The Game is Rigged – Episode 3

THE GAME IS RIGGED SHOW NOTES:

• First up is a transcript of the audio, with a few approximate time stamps.
• In this episode, I review the basics of the Hierarchical Game and the Transition Game. Plus, I introduced The Guyz to you.
• Lastly, how to respond to this episode: via my Google Voicemail 505-510-1135, email me, or interact on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Listen to The Game is Rigged – Episode 3

TRANSCRIPT:

In episode 1, I introduced my belief that we, as spirit beings having a human experience, are here playing a game, playing with limits and boundaries, space, and time. I also shared that for thousands of years, there was one game, the Hierarchical Game. In that game, the main goal is to learn or earn the way back to God. There are pretend absolute criteria for everything, there’s a set up for good and bad everywhere, and ultimately it’s a no-win game – which has made it endlessly appealing to keep playing, to keep trying to win, against so many odds!

I also shared that there’s a new game coming into consciousness for us humans to play! It’s called the Transition Game and it’s essentially the opposite of the Hierarchical Game. In the Transition, there are no absolute criteria, no absolute right or wrong, good or bad. The transition refers to a transition in consciousness, where instead of incarnating and forgetting our connection to the divine, we incarnate as humans and choose to remember our connection to the divine.

As you can imagine, yes, that changes everything! In the Hierarchy, humans pretend to be slime, and try to be more pleasing to oneself and ultimately to god. In the Transition, humans are sublime, as the divine experiences itself in human form. 2:30

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In episode 2, I talked about how I’m learning to understand the power of selfishness. I want to remove the negative connotation selfishness has and use it to support me in being true to myself. The Transition is where authenticity rubber meets the road. I not only CAN put myself first, it is MY job to take care of myself – and no one else’s. It is MY job to know myself and act according to my preferences and my criteria for who I am, here and now.

This is possible because I came from source, from spirit, and that’s where I’ll return when my body dies. From this vast metaphysical point of view, I am safe. My soul and the universe have my back. No matter how much “human me” may get freaked out about life events, no matter how often I think I need to pretend to be other than who I am, I remind myself – I AM SAFE. How safe? Divinely safe. 3:40

The worse that can happen is I die. And if that happens, I can return to human form whenever my soul wants. 3:50

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So, all of this brings me to Episode 3! How do I build this trust in being selfishly true to myself, practicing radical self-acceptance and self-awareness? I decided to believe the game of life is rigged in my favor. But what does that actually mean? How does that actually work in the Transition Game?

For today’s episode, I want to share three points that are tightly interwoven. So tight, in fact, that I found it hard to make one point at a time as I as working on my script for this episode! So please hang in here with me as I sort this out.

Point One: The Universe is 100% for me and Zero Percent against me.
Point Two: I find my power in the Present.
Point Three: There is nothing wrong with me.

4:45
These statements are true for me when I’m playing the Transition Game. It’s 180º the opposite in the Hierarchical Game. This is the game I was raised in, the game I’ve mastered by incarnating so many times before. In the Hierarchy, the Universe is against me and I must spend my life behaving properly (or rebelling properly) in hopes of re-entering heaven when I die. To play the Hierarchical Game, I start by forgetting my divinity, by forgetting that I’m a spirit being having a human experience, an experience that’s defined by limits. Since I’m all alone in this, according to the Hierarchy, I’ve got to use the Present to keep track of the Past so I can use it protect my Future.

Implicit in this forgetting is the belief that there’s something wrong with me. I must do all I can to figure it out what it is, AND FIX IT. This is the core premise of so-called Original Sin and also an explanation for the huge popularity of self-help books, many of which I’ve read! Raised in the Catholic Church, I was taught that I entered this world flawed and the first step toward redemption was baptism.

Call me crazy, but this idea never made sense to me – how could an innocent baby be thoroughly flawed, right out of the womb? But, looking at life as a game, with no memory of the divine, wow! What a fabulous premise this is to keep the game going! I mean, when will I ever be good enough?

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6:30
First up, then, In the Transition, is the idea that the Universe is 100% FOR me.
I found this to be a really effective way to get off the pity pot whenever things weren’t going my way. I was able to stop the thoughts like, “This is wrong! This shouldn’t be happening! Why me? Why now? What’s wrong with them? ”

And Instead, I framed my confusing and uncomfortable experiences with the idea that the Universe is all in for me. This allowed me to relax and remember there’s no way I can understand everything all the time. (Remember, this world of human form is partly defined by limits and boundaries – they are everywhere.) But I could trust that my soul can and does grasp the big picture. I don’t have to be able to explain everything. And if I chose to accept the confusing events (since they are, in fact happening) then I could begin to gather my wits back, in the midst of all kinds of difficult situations.

7:40
Rumi. The poet, was onto this many centuries ago when he stated,
Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.

I want to tell you a true story about how this idea shifted my energy, seemingly by accident. A few months back, I got an update in my iPhone Solitaire app. My settings got wiped as part of the update. When I went in to reconfigure the game with my preferences, I noticed a setting I’d never seen before: the option to make all games winnable.

Whuuut? Make all games winnable? Who even thought of that! Doesn’t that make it less of a game, less of a challenge? Who cares, I thought. I like this idea of winning. So, yeah, I clicked the button: Make all my games winnable.

What I didn’t know then, was that, this one setting would change how I played the game.

I took more risks. I kept going even when it looked hopeless, often breaking through in the last few plays. Before the “all games winnable” setting, I would‘ve quit much earlier in the game, unable to see a way to success.

And sometimes I did just quit, without winning, knowing that if I wanted to spend more time on it, I could. Playing Solitaire stopped feeling so random, I stopped wondering if there was something wrong with me for losing or if it was an unwin-able hand of cards. It became a game that exists to entertain me. I could push as deep into it as I wanted, knowing that I wasn’t wasting time on an unwinable round.

My monkey mind kept insisting this was cheating. Indeed, rigged, as if that’s a bad thing! She suggested there was no honor in my winning. But she couldn’t take away the fun I was having playing the game! I developed this unshakable confidence and a new thrill in playing the game. What stopped, was any concern about losing.

And Yeah, I don’t actually win every game. There’s no way to predict which move will be the more useful one when there’s more than one choice. Still, my percent of winning has gone up steadily. And I love winning! I find it very satisfying.

10:00
As for losing, no self-flagellation was required. I have less disappointment. Knowing the game itself is winnable, it became my choice how to play. No pressure. No guilt.

Being a student of consciousness, I loved how this had a ripple effect across my world – you know, the grand metaphor of being a winner, of knowing that the game was in fact unabashedly RIGGED IN MY FAVOR. My creativity has increased along with my confidence. My speed at getting to a win has dramatically improved. It may sound trivial, but to me, a woman who has judged herself so harshly so often for being so inadequate, this was a delightful change of course. I decided to apply it throughout my life, as much as I could.

10:55
The time and place this really matters for me, is in the NOW. So my second belief is that I can find my power in the Present.

It’s a trivial experience playing Solitaire on my iPad, but it has become a profound experience when I’m facing really confusing or frightening or maddening life events – THAT ARE HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. Again, this is where the Transition rubber meets the road. Instead of panic, or flight or fright or freeze, when the crap hits the fan, well, I turn to the Rumi quote and choose to live as if the game is rigged in my favor, knowing the Universe is 100% for me.

This is core Transition Game theory. I am playing with limits and boundaries, space and time. I chose to come into form, where I cannot know all, be all, understand all, et cetera. If I choose to trust my soul, I can feel safe in the midst of my confusion. I can relax into the Present, into the NOW, not knowing what’s coming next or why.

Meanwhile, over in the Hierarchical Game, the Universe is against me. I’ve got to be on the lookout for trouble at all times. I’ve got to stay connected to the past so I can use it to try and prevent trouble in the future. The present, the Now? What even IS that? I’ve got the past and the future to keep track of for my Safety, my Security, and my Survival! Don’t bother me – I will relax later.

But in the Hierarchical Game, hmm, later never comes. I must stay on the lookout for trouble, essentially all the time. Relaxing, like rainbows, is for wimps and unicorns.

As it turns out, though, as I’m guessing you’ve experienced in your life, too, when I occupy the present, I have my wits about me., I am attentive. I am in my body, and that literally prepares me to handle the unknown.

Many people, including Peter Drucker and allegedly Abraham Lincoln have stated,
“The best way to predict the future, is to create it.”

13:15

My adaptation is, The best way to predict the future, is to occupy the present. Since the Universe is 100% for me, I can stop worrying about the past and the future. I can literally, Be Here Now, as Ram Das so brilliantly stated decades ago.

On the other end of the spectrum, this quote by French philosopher, Michel de Montaigne, makes light of our hierarchical obsession with the past and the future:
“There were many terrible things in my life, but most of them never happened.”

It really speaks to how much the mind can freak out about things that aren’t actually real. I mean, how many times have I “awfulized” a situation, bringing the scary, what-if scenarios into my mind and letting them grow real? Let’s just say, A LOT. In my experience, it’s taken a lot of courage to stop referencing the past to explain the present; to stop relying on the past to figure out how to feel safe in the present, much less the future.

I tell myself, “Rox, stay here, in the strength and comfort of the NOW. You’ll figure this out in time, or not. Stay behind your own eyes and remember, the Universe supports you 100%.” I suppose I can’t prove that to be absolutely true, but I can say that it works.

14:45
So, on to my third point, There is nothing wrong with me. Well of course! Playing iPhone Solitaire has established that I am a winner!

But seriously, over in the Hierarchical game, there’s plenty wrong with me and it’s my job to keep trying harder to be a better person. The message is that once I’m a good enough person, I will be happy and the world itself will be a better place, too. Because the world is also flawed and needs saving, over in the Hierarchical Game.

But that just hasn’t proven true for me. Doing quote “all the right things” can generate happy feelings. It can also generate resentment, anger, and lots of unhappy feelings. Transition Consciousness is how I reconcile that confusion.

15:38
In the Transition, there is nothing wrong with me. I am, after all, like YOU, a spirit being having a human experience … the divine incarnate, playing with limits and boundaries, space and time. How could there possibly be anything wrong with the divine, simply because it chose to come into form? So whether playing the Hierarchical Game or the Transition Game, Life is still, A GAME, a game that exists to entertain us.

I now see everyone as the divine incarnate, taking on roles and personas, having experiences, all kinds of things that I cannot understand and am not required to understand. In theory, I accept people as they are. Just like I’m working to accept myself, as I am. … In reality, haha, this is not so easy. But what else do I have to do? This is another one of those step by step, day by day practices of extracting myself from the Hierarchical Game and getting more firmly planted in the Transition Game. Not because it’s a better game (it’s not) – but only because I’m fascinated with the Transition.

My particular history created neuroses that led me to want to rescue others, to fix flaws wherever I found them, to sacrifice myself for others in terms of my time, my money, my brain, my energy, my heart, and all kinds of crazy stuff, instead of just dealing with my own self. Minding my own business. Learning to understand and manage, My Self. My self may be deeply flawed and neurotic, but so what? As the divine incarnate, I have as much right to be here as the next person, in all my imperfections. And so do you! How cool is that? What if you knew you could relax now, instead of waiting for the next completed assignment, or performance medal, or sacrifice for someone else, or whatever. Once I started to really believe that I am sublime, not slime, my world re-oriented from top to bottom.

17:50
Writer Anne Lamott gives this somewhat brutal advice about helping others:
She says, Our help is usually not very helpful. Our help is often toxic. And help is the sunny side of control. Stop helping so much. Don’t get your help and goodness all over everybody.

18:25
When I play in the Transition game, I get to experience radical self-acceptance. I get to be and do, who and what I want. I accept that nothing is fixed, final, or forever. There is only NOW. I don’t have to be able to predict the future. I can reinvent myself or not, literally from one moment to the next.

Radical self-acceptance as I understand it right now, is No pressure to be or do anything. No need to be liked, understood, accepted, or respected.

I can also give up making promises as I no longer pretend to have any knowledge of this thing called the future.

I can get off my case as quickly as I want. Or not. It doesn’t matter. Really, it doesn’t. This is how cool the transition is – it doesn’t matter what I do. I am of source, of the divine, here to play in all of these infinitely wild and crazy forms.

We are all spirit, playing a game, and in the end, when this game ends, we each return to source, from whence we came.

I admit, these ideas originally seemed radical to me, if I really embraced them literally. I’ve been afraid to talk about them, out loud, because they are the opposite of the tried and true Hierarchical Game.

But this freedom to be who I am, warts and all, is so appealing to me that I’ve been willing to think these transitional thoughts and stop pretending that the ideas of the Hierarchy are true for me. I’ve come to understand that it’s because I am a master at playing the Hierarchical Game, as you are too, that it can be scary to really put myself first and to claim my unique preferences and point of view. I earned those things – they come with the territory of my history and experience, my lumps and bumps, my losses and my failures, as well as all the good stuff.

I’ve been studying this Transition Game for about 25 years, by working with a channeled group soul who goes by the name, The Guyz. I want to play you a short comment they made recently about one of the differences between the Hierarchy and the Transition:

20:50

THE GUYZ:
We put that on the table, because there’s a tendency to take everything personally in a Hierarchical way rather than in Transitional way.

TG: And it’s for you. The Hierarchical way is its against you, and in the Transition it’s for you. So in the Hierarchical way, it’s an indicator that something’s wrong, and in the Transition, it’s an indicator that something’s right, even if you don’t get it.

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Playing in the Transition has helped me settle into the Present, accept what is, accept MYSELF, and stop fighting reality. I think it makes total sense, especially when I remember the three points from this episode:
One – The Universe is 100% for me.
Two – I find my power in the Present.
Three – There is nothing wrong with me.

To wrap things up, I want to share, a meaty little mantra to chew on until the next episode:

This must be perfect, otherwise it wouldn’t be happening.

Thank you for being You.

Love,