It Only Takes 9,110 to Shift Our Reality

Lately, I have been mulling over the narratives we create and accept without even realizing we’re doing it.

I’m not necessarily talking about the big beliefs we consciously choose. I’m talking about the quieter ones that seep into us over time or with repetition — through the media we consume, the conversations we participate in, the opinions we hear again and again, and the emotional atmosphere of the collective around us. When we hear something often enough and see enough people agreeing with it, eventually it can begin to feel less like a perspective and more like reality itself.

The Story We Perpetuate

One of the most pervasive narratives is that the world is a terrible place, everything is “going to 💩,” “it didn’t used to be like this,” powerful people are running the show, and the rest of us are more or less along for the ride.

It isn’t difficult to understand why people feel that way. We seem to be surrounded by war, political instability, terrorism and violence, revelations surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, distrust of governments and institutions, and growing frustration with corporations, insurance companies, billionaires, and other systems that seem to wield enormous influence over ordinary people. Take all of that in at once and it becomes very easy to conclude that the world is terrible and we are largely powerless to do anything about it.

I want to challenge that narrative.

We Live in a Participatory Universe

We are in constant communication with the subtle field around us. Many of you call that field Spirit, while others call it consciousness, the Universe, God, Source, or something else entirely. The terminology is up to you. What matters is the understanding that we are not isolated beings moving through a dead and unresponsive universe. Physicist John Archibald Wheeler famously described ours as a “participatory universe” — a profound departure from the older idea that we are merely passive observers of a reality existing completely independently of us.

Our emotions, beliefs, imagination, observation, and sustained attention are part of that participation. What we repeatedly focus on, expect, emotionally rehearse, and accept as true becomes part of our relationship with the field around us.

If I spend hours telling myself that humanity is doomed, the world is corrupt, and powerful people control everything, I am not simply observing those ideas. I am reinforcing them within my own nervous system, expectations, and attention. The brain itself reflects this. The reticular activating system (RAS) helps filter information based on what it has learned is relevant, so the more I reinforce a belief, the more likely I am to notice evidence that confirms it.

What does this mean for us? 

It means we need to be discerning about what we repeatedly give our attention and emotional energy to, because there is a difference between being informed by the world and allowing it to determine the reality we inhabit.

The Maharishi Effect and Why 9,110 Matters

This brings me to a piece of research I have always found fascinating.

In the 1980s, researchers studying what became known as the Maharishi Effect conducted an experiment called the International Peace Project in the Middle East. A group practicing Transcendental Meditation and the TM-Sidhi program gathered in Jerusalem during the Lebanon war while researchers tracked measures including conflict intensity, war deaths, crime, accidents, and other social indicators.

The researchers reported that as the meditation group grew, several of those measures shifted in a more positive direction. From this body of work came the proposal that when a coherent group reached approximately the square root of one percent of a population, its influence could extend into the wider collective.

So I did the math. What would the square root of one percent look like if we applied that same formula to the entire human population?

With roughly 8.3 billion people on Earth, one percent is approximately 83 million people.

The square root of 83 million is about 9,110.

Nine thousand, one hundred and ten people out of more than eight billion.

This number stopped me in my tracks.

We tend to imagine that meaningful change requires millions or billions of people to wake up, heal, become conscious, choose peace, or agree with one another at the same time. When we look at humanity on that scale, transformation can feel impossible.

But how does 9,110 feel? It doesn’t feel so impossible, does it? In 2023, Taylor Swift’s first Eras Tour show in Seattle drew 72,171 people to Lumen Field.

You are a Sovereign Creator

Instead of waiting for the world outside of us to become peaceful before allowing ourselves to feel peace, what if we began generating that experience within ourselves now? What happens when you create a powerful feeling in your physical body and truly inhabit it? What might become possible when we become intentional about the emotions, beliefs, imagination, and attention we bring into our relationship with Spirit?

You may not control whether governments go to war, what an insurance company decides, how a corporation behaves, or what a political leader does tomorrow. But you still have influence over what you give your attention to, which narratives you accept, what you rehearse emotionally, what possibilities you imagine, and the energy you bring into your life.

To me, that is sovereignty. It means remembering that what is happening around you does not dictate what happens within you. You get to choose how you respond, what you focus on, and what you become available for.

Choose What You Call Reality

So become more discerning about what you agree to call reality. Notice the stories you repeat simply because everyone else repeats them. Notice when you begin speaking about yourself, your health, humanity, your future, or the state of the world as though the outcome has already been decided.

You can acknowledge war and still cultivate peace. You can witness fear without making fear your identity. You can recognize corruption without deciding that you are powerless. You can see what is happening in the world while still leaving room for something different to become possible.

The invitation is to stop relating to yourself as powerless and become more intentional about the reality you are reinforcing. If you want a more peaceful, loving, abundant world, begin practicing that reality within yourself now — through what you focus on, how you feel, what you imagine, and what you choose to believe is possible.

Change does not require everyone. The moment something meaningful shifts within you, change has already begun. And to me, 9,110 is not just a number — it is a reminder of what becomes possible when we remember how powerful we are and become intentional about the state we create from.

So what are you choosing to create today?

Dream Oracle Jess