Self-Improvement and Interesting Knowledge

We have all heard of the positivity movement. This is the movement that tells us that in order to better our lives we must try to stay as happy as possible. With good intentions they expound the idea that happiness is the key to greater happiness. What is meant by this is that they believe that you should try and suppress your negative emotions while at the same time trying to express as much positive emotion as possible.

As I said, this is a well-meaning group, that tells you that the best way to be happy is to fake it until you make it. Generally this movement believes that positive emotion and positive thoughts create positive outcome. Some of these groups also believe that by creating more positive emotion you can also create greater material abundance, that positive thought and happy feelings are responsible for material abundance.

While I do agree with the proposition that thought creates reality, I definitely do not believe in this positivity movement. The reason for this is that this movement would have you squelch any negative emotion that you might have as soon as possible. While some of their techniques are good at redirecting and refocusing your thoughts; suppressing emotion in general is a very dangerous prospect. When emotions are not allowed to have their full reign, they do tend to grow in power. While suppression of these emotions might stop them for a while, they will resurface again in the future and when they do resurface they tend to be far stronger. Emotions are there to show us our beliefs, if we do not use these emotions in the right way and discover what beliefs are causing them, we will find other ways to try and confront the source of our problems.

My contention with the positivity movement, which is directly related to what I stated above, has to do with the fact that its precepts do not allow for conscious development. This movement tends to expound the idea that human development is attained through material success and material wealth. That the ego is all powerful and must be maintained within a small rigid set of boundaries. I have noticed that some of these groups even try to stifle any kind of empathic abilities that the ego might have, believing that these empathic abilities will only allow negative thoughts to enter a person’s mind. Since these negative thoughts must be avoided at all cost, any negative emotions that you might have while identifying with others are censored at all cost as well.

My assertion has always been that while thoughts do create reality, thoughts are created by what we believe. Emotions are there to show us these beliefs and allow us to examine them closely and change these beliefs when they are not suiting our purposes. More importantly I believe that our purpose in this life is not material gain but consciousness expansion. This consciousness expansion can only be achieved if we allow ourselves to experience our complete selves, which includes the full range of emotional feelings. By experiencing our feelings as fully and as completely as possible, we can begin to realize our place in the universe and our greater spiritual reality.

Achieving material success is a positive thing because this material world is here to show us how to manipulate our consciousness. If we do create our external world with our thoughts then the external world is sort of like a feedback mechanism that shows us what we are doing right and wrong by materializing everything that we project through our psyche. As such material wealth and happiness are true and worthy goals. If these goals are pursued properly they can lead us to great consciousness expansion and spiritual understanding in their own way. Material success though is only the beginning and there is a point where we must grow beyond our mere desire for material abundance and begin to search for more spiritual abundance. This spiritual abundance is really an expansion of our consciousness into our inner reality, where all physical creation happens and where the source of our lives becomes apparent. From a spiritual abundance standpoint, material possession can be seen as a good beginning but a VERY limiting one if we focus solely on it.

Do not follow any movement or belief system that tells you that you must hold onto only certain thoughts and emotions and to quell all others that do not fit within a certain parameter. Question any belief system that tells you that empathy and empathic understanding is bad for your being. Question any notions that tell you that you must suppress any part of yourself. Realize that these belief systems are very old and that they are based on the basic premise; that by doing a certain positive thing you will get a reward, but that if you do certain negative things you will be punished. This belief system is no longer functional in our evolving society, it is based on a limited egotistical belief which can be directly traced to a limited understanding of the complexity of consciousness. The reverse is also true of course, you should not follow any belief system that tells you that annihilation of the ego is the answer. The answer is an expansion of the ego where it is able to process far more external and internal data and as a result grow and become far more flexible in its nature. This egotistical growth cannot be possible through suppression. Learn to become more yourself and grow in all ways.







  1. I think the point of the Positivity Movement is being missed here… I don’t believe it means to pretend to be happy 24/7 and squash any negative feeling right away. It’s important to deal with negative feelings as they come, like they are similar to the weather they come and go. However, having a positive outlook on life has a huge impact on not only yourself but the people around you as well, if you see things in a positive light they can become positive, like the earth’s delicate ecosystems there is a balance to everything. The reward you get from being positive is a smile from a stranger, a happy wave, a feeling that you have done something to brighten someone else’s day and make the world a slightly less bleak place. In every moment we have an opportunity to stand as a lighthouse and become a shining beacon of lightness, warmth, strength, and hope. There’s nothing wrong with that and there is nothing to be ashamed of if someone wants to have a better outlook about themselves and the world.

    1. Thank you very much for your great comment!
      You must realize though that when I am speaking of the positivity movement, I am only speaking of those gurus out there that tend to expound the idea that all positive ideas and thoughts are good while all negative thoughts and ideas are bad. These people have taken certain ideas and combined them with old theologies to form a new spiritual movement. A movement where once again there is only black and white; where fear is used to impel others to act in a certain way, so that they might become supposedly healthy, wealthy, and wise.

      By your comments, I can see that you are definitely not in this group. Certainly you say yourself that all things need balance and that all emotions have their time just like the seasons. I completely agree with you on this point, and I also agree with you when you say that acting in a positive way creates positive actions and results. The article was not meant to imply that being positive is not a good thing, but it was written in order to have you question your own personal beliefs about negative emotions. And more importantly, to question anyone that would tell you to deny what others have labeled negative.

      If there is someone out there that believes that all negative emotions are bad, that having them will create only negative results within their life, then this person should definitely examine his or her beliefs. An emotion, whether positive or negative, is the end result of the thoughts that you hold within your head. Thoughts are created by beliefs and it is therefore these beliefs a person must examine whenever they have emotions that seem unpleasant to them personally in any way. If these emotions are suppressed without any consideration for the beliefs that created them, then these emotions will return in greater force in the future. Like a damned river,the suppressed emotions will build within a person and eventually gain enough force to overwhelm the dam that was holding it back. When this happens these emotions will be expressed in blind and violent action or behavior; it is even possible that these repressed emotions could cause the body harm.

      The article therefore was not written to try and deny positive and loving thoughts. Believe me I understand very well how powerful these thoughts and emotions can be and how much they are needed in our modern world. The article was actually written in order to try and help those that are trying to become more positive by giving them a way to deal with these negative emotions when they do show up; by telling them firstly that they must be the ones to decide what is negative and what is positive, and secondly by telling them that they should learn to deal with these negative emotions in the proper way instead of just trying to deny them.

      Thank you for helping clarify what I was trying to say.

  2. Hello,

    I have been mulling about similar thoughts in my head as well and I even see “Positivity” as being negative in the outcome of human development and more of a blight on our society than a benifit.

    The cult of positivism offers a good bounty (mostly financial, since who does not want to be rich and happy? I certainlty do) but the methods to acheive this must certainly be doubted. Since Emile Coue’s work “Self Mastery Through Concious Autosuggestion” was published in 1922 in the US one thing becomes obvious that the people who benifit most from “Positivity” are the people who advocate it as a source of wealth.

    Considering the popularity of such books and movements through the years we would have to assume that if true, positivity woudl have cured most psychological problems and poverty by now but it has not. Positivity has not cured human afflictions like penicillian has by comparison cured bacterial diseases even though we have all had exposure to both cures.

    As Seneca wrote in “On Benfits” “It is cruel kindness to allow one’s self to be won over into granting that which injures those who beg for it.” I see that with the Positiviy movement, Well intentioned people harming others by trying to excise critical thought or even cruel self centered people who realize that no one had ever become rich advocating pessimism.

    1. Thank you Erik for your well chosen words. Perhaps one day we will all begin to explore all facets of our inner psyche fairly, and through this exploration, truly discover our hidden potential.

  3. BRILLIANT! Thank you sooooo much, finally someone on the same wave length as me. I am ANTI-positive movement. Having suffered situational depression I know all too well how uncaring and dismissive it is when someone says, ‘Think positive!’ It makes me furious to hear that! I grew up suppressing my negative emotions and I am proof that eventually the cup will overflow and you’ll break down. Humans were given a range of feelings and emotions for a reason and it is not normal or healthy to supress them. Why do humans try to be anything but what they are? I also spent years thinking positive believing that was the answer and it resulted in greater disappointment when, naturally, there wasn’t always a positive outcome. Now I prefer to think neutral, recognising what I am feeling and why; being kind to myself. I am a real person with real feelings and I refuse to fake it mearly to make others feel more comfortable because maybe many are unable to show empathy!

    1. Thank you for your nice comment! I am SURE that there many are people that will greatly benefit from hearing about your experience.

  4. Michael Schnitzer

    Hello John, awesome blog! I will purchase a couple of your books- vampires way to physic defense and The occult experiment when I am able to! Is your book the occult experiment available in paperback. I tried to search Amazon for a paperback version with zero success. do any of those two books I mentioned above go more into empathy and assumptions? Anyway, I will go on topic now :)…

    I sensed while reading some of your other articles and this article you confirm it that the purpose of life could be to evolve our ego, not to fight or kill our egos as most spiritual belief systems have people believe. I have read a book titled 3 magic words by U.S Anderson (this book was written in the 1950’s before the book the secret was written). This three magic words book is a combination of the possitivity movement, law of attraction-thoughts are things, and the philosophy that states everything and everyone is one. There is still some usefull information in U.S Anderson’s book, like he says that the conscious mind is the master of the subconscious mind, not the other way around. So it makes perfectly clear sense to evolve our egos/conscious minds. Since, I have read U.S Andersons book and this article of yours John, I do understand what you mean in this article.

    I have actually been recently introduced to the astral plane of reality and to the disembodied spirits that live in the astral plane by reading Kyle Griffiths book a war in heaven ( note: the war in heaven that Kyle wrote about in his book is not the war in heaven in revelations of the bible. here is a quick summary of Kyles book: Kyle channeled a disembodied spirit who claims to be a member of the invisible college and the invincible college is in a political right vs wrong, not a good vs evil (as good and evil in a religous god vs satan kind of way does not exist) type of war with the Theocrats in heaven (the astral plane ). It is an exellent read but who knows if it true or not.

    1. Hi Michael,
      Thanks for sharing your thoughts, it is much appreciated.
      Of my two books that you mention, I would say that ‘The Occult Experience’ is the one that deals more with empathy and assumptions. The first part of the book for example deals with the idea of how assumption creates reality through belief structures, how these structures are encouraged from birth, and how these greatly limit human perception. It also does discuss the aura and how to use this ability to find out more about the people and the environment around you. Sorry this book is not in print, just kindle.

      I think that you definitely hit the nail on the head when you say, ‘The conscious mind is the master of the subconscious’. I too believe this and try to get that across as best I can. But the ego is a touchy thing. To some developing the ego means becoming more like one of those reality show superstars, to me it means a complete and systematic organization and structuration of the mind.

      Thanks for the book mention, I am going to check it out!

  5. Michael Schnitzer

    John, thank you for responding, and for giving me more information on your book! I agree with your comment on the ego.

