I was rewatching a couple of Star Trek: Voyager episodes, including Course: Oblivion.
We follow the crew and ship, strange things start happening, and they discover that they are not who they thought they were. They are a substance that can mimic living beings and objects and that formed itself into the Voyager crew and starship. Some embrace their real identity and want to go back to the planet they came from. Others cling to their more familiar and mistaken identity and try to live out that life, even if it means the end of them.
It’s a great idea for a story, although not so well executed. (The buildup is brief. Most of them immediately accept what they really are, which seems unlikely. And it’s not explained so well why some insist on living according to their mistaken identity even if they also accept their real one.)
And as with any story, it can be fun and helpful to use it as a mirror for ourselves.
EXPLORING IT AS I WOULD A DREAM
If this was my dream, how would I explore it? What do I find?
The essence of this story is: A group of people live from mistaken identity. They realize what they really are. Some adapt and want to live according to their real identity. Others want to continue living according to their familiar and mistaken identity, even if it means their destruction.
SOME PARTS LIVE FROM MY TRUE IDENTITY, OTHER PARTS FROM MY OLD MISTAKEN IDENTITY
I can find that in myself.
At some level, I notice and accept my real identity. In my own first-person experience, I find I am capacity for the world as it appears to me. I find I am what the world, to me, happens within and as. That’s my moe fundamental identity.
And at another level, I am used to my familiar human identity. This identity is not wrong, it’s just limited and not what I more fundamentally am in my first-person experience.
Sometimes, I perceive and function more from my true identity. And other times, I revert back to following my mistaken identity. (Especially when unhealed parts of me are triggered.)
Said another way, and just as with the Voyager crew, some parts of me accept and live according to my true identity. And other parts still operate from my old familiar mistaken identity.
CLARIFICATION & TRANSFORMATION
This points to an important part of the awakening process.
It’s relatively easy to notice our nature, especially if we have some pointers and a guide familiar with the terrain.
The challenge is in keeping noticing our nature through daily life – through different states, through different situations, in different areas of life, and even when unhealed parts of us are triggered.
The challenge is in recognizing any content of experience, including that which is unpleasant and our old patterns don’t like, as flavors of the divine. As happening within and as what we are, and having the same nature as we do.
The challenge is in inviting our human self to transform within a more conscious noticing of oneness, and inviting all the different parts of us still operating from separation consciousness to realign with a more conscious noticing of oneness.
How do we do this? We all have to find our own way, and I have written about it in more detail in other articles. These days, I am most drawn to the befriend & awaken process.
NOT EXACTLY MISTAKEN IDENTITY
I should mention that I don’t feel completely comfortable talking about mistaken identity. It works in this context, with this TV episode, but is not competely accurate.
It’s not wrong that we are this human self. It’s just not what we more fundamentally are in our own first person experience.
The two already co-exist (they are aspects of the same), and we can notice the validity in both and live from and as both.
INITIAL OUTLINE
- Course: oblivion
- Discover true identity
- Some embrace it, want to live according to the real and true identity
- Others are in denial, hold onto their initial and familiar mistaken identity and live as if it’s true
- Parts of us do the same after noticing our nature
….
When I notice parts of me operating form the old mistaken identity, I can invite them to
….