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We are a podcast that aims to provide raw, real conversations about deep topics that concern a Christ-centered lifestyle.
We want to go where no one else wants to go, and we want to showcase conversations and topics that are not easily discussed. We do this by going in depth and providing a well thought and expressed conversation about these topics.
Jhon
Welcome to supernatural breakthroughs, where we have real, raw and unfiltered conversations about our Christ centered spiritual journeys. Discover mystical stories told by truth seekers on their many spiritual quests. We trust that these stories will help you on your own personal journey of discovery.
00:27
Jhon
So what we focus on expands. So in this conversation we're going to be looking at, as we focus on something, it expands. So energy follows where our attention goes. So we give energy to where our attention is. So in this, okay, there's a lot of ways or places we can go. And exploring this conversation, one of them is going to be the thing called shadow work. So what is shadow work? So for those not familiar with shadow work, it's what working on these broken parts of yourself where you have unloved parts, shame based parts, guilt based parts, maybe even fragmented parts of you, and you're going in there to bring love and tenderness and gentleness, whatever it may be, whatever those parts may need to those parts. Now, there's a beauty in that. There's some goodness in that.
01:12
Jhon
We're going to look at the dysfunctional side of that and then what is the functional version of that? Because what you focus on expands in what she got with jewel.
01:21
Joao
So I can just give a bit of a personal journey of. I was quite focused in shadow work, especially as I got deeper into the shamanic ceremonies. So I started experiencing these dark things not only within me, but in the, let's say, the collective consciousness or the human mind, the general human mind. And, you know, whatever it may be, hurt, wars, brokenness, murder, you know, I could feel it all. And so I had a belief at the time that I am part of all of that suffering. And so as I heal and I face these things, I will also heal the collective. And so I think one level, there was a lot of beauty in that, because it is true that we all are perpetrators of the mess we're in. We all are. And even this is compatible with scripture.
02:04
Joao
You know, it says an Adam's sin, but also we all part of it. We all participate in that to some degree.
02:09
Jhon
Products of it, so forth.
02:11
Joao
Exactly. So there's beautiful things in trying to heal that. But then the other belief was that it's only if I focus on the shadow and I always must go to those dark places to heal. And the thing is, because at the time I was disconnected from God, I was doing it all on my own self effort. And I found that there were some really dark places and some really intense places that I actually couldn't heal on my own. And that's when I really started awakening to the need for Christ.
02:35
Jhon
Yeah, this is deep. I mean, this still has a painful topic for me because I lost a friend who took her own life. And in the year leading up to that, she was doing a lot of plant medicine work, obsessed with finding that core wound that she believed had to do with the father and keep going there with frog medicines and different work with the shaman that she was working with at the time to go in.
02:57
Jhon
And, you know, one hand, I could appreciate and respect her bravery and willingness to do that, but as someone described it to her, it's like you keep pulling off a band aid, you know, and you keep going into the wound, but if you don't have the right, let's say, surgical called tools or capacity, you know, you're causing an infection, you're causing a damage, in a sense, or if there's a wrong kind of spirits kind of going to that place with you, it can mess you up. And this beautiful soul ended up taking your life. I'm not saying it was just because of that, but that seemed to play a role, perhaps, in that.
03:29
Jhon
And so what I'm hearing you say, jawal, is that, you know, when you do go into these dark shadow places, well, not only are you not just encountering your father's abuse to you, for example, but it's the pain behind him and the pain back throughout the generations. It's not a small thing. And the kind of belief there in the dysfunctional side of shadow work is this obsessive preoccupation with. If I just do the work, if I just bring enough awareness, I just bring enough equanimity and presence to these unloved parts of me, they're going to heal. But we found that can also turn very dysfunctional, particularly if done without the power from the spiritual realms that Christ supports us in bringing through. Do you want to talk maybe a little bit about the functional side of shadow work, perhaps?
04:17
Joao
Yeah, I can briefly relate, but I also just to add something that you said, really interesting. So just to go back to this topic is what we focus on expands. And so if all we're focusing on is all these darker places and our need to heal them, that's going to be the outcome of our reality. Like, everything is going to be seen in that way, and it can bring us to some dark and hopeless places. Now, the functional side of it is that there are actually, let's say, darkness and problems, iniquities and sins that we have to go through and process, you know, we have to process them. We have to heal them, because even sometimes we do an action outside. Let's say we're rude to someone, but that is actually coming from a deep wound. This is true.
04:57
Joao
And as my friend John says, that the problem is never the problem. You have to go deeper into the root. So sometimes we do have to heal our root causes. But now the difference is that with Christ is that we're not like our own engineers, trying to do it on ourselves. But we actually surrender into the grace of Christ and we let his light permeate us, massage us gently, caress us in those places where we need help so we can think about a little baby. A little baby will always need the mother and the father to take care of it. He's going to need the breast milk. He's going to need the protection. And in a very interesting way, we're like children, so we pretend we're adults, but deep down, we all have this inner child that's yearning for this nourishment and love.
05:39
Joao
And as Christ comes and embraces us, it's his light that permeates into all the broken fragments of our being. And I've also found that it's in a very organic way, so he knows the healing we need at what time. Whereas with shadow work is you decide the healing you need now and you tackle that problem with Christ, you're surrendering on a journey of organic unfoldment, of healing, and then you become an integrated and healthy individual on a long term and permanent basis.
06:06
Jhon
You know, I've done. I used to work as a. As a coach, therapist for many years, and I remember doing some deep shadow work. There's a number of protocols and processes you can do for this. One being in a child work, as you mentioned. Another is the completion process that till Swan created. John Demartini. There's a number of protocols I used to work with, among others. And what I found was something very uninteresting happened when I done some of this shadow work with people who had the Holy Spirit inside of them. It's like the process was different. It's like after step three or four, let's say there's 18 steps in a particular protocol. I just saw the Holy Spirit come in and take care of the process, and I don't have to do anything anymore. I was just like, what's going on here?
06:44
Jhon
Because I know the protocol, I know what has to happen. And then other people who don't have the Holy Spirit, we had to build safe havens for the fragments of their soul or inner child to come in and feel safe. But that wasn't necessary when people had Christ and the Holy Spirit. I just observed this thought, okay, I have to adapt and calibrate what's happened in the session. So, you know, I have seen this with my own, you know, eyes, with my own experience, noticing that the shadow work can be done differently. Because the beautiful thing with the new age movement is people are willing to do the work and they're willing to participate. And there's a lot of dysfunctional christians who just bypass all that work, you know?
07:17
Jhon
So I do believe there is a work to be done, if you want to call it shadow work or some other type of word, because, again, these are just words partnering. What I'm hearing you say, Joel, partnering with the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit in this work is more of a surrendering to this love, this grace, this beauty, grace. And there is also a timing that takes place something like this.
07:40
Joao
Yeah. And if I may just also quickly add some context for maybe those of you who are wondering also, where do you base this upon? So, actually, even the scripture of the Bible tells us that whatever God's light reveals, it is exposed. And so whatever darkness is revealed, it's exposed and brought open to the light. Maybe, like John says, in modern Christianity, there's a lot of dysfunctional side of it. But when you study a lot of the ancient saints and the monks, they were actually very focused on an inner sanctification, and a lot of what they wrote, they showed that they had to participate in this inner sanctification. Now, a sanctification is like a purification of your inner being to become more like Christ, more loving, more light filled.
08:21
Joao
And so you do find a lot of traces of this, even in the christian world. But you kind of have to dig a bit deeper.
08:27
Jhon
One example when you're saying Ntuhua, I think of it, is the book the dark night of the soul by Saint John of the Cross. You definitely see that process there. I've interviewed Filippino, mystic PI on the twelve stages of spiritual awakening. There were a lot of similarities between Saint John of the Cross's process that he articulates in his work versus my interview with PI on the twelve stages, the distinguishment. There is not all awakenings are the same. You can do one with the Lord Jesus and I, and you get a lot more light and beauty supporting you. And others are more of a disintegration of the ego structures and the enmeshment in the matrix. Which then opens you up to what we call the second heaven, where there's a whole plethora of beings wanting to kind of integrate.
09:07
Jhon
You see that in Karla Scott Nader's work. You see that with a lot of bodies of work. So what you're focusing on here is this shadow work or dissolving. A lot of people listening to this may have done tremendous amounts of spiritual awakening. They may have had different types of awakenings, all kinds of experiences. But again, here, what is the focus and who are you doing it with? Who are you partnering with?
09:30
Hanka
And when you put the focus on yourself and on the things that you need to take care of, that are the things that are going to expand, right? So when we're trying to take care or to heal or whatever is in need on ourselves, this is going to be the big main thing that we want to deal with. And that is going to be the reason of our existence. And so that will bring on us more suffering, more self pity, more victimism, more self centered, etcetera. But the thing is, with Christ, when we know better who he is and what is all about this, and he being the one that we are going to focus on, then he is going to be the one that is going to expand on our lives.
10:15
Hanka
And through this, the transformation will come by his grace and his holy spirit, and then we will put aside our self centered way of being, our self righteousness, our victimism, etcetera. And that is the thing that I feel that is more powerful in this journey is like the focus is no more myself, but it is he. And he is going to expand inside and outside. And from this transformation will come beautiful.
10:45
Joao
And also, as Medina is talking about Christ and what he's doing in us, I just remembered that actually Christ did the ultimate shadow work. So actually he took on the sins of the world, which means the pain, the brokenness, the evils, the murders, he took all of it with his stripes.
11:01
Jhon
We're healed.
11:02
Joao
Wow. Yeah.
11:03
Jhon
He's wounded for our transgressions. Yeah, he literally is doing it. Yeah, he's doing it.
11:08
Joao
And then a bit further on, you can also read that if we suffer with him, then we will also resurrect with him. And so it means that just as Christ had to suffer for all of humanity, in an interesting way, there's a process that we also suffer for others and suffer for ourselves. But on the other side of the coin is an amazing life giving experience. So let's say that's a functional shadow work. But it's not one that's based on ourself, but it's based on the cross of Christ, that he took it on himself. And for me, it leads me to a story that a few years ago, I was in an ayahuasca ceremony and I encountered this thing which was basically this huge, big, dense cloud of pain. And I could sense this was all of humanity's pain.
11:50
Joao
And when I was face to face with this, I got scared and I backed away. It was too much. It was too intense, it was too dark. And then years later, when I received Christ, I actually looked back on that time when I encountered that, and I got also the understanding that's exactly what Christ took upon himself and dissolved and destroyed on the cross.
12:09
Jhon
I see. So what I'm hearing there is. It's a lot to recap here, but the intention to do the shadow work is beautiful. People want to help the world heal, help themselves heal, become more whole, healthy, functional people, which is beautiful. It's a question of how are we going about it, who are we partnering with? And if the claims of the Bible are true, and if Jesus is who he said he is, he's conquered all the realms, which I've had a direct experience with him. To know that is absolutely true for me, prolifically true. Then you're partnering with him to conquer this cloud of darkness, our own pains and vicissitudes that go back multiple generations that are part of the collective suffering. And so we've got this power.
12:51
Jhon
It's almost like going on a hike into some deep, remote place, but we've got the provisions to actually complete the journey because of what we are going with. And in this case, it's Jesus. That's a very different type of shadow work, but yet it's still shadow work, perhaps. So thank you guys for tuning into this what you focus on expands series. So we thank you. We appreciate you. Until next time, thank you. Thank you for joining us on supernatural breakthroughs. We trust that today's conversation ignited something within you. If you found this valuable, please subscribe. And we invite you to leave a review and share this episode with someone who you believe needs to hear it.