Survivor: The Game of Life on Planet Earth

If you've followed this blog for awhile you'll know that I'm pretty enamored with the idea of looking at life as a game. Since our immediate response to seeing something as a game is "fun!", and given that life is rife with upset, anger, loss, lack, despicable behavior, lies, deceit - many things that are anything but fun - it's a bit of a stretch for many of us to even consider the notion that life might be a game. To that I would respond - that's because we're in it.

Inside and Outside the Game

When we're in a game, it doesn't feel like a game, does it? When we're fully engaged in playing a game it feels very very real. When we're fully engaged in a game, the actions we take and the emotions we feel are indistinguishable from any other area of our life. It's only when we step outside the game - have a timeout, go to the sidelines, sit on the bench for awhile, go to the locker room, have a meeting with our fellow players and/or coaches - that we can get enough perspective, hopefully, to evaluate and observe that when we are on the court we are truly participating in a game.

From an "outside the game" perspective we are able to see how best to move forward when we get back into the game. From that perspective, the one outside actual game play, we can listen to the guidance of our coaches, the ones observing the overall progress of the game. With their direction at hand we decide for ourselves whether to keep our course in the game or modify our behavior to better suit our role - our goal - in the game.

In fact, during these "time outs" we don't question that we're standing outside the game to evaluate our progress and consider modifying our behavior / game play, we accept it as a required and necessary part of the game. There's an "inside the game" and an "outside the game." Obvious.

So too with life, there are "outside the game" places we can be. Only in life, that's not so obvious. In many cases it's not even apparent.

Nevertheless, just like typical games, in life we have designated time-outs. Sleep time is one of them. Death is an even bigger one. Sleep might be equated, in video games, like logging off for awhile, or in boxing like sitting in our corner between rounds. Death might equate in video games to deleting our current character, birth to creating a new character; we're playing the same game, only in a different role. In sports games, death might equate to the end of the season, where we go away from the game completely for an extended period. Birth might equate to sports like coming back for a new season in a completely new position, or in the same position modified and amended by what we learned in the previous season.

Of course all of this assumes that we already accept that we are more than our body, more than our mind, more than our emotions. If one doesn't accept that, then any attempt to draw an analogy to life as a game will fall on deaf ears. Anyone not ready to see that there is an "outside the game" isn't ready to step out of the game.

But they will be. At some point, every individual on the planet will realize their power as a Creator and be ready to view the game from outside the game, and to bring more and more of that perspective into the game. As the new game progresses, more and more will play the game as it is now being designed, and the memory of that old game will fall further and further away.

For those continuing to be unwilling to see the new game, their life will end and they'll continue to play this kind of game somewhere else. That might sound cruel, but it's not. It's always a soul's choice what game they will play. The freedom of a soul to choose is absolute. What is also absolute is that the old game on Earth is over, and at some point all will be fully engaged in the new game, or they won't be here.

The Game Show "Survivor"

The reason I mention all this is that it occurs to me that the reality TV show "Survivor" is a very accurate portrayal of exactly where we're at in our evolution as a species right now.

In the reality TV show/game, "Survivor", the phrase "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast" is the theme. In this game, anything goes. If you aren't aware of the show, the object is to be the last man or woman standing. To survive. Here's how it works: Some number of players, generally around 20, are taken to a remote location on the globe, typically a small island, for what they hope will be 39 days. They arrive with only the most meager of tools and necessities for survival (to whit, themselves, water, basic tools, and some rice and beans). They are initially assigned to teams. The teams must band together to make shelter, make fire, find food, and generally just survive.

Every few days the teams are pitted against each other in contests called "challenges" to earn rewards like tools, food, or advantages in the game. After some of these contests the losing team is required to go to "Tribal Council" where they must vote one member of their team off the island. For that player the game is over, they cannot win it.

About halfway through the game, players voted out no longer leave the island but stick around to become the Jury. The last three players not voted out after 39 days become the only players with a chance to win. The Jury members vote on those final three players to decide who will actually win. The reward for winning is a pre-tax million dollars, so there's some incentive (along with personal goals) for players to play full out and win.

Over the course of the game alliances are made and broken; the game becomes less about teamwork and more about getting one's self to the end of the game. The point of the game, the ultimate goal, is to be the last person in the game, the "Sole Survivor". Players do their level best to win. Typically that involves getting rid of the strongest competition, the ones more likely to be able to survive to the end, more likely to be voted as winner than you, so that you can win. And do that while also holding onto the strong players long enough to tap them for their survival skills and their ability to help the team win challenges. And also garner enough respect - or few enough enemies - to be voted the winner should you end up as one of the final three.

Anything Goes

In Survivor, anything goes. Lie, cheat, steal, withhold, deceive; make friends, form alliances, work together; strategize, play hard, fend for oneself yet cooperate with others. Decide in each and every moment if some word or action will both get you what you want in the moment, and help you achieve the final goal of winning the game. Loyalty is paper thin and fleeting. One might say that if you really believe someone - anyone - is putting your best interests above their own, then you're totally deceiving yourself. The honest contestants openly admit that they'll do or say whatever it takes to be the last person standing: to win.

But that's the goal! It's a game! The goal is to win! Everyone participating is doing so of their own free will and choice, knowing full well what the rules are. In that light, whatever happens is whatever happens.

Along the way, every player experiences being liked and being appreciated. They also experience being lied to, sometimes blatantly and obviously, sometimes quietly and not so obviously. Since these are human beings we're talking about, with very human emotions, there's a lot of drama.

Some of the most exciting moves the game - for the players and the audience - are made without the awareness of one of the players affected. These are called, appropriately enough, "blind sides." This is where a player is led to believe that they are beloved by some number of their fellow players yet in truth are being targeted to be voted off. Being blindsided can cut one's ego to shreds. It's a rare individual that, when blindsided, doesn't feel the emotional pain of having been lied to by people they considered their friend.

Survivor and Us

What intrigues me about this particular reality show is how closely it resembles what our life has been all about here on Earth. We have joined into a game where our very survival is at stake. We need each other to help us survive, but our survival is so critical, so personal, that we can, and will, help each other only so much. It's rare in life that we will we sacrifice ourselves. In the reality game Survivor, those who sacrifice themselves (its rare but it happens there too) are considered weak, stupid, gullible, and pretty much laughed off the show. Not so different in real life, eh?

To me, one of the most beautiful parts of this game/show called "Survivor" is when one of the players who is voted off, especially when they've been blindsided, has the foresight to realize that they have been playing a game. They have lost yes, but they aren't bitter about it. They have the grace to be able to say "I lost. You bested me! Good on you!" rather than the typical "I liked/loved you, I trusted you, how could you do that to me?!"

That attitude of acceptance and even honor for their fellow player has been rare on the show, but interestingly enough, over the last few seasons has become more common. Isn't that what's happening with all of us on Earth right now? Aren't some of us waking up to the game, realizing that those who hurt us have been playing a game and so have we; realizing that the game is over and it's time to just say "You bested me! Good on you!" and then laugh - TOGETHER - about what fun times we had, even though in the moment many of those experiences felt awful and horrid and painful.

Game Over

The good news here, is that "Survivor", while it has been how the game on Earth has been played, is no longer the game we're playing. That's what "the Shift" is. That's what awakening is. That's what ascension is. It isn't going off to some nirvana somewhere, it's realizing - right here right now, right where we are - that we're playing a different game. Realizing that the game of Survivor here on Earth is over. Done. Completed. We're at the wrap party now.

It's appropriate at a wrap party / cast party to congratulate each other on a job well done. To realize that we've all been playing roles. By agreement. To realize that if we've been hurt it's because at a soul level we wanted to experience that hurt. We wanted to know what it feels like, wanted to know what we'd do when confronted with those feelings. How would we respond? What actions would we take? What would we take from that experience? If we determined to play the perpetrator, how deeply into the role would we fall? Would we get caught up in it and fall deeper and deeper into the role, or would we realize what was happening and discover compassion? or? or? or?

Now we know. We have - each and every one of us alive today has - a rich background of other lives (be they human lives or lives as some other physical species). We know what it's like to be the victim. Been there, done that. We know what it's like to be the perpetrator. Been there, done that. We know what it's like to be deceived, to be humiliated, to be physically abused, to be emotionally abused, to be used, tossed aside, not appreciated, not loved, to be hurt in every possible way. But we also know what it's like to be honored, to be appreciated, to be loved, to experience creativity and joy and freedom and peace and .. love. We know this because we've experienced it, all of it, in all its richness and glory and in all of its upset and anguish.

We have, each and every one of us down to the least, experienced all that we came into this particular game to experience. We're done. Game Over. Whether we players are alive in a physical body currently, or in our natural form of spirit currently, this particular game is over. It's time to realize that the costume is just a costume, that the props are just props. It's time to move outside the emotions of the game, to begin to congratulate each other on being one who participated in this game and milked it for all it was worth. Congratulate each other on getting down and getting dirty, on being the good guy and the bad guy, the rich guy and the poor guy, the abuser and the abused; on doing it all. It's time now to fully realize that that game is over. The new game is under way.

End Game

There are some things that are common to all games. There's always a way to keep score, whether it's a team score or a personal score (karma). There are always breaks designed in (sleep, meditation, death, conscious awareness). There are always others to consult for advice and guidance (coaches, teachers, experts). And there is always - always - an end to a game. Even Boardwalk, a game that can seem to go on and on forever, eventually comes to an end. At some point, win lose or draw, at some point it is declared "this game is over."

So this game - the game of Survivor Planet Earth, Third Density - like absolutely every game we've ever played, was designed to have an end. As I noted earlier, no game that we have ever played doesn't come to an end at some point. There's always an end. We are at that end. Actually we've passed the end, but not everyone is aware of that or in agreement with it. Yet.

We had a goal, and that goal was to survive to the end, and then to realize that we did so that a new game could be started. Well .. we did it! Yay us! We are, as a species, as a race, "Sole Survivor" of this game. We don't have to die off, become annihilated, end the species, to begin the new game. Instead we are taking our game pieces and most of our props with us into the new game.

That was our highest intent at the start of this game - to survive intact as a species. To not kill ourselves off during the game or in the process of ending the game. We accomplished our highest objective. Did we have help? Of course we did! That doesn't make the victory any less sweet.

Because this game wasn't a loss, it wasn't even a draw, it was a win. Old game - won. New game - on. And the best news? The new game cannot be won or lost, the new game simply is. We might say that it's a game of "What will we create now, together? in joy and in love?"

And since it is a new game, we can decide what our new game piece will look like, what its attributes will be, what the new props will be, what the new Earth will be. In partnership with Gaia, in partnership with our Galactic brothers and sisters, in partnership with our friends, family, and partners, those in spirit and those in physicality, including the Elohim and other master designers of this Universe, we are recreating everything on our beloved planet to fit inside a new ruleset.

Is it going to be a lot of work, building a new earth on the same game board, starting with the same props and game game pieces? You bet it is. But its going to be the best kind of work - creative, fun, joyful, exciting work. Work we do together, as a team, in cooperation, with respect and appreciation for one another, and out of joy. It will be like nothing we - as a human race - have ever before experienced. A new game! Yay! Time to get excited! Time to be excited!

What Sometimes Happens At End Game

Sometimes when the end of a game is declared, some number of players don't want to stop playing. Maybe they're having a great time, maybe they feel they haven't achieved their goal, maybe they're still feeling the emotions of being in the game and aren't ready to give it up. Maybe, by their definition, they don't feel that they've won and they want to keep on playing until they do. So for whatever reason, some number of players will find that they simply are not ready to give up playing yet, even though the game has ended. For these players it is and will continue to be disconcerting to them still being on the court, still trying to carry on, while the vast majority of players have left, when the vast majority are no longer playing their game.

That's the position of many people on Earth right now. The old game has ended, a new game has begun, and yet there are a great number of human beings still trying to play the old game. In most cases they don't realize there is a new game. It's disconcerting to them and to us. They are attempting to play by rules long ago established for the old game - lack, competition, deceit, deception, power over, anger, abuse, dog-eat-dog, whatever it takes, win at any cost.

The New Game

The rest of us are into a new game now. A game that takes as its base a rule set of cooperation, integrity, honesty, compassion, understanding, acceptance, freedom, beauty, joy, and love. Can you even begin to imagine the kind of world we can build based on those concepts rather than the other ones?

It begins with us.

Its our role, those of us aware that this is a new game, to play by the new rule set so that others may come to realize too, that the old game is over.

We don't do that by telling people how to be, by telling them what they're doing wrong, by being resentful of the wrongs they've committed - or continue to commit - against us. Nor do we do it by allowing them to continue to treat us in old ways, according to the old rule set.

We do it by being the new rule set. By realizing that we've experienced horror and ugliness and lack and deception because we wanted to, because we could not experience those things in our natural state of ease, grace and harmony. We do it by not blaming any one for our circumstances; by taking full and complete responsibility for our lives and our experiences. We do it by being respectful of others, but no longer allowing them to treat us in ways that we don't wish to be treated, doing things to us that we no longer wish to have done.

We do it by realizing that we are in a new role. "Oh, I see you are still playing 'Survivor.' So no matter how despicable you try to be, I cannot be - I will not be - upset with you, because I understand that you simply aren't aware of what I'm aware of. But know that I will not continue to play that game with you."

"You still think we're all playing that old game, and so you behave as if we are. I know that we are not, so I behave differently. As I continue to behave differently you will discover your Self as I have discovered my Self and then we will both be playing the new game. I can hardly wait!"

It begins with us taking a stand to participate fully in the new game, leaving the old game behind. Saying to ourselves "I'm no longer willing to play that game with you. I'm playing a different game now. I'm going to keep playing my game, which includes appreciating you, honoring you, unconditionally loving you, until you are ready to play the new game too, even if I have to do that without you in my physical life. I will do that for you, even if you are not aware that I am and cannot appreciate that I am, until you wake up too. Until you are ready to take off the old uniform, get off the old court, give up the old rule set, and join me here in the new game. When you are ready to do that, we can play with each other again. Differently. This time with appreciation and love, and in joy."

It begins with us noticing, in any given moment, in any given experience, which game are we playing. Are we playing the new game or the old? being the new ruleset or the old? Are we simply surviving or moving into thriving? It's our choice, it always is.

And you know what? When we stop to look around we realize that there are a lot of us already playing, and we're having the time of our lives. This is an "all comers" game, no one left out. But it does have a new ruleset. We invite anyone and everyone to join us, no matter what role they played in the old game. All they have to do is give up the old ruleset. And they, like us, can do that any time they like.