An Interview With Renowned Spiritual Thought Leader Caroline Myss
Ever since she released her first New York Times bestseller, Anatomy of the Spirit, Caroline Myss has maintained her role as a pioneer in the fields of spirituality and mysticism. In addition to being a revered author, thought leader, and medical intuitive, Myss regularly travels the world giving lectures and workshops on her tried and true methods for spiritual healing.
Now, after more than two decades and four more bestsellers, she continues this work with a new series on Gaia, as well as her live workshop, Revolutionizing Spirituality at the GaiaSphere event center next month, on the weekend of Aug. 16-18.
Caroline, tell us about your newest book “The Power of Holy Language: Prayer, Guidance and Grace”
“This is a book that examines what holy language is, the power of holy language, and the price we pay for the absence of holy language in our common vocabulary. For example, I once said to an audience ‘How many of you are able to recognize if a friend is in a spiritual crisis?’ How many people are able to even recognize what that is?
We’re accustomed to thinking about a psychological crisis, we say somebody is depressed. But could you recognize an actual spiritual one. We’re not used to thinking in spiritual language anymore at the level at which I’m speaking about. This book examines what holy language is and the power of it. Then it’s filled with prayer, guidance, and grace.”
And your new show Sacred Power recently launched on Gaia — what is it you want people to take away from this show?
“I think I want people to gain a new perspective on the nature of how we understand our power, how we understand the power of our soul, how we approach healing, and how we understand archetypes. I’ve done 12 episodes and each one is a mini-sample of the whole of my life’s work, actually.
But, I think the core word is power. So, it’s a journey into understanding the nature of our power, from multiple different views.”
What was it like shooting the show in front of just a camera, compared to a live audience?
(Laughs) I had a blast, I have to tell you the staff is wonderful, they were so helpful, especially with someone like me who is a luddite and I’m uncomfortable in front of the camera and I don’t know what I’m doing, so it was great, but it was nerve-racking.
But for me, I love a live audience, I thrive on a live audience — it’s electric for me, so when I had to speak to a camera I thought, who am I talking to? So that was hard for me to adjust to.
And then you’re giving a live workshop here at GaiaSphere called Revolutionizing Spirituality, August 16-18. What is your vision for that weekend experience?
“I’m now doing a great deal on prayer; that’s become a major part of my teaching. It’s become a part of my calling and so a great deal of that weekend will be focused on what is required for health and healing, but also ‘what is God?’
I’ve noticed in these years of helping people as a medical intuitive, but also as a teacher that often times people assume that the depression they have is clinical, when in fact it’s a spiritual crisis, and if they understood that it would be treated very differently. So, I’m going to go into that. Then I’m going to present a very different understanding of where I think spirituality is going as a whole, which is into a bio-ecological-spiritual model. Then spiritual direction, why we need that. And finally, I will go into holy language.
Is there a religious connotation with prayer?
“As I’m very clear in my book and certainly in my lectures, I think religion is the politics of God and in many ways we are experiencing the end of an era of religions. Which is why I talk about the beginning of bio-ecological-spirituality — a spirituality that reflects our biology and ecology that is very much like the nature of God.”
In a blog post you recently talked about “divine entitlements” what are divine entitlements and how do we work to consciously overcome them?
“Entitlements are what gets you in a lot of trouble in your life. Entitlements are the cause of a great deal of your suffering. If we were here in a workshop, this is what I’d have you do, I’d have you write out your book; a book of how to get to know you and what you think you are absolutely entitled to because you’re you. Like I’m entitled to my own space. I’m entitled to respect. From whom? Does everybody in the world know you deserve respect?
I’m entitled to happiness — well where’s that suppose to come from? Are you supposed to be delivered happiness? I’m entitled to health. Nobody is entitled to health. But if you have this in your mind, you’ve built your life around that and what people don’t get is that entitlements presume that there are people out there whose role it is to deliver those entitlements to you. Where are they? Where are these people? So entitlements are a real burden if you carry this sense of ‘I’m entitled to something.’”
Well, we look forward to the release of your new series Sacred Power and can’t wait to have you here at the GaiaSphere for your workshop Revolutionizing Spirituality.
“I hope people love Sacred Power as much as I loved creating it with everybody at Gaia. I’m so touched by everything people contributed to it there, it warms my heart. And I’m looking forward to coming out in August for the workshop.”
See Caroline Myss Live at our new GaiaSphere Event Center!
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About the Author
A World Without Money
Have you ever thought about what you would do if you didn’t need money to live? Bigger still, have you ever thought what the world would be like if no one needed money to live? I remember the first time I heard of this idea. It was presented in the Zeitgeist films. Before I watched the Zeitgeist films, I had given some thought to what it would be like to change the money system but I never thought what the world would be like without money. I was shocked that I had never considered it.
Is money so ingrained in our psyche that we can’t even conceive of a world without it? Are we that conditioned? Yes.
Take a moment to consider what the world would be like without money. What would you do if your needs were met and you had the time to do the things you wanted to do? Me? I would build more art. I would dance more, sing more. I would dive deeper into quantum physics and I would help build my community.
A moneyless way of thinking helps decondition people from a scarcity mindset and helps humanity build creative solutions to the world’s issues. Approaching our problems from a different perspective is the only way we will ever have a chance at creating effective solutions.
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” ::Albert Einstein
Once I started thinking how life could be without money, I knew there was something considerably different about the solutions created from that mindset vs. a status quo mindset. The solutions thought of from a moneyless mindset are farther reaching and more effective in scope.
Who is Questioning the Money Economy?
The Zeitgeist films do a great job describing how a moneyless economy can solve many of the world’s major issues. When I watched these films, my life was changed forever. Watch Zeitgeist: Moving Forward if you want to get your money paradigm blown. Other sources offering interesting perspectives on a moneyless society include the Ubuntu movement and Sacred Economics.
As beneficial as it is to imagine a world without money, there will come a time when we will need to put our no-money where our mouth is and build cities that don’t run on money. To date, there are no real world examples of a society that runs as a moneyless system. The only place that I can think of that comes close is the temporary city of Black Rock City also known as Burning Man.
Many people think of Burning Man as a large festival or event. They don’t usually think of Burning Man as a city. However, there are streets and addresses. There’s a post office, an airport and even a DMV. There are coffee shops, yoga studios and beauty salons, and of course, a plethora of bars and dance clubs. All of these things, and more, are made available for free.
The Post Office at Burning Man in Black Rock City, Nevada.
What is Decommodification?
One of Burning Man’s main principles is decommodification.
Decommodification is the process of viewing utilities as an entitlement, rather than as a commodity that must be paid or traded for.
The Burning Man Organization explains that, “In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.” Because of this principle, there is no money exchanged for the goods or services provided between participants during the entire week of the event. And requests for money are not allowed. The entire city operates on the gift economy.
What is the Gift Economy?
The gift economy is “a mode of exchange where valuables are not traded or sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. This contrasts with a barter economy or a market economy, where goods and services are primarily exchanged for value received.”
An example of the gift economy that is used worldwide is Open Source software. Developers give freely to the Open Source community without any expectation of payment or return value. This gifting activity has created a large network of developers that continually contribute to each other’s software to improve and/or modify it to serve a broader purpose. This continual web of contribution has helped to create a network of over 19 million people on GitHub dedicated to gifting their knowledge and skills.
In gift economies, the reward is in the sense of contribution, community, honor and prestige, instead of monetary gain.
The positive feeling that gifting engenders helps sustain the community and continually attracts more people to it which allows it to grow and thrive.
This is what has happened to Burning Man over the years. Burning Man had a humble beginning in 1986 with only 20 onlookers. It has grown year over year for the past 30 years to the most recent 2016 event bringing in more than 70,000 participants. I believe the events’ utilization of the gift economy and the resulting feeling of connection is what continually attracts more people each year.
I believe the gift economy is the single most important factor creating Burning Man’s success and social value.
I’ve been to Burning Man six times and I cannot express the difference between my experience there versus my experience in every other part of life. Aside from what you see in pictures – the dancing, fun and art – there is a much deeper experience that is not visible. What you don’t see is the feeling of freedom, love, joy, camaraderie and connection. What else you don’t see is the difference in the way people treat each other and the difference in how they feel about themselves.
People who go to Burning Man describe having an overwhelming sense of freedom and connectedness. I’m not sure that the people themselves see the moneyless system as the reason they feel so free and connected but it’s very much the reason. I’ll explain.
When there is no money exchange and no demand of payment of any kind, this opens up a freedom to participate as much or as little as a person wants.
There is no artificial limit of “I can’t afford it” or “We only serve those who can afford this price.” Everything is open and available to everyone. That evens the playing field for all. When all things are equal, people see each other as equal.
On the contrary, in a money economy, social stratification is inherent in the system. When you have ownership, possession and wealth accumulation, people are automatically separated into categories of “haves” and “have-nots.”
The Psychology of Scarcity
In a monetary system, wealth is based on scarcity. The scarcer something is, the more value it has. The attributed value is fabricated, however. The item itself often times has no inherent value of its own. For example, money has no inherent value of its own. You can’t eat it, drink it or breath it. It’s simply a tool for the exchange of resources. The fact that it’s scarce is the reason people value it. This comes from the psychology of scarcity.
Scarcity is a psychological condition created from lack which forces an individual to focus and concentrate on the thing they are lacking.
This, in turn, has a detrimental effect on the overall cognitive capability of those that are experiencing the lack. In effect, the experience of scarcity creates a pathology. With this information, it can be said that economic value is based on a pathological reaction. However, the pathology is not only experienced by those who lack the resource. It’s also experienced by those who have an abundance of the resource.
The monetary system itself creates pathological behavior in both parties. When operating in a scarcity-based system, the more items a person keeps for themselves, the wealthier they are perceived. In this system, it’s the act of hoarding that creates wealth. The problem is, the act of hoarding by its very nature requires isolation which in the end creates depression.
A New Wealth Based on Abundance
On the contrary, in a gift economy, wealth is based on abundance. The more a person has to give away the wealthier they are perceived and feel. In this system, it’s the act of giving that creates wealth. Giving creates connection with others which creates a feeling of belonging which in the long run, leads to happiness.
The money system and the gift economy are diametrically opposed in their operation and effect on the participants. One creates separation and isolation and the other creates connection and community. Imagine what the world could be like if gifting were to encompass more of our everyday life. What would your life be like if you didn’t need money to live? What could the world be like without money?
