This question was the question that director Christopher Nolan (creator of the Batman trilogy, Interstellar and Oppenheimer) asked himself, before creating his other landmark film, Inception.

It was an idea inspired by a line from poet Edgar Allan Poe:

 

And it was also this line of thinking that inspired the production of my documentary feature, “The Great Aha!”.

Because the central message that the documentary makes, is that our ‘dreams of happiness’ are what drive us, for better or worse. Our lives are an expression of us pursuing this foundational dream.

The film sought to explore the question – are we aware that we are in pursuit of a ‘happiness dream’? Are we aware that these dreams most often lead us, and are we aware how we set this up?

And furthermore, what would it mean to be truly awake to this reality?

Join us in the iReawaken 4-Day Event
And Let’s Explore the Depths of Questions Like These and More,
Through a Unique Experiential Journey Into Our Mental Maps About Happiness!

From the Desk of:

JOHN ANGHELI
B.Arch, M.A M.Ed M.B.A.
Leadership Counsellor

 Deep Within Our Hearts, Almost All People Believe
They Are Influencers For ‘The Good’…

This is especially true, particularly if our work involves a lot of communication – whether in the role of a leader of an organization, or a manager, or a teacher, a counsellor and so on… Because this role in its most ideal form, is to influence another towards a ‘better life’… which in turn, aims to bring about a ‘better world’.

At least that’s the implicit intention.

Because while this may not be immediately self-evident or explicit in our choice of work – by virtue that we chose to lead, to teach, to counsel and so on, we also must believe on some level, that through our influence, the life of another can be somewhat ‘improved’.

Thus, our communicative work, aims in part to make better individuals. And in turn, to create better families, better friendships, better communities. And in turn, in us contributing to scope of a better society, culture and legacy…

Sure, money and providing for the necessities of survival will always be there too. But a meaningful life is not defined just by our lowest needs. It is defined by our highest and most noble aspirations.

So in essence, communicators and influencers (at least those who would describe themselves as having ‘integrity’), they all ideally want to help others to live a life that’s somewhat ‘happier’ than if another had not encountered them.

Somewhere deep within our motivational structure, we value and find our work meaningful, in so far as we can help another to have a better life. That through the act of another being influenced by us, we made a positive difference.

Yet here is the shocking part – one that had me floored when researching it:

Most Teachers, Counselors, or Other Professionals in the Social Sciences Fields – They Are Simultaneously More Likely To Be Depressed, As Well As More Likely To Be Divorced Than the Statistical Average! (And Often By a LARGE Margin)

In USA, 61% of psychologists measured as clinically depressed, 29% reported having suicidal thoughts, and they do have a substantially higher than average rate, for actual suicide.

In another study that randomly sampled 1000 counseling psychologists, they found that 62% identified as depressed, and 42% thought of suicide.

In UK, the British Psychological Society found that 46% of psychologists and psychotherapists suffered from depression, 70% express feeling high levels of stress, and 49.5% report they feel like failures.

By contrast, the average rate of depression in Britain is 19.7%, or about 1 in 5. But if you see a psychologist for your depression, there are 1 in 2 odds, (or 2 in 3 odds in USA), that he or she is already there.

In Australia there’s been less research on the matter, but we can confidently expect similar results, as most of our knowledge and training sources originate from either UK or the USA.

Now, what about the quality of relationships, or the health of their social life?

Well unfortunately, it’s more bad news on this front also.

McCoy and Aamodt in 2010 compiled the divorce rate for 449 occupations in United States. They calculated as the national divorce rate average for all professional occupations is 16.96%. Some professions, like workers who specialized in media equipment, or agricultural engineers, they had less than 1% and 1.78% divorce rate, respectively.

But here’s the shocker…

All social science professions have a higher than the national average divorce rate – ex. the psychologists divorce rate is at 19.30%; social scientists – 19.65%; counselors – 22.49%; social workers – 23.16%; sociologists – 23.53%; and occupation therapists – 24.20%!

Of course, these occupational choices are not the worst faring professions for divorce… The highest divorce rates were recorded by dancers, bartenders and message therapists. But to their credit, no one pays them for marriage advice or counseling.

So doesn’t this just blow your mind?

You would think that those who have the most amount of knowledge about the mind, they would be the most psychologically healthy, and the least depressed. And those who study social relations most, likewise they’d also have the healthiest relations, thus be likely to be divorced… (or at least somewhere up there).

But you would not expect them to be ABOVE the national average, right? (And to be worse off than people who understand these areas the least.)

It would be like going to see a personal trainer, who is more out of shape than the client, or a dietician who consumes mostly junk food…

But it’s the reverse that’s true, and no one is even talking about this!

Our current manner in which we lead on fronts like these is seriously lacking. So if we would like to influence from a place of integrity…

… it’s time to think different.

For over the last half a century, the last 50 years, the funding that has went into therapeutic protocols have sky rocketed. There have been massive funds and massive numbers of specialists on the ground – but according to most measures, public mental health has not only not improved since the 1960s… they’re getting worse.

At this very moment, as a mild-mannered author Eckart Tolle put it, “we’re living in an age of collective insanity…”

Can it be in no small part, because our leaders and influencers themselves don’t model mental health? (Or better said, they themselves have no model on what to do to be mentally healthy and strong?)

It’s Time For a New Beginning

Unlike what common opinion holds, the likelihood of us living a successful and fulfilled life as a leader or influencer of any kind – a life where we have it all, where we have the total good – depends not on the degrees we get, nor the hard work we put in, nor on our intelligence …

After all, so you not know of very intelligent, educated people, and yet whose life is defined by struggle, lack and misfortune?

Of course… We all do.

So, what does make the difference?

Well, having spent two decades in pursuit of understanding this answer, my observations have been that the real creative power that goes forth to make a meaningful difference in our personal life, and in turn in making a meaningful difference in our society – depends entirely on how awake we are.

Not ‘Woke’, But Awake…

For The Greatest Injustice We Can Ever Make,
Is To Let Our Lower Self, Dominate Our Better Self

For it’s not the ‘outer game’ that you play that matters most. It’s how you manage the inner forces that act upon you, that makes the biggest difference…

What matters most, is the inner game you play.
Who is in ultimate control – your ego or your spirit?

And I know you probably already know this… After all, to be an influencer for the good, simply means we help another to remember who they ‘truly’ are.

For as it has often been stated, most people sleepwalk through their lives. And it is our role thereby to help another to awaken.

Yes, most people are technically ‘awake’ – as in they drive cars, they go to work, they see their spouses, their children, and deal with all the complexities of our world, its politics and its technological innovations… etc. That is, by bio-medical measurements of brain activity, they register as being conscious, functional, alert…

But inwardly, subjectively, they are asleep.

They are comatose from the reality of being a spiritual, multi-dimensional being, with the power to freely make choices. They have no awareness or connection to the power of their will, or deep seated reason…

So just like when you’re asleep in bed and you dream – and you can be frightened by all kinds of ridiculous ideas… (Or just the same, you get excited by possessions you don’t really have)… In ‘sleeping wakefulness’ likewise, our mind believes its own projection of fears, temptations and illusions – which in the objective fullness of real world, likewise, do not exist.

For there are at least…

Three Levels of Experience

The first level is the dream world. Here our awareness is limited to the unconscious mind, and its experiences.

Once we wake in the morning, we enter the second level – our ordinary physical-mental experience of our world. 

In this second level, our state of wakefulness contains the dream realm itself, as if it’s a projection, an illusion, a mirage. This is why we can so easily let go of our fears or desires we felt down below in our dreams – because from here, we oversee the shadow nature of this lower realm. This second level contains the lower level, as if from on a higher plane…

But then there’s also a third level of awareness, which only few human access within their life, (although many get an occasional glimpse). This is the state of wakefulness where we’re aware of our whole self – inclusive of our spirit or will – and the tremendous potentialities this enables.

Our best lives can only happen, when we awaken for this second time. (The greatest sages in our history, have all said this same one message…)

And furthermore, as leaders and influencers, if we would make a genuine difference with our lives, and be of genuine help to another – we likewise need to walk the talk, and reawaken.

To truly guide another into their best life, requires that you know for yourself, how to access this third level awareness and how to live from this space.

It’s not about intelligence or hard work… It’s not about marketing… It’s not about professional accreditations… (And all the rest of it.)

These are of value, but they are by far, of secondary importance. (In fact without third level wakefulness, these too often do to another, more harm than good.)

Because when most influencers are ‘sleeping awake’, what else can we expect but the blind to lead the blind, and then to both fall into a ditch?

The most valuable thing in the world is the knowledge for how we can RE-awaken – and lead from a place of deep-seated integrity…

Let’s stop creating impressions and impersonations, and instead…

Let’s be the Real Deal – that Authentic Voice of Strength
– the Change We Want to See.

This is the essential ingredient for how you and I can fulfill our calling and our mission. Anything short of this, and we miss out on what’s most important, most vital…

Which leads us once more to the question with which we started…

How Do We Congruently Lead and Influence,
From a Position of Strength, Integrity and Authority
And Role Model a Life That’s Worth Emulating?

How can we awaken to this reality, on a daily basis?

For this awakening – unlike the one when we awake from sleep in the morning, is not a given… It’s something that’s largely self-chosen.

Yes, sometimes we can be ‘called through’ despite ourselves (and have a mystical experience that shatters our ordinary awareness) – but for most of us, this awakening is something we must chose to enable.

We must be the ones that must go inside ourselves and open that inner door, to bring our power of spirit, to life.

This is an inside job that we must want to do, and equally important, that we know how to do.

In this iReawaken 5-Day Experiential Event, I want to take you there.

I invite then you to take this experiment together with me, and rediscover how to reawaken that spark within, which makes all true genius possible.

There are no fillers, no cross-promotions, and no time-wasting content. Based on the exclusive premiere of my documentary film, in iReawaken you’ll come to reconnect to your true personal power and source of genuine meaning.

But this free intensive event only happens between the dates stated and only during these days.

So confirm you seat right here, and let’s get started!

The iReawaken Experiential Event Is Comprised of Three Phases:

STEP 1 – DEFINE

Define the Difference Between What
Builds Genuine Happiness and What’s Does Not

Come to understand why current self-help methods and commonplace pop psychology that promise to increase your ability to  be happier and life a more fulfilling life – why these fall short of the mark, and why they most likely fail.

Like diets, our current thinking about happiness and psychological health, makes people yo-yo between states of despair and elation, boredom and excitement, fear and hope.

Which all are in reality, but the movements of a downward spiral, as current depression statistics (as talked about above) demonstrate.

Why does this happen?

Well, it most often comes about because we have a fundamentally wrong map about the cause of happiness, at an unconscious level. And because we don’t know we’re reading the wrong map, we end up in the wrong place.

Based on a key insight of our first genius from the Age of Enlightenment, inside the iReawaken Event, you’ll discover what is the critical distinction between ‘the fool’s gold’, and the real deal – i.e. what is the map that most closely matches ‘the territory’.

STEP 2 – DELINEATE

Delineate the Happiness Map
That You Believe Is Most True to the Territory

Come to understand why well-being programs that fall short of a decidedly new approach to social relations, miss out on the most important marker for lasting impact, in your life as well as the lives of others.

For when it comes to lasting and meaningful happiness, it’s the way that we process our social dimension that matters most.

Self-centered programs, based on narcissistic claims to self-improvement, which don’t incorporate a new awareness of how we relate to others, can never succeed long term.

In the iReawaken Experience, we’ll explore the dynamics behind this phenomenon, and why certain happiness maps ultimately fail.

Based on the insights of our second genius from the Age of Enlightenment, in our second step, we identify the necessary precepts and principles that unleash our true potential to make a genuine difference.

What new habits of mind therefore must we create?
(It’s probably not what you think.)

STEP 3 -DECIDE

Decide What Is Your Most Reliable Roadmap
For How to Build Your Inner Strengths of Mind and Soul

Albert Einstein remarked that ‘the only thing that interferes with our learning, is our education.’

That’s because to live a meaningful life, this requires an education that transcends the boundaries and frameworks that we are taught in high school or ‘higher’ education.

Come to understand how and why the education we received in our youth, has not only failed to develop our true potential as human beings, but is what’s actively preventing us from reaching our ‘next level’ of personal growth.

Discover how our education has fostered within us a closure of mind, under the pretense of ‘open-mindedness’, and a loss of our ‘visionary gleam’ under the pretense of ‘critical thinking’… That is, how it’s ‘clogging up’ the fountainhead from which meaning and the power to influence emerges.

How did this  happen and what does this have to do with our capacity for greater influence? Based on the insights of our third genius from the Age of Enlightenment, discover what methods are available to genuinely increase the strength and vitality of our mind and soul.

How can we give practical form to our greatest potentials as a human being?

Tune in, and discover an emerging new field of thought and applications to reach the higher dimensions of our potential.

Don’t Miss Out On This Unique Opportunity Starting Shortly…

To Upgrade Your Inner Leadership Know-How, and Realize a Greater Level of Influence, Across All Dimensions of Your Life — i.e. With Those Your Lead; With Those You Love; and With Those You Serve!