Health, Personal Reality, and Consciousness
R. K. Ebert PhD. © 2006
The Tree of Life Foundation
Across the millennia sages of all sorts have told us that life as we experience it is an illusion. They say that our immediate experience is a projection of our own attitudes and this stops our ability to experience what is real and true. No two individuals experience life in exactly the same way, even if they have undergone exactly the same life experiences and are identical twins. This is true because experiences do not determine our reaction to them, we do. We determine our reaction as a function of the meaning that we give to the events in our lives. In other words, meaning comes from the inside, not the outside. Meaning happens within a particular context, or one’s frame of reference. What the Arab-Israeli conflict means to us depends on “which side” we are on. Essentially, our frame of reference, which arises from our values and beliefs, both determines our motivation and attitude, and limits our ability to understand and give meaning to the events we encounter in life. In life it can truly be said that attitude is everything.
Attitudes are collections of thoughts which persist over time; a mixture of past feelings and reactions. They are a result of our holding onto our past conclusions concerning the meaning of things that we have stored in our minds. We understand what is now in front of us only in terms of our past conclusions. While this seems logical, and perhaps desirable, this method of relating to the world inevitably leads to seeing the present through the camera lens of the past. Like viewing an old movie, we project our past into the present. Our attitudes result in a seeing the world in a way that simultaneously evokes emotional responses and shapes our view of events in a way that reinforces what we already believe to be true. In short, we create a self perpetuating and self fulfilling system. We are locked into an almost inescapable loop. Once our mind concludes meaning, that meaning becomes at the very least our personal reality. We defend our point of view. Being our conclusion we know that it is true regardless of what others may think or say.
The effect of our attitudes is reflected nowhere more than in the stress they generate in our bodies. All thoughts generate energy. Certain thoughts generate energies that are harmful to us and lead to disease and suffering, while others lead to health and well-being. Acceptance, tolerance, mercy and forgiveness have a calming and strengthening effect on the body, while hate, envy, fear and condemnation create stress and distress in the body.
Stressful reactions have their impact on the body slowly, as a result our tendency to respond to various situations and events in the same way over and over. This habitual repetition of our reactions gradually influences the energy of our being, distorting it, or calming it depending on the nature of the thoughts we think. Eventually the distortions in our energy system become increasingly discordant, we become “stressed out”, and experience physical discomfort. Eventually this stress causes an exhaustion of our natural healing energies, and we succumb to disease. Thus stressful reactions are the result of interpreting current events in ways that are harmful to us. Stress does not exist outside the perceiver; stress only exists inside us as a reaction. This is why two people can react to the same event in different ways. The reaction is not in the event, it is in the person.
That thoughts generate energy which affects our bodies is beyond question. Approaching the mind from entirely different perspectives, both David R. Hawkins. M.D., Ph.D., and the Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, M.D. have concluded that the mind, through our thoughts, influences our physical beings at the most elementary levels. Those thoughts not only influence the chemicals in our bodies, but even turn genes on and off, and cause the brain to reconfigure itself!
Hans Selye, the father of stress research was a brilliant scientist, but being married to the Newtonian “cause is in the material” perspective, Selye lacked the necessary context to understand that stress is a reaction of the mind, and only shows up as a physical reaction in the body. According to Selye “.. Stress has its own characteristic form and composition, but no particular cause. The elements of its form are the visible changes due to stress, which are additive indicators, expressing the sum of all the different adjustments that are going on in the body at any time.” Hans Selye, The Nature of Stress.
It must be noted that Selye did understand the importance of emotional arousal in the stress reactions: “Undoubtedly, in man, with his highly developed central nervous system (CNS), emotional arousal is one of the most frequent activators. Yet it cannot be regarded as the only factor, since typical stress reactions can occur in patients exposed to muscle fatigue, trauma, hemorrhage, etc.” However, his context was insufficiently broad, and he did not consider the energy of the thoughts that sit behind emotional arousal. Selye never investigated the motives and intentions that accompany emotional arousal. He missed the point that while stress is a reaction to many things, our way of looking at things put as much wear and tear on the body as physical trauma!
Selye concentrated his research on the human nervous system and the cascade of biochemical events that follow the stress reaction. Other research indicates that the stress reaction in started by the impact that the energy of our thoughts has on the energy pathways of Chinese Traditional Medicine, the meridians of Qi. The organizing centers (Acupuncture treatment points) of the meridians appear responsible for biological morphogenesis, or the development of our physical bodies. They are singularity points that affect time, space and matter within their range of influence.
Acupoints retain their homeostatic regulatory function after morphogenesis and communicate and comprise a signal transduction system that maintains proper bodily form and function. Kinesiology testing can demonstrate that the connection between the mind and body is immediate. Positive thoughts make our bodies strong and negative thoughts make us go weak. Since the body’s response is immediate, our physical being is influenced from instant to instant by our changing thoughts and emotions. It is the repetition of various thought patterns which ultimately result in physical breakdown and manifest disease. Thus, while ideas of all sorts pass through our minds, it is the ones we habitually entertain that impact us the most.
The energy fields of disease states appear to precede observable disease states. For example, research has shown that reliable changes in the bioelectric potential of meridian points occur months before any physically observable signs of breast cancer appear in women. Fortunately, the mind-body connection is a two way street: we influence the meridian energy via the energetic pattern of our thoughts; we can also influence the energy pattern of the meridians via direct or indirect stimulation of the meridian points themselves. This is why Acupuncture works. Many alternative therapies including acupuncture, homeopathy, massage, aroma therapy, and reflexology correct the results of energy imbalances. However, unless the underlying attitudinal pattern at the source of the energy imbalance is changed, the illness tends to return, or another one will take its place.
Thus, while proper stimulation of the meridians influences the pattern of energy in the meridians, and can destabilize the self-perpetuating energy fields of disease states, health ultimately rests on letting go of our negative world views, and adopting an actively positive perspective.
David R. Hawkins, MD, PhD in “Power versus. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior”, categorizes the range of negative and positive thought patterns that influence man. Dr. Hawkins subdivides these patterns into interrelated aspects of consciousness which he terms “God-View”, “Life-View”, “Emotion”, and “Process”. Each aspect of consciousness is contained within separate but interrelated “Levels of Consciousness” (LoC), which range from low energy states of normal awareness to high energy states of enlightenment.
Dr. Hawkins’ insights into human consciousness, and its relationship to our physical being, are the keystone upon which the Attractor Field Techniques (AFT) is constructed. Using the same energy system as acupuncture the acupoint tapping sequences that are part of the Attractor Field Techniques destabilize harmful energetic patterns that are at the source of stress reactions, and the resultant disease, and suffering we experience. However, since the long-term influence of negative thought patterns can reinstate negative reactions in the energy system, and thus the body, understanding and recognizing these patterns is the key to long-term health. Beyond the tapping techniques, AFT provides practical methods of using higher-level energies to break negative reactive patterns that we are locked into by our past conclusions. It is possible to “be at choice”, but we must first be free of our automatic reactive patterns to do so.
The latter part of this paper provides descriptions developed by the present author’s research and clinical experience of the characteristic thoughts and ways of perceiving that are stressful and harm the body. They are drawn from Dr. Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness first presented in “Power versus Force”. Before presenting these descriptions it is important to have a more detailed context through which consciousness may be understood.
An individual’s existence does not begin with his conception or his birth. We have been told by Sages across time that we are not our bodies. Rather they say that we are eternal beings of light energy, who have communication devices we call bodies. This view of physical materiality has recently been adopted by Quantum physicists who view physical matter as a form of “frozen” light: energy held in place by other energetic fields. The body can be accurately described as a biologic system floating within a myriad of hidden energetic fields that regulate its form and function.
Our bodies, through the influence of the meridians, are in effect a reflection of the projected energy of our being. As eternal beings, existing in a temporal physicality, the energy of our current “Here-now being” is influenced by the energy of our past existence. This influence is referred to as “Karma”, and can be thought of as a constant energetic breeze that colors the context of our current and earliest awareness. Karma influences the genes at the point of conception, it first manifests in the personality as temperament. We add to and subtract from the ongoing energy of our Karma throughout our lives, as we think, act, and react.
At the end of our current physical form our eternal energy, the True You, will carry unfinished Karmic remnants from this life, in addition to other past life unfinished remnants. What are these unfinished remnants? They are energetic attractor fields that maintain our separation from All-That-Is, our duality. Attractor fields are energetic forces that organize and limit things that are within their field of operation. When we no longer generate low-level energy patterns we exit the temporal physicality and become one with, or resonate with All-That-Is. While this may seem to be an airy-fairy concept or an unrealistic goal, it is the path we are all on. It is the path we will remain on until our journey is finished. Every step toward this goal is, in itself, a step toward freedom and a step toward love. Love is ultimately total freedom and total acceptance of self and others. Love is beyond forgiveness; Love sees no errors in need of forgiveness or correction.
Our Karmic energy initiates our “God-View”; it is the energetic force that influences our earliest perceptions and reactions. Our “God-View” can most easily be thought of as the judgment position we use when we are “playing God” and judging ourselves or others. It is the source of our primary reactive patterns; the rationalization we use to justify our feelings and reactions. We each have only one set of beliefs or rules concerning what is right and wrong, good or bad, and how to respond to life’s events. We use this set of rules to judge our own and other people’s motivation, including God’s motivation. For each of us God is seen as an entity with an attitude; the only question is whether or not God is friendly. The less friendly we perceive God to be the less tolerant are we of ourselves and of others.
Our “God-View” strongly influences our view of life, or what we think life is all about. “Life-View” is the meaning we give to the events and other stimuli in the world. If our judgment position is that punishment is deserved if the rules are broken, God will be perceived as punitive and the world is likely to be seen as frightening; a place filled with opportunities to be punished for our errors and lapses. If we cherish our grievances and enjoy paying others back for their misdeeds, life can be a terrifying and evil place, because others will be seen as having the same motivation. If we as God love we overlook the “transgressions” of other people and the world is seen as benign and supportive.
“Emotion” refers to the subjective experience that derives from our “God” and “Life- Views”, or what we feel. We become anxious when we anticipate and fear punishment. Conversely we feel reverence or peace and joy when we perceive God as loving, or when our context is one of love: we do not see others or ourselves as bad or blameworthy. Peace may accurately be seen as the absence of energy disturbances caused by our own negative thoughts.
“Process” refers to our characteristic response, in both thought style and action, to our “God-View” and “Life-View”. In other words, how does our world work, or function in a practical sense? We withdraw from that which is frightening, become enslaved by our exaggerated desires, destructive when blamed, aggressive when antagonized, and give up when resistance seems futile. Obsession results from overly valuing things that we feel are denied to us. Aggression originates from an antagonistic “Life-View”, and a belief that a settling of scores is justified when an insult or harm perceived.
One of the most difficult things to grasp is that our upsets, whatever form they may take, are a product of our own view point. Upsets of any sort indicate that we value something more than peace and harmony. Most of the time what we value is being “right”, having our way of looking at the world held as the supreme truth. This is both our trap and our freedom. It is all our choice! We can choose to be happy or miserable. It’s all up to us.
This means that God, the world, individual circumstances, other people’s actions, and everything else outside of our selves, is totally innocent. We cannot play the victim and point the finger at anything outside of ourselves. We create our reality. No one makes our judgments except us. It is only our judgments that determine our reactions. Water is wet, and rocks are hard; things are as they are.
One of life’s hardest lessons is that we get what we believe, not what we want. If we want it, we do not have it. If we believe it, it is our reality, and if it does not manifest by itself we will create it.
Below is this author’s partial description of some of the ways we generate and perpetuate stressful energies and thus entrain a negative personal reality. Rarely does anyone operate solely from one of the perspectives noted below. Rather, each of us shifts from one perspective to another in relation to our motives and intentions at the moment. We have a favored perspective that we habitually return to when “stressed”. While we do have a choice, we carry a significant burden of history and inertia. Nevertheless, we can each operate from an enlightened perspective, at least for moments at a time. We can all find ways to laugh in the face of our hardships, and to forgive our own and other’s foibles or missteps.
Changing our perspective, letting go of our negative reactions and views of the world, even for a moment, is of significant value to us. As it turns out, positive energy is vastly more powerful than negative energy. Even a few deliberate moments of viewing a situation, ourselves, or another, from a truly positive perspective will noticeably change our lives for the better.
Change requires motivation born of intention. Intention, not infrequently arises from conscious awareness of personal self-interest. Most people do not want to change. They believe that their beliefs are justified, correct, and that those who hold different beliefs have somehow “missed the boat”. Most people, even if unhappy, want to continue to operate in the world as they have always done; what they want is a different outcome. It is sometimes very difficult to accept the idea that you will surely achieve the same, or similar, outcomes if you keep doing the same things! It is even more difficult to accept that our physical being, our very body, is part and parcel of that outcome.
It is easy to judge the descriptions offered below as harsh, undesirable, and otherwise unacceptable. They are in reality descriptions of all too human behavior, attitudes, and values. The descriptions really are us, at any given moment. Our beings ultimately reflect the energy of the thoughts we harbor, the actions we undertake, and the activities in which we participate. It is in our self-interest to recognize the intimate relationship between our thoughts and our physical being. It is time to awaken to the responsibility that we alone hold. Only we have the choice as to the type of thoughts we allow to nest in our mind.
Recognize in the descriptions below our common folly, and forgive yourself and others if you recognize some of yourself or others in what you read here. Further, acknowledge that any upsetting emotional state that you experience is the result of your own perspective. That you are choosing to impose your past experience on some current situation or individual(s). Other people are not at fault for your upset, you are! If you do not like how you feel then YOU must change. Acknowledge that you must have made a mistake in how you view the situation involved. This, of course, assumes that you have really not deliberately chosen to feel badly. Then, if you chose, you might intend to find a better way of handling what was recognized or experienced. There must be a better way of viewing or responding. Not everyone shares your upset, so why should you be stuck with it? Intention is the start of it all.
While each of the perspectives listed below seem different, they all have a common element that makes them variations on the same theme: each is a victim’s perspective, where self-worth and personal power are seen as outside the individual. Freedom comes from having the courage to accept that it is our reactions that limit our health and happiness. We must recognize and accept our limiting reactions before we can change them. No one can do it for us, only we have the power to change ourselves. Victim-hood ends when we have the courage to accept responsibility for our own thoughts, feelings, and actions. It is the key to freedom and personal power. The truth will set you free.
Definitions of Stressful Consciousness by Level and Category
LoC 20 – Shame
God View: People are despicable, they are mean, cruel, hateful, and untrustworthy; people deserve being insulted and degraded. This judgment position is the least tolerant way that we can see ourselves or others. It is a place without love and trust: a place where you must hide your desires, dreams, and yourself. Even if someone seems to be your friend or professes love, they can turn on you in an instant, and attack causing physical or emotional pain and suffering. If given the slightest opportunity people may humiliate, degrade, and expose any impropriety they find. They may attempt to ruin your reputation or hold you up to public ridicule. They will say one thing to your face and another behind your back.
Life-View – Since you must always be on guard and can trust no one, life is a miserable and lonely place. Love and kindness are an illusion and can be replaced by hate and treachery at any time. Life is full of discomfort, and unhappiness. Contact with people creates opportunities for pain, humiliation, and misery.
Emotion – Humiliation. Humiliation is an intense embarrassment and sense of shame that arises when we believe that we are somehow “less” than others or believe that what we have done could lead to rejection by others. Mortification is a more painful feeling than shame that arises from specific social circumstances when one is humbled in the estimation of others, or when a loss of self-respect is perceived. We loath, hate, and fear someone who humiliates us or who is mean to us. Low self-esteem is the hallmark of the shame-based personality, which synchronously perceives and creates opportunities for humiliation and rejection in social situations.
Process – Elimination. Synonymous with rejection, is a process of removing or getting rid of, especially as being in some way undesirable. It involves omission as being unimportant or irrelevant; leaving out, and ultimately eliminating, killing, or destroying, actively or passively. The Shame based personality is frequently shy, withdrawn, and introverted or on the other hand, bullish, rigid, driven, intolerant and overbearing. They often profess moral strictness and alternate between attacking other people’s motives and fear of rejection by others. They have few friends, and avoid public exposure.
Some respond to shame by deadening their feelings, becoming indifferent to the opinions and feelings of others, and remaking themselves by becoming “what they do, what they have, or what they accomplish”, rather than what they feel inside that they are. This is a position of “false pride”.
LoC 30 – Guilt
God-View – People are seen as vindictive and eager to pay one another back for any offense. People are seen as bad, evil, and apt to take advantage of any situation in which they can gain an advantage. Good is overlooked as a temporary aberration, as a ploy to mislead and gain an advantage. Since they are evil, people do not deserve forgiveness or mercy, they deserve to be hurt. Grudges and paybacks are seen as a source of power and someone who offends or bothers you should be held accountable, and caused endless suffering.
Vindictive has a number of meanings: the most commonly understood meaning is to be vindictive, or spiteful, prone to revenge; inflicting or desiring harm, injury, or humiliation to befall another who is perceived as having caused some wrong. Those prone to vindictive thinking become obsessed with the wrongs that have been done to them and the need to expose their antagonists. Those judged guilty must pay … forever.
Another less understood, yet more common aspect of this view is the need to avoid blame, to be prone to vindication, or justifying one’s self rather than taking responsibility for one’s own actions and or thoughts. Both aspects share the underlying commonality of un-forgiveness, either of others or oneself. Those who cannot forgive themselves will ceaselessly avoid any responsibility for wrongdoing. “It’s not my fault”, “they did it”, and “they made me do it” is their constant refrain. They thus avoid feeling guilty by being “right”. Guilt-based personalities are preoccupied with sin, or wrongness, and its punishment. The belief in “paybacks”, no matter how seemingly justified, is an example of vindictive thinking.
Life-View – Evil. Viewing actions, behaviors, or situations as being morally wrong or bad, wicked, harmful, injurious, depraved, vicious and corrupt. Guilt is the land of victims, remorse and blame. Life is basically an evil “dog eat dog” place where “do unto others before others do unto you” is the general rule. You must watch your back or you will be blamed, injured, and be paid back for your errors or mistakes. People’s mistakes deserve to be exposed and made public. What is important in life is focusing on what is wrong.
Emotions – Blame, and rage, or fear of being blamed and being seen as wrong and therefore being the object of other peoples rage and pay backs. Rage is uncontrolled hate that is acted out openly or covertly. Open rage is shown as physically violent uncontrollable acting out or verbal abuse. Covert rage can take the form of closing one’s heart and rejecting someone; never forgiving another for a perceived slight or failure. Most blaming of others is the projection of ones’ own guilt or shortcomings onto the other in order to avoid feeling guilty or anticipated censure. Self-blame leads to self-recrimination, self- punishment, and self-destructive behavior.
Process – Destruction, violence, verbal abusiveness, or conversely perfectionism to frantically avoid blame and being seen as being bad and wrong. Commonly guilt-based personalities manifest both self-sabotage and violent outbursts aimed at others; or, conversely the perfectionist fear that wrongdoing that will trigger the vindictive paybacks they believe are deserved for wrongdoing.
LoC 50 – Apathy
God-View – Condemning. People are judged as too weak or constitutionally incapable of managing their own lives and the forces or situations that they encounter: they are bound to fail, they have no chance to succeed. Because of their inherent limitations or inadequacy it is not possible for them to change or succeed; they are condemned to failure or a lack of success by their own weakness. Apathy is a position of ultimate powerlessness, in which even forgiveness is irrelevant.
Life-View – Hopelessness. Life is bleak and barren; it is desperate and beyond any optimism: it is incurable, impossible to accomplish, solve, resolve, etc. Hopelessness is totally without energy, and in this state one cannot see or benefit from opportunities that may be present. Those with this life view are a millstone on those around them, and society in general. They are so dependent on others that they can passively expire, literally, without external assistance. Those who have seen television commercials showing starving third world mothers listlessly holding their malnourished children, while flies crawl all over the both of them have seen the face of true apathy. Why bother to brush the flies away? Flies are everywhere, and they will only come back again. Why bother to grow crops? The desert always wins. It has always been that way. One cannot change the nature of things.
Emotion – Despair. A state of gloom, disheartenment, and loss of hope; giving up, lacking in courage and ambition. It can be as complete as to result in a more or less permanent state of passive acceptance of any and all adverse circumstances such as is demonstrated in the Stockholm Syndrome.
Process – Abdication. Giving up authority, power, control; feeling helpless and powerless to change and improve their lot in life people suffering from apathy quit, or just give up.
LoC 75 – Grief
God-View – People are judged as worthy of disdain and are seen as being without honor or value; they are disgraced or tarnished by their actions or inaction: they are wrong and have a character defect that dooms them to poor performance. Disdain is shown in sarcasm, mockery, derision, ridicule, disrespect, or other attacks on character; in calling or thinking someone a fool or stupid. Disdain is the projection of perceived loss onto the actions or inaction’s of others: they are responsible for our troubles; if it weren’t for them our lives would be better, easier, and less troubled. Unlike the Guilt God-View LoC-30, the wrongdoer viewed from this level of consciousness can be forgiven, if they mend their erroneous ways.
Life-View – Tragic. Grief, sadness, and regret are the inevitable outcome of peoples failed actions. People are flawed. It is possible for them to succeed, but they inevitably fail because of inattentiveness, greed, lack of caring, or some other defect. Situations are seen as calamitous, disastrous, and doomed to failure and loss; depression and sorrow or irritations over the failings of others are a normal but undesirable fact of life. The focus of life is often the past, “what might have been, if only”; “what has been lost that can never ever be recovered”; etc. Dr. Hawkins describes this energy field as “the cemetery of life”, and experientially it truly is.
Emotion – Regret. A sense of loss, disappointment, dissatisfaction, irritation or a feeling of sorrow, or remorse for a fault, act, loss, or disappointment. Regret is distress of the mind, sorrow about events of the past, what has been done or failed to be done, wrongs committed, or errors that have been made.
Process – Despondency, feelings of melancholy, gloom, and despair; disheartenment caused by a loss of hope. Loss of hope flows from believing “that which was lost cannot ever be recovered”. This perspective on life often leads to sadness, crying, and depression. This level of consciousness accounts for the greatest number of mental health clients, and is the third most prominent LoC in the US today.
LoC 100 – Fear
God-View – Punitive. At this level, the most common LoC found in the USA, there is a belief that without rules life will devolve into chaos. There is a belief that punishment is deserved if the rules are broken, and that punishment or fear of punishment is the correct way of controlling undesirable behaviors. Punishment is the appropriate and inevitable outcome of breaking the rules. Punishment may take the form of withholding attention, affection, or love, or may be more active as in jailing, and corporal or capital punishment. Forgiveness for one’s offenses is possible only after punishment and contrition have occurred.
Life-View – Frightening. Since ignorance of the rules does not mitigate the correctness or inevitably of punishment, potential threats can be everywhere. Almost any situation can lead to unwanted consequences, losses, embarrassments, or rejections that are feared. The frightened are intimidated and easily manipulated in order to avoid their feared consequences. Authority figures are sought who appear fearless and capable of defending or protecting the fearful.
Emotions – Anxiety and insecurity. Anxiety is an emotion of anticipation, dread, or concern about what might happen. Anxiety is to the future as Grief is to the past. In order to avoid anxiety people avoid or move away from that which is seen as fearful or uncertain. Avoiding looking bad, or not being seen as desirable, being alone or poor, are powerful social motivations and are the source of much attention and activity in this world. Insecurity is an uncertainty about one’s ability to manage what may happen next, whether one will be “good enough”. It is a fear of inadequacy.
Process – Withdrawal. The downside of fear is paranoia, defensiveness, and avoidance. Fear always generates a pattern of “move away from” behavior, avoidance, and inhibition. Fear of loss or seeing others as breaking the rules without consequence can also result in anger, and defensive aggression, withdrawal of love, and other punitive actions. Since anxiety is so common it is viewed as normal, unless it’s totally out of control, or causing too much inhibition of behavior.
LoC 125 – Desire
God-View – Denying. Denial involves having what is wanted available, but not offered; being within reach, but withheld, refused, or unsatisfied. Denying is saying or being said “no” to when satisfaction is possible. What is desired may be material or emotional, tangible, or intangible; whatever is desired is seen as something that the denied person believes they are entitled to receive whenever they want. Forgiveness occurs only after that which is desired is offered.
Life-View – Disappointing. Not getting or having what is desired leads to disappointment. Disappointment is painful, and people who feel entitled can be easily hurt by not getting what they want. The most frequent cause of disappointment, and ultimately anger, is one’s unmet expectations. Being denied is about wanting, and the energy field of Desire is the land of greed, of wanting what others have, of ceaseless accumulation, or having without gaining enduring satisfaction.
Emotion – Craving. The level of desire is the level of the addictions, where want is never satisfied. Want comes from exaggerated desire, the belief that whatever is wanted is the most important thing in life, and having this thing will bring a state of ultimate satisfaction. We can create exaggerated desires for almost anything: money, physical pleasures, attention, or things. Desire is a very powerful energy field which can positively lead to achievement in order to get what is wanted. Unfortunately, it can also be absolutely insatiable and cause one to spend their entire life in indolent self-indulgence.
Process – Enslavement. As an ongoing energy field, those caught in Desire can never truly satisfy their wants. They can never ever have enough money, things, or “highs”, enough attention, or whatever. One desire satisfied only leads to another desire taking its place. Entitlement precludes the rights of others, and the greedy will take what they want without concern. Desire is totally without peace.
LoC 150 – Anger
God-View – Vengeance. Vengeance is a violent settling of scores: you have harmed me, and I will repay you in kind. Vengeance is the inflicting of injury, harm, humiliation, or the like, on a person by another who has been harmed by that person. Anger shows itself mostly in terms of resentment, and frequently stems from frustrated wants. Want stems from exaggerated desires. The most common cause of anger by far is that of unmet expectations, especially the expectations of other people. Unlike the rage of guilt, for those who seek vengeance, forgiveness occurs when the harm has been undone. When the score has been settled satisfaction occurs, and calm returns.
Life-View – Antagonistic. Life for those in the level of Anger is about getting back at those seen as harming or frustrating or slighting the angry person. They tend to be oppositional and actively hostile. Angry people foster friction, conflict, and strife: they give what they see as coming from others. Life is seen as a constant struggle, and other people are seen as adversaries with whom they must compete in order to get or keep what they want.
Emotion – Hate. Hate involves feeling intense dislike, or extreme aversion for, or hostility toward, something or someone. That which is hated is detested, loathed, and despised. Hate is truly the opposite of Love. For those who view life from this perspective, anger can flash unexpectedly, and is seen as warranted and justified by the offense they perceive as having been presented to them.
Process – Aggression. Anger most frequently is expressed by offensive action, attack, and explosive behavior. Anger is volatile is dangerous. Angry people act out their frustration physically, verbally, or through any other means by which they can hurt those they see as having committed an injustice.
LoC 175 – Pride
God-View – Indifference. For the prideful person, whatever God is, he does not care about man, either through a lack of concern or lack of interest; the prideful view their fellow man with the same lack of concern. Man is alone and must make his way by himself, and set his own rules. Man is what he makes of himself, because God really doesn’t care, and other people only care because they are jealous of what you have or what you have done. Forgiveness is irrelevant; the proud rarely say that they are sorry: people deserve what they get.
The prideful God-View frequently emanates from an early rejection of moralistic views. Views that caused the individual to see him as worthless, or unacceptable to those in authority. By setting their own rules and through their own actions they can remake themselves in an enviable fashion.
Life-View – Demanding. For the prideful person life is an ongoing process of surmounting the demands of any situation, of being the first, or the best. Self-esteem is based on accomplishment. This is part of the downside of pride: being “second” is no better than being last. Pride is therefore assailable, and based on constant external accomplishment, without which it can be cast into shame or worthlessness.
Emotion – Scorn. Anything less than the best or most desirable is treated with contempt, derision, mockery, or jeering. Pride is thus divisive and disdainful, and tends to be audacious, haughty, domineering, and overbearing. Given the opportunities it presents for the infliction of humiliation and the inherent indifference to the feelings of others pride has rightfully been deemed one of the “seven deadly sins”.
Process – Inflation. Pride carries with it a claim to superior importance. In order to be up, all others must be down; in order to be more others must be less. It is not enough for the prideful person to enjoy his or her own accomplishments quietly by themselves; they must loudly proclaim their superiority in front of others. Prideful people need applause and constant acknowledgment of their accomplishments, superiority, desirability, etc, and will not miss an opportunity or fail to create an opportunity to crow and brag. Those caught in the process of inflation thus seek venues (titles, awards, vocations, etc.) through which they may strut and display their self-imagined superiority.
The ways of looking at the world described above energetically open us to disease by sapping our normal adaptive energies. This process initiates the well known “General Adaptation Syndrome” so thoroughly documented by Hans Selye. As was mentioned earlier, Selye himself described stress as having no source, and only being detectible by what it does to our bodies. While Selye lacked the necessary context to understand stress, you do not. You only have the physical problems that you have because you generate the energies that allow them to arise. As ye so, so shall ye reap. The great masters said it all a long time ago. It is time to recognize the truth in their words.
