DISCOVERING

YOUR TRUE
CENTER
UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS
 In the dreamshifting process, the journey
to your sacred space is an important
element for success; the same can be
said for getting to fully understand and
appreciate your core self. The core
self is divine and immortal, connected
by energy to all things in the universe
throughout time and space. Once
we understand this powerful part of
us, our dreamshifting and shapeshifting
can reach new levels of potency and
effectiveness.
Here are the important questions: What
is our dream? What is the new shape
that we want to shapeshift into? What
is our goal in life? What is our mission?
What’s holding us back? As we search for
the answers to these questions, we will
encounter barriers, pitfalls, and difficulties
along the way. In order to identify,
pursue, and achieve our mission, we must
first overcome the obstacles in our path.
These obstacles are what I call “onion
layers.” They are wrapped tightly around
our core selves.

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YOUR TRUE
CENTER
UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS

These onion layers are perceptions that we have allowed to build up over
the course of our lives. They are expectations given to us by other people:
parents, teachers, religious leaders, siblings, friends, and by cultural values
and mores. We have bought into them, using them to create our identity. Too
often they keep us from being our true, divine selves.

These notions that we accept for ourselves may tell us that we’re not worthy
of being divine and powerful, and they may dictate such aspects of our lives
as what we should do for a living, who we should be with, how we should
look, act, and talk, where we should live—in essence, who we should be.
These false identities keep us from fully being who we are in our core selves.
They limit our power.

These layers belong to us individually but also collectively as a community. It’s

become increasingly clear over the last several decades that the consumer
dream of the West is turning into a collective nightmare. The dream of our
culture is turning out to be a spiritually hollow, emotionally unsatisfying and
environmentally unsustainable dream, a damaging set of onion layers.

We and our children and grandchildren have inherited a broken dream, and
although it may have served us for a time, that time is now ending. Today
we live in the most revolutionary era in history, with the opportunity to shed
these collective onion layers and change the fractured dream for all of us.

This revolution is greater than the agricultural or industrial revolutions. It’s a

revolution in consciousness, a time for us to wake up to our true potentials
as human beings and to free ourselves from unconscious stories of lack and
limitation. We are releasing the false values, the false loves, the false hopes
and expectations that have kept us stuck in dysfunctional patterns.

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YOUR TRUE
CENTER
UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS

It is so important for us
individually and collectively
to understand what
is holding us back and
keeping us from creating
true change in the world.

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Pachamama Alliance
 DISCOVERING
YOUR TRUE
CENTER
UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS

Why We Must Unwrap

You have an active role in your life, and that includes your dreamshifting into
your mission and goals. It is up to each of us to take part in the process of
creating change in the world. As we identify the barriers and false mindsets
that are around us, we also have to take responsibility for having accepted
them in the past, and recognize that we’re not victims. It is so important for
us individually and collectively to understand what is holding us back and
keeping us from creating true change in the world; it is important for us to
know why these onion layers exist and why we must unwrap them.

These things that are wrapped around you are not truly you. They’re not the
divine you. You are responsible for them because you’ve taken them on, but
now is the time to break through those barriers.

We begin the process by looking at how we get held back by these barriers,
how all of our lives we’ve been brought into this paradigm of a belief system
and a mindset that says that there are certain things we can’t do and other
things that we must do.

Other people or other incidents or even books we’ve read and speeches
we’ve heard—all of these influences can develop mindsets in us that are
holding us back from realizing our highest purpose in life. We’ve accepted
them because they come from authority figures, but they’re not really part
of us. They become walls and barriers to our success and fulfillment as
individuals and as a society.

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YOUR TRUE
CENTER
UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS

There are moments in our lives when we slam into these walls and say, “I’ve
had enough. I can’t go any further. I can’t write another book or a better
book. I can’t perform a better dance. I can’t be a better tennis player. I can’t
be a better spouse or a better parent.” Our onion layers hold us back and
encumber us. By identifying them, one at a time if necessary, and unwrapping
them carefully, we can move forward not only in our dreamshifting, but also
in our jobs, in sports, relationships, or in hobbies. So many aspects of our
lives are impacted when we go through this process and move to another
level of consciousness.

Believing false statements about ourselves can impact us in big and small
ways. They may keep us from marrying the person we love, from pursuing
the career of our dreams, from taking action to make changes in the world,
or even cause us to do something that is harmful to ourselves and others.
When we do not know our true, divine self and act out of its guidance, not
only do we limit our potential but we may also miss the vital role we play in
the scheme of history.

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YOUR TRUE
CENTER
UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS

The act of unwrapping

is two-fold: getting
rid of one thing you
no longer need and
empowering something
else that you do need
or want in your life.

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YOUR TRUE
CENTER
UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS

How to Unwrap
To take on your true identity with all your power, it is important to first shed
the onion layers that have become wrapped around you. Your true self has
always been here, waiting for you to reveal it. You must let go of who the world
has told you to be and become who you really are. The “world” I mention
here can refer to your parents, your siblings, your work and love relationships,
teachers, and even yourself. No matter where the onion layers came from, it
is a powerful and important process to unwrap those dysfunctional patterns.

Our dreamshifting is dependent on successfully breaking through the walls

or barriers that so often stand in our way. These walls can be viewed as being
at the end of plateaus that are not physical in nature. When we reach a new
plateau of consciousness and self-awareness, we move along that plateau
for a while until we hit an obstacle. At this point we have two choices: break
down, or break through. We can think of this process as shapeshifting or
dreamshifting through the wall. When we do so, we arrive at a new plateau, a
higher consciousness. We move along this plateau until we arrive at another
wall. Once again, we are faced with the decision—to break down or shapeshift
through. This is how we grow as human beings in shapeshifting power.

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YOUR TRUE
CENTER
UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS

Various cultures have unique methods for getting rid of the layers once they
are unwrapped. They may be carried away during a shamanic journey, blown
away by a tempestuous sand storm, submerged and dissolved in water,
shattered like a stone or buried in the earth, or engulfed in flame. When you
have entered your sacred space and begun the process of identifying and
unwrapping each layer, you may feel you need to stand up and dance it away
or move your hands around your body in a physical representation of the
spiritual act of unwrapping. You may feel you need to get rid of them in more
fantastical ways that are possible in your sacred space. Your imagination is
the only limit on how you can do this.

Whatever your personal preferences for removing those barriers, don’t judge
yourself or feel foolish. Your choice is absolutely appropriate and good. No
matter how you decide to get rid of these onion layers, know that your
actions allow energy to be channeled back out into the universe so that you
can use it to shift to the next level of consciousness. The act of unwrapping
is two-fold: getting rid of one thing you no longer need and empowering
something else that you do need or want in your life.

The act of unwrapping happens during the shamanic journey to our sacred
space, a practice that allows us to escape the distractions of our surroundings
and focus on our dreamshifting in a safe place in our imaginations. Just as
there is no single correct way to unwrap your onion layers, there is not a
single correct way to journey to your sacred space. It is up to you to have
the experience that is right for you. Consciously, in that safe and protected
space, you identify each onion layer—one at a time. In a single journey you
may not be able to unwrap all of them. It is important to realize that this is a
constant process and one that might need to happen repeatedly.

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YOUR TRUE
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UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS

Moving On: Our Mission

Once we have gotten rid of our onion layers and shapeshifted through the
barriers in our path, we are ready to focus on our mission and our goals in
life. Then our task is to understand if and how our individual mission also
relates to the larger timeframe of the present world. Our mission could be
around relationships, jobs, health, or the broader state of the world—or any
combination of these.

It may take some powerful shamanic journeys and processes to help us

energize our mission and to move the energy from those negative barriers
that we’ve gotten rid of into daily lifestyles, actions, feelings, and attitudes
that will enable us to manifest our dream, realize our mission and materialize
our higher purpose.

This e-guide is designed to give you tools to break free from the consensus
trance of western culture and to co-create a more conscious, abundant, and
sustainable world for yourself and others.

Now is the time to move forward into this revolution in consciousness, to free
ourselves from our old stories of lack and limitation, and release the false
values and negative expectations that have kept us stuck in dysfunctional
patterns. These patterns have hindered us as individuals and also as a society.
Time to shapeshift!

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YOUR TRUE
CENTER
UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
LAYERS

About the Author

John Perkins’ work with shamanism began in 1968 when he was an apprentice
to a shaman deep in the Amazon. Since then, he has studied and lived with
shamans on six continents. His books have sold over 1 million copies, spent
more than 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists, and are published
in more than 30 languages. As Chief Economist at a major consulting firm, his
experiences advising the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, U.S. government,
Fortune 500 corporations, and heads of state convinced him to devote the
rest of his life to facilitating changes in consciousness and in social, political
and economic systems. He was founder and CEO of a highly successful
alternative energy company and is a founder and board member of Dream
Change and The Pachamama Alliance, non-profits dedicated to creating a
sustainable, just, peaceful and thriving world.

John has lectured at universities around the globe, and is the author of
Shapeshifting, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, The World Is As You
Dream It, Psychonavigation, Spirit of the Shuar, Hoodwinked, The Secret
History of the American Empire, and The Stress-Free Habit. He has been
featured on ABC, NBC, CNN, NPR, A&E, the History Channel, Time, The New
York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Der Spiegel, and many
other publications, as well as in numerous documentaries including The End
of Poverty, Zeitgeist Addendum, and Apology of an Economic Hit Man. He
was awarded the Lennon-Ono Grant for Peace 2012, and Rainforest Action
Network Challenging Business As Usual Award, 2006.

To learn more about John Perkins, visit johnperkins.org

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YOUR TRUE
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UNWRAPPING
THE ONION
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Sponsored by The Pachamama Alliance

The Pachamama Alliance is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco.
Its mission is to empower indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to
preserve their lands and culture and, using insights gained
from that work,
to educate and inspire individuals everywhere to bring forth a thriving, just
and sustainable world. To learn more, visit pachamama.org
Pachamama Alliance
Presidio Bldg #1009, 2nd Floor P.O. Box 29191 San Francisco, CA 94129 +1 415 561 4522

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Copyright © Alliance
2014 The Pachamama Alliance. All rights reserved. Photography by Steven Wallace.