Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
                                             ~ Mary Oliver

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: “True intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing thoughts and remain functional.” He was right. It’s easier to polarize to one position and get stuck there.

What if we could experience unconditional love, not as perfection but presence? Imagine being fully present, able to welcome everything with gratitude, even the inevitable suffering of this human world. It takes surrender to embrace this paradox, not giving up in resignation but letting go in celebration. What if the alchemy that turns this theory into experience is activated by curiosity?

Curiosity itself seemed to be a casualty of the Covid era. Suddenly, there were no options. We were told what to do and what to believe, ordered to obey and behave, forbidden to question authority. This cast a spell of compliance, the latest of many, historically. It’s fair to say that we’re now living under a spell of disempowerment, resulting in a widespread conviction of personal impotency. 

What can one person do?Vote? Many of us now believe that it doesn’t make much difference which party is in power. Comedian Bill Hicks had a great routine featuring two puppets, one on the left and one on the right… both being operated by the same guy!

However, many of us have experienced our personal power, not to “change the world,” but to make a positive difference right where we are. And sometimes the influence spreads.

Old Deceptions vs. Young Genius

I offered a live presentation recently where I illuminated historical deceptions, to expose how deliberate this has been. I’ll just repeat one of my questions to that audience here:

How old were the Founding Fathers when hey they began working on the Declaration of Independence? Alexander Hamilton was just 21 and James Monroe was 18; Thomas Jefferson was 33 and John Hancock was 39. But the pictures show old guys with grey hair. Who did that adjustment and why? Who consciously, deliberately, invented the false reality that this historic wisdom was authored by elders not youngers?

Now our world is governed by old people and they often use their power positions to enshrine themselves there forever. Our two choices for President? One is 78 and one is 81. Only 33% of Americans polled believe that one of them is mentally competent. Just 45% believe the other one is. What a choice!

So, whatever happened to young people being our leaders? There are so many examples of young genius, Steven Jobs for one, who did great work in his twenties.

So, the issue is a spell of disempowerment, for us all, but especially a dishonoring of young people. Let’s break that spell, by picking one possible starting point.

Turn On, Tune In, and Activate

Let’s go back to January 14, 1967 and imagine that we’re at the Human Be-In in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park hearing Timothy Leary say “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Leary explains what he meant in his 1983 autobiography Flashbacks:

"Turn on" meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers engaging them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end.

"Tune in" meant interact harmoniously with the world around you—externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives.

"Drop out" suggested an active, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. "Drop Out" meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily, my explanations of this sequence of personal development are often misinterpreted to mean "Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity".   ~ Timothy Leary

What Leary said was misinterpreted to mean: turn on (get stoned), tune in (look inside, have no outer interests), drop out (let the rulers rule). That’s the old spell which resulted in disengagement. Millions of us bailed. We left the “real world” to be run by those who wanted the power.

So, let’s break that old spell right now with a new one: Turn on, tune in, activate.

Breaking the Spell of Disempowerment

Turn on – Connect with the source of life. Breathe in, air is free, and feel gratitude for the gift of life. Thank you!

Tune in – Breathe out and flow appreciation. Think of a friend. Imagine them in your mind’s eye. Silently say: “I care about you.”

Activate – Embrace your creative nature. Know that we are here to give our gifts, to engage fully with the human world. Resolve to find hands-on opportunities for doing that.

This new formula supports every one of us to be a powerful change maker… right where we are. And it is about here and now, folks. Me writing, you reading, then in all the moments that follow.

What We Can Do

Mary Oliver asks: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” And here’s what she wrote in Wild Geese:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

We have a place. We’re all here for good reason and without us, humanity is incomplete. And, since we’re all connected, every individual who wakes up from this spell of disempowerment – whatever our age - and begins to express Love intelligently, with imagination and compassion, neutralizes the negative impact of many lower-frequency humans still unconscious in the spell.

Awakening Can Be Uncomfortable

Awakening can be uncomfortable. It’s easier to stay distracted, to tune out and remain dropped out. Uncomfortable truths are not popular, especially with those who believe they already “know,” but actually have a mindset that says: “I believe in unconditional love, except for those who think differently than I do.” That limiting attitude breeds denial, the unwillingness to peer into the dark, to expose what might be festering there. But that’s necessary for deep healing. Band-Aids only hide an infection.

Hurrah for the special learning, healing, and growth that comes as we awaken from the spell of disempowerment and drop our ego identities, separate from Love, that separate us from others. Until we let this happen - in whatever way is right for us - we’re pretending. We may identify with a spiritual ego, but it’s still an ego.

We are here to love. Period. This involves shining light into darkness and then dealing with whatever the light exposes. As we expand our range of vision - seeing now what we refused to look at before - we increase our ability to love unconditionally and the “me” I believed I was (the one who judges what Truth is, and polarizes against “others”) disappears … so that only love in action remains.

This is what we can do with our wild and precious lives!

Copyright 2024. Published with permission of the author.

Book by this Author: The Success Paradox

The Success Paradox: How to Surrender & Win in Business and in Life
by Gary C. Cooper with Will T. Wilkinson.

The Success Paradox is the improbable story of a life and business transformed, told in a warmly authentic style that says: “I hit rock bottom, I surrendered, I began doing the opposite of what I’d been doing before, miracles happened, and here’s what you can learn from my journey.”

With riveting personal details that illuminate his discoveries, Gary details how he defied the odds – not just to survive but to thrive - by implementing a series of paradoxical strategies, fundamentally opposite to anything he’d ever done before. The result is an inspiring book about what happened to him and a blueprint for readers to experience how to surrender and win in business and life.

Click here for more info and/or to order this hardback book. Also available as a Kindle edition and as an Audiobook.

More books by Will T. Wilkinson

About the Author

Will T Wilkinson lives in Maui and Oregon with his life partner Tashina. Will is the author of several dozen books, including the number one best seller The Success Paradox. He is the Program Director for the OpenMind Fitness Foundation and writes a weekly Substack blog, free to subsribe at https://willtwilkinson.substack.com/