At the end of the original Star Wars film, Luke is reminded, “Use the force!” by Obi-Wan. He balks at the suggestion. His friends and co-workers would think he’s totally lost it. After all, he has a job to do. “Use the force, Luke!” Now he’s just remembered his whole training, and NOT using the force is just an old habit he’d grown accustomed to.
He pushes the monitor aside. His friends ask him what’s wrong. Nothing. Actually, he’s really just stepped into his own authority. The next layer of it, at least. This ability to make odds-defying decisions outside of the realm of the ordinary is what’s called by Carl Jung psychological individuation.
This is where we can STOP following the rules because we recognize our own inner authority to create and contribute a more authentic reality through our deepest desires. It may sound ambiguous or even corny, but it’s literally the way humans are designed.
This is the process of growing new strength, which comes with new abilities to set boundaries, and then learning to recognize what is there that wasn’t there before. It’s gradual, but in high-stakes moments like this, it becomes much more obvious. Revealing HOW and WHY and in what order is exactly what stories are for.
Movies, novels, and even public speaking can often be laid out this way. Filmmakers in Hollywood are very well aware of the stages of the hero’s journey as a storytelling mechanism, but if they have not THEMSELVES embarked on the process of individuation, they are just filling in the blanks like Mad Libs, and it’s going to be a LUCID level 1-2 story.
To create in the range of a Level 3-5 story, the ONLY way is to draw from PERSONAL experience of individuation. (You can see the LUCID scale in the comments section)
In other words, there is no way for an immature person to accurately convey the maturity process with any felt sense of reality. It is purely guessing and simulation. There may be no better way to demonstrate and reveal the individuation process than through an expertly created story.
Storytelling can be highly misused for wasting peoples time or it can be highly underestimated for the immense impact it can bring. It all comes down to the depth of initiation into adulthood, which has occurred within the storyteller.
Joshua
