Last night I saw the Jim Carrey movie “The Number 23”. While the movie was ultimately disappointing (my friend fell asleep during it), it did bring up some important points about flow. In the movie, Jim Carrey is obsessed with the number 23 as it seems that everything in the world (Bible, addresses, birthdays, historical dates) somehow relates to 23. The icing on the cake (and I’m not giving anything away as it was shown in the commercials) is that 2 divided by 3 is .666, the alleged sign of the devil.
The Carrey character makes a compelling argument, citing fact after fact after fact that the whole world (or universe) revolves around 23, although he and the movie can’t figure out what that exactly means, other than the devil reference. Anyway, the movie sucks you in to thinking that there is something unique about 23, and that you must believe it.
Human nature thrives on such things, and they often are blockages. How many times have you heard some preacher saying God is punishing people when there is a natural catastrophe? Or if you take a chance on something (like starting a new business), something bad happens, and friends say you deserved it?
The reality is that making connections where none exist and stating facts on such evidence creates blockages. Just look at historical arguments. If I look out my window (I live on a hill so have a good view) it looks like the world is flat, so it must be. Here in northern California we never have snow, so it must not exist either. And so on.
You may even remember a few years ago there was this “report” that circulated around the world the fed into people’s fears about how horrible the American school system was. The report stated that in the 1950’s all teachers were concerned about was students chewing gum in class and being late for class, yet today they had to deal with drugs, gangs, and every other nightmare found in television dramas. Of course, everyone jumped on the bandwagon saying how much society had degenerated and why couldn’t it be like the old days.
Ends up the whole thing was a hoax. A Texas millionaire (later accused of murder!) stated these “facts” in a speech and the media picked it up, embellishing with each report. In reality teachers in the 1950’s had to deal with the same problems, as movies like “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Blackboard Jungle” pointed out (if schools were so perfect and students ideal, why were these movies made at all?).
The point is that flow never changes and is perfect, yet friends, family and society will tell you otherwise. It’s easy for anyone to make an argument for anything. I’ve read old accounts plantation owners justifying slavery, and the arguments are very compelling. But everyone knows slavery is wrong, just like everyone knows the earth is not flat and everyone knows that the 1950’s were not perfect, especially if you were a minority or an alleged communist. Flow is about knowledge, but that is true knowledge that never changes, not “facts” or “knowledge” someone makes up to satisfy an agenda.