Choosing Overleaves

From New Age Village

By Shepherd Hoodwin

Overleaves are personality traits that “overlay” the essence. We choose them before a lifetime begins to facilitate the purposes of that lifetime, and usually select a new combination of them for each lifetime. The overleaves include the goal, mode, attitude, center, and chief feature. The goal influences what we do; the mode, how we do it; the attitude, why we do it; the center, the part of self from which we do it; and the chief feature, what tends to block or distort our doing.

When planning your upcoming lifetime, you think about what you want to achieve, what your “bottom line” is, and then choose the tools, including overleaves, that will facilitate that.

Do overleaves follow a pattern from one lifetime to another?

If you have a series of lifetimes in which the general theme is acceptance, for instance, you might choose that goal each time. Or, you might like to alternate acceptance, growth, and flow, going among these three goals from lifetime to lifetime. The patterns followed are individual.

Choosing overleaves is an art. As with anything else, you learn more about it as you go along. You might learn, for example, that it is not a very good idea to combine an attitude of cynic with a goal of acceptance. Nonetheless, some people can pull it off.

Overleaves, of course, are chosen. Therefore, it is natural for individuals to have more affinity for certain ones. However, there are combinations of overleaves that are best suited to the accomplishment of certain purposes. When essences contemplate incarnating, it is to their benefit to choose the appropriate tools. Sometimes this is done hastily, like a carpenter who rushes to work without bringing the right tools, but after a while, one learns that doing that makes life harder.

There are spirit guides who do nothing but help others plan their overleaves.

In your true personality, which springs from the positive poles of your overleaves, your overleaves are not as noticeable as when the “harsh edges” of the negative poles are in play. Overleaves are always a factor, but in their positive poles, they are not limiting.

The more you are aligned with your essence, the more flexibly you use your overleaves. They are like a musical instrument. If you are a master of the violin, you find ways to get the best sound out of it. Rather than railing against its restrictions (it is not, after all, a trombone), you get it to do all the things you want it to do, something someone less skilled may not be able to do.

Suppose that you have a goal of dominance. As you are aligned with your essence, not only do you work to stay in the positive pole, leadership, but you redefine and expand it. One way to do this is to make more use of the sliding mechanism, in this case, from dominance to submission.

At one time or another, you have probably done all the overleaves; at some level, you remember what they are like. If occasions arise that call for the use of other goals, for example, such as acceptance, you can summon that energy. However, it will be more effort than using dominance or submission, if dominance is your goal. Your own overleaves are most natural for you.

Overleaves are not cut-and-dried. When you are fully conscious, you choose behavior consistent with your goals and needs at the time. Having free will, you are, in a sense, always free to choose your overleaves, not just at the initiation of a new life. However, if you have chosen appropriately in the beginning, and barring a vast change in direction, those overleaves will serve you well most of the time. They give you a structure, so you can focus on other choices.

My goal is acceptance, but for a while, I was also using the energy of growth. Through another channel, Michael picked it up in my energy. Our “native” overleaves are, by definition, most natural for us, so acceptance is more comfortable for me. However, I needed some growth energy temporarily; it helped me do some intensive healing and learn a lot in a short period of time.

In Messages from Michael, Michael said, “Balance implies obsolescence of the overleaves.” I don’t think that they were implying that when one is balanced, one no longer has overleaves, but that in balance, they are not limiting factors. Overleaves are simply a framework. Taking any overleaf to an extreme pushes us into its negative pole. Sliding to the positive pole of its opposite overleaf can bring us to balance. For instance, someone being overly accepting becomes ingratiating (ingratiation is acceptance’s negative pole). By temporarily sliding to sophistication, the positive pole of the opposite goal, discrimination—in other words, by deliberately being discriminating about what we accept or the way in which we accept what comes to us, and by limiting how far we’ll go in order to be accepted by others—we can return to the positive pole of acceptance, agape. In Yarbro, this was called the “hands-across“ technique (or the “hands-through“ technique for the assimilation axis overleaves, which can slide to any of the other axes).

Each essence has individual characteristics apart from overleaves. In addition to the factors already discussed, such as casting, male/female energy ratio, and so forth, each essence has had its own unique history and experiences that have shaped it. Beyond that, the spark behind each essence brings its experiences from other planets in previous cycles, and from other universal experiences. Therefore, every essence has evolved unique characteristics. These characteristics are not as specific as overleaves, but sometimes resemble them. For example, an essence can tend to be rather pragmatic in a general sense. As a result, he may choose pragmatist as an attitude more often than average.

Everyone, at one time or another, chooses each overleaf. If we are in an overleaf that emphasizes our natural tendency, it will be especially strong. A mild manifestation of an overleaf probably indicates that the essence’s proclivities are in another direction.

There is a certain amount of chance in the way each essence evolves over its lifetimes. Before each lifetime, we choose overleaves and life circumstances to give us the experiences we seek, but often things go differently than we expect them to, since everyone has free will and there is always the possibility of someone forming karma with us, interrupting our plans. Because none of us have yet mastered the game of life, we don’t always handle these interruptions with equanimity; we are sometimes traumatized and form faulty conclusions about what got us into trouble and how to avoid that in the future (just as the personality does within one lifetime). This may cause us to develop more heavily in one direction than another. There’s nothing actually wrong with this, since all experience can ultimately lead to growth, and the imbalances we form lead to our being “experts” in certain areas of human function. Nevertheless, those of us on a spiritual path may feel the need to deliberately place ourselves in situations that challenge our preconceptions and force us to become more balanced.

To illustrate, Michael told one client, a scholar, that his essence has some prejudice against passion mode, feeling that its abandon gets him into trouble. Therefore, he doesn’t do that mode often and hasn’t developed very fully his ability to be passionate. He prefers reserve mode, which is his mode in this lifetime, and has developed the ability to be restrained—he’s more comfortable feeling that he is in control of himself. Since he could tend to be almost hermit-like, he chose a goal of dominance so that he would put himself out in front of other people more, although dominance looks more subtle in him than it would in most people, just as passion mode does during lifetimes when he takes on that overleaf. He may feel that he doesn’t know how to be passionate, even though it might not actually be that difficult for him when he is able to circumvent his aversion, perhaps using a crutch such as alcohol, which might prime the pump, so to speak. (People with uncomfortable overleaves often turn to alcohol, drugs, or other addictions.) Overleaves overlay and bring out certain qualities of essence; the overlay of passion mode isn’t going to make this person “wild and crazy,” since that quality isn’t well developed in his essence to begin with, and scholars do not tend to be all that intense anyway (although there are exceptions). However, Michael pointed out that the highest good is sometimes served by “jumping in with both feet,” just as it is also sometimes served by being restrained. Therefore, this scholar will eventually probably want to become more comfortable with passion.

A true idealist overlooks the practical to institute the utopian, and is sometimes able to do the seemingly impossible thing, thereby changing the world. A person with an attitude of idealist but whose essence feels uncomfortable taking eccentric paths if they seem logistically impractical may be pulled forward by his attitude, but with his feet dragging, so to speak.

I have a client with an attitude of cynic who has validated it—she does tend to notice first what won’t work—but she manifests it gently; one wouldn’t guess her to be a cynic unless one knew her well. With most people who have it, this attitude stands out strongly. I would assume that her essence tends to view life in an open, encompassing way, and that, therefore, she doesn’t choose the attitude of cynic often. (It is generally not chosen often anyway, but some people choose it more frequently than other people.)

Many souls do not have strong opinions about overleaves, particularly younger souls, who have not yet had time to develop a lot of prejudices about them. They may have quite different overleaves from lifetime to lifetime, but as they become older, they can become a little more settled in their ways. However, if they are smart, they will pick the overleaves that are actually most useful for the lifetime rather than going with the ones they are most comfortable with.

Sometimes it becomes evident to a soul that it chose the wrong overleaves for the “job.” During the first seven years of life, when the personality is still quite unformed, the soul can change the overleaves relatively easily. However, later in life, once the personality is more set, the essence may have no way to produce the needed changes, because the die has been cast. If someone then comes into a teaching such as this one and sees that things are not working very well, he can consciously cooperate with his essence in a remolding of his personality, but that is not generally an easy thing.

If it is just a matter of sliding across an axis more often, that is not a big problem, and usually, that is what people end up doing: the cynic becomes an almost full-time realist. He still maintains the basic lens through which the cynic views the world, but his more overt expression of attitude is realistic. It would be much more difficult for a person to change his primary centering, for example. Suppose that he has chosen the intellectual center but simply does not have the capability of good intellectual function, due to a lack of acculturation for that—a lack of good intellectual food growing up—or perhaps because of damage to the brain that occurred unexpectedly. Such a person might be better off with one of the other centers, particularly the physical center. However, a frustrating, unsuccessful attempt to change the center can create a lot of discomfort. Again, a conscious teaching such as this one can help a person affect such a change more easily.

Abrading overleaves are those that tend to clash, especially in their negative poles, either internally or with other people. For instance, someone with a goal of discrimination can feel prickly to someone with a goal of acceptance, who may be particularly sensitive to the possibility that the person in discrimination (which was originally called “rejection“) will reject him—it is especially important to someone in acceptance to be accepted. An example of internally abrading overleaves is a person having both a goal of acceptance and an attitude of cynic, whose negative poles are ingratiation and denigration. It’s hard to get someone to accept us if we’re denigrating him. Internally abrading overleaves may be chosen as a challenge, to see if the individual can balance apparently opposing qualities. They may also be chosen simply out of ignorance. However, no combination of overleaves is inherently “bad” or is necessarily troublesome to a particular individual. The key to handling any overleaf or combination of overleaves well is staying in the positive pole(s) as fully as possible. Positive-pole behavior, which is love-based, is harmonious and pleasing, no matter what the overleaves (or role) are.

NEUTRAL OVERLEAVES

Neutral overleaves are those on the assimilation axis. Unlike the other three axes, which are divided into cardinal and ordinal sides, the assimilation axis is undivided and is neither ordinal nor cardinal; it is instead neutral.

Neutral overleaves lack a push or pull toward a particular pattern of expression. They are impartial in that sense. They “like” all the patterns and are committed to none. They have no color of their own, rather like white light, which is often described as being above all the colors, but might be better described as being in the center of them. Like white light bent through a prism, the neutral axis lends itself to differentiation without being that differentiation itself. White can be seen as having no color, or as all colors, all possibilities, rolled into one.

The neutral overleaves go with whatever seems best in the moment. In the case of pragmatist, for instance, what seems best is what appears to be the most practical. Of course, the neutral position, like all positions, is essential to the whole.

Stubbornness, the neutral chief feature, is uncommitted fear. Rather than fearing something specific, such as being judged by others (arrogance), or missing out (impatience), stubbornness just fears whatever it does not yet know. This translates into a fear of change or movement. In stubbornness, one does not move at all, rather than moving in a specific direction, such as away from judgment or toward certain experiences.

Sometimes a neutral overleaf is chosen not so much for itself as for the flexibility it gives, since neutral overleaves can slide to all others. Sliding means temporarily moving to another overleaf. Overleaves on the three other axes can slide only to their “partners” on the axis. For example, caution mode can slide to power, and vice versa. Most people with a neutral overleaf have one or two others to which they occasionally slide, but some people spend little time in the neutral overleaf itself, just using it as a convenient means of getting to others. In fact, some people slide around constantly, and there are even those who slide to everything.

COMBINED OVERLEAF ENERGIES

Earlier, we discussed people with more than one essence in their body. Occasionally, people also combine overleaf energies. Some do more than one overleaf simultaneously, rather than sliding to one at a time. One client of mine blends the energies of two attitudes, using seventy percent realist and thirty percent cynic. Another combines two goals, dominance (seventy-five percent) and reevaluation (twenty-five percent), which is not “supposed” to happen, since they are not on the same axis. This is more challenging and uncommon. It could probably be said that dominance is his “official” goal, but that he is permanently “pulling in” some energy of reevaluation to blend with it for a specific purpose, similarly to the way that I have a goal of acceptance but temporarily took on growth energy as well.

Here is a more extreme example of this:

Gene’s goal is a blend of five equally, a very unusual arrangement, excluding dominance and discrimination.

In this case, his “official” goal is probably flow, which is neutral, with him using the sliding mechanism to reach the others but holding the energies simultaneously instead.

The next example is even more unusual.

Sally’s attitude is unspecified. She blends all seven energies.

Again, she is probably using the neutral attitude, pragmatist, to reach the others, but reaches them simultaneously rather than consecutively.

Jim has an equal emotional and moving center, with very little in the intellectual center.

Perhaps in this case, one center, say, the emotional, is the “official” one, and he accesses his moving center through the moving part of the emotional center, but he uses them, again, simultaneously.

Some of us simultaneously hold as many as three chief features. They can be blended, as with a stubborn martyr, or separate, as with someone who is both self-destructive and arrogant. This is different from sliding between chief features, focusing on one at a time.

Some people have unusual sliding patterns. For example:

Fred slides between flow and submission, constantly alternating between them, and experiencing each almost equally.

One warrior permanently alternates between growth and dominance, which, again, isn’t “supposed” to happen.

If we view each overleaf as representing a particular realm of energies rather than a rigid structure, it is easier to understand how overleaf energies can be combined. One physical realm of energies is light: there are seven colors in the rainbow, but they can also be combined to produce various hues.

Combining overleaf energies is rare, but as it is said, exceptions prove the rules. They also show that the universe is flexible, and, as in Alice’s Restaurant, “You can get anything you want.”

---

Back to Michael Teachings