Positive and Negative

by Wynn Free

Our world is divided by polarity into positive and negative. Each individual either by choice or by default is operating his or her life out of a combination of these two principles. Most of the time we don’t know what we’re doing. We’re operating in a way that we have learned from others or by emulating others. It is helpful to look objectively at how we are operating so at least we can make the conscious choice rather than proceeding blindly. There is not a good, bad, right or wrong here, just the mastery to make the choice rather than to be at the effect of others or your own ancient habits. Once you make a choice you can attract things to you that will support your choice and you’ll have a greater understanding of how to play the game of life more masterfully.

Someone who is operating out of the negative polarity will have the need to control others. They will be manipulative and use everything at their disposal to get the edge. It is ok to win even though winning creates loss for others. They will attempt to make others dependent and subservient, usually using fear as a method of control. The pursuit of power, money, and sexual conquest are tantamount. They will envy others who seem to have more of those things than they do and they will want to make others envy them. Everything they do in their life will be oriented towards these goals. This kind of individual will use you and abuse you for selfish purposes and discard you when you are no longer needed.

Someone who is operating out of the positive polarity has the guiding principle of serving others. They strive to develop relationships of equality and freedom. They respond to the achievements of others in a positive way without jealousy or envy. Money and power give them the tools and the wherewithal to help others. They have high degrees of empathy and compassion and will feel the suffering of others deeply. Instead of controlling or manipulating others to get what they want, they will inspire them to get their own needs filled. They strive for cooperation rather than control.

It is often not immediately apparent whether someone is operating from the positive or negative. Negative polarity people can manifest as tricksters telling people what they want to hear. They can easily fool a person whose basic guiding principle is positive. And what’s even more prevalent is that most of us are a mixture of these two polarities. We can go either way and we look for the cues from those around us to determine the attitude we’re going to take. Two steps forward, three steps back over and over. If your life has tended to keep you going in circles, perhaps this explains how you might have created that dilemma for yourself.

I was greatly impacted by the last scene in a movie released in 1997 called the Devil’s Advocate, where Keanu Reeves plays a young ambitious lawyer and Al Pacino plays the devil masquerading as a high powered New York lawyer. The movie begins where Keanu Reeves is presenting the closing arguments in the criminal case of a man who he knows is guilty. Al Pacino offers to help him win the case, and after he does, he offers him a job with his prestigious company. Reeves takes the job and relishes all the benefits of his new power and wealth until he realizes that Pacino is actually the devil and Reeves’ soul is on the line. He goes into Pacino’s office and shoots him, after which he is returned back to the original courtroom where he first met Pacino. Before the judge announces the verdict, Reeves stands up and announces to the court that he is resigning as the man’s lawyer, which throws the case into default and puts Reeves in the position of being debarred.

As Reeves is leaving the courtroom, everyone is cheering because he has become a hero, willing to lose his job so that justice would prevail. In the outer corridor, a reporter follows him, begging for a story. At first Reeves is not interested, but the reporter keeps exclaiming how he will be the most famous lawyer in America, who sacrificed his job to do the right thing, and Reeves gives in. You can see him gloating as he schedules the interview for the next day. As Reeves walks away, the reporter’s face morphs into the face of Al Pacino who has a devilish smile as he remarks, "we’ll get him with vanity."

From the perspective of evolution of consciousness, I believe that it is possible to advance and be operating out of either polarity. But at a certain point, the service to self operator comes to a stopgap because he can’t move into the experience of oneness unless he has compassion. And you can’t have compassion if your not seeing yourself in others. And in order to use and manipulate people for your own ends, you have to perceive them as other than yourself.

It’s a very common learning experience for positively oriented people climbing the ladder of self awareness and consciousness to get involved with negatively predisposed people and get hurt In fact, in most cases, it’s a step that can’t be avoided, but when it happens, know that you’ve made an error in discernment, forgive yourself and the person who did you in and be thankful for the lesson.