Life certainly has its ups and downs, as we all know. But those ups and downs are often not perceived accurately by us. We are like movie projectors, carrying around a screen that we place between us and our lives. If we can catch ourselves projecting and take the screen down, true intimacy, connection, and healing can occur. It is the key to our personal and spiritual awakening.
We Create Simulators with Projections
Have you ever been on a simulated ride, like the Star Tours ride at Disneyland? Do they actually fly through space as hundreds of miles an hour? No, they don’t. They are on hydraulics, lifted up and down and shifted side to side to simulate motion.
If you didn’t have a screen, you’d feel yourself jerked around and moved back and forth, which might be kind of fun and maybe jarring. But the projected screen in front of you gives you the impression that you’re dropping thousands of feet, accelerating rapidly, or narrowly missing a crash. The movie you are shown as you travel through it makes it feel incredibly real and much more intense.
We’re setting up our projection screens around us all the time, much like that ride. We may experience a difference of opinion with someone else, or a sharp retort by our partner – something that makes us feel uncomfortable or upset. But when we turn on our projector and set up the screen – unconscious and almost immediate, if old issues are triggered – the situation takes on a completely different feel. Suddenly, it’s life or death, or appears far more significant or upsetting than it would to someone else who isn’t watching our movie.
Projections Make Things Bigger
A small event – like forgetting to take the trash out – can take on big proportions when we project on it. If we were told as a child that we’re lazy and no good (especially when we forgot to take out the trash!), all those old feelings can flood back in. Shame arises. We may want to curl up in a ball or hide in our room, avoiding the situation. We may even feel angry and defensive, worrying that someone may judge us for forgetting. And if someone, heaven forbid, does mention it, we can lash out angrily in that defensiveness. We could accuse them of being mean, or we might burst into tears and fall apart.
All that happened was that we forgot to take out the trash. It’s an easy thing to forget, and an easy thing to change, if we are seeing it clearly without our old story projected on it.
If you happened to be triggered by a relatively minor thing (or even if it’s a major one), it’s worth it to consider projections. What might my old story be that I’m overlaying on this situation? What is the source of where this unnecessarily strong emotion is coming from? What is being projected on these people and circumstances?
Casting Our Movies
It is very easy to cast ourselves, and others in our lives, in our old movie. We replay our part, again and again, when we let the projector continue to run. And we find people that are similar enough to cast in the story’s roles, much to the detriment of those relationships. We can’t have authentic connection and communication when we’ve already written the script.
Recognize when you are using a projector, and take down the screen. That means seeing the story that it originated from as it is, separate from present time. You may still feel the attraction to want to tell the story again, but don’t project it on the current situation. Get to know the story. Feel it in your body, recognize the emotions and the old thought patterns. See it for what it is, and acknowledge that it isn’t happening right now, no matter how similar the current situation may be.
True Freedom
Personal growth and spiritual awakening happen when we take down the screen and turn off the projector. We can be present with whatever is, knowing we are capable of responding to it. We can see the essence of others and find common ground, rather than make assumptions. Our true essence, which is beyond thoughts or projections, can shine forth. Possibilities for healing, renewed relationships, and empowerment arise when we turn off the old movies and relate in the present moment.
Recognize and honor the story. Then release it. Beyond our projections, true freedom is at hand.
