The Path to Knowing
How Personal Experiences Lead Us to Unshakable Insights. Understanding the three stages to greater awareness.
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of two books, Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the reputable directory of psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com. He writes about life after death on Bob Olson Connect.
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CHANGE OCCURS WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS
Every good story in books, movies, and TV shows portrays characters who change from who they are at the beginning to who they become at the end. This transformation is known to writers as the character arc. When Ebenezer Scrooge transforms from grumpy and miserly to kind-hearted and generous, that is his character arc in A Christmas Carol.
The most talented writers and screenwriters know there must be action for their characters to change. What is true in stories and life is that change does not occur from thinking alone. Change occurs when something happens. A character’s choices and movements might initially be motivated by thought, but that character’s actions reveal the inner change that leads to the arc. It’s what the character does that indeed reveals who they are at their core.
Let’s say that a character is motivated by the thought of revenge. Thinking about revenge is not the same as acting out revenge. A person can think about the many ways he might get revenge on someone, but it is not until he acts on those thoughts that he will harm the person. The reason so many stories begin with a murder is because it is the act of killing that sets off a chain of events that thereby creates a story.
Change occurs when something happens, but this can be when the character does something or when something happens to the character. Even Scrooge’s character arc from bitter to pleasant was initiated by his journeys into the past, present, and future. In Scrooge’s case, the action was something that happened to him rather than something he did. The three ghosts arrived to take him on three separate experiences. What becomes apparent when thinking of action as either doing something or having something done to us is that character arc—change—results from personal experience.