The Addiction Trap
Current Openings #5
It’s hard to watch the news without also seeing and feeling the pain of toxic and self-destructive behavior influencing so many lives, such as widening and lethal addictions and extremely polarizing ideas and actions.
Addiction is a persistent and intense urge to use or do something that brings unhealthy negative consequences. Why do so many people struggle with addictive behavior? Why does humanity seem to be going collectively mad? What are the reasons for the extreme toxicity and polarization?
This predicament and its root cause in the brain/body conundrum were introduced in our last edition of the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” In this Current Openings, hosts Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis delve deeper into the mystery of the human brain and mind - and the pathways of transformation.
As the conversation begins to reveal, the human brain is open-ended potential, capable of creating new circuitries and connections. It craves constant stimulation, the more the better, often to the detriment of our overall wellbeing. Addiction to drugs and extreme behavior, as examples, can become familiar outcomes of brain dominance.
Aviv and David trace the steps that began this conundrum, from thinking that true knowledge could best be sourced outside of self, to shutting down the intuition and natural human connection to universal intelligence and inspiration. They also highlight the steps back to a balanced, regenerative life, including:
We have that second life in us which can select; we can use our human superpower, as I think of it, which is the ability to make conscious choice. We can actually intervene.
Any deliberate journey must begin with appreciating the truth of where you are. Like being shown a map a big marker that says, ‘You are here’. Otherwise a map is useless.
As our thoughts change, we actually make new pathways in our brain. We change our mind and we change our brain. We change the energetics, and that can change the pathways.
The brain always seeks to find the higher octane energetic quality, especially when it is separated from the feedback loop of a well-balanced, well-orchestrated human life.
Mindfulness is an attempt to get the brain back to be part of the body; although it is effective, it is not necessarily the smartest or the wisest way.
The definition of insanity is doing more and more of what is not good for you, which is also the definition of addiction.
It has within it the idea of actually taking control and steering even our brain life in the direction we want it to go, rather than random programs, many of which may have been put in there by other people, the media, or some other method which was not self-selected. To be a self-determining life and actually make our own choices of what energies we want, and don’t want, that’s quite the transformation.
- David Price Francis
The Portals Un-Mystery School
What is the fundamental human challenge?
Not according to psychology. Not according to politics. Not according to the latest trend.
What if we asked 16 of the greatest teachers in human history? In this first session of The Portals Un-Mystery School we will reflect on how great teachers of humanity each illuminated the core human challenge, and what empowered them to bring forward their work, their insight, and their pathways of awakening.
Together, we will also ask:
What are the new pathways of inner development and human becoming in our time?
Can there be a deeper collective emergence, one that activates many?
If something in this speaks to you, if it awakens a deeper intuition, a sense of purpose, or the feeling that your voice may belong in this inquiry, perhaps this gathering is meant to find you.
Space is intentionally limited to support depth, presence, and meaningful participation.
The Portals Un-Mystery School | Session One
Saturday, June 27
11:00 AM – 3:00 PM EST
Space is limited