to achieve success, we need power.

So we have a love-hate relationship with power: we want it, but we fear it. We need it, but we will purposefully cut ourselves off from it. And mostly, we simply misunderstand it.

Manipulation and domination are shadow forms of power. In fact, they are only employed by those who are completely cut off from true spiritual power. Like shadows, they leave you feeling dissatisfied and empty, and they never yield the fulfillment you long for.

True spiritual power isn’t power “over” anyone or anything – it is self-contained, and effulgent. It flows out of an individual to move in the world and to subtly bring things into alignment so that individual’s purpose can be fulfilled.

There are four kinds of power.

It was a surprise to me when we discovered that there are four different kinds of power, not just one. Each of them is unique, and it’s very important to possess at least three of them, if not all four.

The most powerful of all kinds of power is spiritual power. It is one thousand times stronger than mental power (which is stronger than emotional power, which is stronger than physical power). It is therefore very difficult to achieve, and it can only be used in alignment with Spirit. It can never be put to use to fulfill the desires of the ego. Spiritual power does not recognize the existence of the ego, and will never bow to it. In fact, we can’t really say that we “use” spiritual power, we really only channel it. It would be more accurate to say that spiritual power uses us… and of course, it’s a blessing when it does.

Since channeling spiritual power is so difficult to achieve, most of us tend to focus on acquiring the other kinds of power: mental power, emotional power, and physical power. However, since most of us are very emotionally shut down due to trauma we experienced in our lives, we actually tend to focus on the development of physical power and mental power almost exclusively.

This is easy to observe in professional athletes (who are considered by many to be some of the greatest contemporary heroes of our society). It’s clear that they must develop tremendous physical power, and it’s also been made clear in the past century that physical power isn’t enough, a winner must have tremendous mental power as well. Thus, the practices of visualization, affirmation, and other mental “power” practices have become commonplace in the past thirty years.

Mental power can accomplish a lot when it is paired with tremendous physical power, but you’ll notice that if an individual doesn’t balance that mental and physical power with some emotional or spiritual power, he or she might be pretty successful but not necessarily very well-liked. Again, if we look to professional sports we see some players who are good enough to become professionals but you’ll notice that they lack true sportsmanship, which is to say, they lack emotional power. They may not be well-liked by their teammates, they may not be well-liked by their opponents, and most often, they are not highly respected as individuals, even when they win games.

Can you think of some professional athletes that fit this description? If you can, you can easily see why it is so important to temper physical and mental power with emotional and/or spiritual power. It’s pretty obvious when you observe the results.

If you want to succeed in anything, you need power.

Clearly, power is needed in order to achieve anything in this world, whether it’s a successful pregnancy or a successful company. Nothing is ever accomplished without the use of power. Invalids don’t produce healthy offspring, those who are run by their emotional roller-coasters generally end up crashing, and mentally weak executives get eaten alive.

Interestingly, physical, emotional and mental power are all tools and really are used as a means to an end, just like any other tool. These kinds of power can be used for anything, whether in service of a spiritual purpose or in service of the ego. It’s only spiritual power that cannot be used by anyone for anything – but then as I said, spiritual power is hard to come by.

You cannot use spiritual power, but you can be blessed by it.

Of course, those who understand spiritual power will sacrifice all else they have in order to become a channel for it (we can’t really say “acquire” it, because again, it doesn’t belong to anyone, it is simply a force that you can allow to flow through you, although you cannot direct it and you cannot will it).

Yet even those with access to spiritual power will find themselves with limited effectiveness if they don’t also possess physical, emotional and mental power. Imagine an individual who is so physically disabled that they are unable to transport themselves. No matter how much spiritual power that person is able to channel, the argument could be made that this individual would be more successful and effective if he or she were also physically healthy.

To be successful, we must have at least three of the four kinds of power.

So it is that in order to become truly successful, to “make it” in every sense of that phrase, we must have at least three of those four kinds of power, and the more balanced we are between those different kinds, the more powerful we will be.

Does power really corrupt?

You can easily imagine then, how important it is for us to have a low ego and to have released our negativity prior to developing our power. The saying that “Power corrupts” is only partly true – power will make a big ego grow even bigger, and if you’ve read our book, you know what happens to those who have big egos: all that negativity comes winging home to them one way or another, and the result is a lot of suffering.

Power is as dangerous as a hammer and also as useful. A hammer in the wrong hands is a murder weapon; in the right hands it’s a very useful tool. Similarly, electricity (another form of power) can save a life, and it can take one too.

So the real question is: How’s your ego?

So the question really is: is your ego in the low ego zone? And if it is, are you learning to develop your power?

If your ego is in the low ego zone but you are still clinging to the “power is bad” paradigm, you will live a more peaceful life than someone with a high ego but you will never experience success in your spiritual purpose. Your life will be less painful but it will never be truly fulfilling.

There are many steps to complete in order to begin to truly build your power, and they include ego-lowering and emotional opening and clearing blocks in the third chakra (the center of personal power) as well as a real understanding of what power is. Furthermore, unless you are strongly connected with your Higher Self you won’t even know what to use your power for. So focus on those tasks first.

And when you are a low-ego, highly connected individual with no fear of your own power or anyone else’s and you have a clear vision and understanding of your spiritual purpose, it’s time to work on developing your power, so that you can achieve success.