Will the modern world wipe out sensitive souls?
Do you know someone who is a Highly Sensitive Person, a HSP? They’re the ones who are very empathetic, feel joy and sorrow deeply, but their killer trait is they have a knack for seeing the bigger picture, and right now, that picture doesn’t look good for HSPs.
HSP’s minds, bodies and spirits are inextricably linked to the natural world, and with accelerated progress, nature is forced to retract at unprecedented rates. This deeply affects HSPs. So where does this leave our highly sensitive people?
A friend complained recently about being a HSP. She couldn’t see any benefits to being empathetic, or having a sophisticated emotional barometer. Nor is she happy that her differently wired brain gives her the gift of the Seer.
This gift she hates more than all her other gifts, because it causes her the most pain. In days gone by, a Seer was a highly respected and revered member of a community. They seemed to have a supernatural ability to see into the future, a prophetess who experienced life from another dimension, who saw all the threads that held the universe together.
My friend has this ability in spades, and she hates it. Most folks won’t see the interconnectedness of things, the delicate play between species, atoms, or the cosmic dance that weaves in and out of existence, but she can.
For example, most people won’t see the connection between using rat poison and the demise of owls, who eat half dead rats still laced with poison, inadvertently poisoning themselves. They won’t see that buying mountains of stuff, made cheaply, often with toxic materials will eventually lead to poisoned air, land and water. My HSP friend does.
While you’d think this is a gift, being able to take a bird’s eye view of life, it’s not a gift when you can see that the train of ‘progress’ is heading for a brick wall. That’s how she feels, seeing the catastrophic effects of excessive consumption and not being able to do anything about it.
Once in a while, after cursing her gifts for the umpteenth time, she’ll try in vain to turn off her feelings and act like she doesn’t care, but it’s all an act. An hour after she’s declared her indifference to the world, pretending bad things aren’t happening, she’ll be back online, asking her friends to put a bowl of water out for the birds and insects during hot weather.
There is no turning off these innate qualities and gifts. But it really is hard for her to live in a world that is moving further away from what is natural to an increasingly concreted landscape, full of techno-junk and robots.
Some days she swears she’s going to ask her doctor for some Prozac or Valium, in the hope that it will numb her brain so she won’t feel the pain of seeing another species wiped out. Or another forest burn. Or another crop destroyed by an out-of-control ecosystem.
Many of her fellow HSPs are in fact dosed up on medications, or locked away in institutions. Some simply leave the planet, permanently, because they can’t stand the violence that erupts from their TVs, movies or social media.
What will the world look like without HSPs, those who feel deeply and care beyond what is ‘normal’?
I think we need to listen to our HSPs because they have a gift that could help us move back into a state of equilibrium. These are not evangelists or extremists. They know people need jobs and somewhere to live, but theirs is a more measured approach. They know we need to buy food, homewares and clothing, but they caution us to buy wisely. To refrain from being sucked in by advertising hype that sells us a lesser version of ourselves, and promises that only their goods and services can make us feel whole and happy.
HSPs are all about balance, which is challenging in our already one-sided world, where greed is good and who gives a damn if another species is wiped out. HSPs care because they see the invisible threads that connect us, and they know that if one-too-many species dies, it’s a guaranteed exit for the rest of us.
Why should we care if HSPs become extinct? Because without them, the world would be a cold, dark, and uncaring place. The majority of people who work in the ‘caring profession’, (many are HSPs), do so because they care. Imagine having The Joker managing a suicide prevention program, or Star Wars’ Emperor in charge of aged care? You might laugh now, but in the future it could be you at the mercy of a narcissistic doctor or manager.
If humans no longer care for each other, it’s good-bye normal life, and hello Armageddon. Are we wired for doom and gloom? Is that why movies and stories that glorify a catastrophic end to life are so popular? A question to be explored in another post.
For now, I’m putting a call out to all HSPs and asking them to hold strong, to speak up. I know it’s not an easy ask. HSPs are the opposite of headline-grabbing narcissists who currently seem to have all the power.
But just like a quality doom and gloom movie, I’m hoping we’re at that point where all seems lost, evil is winning, and then, the HSPs tap into their benevolent ‘super power’ and guide us out of trouble.
Perhaps they’ll lead us into an alternate existence, leading the way with love and not fear, that will fill our basic needs, whilst remembering to show love and care for the vulnerable and voiceless.
HSPs know that even the narcissist needs love, and there’s no one more qualified to give that love than a Highly Sensitive Person. It’s why we need to ensure their survival.
