045 - Current Openings #5: The Addiction Trap

Portals of Perception

It’s hard to watch the news without also seeing and feeling the pain of toxic and self-destructive behavior influencing so many lives, such as widening and lethal addictions and extremely polarizing ideas and actions.

Addiction is a persistent and intense urge to use or do something that brings unhealthy negative consequences. Why do so many people struggle with addictive behavior? Why does humanity seem to be going collectively mad? What are the reasons for the extreme toxicity and polarization?

This predicament and its root cause in the brain/body conundrum were introduced in our last edition of the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” In our new Current Openings, hosts Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis delve deeper into the mystery of the human brain and mind - and the pathways of transformation.

As the conversation begins to reveal, the human brain is open-ended potential, capable of creating new circuitries and connections. It craves constant stimulation, the more the better, often to the detriment of our overall well being. Addiction to drugs and extreme behavior, as examples, can become familiar outcomes of brain dominance.

Aviv and David trace the steps that began this conundrum, from thinking that true knowledge could best be sourced outside of self, to shutting down the intuition and natural human connection to universal intelligence and inspiration. They also highlight the steps back to a balanced, regenerative life, including:

• We have that second life in us which can select; we can use our human superpower, as I think of it, which is the ability to make conscious choice. We can actually intervene.
• Any deliberate journey must begin with appreciating the truth of where you are. Like being shown a map a big marker that says, ‘You are here’. Otherwise a map is useless.
• As our thoughts change, we actually make new pathways in our brain. We change our mind and we change our brain. We change the energetics, and that can change the pathways.
• The brain always seeks to find the higher octane energetic quality, especially when it is separated from the feedback loop of a well-balanced, well-orchestrated human life.
• Mindfulness is an attempt to get the brain back to be part of the body; although it is effective, it is not necessarily the smartest or the wisest way.
• The definition of insanity is doing more and more of what is not good for you, which is also the definition of addiction.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I love looking at the etymology of words because they give us a trace through time. And pathology says to me, what's the study of the path that we take? Because the path is something you walk along; what's the path of the human race? What’s the path of the individual? And it always gives rise to a pathology, because for every clockwise movement, there's always a counterclockwise movement. And they know this even in the study of pharmaceuticals.” (David)

“We've now lived centuries in a system with the brain orientation and its desire for more and more and more exciting food, exciting energy, exciting stimulation, leading the way. And we now see this as normal.” (Aviv)

“You can't clear toxic energy with toxic energy. So, it needs something cleaner and clearer. The word sanity is very interesting. I saw this once in New York, that a big truck went by and it said Sanitation Department. I thought, well, that's really interesting because what keeps us sane - and sane is the word sanitation - which has to do with cleaning. And with nutrition, we get the idea of eating foods, which we can assimilate good energy from.” ( David )

“So our brain can actually be, I suppose, you could say angelic to our body. We're processing really high frequency, high level, high energy signals and raining that into our body. Then you've got mindfulness, human proposition stuff, but to me that's a mind that's full of a higher frequency. And that is a higher form of meditation. Mind emptiness is just stopping the toxic flow. So that we can also say the energy of the heart. That's where people say, I want to be heart-centered. Energy of the heart can come up into the mind.” (David)

“So if we create an empty space, and don't actually then set about making new connections, most likely what happens is what was already there, comes back in. The person can actually bring in stuff that was lower than what was already there. But the purpose of that initial interim step, as you called it, is then to be able to take something and create a higher connection. That's where we get the traditions of such things as mantras, and call overs, and prayers to make a hierarchy action of some kind.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Portals of Perception Website

Aviv’s LinkedIn

Aviv’s Twitter

Aviv’s Website

Current Openings Live Event

Current Openings Series

David Price Francis Energy Worlds

The Addiction Trap