In what way can you become 'distasteful?' I know having a quiet mind helps and working on the ID, but what other ways?
Also, is is the jungian shadow similar to the FI, or at least the 'flyer?'
Since there's been a discussion going on over at The Sorcerer's World about the FI, thought I might toss in a couple of thoughts. Lots of folks seem to think the FI is some "alien" construct, but it really isn't. It's us - the programs and belief systems with which we've been uploaded as a SPECIES for so long that they have become part of our "identity". Here's a silly example. As a child, my grandmother always said, "Della's favorite color is blue." In reality, blue was HER favorite color, but I accepted for years as a child that my favorite color was blue. Only when I shook off the FI and started thinking for myself did I realize that green is actually my favorite color. *shrugs* No big deal? Or is it? Just that one silly example caused me to start digging into other things I believed about myself, only to discover that 99% of what I "believed" had nothing to do with "Della" and everything to do with the consensus at large - i.e., I was a result of the programs & beliefs which had been put onto me by the consensus. The humans NEED their agreements, and so whenever I hear someone say something like, "You ARE a registered voter, right?" Or "You DO believe in God, of course..." what I am really hearing is the voice of the foreign installation, speaking in tongues,, but always yammering, yammering, yammnering.
Now, we could stand around whining that we are victims of the consensus, but the only way to rid oneself of the FI (that is, the only way I've discovered) is through a state of perpetual self-awareness and self-questioning. When I feel myself getting "worked up" over something, for example, I stop and ask why. Where are these feelings coming from? Most times, they are extensions of the consensus - i.e., I've been told/programmed to believe this or that "matters", but in the big picture, it's all just folly. And this extends to the big picture as well as all those little pictures. Religion, politics, all of it.
When a warrior truly *sees* that and begins to LIVE in that position of the assemblage point - where we truly see/recognize the presence and the PURPOSE of the FI - it becomes much more difficult for the FI to maintain its grip on us, and eventually it lets go (briefly at first, always to return) because when it cannot control you, it really has no use for you, and in fact, it may even go so far as to set you up as its "enemy", in which case that's a whole OTHER can o' worms.
Not long ago I did a workshop at my house which focused on recognizing the FI and some techniques for diminishing its effects in our lives. Unfortunately, what most of the participants discovered (and this is always going to be the case) is that they didn't really *want* to be free of it, because basically the FI is the teat of happy complacency or grandiose self-importance into which the majority of folks enjoy being attached. *shrugs* And Michael is right - they will defend to the death their right to go right on being dependent, attached, etc., while at the same time trying to say they are free of it altogether. That's how it works. And the only way to get around it is by constant vigilence. It won't make you popular. It won't make you happy, even. But when a warrior is ruthless, it will eventually make her free.
And, of course, when one is free is precisely when the FI will stage its next attack, trying to either gather up the "fallen," or discredit/destroy those who have seen it for what it is. This is part of the "war" a warrior fights. And from what I've observed so far, it is never-ending.
Just my 2 cents worth.
