Carl Greer on A Journey of Self-Exploration and Transformation

Carl Greer is a retired clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst and shamanic practitioner. For decades, he has combined all three disciplines to help people resolve mental, behavioral and emotional disorders; integrate their conscious and unconscious minds; and receive spiritual healing. He has taught at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being.

Through his philanthropic foundation, Greer has contributed to more than 60 charities and awarded more than 2,000 scholarships to aspiring students of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. He holds a doctorate in finance and management from Columbia University and a doctorate in clinical psychology from National Louis University’s Illinois School of Professional Psychology.

Building upon his previous titles, including Change Your Story, Change Your Life and The Necktie and The Jaguar, Greer’s latest book is Go Within to Change Your Life: A Hidden Wisdom Workbook for Personal Transformation.

 

What problem does your latest book seek to address?

Most people ask themselves, “Why did I just say that?” or “Why did I do that?” Similarly, people are often unable to stick to their New Year’s resolutions, which they presumably really wanted to achieve when they set those goals. My belief is that there are hidden parts of ourselves that are influencing our behavior, and if we want to make changes in our lives, we need to go within to discover those parts of ourselves and get insights that heretofore have been hidden from us.

 

Why do you say that we are stuck in a story written by someone else?

We have influences from our past—including our genetics, upbringing and life experiences—that have both consciously and unconsciously influenced where we are right now and will influence our future. If we want to break free from those influences, we have to do some things differently.

We have to recognize what’s holding us back, and it’s often a story about how to achieve happiness and success that isn’t working for us and that we adopted without realizing it. These stories are often written by our families, communities and cultures.

There are a lot of people that on the surface seem to have everything—good jobs, good families, good health—but they’re miserable and unfulfilled. It’s important for them to identify the reasons for that and what they might do about it.

 

How do you define “hidden wisdom”?

It’s a Jungian idea. Part of our psyche is what we’re aware of—our ego consciousness. Another part of the psyche that’s influencing us is our unconscious—both the personal unconscious (things we’ve chosen to keep hidden from our consciousness) and the collective unconscious (what Carl Jung described as containing archetypal energies that influence how we think, act and feel). By uncovering our hidden wisdom, we can make different conscious decisions.

 

Is it wisdom because it exists in the unconscious?

It’s wisdom because it’s useful. We all have answers within ourselves that are useful to us. Often, we go outside of ourselves to get wisdom from the experts. We’ll read an article about the 10 ways to be happy or what affirmations to say, which, from time to time, can be useful, but we already know more about what’s best for us than we think. We just have to uncover it, and the process of uncovering it is what my book is about.

The book has journaling prompts that encourage readers to answer some introspective questions about themselves, but it also has exercises like guided visualizations and shamanic journeys for tapping into their unconscious. This way, readers can gain a deeper understanding of themselves—what’s working or not working for them, and what they most want.

 

Do we have to be in a meditative state to access hidden wisdom?

It certainly helps. Most of us are immersed in the busyness of everyday life, where our sympathetic nervous system is guiding us, causing us to respond to events rather than relax and imagine what we might create for ourselves. Consequently, we’re not accessing insights that are below the surface of our awareness.

We’ve got to slow down and get our brain operating a little differently—engage the whole brain rather than just the frontal lobes—and enable the parasympathetic nervous system to come online. That allows us to access different information. Then, we can stop being so reactive and begin creating the lives we want.

When we get into a meditative state, which is more relaxed, we’re not thinking about specific things. It’s kind of a diffuse awareness instead of a more focused one, so we’re more open to ideas and insights that we wouldn’t have been open to had we not been in that state. People get into that state through different means, such as psychotropic plants, shamanic rattling, sleep deprivation, extreme heat and cold, meditative breathing practices or being in nature.

 

What is your preferred method?

I’m 84 now, and for me it’s being in nature, learning to be still and becoming aware of the synchronicities—the meaningful coincidences we’re often too quick to dismiss. The idea is to keep a life issue in your consciousness while sitting under a tree, looking at flowers, lying on the grass or looking at a lake, and then paying attention to whatever comes up into your mind, which may be relevant to that life issue in ways that you could have never imagined.

 

What form of journaling do you recommend?

There are many journaling prompts in the book, such as “What is your story?” or “How would you describe your life right now?” When journaling, you can be very factual (I’m this age and I have this job) or you can talk about emotions and thoughts (I’m a happy person, but I get a little sad from time to time).

You can access and write down a lot of data when you intend to do so. For example, you can check in with yourself several times a day and ask, “What am I feeling right now?” Over a period of time of doing this, you’re going to be able to make sense of all this data because you’ll start noticing patterns like, “I tend to feel this way at this time of day when I’m interacting with certain people.”

Through journaling, you’re not necessarily trying to answer what you’re going to do about something, but it helps you to collect the data and information to eventually take action. Meditation and journaling allow you to let things like that surface without trying to fix them—or deny them. Once you have more information, you may be better able to see what’s really going on with you and what you’d like to change.

 

Can we change our life story?

One hundred percent. We make moment-to-moment decisions about how to think, act and feel that are influenced by our past. The facts of our past are what they are, but what we make of those facts and how they live within us—that’s subject to change. The work that I’m talking about can change how your past lives within you, and, by so doing, you’ll find that the actions you take in the present will be different. You won’t be constantly fighting against unconscious impulses.

Just as we all have a past that lives within us, we all have a future, and unless we make some changes, it will be determined by your upbringing and your DNA. Theoretically, each of us has a good, better or best future. I believe it’s possible to hook onto our best future by doing certain things, and if we hook onto it, that impetus is going to affect the actions we take in the present, as well. So, the secret of psychology—and shamanic work—is to work with your past and your future so that your present decision-making is better aligned with your true goals.

 

How do our values and priorities help us set goals?

The work that I’m proposing in the book is a way to bypass the values and priorities that were set for you by others and to instead uncover your true values and priorities, which are part of your hidden wisdom. If my value was to be famous, then I would have goals to acquire titles, money and prestige. If my value was to have a relationship with God or Spirit, then my goals would be to pray, attend church or do good works. The things that are important to us can be brought into being by the actions we take, but if we’re buying into somebody else’s goals and objectives for us, then that can be a little unsettling because part of us doesn’t really buy into the script that’s been written for us.

 

Can you explain what a shamanic journey is?

It’s getting into an altered state through mindful breathing or rattling that allows you to imagine going into other realms. The big question is whether these realms are real, and while some see them simply as guided visualizations that take you to specific imaginary places, I would suggest these worlds influence you as if they were experienced in your waking reality.

You reach them by your intent, and there are some time-honored ways to do that through many shamanic traditions. The lower world, for example, is a world considered by many shamans to contain information about your past, and if you believe in reincarnation, your past lives. The upper world contains information about what’s going to happen in your future.

 

Can you share a moment in nature that deeply affected you?

There are power places in nature that give you a different kind of energy. I’ve been fortunate to have been to some of those places, both in this country and abroad, causing me to ponder and get a better sense of metaphysical questions, such as, “What is our purpose here?” or “Where will I be when I am no longer in this physical body? Am I going to go back to the place from which we all came? Am I going to have my consciousness?”

I’ve spent time meditating on those questions, not having the answers to them. Simply sitting beside lakes, on mountains or in the jungle has made me more aware of how I’m part of a bigger picture, and it has comforted me just to know that, without having any of the answers. I can’t answer why there’s evil in the world, but I feel I’m part of an unfolding that has wonderful aspects to it, a kind of agape love. That keeps me appreciating the mystery of our connection with what is hidden.

 

Sandra Yeyati is national editor of Natural Awakenings.

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