Once upon a time I used to think, what is the meaning of all this?
It all felt so meaningless, disconnected. It didn’t matter what I did- the results of the presidential election would be the same, bombs would drop somewhere in the world, and no matter how hard you tried you can’t save everyone.
By contemporary definitions, it’s very hard to make an “impact” on the world.
How many names can you remember of people born before the year 1500?
The best most people could do is just tell of the religious figures, such as Jesus, Abraham, Buddha, etc. You might know of a few kings too.
In a mere 500 years, there is a 99.9% chance that you as an individual will be all but completely forgotten. Assuming we don’t nuke ourselves you’ll likely only exist in some government database.
My great-great [insert many more great] grandfather has a fascinating story. He was kidnapped and forced into the military, which is how he ended up in America.
Despite such an epic story, I can’t remember his name (it’s probably John though) and this story is all I know of him. I don’t remember his wife, children, preferences, or other impact on the world.
But in a way, Mr. Kidnapped-To-America John had a rather profound effect on the world.
Well, at least in my own life. Had he not lived the life that he did, I would not be here today.
While your name & individuality will likely be forgotten, your energy lives on… forever, through the lives of others.
I don’t mean to answer the question of what happens to you past death here. We are not touching that subject today.
What we are focusing on is exactly how you impact the entire world minute by minute, and why this matters.
You may be forgotten, but your impact will change the lives of humanity itself. You could be the tipping point from humanity’s destruction to the “heaven on Earth” described in religious text.
Energetic Impact: Your Signature on Humanity
How you treat your fellow human beings and what you do is what I will call an “energetic impact,” largely because there is no visible impact on humanity.
Most people focus on the physical. They built a company, landmark, kingdom, or got their name in a history book. The energetic is all the more important though, and as will be shown here means that a small peasant farmer has so much impact as to change the entire course of history.
When you treat someone a certain way, you create a ripple. You already know this intuitively.
Let’s say you walk into a coffee shop, and the person in front of you decides to pay for you. Feels great, right? Now you walk away with a smile, and spread the joy in some way.
Alternatively you may have a bad barista who insults you. You walk away angry, and then snap at your boss later because this is stuck in your mind.
Without even intending to do so a happy or angry barista can affect not just you but the people you come into contact with after the interaction with the barista!
An “energetic ripple” is created, much like a ripple in a pond.
At the center is the “trigger event.” When you drop a pebble in a pond, where it impacts the water is the trigger event. One meter away from the ripple is everyone that is affected, and then one meter away from that point is everyone else who is affected from those people that are affected.
Of course in a ripple the further away you get from the center the less powerful the initial trigger event becomes. You drop a pebble but the other side of the pond may not appear any different- but on a subtle level, it was affected.
Now imagine that some ripples are positive and some are negative. Pebbles are being dropped in the pond all the time. Some are larger than others. For example some acts are more kind than others, and other acts more violent than others.
This pond would be the pond of life, and it would be a turbulent pond for sure. Everything would be reacting to everything else- but because everything reacts to everything else, your small pebble impact can actually lead to a huge impact by another.
For example your “trigger event” could be a small act of kindness, which then inspires someone else to not commit an atrocity (such as a shooting) or inspires them to do something kind as well, which creates another positive trigger event, which hopefully continues going on!
Are We Subject To Only Reactions?
Okay, this is all cool. We now can visualize like positive or negative pebbles dropping into a pond how we affect the rest of humanity. But are we just stuck in reactive mode? What happens if someone drops a negative pebble right in your fucking face?
We all have that day where everything was going just perfect… until it wasn’t. You walk into the cafe with a smile on your face, prepared to tip. Then the barista insults you and spits in your drink, metaphorically speaking.
When you pull out of the lot a tired driver slams right into you. You get to work and your co-worker dipped out, doubling your work but not your pay. Your boss is pissed because he didn’t get laid, so he takes it out on you… Triple work time!
Even for a meditation master a situation such as this could be difficult to deal with. We all can relate to a situation similar in principle, in which everything was great until it wasn’t.
As kids I don’t think we realize just how reactive we are to everything else. I had some memories come up today of me saying some mean things to my brother, which hurt me so much to remember some tears came out despite being in a coffee shop.
As a child I endured some pretty terrible bullying, and sometimes my own parents were reactive to other things. For my child mind this set the reality that “this is normal.” It also filled me with a certain energy that I also spread- the pebbles from other people’s lives filled me with the same negative energy, but then I perpetuated this energy by hurting others too.
It was bad. One day during a screaming match I pulled out a knife on my brother. I never intended to hurt him (and never took a stab), I was just infuriated and angry and wanted him to shut up.
It didn’t feel like such a big deal to me because I had recently got trapped & attacked by over 20 kids outside school, and told that I should kill myself. My family didn’t know that I had tested putting things around my neck while alone at home.
My brother was innocent, as was I, and as were my enemies at the time. We were all kids reacting to someone else’s negative energy. Probably the kids that planned my attack were all treated terrible, and in a group mentality took it out on the weird kid- me. After experiencing such violence using a knife to control my brother didn’t seem like a big deal, but now I feel numb writing this. Damn.
The answer to the question is no. But there are two exceptions:
First, kids are reactive, period. Kids will always receive adult’s and other kids energies and then perpetuate it. Kids are not normally inherently violent- they learn it.
I’d say the only reason I didn’t go total psycho and do some bad things to my school was because of YouTube, where I could listen to people telling me that everything would be okay and that I can be whatever I want to be (more on that later).
Second, people need to remember that they can consciously choose what they want to be! Many people describe meditation or spiritual awakening as a “remembering,” and I would agree with that. I’m not enlightened (far from it), but good meditative experiences feel like remembering.
Sometimes all it takes is someone to say “you can choose your own reality.” Entire books have been written on the subject. Sometimes people need visual proof.
Everyone inherently knows that they can direct their own ship (yourself), but that doesn’t make it easy. The energies of others will always affect you, no matter how thick of skin you claim to have.
Choosing Which Pebbles to Toss
If you read this now, you have no more excuses- you can choose which pebbles to toss back into the pond of life: positive or negative.
It’s not easy. But it’s possible. Something I’ve personally learned is that energy can be transmitted positively or negatively- this is the basis of true alchemy.
Violent rage can be converted into a passion for working out. I often jog faster than everyone at the park, channeling out that old hate inside of me. Every month the jogs feel slightly more peaceful, as good energy replaces the old hate.
Sadness & guilt can be converted to compassion & inspiration. Why do you think I’m writing this now? I feel devastated at my actions back then. Maybe leaving a note to the world will make things right.
We can’t always choose what comes our way, but as energetic processing machines we can choose how to process it. Again, it’s not easy. But it’s possible.
Convert your rage into a healthy passion for working out & making money ethically. Convert your guilt into inspiration for change. Convert your depression into compassion.
The beautiful thing about tossing positive pebbles is that the energy always seems to come back to you a bit more than you give, allowing you to give even more!
For a great book on converting energy pick up “Reality Transurfing Steps I-V.” It’s a very hard book to understand but explains more strategies for converting emotions such as annoyance to pleasure, etc. so that you don’t toss negative pebbles into the pond of life.
Not only will your life improve, but all of humanity will improve with you!
Also check out “The Power of Now” book as this is a more meditative practice towards tossing positive pebbles. When you become present to the moment, you allow the past negative pebbles to go so you can stay fresh to the beauty of now.
The Universe Listens
And if you’re really struggling, as I did, turn yourself over to something more powerful. For some reason belief just works.
Every time I call out to the Universe or God, it answers. I don’t know whether it’s the God Jesus spoke of, or Buddha, or something deeper than all of that, but something is there.
I make exactly the amount of money I asked to make. I affirmed & visualized the process over and over, and here I am making exactly that doing exactly what I wanted to do.
I’d like to say it was all me, but if I’m being completely honest there was something else working with me to help me out.
Recently I was feeling lonely because all my best friends left Chiang Mai, and so I asked the Universe to introduce me to some new, deeper connections & friends to laugh a lot with.
The past 3 days have been an endless party, filled with social events & new, deep connections.
The 12-Steps program is highly centered around belief in God (or a higher power) as well. For some reason, it just works. Give up control and figure out what “up there” wants.
I was lucky as kid that I also often resolved to give myself to the higher power because I simply couldn’t handle how fucked up what I was going through was. Now here I am, world traveler, financially great, and having all the girls I could want- it wasn’t me, something helped me…
Compassion for the Bad Pebbles
What often helps with letting go of bad pebbles affecting you is becoming compassionate to those who toss them. They typically are in a reaction mode, and not even aware of what they’re doing.
One level to compassion is to care for those that already care for you, but a true, deep compassion involves understanding & loving your enemies, loving the criminals, loving the lost.
I am not particularly identified with being Christian, so do forgive me for quoting this from the Bible if you aren’t also Christian, but there is indeed some ancient wisdom in this Bible quote:
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
For context, this happened during Jesus’s Crucifixion. He was essentially saying to God that those who were killing him should be forgiven for they are not even aware of what they are doing.
This has always stuck with me for no other reason than it is true of all “sin” or “evil.” Most people commit crimes only when they feel desperate or like there is no other way, or “in the heat of the moment.” They get so angry they pull out a knife, unconscious to their actions.
Or they get stuck in such a derp state that killing someone feels normal. People lose touch with their human side and commit terrible atrocities.
To most people murder sounds so bad, but we must remember that those who kill typically were treated so bad growing up they are simply perpetuating the bad energy they originally received!
That doesn’t make it right. Let’s make that clear.
All that is being said here is that even though crimes are not right, we must understand their origin. These people received so many “bad pebbles” they only know how to toss them back into life.
They have forgotten they have the power to choose good pebbles, that to their right sits an unlimited pile of good pebbles to share with themselves and the world..
6 Degrees of Separation From Everyone
Let’s introduce some science into this post as talking about energy & old Bible quotes can put some people off.
The 6 degrees of separation idea is that everyone is 6 acquaintances away from each other. It sounds crazy but is scientifically backed up.
The rough idea is that everyone knows an average of 45 people who could get a hold of them if needed. I know for myself this number is significantly greater- in the hundreds- but that balances out the extreme introverts who have maybe only 15-20 people who could get a hold of them.
45 to the 6th power is 8.3 billion- greater than the population of Earth. You can research this more for the scientific backing, but it’s highly likely this is for the most part true barring a few odd exceptions.
If you commit an act of kindness, a great one, and change just a few people’s lives, then they will be all the better off and thus the people they are surrounded by will likely be just a bit better off too.
This is more easily visualized with violence unfortunately, but let’s try stay positive on what good we can do rather than what bad.
Let’s say that you ethically become financially independent, and can help a few friends out here or there. First off by generating wealth ethically, it means you were giving value and participating in transactions that valued the other party- but that gets too complicated.
After that let’s say you help out a few friends in need and commit a few acts of great kindness.
Let’s also say that you invest in your own happiness & self-care, such as by getting massages, practicing yoga, meditating, and developing hobbies.
Not only are you funding people’s businesses and providing them with lifestyles, but you are taking care of your own peace allowing yourself to be kinder to all those you come into contact with.
When someone is angry, you smile at them. When someone is happy, you smile at them. Even if you aren’t rich, you can actively give “good pebbles” to the pond of life in so many other ways, just be being compassionate, kind, and happy (or at least not hurting others)!
Well because you’re able to give good energy or help others out financially, you allow them to be lifted up which allows them to lift up others in their lives.
For example you help out a friend with their rent, and there’s no need to pay you back. Suddenly that friend doesn’t need to take resources or demand help from their friends!
Now they’re also happier, safer, etc. which allows them to get on their feet, and when they’re back on their feet they are able to be happier and give good energy to those around them!
Wealth aside, you can give value in so many ways to people. Don’t get stuck on the money example. It’s just a point I wanted to make because many people have bad money views.
You can smile and ask “how are you doing” to people. You can not let negative pebbles affect you, and instead keeping tossing the positive ones (this allows the negative pebbles to disappear, much like how a ripple in a pond can’t affect a bridge).
You can leave small tips- one dollar is enough to make someone’s day. You can give someone a hug in need. You can listen to a sad friend.
There’s so much you can do- now let’s see how it all comes together.
Your Impact on Humanity
We are all connected, for the most part, by 6 degrees of separation. Your positive actions (and lack of negative actions) have the ability to send good energy through your close group, which will affect their close groups, so on and so forth.
The effect by the end is indeed minimal. Your great act of kindness may do little to change someone’s life on the other side of the world- but I think it still gets around.
I believe that at least a tiny bit of energy will reach everyone based on each action you do. It is of course so minimal, but it’s still there!
Your positive action changes the actions of others, which changes their actions, so on and so forth so much so that you may, without even knowing it, but the catalyst for great change here on planet Earth.
Your name will be forgotten one day. But your impact here lives on through other people!
How Will You Change the World?
You don’t need to do or be anything big. In fact, it is the millions of nobody’s that create the day-to-day energy of the world.
You already are connected to everyone by 6 degrees of separation. The pond of life wasn’t so great as you once thought it to be.
If you live in such a way that shares positive pebbles in this pond, then you will surely inspire others to realize they too can toss in these positive pebbles.
It doesn’t take too much thinking to realize just how significant this is. Your life by the minute shapes the entire world ever so slightly!
You can save lives. You can prevent terrorism. You can bring abundance to this world.
It isn’t done in a great act, but instead your life minute by minute. Your smile, your respect, your compassion, your good energy is what changes everything.
A life once originally believed to be devoid of meaning is now something deeply purposeful just by the act of living & flowing.
Follow your purpose, be happy for yourself, generate wealth because in becoming ethically full yourself you lift up the world.
You need not do anything big; just toss a few positive pebbles in the pond and watch the world repeat this action until one day… We find heaven on Earth.
-Michael
