DW's Blog

The Other is Us: Breaking Cycles of Projection

by DW Green — June 18, 2025

“The spiritual truth remains: we can only give away what we have genuinely
experienced and become ourselves.”

We humans seem unable to define ourselves without creating an “other.” Our identity crystallizes not through self-knowledge, but through opposition and exclusion—we know who we are primarily by knowing who we are not.

This tendency reveals itself in a persistent human question: “Where can my negative energy go?” We feel compelled to export our darkness, to project it outward rather than face it within. The tragic irony is that we rarely recognize the truth: we ourselves are often the source of the negative energy we see reflected back at us from the world.

Our ego protects us from this uncomfortable recognition. It refuses to acknowledge its own role in perpetuating the very negativity it claims to oppose. This blindness keeps us trapped in cycles of projection, always finding new targets for our unexamined shadow.

Breaking free requires what can only be called a foundational conversion—a transformation from the egoic self that sees only external threats to a deeper awareness that recognizes our own complicity. Few undergo this shift, and fewer still sustain it.

The spiritual truth remains: we can only give away what we have genuinely experienced and become ourselves. If we carry unprocessed pain, we leak that pain into the world. If we have found genuine peace, that peace radiates naturally.

Until we do the inner work of owning our shadow, we will continue creating “others” to carry what we refuse to see in ourselves.