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By Clemencia "Minds under Siege" -- The reflections of a Therapist. As I listened silently to the couple in my rooms I was struck by the hostility darting back and forth between them. It reminded me of a fencing match, as accusations were thrust and parried with wounding accuracy into the fragile heart of the relationship. A line from a poem came to mind -- "We had the experience, but missed its meaning" -- Having practiced as a Therapist, my intuition automatically focused on the word "meaning." As it did so I wondered why my mind produced the following thoughts: What I Sow -- I will Reap, if I make you cry -- I will weep. In terms of current theories, such "thoughts" are attributed to intuition, but what I was witnessing in this couple was the behavioural outcome, or expressed deed, of thought processes. That thoughts seemingly appear from nowhere in the mind is not an experience unique to this couple or myself but is it a process explicable only in terms of the intuitive function? It was their thoughts which drove the couple to re-live in minute detail every past hurt they felt the other had inflicted upon them. As they recalled these incidents the process seemed to have little to do with the positive intuitive function. I was watching two people who loved each other lash out emotionally, being driven by their incoming thoughts of past grievances, thoughts that drove them to act as if the hurts experienced in the past were being inflicted again in the present moment. What is it about this process of thought which has so much power to re-create and trigger past events and to re-activate emotions associated with them so forcefully that the ability to distinguish between what has occurred in the past, and what is happening in the present, is actually obliterated. Also, why is it that these thought processes primarily constellate the negative? How often do we find that people generally, or our clients specifically, spend endless time in the negative thought processes about past events rather than focusing on positive events which also occur in our lives. These were the questions I asked myself after the session as I reflected on the theories I had studied to assist me in some measure towards an understanding of the process I had just experienced. What struck me rather forcefully was that in reality most of the theories did not provide an adequate understanding of this process. At the core of most theories attempting to come to grips with the powerful interplay between the mind and emotions is the belief that insight usually produces positive change. Yet despite the plethora of knowledge, and the exponential growth of theories on the mind and emotions providing such insight, a corresponding growth in psychological, emotional and spiritual well-being, does not seem to have occurred in the human race. Why is it that I am busier now than I was 20 years ago? Why is it that many of my colleagues are also experiencing an increase in people with negative thought processes when so much "information" is available to the general public? As professional Carers we have to admit that despite the belief that our theories provide answers our services are in ever increasing demand. This can only be explained either because those afflicted are not being fully helped by us, or, a greater percentage of the population is succumbing to mental and emotional trauma. There is no doubt that we try to provide "care" for the people who come to us, but are we providing mental relief within the minds of our clients? As I daily listen to an increasing number of people voicing fears at the negativity of thoughts that assail their minds, it would seem not. Clients variously speak of these thoughts in such a way as to indicate that they do not belong to the self. This is evident from some of the comments made: I don't know what
came over me -- Where do these thoughts originate ? The people we label as schizophrenic and who are "hallucinating" report that the "voices or thoughts" heard by them, are communications from beings at other levels of existence. However, the majority of people I see are not labelled Schizophrenic and cannot be classified into the categories contained in the D.S.M. Yet many individuals are reporting powerful negative thought processes stemming from sources other than their own minds, identifiable by some, as not being a part of their own unique consciousness. The escalation of negative
thoughts in an ever increasing number of ordinary people can no
longer be explained in terms of our psychological or analytical
understanding of mental illness only. Drugs seem to have the effect of deadening or lessening the thought process and result in some loss of "expression" by the individual but the chemical restraint in itself does not distinguish between the positive or negative thoughts and consequently lower the whole mental framework of the patient. Chemicals or not, the patient is still the recipient of negative feelings and thoughts, as indeed are those not labelled patients and not on drugs. Something is very wrong when we see that none of us are immune from the epidemic of negative deeds first thought about and then frequently acted upon by many of us although we may not be as aware of our own negate actions as of those we perceive in others. I think it becomes daily more apparent that at a national, community, personal and interpersonal level, we are increasingly responding to emotional, verbal or physical threat by confrontation and retaliation. The increase in litigation to resolve conflict in all areas of our lives is perhaps the most obvious indicator of this process. Drugs, psychological theories, psychoanalysis, various other therapeutic interventions and religious teachings, have failed to give us a satisfactory answer to this increasing problem. I have spent many years searching for answers in this area both through my study of psychoanalysis and my personal search for spiritual truth. You may therefore imagine my surprise to find that the understanding of this process was not discovered in the scientific or mental health journals, nor in theological teachings, but revealed in a recent book of spiritual insight titled: The Testament of Truth When I read this book, my first reaction was to take a deep breath and dismiss it as "a simple book written in verse." After re-reading it several times I had to admit that the word "simple" reflected more the humility it required of me to read it than an objective critical analysis for after all I considered myself conversant with most theories on mental and emotional illness. This book profoundly challenged my current understanding and knowledge in the area of the mind and emotions. The wisdom of its explication of the cognitive, emotional, psychological and spiritual crisis we are currently facing was challenging. I accepted the challenge in spite of my pride. The impact of this written word has enormous implications on our current understanding of mental, emotional and spiritual processes for it gives insight into the influence of the realm of spirit on the thought processes and consequent emotions of individuals. Without this understanding we are, literally, groping in the dark because we keep ourselves ignorant of the real impact of the spirit realm on our thoughts, emotions and subsequent behaviour. Many sincere, searching individuals hold to the belief that there is a realm to which souls or spirits return after physical death, but what is not so fashionable and therefore not readily understood is that these souls or spirits can and do have an influence on our thoughts and emotions. What we seem to have done is dismiss this reality and replace it with psychological theories which explain that the only influence on our thoughts and emotions stem from the unconscious, either personal or collective. The contents contained in the unconscious are claimed to be all that we have experienced and subsequently repressed. At times however we find that our thoughts are so alien to us that we are unable to claim them as resulting from personal experience. In other words, it is hard to see how the thoughts that are in our minds could have been repressed into the unconscious in the first place. Further, it doesn't seem to matter how much we dig up from the unconscious, there is always more, and certainly more than any one individual could conceivably have "repressed" in one life time! This is where the truth of spirit influence in our minds can be seen more clearly. We have thoughts that 'inspire' us either positively or negatively, thoughts which cannot simply be explained as repressed unconscious contents. We haven't lived long enough, nor had the experiences that some of the "thoughts" would suggest, to have repressed them into the unconscious so whence these thoughts! The revelation in The Testament of Truth gives insight into this explaining that as increasing negativity is drawn to the surface by Light from the Source, negative emotions are intensified as they surface. The full explanation is that emotions are energy which have a vibrational wavelength which, as they intensify, are "felt" by other beings on different lower levels of existence. As emotions are drawn to the surface vibration increases and consequently attract more 'thought' from other levels. There are beings, whom we refer to as spirits, at other levels of existence who have only one way of fulfilling their emotional needs and that is to inspire our deeds, a process accomplished by telepathically controlling our minds. It is from this reality that thoughts appearing to be alien to our conscious understanding of ourselves, originate and enter our minds in response to negative feelings. It is postulated that the feelings of increasing negativity are much stronger at this time in history because it is a time of a deep inner spiritual cleansing, one which involves an increase in the flow of positive energy to draw out negative emotions which in turn allows easier access to our minds. Our negative emotions, if likened to a radio transmitter, therefore "tune us in" to the negative "station." On this particular "station," we "receive" thoughts from souls at other levels of consciousness whose negative emotions vibrate on the same negative frequency as our own. Since each emotion has a "wave-length" or vibration of its own, when negative we find ourselves "tuned-in" as it were to a corresponding negative or dark energy force. The resulting increase in the negative thoughts that seem to come from nowhere are in fact the thoughts of other souls interpolating with ours. Suddenly we find that the initial emotion of say "anger," concluded in thoughts which engendered such a tremendous emotional outburst, that to use a common expression, "our thoughts ran away with us." - and run with us they do, way beyond the stimulus which triggered the anger in the first place! Both the positive Light, and negative Dark energy, influence our thoughts. If our feelings are positive corresponding positive energy flows but, for an increasing number of people this is not the case. Many of us are experiencing negative feelings more frequently and this is a time when the power of the darkness lies in its spell-binding continuity of negative and confusing thought keeping our minds focused in ever increasing negative circles. We find ourselves regretting yesterday, worrying about tomorrow, and plotting revenge over past hurts almost automatically, a process which also automatically halts our capacity to be forgiving, accepting and loving which is to say positive and therefore receiving Light energy. The result is mental torment, irrationality, and moments of temporary insanity when our minds, totally controlled, lead us to deeds of abuse, verbal, emotional or physical, either towards others or ourselves. The chief character of this process is that the inundation of thoughts and emotions compel us to actions which in "saner" moments we think ourselves quite incapable of performing. When I grasped the full impact of this process, it gave me an insight into a phenomena which to date has eluded so many of us. If this understanding is correct, and I believe it is, and thought intrusion leads to compelled irrational action, then the increasing number of youths suiciding for no obvious "other" reason, becomes more explicable. This thought intrusion is, in therapeutic terms, referred to as "Obsessive thought" but if drugs, conscious will, insight, understanding, and even years of therapy, do little to abate obsessive thought, could it be accounted for by the explanation in The Testament of Truth. In short, these obsessive thoughts come not from the individual unconscious, but from spirit beings outside consciousness. Due to the neglect of the spiritual side of our beings, the side that connects us to the Source, (whatever we may conceive that Source to be,) we no longer understand that it is our choice to draw on the Light or the Dark, the positive or negative universal energy. Whether we are consciously aware of this or not, the reality does not alter, the positive or negative energy is either used by us, or more pertinent, uses us. When we are forgiving, understanding, compassionate and loving we use the positive energy. When we retaliate or control others in any way, we use the negative energy. Without the conscious knowledge that the choice to use Positive or Negative energy is our alone, we seem to have handed responsibility for our behaviour over to beliefs, dogmas, or psychological, emotional or social theories. Most of us now think we have a "legitimate" reason to blame someone - our childhood, the system, partners, society or parents for our ills, not accepting that our own choice of which energy, positive or negative, will inform our deed and that that deed is responsible for how we consequently feel. The Source's call now as always is for love, peace, and non-retaliation when confronted. Since we can all acknowledge that we daily succumb to negative emotions and thoughts, we know we have denied this call. This has led to us being more ready to abuse or retaliate when confronted which in turn results in us "drawing-in" darkness. How are we to retain our rationality and sanity as both internal and external confrontation escalates and produces a corresponding surge of negative emotions? My understanding from reading The Testament of Truth is that we need to break the flow of negative thought intrusion into our minds. This is accomplished not by numbing the mind chemically, nor by plumbing its depths by endless digging into the unconscious, but by building the Ark of the Mind meaning, fortifying the mind against negative thought intrusion by consciously choosing to draw on the light. However, until we are able to accept that we are not only the sum total of our physical and emotional experiences and programming, but also mental transceivers in the sense of our spirit self, we will be unable to make a choice for the Light or the Dark for when we do not know that our thoughts can be manipulated by souls on other levels of consciousness we deny ourselves that choice. The powerful pull of negative emotions are difficult enough in themselves to control but they become impossible to contain if we do not control the accompanying thoughts. These thoughts we cannot control if we remain in ignorance of their origin. When we build the "Ark of the Mind" we show by our deed that we choose to draw on the Light as we choose to consciously focus on the Morning Star. This symbol, which transcends all religions, is the symbol of God's Word of wisdom, light, love and truth and is the symbol that releases Light to all. The prayer is not a magical incantation. By drawing on the Light three times a day we show by deed a conscious desire to be in the Light. This deed momentarily halts the negative thought flow giving us a little clarity, a little calmness, a little rationality and mental respite from the negative thought intrusion that otherwise flows on and on. The full cessation of negative thought flow intrusion is only attained once the energy essence of any particular negative emotion is cleansed out of the soul by God's Grace. Prior to this occurring we are responsible for the choice we make in relation to our actions. As always, ignorance is no excuse, and we are personally responsible for our deeds whether their inspiration came from us or from another source. It is therefore incumbent upon us to be fully aware of all that might influence our actions. This enables us to at least make a choice. The destiny of our own souls lies within our own mind. ~~~ |