Green Men in the Kitchen, Expanding Awareness, Rationalizing and Craziness
Event: At 10 a.m., Becky turns around in her kitchen and sees a green man completely filling the doorway in her kitchen. She is startled and the green man disappears. At 11:30 a.m., Becky tells Kristen of this story and Kristen relays her own story from that morning. Kristen was standing in her bathroom and happened to look in her mirror and behind her. She has the impression of there being a large “plant” man by the refrigerator, so much so that she turns to look directly. The image is gone, but there is a regular houseplant there (much too small, however). Neither Kristen nor Becky were wearing their corrective lenses at the time.
So where would you like to begin? Okay, we shall begin with the green man. The green man represents an aspect of reality of which you are generally not aware. What you might call one of your probabilities. And of course, to him, you seem the same. He is brought into your awareness through mutual desire to expand your experience of what is possible and to inspire you and him. He is an excellent symbol for you, being both man and plant. In a way it seems at once familiar and foreign. He strikes chords of remembrance in you which when seen from your own perspective, seem too fantastic or strange to be real. And yet, real he is. And also, your sense of deep familiarity.
In some ways it is an opportunity for you to experience creation, that is, what you desire becoming manifest, as you were seeking some form of alternate experience, which you can now say, you have experienced. In other ways, of course, his reality exists separate and distinct from your own and you have glimpsed or peeked into his world as he has glimpsed yours. Quite a shock for both of you.
His existence reminds you of a flexibility of reality and detaches you, somewhat, from your own perspective. And this again, provides you with an opportunity to observe your own reactions to things which seem quite outside the norm or average experience in your culture. For it is one thing to manifest parking spaces and green signal lights. It is another thing to see large green men in your kitchen. It also provides you with the opportunity to see the rational mind at its best, or perhaps, worst, as it moves in, so discreetly, so quickly, and so adeptly, to plant its seeds of doubt and leave you with a comfortable experience of something which may or may not have occurred. After all, if it were only your imagination, it would be quite simple and reasonable to accept. You see, there was really no green man, you just thought you saw something. It was a trick of the mind, it was a trick of the eye. Never mind that it had never happened before, or at least not in this particular way. The rational mind is always prepared to rationalize these experiences out of reality and back into imagination where they belong. When you can accept the role of the rational mind in this instance, and suspend judgment, simply allowing for all of the counterparts of the experience, that is, the experience itself, your perception of it, the rational mind’s response to it, and your own sense of a longing for the experience. When you accept all of these, then it becomes easier to allow the experience to be what it is. Simply an experience.
It is in the judgment, the placing of values, right or wrong, real or unreal, substantial or imaginary, that you lose the experience. And it becomes just so much fodder to be chewed up by the machines of analysis and spit out in meaningless pieces. By allowing yourself to simply be with the experience, you allow yourself to explore the symbols and meanings of your own inner communication. And they emerge naturally. This also opens the doorway for more experiences of this nature, providing you with the opportunity to expand your own repertoire, to increase that which is known to you.
In some ways this comes back to the difference between understanding and analysis. Through acceptance and relaxation of judgment, larger pieces can be revealed. By refusing to catalog, rationalize, or analyze the experience, you leave room for understanding to emerge. You leave room for the experience itself. Notice again how the psychological structure, that is, the way in which you interpret the event, either expands or limits your own ability to perceive and experience. Within narrow confines of what is and is not real, what is or is not physical, the experience does not exist as part of reality. And yet the experience, by virtue of its being, has some validity. And so, it is relegated to the world of the imaginary. In its own way, this is the rational mind’s attempt to make the experience powerless or to take the power back from the experience and place it with the rational mind.
By refusing to make such judgments, the system remains open and the energy is free to move where it will. The intensity and meaning of the experience are free to reveal themselves. Again, the experience is a demonstration of the concept of real vs. imaginary. It is there to show you the choices available. Acceptance without judgment opens new doorways. Rejection closes them. Yet none of these doorways are outside of you. None of these doorways exist separately from you. It is only a matter of your willingness to expand into the self – this is not some fantastic voyage of great distance. This is a fantastic voyage right here. Traveling inward.
The green man represents a territory or a new terrain, so it could be said, that you have begun a journey into a new landscape and yet this landscape is not distant in ways which your current system of reality recognizes. In fact, it is very close at hand. But the psychological journey required to perceive it is not undertaken or understood by most of you. Indeed, the experience itself also represents a breakthrough by its very nature because of the strict and strictly enforced codified rules in your own system regarding reality.
You are now stepping into the borderlands where you run the risk of being assessed outside of the normal parameters of what is called sane in your culture. You should recognize, based on your own experiences of the past week, that these can be frightening and treacherous areas, particularly for the psyche which fears the “crazy” label. So we congratulate you and assure you that crazy would not be an accurate definition at this time. Crazy more accurately represents, particularly in your system, a running away from overwhelming fear and a need to hide from the self. You on the other hand are most assuredly running toward, unwilling to hide and expansively embracing the self. So you see, there is no need for fear of this “disorder.”
Again it is a question of disfunction vs. function and so we will give you this little test for yourselves. This little way for you to reassure yourselves when you find yourselves in the borderland and questioning your “sanity.” Simply ask yourself, “Is this a form of disfunction? Is this, in some way a pattern of fear, denial, or self-deception? Or, is this simply an experience for which I have no rational explanation?” Now, before the rational mind jumps in and begins its elegant job of proving disfunction, let us say this. Feel first. Feel and discern. If there is fear, is the fear a response as in surprise or is the fear the base or root of the experience. Next, ask yourself if this is a way that you are separating from the self, dividing, or is this unity. Your green man, while appearing to be physically separate from you, sang with the energy of union – you could feel it. There was wholeness and the base of the experience was not fear but joy.
In those instances or those cases where persons are separating from aspects of themselves of which they are fearful, the tenor and root feeling of the experience is quite literally, terror. This is because the separated part or parts of the self are becoming visible and even though they are becoming visible as separate entities, or experiences, separate from the self, it is their invisibility which is required by the fearful self to remain calm. In other words, it is the need NOT to see which these experiences violate. So now that we have assured you and you do not have to think of yourselves as crazy, we encourage you to expand and be willing to perceive more. To explore these borderlands and definitely to enjoy the experience. Do not feel that you need to analyze or comprehend distinct and specific meanings for yourself, rather allow the meanings to emerge. Allow yourself to encompass the larger idea of what the self is and of what reality is. For it is not necessary to perceive or understand how all of this works. All that is required is in allowance and experiencing of the experience.
©1996, Rebecca Mundt and Kristen Fox. www.consciouscreation.com