Prem Rawat and Storytelling

Sep 30, 2024

A story is a way to say something
that can be said no other way.

– Flannery O’Connor

In the past 60 seconds, more than four million emails and 60 million WhatsApp messages were sent. Google processed more than 99,000 searches. 500 hours of YouTube videos and 240,000 Facebook photos were uploaded. 2.4 million Tik Tok videos were viewed. And more than 350,000 tweets were generated.

The average person consumes about 74 gigabytes of information every day. This is equivalent to watching 16 movies daily. A whopping 90% of all data in the world has been generated in the past two years alone. No wonder our attention span has shrunk to 8-12 seconds.

Amidst all of this head-spinning information overload, wise human beings who are committed to delivering a meaningful, memorable message are increasingly relying on an age-old way to cut through the noise: storytelling.

Toung Mar Reading a Book - Prem Rawat as storyteller

According to neuroscientists:

  • Stories quickly establish trust and connection
  • Stories increase receptivity and curiosity
  • Stories capture attention
  • Stories engage emotions
  • Stories allow the receiver to engage in the narrative
  • Stories communicate values, not just information
  • Stories ignite five more regions of the brain than mere fact-giving
  • Stories provide a way to remember, retrieve and retell a meaningful message

Bestselling author and peace educator, Prem Rawat, has long-appreciated the power of storytelling. Ever since he first began sharing his message of peace more than 58 years ago, storytelling has been one of his preferred ways of communicating.

Indeed, the roots of Prem Rawat’s appreciation of storytelling go all the way back to his childhood in India.

My family didn’t have television
until quite late on, and the radio stations would only broadcast a few hours a day,
but our home was full of storytellers.
Both spoken and written stories kept everyone in our household entertained,
but we also learned from them.
Now, as I speaker, I share stories that have resonated with me over the years – including tales from around the globe.

– Prem Rawat, Hear Yourself: How to Find Peace in a Noisy World

YouTube player

Simply put, a good story, like good perfume, is evocative. It catches attention, tunes the listener or reader into a new state of awareness, uplifts, educates, and often changes behavior.

Like a radioactive isotope, a good story radiates from the inside out, its impact going far beyond plot, setting, and characters. Indeed, a story’s true value abides in the realm of discovery – the experience the person on the receiving end has upon tuning into a deeper level of insight, understanding, and wisdom – getting to the heart of the matter.

Ultimately, the savvy storyteller’s task is both a challenging and inspired one – what Prem Rawat once referred to as “creating a stage upon which the heart can dance.”

Tell me the facts and I’ll learn.
Tell me the truth and I’ll believe.
But tell me a story and it will live
in my heart forever.

– Native American Proverb

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If you doubt the power of storytelling, consider this: Most of the world’s great wisdom traditions use storytelling as their preferred way of communicating timeless teachings.

The Bible, for example, is composed of 50-60% stories. The Torah, too, is composed of 50-60% stories. Buddhism’s Tripitaka (the Pali Canon) is made up of 30-40% stories. The Quran? 20-30%. And one of India’s most sacred texts, the Mahabharata, is 100% story.

Prem Rawat’s stories have the power of transforming something that is so complex
into a very simple message
that can be understood easily.

– Uma JL

More recently, Prem Rawat’s 2021 book, Hear Yourself: How to Find Peace in a Noisy World continues in this grand tradition. His New York Times bestseller, now translated into 16 languages, includes 64 stories.

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Bottom line, storytelling is one of the oldest and most powerful forms of human communication, dating back at least 100,000 years. In time, it morphed into cave paintings and then, with the advent of written language about 5,000 years ago, took the form of written stories.

In honor of the written tradition,  here is a story Prem Rawat told on September 6, 2022, at the Ivory Rock Conference Center in Queensland, Australia – an entertaining tale with a powerful message that has the potential to help anyone who reads it go beyond their irrational fears.

The Monster Under the Bed

There was once a guy who had a really big, bad problem.
He was convinced there was monsters under his bed. So he couldn’t sleep all night long. And because he couldn’t sleep, his health deteriorated. He got sicker and sicker and sicker.

His friends advised him to go a psychiatrist and a doctor, but the psychiatrist and doctor couldn’t help him. Nothing worked.

So one day, he met a guy who says, “Look. I know of this Master, this wise man. Why don’t you go see him? Maybe he can help you.”

So our sleep-deprived friend goes to see the Master.

A few days later, his friends see him again and ask, “How’s it going?”

“Oh, wonderful,” he replied. “The wise man solved all my problems – what the psychiatrist and doctor couldn’t do. What nobody could do. The wise man solved my problem in just one session. I sleep like a baby now. My health has incredibly improved.”

“Wow, that must be some divine thing he said to you,” his friends said.

“No.  He simply told me to cut the legs of my bed off. And I did. Now I know that there are no monsters under my bed.”

Prem Rawat as Storyteller, the monster under the bed

Prem’s stories renew my sense
of childlike wonder.
They are often playful with an invitation to laugh
at life and our humanness.
They are kind and provoke thought.
Even though some are ancient,
they remain relevant today.

Sigrid EA

 

The stories Prem Rawat tells
are educational and entertaining.
I always feel like I’m enjoying and learning at the same time, not being lectured or preached to.

– Josephine Robinson

 

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