How Things Work (Healing ⁄ Holy Model)
We mutually participate in the healing process by using active methods for ⁄ on ourselves. This mutuality is between you and our Source. The healer’s role is to help you stay on track, on course, with your practice. Don’t worry about trusting yourself in bringing normalcy. We were born to be able to do this. Up to this point no one, no M.D., has been able to teach you how to do this self–healing. I teach you in a simple to understand and to use way. You definitely have the power to heal yourself. My 36 years of practice and of my students in this direction has amply demonstrated the truth of this statement. I have amply described this in my writings and in my successful research in asthma and strengthening heart functioning.
Our model is a spiritually–based one where healing energy is provided from the Essence (God, Invisible Reality, Source, Divinity, Higher Power, Whatever term appeals to you) down to our physical Existence here in the world. The bridge between the two REALITIES conveying this information is called image, the natural and true language of inner life. The channel for this communication is called "mind," a definition you’ll not find in any dictionary. Mind is consciousness. It is filtered through the heart. This consciousness is called love. It is the great healing force given to each of us by Source to maintain our connection. We all know the heart is the seat of love. The heart is aroused by this power, begins to beat rhythmically, sending these impulses carrying the message of this inner language to the brain, where the information is mediated through the right cerebral hemisphere. In turn this information is stored and when necessary is relayed to the rest of our biomental being. This information is received as instructions on how we can come into order. Our system knows how to read this inner language and to respond accordingly.
In sum: the wave of consciousness ⁄ love passes through the levels ⁄ worlds of invisible reality, accompanied by the invisible language called image, entering our time–space biological being to the heart, inciting the never–ending oscillating rhythm of heartbeat known as lub–dub or more technically as systole–diastole. This rhythmical vibration is carried along the nerve network arising in the abdominal–heart region flowing along the major sensory nerve of the body called the Vagus up to the brain, where these impulses serve to organize brain function. Here the right cerebral hemisphere receives and mediates the imagery messages, stores them and then relays them to the brains of the organs of the rest of our organism. The healing model looks so:
The week of May 31, 2010 had a really important event for us to consider. It concerned the controversy surrounding the "no–hitter" pitched by Armando Galarraga against Cleveland on June 2nd. There were two distinct dramas enacted there. One was the injustice to Galarraga for having his no–hitter "stolen" (umpire’s word) from him and to the umpire Jim Joyce for the blown call. Both have to go through unnecessary suffering, sacrificed as they were on the altar of the "game" ⁄inflexible institution of organized baseball. The second was the display of love for Joyce shown by Galarraga who forgave Joyce, shook his hand and who understood the beleaguered umpire’s trapped position. He was trapped and major league baseball offered him no escape. His name will always be associated with what has been termed the "worst" call ever made by a major league umpire in the history of baseball. Nor will Galarraga be duly compensated for being deprived of something everlasting, priceless in the annals of baseball. This precious piece of achievement instead was denigrated by General Motors awarding him a Corvette, something neither as priceless, nor precious as what he lost. In addition, they self–promoted their company giving the impression that the material object, which Galarraga graciously accepted (he would have much rather had the no–hitter; and with his salary he could have easily bought 10 of them), was a just compensation (we all know the expense incurred by this "gift" to Galarraga for housing it, insurance, and all the other maintenance expense attached to keeping the auto, which we have no information that GM will pick up, which they should, but seems unlikely.)
The impact of how Galarraga acted toward Joyce and Joyce’s response (including admitting his error) plus the responses of manager Jim Leyland and the Detroit ballplayers, were exemplary. Many people around the country were deeply moved by the display of good will extended by Galarraga absorbing the injustice with composure and humanness. These moments in the aftermath are indelible in people’s consciousness and are precious, priceless, instructive to how we can be forgiving and loving to a transgression.
One of the accomplices in the injustice is the insensitivity of Commissioner Bud Selig who displayed no apparent regard for the suffering of both Galarraga and Joyce, instead acting with the callus detachment of a coldhearted institution showing a lack of care for the gentlemen involved. The reversing of the call could only enhance the image of baseball in people’s consciousness. The current decision has only drawn an aura of disrespect for baseball, which it doesn’t deserve. The idea that instant replay would damage the game is a red–herring. The idea that games or matches would be extended is nonsense. Sure there may be a few extra minutes added in those few instances where it is applied. Now, compare how much time is added to games ⁄ matches by the infernal intrusion of ads taking a great quantity of time making the replay minutes look like moments. In addition, why does a fan paying a good deal of money these days to attend a game have to be at the mercy of mistakes made by officials? After all, the overwhelming calls made by sports refs ⁄ umps we can and do live with. It’s the critical ones that come as shocks because they are unusual that have to be as precise and correct as possible. The number of such instances is really few and far between and needs to be justly evaluated.
What needs to be done in this case is to reverse the decision, give the no–hitter to Galarraga and what he justly deserves; relieve Joyce of his suffering; restore the human side to baseball; don’t send the incorrect message to the public that the material can substitute for the immeasurable quality of the event; and keep the profound impact of Galarraga’s behavior continue resounding in the eyes and ears of adults and children alike. In doing so nothing is lost and everything is gained. For now something profound is lost when justice is not served. Doing the right thing by both men, in this case both and not either–or situation, takes away pain and leaves America’s pastime untarnished.
A major feature of OCD (obsessive–compulsive disorder) is the worrisome thoughts entering consciousness associated with an emotional mixture of fear, anxiety, and worry accompanying them.
In the conventional psychiatric system of treatment, medication is always given to "combat?" the unruly thoughts and compulsive behavior. The mistaken notion is that interventions have to address blocking these obtrusive thoughts. This approach, in whatever techniques are offered, really can’t work, leaving the "last resort" of prescribing medication. We all know about the dangers attending to their use.
What is given here is a spiritual remedy. It involves not seeking to block the intrusive thoughts and behavior. They cannot be blocked as it is, so there is no sense wasting energy trying to do so. Let these thoughts come. Your job is to turn your thoughts to another direction. That is, whenever a troublesome thought occurs have some thought of God, Divinity, Invisible Reality, One Mind, Consciousness, Higher Power, or whatever term you want to call It. Have some pleasant thought in this direction about our Source. Even if you are agnostic or atheistic pretend you are focusing thoughts toward the invisible reality; act as if there is an unseen force being spoken to. For compulsive acts let them come. After, take an action where you give something to someone, some form of charitable offering: like giving some change to a street beggar or someone of like stature, or stopping in at a house of worship and leaving a charity donation (the amount doesn’t matter).
Give yourself a chance to follow this way and observe what happens. You will definitely know in reasonable short order whether this approach has value. What we do know about such practices is that changes effected by oneself along a new pathway show corresponding changes in the heart and brain. In the former we find increased heart rate coherence with attendant strengthening of heart rate variability. In the latter observations have been made showing new neural networks are established. We can actually resurrect a new heart and new brain through simple spiritual exercises as described above.
There has been a long misunderstanding between Western and Eastern spirituality about love and compassion. While Western and Eastern doctrines have points of similarity and dissimilarity, as they are analogies of each other. Love, a Western point, and compassion, an Eastern point, are one such area of dissimilarity. Love is to experience the merging of two beings – lover and loved one – in love, an unitive experience. Compassion is to experience the suffering of ⁄ for someone. Here the possible merging is with someone’s suffering (the root of the word "passion" is sickness). In love I’m merging with someone else’s total being. For a deeper esoteric sense the process of love is the story of Adam and Eve where one becomes two and the two – lover and loved one – merge as one to become three – body, soul and spirit – each to produce a fulfillment of two and often to produce a third (offspring). For compassion one knows and absorbs the suffering of the other one. One joins one. For love we have also the twosome of God (lover) and his loved one (us) coming together in love. Without two there is no love. Here is an interesting imagery exercise that gives you a direct experience of what I’ve just said.
Close your eyes. Breathe out one time slowly.
Then see someone you know toward whom you feel compassion.
What is your experience?
Breathe out and open your eyes.
Now close your eyes. Breathe out one time slowly.
See someone you know who you love or toward whom you feel love.
What is your experience?
Breathe out and open your eyes.
Therein, I think, is a nice way to experience the difference of the two cultures, their states of being, and their perspectives.
There are two realities existing for us on earth. One is the horizontal, everyday, mundane habitual where we carry out our existence either in the service of truth or untruth; the other the spiritual, the one of the vertical: holiness, truth, carried out in the service of dedication to the One and its application to contributing to the well–being of self and others.
Regarding these two realities we can understand the place of the 10 Cosmic Laws (also called Commandments) and Love. The former are the imperatives surviving in perpetuity (that’s why they are called laws). Their role is to give direction and the conditions (not rules) by which human beings can live in harmony, peace and in an orderly existence with each other and with our Source. They serve the horizontal world perfectly well. They help us sustain life and deflect the occurrence of illness and imbalance pervading our world.
The latter, Love, is a vertically supplied force. It is an antidote to death. Along with faith, it is the great healing force. The latter permits us to know there is a way out of the bondage imposed on us in the horizontal reality. "Love is as strong as death," said the wisest of kings – King Solomon in Song of Songs. Death is unlove. Love is undeath. Unhook from the vertical you have death. Unhook from the pull of decay exerted by the horizontal world without a vertical ⁄ spiritual anchor you have love ⁄ life. That’s what my work is all about.
HEART MATTERS: Love, Heart, Consciousness and the Mind
My teacher of blessed memory, Colette Aboulker–Muscat, gave me her definition of mind many years ago. She said it was ⁄ is the channel of communication between invisible and visible reality. There is no definition of this sort to be found in any dictionary. The materialist idea is the mind is a mental function of some sort located in the brain. A corollary to this materialist notion is that consciousness is located in the brain. Even many New Age and spiritual minded thinkers, promulgate the notion that the brain is in consciousness, or that the brain is in the mind. The debate erroneously centers on which element precedes the others. Here mind, consciousness, and brain are subtly linked as things; one substantial (brain), the other two insubstantial (mind, consciousness). All, however, remain within the realm of biology. Nowhere in the debate is the idea of location absent. As the primary source of all that is, consciousness has "no where." Heidegger understood this point when he stated, the brain does not think, human beings think; likewise, neuropeptides don’t cause emotions, rather, human beings feel and emote.
The spiritual approach to the matter views the brain as a secondary organ, one that receives and stores messages and distributes them to the other biological ⁄ physio–logical systems of the physical body. The primary organ is the heart. It receives the messages carried through the mind channel in the form of images, the language of the invisible made visible. Imagery is known as both the intelligence of the heart and the language of the heart in the Western tradition. It is the heart that sends impulses to the brain to organize brain function. The systole and diastole of heartbeat affect brain activity.
Conscious awareness is the field where all of this is happening, having energetic reflections such as light, electromagnetism, sound, and vibrations. The greatest energy thrust of all is love. It is the healing energy of the universe. Its analogous counterpart on the physical level is the heart. The intimate connection between the heart and love is indisputable. This correspondence has been made clear through the centuries by writers, poets, and artists. Cupid, the god of love, shoots his arrow into the lovers? hearts. And, then there is St. Valentine’s Day where expressions of love are offered as hearts equal (=) greeting cards, boxes of candy and the like. The heart is the depot for what is channeled along the mindpath. The heart in turn is the pivot point between consciousness and our living in a human world within the dimensions of time and space. It’s not the brain that governs this relationship. The brain is a limb of the heart, storing messages received from the latter and, in turn, transmitting them to the rest of our organism. The brain organizes those functions upon receipt from the five star general known as the heart.
In the next AIMI conference, scheduled for October 9, 2010, this process and connection will be amplified and clarified on this special day. Look for our posting on this site (and other). If you want information directly call me at (212) 369–4080.
Verticality – The Axis of Freedom
The axis of freedom known transculturally throughout all the world traditions is the vertical. It seems natural to consider this direction as representative of freedom because to this direction is free from the pull of terrestrial gravity that keeps us rooted to the earth. In contrast, terrestrial gravity is connected with the horizontal dimension, the one of unfreedom.
Verticality is not bound by the laws of terrestrial gravity in the inner forum of consciousness. Within the imaginal existence and experience of consciousness we are permitted to descend vertically into the very depths of the darkness of being as an act of self–discovery. After plumbing the depths of self we can then ascend to the heights of the light of transcendent experience to seek toward our unitive oneness with the All. In/through verticality we are not bound by linear time or dimensional space. The function of imagination practice (short imagery exercises, longer guided imagery experience, extended waking dream exploration) is to take us into this realm of freedom. Imaginal existence is itself derived from the direction of liberation and freedom ⁄ verticality. Imagery is not bound by the laws of logic and its associated syntax and grammar, which is the basic language of horizontal reality.
I’ve written an entire book on this subject called Waking Dream Therapy: Unlocking The Secrets Of Self Through Dreams & Imagination, available on this website.
In recent years I have noticed a marked increase in GIRD (gastro–intestinal reflux disorder). As I reflected on it I came up with two social factors operating here, (you may discover others):
- Collectively, we have been less and less able to find our voices to state our objections and ⁄ or our truth. In the last decade, in particular, our political voices have been pushed down and back.
- Not being able to swallow, digest, or assimilate what has been heaped on us by unrestrained technology that has expanded beyond measure and has demanded immediate responses that have stretched our physical capabilities beyond its limits.
The suppression of our political voice
During the Bush years, the press was effectively muzzled by intimidation and threats. Likewise, Congress meekly stood by allowing the administration to engage in two wars predicated on lies. The passage of the Patriot Act violated the major constitutional precepts of rights to trial, no prolonged detention without proper adjudication, and so forth. Simply put there was no civil disobedience, no public consideration, discussion or referendum on matters of public interest. Throughout, the administration droned the false alibi that our basic freedoms must be sacrificed to ensure our freedom from an enemy attack. Meanwhile, the government restricted the freedom of others around the world and within the U.S. including the right to vote for president under a non partisan and fair system were denied. The election frauds of Florida and Ohio are not forgotten. Incidentally, both Gore and Kerry succumbed to political pressures and failed to denounce the frauds in the most vociferous of terms.
Inability to swallow all that is thrown at us
The hyper–expansion of technology over the past 55 years highlighted, of course, by the current development of internet, computers, complex phones, has amounted to an "insane" speeding up of time where everything has to be done in nanoseconds. The human organism is not built physiologically for adapting to the demands that time – through the agency of business primarily, but not only – places on us. I’m sure that many of you (as I have) have had the experience of turning on the computer and it not responding immediately. We find ourselves waiting seconds to minutes all the while becoming anxious, exasperated, frustrated – experience agita over having to wait what seems to be "an eternity" for the "doggone" thing to work. We are becoming literally enslaved by time! We are trying to maintain a pace that really takes its toll on us.
In addition, the Internet’s overwhelming amount of data pouring in on us has produced a virtual "obesity of information" (my phrase) that can not be digested by us in a natural manner. No wonder we have a scourge of obesity reflected in our diminished nutrition and lack of physical activity as well as a rise in regurgitation (or, regirditation) and esophageal ulcers.
How can our social and political relationships seem to evoke physical illness? In the spiritual healthcare model of the West, we look at the correlations and relationships between the physical, emotional, mental, social and moral aspects of our lived human experience. Most of us are unaware that moment to moment we function in, as, and through these five dimensions. These five functions reflect each other – not cause each other. This means they share points of similarity and dissimilarity. Once we are able to recognize these reflections (easy to do), we have engaged the wholeness of our being and we see the whole picture! As this happens healing is taking place – to heal and to become whole come from the same root in our language. An impulse toward unity has taken place as we are able to grasp how to repair each of these domains. With this, the immediate action to repair and recover starts to take place.
Is there some remedy possible? Spiritual life provides some answers. First, use the disturbance as the reminder to act to reverse the situation now that you understand more. If you need a voice, express yourself. Practice speaking up without concern for the result or outcome. If the concern is there, speech is stifled. That’s how those people seeking power control us by quelling our expression. We’ve got to speak up: change the reflux to respond.
Secondly, slow your pace and take charge of the intoxication created by your attachment to the computer. Take your time in responding to e–mail, texting and the like. As you become aware of the frenetic quality induced in you by the pull of time, you give yourself a moment to quiet and come back into your natural rhythm and pace – emotionally, mentally and socially. The physiological correlate is the rhythm and pace of the heart. A disorder of rhythm here is called arrhythmia and much heart disorder can result in having to wear a pacemaker.
Reminder: 1– Patience is a virtue; 2– we can take charge of ourselves through using our will and reason to restore balance.
Richard Rubenstein, Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, writes in his book Thus Saith The Lord: The Revolutionary Moral Vision of Isaiah and Jeremiah (New York: Harcourt Books) that globalization is the way to world unity and fulfillment of Isaiah’s second proclamation of the end of war and the subsequent unity of human brother ⁄ sisterhood. I have to agree, but for reasons somewhat askance from Professor Rubenstein’s. His views await your perusal of his book. The way I see it, globalization will bring the materialistic, mercenary, acquisitive impulses to an end, embedded as they currently are in the five dark currents of will: to take, keep, hold onto at the expense of others, advance at the expense of others, and the desire to be great.
What globalization brings has two distinct possibilities – opening the door to spiritual life and the eventual restoration of the Edenic existence awaiting us:
- The hyper–materialism that would ensue would bring people to realize how the satiation of material life does not bring the happiness and peace of mind hoped for. Then satisfaction needs to be looked for in different qualities, namely an inner turning to the spiritual dimension and its consequent renunciation of the five dark currents of will.
- The explosion of the five dark currents (that spiritual life requires be short–circuited) leads to an exhaustion of our resources. Given that we run out of goods there is nowhere to go but to turn to the one resource we cannot exhaust, namely, Spirit. I suspect this concern of running out of resources materially is prompting the desire to find out if other planets within our reach are "habitable." This latter term is not mine but is used by NASA in its exploration of Mars. NASA’s concern is whether Mars is habitable (note – not inhabited). Why is this important? Because, amongst the non–meek who currently inhabit the earth there is a sense that our resources are running out and that we need to explore the possibility of exploiting what the red planet has to offer.
It would be nice if the exploration of inner space – the spiritual dimension – matched the extraordinary outlay of funds used to explore outer space (that instead could be used for problems besetting us on earth). Be that as it may, globalization brings a real possibility to the fore for a genuine evolutionary shift in consciousness. Of course, it needs be considered that such globalization taking place under the five dark currents will bring with it unparalleled strife and misery. However as the entropy (breakdown, decomposition, and decay that is automatically built into material life) this direction of globalization will produce will give way to a neg–entropic impulse of greater order, complexity and organization, truth will prevail in the world.
I am not an economic maven. But, I am a spiritual one. In that capacity I can see analogies between the two arenas. In spiritual understanding there is a four–fold process of life that has existed with us since our eviction from Eden. This process consists of
initiative–>resistance–>form–>result. The potter initiates his ⁄ her idea for a pot. The clay is molded (initiative) against the wheel (resistance) creating a form (pot) leading to a result (the pot’s use). A healthcare bill is presented to enfranchise all Americans (initiative [sic] = "Give us your tired, needy, those yearning to be free"; [sic] remember to help the widows and orphans in their time of need, trials and tribulations) is presented. It is met with stiff opposition (resistance) by the already enfranchised. The outcome is the form this legislation will take. The result will be some version of increased healthcare coverage for the country and maintaining the insurance executives’ opulence.
Now, with the fall of communism around the world as a resistance to capitalism, and the limited influence of socialism as a resistant force against the capitalist economic system, it was and has been able to run amok throughout the world in a deregulated manner. We have all suffered (except the banks and other large financial institutions) the consequence of such excess. There is no substantial resisting force yet apparent to create a new form and result. Whatever resistance has to come from an internal capitalist monitoring force to apply some regulation resistance. Of course, a system coming to investigate its own tenets to produce change is a sticky proposition at best. It smacks of the old adage of an unknown source: "Who guards the guards"?
The four–fold principle has to hold sway for there to be stability in this manmade world until we achieve one of the spiritual goals set out for us human beings: to restore and return to Eden, where there will be no more need for the initiative–resistance axis.
Thankfully, everything is the time–space world is subject to change. As King David said in the Psalms referring to our life in this world: "This too shall pass."
The Gratitude List and a Healing Synchronicity to Boot
(A therapeutic and diagnostic tool based in the spiritual practices of Western mysticism)
It started out like this. I was speaking with my friend who said to me that she had been feeling ill the past few days. In consequence of her suffering she had an "impulse" (intuition really) to take out a sheet of paper and list ⁄ write down as much as she could what she felt gratitude for in life. After completing this she noticed a smile on her face, disappearance of her symptoms, and a lifting of her mood. Two things occurred to me (by thinking by analogy) at that point: 1) Her physiology changed. As everything elevated – smile, mood elevation, symptom removal – so did her immune function and natural inner–healing elements come into play (something we all have); 2) I reflected on the last mitzvah ⁄ deed of the 613 that are written in the Bible, specifically the Torah. It says to write your own Torah scroll. That is, write your own book of life. It occurred to me that’s what she unwittingly did. She wrote a new biographical sketch (not completed yet) of her life. She wrote a NEW version. She gave herself new life, a new life.
The next day I was speaking to another friend who was going through emotional upheaval. She was feeling rattled and unnerved. She told me that she had an "impulse" to take a sheet of paper and write down what she was grateful for in her life which included a thanks to God. After doing so, she felt calm and centered, the anxiety disappearing. Again, another instance of Torah scroll writing indicating the healing possibility this method can bring.
While writing down to effect change has been stated by others over the years, of which I had become acquainted, no one ever tied this to the ancient spiritual perennial wisdom, nor had they been so specific, short and focused on one definitive element = gratitude. Here is a quick curative therapeutic method to apply instantly and for any circumstance besetting us.
A diagnostic idea came to me while putting the pieces together. If a person is sick – physically, emotionally, mentally – and is asked to write the Gratitude List and cannot do so, it is indicative that they will not recover, don?t expect to live, may want to die, or don’t see any future for themselves. Coaxing them to find something, anything, of gratitude to write may help them to live. Otherwise, they inherently know they don’t want to go on living. I think this is a possible invaluable diagnostic tool to use before, during and after therapeutic interventions of any sort to gauge a person’s progress and to show them the value of discovering the feeling of gratitude. Certainly, it has to be a helpful guide to the healthcare provider as well.
News flash! I conducted research recently with Dr. Ulas Kaplan of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. It centered on assessing heart rate variability from a program created by the Heart Math Institute out in California. Using mental imagery to control heart rate variability, this process was tested against two other variables: affirmations and simply thinking about the function. Heart rate variability is a function that defines the health and strength of the heart. The greater the variability the healthier is the heart.
The findings will be presented soon this year at a scientific conference and a paper is being prepared for possible publication.
The upshot of the research showed results of the imagery group far surpassed results obtained from the other two groups, affirmations coming in a distant second, while the group doing nothing other than ordinary thinking showed no effect at all. An additional discovery was that levels of the stress hormone cortisol found in sputum were reduced during imagery process, but this was not the case for the affirmation or thinking groups.
I may say that I have been involved in three research projects using mental imagery, all of which have been successful: 1) establishing Waking Dream as a separate state of consciousness from Eastern Meditation and Hypnosis; 2) Treating Asthma with Mental Imagery; and 3) the current project cited above. There is a fourth study in the offing on the ailment called Charcot–Marie Tooth Disease in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Barrett who developed the protocol for the Asthma study as well. The Waking Dream v. Meditation and Hypnosis and the Asthma research articles are available here on my website.
In 1981 I published a book called Waking Dream Therapy. It was written for the therapeutic community, not intended for a general readership (although many have told me that it is a wonderful read for that audience). It was then, and still is, the best work done on the subject of waking dream (to be distinguished from lucid dreaming, as I’ll get to shortly). This visionary experience was first exposited in writing in the first 28 lines of the book of the prophet Ezekiel some 3000 years ago. In my book I spoke of the history of this process including that of Carl Jung who called his work "active imagination."
In the magazine section of the Sunday New York Times, Sept. 20, 2009, appeared a long article on the Red Book of Jung’s, kept secret for many decades by his family. This book has seemed to become an object of adoration ⁄ worship by devoted Jung followers. It is now to be published amidst excitement and eagerness.
The book details Jung’s waking dream experiences of which he kept copious notes and made illustrations. In those notes he details some of the darkness into which he descended, the consequence of which was a psychotic or psychotic–like episode for which he was hospitalized in a psychiatric center for a period of time. In his autobiography Memories, Dreams & Reflections, he describes his descent into apparent madness.
Unfortunately, because Jung’s experience, which was waking dream – either of prophetic nature or shaman’s trip (they are different) – was unguided, as were those of the prophets such as Moses, Ezekiel, Elijah, Daniel (Jung was certainly not among that elite group), he suffered a consequence not uncommon amongst those who have entered into the sea of change ⁄ consciousness unguided, usually from taking sacred hallucinogens (mushrooms, vines, herbs, etc.)
Jung is to be admired for his bravery and courage to have undertaken this journey alone, willing to take the risk, which in the long run eventually influenced a great change or changes in his life. For, unlike Ezekiel who went and came back utterly changed and knowing, he went somewhere else and returned entirely changed but not mad, Jung could not return sane for some time.
This transcendent experience of waking dream became for Jung the basis for the active imagination method. He didn’t organize it into a coherent system as I have under the tutelage of my deceased teacher Mme. Colette Aboulker–Muscat of Jerusalem, who was the master of this process in the 20th century. For those who are not prophets this process must be done with a guide, at first, who takes you safely into this experience where you make a descent into the depths of self to discover who you are and are not. The latter is then cleared away and you are readied for the ascent to the heights through waking dream all the way to and through illumination to reach, perhaps, union with One.
Mention was made earlier of lucid dreams. In Wikipedia this definition appeared: "A lucid dream is a dream in which the sleeper is aware that he or she is dreaming. When the dreamer is lucid he or she can actively participate in and often manipulate the imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can seem extremely real and vivid depending on a person’s level of self–awareness during the lucid dream."
Waking dream differs markedly from lucid dreaming as it does from mindfulness meditation and self–hypnosis. I’ve underlined certain words in the above definition, which appears in Wikipedia. Waking dream is done by an awake person, not a sleeper, in a hypnopompic state – that which exists between sleeping and waking. It is actively participated in by the journeyer who is embarking on an exploration of consciousness to make discoveries, not to manipulate, but to freely find under the aegis of a guide at the beginning of such experiences. These experiences are not imaginary – in the conventional usage of the term as unreal – but what is discovered are levels of reality and beings who may dwell in them. These events do not seem real, they are real. There is much more to say about these two diverse experiences, but not needed to be done here. I do recommend that you look at my book Waking Dream Therapy and my article on this site: Phenomenological Differences between Waking Dream, Mindfulness Meditation & Self Hypnosis.
Healthcare reform is perceived here in August 2009 as a problem needing to be fixed. The trouble is that when a problem is solved it creates another problem. Hence, we can see the trouble President Obama is having in Congress establishing this program.
For a successful healthcare plan to work it needs to incorporate education and energy renewal, the three prongs of President Obama’s plan to renew America. These three prongs of this plan represent an integrated unit. The centerpiece of this program centers on the mutual participation of the healthcare provider and the healthcare recipient. This is a special kind of partnership where the focus is on the recipient receiving an education about his condition that allows him ⁄ her to be actively engaged in making informed choices and decisions about healthcare. In such a dyad, the healthcare practitioner becomes a catalyst to aid the process. This means that he ⁄ she does not take an authoritarian stance to exert power as control. Rather, one creates a space that honors the legitimacy and authenticity of the other’s decision.
This education involves a truly integrative approach, the term "integrative" here meaning viewing the individual as a unitary human being who operates along the axis of physical, emotional, mental, social and moral functions taken together to form his⁄her unitary beingness. Currently, the term "integrative" has come to mean nothing more than combining naturalistic (e.g., herbs) with conventional invasive methods.
The above leads me to define healthcare and compare it to medicine. Medicine refers to that narrow band of interventions based on a cause–effect model, viewing the patient as a passive participant in the process and surrendering power to the authority and supposed expertise of the physician. This is a power as control game posing very few options for the patient usually provided in an atmosphere of fear. On the other hand, healthcare, while recognizing and acknowledging the medical model’s usefulness in the acute clinical situations, presents a broadband of methods and techniques, that, in contrast to the conventional medical model, are usually – if not invariably – non–invasive and of low risk to the patient’s well–being. Most of these methods and techniques derive from ancient sources, both Western and Eastern, going back literally thousands of years. These ancient systems, which involve active patient participation, particularly in the Western forms, are called "traditional." The modern Western medical system dates back to approximately 400–450 years ago and can be called "alternative" ⁄ conventional.
Within the framework of these ancient systems is embedded a spiritual understanding and application as the source from which the therapeutic process stems. By "spiritual" I mean the presence of an intangible force, or energy, or consciousness providing sustenance and nourishment for healing purposes. (The Eastern notion of chi energy, upon which Chinese acupuncture is based, is an example.) The accompanying quote by Dr. Jeffrey S. Levin, an epidemiologist at the University of Kansas Medical School, gives weight to this discussion:
"Since the nineteenth century, over 250 published empirical studies have appeared in the epidemiologic and medical literature in which one or more indicators of spirituality or religiousness, variously defined, have been statistically associated in some way with particular health outcomes. Across this literature, studies have appeared which suggest that religion is salutary for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, nearly every cancer site, colitis and enteritis, numerous health status indicators, and in terms of both morbidity and mortality. Further, this finding seems to hold regardless of how spirituality is defined and measured (beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, experiences, etc.). An especially large subliterature of over two dozen studies demonstrates the health–promotive effects of simply attending church or synagogue on a regular basis. Finally, while no one study has conclusively proven that a spiritual perspective or involvement in religion is a universal preventive or curative factor, significant positive health effects of spirituality have appeared in studies of whites, blacks, and Hispanics; in studies of older adults and adolescents; in studies of U.S., European, African, and Asian subjects; in prospective, retrospective, cohort, and case–control studies; in studies of Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Parsis, Buddhists, and Zulus; in studies published in the 1930s and in the 1980s; in studies measuring spirituality as belief in God, religious attendance, Bible reading, frequency of prayer, father’s years of Yeshiva, numinous feelings, and history of bewitchment, among many other constructs; and in studies of self–limiting acute conditions, of fatal chronic diseases, and of illnesses with lengthy, brief, or absent latency periods between exposure and diagnosis and mortality. In short, something worthy of serious investigation seems to be consistently manifesting in these studies, and understanding the "what," "how," and "why" of this apparent spiritual factor in health – may be critical for reducing suffering and curing the sick."
(This quote comes from my book Healing Into Immortality [Bantam Books, 1994; ACMI Press, 1997].)
As can be gathered from Dr. Levin’s findings, something unavailable in the current medical model and not part of a prescriptive education recommended to patients through that model is but one example of a broader education to be extended to patients as part of their healthcare needs.
It was interesting to note that in the recent testimony given by so–called alternative physicians (please note many broadband healthcare interventions are delivered by non–MD’s) none of them really defined mind in their mindbody model, focusing heavily and really singly on the body or physical processes. Additionally, there was neither real discussion nor definition of Spirit and its role in health, or of actually religious factors as Dr. Levin outlined in the accompanying quote.
I might mention insurance issues here as well when considering healthcare reform. Many healthcare interventions are relatively inexpensive, way less than almost all medical interventions. One reason is that the medical model cannot handle chronic illness, which is multi–factorial and not subject to one–cause to one–effect as in the medical model. Hence, in the mad scramble to deal with ailments not subject to medical cure, there is a persistence of using more and more tests (many painful and invasive) to understand the illness and the use of more and more medications in combination producing many "side" effects, necessitating more medication use to cure those effects. The net outcome of all that erroneous expenditure of energy – a macro input for a micro output – is to drive up insurance costs even more. The net of that are the prohibitive costs of health insurance passed on to consumers.
Spiritually speaking we don’t look at problems as such. Alternately we apply two other considerations:
As I’ve mentioned in a recent Dr. Jerry’s Corner, I have suggested 1) changing the word "problem" to "question." Questions call forth answers, an easier proposition to deal with rather than trying to find a solution to a problem. As I indicated previously, imagine placing a drop of ink into a glass of water. The drop will quickly disperse into the water and will be in solution. Then, try to regain the drop of ink. It will be impossible and that will be a new problem. On the other hand, ask a question and an answer may readily come forth. This could happen (as it often does) spontaneously. Sometimes a question can be contemplated or meditated upon before an answer appears. Or, we can do an imagery exercise to find an answer as I commonly do with my students. Simply put, follow the advice of the gospel statement: "Ask and you will be answered." (Matthew & Luke)
2) Rather than solve a problem, look for the source of the difficulty. Finding the source gives us a clue to making the repair or correction. In this case, the source is inherent in the word "healthcare." This term refers to a broad band of health interventions ranging from acupuncture to herbs, to hands on healing, to imagery, to nutritional therapy, to homeopathy, and a whole host of naturalistic, non–invasive methods and techniques that go back thousands of years and operate by means of traditional models of healing pre–dating the current modern medical model. The latter represents a narrow band of intervention with few options and is not suitable for dealing with chronic illness. It is a model based on a problem – solution (fix it) dynamic focusing on a particular part needing to be fixed. In contrast, the traditional model is based on a wholistic model which takes into account the picture of human beings in their totality – physical, emotional, mental, social and moral – appreciating their interrelationships, seeking to address this wholism and making the sufferer an active participant in the healing process, which the medical model does not.
Healthcare reform also has to focus on the term "reform." This term means to form again, a reformulation. Such reformulation has to include all healthcare practitioners working in cooperation acknowledging the authenticity of all age–old proven methods as equally possible healthcare modalities; not a system placed squarely in the hands of MD’s who seek to protect their financial interests, often while denigrating and disparaging other methods as "non–scientific" or "not proved scientifically." This is a clear ruse intended to dissuade the public from utilizing these beneficial practices in favor of interventions that are actually "not proven scientifically" (as will be taken up in another installment).
What is then set up in the current system is a hierarchy where the operators of the game are given high priority rather than looking at the game itself. The game is one of substituting an acute care model for one that cares for the chronic disorders. That said, reform requires that the healthcare system not be put squarely in the hands of MD’s and insurance carriers who won’t pay for other treatment methods. Yes, these other healthcare options are treatments as effective as medical ones and maybe even more so. Obversely, all healthcare practitioners have to be regarded collegially, comrades–in–arms, rather than threats to one’s position or treatment competence.
Reform then means not only that everyone have the privilege of receiving healthcare benefits (it is not a right, but a privilege = something that can be given to or taken from you by someone or something else) as is the aim of Obama’s "surge," but also that this care be provided by a wide variety of practitioners as the case may warrant, not jut MD’s.
Given this proposal for reform what is at its heart is the need to transform healthcare delivery; not only for who delivers it, but also to dedicate research to those other modalities to be done outside the setting of medical institutions. There is already much research being done along these lines. To be considered here also is that a good deal of this research involves a different theoretical base that is not derived from the "scientific method," the latter only capable of dealing with quantitative phenomena. The other, called the "phenomenological method," deals with the qualitative, personal, subjective experience often disparagingly called "anecdotal" by the modern scientific schools in an effort to deride their significance and importance.
More to Consider
There are additional factors to contemplate about healthcare reform ⁄ trans–formation. There is the spiritual element, which is the defining point of attaining to health. There is a spiritual crisis running through American life, symptoms of which can be noted in the extraordinary levels of alcohol, drug, and sex addictions and their concomitant devastating ill effects on overall health and healthcare costs. Add to that the huge amount of chronic illness and spiraling costs of pharmaceutical drugs used to stem that tide without noticeable effects on disease rates. A macro input for a micro result. The mindbody model of health was jettisoned over four centuries ago and simply buried the roles of moral and social factors in the genesis of illness, eventually replaced by the germ theory of illness causation which netted next to nothing in getting beyond treating acute illnesses successfully. It is now time to reintroduce the ancient model to effect a more complete system abutting the acute, technological advances placing the latter in its proper perspective as part of the whole, not the whole in and of itself. Until that day comes when MD’s can disassociate themselves from the taint of business models that have tarnished healthcare beyond repair it doesn’t matter what the Obama legislation brings to bear on healthcare "reform" that is simply another economic system to replace the current one where, admirably, all people will be covered. That is a big plus and humane. However, the system is not humane by not attending to all the needs of an understanding of human suffering, which in the end, by including all possibilities of treatment interventions, will be the most cost–effective way to provide immediate help, not to mention providing avenues to health maintenance and prevention of illness. To those ends I propose requiring a revamping of healthcare education and devising new curricula, and perhaps new healthcare educational and training schools to incorporate the knowledge, wisdom, intelligence and skills these healthcare providers possess. Here, we must also include making sure insurance carriers cover these practitioners.
Two Healthcare Stories To Round Things Out
Story 1: Over 30 years ago I saw a woman who came seeking help for an ovarian cyst. She was told there was no intervention for the condition other than surgery. The latter was not necessary at the time, she was told. Rather, the surgeon recommended he would watch the cyst, monitoring it. If it grew significantly he would operate before it could rupture. She came to me to do mental imagery to see if she could heal it. We worked on an imagery program for her to use. She worked with me for three weeks and described her response to this self-healing mental work. From her responses I asked her to get another radiographic exam to see what effect, if any, had taken place. She did so and called me to tell me the cyst was gone. Needless to say, the surgeon was quite surprised but accepted the findings. I rendered her a bill for $750 – $250 per meeting – which she submitted to her insurance company. They responded by stating they would not pay her for this HEALTHCARE TREATMENT. I wrote to the company telling them that our work together save them $20,000, the cost at that time for an operation to the afflicted area. Seven hundred fifty dollars of cost for $20,000 savings, I said, is a very good deal from their end. They paid her the insurance claim.
Story 2: Today I received a follow–up call from a student who called me a week ago suffering from a leg infection not responding to antibiotic treatment. I have her an imagery exercise to heal the infection. I asked her to dose this exercise to herself three times a day. She called to tell me the infection healed up. She stopped the antibiotic at the time she started imagery work and saw the results of her own efforts. A most cost effective intervention (and not uncommon in my and my students’ practices).
Finally
I guess we have to be reminded of the most repeated phrase in the Bible – 50 times – to help the widows and orphans in their trials and tribulations. This phrase is at the heart of the Judaic and Christian worldviews. The 46–50 million disenfranchised from healthcare insurance "widows and orphans" have to be helped. That’s the first order of business to be settled. There is really nothing to discuss further about that matter. It’s not a matter of "socialized medicine" or governmental intrusion into our individualistic lives. The meta issue is to help the widows and orphans. The economics of that initiative can then be constructed to accommodate that thrust. To do so might require some sacrifices on the parts of insurance companies, doctors, the rich and others who can contribute to this effort. The ancient sages who understood the issue of care and love for each other were fully aware of the need to serve all who are disadvantaged. This is the meta issue arising above the reluctance to deflect this basic point into political and individual me first selfishness.
Education v. Therapy – A Possible Paradigm Shift
Here is a beginning model for reframing the field of psychotherapy to replace it with an instructional ⁄ teaching ⁄ educative one. It involves a simple switch in terminology that I believe has many ramification for treatment. The terms I have in mind are: "question" for "problem." In the general course of the therapeutic process the term "problem" is announced. "I have a problem with my spouse." "I have a problem with my boss." "I have a problem selecting which job I should take." The list is endless. I propose that instead of the psychology mode of stating and dealing with problems, substitute the term "question." Reframe the problem statements as question statements and the answers will come rather easily and quickly, much of them prompting, perhaps, some sort of action that is beneficial to you. The answers will also often allay disturbing emotions and⁄or mental discontents.
Problems, per se, pose two difficulties I can pinpoint. One is that problems call for solutions. The solution, once detected, almost always leads to another problem. Finding the solution to that then incurs another problem and on and on this cycle goes. (Witness our solving the problem of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. We found the solution by deposing him, but see what that solution has led to.)
The second is that solution implies something that is difficult to create, or creates more difficulty as it is wrong (cite the example just given above.) Take as an example a glass of water. You place in it a drop of black ink. The drop immediately disperses and goes into solution with the water, turning the water black, or partially black. I then ask you to extract that drop now in solution out of the water. We now have quite a complication about abstracting that drop out of the water. I think this analogy fits the problem–solution axis. When one begins talking about his problems, the content and stories around them tend to grow exponentially, especially between the one presenting the problem and the one responding. The result is usually some advice given, that when followed begets more problems, as I mentioned above, even if the problem seemed solved at the moment.
As it is with the spiritual teacher–disciple relationship where changes are made through the instruction and practices connected with that education, so too can this model be brought to hear in the treatment process. By adopting the educational model to treatment, prevention, or a whole host of other situations, a spiritually based model applied to everyday life situations can begin to take shape. Certainly, for healthcare it may work wonders in short order, and I believe for much of life situations. Certainly, as a patient and educator, knowing both sides of the aisle so to speak, education – one about life that we’ve never really gotten in our formal education or through our upbringing, otherwise, specifically a spiritual education – can put us on the track to order, balance, well–being and, perhaps, long life.
In my courses beginning in September, 2009 (see my catalog listing on this site) I shall provide many down–to–earth examples of how this paradigm may work, especially in my courses on Reverse Psychology and The Path of Holiness. Right now I wanted to give you a taste of what this simple shift in conceptual focus may offer us to bring us closer to ending suffering in our lives.
My personal discovery involves the use of the words "faith" and "trust." I realized you can’t use these words in regard to our human relationships. To have faith or trust in someone is a mistake on a couple of accounts. First is that human beings, no matter how "trustworthy," have the potential for variability and changeability. There is always the possibility, no matter how reliable someone is, for error or slip up. The best we can say here is to have confidence in someone’s capacity, talent or ability. Second, the terms "faith" and "trust" can only apply to that which is invariable, never changing, always reliable⦠to invisible reality – or if you prefer – God or the One Mind. Faith and trust are intimately tied to intangibility above. To link them to tangibility is a subtle form of violating the first cosmic law or noble truth⁄precept of the 10 laws: Don’t put any one⁄thing between you and God, or before God. It then occurred to me that King David, in the Psalms, said not to put our trust⁄stock in the princes of this world; a reminder of the second cosmic law: Don’t erect idols. There is a ton of difference between one’s ability and one’s being. Don’t trust the second, have confidence in the first. That way, no idolatry, no disappointment. No disappointment, no blame. No blame, no anger or depression. No anger⁄depression no physical symptoms and⁄or addictive behavior = longevity.
An additional point: Have faith and trust in yourself. Becoming trustworthy for oneself requires attention paid to your relationship to God with endless vigilance. Faith and trust for Above is mirrored by the equal measure of faith and trust you enjoy for yourself. As you do so you are becoming your own authority.
In his work Meditations on the Tarot, the great spiritual master Valentin Tomberg, writing under the pseudonym Anonymous, stated that people engaged in spiritual life and practice have an immunity against developing Alzheimer’s disease. My personal experience of knowing such people through the 50 or so years spent along this pathway has confirmed this for me. My own spiritual teacher, Colette Aboulker–Muscat died at nearly 95 with intact mental functioning. Now, an article has appeared in the May 22, 2009 New York Times about people over 90 not developing Alzheimer’s. There the discussion described a number of seemingly contributory findings including one by a gentleman in his 90’s who said that he lives for the day. One factor that appears seems to corroborate a finding made a number of years ago in a study of people living over 100 years. While that study was not about dementia, there was a common thread I noted: response to loss. There seems to be a correlation relating to bearing loss and increased longevity in the earlier investigation and the decline in a person’s life when inability to bear loss occurs.
What was absent from the Times report was any mention of longevity tied to God, that is, a strong spiritual or religious feeling or practice. The spiritual dimension was almost touched upon by the respondent who said he "lives for the day." Living for the day is the hedonist’s national anthem. It is to gain sensory pleasure, especially at any cost. Had he said living "in" the day he would have made a spiritual statement.
The essential difference between a spiritual and hedonistic direction is that of "in" or "for". If you are conscious spiritually, then "in"; "for" if you are conscious materialistically or hedonistically (they are synonymous). Being conscious of both, i.e., connected to both, leads to confusion, self-deception and can be called spiritual materialism.
Spiritual life in the West is defined by what may be called "the alliance." This is the pact made between us and the Eternal One in a dyadic (i.e. twosome) relationship. Our spiritual practice relies on maintaining this alliance despite the background noise of the world that constantly seduces us away from staying in the alliance: These include frustrations, threats, lures, intimidations, unbidden and unsolicited suggestions, and advice coming our way from without and within.
These pulls bring us constantly back to attachments and identifications to and with the habitual world of sensory and material attachment in what I call the horizontal, visible reality. The alliance is another form of attachment, but in a vertical direction, the vertical invisible reality. Here, our senses are turned toward perceptions in the vertical domain, such as we experience in short imagery exercises or longer waking dream journeys. (See my book Waking Dream Therapy.)
Maintaining the alliance keeps us spiritually sound and available to bring that energy to bear in everyday horizontal reality. When we stray from the alliance, we experience distressing emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger, guilt, depression, and the like. These are signal states that alert us that we have wandered away and prompt us to return.
The Alliance Exercise
To return, simply close your eyes and see yourself imaginally walking through a door marked ALLIANCE in gold letters, and find yourself lifting your arms heavenward as you are being grasped by arms descending earthward. Then, breathe out and open your eyes.
Serving the alliance, you are served in untold beneficial ways. Leaving the alliance, suffering is likely to ensue. However, this suffering mercifully reminds us of what we have forgotten.
For my information on this topic, look for my next book, due out soon, Weapons of Mass Construction: How Your Beliefs Can Help You Save Your Life.
Do The Strong Serve The Weak or The Weak Serve The Strong?
In the Western wisdom literature, namely the Bible, there is a phrase repeated 50 times: help the widows and orphans in their trials and tribulations. In other words the strong must serve the weak.
Have you noticed how in the man–made world this process is reversed? The weak are asked to serve the strong till they are to be discarded and replaced by another to fill in a slot. That’s how it works with regard to the powerful institutions that dominate our landscape of life. Aren’t the weak asked, or coerced, to serve or sacrifice themselves on the altar of the needs of those institutions that run our lives? That this takes place can be called first–class idolatry, such as that practiced by ancient polytheistic tribes who sent many children to their deaths on fiery pyres or cut the hearts out of their sacrificed human being slaves.
President Obama is crying out for aid to be given to the disadvantaged – the current widows and orphans. However, the politicians are not used to serving the poor and weak. Rather, they like to be served, put in positions of power and feather their own nests or those who lobby and support them; you know those special interest groups they are cozy with.
In this regard the politicos had no trouble handing out 700 billion dollars to the strong – the banks and other like institutions – without as much as a whimper. There was no debate, no open transparent discussion. It took about two days to accomplish. But, when it comes to the general populace – those dispensable, anonymous shadows who donâÃÂÃÂt have jobs, insurance, food – they don’t see a dime yet.
In fact, the burden for straightening out the mess created by the institutions falls not on the shoulders of the strong who perpetrated the crisis, but on the shoulders of the weak who continue to serve the strong.
In the power as control game that serves as the model for how the weak serve the strong by being slaves, as it ever was and is in the course of human existence on earth, the weak will continue to oblige the strong, remain slaves and continue to live in the shadows. They serve the slogan that fuels this master–slave game, namely "me real, you shadow."
In the strong serving weak game fueled by love and caring, the aim is to end slavery, raise everyone’s status and end the domination–subjugation will to power. The slogan describing this spiritually sound cause is "me real, you real." Here we all walk in the light, the light of grace and freedom.
In a previous Dr. J’s Corner I referenced the 10th universal cosmic laws, mentioning I would proceed to comment in reverse order on all of them and their applicability in our everyday life.
Here’s the Ninth: Don’t Bear False Witness. Here are the elements connected with this law I’ve discovered. Some are well–known and of general knowledge. Others have occurred to me independently.
The generally known:
- Saying something true that shouldn’t be said
- Saying something untrue that shouldn’t be said (perjury)
- Gossip
- Rumors
- Promises
- Pledges
- Oaths
- Vows (excepting the spiritual ones: obedience, poverty, chastity)
- Future talk ? encompasses also e-h above
- Speaking conclusions
- Conjectures
- Speculations
- Assumptions
- Past talk
- Opinions
- Explanations passed off as facts
- Distortions of immediate perceptions by use of adjectival and adverbial descriptors
There are more possibilities, but I wanted to give some prominent examples.
White Magicians & Black Magicians
White Magicians are those teachers or aware people who encourage you to find your individuation and make self–discovery through your own efforts. They know you have that power within to become your own authority. You become independent. They, in turn, have your best interests at heart.
Black Magicians are those who would like to dominate you and subvert your freedom. They appear as spokespeople for you, discouraging you from becoming your own authority, relying instead on their presumed authority to speak up for you and speak for you. You become dependent on them who, at base, do not have your best interests at heart, only their own.
The White Magicians instill hope, that inner light showing us a way out of the darkness through our own efforts.
The Black Magicians instill fear, that disabling feeling keeping us in the dark and having to depend on others to lead us out of that darkness, having no real desire to do so.
Understanding the above, reflect for a moment on what has transpired the past eight years – the Black Magicians voicing fear and threats of terrorism in contrast to what promises for the next eight years – White Magicians voicing hope and light for a brighter tomorrow… a way out of the darkness. People of Spirit are always working in that direction. Let’s see what happens.
There is a penchant amongst purveyors of "spiritual wisdom" to offer guides to self–improvement. These self–improvement speakers who endorse the self–improvement ideal (they adorn the airwaves all over the place) are misleading us by offering a pseudo–inspirational, basically anti–spiritual message.
In spiritual life there is no notion of self–improvement, which is understood as a man–made standard destined to be fulfilled (if that could ever be possible) in the future, that time–bound realm that doesn’t exist.
Standards may be defined as a uniform measure of comparison usually applied to mechanical or quantitative items, although they can be applied to qualitative measures as well.
I think we are well–acquainted with the quantitative ones such as standard tire treads, screw widths, gold weights, etc., etc., etc. The qualitative ones are easy to understand as they mostly apply to comparisons: good–bad, right–wrong, success–failure, pretty–ugly, etc., etc., etc.
Standard–making has the aspect of homogenizing, to make everything measure up to an ideal. For example: diabetes is designated as a "disease" requiring insulin in its later stages. There is one homogenous treatment given in conventional medicine. Put 100 diabetics in a room, they’ll all receive insulin. However, in traditional Chinese medicine, for instance, standards do not apply. Put 100 diabetics in a room and 100 different medicinal interventions will be given. Each person would be diagnosed according to their 18 pulses configuration, appearance of the tongue and perhaps some other consideration. Given the great number of possible pulse patterns it’s unlikely any one will match with another. Depending on the findings, each individual will receive a different herbal remedy.
Another term for standard is "ideal," some measure of high standing that we are asked to reach. Athletes, musicians, artists and droves of others are constantly reaching toward such attainment. Artie Shaw, the outstanding swing⁄jazz clarinetist, quit playing his instrument because he couldn’t hit the ideal note, that perfect sound. In modern times we are flooded with urgings coming to us incessantly from the media, celebrities, and business life to spend our precious time trying to attain the goal of the "ideal" embodied in the standard of self–improvement.
By buying into this ideal two detrimental things happen:
- We engage in struggle which saps our energy instead of conserving it.
- Self–improvement points us toward what we are not, what we don’t have, i.e., what is deficient (supposedly). This takes our attention away from who we are right now, what there is about us right now, what our strengths are here and now. This self–examination of our present existence can also reveal our limitations. Understanding that is freeing in that it allows us to stop concocting our own standards.
Man–made standards means using those laws we author to take the place of those cosmic ones authored in the celestial realm and given to us to guide us through life. I must say those man–made ones to which we ascribe are done so because we have been miseducated to do so. Be that as it may they are essentially worthless and do not further us. Actually, they stunt our growth.
We don’t have to focus on what we are not, but on what we are, our purpose for being here, not to be diverted from that aim by an uncreated illusory future.
The Womb of Consciousness
From a spiritual world view, each of us is the gardener of our lives. Macrocosmically, we plant the seeds or conceptions in our garden of consciousness. These conceptions eventually are birthed into our time–space existence as displays appearing to our external perceptions we call experience. These external perceptions, in turn, prompt us to take action in this time–space world.
This conceptualization to birthing is analogous to physical conception on a microcosmic (and microscopic) level. Like the seed created by the meeting of the sperm and egg, a conception is a germinated seed. This conceptual seed is then planted in what I coin the "womb of consciousness" – analogous to the sperm–egg seed planted in the womb of the woman. In the womb of consciousness, this seed gestates much as the seed in the woman’s womb gestates. This conceptual gestation acts as the placenta nourishing and giving form to the conception until it is birthed into the time–space existence. We internally perceive this conceptual gestation as an image in the womb of consciousness.
The moral of the story: Be aware of the seeds you are planting. Take responsibility for them; nurture the ones you want by perceiving them through the internal perception of image; and rid yourself of the seeds you don’t want, either by reversing them, or seeing yourself taking them out by any means you choose (in imagination anything is possible). Thereby, you are at once pro–choice and pro–life.
Coveting
The 10th Cosmic Law states: Do Not Covet. Coveting consists of eight distinct components covering the essence of this term "covet." The eight are:
- envy
- jealousy
- competition
- comparing
- claiming for oneself what doesn’t belong to oneself
- possessing for oneself what doesn’t belong to oneself
- avarice
- greed
Envy means wanting what someone else has. It refers to a two–party situation. Jealousy means wanting who you have. It refers to a three–party situation. Envy contains the seed cause for war. Jealousy contains the seed cause for murder.
From envy and jealousy spring competition and comparing. These two characteristics are ubiquitous in human relationships. Competition governs innumerable endeavors such as: sports, economics, dating, education, to name a few. Comparisons have constantly been thrown in your face since you were young. These unnecessary measuring devices stimulate envy and add all the dire ramifications ensuing from there as well as from competition.
Naturally, envy and jealousy give birth to possessing and claiming what does not really belong to us. Just think about whom in your life has attempted to lay claim to you or to stake possession or possessiveness to you, your time, attention, property, or whatever.
It brings us to avarice and greed. Avarice is an extreme impulse to acquire, hoard, gobble up, overstep boundaries, while greed represents wanting more, better, and different with its attendant feeling of discontent with the blessings already available or apparent in your life. Can we think of a more representative quality than greed to define a primary – if not the primary – value system propelling American society?
Of course, we can penetrate deeply into each one of these properties discussed above, but here I think a nice schematic outline can suffice to start everyone paying attention to how we may be exercising one or more of these covetous qualities. Perhaps, in doing so, you might begin to see how they may be destructively influencing your life.
In future Dr. Jerry’s Corner comments I shall define the disturbances associated with each of the other 10 cosmic laws as they pertain to our everyday life. Next will be the Ninth Law: Don’t bear false witness.
IÃÂÃÂm particularly emphasizing these 10 cosmic laws for without them to act as a beacon to guide our life we shall incessantly create the misery, suffering, discord and insanity that dominate the world in which we live and to⁄in which we are mutually participating and contributing… unless we choose to do otherwise.
Final Things
The journey toward final things – death, resurrection, immortality – known as "eschatology," begins with first things – our human body. We are here in the linear time–dimensional space existence. It is from here we proceed toward everything we yearn for, be it material or spiritual. We are given at birth the means necessary to achieve any end we choose, either individually or collectively. For the majority of us there are no limits to which our spiritual aspirations can take us, which is not so as it appears for our material aims. In the latter instance we have to consider our individual bodily limitations and the capacities we truly have. Also, there are numerous resistances we face in the world from others who want to block our ambitions, or from environmental circumstances that simply stand in the way. Interestingly, when it comes to spiritual life there are no resistances or obstacles. The heavens are the limit!
In my exploration of final things, which has been the central aim of my life for the past 20 years, I have discovered what I believe to be the tools and methods to continue life, extend living, perpetuate existence, and become eternal. There are 18 tools⁄methods. The number 18 equals life in the esoteric wisdom. Amongst them there has to be a particular one that any given individual can find amendable. By the law of holography, where the one contains the all, any one of the techniques (or more if so chosen) can encompass all the others; and any one of them can take you to the destination I envision as possible for us – immortality. Here is a diagram to illustrate this point.
The circle represents wholeness, integrity. You are a point on this circle as part of the whole, yourself being whole as well. On this circle every being can fit as it is a mathematical truism that there are infinite points on a circle, so there is no end to whom may be placed there. We can also regard the circle as our planet. We want to go to the center, which is truth. We know the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Take a straight line to truth. However, as we start out we find ourselves diverted and distracted by a myriad number of possibilities grabbing our attention, taking us off the path. So, our journey may look like this.
Yes, so many possibilities, so many exciting areas to traverse. What happened to the original path? It has been obscured, maybe forgotten. The expenditure of energy to take on all these possibilities is enormous, while the expenditure taking the straight path maximizes energy conservation. It’s pure, free of contamination.
The conference I’ve conceived and orchestrated this coming October 17–19 in New York City is called "Imagination, Spirit & Immortality." Amongst the inspirational, experiential presentations and talks about the legitimacy and authenticity of resurrection and immortality, I shall be conveying some of these straight path methods and techniques. Take a look at the conference brochure on this website for a full description. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Globalization
Professor Richard Rubenstein, Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, writes in his book, Thus Saith The Lord: The Revolutionary Moral Vision of Isaiah and Jeremiah (New York: Harcourt Books), that the way to world unity and fulfillment of Isaiah’s second proclamation of the end of war and the subsequent unity of human brother⁄sisterhood is through globalization. I have to agree, but for reasons somewhat askance from Professor RubensteinÃÂÃÂs. His views await your perusal of his book. The way I see it, globalization will bring the materialistic, mercenary, acquisitive impulses to an end, embedded as they currently are in the five dark currents of will: to take, to keep, to hold onto at the expense of others, to advance at the expense of others, and the desire to be great.
What globalization brings has two distinct possibilities opening the door to spiritual life and the eventual restoration of the Edenic existence awaiting us:
1. The hyper–materialism that would ensue would bring people to realize how the satiation of material life would not bring the happiness and peace of mind hoped for. Then satisfaction needs to be looked for in different quarters, namely an inner turning to the spiritual dimension and its consequent renunciation of the five dark currents of will.
2. The explosion of the five dark currents (that spiritual life requires be short–circuited) leads to an exhaustion of our resources. Given that we run out of goods, there is nowhere to go but to turn to the one resource we cannot exhaust: Spirit. I suspect this concern of running out of resources materially is prompting the desire to find out if other planets within our reach are habitable. This latter term is not mine but is used by NASA in its exploration of Mars. NASA’s concern is whether Mars is habitable (note: not inhabited). Why is this important? Because, amongst the non–meek who currently inherit the earth there is a sense that our resources are running out and that we need to explore the possibility of exploiting what the red planet has to offer.
It would be nice if the exploration of inner space – the spiritual dimension – matched the extraordinary outlay of funds (that could be used for problems besetting us on earth) used to explore outer space. Be that as it may, globalization brings a real possibility to the fore for a genuine evolutionary shift in consciousness. Of course, it needs be considered that such globalization taking place under the five dark currents will bring with it unparalleled strife and misery. However as the entropy (breakdown, decomposition, decay that is automatically built into material life) this direction of globalization will produce will give way to a neg–entropic impulse of greater order, complexity, organization, and truth will prevail in the world.
Conscience
A cosmological point: the preservation of our world⁄planet depends on three interdigitating factors: (1) conscience; (2) will; and (3) memory. The latter two ’ll take up in future Dr. Jerry’s Corners. Now, for the first one – conscience. Since according to the renowned mystic poet Rumi the world is run by drunkards and thieves, not to mention my discovery of murderers, we can discern one unifying theme amongst this trio: namely, an absence of conscience. This lack of care or feeling for how our actions may impact another, or concern for the condition of others, or lack of remembering the plight of the disadvantaged, is certainly brought to awareness by reported catastrophes.
I have in mind the recent earthquakes in China and the cyclone in Burma. In these instances it came clear that the thieves, drunkards and murderers were having their way. In the case of Burma the helpless masses were just mercilessly treated as dispensable shadows having no ostensible worth. In the case of China the heinous policy of murdering the babies to limit families to only one child (given the families wanted more) came back to bite them in the behind, so much so they had to revoke the one family–one child policy. We also may take note of our own backyard catastrophe in New Orleans when our government did not act appropriately.
I could go on and on about the killing fields all over the world. The point is: there is no chance for peace, collaboration, cooperation without conscience. The teaching of conscience is sorely lacking in our global educational system. But, it is with conscience where the legal and moral systems meet, where spiritual justice can prevail. It is interesting to note that in the Western bible there is one phrase that is quoted 50 times (the most oft quoted in the entire text): help the widows and orphans in their troubles and travails. Each of us can endeavor to practice conscience, not to be a thief, drunkard, murderer (this latter has many variants), values subtly encouraged in many, many societies and extolled in the media. Conscience can be learned. Without it no real spiritual evolution can take place for us individually, or collectively. Certainly, we have to take on this way personally and primarily. And, don’t expect the institutions to lead us into a conscience–based collective.
It is by becoming conscience–based individuals that we will have an impact on shifting these institutions toward social responsibility. So it was throughout history that the "outsider" came along, stirred the pot, and monumental changes, socially and spiritually, took place. This phenomenon is called "moral logic" or "qualitative logic" where the part is greater than the whole – one person affects a large mass of people. The spiritual teaching of conscience appears in such places in the wisdom literatures as the eight–fold Buddhist precepts and the Monotheistic 10 precepts or 10 laws⁄commandments. How these may be lived out or applied in our everyday life may be found in my book Healing Into Immortality, or in my 8–CD audio set The Natural Laws of Self Healing.
Voluntary Suffering vs. Involuntary Suffering
To suffer is to bear. The bearing we suffer is ordinarily painful. Pain is a sensation and mental state experienced as harmful to us in some way. However, pain can actually be of two sorts: debilitating or constructive. The latter is often called "growing pains." Spring training in baseball terms is that time when players get their muscles in shape to prepare for the opening season. The process can be painful as the kinks are worked out. The etymological root of pain in the West also gives rise to the word punishment. In Sanskrit the root has to do with purification. In spiritual terms we go through the inevitable pain of this great journey to purification, eventually to union with our Divine source.
So, there can be suffering through pain leading to happiness. Suffer the pain, physically and mentally, of getting in and staying in shape in your gym and you’ll experience some semblance of happiness.
Getting back to suffering, there are two types. One has deleterious effects for⁄on us, the second spiritually elevates us. The first I call "involuntary" suffering, the latter "voluntary" suffering. Involuntary suffering consists of habitual, conditioned, repetitive behaviors with their attendant disturbing feelings and sensations. In this case we don’t take charge of the suffering; it takes charge of us. For voluntary suffering the case is different. Here we choose to take charge and agree to accept and weather the distress inherent there, for we have an intention toward something we regard as more valuable to us. We undergo willingly short–term pain for long term–gain. In involuntary suffering we are conditioned to seek a short–term gain resulting in long term-pain. The gain here comes about through efforts to avoid pain as quickly as possible. ThatÃÂÃÂs the mantra of early life conditioning we all suffer when we are not in charge and others are in charge of us.
Spiritual life recommends taking the path of voluntary suffering, putting yourself in charge knowingly for a long-term gain through short-term pain. There are no shortcuts to spiritual illumination. Pain is a normal part of the process, for be it Karma from the East or Justice from the West, we have made and do make errors, the debts so incurred have to be met and paid up. In addition, there is a future calling we all hear early in life. Very few answer this future karmic beckoning regarding it as painful in some way. It goes against our conditioning and habit of wanting pleasure and avoiding pain. Then, we retreat to the comfort of illusory ÃÂÃÂsecurityÃÂÃÂ and ÃÂÃÂsafetyÃÂÃÂ of our materialistically based life, which somehow doesnÃÂÃÂt seem to stem involuntary suffering and, in fact, perpetuates the pain in most instances.
Detachment
The law of detachment is the law of love. When God sought to create the world – according to the spiritual teachings of Kabbalah – He⁄She covered everything and was everywhere. In a great act of love and mercy He⁄She contracted Him⁄Herself leaving a space for something to be created in that void. That "something" was the created world. Thus, we find ourselves here in this sacred place through an act of cosmic detachment.
Since we are: (1) made in God’s image and likeness; (2) have free will and choice; (3) are a microcosm of the macrocosm, we are here to emulate God. By withdrawing or detaching, we reenact God’s act of creating space in which a new creation can come into being. Pregnant women are doing this all the time, for at the time of labor they begin contractions coupled with creating a space for a new birth to come into existence.
What a loving act it is to make space for another to be, express and become who he or she is without having to be concerned over someone else trying to control, manipulate, or otherwise gain domination over them. Only such a loving act of detachment reverses the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest where one gains supremacy through dominating or subjugating others. True love takes quite the opposite stance.
In connection with the experience of attraction, the existence of space created through the act of detachment puts us in immediate contact with the forces of divinity or the universe (if you prefer). As we emulate God, so does God, through the agency of His⁄Her force of love, come to sustain and support us. This is the cosmic law of attraction. We create the space through detachment and the universe is attracted to us, it comes to fill in exactly what we need. By detaching we bring to us the great gifts the universe has and wants to bestow on us.
This is the secret behind The Secret.
Alzheimer’s
There have been recent reports of an "alarming" increase in the incidence of Alzheimer’s deterioration. A number of ideas have been adumbrated to account for the occurrence of this difficulty, most of these attributions connected with physical causes.
I would like to add a spiritual dimension to the mix. I start from the position that we are endowed with the possibility of establishing four types of memory during the course of a lifetime. These are:
1) Factual memory = the retention of the multitude of facts thrown at us from early childhood on to teach us what’s here in the world.
2) Logical memory = that memory instilled in us in later childhood to help us make sense of all those facts.
3) Moral memory = the recall of those elements pertaining to our relationship to divinity, to the Creator from which we have come. Usually this memory comes to the fore later in life.
4) Vertical memory = that memory required to make sense out of those elements and also what this divinity, and all it implies, is about.
As we grow older the factual-logical memory naturally begins to erode. If and when this happens should there not be a moral–vertical memory available to replace the factual–logical, a void in consciousness occurs, as it were, so that nothing more exists for that person, certainly in terms of human relationships. The feeling of love dissipates for that person, and life’s meaning seems to disappear from his⁄her existence. Thus, that individual appears to be unrelated to the world around him/her.
A corollary to the foregoing is that we are always faced with a choice in life between committing ourselves to an essentially materialistic or spiritual life. This choice urges itself upon us more intensely as we get into our 40’s. If we opt for the materialist life, thereby excluding the spiritual, then the moral and vertical memories are not developed. Hence, when the earlier memories begin to erode nothing is available to fill the void.
An intermediary possibility presents itself here. For creative types like Woody Allen, Irving Berlin, and Bob Hope who live the materialist existence, as they get older the creative impulses serve to fill in as the memory erodes, so they can retain an ongoing relationship to life.
I expect the logicians reading this to find the exceptions to my assertions, which in no way disproves the veracity of the spiritual perspective. Any articulated verbal presentation, of whatever sort, is always subject, by logic, to having its major premises reversed⁄destroyed, as Kurt Gödel maintained over 80 years ago when he won the Nobel Prize for this discovery. However, displays of logic can never invalidate the premises and foundational principals, or the experiential truths, of spiritual life.
For those who want to give plausibility to the spiritual materialist viewpoint, where materialism is wedded in an unholy alliance with spirituality a la Madonna and many other public personalities who profess to be "spiritual" while seeking material wealth, no contradiction is either discussed or brooked, I can only echo the wisdom of our ancient masters on this matter when it was stated that "one cannot serve two masters at the same time."
It’s All in the Preposition
In spiritual life there is a tremendous amount of written material across all traditions. Words play a pivotal role, especially in how these traditions are conveyed and understood. In the Western tradition of which I am quite familiar, I have come to learn about the importance of prepositions in understanding certain spiritual points. I’ll share four such instances:
- in – for
Are you living in the moment, or for the moment? If it’s the former you are on track spiritually. If it’s the latter you are following the hedonistic⁄materialist path. Finding sensory pleasure at any cost is your anthem.
- in – of
Are you living in this world, or living of this world? If it’s the former you are on the road to spiritual participation in life. If it’s the latter you have put your eggs in the basket of materialism, a form of life that is not spiritual. Can you be a spiritual materialist (a common phenomenon these days)? No. Spiritual point: You can’t serve two masters at the same time. In this case Divinity – Mammon.
- to – for
Are you responsible to someone or for someone? If it is the former and are responsible to them we may speak of adult responsibility, such as our being together in a shared world having care toward one another. It it’s the latter then you may very well be co–opting the freedom of someone else, or unduly taking over choices and decisions for others in a way that can diminish others (of course we are exempting those who may be in coma, unconscious, under the age of seven years old, or incompetent by law).
- about – to
Do you speak inwardly about yourself to another you, or do you speak inwardly directly to yourself? If it’s the former you are getting a handle on a spiritual practice of self mastery. If it’s the latter you are in a debate with what we term your "false self," one which you will always lose and will thereby ultimately suffer. How does that work? I use myself as an example. The usual way: I (True Self) speaks directly to jerry (false self), i.e., Jerry speaks to jerry. Jerry always loses, jerry wins. The spiritual way: Jerry speaks to a Larger Jerry about jerry. Jerry wins, jerry loses. Keep doing this and observe what happens to you.
Logic and Intuition
Please take note how often in the media commentators mistake the terms "logic" and "intuition." Most often they cite an idea that is intuitive by terming it counterintuitive, meaning what? The idea is logical so call it "logical." When you are intuitive call it "intuitive." What is the necessity for the modifier "counter"? Intuition is almost never given its proper due as the essential way knowledge in human relations and relationships is gleaned. Logic is reserved for understanding how the mechanical world operates. It can never allow you to understand the world of human experience. Actually, it is incorrect to apply logical thinking to such experience so that the word "counter–intuitive" has no application at all since intuition is operating on different levels of comprehension that can’t be compared. Even the phrase "I have to figure this out," or any of its variants, is used incorrectly when applied to human relationships in any form. "Figuring out" is a phrase applicable to logic, but has no relevance elsewhere.
Intuition permits us to apprehend by a process outside the logical mechanism of syllogistic thinking. It allows us to think in wholes, to see how elements are related to each other, without the necessity of drawing conclusions, as happens with logic. It is unconditional thinking, i.e., it doesn’t depend on immediate information supplied by ordinary logical construction of thought. The experience is one of knowing that you know, but not knowing how you know. Intuition consists of disinterested intellect – needing no conclusions to be decided – combined with disinterested instinct – needing no immediate fulfillment – both bridged by intuitional language called image – needing no causality.
You will not hear much of this latter way of non–natural, scientific thinking over the airwaves or other mainstream media outlets. So, when the speaker seeks to use the word "counterintuitive" for something intuitive so as to say it’s not logical and therefore, should be discounted, don’t be misled – or even worse – bamboozled.
Semi–Delusional Thinking
Delusional thinking is generally defined as a fixed idea or belief that can’t be modified by any evidence to the contrary. In addition, such thinking, when it becomes part of an organization of psychotic thought process, effects our functioning in life.
Since we human beings are really different from each other in degree and not in kind (as psychiatry postulates), almost all of us are subject to some measure of delusional thinking. That is, we hold onto some idea(s) or belief(s) contrary to the evidence.
By the time we reach the age of seven or eight we have become complete humans. Along with this development our essential belief systems are in place. Once they are in place they remain fixed and become the basis for our attitudes and actions until and unless some event of major magnitude intervenes to change the rules. Barring that sort of circumstance, nothing, no evidence to the contrary, will budge us off a held idea or belief.
Consequently, we are walking around with semi–delusional thoughts that have some impact in⁄on our lives, although unlike the unfortunate soul sitting in a state mental hospital, they haven’t invaded our everyday life to bring decay into our existence. Nonetheless, there is some price to pay for such thinking, often with some really injurious results. Case in point: "There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq". Contrary to the evidence, a mass delusion set in, leading the way into a seemingly interminable devastating war.
Moral of the story: Let he who is free of error cast the first stone. We are all guilty of condoning such delusional thinking.
Cause and Effect Thinking
Cause–effect thinking is an anti–spiritual way of explanation. It’s the foundation for most misconceptions that are at the basis of all conflicts, struggle and discord in the world. Consequently, on the mental level, cause–effect thinking may be one of the, if not the, most destructive force we know. There are two salient points about cause–effect thinking for this presentation:
1. It is based in and determined by linear time, the latter being the deciding factor as to the truth of something;
2. It is exclusionary in its function. In order for it to achieve some status it must exclude all other possibilities, such as the cause of strep throat is the streptococcus bacteria.
Regarding point 1: cause–effect thinking either projects one into the future through if–then thinking, viz., if we keep searching for the organism that causes cancer, then we shall be able to cure it. Here we have a projection into a time frame that doesn’t exist – the future – and this illusory magical thinking is treated as meaningful and as a reality. Other cause–effect statements are based in the time frame of the past – another illusory realm that doesn’t exist, since the past is over, ended, done, finished, gone, e.g., this person is a child molester because of what experiences happened to him in childhood.
Point 2 is an extension of point 1 in that cause–effect thinking must always arrive ultimately at a conclusion, often experienced as "This is it!" Once that happens, the door closes on investigating other possibilities. By its very nature, then, such thinking must exclude other possibilities as having value or meaning. Spiritual life of the West is inclusionary. Its thinking is based in relational, correlational terms and is called analogical. This type of thinking allows us to see the kinship between things where we can observe points of similarities as well as dissimilarities. This kinship function permits us to see the wholeness and⁄or functionality of something. For example, if I hold my left hand up to the mirror what I see in reflection is my right hand. These two hands are similar, yet dissimilar. However, I am seeing the wholeness of handedness. I am seeing the kinship between them. Through this kinship phenomenon we can come to see the relationship between what is known and what is unknown, i.e., God, so that eventually everything becomes knowable.
Analogical thinking allows for understanding our relationships in the world of human beings, while cause–effect thinking, at best, relates to our understanding in the mechanical, non–human world. Unfortunately, the latter, as the body of logical thinking, is constantly mis–applied in prompting us to "figure out" our human relational world, a task which it is ill–suited to accomplish and whose results are impossible to achieve.
The Supercessionist View
One of the main sources of anti–Semitism derives from the supercessionist view of Christianity versus Judaism (and later, as we shall see, Islam toward Judaism as well as Christianity, so that their views are anti–Semitic and anti–Christian). Supercessionism holds that Judaism merely serves as a platform upon which a greater tradition is built, namely, that of Christianity, which holds the key to salvation for human beings.
I’ve underlined greater to be synonymous with supercessionism, the latter term meaning to supercede. Christianity, therefore, supercedes Judaism. To this end the Christian world has made a persecutorial attempt over the past two millennia to force Judaism to accept this position. The latter group has, of course, continually resisted these attempts at conversion at the risk of their lives, which has commonly been the case.
I would now want to offer an alternative term to greater⁄supercessionism offering a more rational and less violently provocative possibility. The term is "different." This re–framing stems from my understanding of the work of Prof. Ori Soltes of Georgetown University. He has demonstrated that Judaism and Christianity stem from the same point of origin evolving out of a dispute erupting around 200 B.C.E. in Judea, a southern portion of Israel. This rift centered on whether the Book of Prophets was closed in 400 B.C.E., or whether prophets continued to exist and the book should not be closed. I shall not go into length about this issue and more can be discovered at Prof. Soltes’ website. But, the split that occurred pitted these two groups against each other, persisting to the present time.
Essentially, we have two parallel streams of thought like two brothers, such as Jacob and Esau, having an unresolved squabble with each side vying for supremacy. Unfortunately, the consequences of this battle turned horrific, as I described above.
However, we don’t have really a greater⁄better religion; rather, we have two different points of view, each going its separate way. Acknowledging they are different allows one to make a sure choice as to which direction one feels comfortable with. Acknowledging this choice gives validity to accepting the other’s movement toward freedom and acting to preserve this freedom for the other, as well as for oneself.
As for Islam, they believe their god and prophet supercedes and eclipses the Jewish and Christian versions, excluding the latter two groups of people from the ranks of human beings, the latter considered to be infidels⁄unfaithful⁄sub&ndhuman. Islam’s view is distinctly supercessionist. The supercessionist view definitely does not include human freedom as one of its virtues or priorities. In fact, it seeks to deprive human beings of freedom as outlined above.
In this supercessionist maelstrom we can see the adverse effects of organized theology posing as religion: tying oneself to God. This definition of religion is a spiritual one promoting every human being’s right to find God on his⁄her own terms unencumbered by the dictates of an organized institution seeking its own will to power rather than seeking to preserve the will to freedom of every human being who is able to find one’s own clear path to the Divine.
The Second Fall
The first Fall takes place in Eden when Adam and Eve choose against God, i.e., against spiritual life. This theme is repeated later on in the Bible when Moses leads the Israelites to the earthly Eden called the Holy Land, the land of milk and honey. After Moses’ death, the Israelites enter this Edenic existence led by Joshua, then the Judges, and finally Samuel, before the advent of King Saul.
Although the Israelites are illuminated at Mt. Sinai when they receive the Torah, this group of about 1,000,000 wander in a desert of rather small proportions for 40 years before becoming spiritually cleansed. The desert is the perfect setting for spiritual practice, free from the interfering distractions of everyday life. The revelatory experience of Sinai gives us a group of highly evolved beings who have come near to God, an experience not given to many, then and now. Their communal mission, as Isaiah puts it, is "to become a light unto the world and a nation of priests." However, it is only their children who are able to enter the land of Israel and fulfill this mission.
Upon entering the earthly Eden, a span of about 200 years transpires from Joshua through Judges to Samuel. The rulership during this time is inconsistent and unpredictable; certainly not on the level of Moses. Samuel, however, is a great prophet and leader. But his sons are a different sort: they are unscrupulous, cheating and stealing from the people. Consequently, the people cannot fully trust Samuel, who is either unaware or blind to his sons’ activities. The populous then demands a king like all the other nations around them. And when Samuel replies "Why not me?", the community, for some puzzling reason, doesn’t take the opportunity to speak about his wayward progeny. Samuel then warns the people about the inherent dangers and consequences of taking on a king, but to no avail.
Opting for a king in lieu of a prophet–leader, the community veers away from their spiritual path and mission – which demands persistent practice and vigilance – and embraces the values and practices of the less–developed, mistake–ridden, error–in–living nations surrounding them. But the Israelites have nothing to learn from their neighbors and their neighbors have everything to learn from them, for the greater tend to teach the lesser, not the other way around! Rather than becoming "a light unto the world and a nation of priests", the community derails and gets mixed up in the insane affairs of the manmade world; and it hasnÃÂÃÂt gotten back on track for the past 3,500 years. Until this mistake is corrected – and it can be rather quickly – the manmade world cannot come into order and fulfill Isaiah’s other famous vision: the lion lying with the lamb, swords beaten into plowshares and not knowing war anymore. The remedy: teaching the lessons learned in Sinai, spreading the perennial universal wisdom of the 10 Precepts.
The Holy Grail
Much speculation has arisen about the grail chalice since the arrival of the Da Vince Code book and movie. Here’s one spiritually–based input.
The chalice is a cup: more specifically, the cup of Elijah that is poured full of wine at every Passover Seder to herald the arrival of this special prophet – the one of immortality. It is a biblical fact that the prophet Elijah never died. (He is one of two biblical personages, the other being Enoch, who don’t die.) So, at the celebration of freedom from slavery known as the Exodus from Egypt (Egypt meaning attachment to the senses and the worship of materialism) homage is paid to the possibility of the defeat of death – immortality and resurrection – that is, the culmination of this spiritual freedom undergone by the freed Israelites in the Sinai desert. It is this defeat of death that lies at the heart of Western spirituality, "the last enemy to be defeated" as was penned by Teilhard de Chardin.
When Jesus drinks from the cup, it is not his cup he cites but the cup of Elijah, at which time he exclaims: "This is my blood." At first, it seems like a blasphemous act to drink from Elijah’s cup (it is left untouched and then emptied at the end of the Seder), but Jesus was aware of his impending arrest that evening, as it was an open secret that imprisonment was near. He drank from the cup at the Seder to send a message to his disciples about what his mission really was, and to remind them of his teaching that resurrection and the defeat of death was a concrete, literal reality⁄truth. He wanted to emphasize this by claiming his direct connection to the prophetic line and its patriarchal predecessors in Monotheism, that he would fulfill this mission. His subsequent resurrection gave a dramatic stamp of authority to this teaching.
The interest in searching for the grail that has inspired so many legends, books, even movies, touches on this deep yearning we all have to escape⁄defeat death by finding the key to⁄cup of immortality. This search will not end until we have made this discovery. My year–long course Living Sinai In Egypt plunges deeply into the necessity and logic for this search.
One footnote to this point: Seemingly blasphemous acts are sometimes needed to awaken or shock a populace out of complacency or numbness. So it was that the Maggid of Messeritch, the successor to the Baal Shem Tov (the founder of Hasidism), doused the Shabbat candles between his thumb and forefinger to the dismay (to put it mildly) of his followers. When asked about why he did this he said that he foresaw what was to happen to the Jews of Europe. He did so about 100 years before the advent of Adolph Hitler.
Relationships
Relationships are commonly predicated on the formula of "me real–you shadow". This goes to say that the childhood sense of only my life is real and intensely felt while others appear to exist, but seemingly at the periphery of my life, is carried out in adult life. For most, the sense of "me real–you shadow" is not shed. It becomes noted in psychiatric terminology as "narcissistic" or "self–absorbed, egotistical or egocentric". Those cast into the shadows accept this role through intimidation. They become slave–like in their behavior, servants as it were, to serve the egos of their masters who seek to play this game, often to avoid feeling inferior themselves by becoming self–important. Such relational skewedness is the antithesis of love where the genuine loving relationship is "me real–you real". If you find yourself in the shadows, don’t stay there. It is not where you will find love, even though you have deceived yourself that the promise of love offered by the self–centered one will come to pass. It never will.
You can look at my link for mental imagery exercises – Out of the Shadows to find a way to change this situation for yourself.
Living Sinai in Egypt
All spiritual practices demand a turning inward to find out who we really are, to know ourselves as Subject by subjective means. Many disciplines require periods of withdrawal – often extensive – to allow for this inward discovery free of external distractions and diversions. In the Western tradition, to which this year–long program is devoted, this point was made decisively when the great teacher Moses led a band of slaves out of Egypt into the Sinai desert to freely engage in such practices without external impositions.
In the esoteric⁄spiritual wisdom understanding, Egypt represents enslavement; that enslavement to materialistic, sensory, hedonistic, acquisitive attachment to material, quantitative, essentially dead, idolatrous life. Sinai represents the realm of Spirit free of attachment to things, and where detachment from enslavement and entrance to freedom can happen.
The departure from Egypt⁄enslavement to Sinai⁄freedom is in accord with the thrust of the world’s spiritual doctrines. However, the journey through Sinai was not the end of the story. It was, actually, the beginning. For it became necessary for this group to carry out a new mission imparted to it from the Divine Source, namely: to spread abroad this message derived from the Sinai experience. As the prophet Isaiah wrote: "You are to be a nation of priests (teachers), a light unto the world." The way this teaching was⁄is to be imparted was⁄is of a special nature. It was⁄is supposed to teach us how to become free through the diversions, distractions, threats, temptations of the Egyptian world that surrounds us in daily life. It is the very perturbations, tumults, distresses encountered in this disordered Egyptian life that are used as the prompt, the teacher as it were, to propel us into Sinai. Therefore, there are no retreats to retreat to, no necessity to isolate yourself from the community. To the contrary, we act to bring a therapeutic impulse to the world to help cure the disorder. That’s what Isaiah had in mind.
To bring this curative effect about we actually have to live in this world, but not be of it. We do not want to abandon the world by any means. To be in it, but not of it means to live Sinai in Egypt. That is what my teaching is all about. I live in, perhaps, the most Egyptian city – New York – in the world. Here we are put to the real test. However, my methods seem to have borne fruit not only for myself, but for many here who have experimented with these ways.
A good deal of inspiration and direction has come from my teacher, of blessed memory, Colette Aboulker–Muscat plus the works of Valentin Tomberg and Robert Rhondell Gibson. They all helped me understand, absorb, and assimilate the major strands of Western spirituality: Monotheism and Hermeticism. To this amalgam I have added my own original techniques and methods to provide a comprehensive curriculum of spiritual education delivering a cohesive and practical approach to changing your life forever for the benefit of yourself, those around you, the greater community, and the world at large. This, then, serves as the introduction to Living Sinai In Egypt.
Less is more…
Did you know that guided imagery done quickly promotes the most powerful healing effects? This understanding is based on a homeopathic principle of healing which says essentially that a micro amount of a substance can produce a macro response.
So then, practicing guided imagery for a few seconds… five to thirty can be sufficient to set off the body’s natural pharmacy of helpful curative substances.
It is also helpful to do these imagery exercises at the same time each day, three times daily… preferably (a) upon arising, (b) at 5 PM, and (c) before going to bed.
Take care not to do them lying down. Ideally, do them sitting up in a straight back chair with arms. Don’t cross your hands or legs. That’s all it takes!