I used to read Carlos Castaneda in high school--those magical books peppered with peyote, metaphysical revelation, and transcendence. Castaneda wrote books which weren’t fully fiction or memoir, in which he described his spiritual apprenticeship under a soft-spoken, often-drugged shaman named don Juan. Don Juan was a “nagual,” or a part-man, part-animal spirit who straddled two worlds: one world which humans occupied, and another which influenced us but we could never fully understand.
Don Juan served as a guide between the known and unknown--the human world we knew and the spirit world we didn’t. He taught humans that the unknown was wildly powerful and had to be respected. So, humans in these books struggled to tame their sense of “scientific” knowing in order to honor a beyond that was utterly different from, but influential on, their own.
A scene I remember sensually (if not accurately) in Castaneda’s books is one in which wind is described as a half-animate villain. Don Juan and Castaneda have been hiking for something like 30 miles with little to eat, twisting their way in a dizzy, altered state to some mountain peak. Then the breeze picks up and gathers into an aggressive gust. Don Juan gives a warning he often gives: Hide from wind, which can suck your energy and attack your spirit. The wind, he says, is a natural force that can drain your will.
I remember loving Castaneda so much in high school that I decided I had a right to hate the wind. In fact, a strong wind still makes me uncomfortable, as if it’s nature’s insistence on getting me out of my comfort zone.
These days, I think of most things in terms of my professional language--in a psychologist’s terms. So when I think of Castaneda’s magical discourse on wind, I tend to think of it as a literary metaphor for a battle in the mind that most of us know. His description of the wind seems to me to be a description of the tension we experience between a sense of independence or “knowing” and a pressure to surrender to worldly circumstance.
We sometimes feel as if we create our lives, and we sometimes have the disarming feeling that we’re subject to outside forces. The ideal state of mind—as don Juan often said—is navigating some place in between: knowing we are capable of controlling parts of our lives but not all of them. His wind stood for the annoying natural forces which we don’t control but just endure.
One way in which psychology labels this tension comes in terms that the researcher
Julian Rotter developed in the 1950’s. Rotter argued that people tend toward either an “internal locus of control” or an “external locus of control.” The two poles describe tendencies in personality. People who have a strong “internal locus of control” live their lives with a robust feeling that they’re in charge of events. If they fail or if they succeed, they blame or credit their own decisions and actions. They believe that their own behaviors shape their lives more that chance does. In turn, they can also come off as egoistic, bold, “scientific,” or active.
In contrast, people with a strong “external locus of control” tend to experience the course of their lives as more heavily subject to outside forces. They tend to think that the changes in their lives are largely products of circumstance—whether it’s wind, luck, teachers, money, or education. They tend to give way to the prevailing “winds,” and they might seem to contain any number of related traits like stoicism, depression, flexibility, humility, or open-mindedness.
All of us are born with a certain tendency toward one way of experiencing—toward feeling that either our will or the outside world guides our lives. In addition, we can shift more to one or the other side of this divide in different contexts. For instance, if someone’s spent years learning to be a cook, she can come to feel as if she has a strong “internal locus of control” in the kitchen, even if she feels relatively helpless in other places, like a rodeo or an office.
Studies have shown that the people who have a strong “internal locus of control” tend to live happier, more productive lives. For instance, one study divided nursing home patients into two groups. Both were given plants for their rooms, but one group was encouraged to water their own plants and to take an active role in their personal care, including other room decorations. The other group was told that the staff would water the plants. In this sense, the first group experienced a contextual increase in the internal locus of control: They were given power over a part of their lives. Indeed, in 18 months, the first group was measurably healthier on ratings of both physical and mental health. Half as many of them had passed away as in the second group, and those who were alive scored better that the other group did on tests for contentment.
To believe you have control in the world induces health.
That said, people with too strong an internal locus of control can suffer for their sense of independence. That is: If someone thinks he controls everything (and no one really does), he can become bullish: insistent on getting his way, irritating to other people, neurotic about having control.
In contrast, an external locus of control can sometimes be soothing. If you think the world will guide you, you are often less desperate to fight the world.
One thing Castaneda was exploring in his books—in which humans had to accept the world beyond, and let it influence them from time to time—is finding an effective balance between knowing and unknowing, or controlling and experiencing. Perhaps all books that stress the “spiritual” or “meta-human” element in life similarly focus on this tension: How much can we try to control our fates to have a safe and happy life?
So I’m thinking of Castaneda’s wind, because it’s horribly windy in NY today. The wind is a natural and habitual reminder to call surrender a bit of our willfulness.
I wonder where your locus of control is located—more toward the interior or exterior? Feel free to take the psychological test here and report back
Results of the Locus of Control Test
| General Locus of Control | |
 | |
 Your score = 85 |
Your locus of control appears to be rather internal. People with an internal LC interpret outcomes as the result of one's own actions, and tend to accept responsibility as well as credit for their actions. In general, this attitude generates high motivation, effort, perseverance, and willingness to take risk.
It goes without saying that success is more likely with all these qualities present. It's important to understand and accept one's own limits. It's equally important not to give up without doing one's best. Your locus of control is on the right side.
Results of the Locus of Control Test
| General Locus of Control | |
| |
| Your score = 50 | |
Your locus of control appears to be in the mid-range between internal and external orientation. In general, you probably feel that while you can very well control and influence many aspects of your life, there are things that just happen to you and that are outside of your personal control.
You seem to be balancing between the two. It is important to understand and accept one's own limits. It is equally important not to give up without doing one's best. Even though equilibrium is good in general, try to shift your locus of control further toward the internal side.
Results of the Locus of Control Test
| General Locus of Control | |
| |
| Your score = 53 | |
Your locus of control appears to be in the mid-range between internal and external orientation. In general, you probably feel that while you can very well control and influence many aspects of your life, there are things that just happen to you and that are outside of your personal control. People with more external LC tend to believe that their actions are results of environmental, external forces. As a consequence, an external LC might lead to a rather fatalistic and passive attitude toward life. Perceived lack of control over one's life might lower motivation, initiative and willingness to take risks. Under such circumstances, chance of success can be diminished. People with internal LC, on the other hand, interpret outcomes as results of one's own actions. They tend to take responsibility as well as credit for the results of their actions.
You seem to be balancing between the two. It is important to understand and accept one's own limits. It is equally important not to give up without doing one's best. Even though equilibrium is good in general, try to shift your locus of control further toward the internal side.
