Information, Not Authority

I commented a slightly edited version of the following on a Zuckerbook post earlier RE: a well-known spiritual authority/ channel/ author/ whatnot that isn’t quite my jam but that I know others around me swear by. Who it is doesn’t matter really because what follows applies to anyone creating content or messages that people consume, anyone that is seen as a leader, teacher, minister, guru, whatever.

In the end what’s offered is information and it’s up to each of us to take/ leave based on what we know intuitively.

Our authority, despite everything we were programmed to believe (and worse if we were stuck in trauma-inducing situations), belongs to each of us, despite anyone’s claims or inferences to the contrary.

We can absorb information and heed advice. Or not. Or just try something on and see if it fits.

But when we surrender our own power/ authority, that’s where it can become dangerous.

This applies in any spiritual, academic, political, religious, or other space where “pedestals” are created.

Learning to take/ leave without putting the information sender on a pedestal while putting faith and power in ourselves to process within has felt the most right to me after falling in other ways.

Feel free to take this or leave this, it’s just ideas and information too.