I personally believe our culture is going through a ‘wisdom crisis.’ Some spiritual guides such as Eckhart Tolle have even mentioned we are experiencing a ‘mass psychosis.’ They refer to the inherent craziness of our culture today in our lack of self-reliance, our lack of direct real experience and application of wisdom – a lack of connection to our inner core. As a result we are all copying, comparing and competing, rather than connecting to our true nature, our real humanity, and our inner wisdom.

With the influence of social media, and now AI taking us further away from the life-giving feminine qualities of intuition, true creativity, insight, and compassion, we instead seem to celebrate the qualities of our modern simplistic capitalist society such as analytical thinking, linear thinking, and control (or the illusion of control).

It’s a bit scary (a lot actually) to see our humanity moving further away from progress, and from true leadership. What I see is a world doing the opposite to embracing the essence of our real humanity.

I’ve been revisiting some ‘old’ content from the late spiritual leader Wayne Dyer from 1993 and I noticed how profound this wisdom remains relevant today – in fact, perhaps even more so.

His work reminds me of what our culture is lacking - a connection to invisible part of us – the observer, your spirit. Call it what you like, but it’s clear to me that we have a spiritual crisis. I am not talking about religion here in any way, but more a lack of connection to our true essence, to our inner wisdom, our purpose, and our limitless potential to create good in the world - because we have over-valued the material world, the simplistic modernistic thinking.

I thought I’d share my favourite parts of Wayne Dyers wisdom teachings as reminder of our potential to reconnect with our true humanity.

The invisible part of you

Dyer explains how there’s two parts to our existence on earth. There’s the physical part of you that happened at your conception - the miracle of your physical body conceived into this world in an instant with everything you needed. Then there’s the part of you that’s been watching this, this whole time.

Yogis call this ‘the witness’, ‘the observer’, or ‘the Self’, with a capital S. The observer is the invisibleness that’s inside this package of our human body. It’s who you are, it constitutes your very life. You can’t see it, you can’t touch it, it’s weightless, and you can’t find it in an autopsy(!). It’s the invisibleness that’s always with you.

Dyer quotes that “the quality of your human experience in the physical world is dependent upon how we connect with and use that invisible part of us.”

So…he says, its essential to get really comfortable with this ‘observer’.

As you think, so shall you be

What you think about determines how your life pans out. Once you know this, you start to get really careful about what you think about because all your thoughts and doubts are the things that will manifest into your life. Your thoughts are units of energy, that determine who you become.

In other words, you want to observe your thoughts. Pay attention to the invisible part you, the ‘I’ who is watching your thoughts.

Prioritise the invisible part first (the spirit), then the physical part next. Most people live their lives the other way around. When things happen to them in physical world, they allow their inner world to be affected by this. They are living in alignment to ‘As you be, so shall you think’ which is a very reactive way to live.

As quoted by Epictetus, the stoic philosopher;

“Circumstances don’t make the man, they reveal the man.”

Knowing’s versus beliefs

Most of us have been raised to believe what we can’t accomplish, rather than developing our inner knowing that we can create for ourselves and our world infinite possibilities. This is the nature of our fear-based consumerist materialistic culture around us. It’s hard not to be influenced by it as it infiltrates through our screens, our systems and even our family cultures.

If you want to overcome your doubts, you need to distinguish the difference between that which you believe, and that which you know.

Your beliefs are handed to you from outside of your life. Your beliefs are intellectual – not wisdom focussed, or creative, but more linear, simplistic, and reactive, and based on how the ‘world tells you, you should live’.

Your knowing’s come from within. They are metaphysical. Your knowing’s come from the invisible part of you, your spirit, and your ability to manifest what you want for your life. Your knowing’s are creative, heart focussed, they are bigger than you and about giving to the greater good. They come from the deepest part of you, often in moments of quiet reflection.

For most people, it becomes very difficult for them to overcome their doubts because they somehow haven’t got within them this inner knowing.

So stay on purpose

As most spiritual guides agree, we are all part of a greater intelligence. Your life has purpose, and you showed up in this world out from this greater intelligence – it’s an absolute mystery we were created!

So how do we make the world a better place? How do we create better leaders?

Live the life you have imagined and get out of the way of other people’s dramas. A new consciousness will emerge, and new leaders will emerge from this - when enough of us begin to align ourselves with our knowing’s and this greater intelligence.

The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind. And the state of the world is nothing more than a collective state of mind. The physical world that you live in is being shifted and changed on the basis of your new consciousness.

And so stay on purpose, as Thoreau famously quoted:

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours…”

Jo Jarden is a health coach, yoga teacher, personal trainer and founder of Heart and Mind Yoga, 147 Papanui Road, Christchurch New Zealand. She helps people find mental peace, physical vitality, and to live with purpose.

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*I was inspired to write this blog after listening to Wayne Dyers talk Wayne Dyer - It Will Come to You When You Let it Go - YouTube