Recently I had a very precious friend and her son stay with me for a couple of days. During their stay, all three of us went into town for the day. To understand that this is a big day needs a little explaining. Where I live it takes 1 hour 15 minutes to drive from my home to the centre of town. We left home at 8am, and arrived home at 3.30pm. All of us were feeling a little tired from our day.
As we arrived home, my friend turned the TV on and her son sat down to watch it while we unpacked and prepared for the evening meal. It wasn’t long after that I noticed a change in him. When his Mum talked to him or suggested that he have a bath before tea, he was rude and mean. Initially I was putting this down to his being tired.
We all sat down to an early evening meal and again, he was still niggly and being mean and cutting. As we began to eat I could sense that it had something to do with what was on the TV, so I said that while we were eating our meal, I would turn the TV off, and did so.
What followed was a huge learning curve for all of us. The tsunami of insults and anger that came through him was very intense. He was using phrases and wording that were directing harm to all in the room. He insisted that he wanted to throw his meal on the floor. All of this was instant, as soon as the TV was turned off. He literally attacked me and said he hated me in ways that a child of 6 just doesn’t use. He even told me that I hated him, to which I replied very steadily, “I love you dearly.”
During all of this I remained very calm, present and tender with both him and his Mum. We made it through the meal and he did eat most of it, and then his Mum took him off to bath.
While he was bathing, his mother and I had time to talk about what we had just witnessed. We discussed that the energy that was coming through the programme that he was watching had affected him and that the way he was behaving just now was not really him. His Mum was relieved and she said that this sort of behaviour had happened before, but she had not understood what was going on for her child. We discussed that he might continue with it for a little time yet, but to not give in to it, to remain steady and loving, providing a clear strong presence of love for him to return to when he was ready.
After our discussion, I had a meeting to attend so I left them both for an hour. In that time they sat together reading books and talking and the little boy completely settled. He was enjoying his Mum and the time they were spending together. This was really beautiful to feel and to experience. When my meeting ended I came up into the kitchen and began preparing some food for myself and for my friend and her son to take for the next day. Soon after he came out to help and there was no residual effect from his tirade. Together we prepared the food and spent some time sitting on the couch talking and doing jigsaw puzzles.
When my children were little, if they behaved this way when they were tired, I would have simply written it off as their being tired and that I had to just put up with the behaviour until they went to bed. I did not have the understanding to be able to discern if there was more going on than their tiredness.
Our children are very sensitive beings and are affected by what is going on around them, all of the time. To experience the effect that a TV programme had on this young child brought home to me the very deep truth of this fact.
As parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents and family friends, we all know the children in our lives inside out, and all of us have the responsibility to discern and to understand what is going on in their lives and to sense the activities or experiences that cause them to change.
Watching TV is now considered one of those normal things that both adults and children participate in every day. For myself, the above experience has shown me that much discernment is needed in participating in this daily activity. How do we feel after watching a programme? Does the programme really support us to relax or does it incite us into emotional reactions and judgements? The same reactions can be observed in our children. I know for myself that TV was a great babysitter for when I needed to get things done in the house, but now I really wonder if this was truly the case! Very often after completing the tasks, my children would be more emotional and needy than they had been before popping them in front of the TV.
I feel that there is more to the above scenario than we are willing to acknowledge: that how we are feeling and how we plan our days is where we as adults may be able to adjust and change, so that there is less need to expose our children to TV and the energy that the programmes may bring with them. That there is a level of responsibility we can step up to with our own self-care that will in turn support our children.
In the past several years I have chosen to be a student of Universal Medicine and the Ageless Wisdom Teachings that Serge Benhayon presents. I have learnt a lot about myself during this time. Situations in life have shown me just how irresponsible I had been with my self-care and how this has impacted on my family. When I was living tired and feeling run down, I simply did not have the energy to be discerning with activities like TV and in other areas in my family’s lives.
What Serge has shown me is that love of myself is needed first and foremost. I have now come to understand that this love, once chosen, simply expands to having a deep love for others in my life. It was through this feeling of love within that I was able to see the effect that the TV programme was having on this young child and it was the deep love that I felt for him that prompted me to take the action I did.
From the above experience, I feel deeply that many of the programmes that are aired on TV are not supportive of our families living together, with care and understanding for each other. A level of discernment is needed when it comes to inviting the Television into our lives, and a commitment to allowing us to be honest and to connect to how a programme leaves our family, and ourselves, feeling after watching it. Only then do we have a clear choice as to what we allow to come into our homes from the TV. Only then can we eliminate those programmes that do not support our family to live in the harmony that is the natural way of being, when living together as a community of people that a family is.
Published with permission of my friend.
By Leigh Strack, Eungella
Further Reading:
Doing the Unthinkable: Going on a Technology Detox
My TV Addiction
That’s entertainment? Wired for distraction
527 Comments
Television, What we see on the screen is not all that enters our house, there is always an energy being beamed through to us, some of which can be very addictive.
This is an interesting statement
‘Watching TV is now considered one of those normal things that both adults and children participate in every day.’
It’s considered as normal as drinking alcohol everyday but this doesn’t mean it’s good for us. Watching television or say drinking alcohol comes with an energy that we do not for the most part discern, both affect the way we breathe and if it is not us breathing our own breath then what is breathing us? What was the energy in the little boy that made him act up in the way he did? If we read the energy we can support if we just write it off as the boy being tired then we are complicit in the game that is being played with us all.
If there ever was purpose to TV it was to entertain and relax us and it seems the longer-term affect has been the opposite. As it stimulates and becomes a distraction away from True purpose as this article has shared.
I recently felt after watching a film my heart beats stronger, more stressed, than it normally does. I don’t regret not having a TV or Streaming, because when I do I can feel more loudly it’s effects.
Leigh I feel that not only TV has this effect on our bodies but that what we listen to or watch on our computers or mobile phones affect us too. As someone else has written in a comment, we are very sensitive human-beings and yet we bludgeon our senses with sounds and vision that have a damaging effect on our health over time.
Thank you Leigh, what I am feeling is that we can switch the TV off but it can keep on playing in our heads for years if not decades to come, such is it’s influence that it has had on our lives. Maybe we think we are acting out a part in life, taking on a role that is created and not normal, feeling how we can go into comfort, walk in a way that we feel we are this tough personified persona or air of fatalistic invincibility, when the truth is we have a sacredness we can live as a responsibility for everything and thus can walk and hold a deep stillness or repose-full way so we are connected to our Soul-full-essences. Then by moving and walking in this most Loving way we can undo these treads or those ill living ways and reclaim back our true power in family and relationships from those years that were lost to a screen.
The deeper I go in my relationship to loving the self the greater aware and authoritative I am becoming. It makes absolute sense that when I take care and look after myself I naturally support others and when lived a huge difference this makes in my life and that of those around me.
I have really noticed how this has changed the behaviour of young people in my life too but now it is not just tv it is the constant (and I mean constant) gaming or watching youtube.
When I got back to the UK from overseas after 5 years I got rid of the wall mounted TV fixture and must say that my whole flat feels entirely different and much more spacious and light.
The understanding that energy comes through us is very revealing and offers an awareness that is not the person that is causing a disturbance but the energy that is coming through them.
Yes Mary, and this blog is such a great example of the disturbance energy coming through a person can cause.
We have not been taught this huge science, that Serge Benhayon has reintroduced that all is because of energy. We tend to see the physicality of someone who is being rude or abusive and pin the blame for such behaviour on them. If we were able to relearn that we are moved by energy, so there is an energy coming through us what is that energy is it harming or loving. I have come to the understanding that when we get caught up in the physicality of life, he said/ she said something that was hurtful then we have lost the opportunity to understand life at a deeper level and so get caught in the emotional blame game then we have given the energy oxygen and the energy has won. If we can read the energy coming through ourselves and others and not react then we starve the energy of our emotions that it feeds off.
I noticed the change in my children’s behaviour after they watched TV or a movie and decided to limit their exposure to screen time. It wasn’t until I came to Universal Medicine that I become aware of how energy works and I started to understand why the change in their behaviour occurred. What you’ve share Leigh is brilliant and very much needed.
It is shocking the impact that the television can have on anyone who is watching it and the effects are then felt by everyone else so we certainly have a responsibility to be discerning about what is viewed if we choose to have one (or often several now) in our homes. Thank you for illustrating so clearly what played out after a short time and nowadays many children have the TV as a constant background in their lives with no time to process what they are being exposed to.
I haven’t had a tv in my house for quiet some time but there was one that the people I shared the house with and I could instantly tell when the tele was on. Now not having one for a good couple of years it is instantly felt when I am around one and I can feel how it is trying to make its way in, trying to hook you in and I can see how it changes people. What the programs, movies, games etc that we allow in really do have an impact.
TV = a channel of energy. The question is which energy are you letting in. Our need blinds us to this fact.
When TV’s were first introduced into our homes we saw them as innocent objects with the potential to provide educational programs to school children and meaningful drama and news to the general public, little did we know that down the line this object would become anything but innocent.
I’ve noticed how when my toddler looks at anything on the internet or TV – she changes. She gets very sucked in very quickly and it is pretty incredible to witness the instant change in her when she engages with it. It reflects to me her deep sensitivity and the responsibility I have to help her to understand this.
It is no wonder that 80,000 odd children are reported in the UK study as suffering from depression, Not only TV but the whole world has opened up to them through mobile phones and the internet, if that is what TV does to a young child, then no wonder with the energetic bombardment that is part of our everyday lives, that there is so much depression in our young children.
This story of how Leigh’s child friend reacted so strongly to what he was watching and after turning it off indicates to me that what we perceive with our vision is taken into our bodies and ‘digested’ is the same as eating food and it affects our bodies in an energetic way just like physical food does. This proves once again that everything is energy and happens because an energy makes it happen (what Serge Benhayon has been teaching for almost two decades now).
Michael Goodhart the presentations and teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have reintroduced a science that humanity has forgotten. Life can become so simple when we read and discern the energy coming through another person, because then we have depersonalised the encounter. I wish I had known this as a child. It would have made life a lot easier because then we can become observers of life rather than getting caught up in the emotions of it.
Likewise Linda, I had my staple diet and would upset myself if denied these.. and as a teenager would stay up late to watch that movie or those types of programmes without a thought to what I was doing the next day. Maybe we need TV training as part of our syllabus – parents and kids alike, so we can understand some of the consequences, the behaviours and get some support?
The training you suggest Simon is needed across every aspect our children’s and us as adults lives. I know that I am continually adjusting how I live, ie training myself. Learning that it is this, the willingness to constantly adjust, grow and change our behaviours is what we need to install in our lives. Then, possibly such things as being controlled by TV and certain programs would not in fact happen.
The intention behind a TV programme or a movie has nothing to do with the wellbeing of the viewer…. the only thought is to grab attention, get the hooks in, and hold onto it for as long as possible by whatever means possible. With the advent of CGI and scientific studies watching and measuring audience participation this has become so much more pre-meditated and the cocktail that is coming out the other end is pretty exhausting these days, never letting us enjoy a moment’s stillness and coming out supercharged on motion or emotion.
Leigh, what you write is quite shocking and how quick the effect on the child is!
I have observed this time and time again in my own children and others. There is far more going on than we wish to see for fear of exposing our own comforts.
Also, parents have shared with me that they put a movie on for their children to keep them quiet and to give the parents a break. It is like giving ourselves time-out but this then backfires when the children are not themselves after having screen time. This makes me question, how often are we using technology to babysit our children and what are the consequences?
There is much more for us to consider and be open to exploring about what we are really getting energetically from watching TV. Anything we allow in to our bodies has an impact, be it food or drinks, emotions, music and TV and it can either dull us or inspire. Why is it that we can become addicted to a TV show? What are we choosing and why and are we truly open to feeling the energetic effects these activities are have on our body and being and our families?
Carola Woods I can remember being addicted to a tv series, it seemed to me to be the thing that kept me going from week to week. Now with the understanding I have gained from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I can look back at that period of my life and understand that the tv series was a distraction from loneliness and misery I was feeling at the time. TV shows are no different to reading books that we also use as an escape from a world we don’t feel we can cope with. Maybe the question we should be asking ourselves is why we don’t feel we can cope with life so we have invented thousands of different ways to distract ourselves.
It saddens me that many many people as I write will be sitting motionless in front of their TV’s some may have not got out for a while and some may find real life too scary so have carved a habitual habit of retreating behind the screen. Whatever the reason TV life is never ever any substitute for true connection and will always ultimately make us worse off.
Oh how I wish the world were also onto it – the common sense wisdom you share here! Behaviours in young people are becoming more and more erratic and with more mental health problems then ever before we really do need to look at the energy that comes out of TV screens.
Having a TV on in a room with young children is like inviting an unknown stranger into your home without discerning what energy they bring with them.
Yes, and letting them talk to the children unsupervised.
On a 7 hour flight recently I watched with interest some children in the row next to mine watching video after video, there was little interaction between them and all eyes were firmly stuck on the screen.
I am sure this is not uncommon but begs us to question how are we raising our young when we encourage such a blatant checking out of life.
Looking back over my childhood, I can see how much I took on from the books I read, the photos I saw and the movies I watched – I wanted to learn archery because the main character was an archer, wanted to learn how to live without modern technology because the main character lived in a future time when they didn’t have technology, wanting to learn how to be a witch and cast circles because it was in a series I was reading and seemed cool, when I wanted to look exactly like the actress who played one of my favourite characters, or the model for a clothing line I really liked – all these things might seem relatively harmless for the outside, but for me at the time these desires to be like what I was reading or seeing where quite consuming, and would change a lot of things about me like who I wanted to be, what I wanted to do and my views of the world. it just so happened that these things where not violent or harmful or abusive, but I could very much imagine that children who are exposed a lot to this on TV and through books from a young age, who are not supported to know who they are first, could be affected. It is more than just an action movie, it is more than just a war game, it is a statement of what is okay and what isn’t and children learn very young.
Well said Rebecca, how much do we mould our lives (or try to) to follow another, whether that be through watching TV, reading books, sports or even closer to home, our family and friends?
The TV does affect children and adults alike. I remember watching daytime TV and not wanting to go out or interact with anyone – totally withdrawn from life, and if we do that on a long-term basis the less interaction with real people is sought.
There are so many things that harm us as you have so clearly exposed and they can include screen and music – our lives would be very different if we brought more awareness and discernment to these things.
I agree with you Leigh, tv media is not broadcasted in an energy to support connection and unity. I have not watched tv in just under 5 years. I watched it recently for 15mins and felt how disconnected I’d become and felt I was in a fantasy land where my emotions ruled me. I was aware of how clear I normally felt and knew to surrender back to my feelings.
Well said, we have learnt to hold a great amount of tension in our bodies, tension that doesn’t leave us when we choose activities like watching TV or drinking an alcoholic beverage. It is just that such activities momentarily distract us from feeling it. At the end of the day we are still left with the unresolved tension in our bodies, that is until we truly and honestly discern what we become tense about and begin to address our choices and reactions to life.
When I was a big TV fan, if I am totally honest, TV was at best a relief at the end of the day from the demands of everyday life. It was a coping mechanism, just the same as having a glass of wine to relax. What I’ve discovered is that it’s far better to deal with the problem at the source and find a different way to approach life than to poison yourself at the end of the day.
A gret question to ask Steve, who is raising our children, and what is the energy running what the children connect to on these devices?
Not that many years ago, there were only a few TV channels, and they were not 24/7. Kids were sent to their rooms for punishment and not allowed to go outside. Today, their room is the window to the world with all of their electronic devices, so why leave. Who, is raising our children?
Leigh, I agree with what you are sharing here; ‘ feel deeply that many of the programmes that are aired on TV are not supportive of our families living together, with care and understanding for each other’, from what I can feel with children’s TV programmes there is very little that is supportive, many of the programmes feel dramatic and there seems to be little that is actually calming and leaves children feeling settled, it almost feels like TV is a torture from what I have observed with my son, he sits there feeling tense and often afterwards has stomach ache and sometimes he has nightmares about what he has seen.
This is truly scary as we have all generations; children, teens, adults, parents, grandparents, great grandparents all watching TV today, all being affected in the way you share your son is being affected. What, I ask does this then make our society to be? Dramatic, sick, low vitality, emotionally driven people? And the sad thing is, we think now that this is normal.
What I love about this is that you didn’t resent or judge the child but could observe what was happening, remained steady and were fully open and warm when he was ready to come back.
Parenting is super challenging, and sometimes the TV can seem like just the welcome break that is needed for everyone, I know I have experienced this but only to discover that it, the TV watching, has left us feeling even more exhausted or drained and was actually not the help I had hoped it would be… perhaps in feeling tired the real support is through genuinely reconnecting with eachother.
Even the title of this article is brilliant as it’s really asking us what energy do we allow in our lives without question. Watching TV is like playing with dynamite for me. I know I can let in some serious energy and be affected. A few years ago I binge watched a series and the next day felt really odd and rough – I felt smashed and it was no surprise that in the afternoon I’d had a car crash. A bit extreme you may say to make that link? Not to me. I knew something would be set in my path to show me what I was doing to myself.
TV stations even advertise ‘binge’ watching which is now an acceptable norm. But what’s also accepted as normal is the behaviour that is as a result of it, even if the correlation between the two is denied.
Brilliant connection Karin, they way TV affects us is not a known norm, therefore the behaviors it engenders are also not felt. It brings to mind how much time I spent berating myself for how I was living, but seemingly had no way of changing that. The less and less I watched TV, the clearer and more marked could I feel the affects in my body, demeanor and mood when ever I did, the clearer I became, the less I watched it, til I now live in a home without one.