We humans seek to outwit and control each other not just because of some tangible goal in the outside world that we're trying to achieve, but because of a lift we get psychologically. This is the reason we see so many irrational conflicts in the world both at the individual level and at the level of nations....
This whole matter is now emerging into public consciousness. We... are realizing how much we manipulate each other and consequently we're reevaluating our motivations. We're looking for another way to interact....
[When one controls, one is] probably only half aware of what he's doing. He thinks he's right to control the situation, and no doubt he learned a long time ago that he could control successfully by following a certain strategy. He first pretends to be your friend, then he finds something wrong with what you're doing, [perhaps] that you were in danger. In effect, he subtly undermines your confidence in your own path until you begin to identify with him. As soon as that happens, he has you.
All this is still unconscious in most people. All we know is that we feel weak and when we control others we feel better. What we don't realize is that this sense of feeling better costs the other person. It is their energy we have stolen. Most people go through their lives in a constant hunt for someone else's energy.
Occasionally it works differently. We meet someone who at least for a while will voluntarily send us their energy.... Occasionally, another person will voluntarily want us to define their situation for them, giving us their energy outright.... It makes us feel empowered, but you'll see that this gift doesn't usually last. Most people... aren't strong enough to keep giving their energy. That's why most relationships eventually turn into power struggles. Humans link up energy and then fight over who is going to control it. And the loser always pays the price.
The Third Insight showed you that the physical world is actually a vast system of energy. And now the Fourth points out that for a long time we humans have been unconsciously competing for the only part of this energy we have been open to: the part that flows between people. This is what human conflict has always been about, at every level: from all the petty conflict in families and employment settings to wars between nations. It's the result of feeling insecure and weak and having to steal someone else's energy to feel okay.
The only reason that any conflict can't be immediately settled is that one side is holding on to an irrational position, for energy purposes.
Understanding the Fourth Insight... is a matter of seeing the human world as a vast competition for energy and thus for power. Yet once humans understand their struggle... we would immediately begin to transcend this conflict. We would begin to break free from the competition over mere human energy... because we would finally be able to receive our energy from another source.
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