DISCOVERING YOUR TRUE CENTER - Pachamama...

DISCOVERING YOUR TRUE CENTER

UNWRAPPING THE ONION LAYERS

2 Pachamama Alliance

In the dreamshifting process, the journey to your sacred space is an important element for success; the same can be said for getting to fully understand and appreciate your core self. The core self is divine and immortal, connected by energy to all things in the universe throughout time and space. Once we understand this powerful part of us, our dreamshifting and shapeshifting can reach new levels of potency and effectiveness.

Here are the important questions: What is our dream? What is the new shape that we want to shapeshift into? What is our goal in life? What is our mission? What’s holding us back? As we search for the answers to these questions, we will encounter barriers, pitfalls, and difficulties along the way. In order to identify, pursue, and achieve our mission, we must first overcome the obstacles in our path. These obstacles are what I call “onion layers.” They are wrapped tightly around our core selves.




These onion layers are perceptions that we have allowed to build up over

the course of our lives. They are expectations given to us by other people:

parents, teachers, religious leaders, siblings, friends, and by cultural values

and mores. We have bought into them, using them to create our identity. Too

often they keep us from being our true, divine selves.

These notions that we accept for ourselves may tell us that we’re not worthy

of being divine and powerful, and they may dictate such aspects of our lives

as what we should do for a living, who we should be with, how we should

look, act, and talk, where we should live—in essence, who we should be.

These false identities keep us from fully being who we are in our core selves.

They limit our power.

These layers belong to us individually but also collectively as a community. It’s

become increasingly clear over the last several decades that the consumer

dream of the West is turning into a collective nightmare. The dream of our

culture is turning out to be a spiritually hollow, emotionally unsatisfying and

environmentally unsustainable dream, a damaging set of onion layers.

We and our children and grandchildren have inherited a broken dream, and

although it may have served us for a time, that time is now ending. Today

we live in the most revolutionary era in history, with the opportunity to shed

these collective onion layers and change the fractured dream for all of us.

This revolution is greater than the agricultural or industrial revolutions. It’s a

revolution in consciousness, a time for us to wake up to our true potentials

as human beings and to free ourselves from unconscious stories of lack and

limitation. We are releasing the false values, the false loves, the false hopes

and expectations that have kept us stuck in dysfunctional patterns.

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It is so important for us individually and collectively to understand what is holding us back and keeping us from creating true change in the world.






Why We Must UnwrapYou have an active role in your life, and that includes your dreamshifting into

your mission and goals. It is up to each of us to take part in the process of

creating change in the world. As we identify the barriers and false mindsets

that are around us, we also have to take responsibility for having accepted

them in the past, and recognize that we’re not victims. It is so important for

us individually and collectively to understand what is holding us back and

keeping us from creating true change in the world; it is important for us to

know why these onion layers exist and why we must unwrap them.

These things that are wrapped around you are not truly you. They’re not the

divine you. You are responsible for them because you’ve taken them on, but

now is the time to break through those barriers.

We begin the process by looking at how we get held back by these barriers,

how all of our lives we’ve been brought into this paradigm of a belief system

and a mindset that says that there are certain things we can’t do and other

things that we must do.

Other people or other incidents or even books we’ve read and speeches

we’ve heard—all of these influences can develop mindsets in us that are

holding us back from realizing our highest purpose in life. We’ve accepted

them because they come from authority figures, but they’re not really part

of us. They become walls and barriers to our success and fulfillment as

individuals and as a society.




There are moments in our lives when we slam into these walls and say, “I’ve

had enough. I can’t go any further. I can’t write another book or a better

book. I can’t perform a better dance. I can’t be a better tennis player. I can’t

be a better spouse or a better parent.” Our onion layers hold us back and

encumber us. By identifying them, one at a time if necessary, and unwrapping

them carefully, we can move forward not only in our dreamshifting, but also

in our jobs, in sports, relationships, or in hobbies. So many aspects of our

lives are impacted when we go through this process and move to another

level of consciousness.

Believing false statements about ourselves can impact us in big and small

ways. They may keep us from marrying the person we love, from pursuing

the career of our dreams, from taking action to make changes in the world,

or even cause us to do something that is harmful to ourselves and others.

When we do not know our true, divine self and act out of its guidance, not

only do we limit our potential but we may also miss the vital role we play in

the scheme of history.

7 Pachamama Alliance7 Pachamama Alliance



The act of unwrapping is two-fold: getting rid of one thing you no longer need and empowering something else that you do need or want in your life.




How to UnwrapTo take on your true identity with all your power, it is important to first shed

the onion layers that have become wrapped around you. Your true self has

always been here, waiting for you to reveal it. You must let go of who the world

has told you to be and become who you really are. The “world” I mention

here can refer to your parents, your siblings, your work and love relationships,

teachers, and even yourself. No matter where the onion layers came from, it

is a powerful and important process to unwrap those dysfunctional patterns.

Our dreamshifting is dependent on successfully breaking through the walls

or barriers that so often stand in our way. These walls can be viewed as being

at the end of plateaus that are not physical in nature. When we reach a new

plateau of consciousness and self-awareness, we move along that plateau

for a while until we hit an obstacle. At this point we have two choices: break

down, or break through. We can think of this process as shapeshifting or

dreamshifting through the wall. When we do so, we arrive at a new plateau, a

higher consciousness. We move along this plateau until we arrive at another

wall. Once again, we are faced with the decision—to break down or shapeshift

through. This is how we grow as human beings in shapeshifting power.




Various cultures have unique methods for getting rid of the layers once they

are unwrapped. They may be carried away during a shamanic journey, blown

away by a tempestuous sand storm, submerged and dissolved in water,

shattered like a stone or buried in the earth, or engulfed in flame. When you

have entered your sacred space and begun the process of identifying and

unwrapping each layer, you may feel you need to stand up and dance it away

or move your hands around your body in a physical representation of the

spiritual act of unwrapping. You may feel you need to get rid of them in more

fantastical ways that are possible in your sacred space. Your imagination is

the only limit on how you can do this.

Whatever your personal preferences for removing those barriers, don’t judge

yourself or feel foolish. Your choice is absolutely appropriate and good. No

matter how you decide to get rid of these onion layers, know that your

actions allow energy to be channeled back out into the universe so that you

can use it to shift to the next level of consciousness. The act of unwrapping

is two-fold: getting rid of one thing you no longer need and empowering

something else that you do need or want in your life.

The act of unwrapping happens during the shamanic journey to our sacred

space, a practice that allows us to escape the distractions of our surroundings

and focus on our dreamshifting in a safe place in our imaginations. Just as

there is no single correct way to unwrap your onion layers, there is not a

single correct way to journey to your sacred space. It is up to you to have

the experience that is right for you. Consciously, in that safe and protected

space, you identify each onion layer—one at a time. In a single journey you

may not be able to unwrap all of them. It is important to realize that this is a

constant process and one that might need to happen repeatedly.




Moving On: Our MissionOnce we have gotten rid of our onion layers and shapeshifted through the

barriers in our path, we are ready to focus on our mission and our goals in

life. Then our task is to understand if and how our individual mission also

relates to the larger timeframe of the present world. Our mission could be

around relationships, jobs, health, or the broader state of the world—or any

combination of these.

It may take some powerful shamanic journeys and processes to help us

energize our mission and to move the energy from those negative barriers

that we’ve gotten rid of into daily lifestyles, actions, feelings, and attitudes

that will enable us to manifest our dream, realize our mission and materialize

our higher purpose.

This e-guide is designed to give you tools to break free from the consensus

trance of western culture and to co-create a more conscious, abundant, and

sustainable world for yourself and others.

Now is the time to move forward into this revolution in consciousness, to free

ourselves from our old stories of lack and limitation, and release the false

values and negative expectations that have kept us stuck in dysfunctional

patterns. These patterns have hindered us as individuals and also as a society.

Time to shapeshift!




About the Author John Perkins’ work with shamanism began in 1968 when he was an apprentice

to a shaman deep in the Amazon. Since then, he has studied and lived with

shamans on six continents. His books have sold over 1 million copies, spent

more than 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists, and are published

in more than 30 languages. As Chief Economist at a major consulting firm, his

experiences advising the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, U.S. government,

Fortune 500 corporations, and heads of state convinced him to devote the

rest of his life to facilitating changes in consciousness and in social, political

and economic systems. He was founder and CEO of a highly successful

alternative energy company and is a founder and board member of Dream

Change and The Pachamama Alliance, non-profits dedicated to creating a

sustainable, just, peaceful and thriving world.

John has lectured at universities around the globe, and is the author of

Shapeshifting, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, The World Is As You

Dream It, Psychonavigation, Spirit of the Shuar, Hoodwinked, The Secret

History of the American Empire, and The Stress-Free Habit. He has been

featured on ABC, NBC, CNN, NPR, A&E, the History Channel, Time, The New

York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Der Spiegel, and many

other publications, as well as in numerous documentaries including The End

of Poverty, Zeitgeist Addendum, and Apology of an Economic Hit Man. He

was awarded the Lennon-Ono Grant for Peace 2012, and Rainforest Action

Network Challenging Business As Usual Award, 2006.

To learn more about John Perkins, visit johnperkins.org

12 Pachamama AllianceCopyright © 2014 The Pachamama Alliance. All rights reserved. Photography by Steven Wallace.

Sponsored by The Pachamama AllianceThe Pachamama Alliance is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco.

Its mission is to empower indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to

preserve their lands and culture and, using insights gained from that work,

to educate and inspire individuals everywhere to bring forth a thriving, just

and sustainable world. To learn more, visit pachamama.org

Pachamama Alliance Presidio Bldg #1009, 2nd Floor P.O. Box 29191 San Francisco, CA 94129 +1 415 561 4522



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