I’m asked all the time what shows do I regularly watch on television and every time I respond they rarely seem to be the ones everyone else seems to be watching. If you pay attention to the Nielsen ratings to see what the majority of the population is currently tuning into, you’ll see it’s primarily programs that mimic real life. But that’s precisely what I don’t want to see when I sit down in front of my television and turn it on.
Look, life in general in our world is already filled with so much violence, scandal, gossip, judgment, dysfunctionality, and the like. So watching programs that endorse greater amounts of that only stresses me out even more than what’s in the news these days. This is why I tend to be drawn mostly to shows that are in the genre of science fiction or fantasy. But even then, I don’t watch every single one that falls under either of those genres. Instead, there’s a theme that I’m constantly drawn to with what I follow on the small screen and that’s the “good versus evil” or “light versus dark” concept.
This is probably why I tune into all those superhero-based programs on television, as that’s generally what their themes are about. And I always feel the more I watch them, the better I feel about my life. Sometimes I think that’s because I was brought here to help fight the darkness that pervades our planet and do what I can to replace it with light. Unfortunately, I got distracted from that goal for a very long time due to all the addictions I used to succumb to. But thankfully that’s not where I’m in life anymore.
Regardless, I tend to wonder if who each of us are inside can often be identified by what we regularly watch on television. Can we easily become that which we watch? Psychologists have been theorizing lately that the people who go on these shooting sprees could be due to all the violent programming on television nowadays.
While there really isn’t proof yet for any of these speculations, my spiritual teacher has reminded me time and time again to really be careful of what I watch myself. So I do. I’m very careful to only tune into things that I find uplift me. Because the last thing I want to do is move backwards in my spiritual journey by allowing myself to watch things that make me feel angry, fearful, or more negative.
Nevertheless, I feel this is definitely something to ponder. So I leave you with these questions for that reason. What do you watch regularly on television? Are any of the undesirable traits of the shows you follow the same one’s others sometimes see in you? And who do you really want to be in life, as to become that, could it involve tuning into different programming that’s more supportive of that goal? I truly hope you take the time to muse over these questions and I wish each of you well on your spiritual journeys…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson