What is the single biggest roadblock standing in the way of getting to know and integrating your shadow?
Self-deception.
It’s the core problem.
In the private Shadow Training forum, it’s the topic that comes up often.
So let’s examine the nature of self-deception and the various ways it can hijack your progress.
NOTE: For a more detailed look at self-deception, download The Game of Self-Deception: A Deeper Look.
The Archetype of Deception
The archetype of deception is most commonly known as the Trickster.
In Shadow Training (Lesson 3 – Part 2), we use neo-Jungian Robert Moore’s term, the Detached Manipulator.
The Detached Manipulator is the shadow of our cognition. Basically, this Trickster hides in our mind, making it elusive to detection.
The Trickster’s job is to maintain your current self-identity. While you’re attempting to “get to know your shadow,” the Trickster tries to maintain the status quo.
When this archetype is in the driver’s seat, you’ll experience minimal progress with inner work. The Trickster ensures that no meaningful confrontations with your ego will occur.
How the Trickster Hijacks Our Progress
The key to overcoming any archetype is to bring its patterns to consciousness. Then, you can begin watching yourself like a hawk and identifying these patterns with increasing speed and efficiency.
The Trickster employs numerous strategies to thwart our natural progress including:
- Seeking novelty
- Explaining “I know”
- Playing coy
- Storytelling
Let’s take a closer look at each of these tactics and then examine some remedies.
Seeking Novelty
The Dabbler is a term from George Leonard’s book Mastery.
The Dabbler is a derivative of the Detached Manipulator.
As the name suggests, this part likes to dabble. It enjoys getting exposure to different ideas and experiences, but its main drive is to seek novelty because it’s obsessed with “the new.”
It’s important to watch for this tendency because it’s the enemy of mastery in any area of life. Mastery requires a lot of repetition—doing the same things over and over again with focus and awareness.
The process of mastery leads us to find new levels of sensitivity, information, and subtleties.
The Dabbler, however, gets bored easily.
It doesn’t look for subtleties or nuisance. It doesn’t try to apply the methods prescribed with any consistency.
The Dabbler avoids examining anything deeply because it’s not seeking knowledge, direct experience, or change.
The Dabbler will try. It will sample. But it will not fully engage in anything that doesn’t provide an immediate payout. (And few, if any, meaningful things do!)
Over 90% of individuals who enroll in Shadow Training have had some experience with meditation. And over 50% have had experience with yoga.
Therefore, many members may assume that the material presented in Centering MasterWork isn’t necessary or relevant for them. That is, it’s not “new” to them.
This is a trap! It’s the Detached Manipulator at work.
The principles and methods in Centering MasterWork are relevant to anyone genuinely interested in getting to know and integrating their shadow—regardless of their prior experience with meditation.
The “I Know” Syndrome
The Trickster doesn’t differentiate between theoretical knowledge and applied knowledge.
With theoretical knowledge, we can know a lot about something.
With applied knowledge, we have direct experience with it.
For example, an academic living in his or her ivory tower can come up with any manner of political or economic theory. But because these academics have limited real-world experience (applied knowledge), their theories virtually always fail in the end.
(Everything the World Economic Forum does, for example, is an expression of untested theory and flawed ideologies rooted in the Detached Manipulator.)
The Detached Manipulator can lead you on an endless knowledge quest. It will have you consume countless books, articles, lectures, interviews, and programs. It will fill your mind with an insatiable appetite for theoretical knowledge.
Yet, with careful examination—usually upon reflection—you’ll find that you’re not actually applying the knowledge you have acquired.
This happened to me with shadow work. I was consumed with psychological literature for many years, thinking I was “getting to know my shadow.” Yet, I hadn’t actually even started!
It was demoralizing when this realization came upon me. But at the same time, that’s when the real ego confrontations and the application of this knowledge began to manifest.
The acquisition of knowledge (without diligent application) often leads to ego inflation. And this inflation raises our feet off the ground.
Applying the knowledge we learn, in contrast, is humbling. It’s messy. Awkward at times. There’s ambiguity and uncertainty, which the ego tends to resist and avoid.
In the context of this coursework, I’m sure many Shadow Training members have heard the internal voice of “I know.”
In fact, 50% of those who enroll in Shadow Training say they “had prior experience” or at least “tried to do shadow work on their own.”
So for this group, it’s very important to be mindful of the voice that says,
- “I already know this stuff.”
- “I tried this before, but I didn’t get anywhere.”
- “I’ve used this method before.”
Remember, the goal of the Detached Manipulator is to keep your current self-identity intact.
The Innocent One’s Antics
The bipolar opposite of the Detached Manipulator is the Innocent One (Lesson 3 – Part 2)—also known as the Fool.
Remember, these two are in a constant dance: the Manipulator and the Innocent.
The Innocent One plays coy and acts naive.
It will manifest as uncertainty, confusion, and forgetfulness.
- “I’m trying to get to know my shadow, but it’s just not working for me.”
- “I just don’t see how I’m like that.”
- “I can’t seem to remember to catch my triggers during the day.”
The Innocent One will keep developmental processes like shadow work at a cursory level.
For example, you might find yourself going through the Inventory Methods and the Assessment Methods and listing various shadow attributes. This will give you a false feeling of accomplishment.
But when it comes time to actively engage with the Shadow Triggers and to start having genuine, real-time ego confrontations, all of a sudden, you may feel “blocked” or “stagnant.”
You may forget to pay attention to your emotional triggers and judgments during the day or to review them at night.
Heck, you may even forget about Shadow Training entirely—for days, weeks, months, or even longer.
Again, the Trickster is tricky!
Storytelling
Stories are amazingly powerful.
They can uplift us, entertain us, inspire us, teach us, and make us experience a full range of emotions.
But stories also have a dark side. They can deceive us, trick us, confuse us, and mislead us.
The social engineers of society use the power of narrative to distort our reality.
They consciously weave stories designed to misdirect, deceive, and influence our behavior. There’s always a hidden motive or agenda behind their narratives.
But every human being does the same. While the Powers That Be wield stories and narratives consciously, we most often use stories unconsciously.
That is, the Detached Manipulator is a powerful storyteller. It tells us stories about ourselves, others, our past, and even our future.
- “When I was younger …”
- “My parents were …”
- “I am …”
Convincing stories always have elements of truth that make them persuasive.
I had a rather “rough” childhood compared to those around me, and as I got older, I would tell others “my story.” It was a story of victimhood, and somehow, I was prideful of having “overcome” this story.
The impulse to tell our story is the Self’s attempt to bridge the gap from distortion to reality.
After years of inner work, and getting to the root of my Origin Stories, the impulse to “tell my story” completely vanished. Why?
Because in bringing my past to full consciousness, I now see that this “story” was largely a work of fiction. It was a highly edited version of my past and the characters involved. And it was not grounded in reality. (In truth, the real events were far uglier than I had originally conceived.)
So be mindful of the stories you tell yourself—of your past and who you are.
Remember that the Trickster who weaves these narratives generally has an agenda. And this agenda is not aligned with one’s natural, healthy course of development (more expansive consciousness).
The Trickster Runs the World
It’s difficult to express how significant the Detached Manipulator archetype is in our daily lives.
In my guide on the Magician archetype, I wrote:
Modern society is mostly run by the Manipulator. Instead of using its knowledge to serve others, the cynical manipulator mainly profits from it.
The Trickster truly does run our world—at a level of detail beyond the imagination. It is the storyteller and puppet master.
Our entire monetary system, for example, is the product of this archetype.
As I’ve tried to explain in some detail on Worldwide Shadow, the Trickster is behind virtually all of our collective trauma and suffering.
We are born into the Trickster’s world. Only a select few of us even attempt to make sense of its insanity.
But once you understand the tools of the Trickster—misdirection, false confidence, fake narratives, misinformation, dishonesty, and distraction—you begin to observe the game it plays.
When you begin to catch the Trickster’s agenda internally, you’ll be able to see how it manipulates the social order with cunning and guile.
You’ll stand on the side, neutrally observing the Trickster’s game without getting entrenched in its mischief.
Drop into the Beginner’s Mind
A key strategy for overcoming the Trickster in relation to shadow work is to continuously adopt a beginner’s mind.
A beginner’s mind is empty, open, curious, and receptive.
Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki writes in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind:
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.
See this guide: How to Adopt a Beginner’s Mind to Accelerate Learning
The beginner’s mind is the remedy for the Dabbler pattern. It will also help you overcome the “I know” syndrome.
You’ll notice that the qualities of a beginner’s mind are the same qualities we highlighted for the Center in Centering MasterWork.
That’s why the principles in Centering MasterWork are emphasized throughout this program.
The more you’re able to hold to the Center, the less the Trickster will hijack your progress with inner work.
Consistently Apply the Methods
The other remedy to pacify the Trickster’s antics—especially the “I know” syndrome—is to consistently apply the methods no matter what.
That’s why Shadow Training revolves around methods and not theory (more “information”). The key, I’ve found, is to have just enough theory to give you the proper context for applying what you learn.
Then, dive head-first into the messiness.
Don’t worry about “doing it wrong” or “not getting to the heart of the matter.”
Just keep applying the methods with increasing neutral attention and focus.
Learning (in any area) requires a great deal of tinkering. Due to our preconditioned fixed mindset from childhood, however, many of us have become rigid.
As such, we forgot how to play and tinker without fear of “getting it wrong.”
There’s no shortcut here. You just need to muster up the discipline to consistently apply the methods while paying attention to internal feedback. (And if you need additional assistance, visit the Shadow Training forum.)
Embrace the ugliness. Take the “hits” in stride. Explore yourself with the curiosity of someone on a quest.
And as you engage in the messiness, find contentment as your feet become more grounded beneath you.
Download
For a more detailed look at self-deception, see The Game of Self-Deception: A Deeper Look.
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