Dark Lightning Performance Guidelines

==**What is a Dark Lightning Performance?**==

In life, it appears that we are making decisions for ourselves, when in reality most decisions are being made for us, from a deeper karmic level. In other words, most people are running on autopilot an not aware that this is the case. A lack of deep sovereignty leads people to habitually react to life, seemingly to "solve problems" and constantly put out fire, rather than to create their lives from a place of wholeness and integrity.

Because of this reactive orientation we tend to get caught, it takes real time and energy to get ourselves back into the alignment with the true creative flow of life - the creative orientation which is not simply a reaction. 

Doing so can be a highly counterintuitive process because we have a variety of energies with momentum in various shadow activities. These include habitually disproving our value (prostitute shadow), insisting that life is unfair (child shadow), clamping down on believing is impossible (victim shadow), and doubting ourselves (saboteur shadow).

In order to transmute these shadows into consciousness we must get into alignment with Seeing their existence. This is a difficult point for most people to grasp. People usually think, aren't we supposed to delete our shadows and cut them out of our lives? 

No, that is disempowering avoidance! We transmute our shadows by entering inside of them and expanding them consciously from within. It is quite painstaking work. It is entering inside of the nightmare and activating the Will in those spaces in which it has been completely hijacked by these automatic programs which have been implanted into our nervous systems.

By intentionally acting out these shadows, we are bringing the light of awareness into the darkness. Doing so, something magical happens. We no longer need to use our lives to act out shadows and work out karma - we can do so intentionally in a space specifically designed for that.

Dark Lightning Performances give us an opportunity to let out our extreme crazy sides, going deeply into the dark places we normally avoid. By filming it (or having it witnessed live), bookends are created which frame it as an art project.

This alchemical shadow transmutation, also referred to as gnosis, is what makes us more available to power, more honest and humble, and stronger and more capable in our daily lives. The more Dark Lightning Performances we create, the deeper we go. As a practice, this normalizes interruption of our typical patterns and causes our habitual identities to break down into the original consciousness that we actually are. Liberating these enormously untapped wells of power and consciousness from the shadows activates it as Dark Lightning. 

The line can be a bit blurry about when a performance is over and normal reality is beginning again.  After a performance, you'll likely feel more alive and whole but you could also find yourself feeling agitated and raw. Ideally, the performance doesn't end prematurely, this agitated and raw state is exactly what the performance is for. If you are agitated and raw, it can be very tempting to click "stop" on the recording, but really this is when the performance is just beginning. Your mind might tell you "I want to end this now". If you push through that part, and let the rawness totally consume you, this is when the performance really takes you where you've never been before.

The integration stage after a performance is just as important (or even more important) as the performance itself. After a performance, take advantage of this opportunity to integrate your new intensity of consciousness in a grounded way. It could be useful to go for a walk, journal, meditate and breath, or you could even film a reaction video to your own performance just to hear yourself explain what you experienced. This can be shared in the Dark Lightning mastermind group along with your performance or it can be kept private at your discretion. 

Your energy will be heightened after a performance, so if you don't integrate it in a grounded way it may be tempting to pick a fight and "test" reality because you have just opened up your shadows. It may take up to a few hours to calm back down from what could be a slightly confusing state of arousal when you are" "in between" worlds. Be aware of this, take responsibility for yourself, and plan ahead for the needs of your nervous system. You might need to give yourself time to take a bath after all this.

It is recommended to keep track of your dreams as they unfold day to day. One can even re-enact their dreams in their weekly performance for greater effect - this builds the muscle of knowing oneself as the Dreamer. Stepping up for yourself in your own mastery in this way can be extremely effective. This is taking the reigns of your own development and being the captain of your own ship. Truly utilizing the opportunity will be nothing short of miraculous. It can also be very easy to cheat yourself of the opportunity if you hold back. Fully entering the subspace builds yourself in entirely new and unexpected ways. Some initial framing can be helpful to find your momentum, and at the same time, trying to plan ahead more than necessary will sabotage the necessary unfolding of the authenticity of the dance which is the Dark Lightning.

==**Time Length**==

Suggested time length is somewhere between 15 minutes to 2 hours. Sometimes there is not much which needs to be said and done. 

15 minutes gives you ample time to sit in silence and see if anything is going to arise. 

Sometimes there is a lot of material to be explored. If it needs to go over 2 hours, that's alright too. It might take this time because there could be a lot of 

Maybe something big is happening for you and it needs to become a 10 hour performance. 

Do whatever needs to be done. 

This is your opportunity to be absolutely insane and not be judged for it.

**==Why is this so difficult?==**

It's intended to be difficult. If it wasn't a challenge, it wouldn't be useful.

This is a self-initiation platform. No one else can do it for you.

For many, this opportunity will actually seem impossible and will be avoided at all cost.

Getting up and simply moving authentically requires dropping all ideas, all attachments to outcomes, and all notions of "getting it right". The more you try to get it right, the less useful, powerful, and impactful it is. The more you "try" to "do" something, the less you're "actually" doing.

This is pure improv theater. If you've ever experienced improv theater, it feels very different from conventional theater - it has a charge and aliveness to it which most people cannot tolerate participating in. Professional actors often recognize improvisation and going off-script as the holy grail of acting. Self-judgement and holding back in life alway runs on a pre-determined script, usually unconsciously. Breaking away from the script into a pattern interrupt nullifies what use to appear as reality. If there is something we "always" do because "that's how I do it" - this is the script and this is our comfort zone. If we can't see other possibilities, it is an addiction.

Stepping outside of the apparent "safety" of the old reality can feel unsafe. And yet, the "old reality" never actually existed. It was only a smokescreen to make the world "seem" safer by dampening our wildness and the raging power of our innate creative flow.

Breaking addictions is a difficult process. It takes a lot of will to simultaneously have compassion for ourselves while also not allowing ourselves to get away with our deeply ingrained habits.

**==Some format ideas==**

It is recommended to create weekly performances.

By exploring yourself in this way every week, you'll find pockets of energies and thoughts which are deemed taboo and not allowed. You'll encounter massive resistance. Exploring that resistance to completion is often exactly what is necessary in your performance.

Then you have a week to integrate. Performances can be done anytime, for any reason at all. They can be delivered multiple times per week, or if you simply don't have time and you miss a week that's fine too. It's recommended however, to keep a regular schedule, to pick a day for your weekly performance. 

You can make it a ritual by lightning a candle (or lighting a fire in the fireplace), putting out a glass of water (to have all elements present and represented). Props are welcome as needed, such as musical instruments.

For some people, a small dose of mind altering agents can be used to go even deeper into a performance. It's certainly not necessary but is allowed for your experimentation. Your performance can never be "too much", it is impossible. It may never even be watched - it is being made as an experience for YOU.

Performances can be done solo, or with other people. Some weeks we will host Zoom meetings where we can collaborate on performances in various game styles as a group. These improv games could be your performance for that week, or you could let it catalyze and even deeper solo performance. the more you put into it the more you'll get out of it.

==**Incorporating the Toltec Knowledge**==

Seeing/Feeling

Awareness

Will

Intent

A Path with Heart






==**Framing a Performance**==

**Mental**

Polarity

Topic


**Energy**



==**How to perform authentically**==




==**What is NOT authentic?**==

What avoidance looks like


**==Enrollment and Technical Suggestions:==**

The monthly membership cost for the Dark Lightning Mastermind group is $222, or $333 for a couple. This membership cost is included (waived) for anyone who is also enrolled in the Dark Lightning 10-Week course (membership for 3 months) or in the one week Dark Lightning Live Intensive (Membership for that month it takes place).

It is recommended to upload your performance to your own YouTube channel as an unlisted video. This way you can retain a database of all of your performances, and others will not need to download the entire file onto their device to view it.



**Advanced:**

==**Making a performance effective for an audience while remaining authentic for you**==


==**Incorporating Your Dark Comedy**==

Just like the whole performance - comedy is for you also.


==**Tracking Progress - how do I know this is helpful?**==

Taking you deeper into repressed emotion - excavating, re-framing, becoming safer and bigger

Detoxification




==**Reacting to Others' Performances**==