INTRODUCTION
A metapsychiatric principle states the following: "If you know what, you know
how." In order to answer the challenging even provocative question, What does God
want?, we have to first explore what God is. We could begin by a process of eliminating
all the invalid -concepts of God from ancient times until today.
In the book "Beyond the Dream," there is a chapter which deals with the changing
concepts of God. Unenlightened man has of necessity a limited concept of God. As
man’s consciousness evolves, so does his concept of God.
There seems to be a desire in man to turn to a power beyond himself, because
he doubts his own capacity to deal with the various crises in his life. Many so-called
primitive cultures give evidence of this yearning by building idols of gold or other
materials and worshipping them. The children of Israel worshipped a golden calf,
the Incas and other nations believed the sun to be a superior power worthy of worship,
etc. In our time God is still considered by many to be a kind of "superman," living
in the skies or in outer space, watching the goings on down on earth and

rewarding or punishing men as he deems fit A Russian cosmonaut, upon returning from
a space flight, held a press conference at which he said that he was looking for
God in outer space but could not find him. Therefore he concluded that God does not
exist
Such ignorant ideas of God lead to ritualism and superstitious repetition of
words without meaning. When our concept of God is anthropomorphic, that is, if we
think of God as a magnified human, our prayers will be petitionary. We will ask God
to give us something, to do something for us, etc. We will think that God is here
for us, that he is our servant, and we may use various ploys to influence him. We
may try to "butter him up" with emotional outbursts of praise, we may try to bribe
him by making contributions to a church, or we may try to influence him by being
beneficent persons doing good deeds. In all these attempts there is always an ulterior
motive — to have our wants satisfied and to be rewarded.
Jesus frequently referred to God as the "Father which is in heaven." But we must
remember that he was addressing people whose spiritual awareness was as yet totally
unawakened. Therefore, he consciously and deliberately chose words appropriate to
their level of

development; otherwise his communications would have fallen on deaf ears arid could
not have been comprehended. He taught in parables and with the aid of symbols. "Father"
is a symbol of a loving, caring, guiding authority.
In Metapsychiatry we say, "God is not a merit system." We have outgrown the childish
notion that God will reward us for reciting words. We endeavor instead to understand
the perfect, divine Reality. Our perspective on God and His creation has become clearer,
and this has a healing effect Our understanding of God is that of a spiritual principle,
the creative Mind of the universe. We also call God "LoveIntelligence." This is a
step beyond the apostle John’s declaration that God is love. Love and intelligence
go hand in hand. There is no unintelligent love. Genuine love is intelligent because
it is non personal, nonconditional benevolence.
WHAT DOES MAN WANT?
Can one petition Love-Intelligence to give us material goodies, such as automobiles,
houses, status, recognition, personal mind power? In Metapsychiatry we have come
to understand that all suffering is due to the universal tendency of man to want
and not want.

Every want is willful and arrogant, therefore invalid.
God is infinite Mind and is not the possessor of anything material What God gives
us is an abundance of intelligent, spiritual ideas and when we become receptive to
them, they provide us with the means to meet every legitimate need. Jesus addressed
this issue in the following statement: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). In other
words, if our first priority is to be interested in what God wants — and this is
the only valid and healthy motivation — everything. needed for harmonious, fulfilling
living will come our way.
The nagging, persistent thought that we are not the independent, autonomous individuals
we appear to be, leads to existential anxiety which we then struggle to repress or
seek means of overcoming. This results in self-confirmatory ideation. Self-confirmation
— or the confirming of one’s self — is accomplished through sensualism, emotionalism,
materialism, intellectualism and personalism. We call these "the five gates of hell."
They are very seductive and, if indulged in, result in many problems, including physical
ones. The sensualist is main-

ly interested in sensations, in exciting experiences. The emotionalist’s main preoccupation
is with feelings; the materialist cherishes ‘possessions. In intellectualism the
main interest centers on being known as knowing —this is essentially mental vanity.
In personalism individuals are concerned with interactions with others.
People frequently say when involved in some interaction controversy, "I can’t
help it, that’s the way I feel" Feelings are thoughts. When we believe that we are
victims of feelings, this is a "cop-out," a disclaimer of responsibility for judgmental
or unloving thoughts. It is a psychological trap which implies that there is nothing
one can do about the situation. But if we understand that feelings ‘are thoughts,
we can take responsibility for these thoughts and shift our perspective. This can
result in healing. We always learn a lesson when we take responsibility for our experiences.
The common denominator in all these categories of self-confirmatory ideation
is, as stated earlier, the desire to repress existential anxiety. Even the avowed
atheist believes in and relies on something outside himself, be it science, ideology,
economic or philosophical systems of thought. etc. This drives man to always

want and not want something. He may reason that it is legitimate to have a good income,
good shelter, good health, etc., and devote a great deal of energy toward achieving
this goal. Wanting is self-defeating, because we always suffer when we approach things
with the attitude of "I want" Instead, we can be grateful, we can be interested.
Interest is love.
FULFILLMENT
Recently a well-known tennis champion was interviewed on television. She recounted
all of her accomplishments — fame, recognition, money, several beautiful homes, a
good marriage — and then, after the elation over the last victory wore off and the
trophies were put on the shelf, she exclaimed: "Is that all there is to life?" This
brings to mind a passage from the book of Ecclesiastes: "Then I looked on all the
works that my hands had wrought, and all the labour that I had laboured to do: and,
behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the
sun" (Ecci 2:11).
When we are alert to observe our thoughts we will find that most of the time
we are preoccupied with one "want" or another. Even wanting to be healthy and happy
is a want
Health and happiness are fruits of a commitment to and an abiding interest in
what God wants. This commitment offers a glorious freedom from the tyranny of wants.
It will free us not only from our wants but we will not be tempted to join others
around us who are catering to their wants.
Real fulfillment cannot be found through self-confirmatory means. Only the awareness
of one’s spiritual status as an inseparable aspect of divine Love can lead to PAGL,
which is an acronym for peace, assurance, gratitude and love. These spiritual qualities
derived from Love-Intelligence, together with joy, harmony and freedom, are the constituent
elements of divine Reality. They are also the standard by which progress on the spiritual
path can be measured. When through consistent study and meditation we reach PAGL
(a state of harmony), at that moment fear and anxiety disappear and we gain a realization
that God indeed exists and is a governing, guiding harmonizing presence in our lives.
This realization does not happen all at once, and once and for all. It is a continuous
process, and we must be alert not to allow ourselves to slide back into the "sea
of mental garbage."
A human being can never find fulfillment in

Health and happiness are fruits of a commitment to and an abiding interest in
what God wants. This commitment offers a glorious freedom from the tyranny of wants.
It will free us not only from our wants but we will not be tempted to join others
around us who are catering to their wants.
Real fulfillment cannot be found through self-confirmatory means. Only the awareness
of one’s spiritual status as an inseparable aspect of divine Love can lead to PAGL,
which is an acronym for peace, assurance, gratitude and love. These spiritual qualities
derived from Love-Intelligence, together with joy, harmony and freedom, are the constituent
elements of divine Reality. They are also the standard by which progress on the spiritual
path can be measured. When through consistent study and meditation we reach PAGL
(a state of harmony), at that moment fear and anxiety disappear and we gain a realization
that God indeed exists and is a governing guiding harmonizing presence in our lives.
This realization does not happen all at once, and once and for all. It is a continuous
process, and we must be alert not to allow ourselves to slide back into the "sea
of mental garbage."
A human being can never find fulfillment in

life, he can only seek it as a spiritual being. The human condition is a dream, and
fulfillment requires us to wake up to the realization that we are spiritual beings,
living Souls. Through conscious at-one-ment with omniactive Love-Intelligence, we
find fulfillment.
ANXIETY
As mentioned earlier, we suffer only from what we want and don’t want, from what
we cherish, what we hate, and what we fear. We classify fear and anxiety as thoughts.
To illustrate: a very bright young lady recently went for a job interview with a
large, well-known company. The interview was successful and she got the job on the
spot. During the interview she experienced no fear whatsoever, but afterwards, instead
of being joyful and happy, she was seized with anxiety, which she couldn’t understand.
In exploring the meaning of this phenomenon, it became apparent that she was afraid
of sharing the good news with her parents, anticipating their disapproval. This new
position represented a progressive step in her career, and it appeared that her parents
would prefer her to be less successful in the business world and instead stay at
home and eventually

get married. So the problem was that she didn’t want her parents to disapprove of
her. This occasioned the anxiety.
In order for this young lady to resolve the conflict with her parents, she will
have to learn to view them with transcendent regard, which means rising above the
human perspective on life to the spiritual viewpoint. Transcendent regard respects
another’s right to be wrong or to have a different idea of what is good and useful,
and this erases the basis for arguments and disagreements.
The meaning of anxiety is that we want something. But it must be pointed out
that there is a difference between anxiety which is coupled with fear and worry,
and anxiety which is a heightened sense of alertness. The difference lies in the
degree of anxiousness. If we want something too intensely, anxiety becomes disruptive
and incapacitating, and this is obviously and undesirable condition. But if we are
interested in something, we are eager to• get to it, and so we could say that in
such a case anxiety is something that makes us more alert. The quality of interest
and motivation determines the degree of anxiety.
Anxiety about speaking in public, called "stage fright," is quite universal It is another

example of the tendency to want and not want If the motivation to address an audience
is to impress, to appear knowledgeable or talented, there will be anxiety. But if
the speaker realizes that his task is just to communicate ideas on a certain specific
topic, he will not be tempted to confirm himself. His interest and motivation will
shift from self to a more valid direction, and there will be no anxiety.
PRIORITIES
The first metapsychiatric principle brings to light man’s need to order his priorities.
It states:
"Thou shalt have no other interests before the good of God, which is spiritual"
The question is frequently asked by students on the spiritual path, "How can I become
truly interested in the good of God when the world is offering so many enticements
and the spiritual good seems so abstract?" While spiritual good cannot be touched,
tasted or experienced, it is very real and can be known. In fact, only what is real-
can be known. What is imagined, fantasized about, experienced, has form or is formless,
is no part of Reality but belongs to the world of phenomena On the other hand, spiritual
qualities and values, such as love, joy,

harmony, freedom, assurance and intelligence, are real; they can be realized. Reality
is spiritual, and the spiritual qualities which are cherished determine character.
Thus we are conscious spiritual beings whose lives are characterized by spiritual
qualities and values.
There are only two ways to become interested in what God wants and in the spiritual
good which results from this interest It is either through suffering or wisdom. Life
entered through the five gates of hell leads to a great many problems, but the entrance
to heaven —harmonious existence—is only possible through the straight and narrow
road of sincere interest in spiritual ideas, spiritual values and spiritual qualities
put into practice in daily life. When we have suffered sufficiently by living with
invalid interests, we may be willing to abandon them and turn to the valid and intelligent
ones. We can be spared the suffering on "the broad road that leadeth to destruction"
by consistent study, meditation, and by seeking spiritual guidance.
We cannot hope to go through life without experiencing problems at one time or
another. "Problems are lessons designed for our edification" is another basic principle
of Metapsychiatry. If we can become receptive to the lessons

inherent in problems and discern their meanings we cannot only resolve them but we
may also rise higher on the spiritual path. A problem can thus become a teacher,
so to speak, and we can learn not to be afraid of it.
Sometimes the question is asked, Isn’t it natural to want to be successful in
life,- or to want to be loved? Of course it is natural, but we are not natural —
animals are natural. We are neither natural nor unnatural nor supernatural —we are
spiritual. We can only prosper harmoniously in life if we understand what it means
to be a spiritual being rather than a natural person.
Once we become students of Metapsychiatry we are no longer "natural man," but
are transformed into a spiritually receptive consciousness. Natural man lacks this
receptivity. The apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 2:14: "Natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Is human love a legitimate need? Infants seem to need the nurturing, protecting
love of parents. Maturing individuals need to be guided to a recognition that God,
Love-Intelligence, is the only source of true love and that man is

the recipient of this love, provided he under- stands his oneness with and inseparability
from it. Human love is always conditional, therefore precarious and unreliable. It
always has strings attached to it. It may communicate: "I’ll love you if you comply
with my wishes, my demands, etc.," while spiritual love, derived from Love-Intelligence,
is nonconditional, nonpersonal benevolence. It is the love of being loving, with
no strings attached, just for the sake of being what God wants us to be. When we
are loving in this sense, we are manifesting God’s love, or we may say, God’s love
is expressing itself through us. Then we no longer worry about whether we are being
loved because we are not seeking to be loved.’ When we become sincerely interested
in the spiritual good of God and endeavor to be- come committed to it, we may initially
experience some anxiety. This anxiety may be occasioned by the belief that we are
required to give up something of value and are not yet fully convinced that what
we gain in return is more substantial and better. But we soon learn that what we
are giving up is illusion. It never had any reality and was the source of much suffering.
What is abandoned on the spiritual

journey is a false sense of personhood with its pleasures and pains, and what is
gained is a valid sense of identity as a living Soul This realization carries with
it the assurance that we are inseparable from the divine Mind. This is comforting.
RECEPTIVITY
One sure way of becoming interested in the spiritual dimension of life is through
suffering. Under the pressure of suffering we may be willing to re-examine our mode
of being-in-the-world and recognize our mistaken ideas. We then become increasingly
receptive to spiritual values and begin to appreciate them.
A student related how she opened the book "Beyond the Dream" at random and a
paragraph jumped off the page, giving her the answer to a troublesome problem. This
is not an isolated occurrence; it happens quite frequently and there is no mystery
about it The secret is receptivity. The Bible says: "As many as received him, to
them gave he the power to become the sons of God" (John 1:12). To be the son or daughter
of God means to be in communication with God. The real need in any situation is for
the right idea, no matter what

the problem may be. If there is receptivity to spiritual truth, our needs are frequently
met through this channel
If the same book were read by someone who is not a student of Metapsychiatry,
he or she might find it boring and discard it Another may become violently angry
because every line in the book would be showing him how ignorant he had been all
his life about what is valid and what is not. The question may be asked, Which reader
is better off, the bored one or the upset one? The answer is, the upset one. The
apostle Paul was very upset by the teachings of Jesus, so much so that he severely
persecuted the followers of Jesus. Then one day, in a very dramatic way, he suddenly
realized that these teachings were valid, whereas everything else he had considered
true up to that point in his life, was invalid. Receptivity to and appreciation of
spiritual truth is not something that can be done. It happens, or "obtains" in consciousness
through divine grace and in response to sincere interested in the good of God.
An enlightened individual understands that God is the only doer, therefore he
is never engaged in "doing" anything in an operational sense. He is a responder rather
than a doer, which means that he continually responds to

manifest needs which life brings to his attention. He is in harmony with divine Love-Intelligence,
from which he derives inspired, intelligent ideas and these prompt him to respond
in a beneficial way to all situations. In electronics there is a term called "transponder."
A speaker phone, for example, is a transponder which receives signals and changes
them into sound. Enlightened man could be called a spiritual transponder.
When a student begins the study of Metapsychiatry, he is receiving information
about the spiritual dimension of life. Suffering, perhaps an existential crisis,
has led him to become interested in this dimension. A metapsychiatric therapist is
a teacher of the healing truth and he encourages and facilitates receptivity to it
in the student. He does not heal anyone personally, he is not producing a redemptive
realization, but he can help the student become increasingly receptive to the truth,
and the truth understood brings about the healing. Truth is really the therapist,
and the teacher is preparing the way of the Lord. "Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3).
The truth obtained in consciousness will transform the student and he will become aware of

his spiritual status as a living Soul. From that moment on he will be governed by
Love-Intelligence rather than by what he wants and does not want, or what others
want, and he will be freed from all interests in self-confirmatory ideation. He will
be redeemed by the emergence of the truth in his consciousness.
THE PURPOSE OF UNDERSTANDING MEANING
The transforming, redemptive truth is available to everyone, but few people are
interested in it until they get into an existential crisis, when suffering becomes
unbearable. All suffering is due to ignorance — entertaining invalid thoughts in
general, and thoughts about divine Reality in particular. God knows nothing about
our ignorance. It is revealed to us through a process called phenomenological perceptivity,
which means we can become aware of thoughts underlying our physical and mental suffering.
The purpose of revealing the nature of our ignorance is to become more receptive
to the truth. To facilitate this process, we ask in Metapsychiatry "two intelligent
questions." They are intelligent because they are inspired and lead to solutions.
They are the foundation of Meta

psychiatry. First we ask, What is the meaning of what seems to be? When we have discerned
the meaning, we ask the second question, What is what really is? The answer to the
first question invariably reveals an invalid idea, and understanding the meaning
or the mental equivalent of the problem, enhances the receptivity to what really
is, what the truth is.
To illustrate: an individual reported suffering from a condition called Tinnitus,
which is a constant, day and night ringing in the ears. When the first intelligent
question was asked, the underlying thought or mental equivalent of the symptom was
revealed as an interaction thought about a discordant relationship with an individual,
and this happened to be a constant irritation. So this was the meaning of what seemed
to be: "I have a disturbed relationship and a disturbing experience and I cannot
stop thinking about it." If we cannot stop thinking about a relationship, it means
that we have a strong desire to either punish the individual or prove him wrong.
In order to be healed of this symptom, one has to be able to forgive the individual
in question. One has to let go of the thoughts which are ringing in one’s ears. When
this is understood, one becomes receptive to the truth an-

swered by the second question, What is what really is? What really is is the truth
that there is no irritating person, only impersonal ignorance. Realizing this truth
makes it possible to forgive and to have compassion. which is the understanding of
a lack of understanding. Interaction involvements are healed through compassion,
which enables us to view individuals in the context of God as living Souls rather
than human persons. If we are able to view others with transcendent regard, compassion
will be spontaneous because we will not deal with persons but issues.
The issue is not to refrain from judging others but to be free of the desire
— or want — to judge. If we attempt to repress the desire to be judgmental, we are
still judging because judging or not judging is the same. For example, we may find
ourselves in the company of some rather self-righteous people and can observe how
they are endeavoring not to judge us, yet we are keenly aware that, in fact, they
are judging us.
The question is often asked, What is the right course to take by a student on
the spiritual path if he or she finds himself in the company of people who like to
gossip or talk about their illnesses? It is understandable that students of

Metapsychiatry avoid conversation about illnesses, operations, etc., because such
accounts fascinate the curiosity of the personal mind and can actually lead to mental
contagion that can be externalized in some form of physical symptom. Therefore it
is legitimate for a student to avoid the company of people who enjoy talking about
these things, describing them in great detail, etc., until such time as he has reached
such depth of understanding as to be able to say, "none of these things move me anymore."
Then the student will have overcome’ the world because the world is made up of interaction
thoughts. Problems are psychological, solutions are spiritual
There is only one way to become liberated from the ego or personal sense and
that is to lose interest in it If we try to willfully get rid of it or wrestle with
it, we are still preoccupied with it and therefore cannot be freed of it When we
lose interest in it, it dies of neglect
An individual related experiencing aching joints and burning eyes. When she examined
her thinking and uncovered that she wanted something from a friend, she proceeded
wanting to not want, and this of course was equally troublesome. We cannot want or
not want anything, but we can turn our attention and interest

to what God wants. That will set us free. Wanting what God wants is still a want
and is existentially invalid as well. It is arrogant. Can we want two and two to
be four? The only valid way is to be interested in being here for God and aspiring
to live in accordance with His will
All human wanting is actually very childish. Children are trained from an early
age to want things. "What do you want for Christmas?," "What do you want for your
birthday?," "What do you want to be when you grow up?," are some of the questions
children are constantly asked. The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians:
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a
child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (I Cor. 13:11).
So we, too, must put away our childish ways of wanting and not wanting, and so
become free of the ego. "I want" is the essence of the ego, or the sense of personhood.
What we place our attention on constitutes our identity. Turning to spiritual values
facilitates the understanding of our true spiritual identity. We are individual manifestations
of God’s being.
In the parable of the prodigal son, the Father reassured his elder son, who was
jealous of his returning brother, in these words: Son, thou art

ever with me, and all that I have is thine" (Luke 15:31). God is not a possessor
of material goodies with which to reward us. God Is and we are manifestations of
this Is-ness. Therefore we translate this saying the following way: "Son, thou art
ever with me (inseparable from me), and all that I am, thou art."
HUMILITY AND GRATITUDE
Humility and gratitude are important spiritual qualities and students on the
spiritual path need to cultivate them. But we need to understand that they are not
behavior, and therefore cannot be "done." They can be faked but that. of course,
is only an appearance of humility and gratitude.~
True humility is a beautiful attribute of an enlightened consciousness and is
one of the main pillars of mental health. A humble individual has lost interest in
ego gratification. He is not driven by irrational wants and desires. He approaches
life situations in an intelligent, rational way. This is mental health.
Humility can never be humiliated, only the ego can experience humiliation. Most
people live in fear of being humiliated and they constantly feel hurt by other people’s
thoughts

about them. But humility frees us of that fear and gives us peace, poise and a sense
of assurance. It is an awareness that we are the sons and daughters of the living
God.
Humiliation leads to hurt pride, vengeance, resentment, depression. The more
humiliation we experience, the more egotistical we become. It was a custom in early
religious practices to wear an itchy "hair shirt" in order to become humble. But
what does the wearer of a hair shirt think about? Himself. It could only aggravate
the problem of self-confirmatory ideation and sensualism. A willingness to be embarrassed
which is an open admission of having a problem, or of having made a mistake, can
lead to humility.
The Bible says: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isaiah
40:31). This implies that we are required to be patient Is patience an existentially
valid quality? One can be patient in a willful way by forcing oneself to be patient
Being impatient is, of course, equally willful. But being humble and expecting the
truth to dawn on our consciousness requires reverence and gratitude. Being humble
means we know that of our own selves we can do nothing, and being grateful is the
acknowledgement that God is good. Gratitude and humility

often result in new insights, because God can reveal Himself to us more clearly than
when we are willfully impatient, grinding our teeth in frustration. In Metapsychiatry
we understand that God is not here for us, but we are here for God.
The love of God and the acknowledgement of His good expresses gratitude. Gratitude,
in turn, tends to increase our receptivity to spiritual good and thus potentiates
it in our lives. Good is that which is life-enhancing, uplifting, healing, harmonizing
— and the more gratitude we express the more we are able to partake of this good.
BEING HERE FOR GOD
We talk frequently about the need to be here for God rather than for our personal
wants and interests. What does it actually mean to be here for God? Can we realize
being here for God, or are we just thinking about it? Most of the time we cannot
go beyond thinking about being here for God. So the question really is, How do we
move from thinking about God to actually being here for God?
What is required is discovering that the thoughts we think are not our own thoughts.


We are aware of thoughts, we do not produce them. When we discover the difference
between thinking thoughts and being aware of thoughts, we have separated ourselves
from the thinker, the illusion, and we become an entity which is aware of the illusion
of the thinker thinking thoughts. And this entity, capable of being aware, is our
real self. The living Soul is aware of the fact that all right ideas come from the
divine Mind, not from the human brain, and therefore he is spontaneously here for
God. And he doesn’t think about being here for God, he actually is here for God because
God’s thoughts govern his life; they constitute his true being.
Awareness is neither a feeling, nor a thought, nor a sensation; it is an extracorporeal
quality of consciousness.
WHAT DOES GOD WANT?
We said at the outset that God is the creative, harmonizing principle of the
universe, called Love-Intelligence. Therefore, to ask what God wants is somewhat
misleading, because it anthropomorphizes God. A spiritual principle cannot be conceived
of as wanting anything the way we think of human wants.
Our language is as yet inadequate to express

spiritual terms. As spiritual consciousness expands more universally, so will language.
Until such time, we will have to transcend the limitations of present-day language.
Metapsychiatry has already coined certain terms in order to better describe its pioneering
spiritual concepts in their true meaning. For example, it calls God "Love-Intelligence";
love is "nonpersonal, non-conditional benevolence"; enlightened or realized man is
"a beneficial presence in the world."
We may ask, What does intelligence want? What does love want? What does life
want? What does a flower want? To manifest to the fullest its essential quality.
For thousands of years people have been trying to discern just what God wants.
Theologians say that the will of God is very mysterious and difficult to fathom.
Metapsychiatry has discovered that God’s will is neither mysterious nor difficult
to know. In fact, it is quite simple, because God — Love-Intelligence — wants only
one thing. To be known, understood and manifested in the universe through His image
and likeness, man. God is an Is system, which means that God is rather than has,
and this system’s built-in intentionality requires itself to manifest its qualities
in the universe.
The Bible contains many clues as to what

God wants. For instance: "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth
my praise" (Is. 43:21). "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom
I have chosen" (Is. 43:10). "Therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that
I am God" (Is. 43:12). "For they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord" (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:11). "The earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11:9).
So man is an instrument of God, whose purpose in life is to be a witness, a manifestation
of the qualities and attributes of God. Jesus said:
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven" (Matt 5:11).
When we are committed to being manifestations of God’s qualities, we fulfill
our destiny by glowing for God as beneficial presences in the world.



Student: I have a general, kind of vague comment that I cannot pin down to one particular question.
A few weeks ago I spoke to my cousin. She is a widow, raising 4 boys, the eldest being about 30,
and she was with him on Mother?s Day. He has a boat and he took her out on the boat
and to a restaurant
and so on and so forth. Anyway, being a widow she has over the years been looking
for a second husband
and usually when we meet, what comes up in the conversation is, ?Do you meet guys?
Do you meet girls??
Anyway, this went on for a little bit, and then she said, ?I feel as if life is passing
me by.? And she asked,
?Do you feel the same way?? It troubled me and I think I said, ?Yes.? Now what does
this mean, this phrase,
because I find that often this comes up.
Dr. Hora: Yes. That is a very beautiful question, a philosophical question. You hear it very
often and perhaps most people have the thought that life is passing them by. I'm getting
older, and I am still not married and I still don?t have a million dollars or a Jaguar,
and I still don?t have friends, or whatever life is supposed to have for me. This is
called existential frustration. Life is passing me by. Well, on the face of it, if you
cannot catch a man, if you don?t get married, you miss out on life. If


you don't have certain things you are failing. You are getting older and perhaps sickly
and you have no sense of fulfillment. In earlier days they didn?t speak about life passing
you by, but how could I find fulfillment. Even in biblical times people were concerned
about fulfillment. Fulfillment means living so that we do not have life passing us by.
How could we really live life the way it should be lived? Right? And people do all kinds
of things trying to prevent life from passing them by. They jump out of planes with
parachutes. They try to have a lot of sex or money or power. Everybody clamors for a
solution so that they wouldn?t feel that they are missing out on life, and it is a great
mystery. How can we live life in such a way as to not have this gnawing sense that life is
passing us by? It is a very important philosophical question, something to ponder for
everyone.
Most people will say there is no solution to this question. Anybody who would
say that he is living life
to the fullest is lying. Have you ever met somebody who would claim that he is living
life to the full?
Nobody. Apparently some people asked Jesus about this. You know that Jesus had an
answer to every possible thing.
There is no such question for which Jesus didn?t have an answer. What was his answer?
People asked him about this problem.
Student: ?Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will
be filled? (Matt. 5:4).
Dr. Hora: Exactly. Did you know this? He always came up with a very simple answer to the most
complicated question. ?Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be fulfilled? (Matt 5:4). What does this mean? Let us look at this simple statement.
In other words, if we


would want to experience life in its fullness, a fully meaningful life, where we wouldn?t have
this fear of it passing us by, we wouldn?t be afraid of dying prematurely or being sick or
losing out on anything good that is rightfully ours, what is required? You have to hunger
and thirst after righteousness. What the heck does that mean?
Student: Right seeing? Right usefulness?
Dr. Hora: Any other ideas, anybody?
Student: Well, right thinking.
Dr. Hora: Right thinking? Could you explain that?
Student: If our thoughts are valid, we are in a place of right being, right thinking.
Dr. Hora: Not quite.
Student: Righteousness is a very difficult word. It is a religious word.
Dr. Hora: You bet. That?s why we are trying to understand it.
Student: Well, right thinking is holding in consciousness right values and right qualities and
discerning spiritually that which is the good of God.
Dr. Hora: You see life is passing us by because we are not seeking what is existentially valid.
We are preoccupied with trivial pursuits (laughter) ... therefore we don?t get it.
Student: Some people seem to get it. Dr. Hora: Who is that?


Student: Well, I?ll tell you. A few weeks ago I was on a hike with this woman. She
was very verbal. You couldn?t miss her.
Dr. Hora: Sounds like a liberated woman.
Student: She has a job as a VP with Chase Manhattan Bank. She is in charge of 50 people.
She just got back from a month long trip to Europe where she combined it with business
meetings and sightseeing.
She has two houses, one in the country. She skis. She?s a woman who speaks very clearly,
has a sense of balance
and she can talk on any number of subjects. And the way she handles herself made
me say to myself, ?Gees, this to me
is a woman who seems to have made it.?
Dr. Hora: So, if you could become such a woman (laughter), that would give meaning
to your life and you wouldn?t have
this awful sense of life passing you by. Is this so?
Student: It wouldn?t mean anything.
Other Student: But what I think you are saying is that these things do not seem like
trivial pursuits.
Dr. Hora: Yes. Fifty people under you, two houses,
skiing. You see, Jesus didn?t know about these things. All
he said was that you just have to desire the right things.
You have to be interested in the right things. Otherwise
we all have the sense of lack because we are pursuing
existentially irrelevant values. See, if you have two houses,
or three, or five, this isn?t going to prolong your life
or even give you PAGL (peace, assurance, gratitude and love);
chances are it will give you more of a headache.


Student: Let me ask you this. If this woman who we could consider successful, if
she were honest would she say that she too feels that life is passing her by?
Dr. Hora: Definitely. Or if she would deny it then she doesn?t realize that life
is passing her by. (laughter) What is life? What is it?
Student: We call it consciousness. Dr. Hora: What is that?
Student: It is awareness and can be filled with either unreality or reality.
Dr. Hora: Yes. Well, simply, life is God. And God is life and if we are interested in life
then we have to be interested in God. And if we are really interested in God, then life
cannot pass us by because we are completely immersed in this life and the sayings of Jesus
simply reiterate in different words the first principle of Metapsychiatry. Would you
believe that? If you are primarily and wholeheartedly and unequivocally and absolutely
interested in the first principle, which is the good of God, you will know life as
spiritual blessedness and nothing in the world can give you a feeling of life passing you
by. Because you are inseparably part of that life as long as you are aware of spiritual
blessedness. This is life. As the Bible says, This is life eternal, that they may know thee,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. (John 17:3). So now life can be
found in the first principle. You cannot sink your teeth into it, but that's life.
Whatever is not spiritual blessedness is not life.
It is the illusion of life. So when we hunger and thirst after righteousness we are interested
in the good of God


because that?s the only reality. All the other things that we are interested in are
not realities; they are just
human values. Now what is wrong with human values? There?s nothing wrong with being
a VP and having two houses and
skiing, and being well spoken. But human values can never give you a sense of fulfillment.
How is that? Did you ever
think of this? Human values can never give you a sense of fulfillment.
Student: Because you are really a spiritual being and you cannot look to another
dimension or the human level. You cannot find your fulfillment as a spiritual being
on the material level.
Dr. Hora: That?s right exactly. And people are just clamoring for an endless variety
of human experiences and that?s
not life; that is the dream of life in matter. The dream of life in the body, in
clothes, in relationships, in
interaction, in business, in a profession, all this is life in the material world.
The material world is not real
life.
Student: Dr. Hora, why are we not satisfied with what we have in the material world?
Dr. Hora: Why is one of the 6 dumb questions, right? And suppose you would be a new
Jesus and say life is passing you
by because you are not satisfied with your human values and all you need is to get
somebody to make you satisfied,
and then you have it made.
Student: Human values are always accompanied by interaction and that always involves
comparison thinking. So how can we ever be satisfied when someone is always going
to have more than we have of other things?


Dr. Hora: Well suppose you recognize that interaction is a human value and you can
never find satisfaction with that.
So you decide, as others have, to become a hermit and avoid contact with other people.
Will that solve your problem?
No. So a human being can never be free of this gnawing experience of life passing
us by, because on the human plane
we are all mortals and as long as we see ourselves as scheduled to die, how can anything
make any sense?
Human beings have a terminal disease. We are all scheduled to die. So life is not
only a bore and a lousy drag,
but it is also very short and dirty.
Student: And unfair.
Dr. Hora: So Jesus didn?t say how a human being can find fulfillment. There is no
such human experience that could
lead to fulfillment. But spiritual blessedness is not a human experience. Did you
ever think of that? And it is
not unavailable. It?s available.
Student: Evidently we have to hunger and thirst for it. Dr. Hora: Yes, how do we do that?
Student: Recognize that we are not fulfilled.
Dr. Hora: Yes, so?
Student: We need to understand righteousness. We need to know what we need.
Dr. Hora: We need to know what is the right thing to long for, to be interested in.
Student: Hunger is longing. Is that correct?


Dr. Hora: Longing is a transitional thing. Longing can become very demanding or willful
or aggressive.
So we prefer the word interest. When we are hungry we are interested in food. When
we are thirsty we are interested
in beer. (laughter) But Jesus said, when we hunger and thirst after righteousness,
we are interested in knowing
the truth of life, which is synonymous with the good of God. The good of God is real
life and the first principle
can get us there, and to the extent that we learn spiritual blessedness we see the
trivialness of everything else
on the human scene, because nothing else can compare with that. So it is not an impossible
thing to find fulfillment.
But this fulfillment is spiritual.
Student: Dr. Hora, there is another passage in the bible that says not to take thought
for all of these things but ...
Dr. Hora: ?Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things
shall be added unto you?
(Matt. 6:33). But you see we are not really going to waste time speculating about
these other things, because
we can very quickly be sidetracked. There are so many things on the human plane,
and we can become mentally
fixated on human values, like Marilyn Monroe or sex or money. If you then get hung
up on these things, you
completely lose sight of real value, of the real life. But on the real road to fulfillment
you lose the sense
that life is passing you by. There is no other way to be free of this thought that
life is passing us by,
except with an intimate acquaintance with the first principle and its blessing. Spiritual
blessedness is the
true sense of reality and it is absolutely good and it lifts us up to a higher level
of appreciation of life
that does not pass us by. The Bible also says, ?When this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall it


come to pass, as it is written, death is swallowed up in victory? (1 Cor. 15:54).
Student: And this real life is spiritual.
Dr. Hora: That?s exactly right, and with the help of the first principle, we can
discover that as spiritual beings
we are immortal; and when we catch a glimpse of this truth that real life can never
die, that when the belief of
mortality is replaced with the knowledge of immortality, then you see that life cannot
pass us by. It ain?t going anywhere. It?s right there for ever. We are really immortal
but we do not know it. We are convinced that we are mortals and the clock is ticking
away toward the time when we will all die. But that dying is the dream of life on
the human plane; that?s material life.
Student: Can we talk about what it means to live in God?s spiritual blessedness?
What kind of thought is with you living in the spiritual world?
Dr. Hora: That?s a good question. Can anybody understand this?
Student: That we are blessed spiritually, which means we are blessed with the ideas
needed to live life harmoniously.
Dr. Hora: Yes, that we are at one with that life which is God. ?I and my Father are
one? (John 10:30). ?I am in the
Father and the Father is in me? (John 14:10). In spiritual blessedness this is clear.
We are aware of it. This is so.
There are not two things ? God and man. There is only God as man, and man as an individualized
aspect of God.
But most people do not stop to think about it. They say, ?Let?s have fun.? Who will
bother with these philosophical
speculations? And then what


did Jesus know anyway? He didn?t even have a credit card. (laughter)
Student: I thought he was the first guy with unlimited credit. (more laughter)
Student: Dr. Hora, it is a little unclear to me what actually gets us there. There
is a requirement that there be a sincere interest in God, and at our level, that
seems to take the form of monitoring our thoughts and becoming aware of invalid thoughts
and then either discarding them or allowing valid thoughts to enter consciousness.
Is that the same thing as being sincerely interested or is that something that we
are required to do because we seem to be human and then we become interested? What
comes first? The interest or this process that we are required to go through?
Dr. Hora: This is not a process we are talking about now. We are talking about an
opening that is available to everybody,
an opening into enlightenment and immortality. You know Sartre?s play, ?No Exit.?
He didn?t think that there was an exit
from the human condition, and most people don?t. But we must not let that stop us.
There is an exit at hand, available to
everybody ever since Jesus Christ walked on the earth, and Metapsychiatry was inspired
with the Eleven Principles. So we
are not hopeless cases stuck in the human condition. There is an exit door and it
is called the First Principle of
Metapsychiatry. So it is not a process; it?s just facing up to the meaning of this
principle. When we do we discover that
all of these tremendous philosophical problems that philosophers for thousands of
years have been agonizing over have
resolved themselves into a very simple crack in reality. And


Jesus Christ gave the world a very simple statement. ?Blessed are they who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall find fulfillment.? And we say that if we are truly, and above all else, interested
in the good of God, we discover
spiritual blessedness and we can see that this is qualitatively entirely different
from everything the world considers
good and of value. There is no material element in it. It is pure spiritual realization.
And if we get acquainted with
this truth, the good of God, we don?t have to live in fear of dying. We will know
that the phenomena of death are just
phenomena. In phenomenology there are two factors: appearance and disappearance.
The phenomenal life, which we consider is
passing us by, is just appearance and disappearance. Now what happens when an appearance
disappears?
Student: Our seeing improves.
Dr. Hora: You know what happens? Nothing. (laughter) Student: Because it never was.
Dr. Hora: Right. So if there is a phenomenon, then it is part of the phenomenon where
we are appearing to be and then
we are not appearing to be. Nothing has changed. Life is unaffected. God hasn?t changed.
Reality is still there and
we are in it. So life cannot pass us by. We can have the impression that life is
passing us by, but nobody can
actually miss out on life. When we wake up to the first principle it is like an awakening.
?This is life eternal that
they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent? (John 17:3).
Student: So what is the meaning of appearing and disappearing?


Dr. Hora: That?s a phenomenon. A phenomenon is an observable something where we can
see thoughts taking on shape and losing shape.
Student: But, a tree is not a thought, is it?
Dr. Hora: Sure it is. What else is a tree it but a thought? Student: Whose thought?
Dr. Hora: Everybody who looks at it. The material world is called the phenomenal
world. Everything is made of thoughts; trees are made of thoughts, animals are made
of thoughts, people are made of thoughts, and they are forever appearing and disappearing.
That?s what mortality is, the disappearance of appearances.
Student: So that?s mortality?
Dr. Hora: Well, it?s a human illusion, an impression, here today and gone tomorrow. (laughter)
Student: Where is the spirituality in the phenomena? Dr. Hora: There is no spirituality
in the phenomena.
Student: Then where is it? What is it? If we appear and disappear with thoughts manifesting
and not manifesting, so where is the spiritual then?
Dr. Hora: Right there! Spiritual reality is all encompassing. Divine Mind fills the
whole universe, right there where the phenomena are.
Student: Even with the phenomena?


Dr. Hora: Phenomena don?t take up space. They just seem to take up space. In divine
reality there is plenty of parking space. There is no crowding whatsoever. (laughter)
Time and space do not exist. These are mind-boggling ideas, but you can get used
to them. Just don?t tell anybody. (laughter)
Student: It?s interesting that in physics, first the direction was that everything
was solid and then they taught us that there are atoms in constant motion.
Dr. Hora: Yes, it?s vibrations. It?s waves. It?s particles turning into waves and
waves turning into particles. It is nothing solid. The only solid thing is love.
Divine love fills the whole universe. It is infinite omnipresence. It is so solid
you could cut it with a knife if you had a spiritual knife.
Something needs to be clarified. What is the practical value of contemplating
what we were talking about now? Suppose our friend here should go on a hike next
week and this woman should tell you all of her accomplishments. Would you be impressed
the same way as you were?
Student: Well I might be, but I would have foreknowledge.
Dr. Hora: Yes. You see, if we have some idea of the first principle and divine reality,
then we cannot become so frustrated about all the things that other people seem to
have and we don?t have. Right? Nowadays envy has become so blatant. The culture is
so filled with envy and jealousy and rivalry that people are tremendously eager to
find fulfillment in life. So men undergo sex change operations because they want
to have what women have. Have you noticed how many men wear ponytails and earrings,
lately, and all kinds of things? Culturally, people envy each other, and they try
to be what


somebody else is, and it is a very disquieting life that most people live, because
wherever you look you see somebody that has something that you don?t have, and you
are forever looking for it. For example, if I would only have bigger breasts then
I would be fulfilled with a fullness of the bosom. (laughter) So many women rush
to the surgeons and have implants put into their breasts with sometimes disastrous
consequences. This is what you brought up today. Life is very disquieting and we
are troubled because we are unfulfilled and have the sense that we are missing out
on something and this leads to rivalries and all kinds of problems. Nobody is at
peace, and nobody is satisfied. Nobody is happy; nobody is really joyous. Even when
you go on a hike you have to listen to a woman tell you all the things that she has.
Student: Bragging.
Dr. Hora: Bragging, showing off, self-confirmation, interaction, rivalry: that?s
the human condition, various kinds of distortions, existentially invalid interests
that lead to trouble. But if you really understand what fulfillment is, and how you
can get there, you will be more peaceful and you will not suffer so much from all
the things you do not have. And you won?t get such a kick out of what you have, but
you won?t suffer for not having.
Student: I would be interested in hearing more about right seeing. You said, ?The
way you see the tree.? And someone, a Buddhist monk, posited this the other night,
that President Bush [the elder] is the embodiment of the consciousness of America,
and that until the consciousness of the people changes, where there is more right
seeing of that which peace


really is, there will not be peace. Now, the tree, when you look at the tree, everything
is embodied in the tree, and you had a koan once that the tree is in the leaf, and
I would like you to help me see spiritually.
Dr. Hora: Well you brought up certain things, like the Buddhist Monk. Where shall
we start? Shall we start with the President? Is Bush the embodiment of the consciousness
of America? No. Only the Republican Party. (laughter) And what is the consciousness
of America? More and more goodies, here and there some political freedom and also
Christian values permeating the culture. But you cannot make a sweeping statement
that Bush is the consciousness of America. That is a simplification. He is the President
of the United States. He is a Republican and his thoughts and values are imbued by
everything America stands for and what the Republican Party stands for, etc. Now
when we look at a tree, what do we see?
Student: What we think we see in the tree.
Dr. Hora: That?s right. We see our own thoughts about the trees, and they can be
as varied as people vary. There is a spiritual interpretation of nature, which includes
trees, and also people and animals, that everything on the planet earth is a symbolic
structure pointing towards God-except a rotten tree. Anything healthy, anything beautiful,
anything that uplifts the spirit is a symbolic structure pointing toward God. Now
you asked about seeing or the question of eyesight?
Student: Well, there are thoughts about eyesight with me, but also about right seeing.
That was where we started in the beginning, and I need to learn about right seeing.


Dr. Hora: We have the prayer of right seeing: ?Everything and everyone is here for
God whether they know it or not.?
What is everything? Trees, art, monuments, houses, dogs and cats, life forms, all
kinds of values. Everything is
here for God in a symbolic way. Now what Metapsychiatry teaches is a direct awareness
of God and of ourselves in the
context of God. This is where fulfillment can be found, when we find that we are
all individual aspects of infinite mind,
which is God; and to the extent that we can understand this, we have transcended
the world. Because God is life and life
never dies and anyone who knows himself as being an inseparable aspect of infinite
mind also knows that he can never die.
And that reminds us of what Jesus said, ?I am the resurrection and the life; he that
believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die? (John
11:25). So that?s it. As far as having
good eyesight, it is very important to see clearly what life is and what life isn?t
and that helps the eyesight.
In studying Metapsychiatry, some students discover that their eyesight improves to
such a point that they are able to
discard their glasses. Many miraculous things happen here; yet nobody brags about
it. But every time we become a little
more grateful or humble, a little more spiritually minded, something good happens. It is amazing.


Student: Dr. Hora, this past year there has been a lot of destruction when it comes
to weather. Now the floods in Mississippi and you know the whole Midwest and earlier
storms during the winter and in thinking about it, you watch one disastrous news
thing after another and you can?t help but wonder. I mean it seems like we go from
one disaster to another and it?s affecting so many. And it?s devastating for those
that are ...
Dr. Hora: How could we improve this situation?
Student: It has got to be that some kind of mental climate has to change.
Dr. Hora: Right. What did Jesus say about the weather bureau? (laughter) He said
the Kingdom of God will come when the inside will be outside and the outside will
be inside. (From, I think, the Gospel According to Thomas, The Gnostic Sayings of
Jesus) That?s when the Kingdom of God will be here. And everything will be permanently
harmonious. Do you believe that? What did he mean by saying, ?When the inside will
be outside and the outside will be inside??


Student: Does it mean, when a man realizes that what he experiences is a
consequence of his thoughts.
Dr. Hora: Right. It is not just a consequence; it is the thoughts. For it says when
we experience storms it means that we are involved with thoughts, stormy thoughts,
conflict, fears, aggression, hatred, jealousy, right? And everything we experience
is according to our thoughts, individually and collectively.
Student: I am not clear about that. In a city racked with tornados, or a major storm
like a hurricane, I assume that not everybody in the city is in a mental state of
turmoil. Yet everybody in the city is affected by the storm. How does that work?
Are innocent people affected as well?
Dr. Hora: Sure. Do you remember the story of Noah? What does the story of Noah tell
us about the weather, or floods? What does it say? Do you know the story of Noah?
(Gen. 6?9).
Student: I guess a little bit.
Dr. Hora: Tell us what you do know.
Student: I just know that he was told to build a boat.
Dr. Hora: You already have the boat and in the Mississippi there are floods. So you
didn?t fix it. Do you think these are irrelevant stories in the Bible, or do they
have some actual relevancy to daily experience?
Student: I thought that you were going to tell us the story about the ten righteous
men. I don?t recall the specifics of the

story. Something about the city was saved or would be saved if you could
find one righteous man (Eccles. 9:15).
Dr. Hora: Yes. Did they find him? Student: I think so.
Dr. Hora: In Noah?s time there was a lot of pornography and prostitution and killings
and murders and sexual excesses. The whole community was demoralized and they turned
away from the truth of God. And the result was that the whole area was completely
flooded and everybody died. Only Noah?s family survived and some of the animals that
he took into the boat survived. Now this tells us something. The mental climate was
corrupt and people were self righteous and aggressive and cursing and crime prevailed
and disaster followed. Because what is outside is inside and what is inside is outside.
Now we cannot do very much with what is outside but we can improve what is inside.
How is that? You see when 2 and 2 is 4 then 2 million and 2 million will be ... can
you calculate?
Student: Without a computer?
Dr. Hora: Four million. So it is very important to work on behalf of God, which means
to help the world individually and in small groups or larger groups to realize the
importance of right understanding of God. We are not just helplessly sitting by.
It is possible to improve the situation by focusing our attention on infinite mind.
As Einstein told us, the divine mind is the harmonizing principle of the universe.
We start out with our individual problems, and as we grow in understanding we become
beneficial presences in the world in proportion to how well we have learned to assume
responsibility for our thoughts.

People usually ask, ?What can we do?? What should we do? What is to be done?
There are tremendous problems in the world. In Tokyo they are having problems and
in The Bronx. But Jesus put it very simply. He had a way of putting it right on the
line. What is inside is outside and what is outside is inside.
Student: So, when we see these reports ... but I don?t see how... if the news constantly
creates more fear by ?oh they expect another swelling of water and more rain,? people
can?t help but be in a panic. We can see it in our consciousness and we can come
to realize that it is a manifestation of invalid thoughts.
Dr. Hora: Yes.
Student: And that is all that we can do.
Dr. Hora: Yes. I know a man who had to go to a doctor for an insurance physical exam.
During the examination the doctor took his blood pressure and said it is alarming
how high your blood pressure is. Your blood pressure is alarmingly high. So what
happened? He got alarmed. He got so alarmed that his blood pressure continued to
shoot up. And then the doctor said, ?Well, this is what we are going to do about
it. I?ll give you a blood pressure machine and twice a day you are going to measure
your blood pressure and write it down on a piece of paper and then you will bring
it to me after a few weeks.?
Student: Torture.
Dr. Hora: And we will see how the blood pressure is affecting you and what we can
do. And certainly every time he measured his blood pressure it was worse and worse
and worse and

he was living with fear all this time. I don?t know what happened later on. He was
probably given some drugs. And the drugs say this ? all drugs are listening to St. Paul?s
principle. What is St. Paul?s principle? ?The good which I would I do not; but the evil
which I would not, that I do? (Rom. 7:19). This is St. Paul?s principle. And that?s how
things work on an individual basis and on a collective basis and with the great blessings
of technological progress with which we can communicate with millions of people
instantaneously. We don?t have to go from community to community in Mississippi and scare
people by saying, ?Listen, there will be a flood,? because it?s time already to have a flood.
So everybody gets the bad news right away. We have the great privilege through the blessings of
technological progress to get alarmed collectively at the same time. That?s the way it works.
Alarmed. We have to be alarmed. I understand that goes with everything. The stock
market goes up and
people get enthusiastic. The next day it goes down and people get alarmed. They run here and they
run there investing and disinvesting. I like to listen to these financial advisors; no matter what
the situation, they always end up saying but it?s a good time to buy stocks. Right? Invariably
they wind up recommending stocks to buy. This is a good opportunity to buy and people buy and
then they sell. That?s the way it is. And everyone lives in fear that doesn?t understand
the teachings of
Jesus. Whether you?re a financier or whatever you are, if you do not understand,
then you live in fear.
And the Bible says, ?Fear not little flock, for it is your Father?s good pleasure
to give you the kingdom?
(Luke 12:32). Would you believe this? Would anyone believe it that God is giving
us the kingdom? What
is this kingdom? In the kingdom of God, nobody has to be afraid. There is

peace, assurance, gratitude and love. ?For the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea? (Isa. 11:9).
Student: What does that mean?
Dr. Hora: Well, when the truth of God?s reality will be known throughout the world
then there will be peace and freedom. There will be no fear and no gnashing of teeth.
Somewhere in the Bible there is this phrase ?gnashing of the teeth? (Matt. 8:12).
But don?t tell it to a dentist because he will say you need implants right away,
or root canal.
There are some of these pharmaceutical advertisements that are fantastic. There
are two young, beautiful, healthy, teenage girls and one says, ?I have a headache.?
The other says right away, ?Take two, take two.? What two? Two Anacin tablets, two,
right away. She was all prepared with medical advice. She knows what to do if you
have a headache. Nobody asks the question what is this headache all about. No, the
remedy is quickly to take two. There are many such advertisements, which are very,
very funny. Except when they are disgusting because they intimidate people.
There is a funny thing going on now. We have heard a great deal about the shortage
of doctors. There is a shortage of doctors. People are standing in line to get an
appointment and they live in fear they will not be able to get medical help. And
you open the papers and especially the professional papers and it is full of advertisements
about doctors in groups, which have wonderful new equipment and they can help you
right away. Now there is a surplus of available medical help because they expect
that changes will take place throughout the health care systems and they want to
get in on the bonanza. The

bonanza consists of the people who will be rushing to sign up with doctors
and get insurance in case there will
be a shortage. The public is being intimidated about the shortage of doctors and
the doctors are constantly being
encouraged to advertise. How do these doctors advertise? They advertise, ?We have
a new machine for hemorrhoids.
Immediate help is available.? Also there is laser surgery and all kinds of things.
As a medical man, I have never heard
of these diseases they come up with that they are advertising as instantly available.
You can have miracle cures with all
kinds of technological things. Today I saw an advertisement that says, ?I am a noninvasive
surgical specialist.
I specialize in noninvasive surgery. You don?t have to be afraid. You just come to
me and I will fix it.? What?s
going on? They know that people are afraid of the invasive manner in which they are
making tests and here is a guy
who is asking for more patients, more business and advertising himself as a noninvasive
surgeon. And the New York Times
has an article that for a long time people went to a doctor and the doctor wanted
to help the patient out of the
goodness of his heart. And then there came a time when the doctors wanted to show
their diagnostic abilities, that they
could find the most fantastic diseases that nobody ever thought of. So first it was
the patient who was the focus.
Then the sickness was the issue. But now we have made so much progress that neither
the patient nor the sickness matters.
What matters now is procedure. Doctors are interested in procedures. What does that
mean? They want to do something to
you because that?s where the insurance money comes from. Diagnosis doesn?t matter.
The human being doesn?t matter.
The opportunity for procedures is what is important. So you go to a doctor and he
wants to figure out how could I
find a way to

justify my eagerness to make a procedure because that?s where the money is.
It?s a terrible, terrible situation and I don?t know how this is going to end up.
But people are very upset, very fearful and justifiably so. You have the ethical
standing of doctors now on the level of used car salesmen.
One of our friends here went on a vacation and said, ?Before I go on my vacation
I am going to have a check up.? Smart people recommend this. An intelligent person,
before he goes on vacation goes to the doctor for a check up just in case something
is wrong, right? Reasonable. So she went to a doctor who found nothing. But he said,
?Now let?s try a blood test.? He takes her blood, looks under a microscope and says,
?There is something strange about the platelets in the blood.? Do you know what platelets
are? They are really insignificant. They are for clotting; they?re responsible for
clotting. And he said, ?Well, when you come back from the vacation we will have to
look into these platelets.? The patient started to be worried about these platelets
and I was hearing about these platelets for weeks on end and her endless worrying.
So she got another test, another examination about the platelets in her blood. And
so, again, they found nothing wrong with her platelets. And then something went wrong
with her pocketbook. $300 for a visit to the platelets specialist who discovered
that there was nothing wrong with the patient. By this time she was probably glad
to pay the $300 and make an end to the platelets business. That?s the way things
are done today. So next time you go for a check up leave your platelets at home.
(laughter) Every time I hear people tell me they went for a check up they come back
with something. There is a man who went for a check up and they couldn?t find anything
and

they kept reassuring him, ?Don?t worry, we?ll find something.? (laughter)
Student: How do we know when we?ve reached the point where we don?t have to go for a checkup?
Dr. Hora: Is there anything in the American constitution, by the founding fathers
of the United States of America that
we have to go for a check up? If in Czechoslovakia people go for checkups, I would
be surprised. But you cannot say to
somebody go or don?t go. Nobody can say that. We have to assume responsibility for
having an open mind and trying to
understand our situation in life and making our decisions on the information we gather
somehow. So when we speak about
this, we don?t say don?t go to the doctor; neither do we say go to the doctor. We
say, ask your advisor. Who is our
advisor? Divine love is our advisor. Divine love always tells us what we need to
know provided we have learned to hear
its voice. If we have not learned to hear its voice, we have to listen to all kinds
of other advice and that can be
frightening sometimes. ?He that hath an ear, let him hear... ? (Rev.2:7). This is
such a mystical saying, isn?t it?
How are the platelets?
Maybe I didn?t tell you the whole quotation. ?The kingdom of God will come when
the inside will be outside and the outside will be inside and the two shall be one?
(The Gnostic Gospel According to Thomas, Log 22).
Student: So we come to realize that we are divine consciousness.
Dr. Hora: Exactly.
Student: So we are not invalid or valid, but divine.

Dr. Hora: Yes. What does it mean that the two shall be one?
Student: Rather than being separate, rather than our experiences in our life being
separate from our thoughts; our thoughts determine our experiences; they are our
experiences. They are not independent entities that occur without each other.
Dr. Hora: Well, if we look at ourselves and at others from a human standpoint, according
to appearances, we see that everyone is a bag made of skin. And in this bag there
are all kinds of junk and this bag contains all kinds of thoughts and these thoughts
can be expressed outwardly. See? We have the impression that we are thinking inside
and we are expressing these self-generated thoughts from the inside to the outside
and this is our life. If you are successful in expressing your insides on the outside
and you manage your life somehow to work, then you say, ?Well, my thoughts have helped
me to manage my life in a certain way due to my expressing to the outside what is
inside.? Now of course Jesus says that?s not really so. It just seems that way. Actually
all is one. The Bible says, ?Hear oh Israel: The Lord our God is one God? (Deut.
6:4). What does that mean? It means that all there is anywhere in the universe is
the divine mind, infinite mind, consciousness. There is no inside, no outside. There
is wisdom, there is love, there is beauty, there is goodness, there is freedom, there
is joy and there are cats and dogs. But all is one. Consciousness is all there is.
And our lives seem to be oriented towards becoming acquainted with the reality of
consciousness. So all will be one. We just have to learn to be aware of God as the
harmonizing principle of the universe.

Student: This reminds me of the comment from Zen: form is formlessness and
formlessness is form. Isn?t that the same idea?
Dr. Hora: Yes.
Student: Because at that point, it?s non-dimensional. What you?re saying is that all is one.
Dr. Hora: Jesus said that. Imagine if everybody could understand this. Here comes
the teacher upon the world scene and he gives us this information. The inside is
outside, the outside is inside, and all is one. And then he says, ?I am come that
they may have life and that they might have it more abundantly? (John 10:10). So
if we listen to his teachings and gain some understanding there will be abundance
of good in the world. And many of these sayings are oriented to help the human race
to find goodness in life and health and freedom and wisdom. But this teacher was
a unique teacher. He didn?t waste one word ever in his teaching. Whenever he said
something, it was an utterance. No ifs and buts. He just uttered the truth appropriate
to the occasion. That?s a unique teacher, an existential teacher who doesn?t talk
too much. At one point he said, ?Love not the world, neither the things that are
in the world for he that loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him?
(1 John 2:15).
That reminds me, I was watching television a few days ago and on one of these
talk shows they had two rabbis. Hassidic rabbis. They were sitting in black hats
and there were parents there, and they all were having troubles with their children.
They asked these rabbis what about your children and they said, ?Our children have
no problems; they have no contact with the world. We have no television. They don?t
listen to the

radio. They just live in the context of our religion and laws of our religion.
And the children are happy and very healthy and the families have no problems.? They
are so-called ?observant Jews.? The parents asked them if they missed the television,
the radio, rock and roll. Don?t they want these things? Oddly enough, those children
are not interested in these things and they are never sick; they have no family crises.
And, standing out in the group of families who were all having all kinds of problems
with their children were these two guys in their black hats, who come up and say
we haven?t had any problems with our children.
So, what is one to think about this? They have an ethical code which is five thousand
years old and has not been perverted or contaminated by technological problems. Of
course these are the rabbis and they have a value system that has worked through
the ages. To us they seem to be sort of obscure and outdated but nevertheless in
the context of their community it works by the sheer avoidance of the world. So Jesus
said, ?Love not the world or the things that are in the world. For he that loveth
the world, the love of the Father is not in him? (1 John 2:15). It was a very strange
saying. Jesus said, ?Don?t love the world.? Here the great lover says don?t love
the world. It really means don?t swallow any kind of value the world is throwing
at you. But the world says you have to keep up with the Joneses and you have to be
hip; if you are not in you are out, yes? You have to conform to the world; otherwise
you are a failure. And then the Bible says, ?Be not conformed to this world, but
be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God? (Rom. 12:2).

Student: Dr. Hora, in that other passage it says we are in the world but not
of it. Is it even possible for us to leave the world?
Dr. Hora: We don?t leave the world; we just refuse to buy it. Student: Because we are in it.
Dr. Hora: No, if you go to Bloomingdale?s, do you have to buy everything they are
selling? No. Do you have to go gaga over the lingerie or whatever? We are in the
world but not of it. And even if something is very popular you don?t have to buy
it. You can see it and you can be aware of the fact that many of the values that
are being offered to us in very clever ways are existentially invalid. We don?t have
to buy it. Now suppose there is a famous psychotherapist in California and he has
come up with an ingenious way of helping his patients by arranging for them to have
their group sessions in a swimming pool naked. It sounds very exciting, no? You don?t
have to buy it, right? They are actually doing this in California.
The famous guru Ragneesh started his work in this country in Oregon. He had special
groups where people were raping, beating, and fighting with each other. And he recommended
that people go through the experience of being abused psychologically and physically
and sexually. And they even photographed it. And Ragneesh said this is good. You
have to go through this experience. But there were many people who got very excited,
thinking that this would be an interesting experience. Even one of our friends was
initially very tempted to go there and be exposed to these carnal kinds of orgies
that he had there. I think later on they stopped it because it was such a dangerous
temptation. But you see that when you are in the world and you love the world, you
long

for what?s in this world and you can really go very far on the road to self-destruction.
So don?t be surprised when Jesus said, ?Love not the world or the things that are
in the world.?
Student: Is that what it means that you can?t serve two masters? Is that the idea,
that if we love the world then that is a kind of master to us. Then we are not loving
God, which is the real master? There is a biblical passage that says we can?t serve
two masters because if we serve one then we hate the other. I was trying to understand
it.
Dr. Hora: Well, it is very clear that you can?t worship two gods. But this is more
than that. You can say, well, I don?t worship two gods, I only worship one and that
is pornography or something like that. Now, do you think God is squeamish and He
doesn?t like it if you are engaged in certain value systems? It?s not that God is
not interested; it means that God?s value system, the spiritual system of existentially
valid values cannot help you because you are interested in what is not valid. So
the good of God is not available to you because you are ignoring it. It?s always
available if you sincerely turn to those values and rearrange your life to conform
to what is healthy and intelligent. But this is not a matter of competition between
God and man. It?s just that if we are distracted we don?t benefit from the presence
of God because we are turning our backs on God.
Student: Dr. Hora, is there any kind of healthy interaction if interaction is two
people sitting and talking to each other?
Dr. Hora: There is neither healthy nor unhealthy interaction. It just ain?t. It?s
an emotion. It doesn?t exist. There is only omni-action, which means God is the only
activating power

of all that is real and good in the whole universe. It?s the grid. Do you
remember the grid? Einstein came up with this idea that the grid indicates the curvature
of the universe. Which is just another way of saying God governs. The whole universe
is under divine control and power. Of course normally we don?t see it. He was able
to make a statement about it because he had figured it out mathematically with paper
and pencil. That this grid is responsible for what we see as gravitation. Now I was
always, from childhood on secretly hoping that someone would figure out a way of
eliminating gravity and we could float and fly and get around like Jesus did. You
know, he could transport himself instantaneously from one place to another. Well,
this far Einstein has not yet come. We have to be satisfied with a phone line.
Student: Did Jesus actually transport himself?
Dr. Hora: I was watching him do it. (laughter) Well, look here. Today we have television
and instantaneously we can see what is happening in Tokyo. Isn?t that fantastic?
Not that this is spiritual, but the idea of the possibility of overcoming time and
space is indicative of the direction in which humanity is moving.
Student: But is the idea that enabled television to do what it does, a spiritual idea?
Dr. Hora: The ideas come from the divine Mind and the human tendency is to destroy
it and to pervert it. Every good idea that comes to us from the divine Mind sooner
or later gets perverted to serve the devil.

Student: So how do you keep it pure so that it doesn?t get perverted?
Dr. Hora: Well, we have a teacher sent from God. His name was Jesus Christ. He told
us what is pure, what is good and what is true. In Metapsychiatry, we speak of what
is existentially valid.
Student: When two people are having an argument we say it looks as if it?s interaction.
And you say there is no interaction. What is going on here?
Dr. Hora: Nothing, absolutely nothing. There are two people participating in an illusion
of personal mind power. And there is no such thing. All action is derived from the
divine Mind. And all wisdom and truth and love and energy come from the divine mind.
So when we say there is only omni-action everywhere we make a statement about the
nature of divine reality. Infinite mind, which Einstein called the grid, governs
everything that really is. Human perceptions are inaccurate, twisted, and pervert
everything that is from God and good because we don?t perceive the truth with our
sensory equipment and with our intellect. We are unable to perceive God and God?s
universe. It is only through cultivating another faculty that God is available to
us if we are interested. Anybody who is interested can cultivate this faculty of
spiritual awareness. And this is the avenue through which we can know the truth of
God and the wisdom and the love that God is. So we always focus attention on what
is, rather than on what should be or what shouldn?t be, or what (what is the name
of that Sufi comedian?) Nasrudin said. Do you all know of Nasrudin? He is a very
interesting fellow. But we will have to talk about him another time.


Student: Dr. Hora, before I came to see you on Sunday I was going to use a different
car to drive to your house and the battery was dead. So I used the other car and
I came and saw you, and then I went home and later on that day I went outside and
there was a dead mouse.
Dr. Hora: A dead mouse. Not a dead bird but a dead mouse.
Student: Then I started thinking to myself, ?Well, the battery is dead, and the mouse
is dead, and I really don?t know what the meaning of it is.? I do know that I spoke
to my mother (laughter) on Sunday before I saw the dead mouse. I am just saying it
this way because I think it might help to understand the meaning. The moment I heard
her voice I knew that she was desperate for consolation. I guess that would be the
right word. You know she is still very upset about her car accident and she is afraid
to drive, and I guess she wants me to worry about her. That?s what she wants, but
I didn?t think that I was worrying. I was aware that she was very needy, and I listened
and I tried to pray. So I don?t know if that is related to the needing. I really
don?t know what the meaning is.
Dr. Hora: Does anybody know? Do you know?


Student: The only thing that comes to mind is what you told me before when I described
an incident where I saw a dead bird but it was someone else?s meaning. You said it
was based on interaction thinking. So I guess it has to be the same. It is some kind
of interactive thought that must be taking place between her and her mother. I am
not sure what that thought is but the battery went dead before she spoke to her mother.
(laughter) Mother is always with us, right?
Student: Is it the idea that if she lets go of her mother there is a sense of death
for one of them? Somehow it has to be connected with the idea that one of them has
to die.
Dr. Hora: What do you think (addressing the original questioner) ?
Student: These people use the expression: ?You are killing me.? It?s an expression.
Student: It does seem that as long as the attachment between my mother and I exists,
I have no freedom, and in that sense, I feel dead.
Dr. Hora: You feel dead?
Student: Many times I have said to you, ?There is somebody here.? It is as if I don?t
know who I am, and there is somebody who wants to break free, but it just doesn?t
seem possible.
Dr. Hora: To break free is not possible?
Student: Right. And to that extent, I am dead. Dr. Hora: Yes.


Student: When one individual is under the domination of another?s thoughts, there
is no freedom at all. There can?t be. It?s impossible. When we are attached to something,
I guess we can cherish it, hate it and fear it at the same time. There has to be
a turning of attention over to God so that we can get closer to God and sort of get
further away from our attachment. I guess there is no other solution than that.
Student: When I first came to you, Dr. Hora, many years ago, I could not leave my
family, my mother and father. I was sure they would die if I left. There was no doubt
in my mind that?s what would happen and I could not leave them, and then I did and
my mother and father got along much better. (laughter) It was such a shock to point
out that they were really happier when I left, and there was less arguing between
them, but it took me a long, long time to leave. I think that death thing is always
there. If you think you are keeping someone alive by being attached to them, then
you are sure they are going to die if you detach yourself.
Dr. Hora: So then the problem is this: When we see this phenomenon, we know that
phenomena are thoughts, and they come to us when we find coexistence as robbing us
of our lives, our freedom. Life is freedom and interestingly, many people have these
experiences where they see somebody die, or somebody is about to die, or somebody
is escaping from some accident. So the precariousness of life always comes into focus
in one way or another, and Freud believed that there is a force of death called Thanatos.
It?s a Greek word for the God of death. A preoccupation with death can have a disguised
form in terms of all kinds of thoughts, like dead car batteries or dead birds. People
are involved in symptoms of


hatred. Inexplicable thoughts of hatefulness all leave signs, but the best way to
think of it is that we have a thought that we are not really free and we don?t know
that freedom is possible as long as certain people are in our proximity or we are
involved in interacting with people. As an example, one of our members in the group
went through a period of about four weeks of severe pain in the body. All these things
are discordant thoughts revolving around the issue of freedom. So people who love
each other and want to be close to each other also feel that situation as an enslavement
of some kind and we are robbed of our freedom.
Freud spoke about the death wish: the wish to be dead for oneself or for somebody
else. So when you love somebody, you also hate them, and you may be preoccupied mentally
with such aggressively hostile thoughts, and then you don?t want to know about it
because it is not nice, right? It is important not to be afraid of it and confront
it because it is altogether human. For unenlightened people it is impossible to love
somebody without hating them and the more passionately we love somebody, the more
we are inclined to hate them, and we are not aware of it emotionally. We can become
aware of it in terms of symbolic images which occur mostly when we are asleep. In
our sleep we can hate people, because we can say I don?t have this dream. This is
not my dream. I don?t hate anybody. I love my mother, my sister, my father. I love
everybody, just like the Bible says we have to, right? So the recommendation here
is, don?t be afraid of the truth. Don?t deny it. Don?t brag about it. Face it. It
is a human condition. It is really nothing. In the final analysis, it is nothing
because only God is reality and these symptoms


are just dreams. Suppose you are dreaming that your loved one is dying, or is dead
or is going to die? What if you would like him to die? It is really nothing. It is
just something that you have come to believe, and that it is not nice. It is not
nice to have such thoughts and people are afraid of them and they don?t dare to face
them. Consequently, you remain enslaved to the idea that you are a vitally important
person who must maintain the status quo. If you hate somebody in the family, you
have to convince yourself it is not true and that you really love them. So people
struggle with all kinds of symptoms. Every night there is another ache and pain here
and there. You are just struggling against Thanatos, the death wish towards someone
you are supposed to love.
This is particularly clear when a loved one has died and you are left mourning
and grieving and the grief has to be deep and public and noticeable because the measure
of your love is in terms of the intensity of your grief. When somebody is grieving,
people say how he loved her or how she loved him, how much love there was in this
marriage. But the fact is that besides God, there is nothing, and we have to face
the fact that on the human level we cannot love, because we want too much for ourselves.
How can we love somebody if we want something from them? So, don?t be afraid to face
the truth that the human being is completely corrupt, and that is how you can set
yourself on the path of liberation. We hear so much between husband and wife, friends
and enemies. People develop these negative involvements where they claim that they
are loving and actually find in their dreams that they are wishing them to drop dead.
So nobody loves anybody. God is Love and that is sufficient. St. Paul complained


to God that he had a thorn in his side and it wasn?t going away, that it wasn?t getting
healed. He said, ?What should I do?? and God said: Nothing, ?my grace is sufficient
for thee? (2 Cor. 12:9). So we are left with the reality of God?s infinite, loving
presence and everything then disappears. We can sleep better at night. It took me
two years to sleep through a night. It is inevitable. Everybody gets it sooner or
later. But if you know that this is nothing to be ashamed of, neither to be proud
of, nor be afraid of, then you look at it face to face and see that this is not reality.
This is self-preoccupation. It doesn?t have to be. We have to let go of it to recapture
our freedom.
Student: On the human level, if we love someone, we enslave them.
Dr. Hora: Sure.
Student: I spoke to a mother last year who told me at a parent conference how much
she loved her children. She went on and on about how she devoted herself to them.
They are her whole life. She loves them and then she says ?but every summer I send
them to California because I need some freedom.? (laughter) That sounded so ridiculous,
but now it really makes sense.
Dr. Hora: You get hooked on this idea that we can love humanly in an unadulterated
fashion, and we are responsible for being loving all the time even toward our enemies.
?Love thine enemies,? says the Bible. Bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and blame yourself for whatever happens. (laughter)


Student: What does that mean to love your enemies? I guess it means what you said
before that the only love there is is that God is Love.
Dr. Hora: In the final analysis, God says that 2,000 years from now you will find
out that there is no interaction anywhere; there is only omni-action everywhere.
If you understand this principle, it will shorten the period of mourning.
Student: Everything you said sounds very much like compassion. You are saying you
don?t judge and you don?t blame. But how is one to work with this idea? I know it?s
only a thought, this phenomenon, this emotion. It seems that that is what ties people
in. The emotion seems to be the logical compassion, yet then you might be feeling
that it?s not me. But I am feeling her pain, her suffering, her loneliness and I
know I go through this too. In other words, how do you cut that off because you feel
like you?re responsible and it?s very tricky?
Dr. Hora: Just because you feel something is no proof of its reality. So don?t kid
yourself. Many people think that because I feel this and I feel that then that?s
for real. Fortunately we understand that feelings and emotions are just thoughts.
Thoughts can come to us on the level of feelings, emotions and insights. It is all
in the domain of feelings because nothing is really real except the truth. Truth
is not an emotion. It is a thought and we have to learn not to be afraid of thoughts
and not to exaggerate their importance. There is just the deceptive human consciousness.
So we must not overestimate the importance of thoughts or feelings and emotions.
Thoughts are the all important factor in life, and if we understand thoughts, we
do not become enslaved by emotions. I feel. We always talk


about how somebody makes us feel, or how an event made me feel so bad. I felt so
bad. We like to talk about our feelings, and it is just self-confirmatory ideation,
as you know. You cannot be free as long as you are enslaved by your emotions or feelings
or memories. We take notice that we had this dream, this horrible dream about two
birds dying on the rooftop. You didn?t create these birds and you are not responsible
for their lives. We don?t have to make a federal case out of these dreams or somebody
else crying. If we are truth oriented, then we cannot deceive ourselves.
Student: On the other hand, as a parent, it appears as if we are responsible for
the suffering or whatever of our children. I don?t know whether I stifle thoughts
of remorse over the mistakes I have made in the past; when these thoughts come up
I don?t know whether I am stifling these thoughts or healing these thoughts.
Dr. Hora: You are celebrating in a negative way. If we exaggerate the importance
of our feelings and emotions we are only celebrating ourselves.
Student: Would that be the same as confirming ourselves? Dr. Hora: Yes.
Student: I can?t seem to go beyond the idea that if somehow I were healthier early
on, that perhaps the children would not have to go through unnecessary difficulties.
Dr. Hora: You are a healthy parent. You are helping your children to cope with this
crazy life better than without you. Through ignorance we get involved in unnecessary
suffering.


Student: He is not responsible. Every parent does the best he or she can at the level
that they are at. The children still have to grow up in the human world. They still
have to go through the problems. There is very little a parent can do or so it seems.
Dr. Hora: Can you stop the birds from flying over your head?
Student: Children have to experience those things so that they can grow up.
Dr. Hora: It is not necessary but inevitable, right? If you take your emotions seriously,
you are going to be enslaved the rest of your life to the thoughts which gave rise
to those experiences. Now are we intending to be ruthless and callous? Don?t you
feel sorry for those little birds? (laughter)
Student: The thought that helps many times is that everything is here to teach us
something. We are here to constantly learn so whether it?s a dead bird or a dead
mouse or mistakes we made with our children or parents, these are all lessons for
us to transcend in a spiritual way.
Dr. Hora: We are here for our edification.
Student: And it seems that if we are willing to give up this self-confirmatory element
of feeling badly, then somehow something good seems to happen, right? With the example
I gave you over the weekend, it seemed had I accepted the thoughts that were present,
I would have been stuck with all that. But by being able to turn away, I said there
has got to be something better. This can?t possibly be my context because there is
something else. I was freed of that and it seemed it could have only happened if
there was somewhere else to go.


We have some place else to go. So the issue is everything is here for us to learn from.
Dr. Hora: There is a story about Suzuki. He is not a bicyclist. He was a Zen master,
a Zen teacher. There were many people dying such as now in the Bosnian involvement,
and people were asking him, ?What does Zen have to offer us to cope with this horrendous
war criminal situation?? It was a terrible situation and he didn?t show the slightest
concern. He may have said it is regrettable, but he wasn?t getting involved in the
hysteria of the concern for the tragedies that were happening in every direction.
As for the Nazis in World War II, they couldn?t say he was an anti-Semite because
he wasn?t. He was a very healthy individual. More than that, he was an enlightened
man. They couldn?t get him to join the feelings of sorrow that had affected practically
everybody around the globe for what the Germans were doing. People didn?t understand
how an enlightened man can be so callous. Perhaps the Japanese have a national policy
of unconcern with the Jews in Germany, but he tried to explain that these personal
reactions are not part of the enlightened life based on reality. How could you explain
this to somebody who is involved, right? It is a difficult situation, and it took
a long time for students of Zen to understand that emotional reactions are dreams
and not reality, and they are not in any way an indication of being virtuous, of
being a good man or a bad man or a Nazi or a non-Nazi. He was not involved with the
emotionalism and the personal-ism of most people in those days, which was difficult
to understand. And slowly, slowly after a few years, we began to see that this is
a completely fruitless way of reacting to the situation. Nobody would benefit from
the tears of a


Nazi victim. Nothing is beneficial about it, and similarly after a while you can
see that everything is a dream no matter how much it hurts, no matter how terrible
it is for a human person to see this. It doesn?t help, and it is not a virtue to
be emotionally affected. We think in terms of emotionalism and we judge people by
the depth of their sorrow, and no matter how deep our sorrow is, it has absolutely
no value. In psychoanalysis, contrariwise, it was believed that the more sorrow you
can feel, the more deeply you can feel the tragedies of human experience, the healthier
you are. But unfortunately it doesn?t really work that way. Nobody gets enlightened
from being sorry or being involved with grief. As a matter of fact, in psychoanalysis
they exalted the idea of grief, because the more you experience grief, the idea is
that you get healed or you become a better human person because you can cry.
Student: Is regret different?
Dr. Hora: No, nothing personal is desirable. Student: Regret is also personal?
Dr. Hora: Yes. You neither regret nor not regret. You are living in reality, which
is a spiritual universe where there is no messing around with emotions. There is
no virtue in that. If you can do something about it, do it.
There was a time when Zen was new and we were reading about these Zen swordsmen,
the Samurai. We even saw a movie about them. They would kill each other, these Samurai,
at the drop of a hat. They would cut off somebody?s head without batting an eyelash.
We were all horrified. We asked ?How can that be?? After all, Zen is a very noble,
spiritual discipline. How can we look at this and say this is right, that


these Samurai are right in their activities? So, he said that a Samurai, an authentic
Samurai, may have killed a dozen people but he didn?t kill them personally. He said
that the nature of the Samurai swordsman is that he allows the opponent to impale
himself on his sword. Every time it happens, it is a suicide. They had a movie where
a Japanese peasant was provoked to dueling with another peasant but the one that
was provoked was a Samurai and the other was just a braggart who wanted to show off
in the village and he kept nagging him and nagging him and provoked him to come to
duel with him and this guy didn?t want to duel because he was afraid that this will
be the end of this braggart and he tried to explain to him, don?t ask me to do that
because I don?t want you to die. Well this guy showed up in the village and he insisted
that they should duel. It took such a long time that the Samurai had to chop wood,
and finally he said, ?All right, if you insist, but I am warning you, I am a well-trained
Samurai.? The other guy didn?t believe. He was like a braggart. So they got out and
faced up against each other and within two seconds the provocateur was dead and this
guy didn?t do anything. He just held his sword up and he said this is the way that
Samurai kill people. They let them impale themselves on the sword. It is unbelievable
but that is how it was. So that is the Japanese form of compassion. They allow you
to kill yourself.
Student: It sounds like evil destroys itself. You are even watching evil destroy itself.
Dr. Hora: Exactly. That is the whole idea. That is the philosophy of the Zen dualism
and the Samurai. But when the Japanese were provoking us in the United States, we
took


out a longer sword. It was an atomic sword and they got it bad, but that is the way
human existence is and that explains the Samurai. Then there were the kamikaze Samurai
who believed in committing suicide by piloting the planes directly into a ship. There
are various attitudes toward death. So if we see two little birds dead and the mouse
and a car battery, we don?t have to feel sorry. We just have to understand that these
are phenomena, which means they are appearances in which certain thought processes
are translated into events. We see the events with our eyes and we take it seriously
and we get sick because we don?t know how to cope with it.
Student: Is there such a thing as karma?
Dr. Hora: There are millions of Hindus who believe in karma but we are not involved
with that. We do not need to speculate about it, because unfortunately there are
different theories about it.
Student: Some people are born to be on suicide missions and others are happily living quiet lives.
Dr. Hora: There are those that are living quiet lives? The saying is ?lives of quiet
desperation.? (laughter)
Student: I can see how most of my life has been wasted, worrying or being sad.
Dr. Hora: You are a norm. (laughter)
Student: I can see clearly how we waste our life on worrying about a dead bird or
what somebody said to us and it kills all our joy. Seeing that is not enough of a
lesson. You forget


this lesson and go back to doing the same thing over and over again.
Dr. Hora: If you don?t understand what is happening to you that?s an unfortunate situation.
Student: I seem to mourn the appearance of a wasted life. How do we really look at
that within the context of reality?
Dr. Hora: Every day that we live in ignorance is a wasted life; therefore, we have
to hurry up (laughter) and become enlightened and that is what we are working on.
One of our friends has gone through about four weeks now of excruciating physical
pains in her body and this happened a few years ago to her in the same way. There
were excruciating pains in her body, and she was just complaining and complaining
and thinking that Metapsychiatry had let her down. Sometimes we go through periods
of severe pains until the meaning is clearly understood, and when the meaning has
been clearly understood, it sometimes makes us feel that we have been so naive that
we are embarrassed to admit it. Yet we cannot get healed until we face up to it openly,
quietly, and when it is clearly understood what the issues are, the problem disappears.
It can happen to all of us if we are careful about understanding the meaning of our
experience.
Student: If we are interested in true freedom, we have to purify our thought processes
regarding loved ones. Because if we are humanly in love, then the aspects of hate
are inevitable. and if you think that is going to keep you from freedom, it is inevitable
to have a death wish. That is all part of that whole context, right?


Dr. Hora: Right.
Student: So if we are truly interested in freedom, in the context of human love,
we are not responsible for the other individual. We just have to know that God is
available to them as God is available to us when we are moving away from them. So
whatever phenomena happen during that process, it is still just a phenomenon in that
context. We don?t have to be afraid of it. We can see a dead bird. We can see a dead
mouse. We can see a dead car. None of that really matters. The only real issue taking
place is that we are required to know that we are involved in the human context of
love and we need to move to the idea that God?s grace is sufficient.
Dr. Hora: Yes. There is a couple in Connecticut and the husband goes from one problem
to another-all kinds of problems-financial, emotional and physical and he has a nefarious
habit. He would nag his wife all the time, saying: ?If only you would change.? (laughter)
And no matter how many times this occurred, it went on and on and he wouldn?t listen
to the meanings. He wouldn?t consider the possibility of meanings, but insisted that
?if only you would change.?
Student: You said at the beginning of group that we all seem to have this notion
that we can have this unadulterated love affair and we can get it right. Therefore
we are involved in operationalism. There is a personal sense in there. Whether it
involves a parent or a brother, you have got to get it perfect. We seem to keep working
on it, working on it, working on it for years and it doesn?t improve. It just has
its own life, it seems. So to drop that it?s just a question of being


loving as you said. Being responsive, that?s the best way to be, understanding that
love is not something we can do.
Dr. Hora: Love is something we must be careful about. It is very easy to believe
that we love somebody, and we are nice people and good and all you have to do is
to get the other party to change and then you will be all right. So we suffer from
loving people. (laughter) Did you ever consider the fact that human love is an interaction
process, so actually it is dangerous to love somebody?
Student: What is a valid way to look at our spouse? (laughter) Dr. Hora: The best way is gratitude.
Student: For their presence, for their existence.
Dr. Hora: Right. If you can be grateful, then your love is genuine. If it is emotional,
it is very dangerous.
Student: How could I tell? What does that mean ? emotional?
Dr. Hora: If you are emotional, then you are thinking about how you feel about him
or her. It is a feeling issue.
Student: And the idea of gratitude is just appreciative of their existence.
Dr. Hora: You are praising the world for knowing such an individual that can share
life. Just praise the Lord.
Student: A sentence jumped out at me from a book I was just ruffling through which
said the more cheerfully we can hate our spouse, the better off we are. (laughter)
I thought it was very funny because what it said was that we take hatred as


well as love so very seriously, and if we can just be cheerful about it and watch
it go by, we are better off.
Dr. Hora: And where are we?
Student: Well, we are just not serious about emotions.
Dr. Hora: Seriousness of course is always dangerous. Somebody tells you I am in love.
You say to them, get out of here. (laughter)
Student: So is it valid to tell your spouse you love him if you appreciate him? (laughter)
Dr. Hora: It is not recommended. (laughter) Student: You sound like Dr. Ruth. (laughter)
Student: But hatred particularly has such as emotional impact. Just the word is very
frightening to people.
Dr. Hora: Many people are filled with hatred. Of course many people get sick over
this. It is not recommended. Neither to love nor hate but to be grateful and remember
that God is the only lover. God is the only love. So if we are grateful then love
is not personal or impersonal; it?s an awareness of God?s good and actually that
is really freedom.
Student: You are grateful for your parents?
Dr. Hora: You are grateful for whatever good comes to you in your experience, what
makes sense, what is intelligent, what is liberating. If we are conscious of being
grateful, we have no problems. Grateful people are free people. They don?t enslave
anybody; neither can they be enslaved by anybody and that is about the best.


Dr. Hora: Everybody has a chair with his name on it. (laughter) Isn?t that something?
What is attachment?
Student: Comfort.
Dr. Hora: It?s comfort? Student: Seemingly.
Student: Is that why we sit in the same chair every week, because we are attached to it?
Dr. Hora: You don?t ask why.
Student: I thought it was the fear of change, wanting everything to be the same, all the time.
Dr. Hora: Yes, Okay. So it?s the same. We get attached to persons, places, things
and ideas, right. You see that. That?s her chair. (laughter)
Student: We laughed at Archie Bunker. No one was allowed to sit in his chair, ever.
Dr. Hora: Then Meathead came along and put down the right stuff, the right shoe.
He broke the rules. This is attachment.
The Buddhists are very much afraid of attachment. They warn people not to
get attached to anything ever. What happens when we are attached? You see that it
is so widespread. Almost everybody has a tendency to form attachments as if we were
made of glue or flypaper or something.
Student: Attachment seems to be a form of wanting and being fearful of not being
associated with what we are involved with. Attachment is the fear of loss of that
to which we are attached.
Dr. Hora: We are afraid of freedom. Would you believe that? So we are always talking
about how great it is to be free. It?s a free country. We celebrate the idea of freedom,
but when it comes to living freely, it is not so easy. What makes us so fearful of
freedom?
Student: I think it means that you would have to be alone. As an individual, you
would have to stay solitary in order to be free.
Dr.: Hora: So?
Student: Going back to freedom. It sounds good on paper but it can be very scary
to have to be solitary. You know it sounds very nice when you read about it in booklets
and stuff.
Student: Do we know what freedom is?
Dr. Hora: Well we could ask the rabbi.
Student: Fear of the unknown?
Dr. Hora: It could be. On the other hand, it could not be.
Student: But isn?t it our idea of what we are? Because of the attachment that makes
us into what we think we are.

Dr. Hora: Like for instance, what?
Student: Like being president of a board and feeling that gives you a lot of personal
satisfaction. So that is an attachment.
Dr. Hora: An attachment to the board? Student: To the board, to that work.
Dr. Hora: Can we get attached to a board?
Student: Yes, because it gives you personal acclaim and it makes you feel good. Then
you are attached to it. At least I feel that I am attached to it.
Dr. Hora: You are just repeating words now. Put it this way. Who needs freedom? What
is the big deal about being free? We are so scared of it. Nobody really keeps it
in mind. Everybody always goes back to the same spot, to the same thing. We don?t
want to be free. On the other hand, if we are not free, we complain. Isn?t that so?
Student: It seems to have something to do with being able to let go. When you are
attached, you are hanging onto something, and if you can let it go you are free.
Dr. Hora: Is that so? There is a story about a philosopher who was a friend of a
king and they went on a walk in the garden, and they were talking about this thing
that we are talking about now. The king said, ?I have no problem with attachments.?
The philosopher at that point suddenly jumped up into a tree and climbed into the
branches and sat there, and the king became annoyed and said, ?Come on. Let?s continue
our lovely walk,? and the philosopher said, ?I cannot go. The tree won?t let me.?
He got attached to the tree, and he blamed

the tree for his being immobilized and imprisoned. We often complain about
people who enslave us or force us to stay here and not go there, right? Or they make
us eat with the left hand and not the right hand or insist that we have these habits
or that we be attached to all kinds of things in every direction. Every one of you
is sitting today in the same place that you have been sitting for ages, and there
is no freedom to sit somewhere else. Anybody who complains of not being free is ridiculous.
Nobody really wants to be free. Everybody wants to be imprisoned by habits.
Student: I don?t think they want to be imprisoned by habits. I think we just become
like a slave to the habit and the issue is safety. I don?t know if it?s so much that
I want it that way but that I feel scared to do it another way. It frightens me.
Dr. Hora: Yes, okay, so what are you saying? Just because you are scared, then it
is all right to be immobilized and to be attached? That?s how you explained it.
Student: You said we want to be.
Dr. Hora: Nobody is forcing you to sit there. Nobody is forcing everybody to sit
in the same place. But if you say people are scared, what do you mean?
Student: The habit feels safe and it?s scary to take another seat.
Dr. Hora: Okay, then it?s all right. Then it?s all right to be attached in life,
because if we are attached in the small things, then it is all right to get attached
in big things also. In existential situations, we are attached to a person, to a
thing, to a place, or to an idea. Are we attached because we are afraid to be free,
or are we afraid to be free because we are attached? Is

there anybody in the world who is free? Have you ever known anybody who was free?
There was a TV show. I think it was a Star Trek show where they had a man there
who was half white and half black. He was a very interesting fellow, but then after
a while another man appeared and he was also half white and half black. People thought
these are just brothers or something, but these two guys hated each other with a
violent passion and just wanted to murder each other. They couldn?t live on the same
boat. They would be asked how it is that they hate each other so much because one
is half white and half black and the other is half white and half black. ?Yes,? one
explained, ?but he is white on the wrong side.? That was disturbing for him. Then
we have these racial problems, these ethnic problems, wars and fights and all kinds
of difficulties in living, and it leaves no flexibility. It?s rigidity when we are
attached. Everything has to be the same, all the time. If you want to pick your nose,
you have to use the same finger. You don?t have the freedom to use another finger.
It can be absurd. It can go on and on, this human inclination toward forming attachments.
Now the enlightened Buddhist teachers knew about this curse on mankind. They warned
their students to be very alert not to fall into the trap of getting attached to
anything. It is not easy, but it is important. Why is it important? Sometimes we
are attached and we don?t realize it, and sometimes we are attached and we think
we are not attached. We just love somebody. Attachment can masquerade as love. I
love to be close. I love this individual. I love that house. I love this country.
We use the word love to cover up the fact that we

got ourselves imprisoned through a mental habit of attachment, and we are
afraid to be free. Can?t you be free while you are attached? There is nothing wrong
with the way we are sitting tonight. It is comfortable. We don?t realize that we
are in a state of attachment right now because we don?t have the flexibility to participate
in a situation with the slightest change.
Student: Does that mean that we are asleep and wouldn?t allow a new idea to come
in? Does our survival depend on us being free? Is it that crucial? I mean our actual
survival. If we don?t learn what freedom is and we don?t learn to be free of attachments,
is it really dangerous?
Dr. Hora: There are all kinds of dangers. Suppose an event occurs where you are forced
to change position or to separate yourself from something that you are attached to?
There are all kinds of things happening-political wars, natural disasters. People
sometimes have to flee from their homes, right? There are volcanic eruptions, families
are broken up, and people have to leave their habitual ways of living. Certain radical
changes are forced upon us, and we then are more or less incapable of coping with
them, and it is very painful. Whereas, if we would understand freedom, we would not
be so incapable. We would be able to cope much better in such situations.
It reminds me of a saying Jesus uttered, ?Foxes have holes, birds have nests,
but the son of man has no place to lay his head? (Luke 9:58). What did he mean? He
wasn?t complaining. It sounds like he was complaining. He never really complained.
He was always teaching, right? The teacher cannot complain. He has to teach. He is
attached to teaching.

Even animals get attached. Three or four deer always come to the same place
to graze near our house. There is nothing to graze. They don?t go to another place.
They always come back. They are attached to that particular spot.
Student: How can we live without attachment?
Dr. Hora: That is a good question. Somewhat premature, but first we have to understand
the meaning of attachment and then we can ask that question, right?
Student: It seems to me that if the things I am attached to weren?t there I would
have a great sense of void. That scares me. That void just seems like
Dr. Hora: Suppose you were attached to a habit of smoking and suddenly you cannot
smoke. It is forbidden. Did you see what compulsions, what suffering people go through
when their attachment to such a silly little thing, a piece of paper, tobacco and
blowing smoke, is taken away? (laughter) They cannot live without it, right? That
is attachment. Whatever we attach to is our God. The Bible warns us all the time
against idolatry. What is an idol? It is something that becomes unduly important
to us, giving us the illusion that our life depends on it, that we couldn?t survive
without it. Now I ask you, if you would change seats, would you survive a group session?
(laughter) We can contemplate the meaning of the human inclination to form attachments.
Student: Some attachments seem more innocuous than others.
Dr. Hora: That?s right. You are correct. But we can contemplate exploring the meaning
of the human inclination to form attachments.

Student: But it is also like what we cherish, what we hate and what we fear.
Many attachments are things that we hate.
Dr. Hora: Sure. A man says I hate this woman tremendously, but I couldn?t live without
her. (laughter) It is true more often than not. Have you ever heard of this? (laughter)
Student: It seems like our whole identity is based on our attachments. Our whole
sense of being and presence is what we are attached to. How can we easily give that
up?
Dr. Hora: Nobody is asking you to give it up. All that we are trying to do is understand
that we are too religious. The problem is that we are too religious. For some people,
religion is another word for an attachment to an idea and to a ritual, to a belief
system, to a superstitious preoccupation. We get attached, and to give up an attachment
is like dying. So Jesus said again, ?Whosoever would lose his life for my sake shall
find it? (Matt. 16:25). Freedom he defined as knowing the truth. The truth is God.
But I mean the real God, the God above the god, as the saying goes. We can only find
freedom when we understand that we are totally, inexplicably, individualized aspects
of infinite, divine life. Then our attachment to the real God, not the religious
system, but to God, makes it possible to be free. St. Paul said, ?I am the prisoner
of the Lord? (Eph. 3:1). If we understand what he meant, we would also be free. Because
if you understand God, then there is no more need for attachments; you are solidly,
securely positioned in reality. ?Commit thy ways unto the Lord, and thou shall be
established in true freedom? (Prov. 16:3). If we don?t understand God, if we don?t
understand who we are, and what we are and where we are, and what our purpose is,
then at

best we could become religious, and at worst become fanatical over some nonsense.
There are all kinds of groups of people who get attached to an idea, to a system,
to a ritual, to a superstition. It can be political or economic or all kinds of things.
Whenever you are attached to something, this something becomes your god, and it?s
always a false god. The real God you cannot get attached to. Isn?t that interesting?
You can get attached to almost anything in the world ?even to the wind. Your own
wind or somebody else?s. (laughter) You can get attached to that, but it is not possible
to get attached to the real God. How is that?
Student: This God is not something we can imagine. It is not dimensional.
Dr. Hora: You could imagine, but it is just imagination.
Student: It still isn?t so clear what the meaning is of the inclination to form attachments.
Dr. Hora: The meaning is that we judge by appearances. If we judge by appearances,
it would seem to be very important to cling to something, or someone, or some system,
or a place or an ideology. Who can live alone? Man cannot survive alone. He has to
be integrated with something viable. If we don?t understand God in an existentially
valid way, then we have no other choice but to reach out to cling to something that
is more tangible, something that we can see and feel, touch and fight with.
Student: This could get tricky because in society the world is based on order. So
what would be a guideline to check up on yourself? I mean compared with knowing that
what one

is doing essentially throughout his or her whole life is staying in the same
apartment and the same job. You know this type of routine that we set up. How do
you know when you are being orderly or when you might be fooling yourself? You can
say that this is just the system and I know what I am doing. But how do you wake
yourself up?
Dr. Hora: It would seem that if we are not attached to some system, then there would
be anarchy and chaos, right? In different periods of time, there are certain trends
in our culture where ignorant ideas take hold of people?s imagination, and they grab
hold of it and wind up in anarchy and chaos. We saw this with the flower children,
with all kinds of trends when people were reaching out. There were these cults, religious
cults and groupies that always wound up by breaking up and produced a lot of misery,
because you cannot replace God. You may have an illusion that there is order. Suppose
you are in the Army where there is terrific order-right? It doesn?t work, because
there is always something going wrong. On the other hand, if you are enlightened
about yourself in the context of the valid God, then your order is based on aesthetics
and love-intelligence, right usefulness, and everything you do is orderly, intelligent,
peaceful, harmonious and beneficial. An enlightened individual doesn?t have to be
controlled. He has an inner discipline derived from direct awareness of God as infinite
Love-Intelligence and that is freedom, and that is peace, and that is spiritual blessedness.
It?s a whole ?nother smoke.
Student: It seems as though attachment is a form of self-confirmation.

Dr. Hora: It feels like self-preservation. Sure. Freedom is precious, but
it is not easily realized.
Student: Let?s say you are working on a computer and you are very slow and it?s to
your advantage to work on a faster computer. The work would get done faster.
Dr. Hora: Because you are in a hurry. Student: I am always in a hurry.
Dr. Hora: Then you are attached to speed.
Student: Say you are paid by the hour and so they get you a new computer and it?s
fast and the work gets done much faster. But what has happened is that you get attached.
Dr. Hora: Yes, and after a while you seem very slow. (laughter)
Student: It seems to be better than the old system. It?s faster and the work is getting
done faster, but yet there is this attachment that has formed.
Dr. Hora: True. It?s like getting attached to a girl. She is wonderful, but not for
long. (laughter) She seems to be very slow. (laughter) That is what happens with
all these attachments. They don?t really work.
Student: Can you justify something in terms of it being supposedly more productive?
Dr. Hora: We appreciate productivity, and intelligent efficiency as long as we are
not attached to it. As long as our awareness of life and all there is in it, its
functions, is based and anchored in God. Because, after all, God is the supreme creative
principle of the universe, and whatever there is that

is beautiful, good, intelligent, useful, and harmonious is God manifesting
in this universe. We can appreciate that, but we do have to know that freedom is
a very precious commodity not easily attained and not easily preserved. We can lose
it. It is important to appreciate it in its true sense because very often freedom
deteriorates into license. For instance, say you want to be free to smoke in the
elevator, and you do it and you enjoy it. People are coughing and you enjoy it-right?
But how long will that go on? Then you are not fighting for freedom; you are fighting
for license, and everywhere we see that people who think they want to be free are
really not freedom fighters; they are license seekers. The politician said yes, we
will give you freedom for a certain fee. If you pay taxes, this kind of taxes, and
that kind of taxes, and social security-we live in a free country. We are hamstrung
with a thousand kinds of taxes they use.
About half a year ago they said, ?Yes, you have the freedom to practice as a doctor
provided you pay us $335 for the license and you spend a certain number of hours
in a certain hospital attending a course in child abuse.? I have had the freedom
for 47 years to be a doctor and now in order to preserve my freedom, I had to go
and attend certain stupid lectures about child abuse. (laughter) What did I learn
there? I learned that if I agree to having some suspicion that somebody is abusing
a child and if I say nothing about it to the police, I can be arrested and put into
jail. Isn?t that some freedom? You see how freedom can be perverted in a thousand
ways. Just like love. Now freedom is spiritual. There is no other kind of freedom.
There are just different arrangements, and licenses. You have to pay to get a license.
You have to do certain things. Human beings don?t know freedom. Only

spiritual beings know freedom. Fortunately we are all spiritual beings, and
all that is needed is to wake up to this fact and then everything changes.
Student: What was the meaning of man not having a place to lay his head?
Dr. Hora: He doesn?t need a place to lay his head. He doesn?t have to be somehow
implanted in a rigid situation. An animal keeps coming back to the same place, just
like people, but the spiritual consciousness doesn?t need to be attached to a place.
It is free, more free than a bird. Where would Jesus sit if he were in this group?
He said when two or three are gathered in MY name, I shall be among them. Of course
we are more than two or three. Where is he? Where is Jesus Christ, since he promised
he will be here? Now the question is, is Jesus here? Can you see him? No. Well does
anybody see Jesus?
Student: To the extent we can see the truth we can see.
Dr. Hora: Right, it is not a person. It is a quality of consciousness. That is the
Christ. For the second coming he won?t need transportation, and he won?t need a white
horse to come in on triumphantly. It is the advent of the realization of the truth
and freedom that is the Christ?s second coming, and third coming, and fourth coming.
He keeps coming but nobody notices the coming of Jesus because it is not a person
but a quality of consciousness, and it keeps coming and it is always there. It is
always available for everybody to see and become free, truly free.
Student: Is open mindedness helpful to know freedom?

Dr. Hora: Open mindedness can perceive the true nature of freedom. If we don?t
have an open mind, we cannot understand freedom because we are not free. The mind
is also enslaved. What is the mind attached to? It is attached to thinking, opinions,
systems, computers. (laughter) Whenever we have mental attachments, we are not open-minded
and we are not free, and we don?t learn anything. It is the saddest part of attachments
that somebody is attached to certain schools of thoughts or philosophies, or religious
dogma. Then he doesn?t have the open mind that would enable him to understand reality
from a spiritual standpoint and understand freedom. An open mind is very important.
Student: I showed you a cartoon from a Buddhist magazine. It said Zen vacuum cleaner.
No attachments. (laughter)
Dr. Hora: Very good.
Student: I raised some of these points in the past about certain morals. For the
first five years when I would go in and have some conversations with a teacher, I
would get the impression that everyone came from the same kind of moral background
so that when I spoke, there was a context that everybody kind of knew. There was
an understanding that you didn?t have to explain. Now, if you make a simple statement
about condoms, or morals, or God, you don?t know where the objections are going to
come from. There is this looseness, this indefinable
Dr. Hora: People don?t know what it is.
Student: When I say what I say, I feel like I am not in step with the times. I am
some kind of an old fogy that still believes in whatever you want to call it, superstition
or whatever. It

has me kind of doubting, or wondering if I could look for something to sort of lean on.
Dr. Hora: Be attached to.
Student: Maybe that is what it is. Moral looseness, how would this apply to ...
Dr. Hora: It would help to know what morality means. What is morality?
Student: A kind of a norm that society has set.
Dr. Hora: No that is ethics. Ethics is a psychological standard of behavior. Morality
is a religious standard of behavior. We are neither moral nor immoral, but enlightened.
We are under the influence of spiritual values and they don?t deal with behavior;
they deal with seeing. When you see spiritual values as existentially valid, then
you will be ethical, and moral, and loving and free and you don?t have to worry about
what people will think, whether you are an old fogy, or a young fogy. You know what?s
what. If you ask people, what is this morality? or what is ethics? or what do people
talk about? they really don?t know. Most people don?t know what morality is. Moral
values are derived from the Ten Commandments. Ethical values are psychological standards
that evolved from social habits in a certain culture. You are not supposed to stab
people in the back. That is an ethical value. Ethics and morality are important for
unenlightened people to survive in a certain culture and to function. But we transcend
these values and this type of thought and we seek to realize spiritual values that
give us a transcendent view of life, not on a psychological level, and not on a religious
level but in a divine context. That makes us

free. Jesus said, ?And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free? (John 8:32). If you are moral, that is nice but that is not freedom. You get
constantly pressured. You?re ethical. Of course, it?s nice from a social standpoint,
but that is not freedom. So we have to go higher (99th floor). (laughter)
Student: Is it ethical to cheat on your income tax? Student: Only if you can get
away with it. (laughter)
Dr. Hora: Ethics and morality have no relevance to freedom. They are relevant to
more or less harmonious functioning of individuals within a certain social structure.
Morality will not give you freedom. Ethics will not give you freedom. They take away
your freedom. You have to sacrifice. You have to sacrifice to pay taxes. You have
to sacrifice not to lie and not to cheat, not to manipulate, not to hurt people,
and not to gossip about people. That is immoral. But freedom and truth and peace
and bliss consciousness come to us from an entirely different system of values that
we call spiritual values.


Student: I have a question about being confronted by panhandlers. Sometimes I give
them money; sometimes I don?t. In either case, I feel, very often, uncomfortable;
if I give them money, I am not really benefiting them and if I don?t give them money,
I am not really benefited. It?s not clear how to understand the situation.
Dr. Hora: This question has been raised a few times already, right? What did we say about it?
Student: I remember it was said not to see the person as lacking or imperfect, because
we then confirm their apparent infirmity. But it?s not that clear to me what would
be beneficial. It?s not the behavior toward the individual that counts, but how one
views them that counts. Yet it seems very difficult not to see them as impaired.
Dr. Hora: Yes. So there is a dilemma. Could Metapsychiatry have something to say
about this problem from the standpoint of the individual? The wider problem, of course,
is political, social, and economic, but from the standpoint of the individual who
is a student of Metapsychiatry, there must be something that one can contribute.
As you said, if you give
74


them money, it is not necessarily good, but if you don?t give them money, it is not
necessarily good either, right? Now, what?s the solution? Is there something that
a student of Metapsychiatry can give that nobody else can give? What is there?
Student: The way you see the individual. Dr. Hora: Right.
Student: And if you see this individual, not as a poor, dirty, homeless person, but
as a living soul, here for God, just as he is, then it doesn?t matter if we give
or not give him anything; it?s nice to be generous ...
Dr. Hora: Okay, we have to see. Metapsychiatry is mostly about seeing. We are learning
to see God and God?s universe, the universe of mind where there is abundance of love,
of wisdom, of everything good. There is abundance. As Jesus said, ?I am come that
ye might have life and have it more abundantly? (John 10:10). What did he mean? More
money, more cars, more girls, more sex? No, the abundance of divine good is all there
is. So if you happen to have small change or small bills, you can say, ?Thank God,
I have this and I can give this,? as much as is suitable in the situation. But primarily
what we give is a blessing. What is so blessing about what we give. As you said correctly,
we acknowledge that everything and everyone is here for God whether they know it
or not. This acknowledgement is for us. It reminds us that these individuals are
not what they seem to be, that in reality they are perfect, even as the creator is
perfect. Now this is difficult, because what we see (with our eyes) has a powerful
impact on our thoughts. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding


and irregardless (laughter), we have to make an effort to see them in the context
of divine mind. And every time we pass by, and something objectionable hits us in
the visual field we must immediately remind ourselves of the truth of divine reality,
and this thought can have very far reaching consequences. You never know what can
happen to any particular individual whom you behold in the light of the truth. So,
give whenever you can, money or food, but above all know that the greatest gift that
we can bestow on each other is the Prayer of Right Seeing. We all have learned about
the Prayer of Right Seeing which was given to us in Hawaii, right? Did you know that?
Student: No.
Dr. Hora: We had a conference in Hawaii; this prayer occurred to us during the conference,
and ever since then, individuals all over the world are blessed by students of Metapsychiatry
who invariably remind themselves of the Prayer of Right Seeing. Isn?t that nice?
We can be grateful to these people that they keep us on our toes, and instead of
criticizing them, and blaming them, or blaming Mayor Dinkins or Bush or this or that,
we give them of our treasure because to understand some of the truth of God and to
share it with others is a great gift that we can bestow, and we are not depriving
ourselves of anything. On the contrary, we are blessed by blessing. We get blessed
by blessing, right? And we get cursed by cursing. Did you know that? So we don?t
curse, we don?t criticize, we don?t judge, we don?t blame, we just keep blessing
and wind up being blessed ourselves.
Student: I have a question regarding this. I was telling Dr. Hora, earlier in private
session that about a year ago I saw a film of


the life of the tenor Jose Carreras on television. He had just come out of the hospital
after a long battle with leukemia, and right on this film, I saw him as ill, or as
having been ill and I was struggling the whole time, as Dr. Hora just described.
I was going back and forth with this battle in my mind. Then I saw the film again
this weekend, and I was very surprised that I was not battling anymore; I just saw
that individual as being perfect. Now the first time, I knew what was required but
I just couldn?t do it and I felt bad. This time, there wasn?t any struggle, and what
happens when you are in a position like that where the suggestions of the world take
hold of your consciousness and you cannot get rid of them and then at another time,
you see correctly without trying to? And I was really happy that I could see that
this time. But if you are in a position that you can?t, it is something of a mystery.
Dr. Hora: What does it take? That is your question. You have to know that you are
the richest girl in the whole world; that your father is infinitely wealthy and you
have these treasures to give away. Do we understand this treasure? The truth of being
in the context of Divine Reality is a treasure which can bless everyone that we look
at. Now, unfortunately, people do not know about this. It is a well kept secret.
And what do unenlightened people do? They criticize, they find fault, they condemn,
they run away.
Student: They feel sorry.
Student: ... or they give because it makes them feel good or they are bribing God.
Dr. Hora: Yes, there are many ways of going wrong, if we don?t understand the great
treasure of the prayer of Right Seeing.


We are in a dilemma. We don?t know how to be a beneficial presence in the world.
As you say, you give them $100.00 and they could go straight into the liquor store
and buy a bottle or the drug addicts could get a fix. There are all kinds of people
in this condition and it is not really helpful. The material solutions are no solution.
But we can give of our spiritual treasures and it will never diminish. There is a
story in the bible that occurred at a time when there was a famine in the land. There
was a woman who had two sons and they were so poor that she had to sell her sons
for a certain amount of food so that they could survive. She sold them into bondage
and she was desperate. And as it happens, a rabbi named Elisha was passing by. He
stopped at this woman?s house and said, ?I would like you to make me a little cake,
so that I could eat, because I haven?t eaten for a long time.? And the woman said,
?Are you kidding? I am at the bottom of the vessel scraping up some leftover flour
to eat myself and give it to my two sons, so that then we could die.? They were so
poor. And the rabbi said, nevertheless, and notwithstanding and irregardless I want
you to make me a piece of bread. And she said, ?What should I do?? So she was willing
and then she said, ?All my vessels are empty; I don?t have a drop of oil, nothing.?
And the rabbi said, ?I?ll tell you what I?m going to do. You take all your empty
vessels that you have, and borrow some more empty vessels from the neighbors, and
take one empty vessel in which you have just a few drops of oil in it and start pouring
out from this little thing into the empty vessels.? So this woman said, ?What shall
I do with this crazy rabbi? But I?ll do it.? And she took this vessel and started
pouring and as she was pouring the more oil there was and was filling


up all the vessels that were in the household. Pretty soon, it was like a river of
oil. She sold this oil and that broke the whole spell of hypnotism of starvation.
This whole problem was healed. This is in the Bible (2 Kings 4:1?7) I didn?t invent
it. But it?s very interesting because everything from the Bible is an appropriate
lesson recorded for our edification. Now what is the lesson in this story? It says
that if a crazy rabbi shows up at your door, don?t chase him away. No, the rabbi
had a spiritual solution. What is the spiritual remedy to lack?
Student: Abundance.
Dr. Hora: Abundance, of course. You see, lack can only exist in the material world.
But if you elevate consciousness into the spiritual realm of spiritual divine Love-Intelligence,
that lack, which was so impressive to the eyes and to the material viewpoint, disappears
and what you have is a condition that gets healed spiritually, and that?s the story.
He insisted that this woman learn spiritual generosity by making the rabbi a piece
of bread. He didn?t need the bread, but he was teaching her how to be generous until
it hurts. And that?s the lesson, that whenever we see lack, homelessness, sickness,
misery, we have to replace this picture with a conscious acknowledgement of the truth
of divine reality. And if we are sincere and we have studied and learned the Prayer
of Right Seeing, solutions occur. And that?s the healing. St. Paul says, ?We look
not upon the things that are seen? (2 Cor. 4:18) or do appear, but we look at the
things that are not seen, you see, and when we are able to look at the things that
are not seen, surprising things can and do happen in proportion to our ability to
pray in this fashion.


Student: I wanted to ask a question regarding the issue of giving to people. There
is a story in the Bible of the apostles, where a man is asking for money, and he
says, ?Silver and gold I have none, but such as I have I give to thee? (Acts 3:6)
and he heals him. But nowadays when we are not at that spiritual level, when you
say to behold somebody in the context of love, I notice sometimes that a hidden thought
of doubt remains, and I wonder if it is doing any good because you see people in
very desperate shape, even within the family. I must say I have some doubts because
I am not able to transform the situation like the apostles did.
Dr. Hora: Well, this reminds me of the lesson that Jesus gave to some of his students.
He said that anything can happen with prayer; for instance, if you pray believing
that all is possible to God and you will say to this mountain, ?Get thee hence and
move into the midst of the sea or into yonder place? (Matt. 17:20), as the Bible
says, and if you pray believing that this is possible, it will happen. So there was
a guy among his disciples and he said, ?All right I am going to pray hard,? and all
night he prayed about this mountain because it was blocking his view and he wanted
this mountain to move away and he prayed and prayed all night and in the morning
he looked out and the mountain was still there, and he said, ?I knew it, I knew it
wouldn?t work.? That?s the problem with doubt. Now, what is the lesson in this? After
all, it is normal to doubt. Of course, Jesus made a mistake in this lesson. He told
the people that what they have to do is to believe. If you believe in God, in the
truth, in what we are saying here, it won?t help at all. What is needed is right
knowing, and that takes a little time and work. Because when you believe


something, you doubt. It is not possible to believe without doubting. So this whole
thing is a mistake. Many formal religions are constantly encouraging people to believe:
believe in God, believe in Jesus Christ, believe in this, believe in that and the
more you believe the more you doubt. You cannot have a coin with only one side. What
is needed is, knowing based on spiritual realization. So we study, we read, we meditate,
and little by little we begin to realize that there is such a thing as spiritual
reality. So when we pray we endeavor to acknowledge spiritual reality. We don?t work
on believing in spiritual reality. We don?t believe in God. We don?t believe in Jesus
Christ. The hopelessness of formal religions, where people are trying to believe,
is getting them nowhere. What is needed is the knowledge that is based on progressive
spiritual realization and then good things can happen. There is a tremendous difference.
Student: But between believing where there is doubt and really knowing, what can
we do to gain that understanding?
Dr. Hora: You must be interested in realizing this truth. So you don?t piddle around
with maybe I will see. Let?s try this or that. No, you work. This is called contemplative
meditation where a certain truth is presented to you either from the Bible or a teacher
or from the Daily News, and you take this truth and contemplate it with a sincere
desire to realize it, to understand it, and it will happen. Little by little, here
a little, there a little, we will realize more and more of the truth of divine reality
in which we live and move and have our being. And that?s the way to go. Everything
else is conditional and God says, ?You cannot piddle around with me. I need total
commitment.? And that is what is required.


Student: If you give, wanting to help, it?s no good. It won?t work because wanting
is personal. In other words, if you say there is this homeless person and if I give
him money I?m going to help him or maybe I?m not going to help him...
Dr. Hora: No, we are discouraged here from wanting or not wanting, but we are encouraged
to be interested in progressively realizing divine reality and its power to help
us see that what we ordinarily see is not so. Only the unseen is real. The seen is
phenomenal; it is a phenomenon. So we are infinitely rich and we don?t know it. Imagine
you had a million dollars in the Chemical Bank down the street and you didn?t know
about it. You could be among the homeless, starving on the street, just because you
didn?t know. That?s the way it is with enlightenment. We don?t know and we always
suffer from not knowing. And every little bit of knowing helps.
Student: Is commitment a progressive interest also? It is not just a one instant happening?
Dr. Hora: Well it is a constant attitude, a desirable attitude where we are interested
in realizing the truth of being, of divine reality. And the more often we see that
certain healings happen, certain good things happen, the more encouraged we become
and the more sincere our commitment becomes, and little by little, we get there.
Student: So commitment, in a way, is being drawn?
Dr. Hora: Well let us put it this way, in being sincerely interested.


Student: When we are asked for something or we are asked to be helpful, do we need
to recognize it as not a personal thing that we?re doing, but what God wants?
Dr. Hora: Not necessarily. Suppose your children ask, ?Let?s go to JB Schwartz (laughter
as he is corrected to FAO Schwartz) or to the mall.? (laughter)
Student: In a helpful sense, what I was talking about earlier, about people in Russia
needing food, the helpfulness comes through in right seeing more than it does in
the physical manifestation. The coin or the money or the food is just a physical
manifestation of what God...
Dr. Hora: Yes, and it is just temporary. It quickly fizzles out and it is not very
helpful. It is better than nothing, but we have the great blessing of knowing how
to give of our secret treasures. And these secret treasures are spiritual. What makes
them secret? The Bible says, ?It?s hid with Christ in God? (Col. 3:1). That which
is hidden is a secret, right? What makes it secret? We have secret treasures and
we can give them away. What is not known but knowable is a secret. Yes, ?He that
dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the
almighty? (Ps. 91:1). The Bible speaks about secrets, but not about secretiveness.
It?s all right to know that there are secrets that must be known but secretiveness
is an extremely selfish attitude and it is not helpful. Suppose you are a student
who says, ?Well, I know the Prayer of Right Seeing and I know that it is very helpful,
but I don?t want to give it away. I?ll keep it to myself. I won?t let anybody in
on it, right?? Or, ?I have this book titled Beyond the Dream. It?s a nice book. I
won?t let anybody see it.? There are such


people. Or I don?t want anybody to see it, because they may think I am crazy for
reading such a book. There are all kinds of possibilities. In the spiritual realm,
the more we treasure something, the more we are willing to give it away. It is easy
to be generous, because the more you give it away the more you have it.
Student: Dr. Hora, I don?t understand the point about the secret place of the most
high. Why is it necessary that the place be secret?
Dr. Hora: Because nobody knows it. And then, of course, let?s take the Prayer of
Right Seeing. You have to pray it in secret. If you would tell somebody, I?m going
to tell you something. I will pray this prayer for you. ?Everything and everyone
is here for God whether they know it or not.? You gave away the secret. There is
no secret anymore and the recipient rejects it. You cannot give it away openly. It
has to be conveyed on another channel. And that is the value of the secret place
of the most high. Where is this place?
Student: In consciousness.
Dr. Hora: In consciousness, right. Who knows about consciousness? What the heck is it?
Student: Could it be awareness?
Dr. Hora: Awareness is the function of consciousness. But certain truths cannot be
communicated verbally or openly; they are communicated secretly. Not because we are
secretive, but because speaking openly about it is not appreciated. It sounds trite.


Student: And it loses its impact. Dr. Hora: Yes, sure.
Student: Sometimes, when I am sitting quietly, someone will come to mind, like my
mother. It?s not that she called on the telephone but a thought of her comes to mind,
and it occurs to me, as a blessing. Now is that unsolicited? I mean, is that appropriate?
Dr. Hora: It is appropriate for a daughter to bless her mother every time that she
asks for it. And if the thought comes to you, most likely she is asking you to pray
for her. It?s like an outstretched hand.
Student: Would someone like Jesus have seen everybody the same way though? Would
he have had the dimension of thoughts of individuals coming to him or was he on a
level where he was a non-personal blessing and it would depend more on his receptivity
than on his thought?
Dr. Hora: Well, let?s put it this way. Your question is not sufficiently clear.
Student: Well, when the student asked about her mother, you said that we reach a
point where we do not think of persons anymore. So when we reach a level of enlightenment
would persons come to your consciousness anymore?
Dr. Hora: It is important to lose interest in seeing persons, in being persons, in
talking about persons, in greeting persons, and acting as if there really were persons
in the world. They seem to be, but we don?t have to accept that. We have to know
that there are only individual divine consciousnesses. Now


every individual divine consciousness is unique, with unique endowments, talent,
and gifts and possibilities because God is infinite mind and infinite creator. He
creates an infinite variety of reflections of himself. Think of a maple tree in full
leaf. It has millions of leaves and every leaf is a maple leaf but every maple leaf
is different from every other maple leaf. Isn?t that amazing? Now, there?s a meaning
to this, right? There must be. The Bible says, ?And the leaves of the tree are for
the healing of the Nations? (Rev. 22:2). What does that mean?
Student: No interaction between them.
Dr. Hora: No interaction between them. Student: They all receive their life from the tree.
Dr. Hora: Yes, right. In other words, you don?t just take the leaves and take it
to the pharmacist and have him make a powder out of it to take it in. That?s not
what is meant, right? Now there are primitive cultures where they use leaves as boons.
They believe that this will facilitate the healing, but that?s not what the Bible
is talking about. The right understanding of the symbolic message in the leaves of
a tree says that, just like there is an infinite variety of leaves, there is also
an infinite variety of divine ideas and the understanding of this has a healing effect
on your way of seeing life. The leaves on a tree co-exist harmoniously. They have
no relationship with each other. Did you know that? And that?s nice. So we learn
from every little thing that comes up. We can learn more and more to know divine
reality. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of nations. Nations could live
peacefully together and harmoniously if the message about the leaves of the tree
is understood. There would be no wars, neither crime, nor


revolutions, nor any kind of complications. As Jesus put it, ?If thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light? (Matt. 6:22). What did he mean by that?
Student: A focus on the awareness of right seeing?
Dr. Hora: Right seeing, yes. If thy eye is single, it means that in your viewpoint
on life there is no interaction thinking, because in order for interaction thinking
to happen there has to be double vision. There has to be self and other. So the leaves
on the tree do not interact. They just co-exist harmoniously with each other. So
the leaves have the single eye. We can have the single eye too, by understanding
these symbolic messages from the Bible. Now what happens to relationships between
boys and girls if there is no interaction? How is that possible? Would an enlightened
boy have a girlfriend? Or would an enlightened girlfriend have a boyfriend? How can
one be in such a situation without interaction? How can there be sex without interaction?
That?s an interesting question. After all, the sexual act in itself appears to be
eminently interactive. The boy is doing something to the girl. And the girl calls
the police and says ... (laughter) ?sexual harassment.? Consider all these complications
of life, nowadays particularly, between men and women. All the difficulties which
go on are based on the assumption that there is no possibility of living without
interaction; neither between friends, nor between the sexes, nor in families. It
is incomprehensible. How can one have sex without interaction thinking? How do the
leaves have sex? (laughter) What do the words ?harmonious co-existence? mean? It
means that nobody is doing anything to anybody and yet there must be sex. How can
there be sex without somebody doing something to somebody?


Student: Artificial insemination? (laughter)
Dr. Hora: Doctors are doing something. Now some years ago, I read a treatise about
the Buddha?s idea of ideal sex: the method of sexual intercourse in Buddhism, notably
enlightened Buddhism. First of all, the surprising thing was that it isn?t happening
in bed. It happens on the floor where a man and a woman sit cross-legged facing each
other and they are very good at sitting cross-legged. (laughter) We cannot do this
very well, but they can do it, and gradually they come together. And in this process
there is a complete joining at the genitals. The man doesn?t do it. The woman doesn?t
do it. Spontaneously the sexual urge does it. So you cannot say that the man does
something to the woman or that the woman is doing something to the man. It happens
in a most harmonious, gentle and loving way. It is a coming together on both parts,
spontaneously, and peacefully and according to the description, most satisfactorily.
But it is not a situation where somebody is doing something to someone. And the two
are not interacting; they are jointly participating in love. Love is expressing itself
in this kind of joining. I thought then that it was extremely beautiful and I still
think so. It is the possibility of sexual intercourse without interaction. But you
have to learn how to sit (laughter) cross-legged comfortably, without effort, and
let it take place by itself, because the power of love will express itself in a joint
participation in the good of God. You remember that this is our definition of marriage.
This is an interesting aside.


Student: Dr. Hora, a while ago you mentioned that there is no man without God and
no God without man. I?ve been reading a lot of physics and archaeological things.
What is man? It?s not the person or the specific people. Historically there was a
time where there was not man. There was the cosmos, and there were dinosaurs but
there was no man. Is there something erroneous here, because if there is no man,
then there is no God in that environment or is that too much science? (laughter)
Dr. Hora: Ordinarily when we speak about man we have an image of a three-dimensional
object moving in space. This is the common view of man; so we are used to thinking
this way. But if you enter into a deeper understanding of reality, of life, then
you see that this is a fiction. There is no such thing as three-dimensional reality.
Man is a divine consciousness, a quality. He is not the way he seems to be. The Zen
master says ?Nothing is the way it seems to be, but neither is it otherwise.?
Student: So everything that seems to be, whether it is dinosaurs or appearances,
is a projection of...

Dr. Hora: They appear and they disappear. Right? The real man never disappears
once he has appeared. Anyone who has seen the real man knows that this man is immortal
and immutable. So we are what God is. Nobody has seen God either. And we are the
image and likeness of something that nobody has seen. Moses claimed that he saw God.
The problem is that we judge by appearances and out of that we arrive at all kinds
of mistaken ideas about ourselves and about others. So if we are heading towards
enlightenment, we have to learn to see that there is nothing to see. Man is a divine
consciousness. That?s what the real man is. He is a spiritual being and the visible
things of this universe are symbolic structures indicating in what direction our
cognition has to evolve. If you observe life from the standpoint of educational levels,
you can see that the more primitive we are, the more unenlightened we are, the more
we cherish and hold on to and imagine the tangible, the material, the mortal, the
things that have form or are formless. The Zen master issued this interesting saying:
?Form is formlessness and formlessness is form.? Everybody is puzzled about that.
What in the world could that mean?
Student: Well, that which we see that has form is really nonexistent; what we don?t
see is what really is ...
Dr. Hora: Not so. Just because we cannot see something doesn?t qualify it as real.
There is such a thing as error. The human individual is given the difficult task
of coming to know himself or herself the right way. There was a famous rabbi, a Talmudist,
and he said to his disciples, ?I was going to write a book about man, but then I
changed my mind. I thought it better if I don?t.? He could have gotten crucified
in those days. He was a wise rabbi.

Student: You say the visible is a symbolic structure, like, let?s say, going
to work. You see people, their external, seemingly three-dimensional images. How
are those symbolic?
Dr. Hora: Well have you ever seen God going to work? The Bible says, ?The Father
worketh hitherto and I work? (John 5:17). and, ?The Father that dwelleth in me, he
doeth the works? (John 14:10). Then, man is a symbolic structure pointing in the
direction of a certain existence that has the quality of working. So we are symbolic
structures for God. We are what God is. And the Zen Master says, ?The finger is not
the moon,? and the menu is not the food. (chuckle) And the dimensional appearance
called man is not God; it is a symbolic pointer in the direction of God. Now people
ask, why do we need people? Why does God need people? He?s omnipotent, ever present,
and knows everything. Why do we need people?
Student: It?s lonely at the top.
Dr. Hora: Theologians say that God was lonely so he made Adam and Eve and a snake
to have entertainment. That?s looking from the wrong end of the binoculars. No. We
know God through understanding man. If we understand ourselves in a valid way we
come to know God. So God needs us. ?This is Life eternal that they may know thee
the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent? (John 17:3). God seems to
want to be known, and man serves that purpose.
Student: And we see each other until we don?t need to see anymore, is that it?
Dr. Hora: We see God in each one of us. We are each a symbolic structure for God
and the right seeing reveals God to

us. And apparently it is very important to God that he may be understood and
may be seen correctly. Indeed, we can say wonderful things can happen to anyone who
approaches this correctly and gains a more precise and valid understanding of what
God is.
Student: Dr. Hora, is that similar to the Yen Hui story?
Dr. Hora: Yes. Do you all know the Yen Hui story? No? Now we will ask the student
to explain the Yen Hui story.
Student: There was a man by the name of Yen Hui. He was asked to become an advisor
by an Emperor who had a bad habit of chopping off the heads of his hired help if
they gave wrong advice. Thus he was very afraid of doing that job. So he went to
the Zen master and he told him about his dilemma. And the Zen master said, ?You will
have to practice mind fasting for three years.?
Dr. Hora: A short course in Metapsychiatry.
Student: So he said, this is the part I was trying to recall, ?If you see with your eyes... ?
Dr. Hora: He asked his teacher, ?What is this mind fasting that you are telling me
about?? He proceeded to explain what it is. Go ahead.
Student: ?If you see with your eyes, don?t look with your eyes; if you hear with
your ears, don?t listen with your ears; if you think or understand with your mind,
don?t think or understand with your mind, but learn to see, hear and understand with
the Spirit.?
Dr. Hora: Isn?t that simple?

Student: No. So he practiced that and ...
Dr. Hora: He practiced that for three years and then he came back to his teacher
and said, ?Master, I think I have become enlightened.? So the Master said, ?Prove
it to me.? So what did he say?
Student: He said, ?Before I practiced mind fasting I knew that I was Yen Hui, but
now that I have practiced mind fasting, I know there never was a Yen Hui.?
Dr. Hora: So what happened to Yen Hui?
Student: Well, maybe that?s what we were talking about, that he realized who he really
was and then there was no more person.
Dr. Hora: Right. Did you all hear this? He discovered his true identity. Previously
he thought he was just an ordinary guy, a highly educated mind, a philosopher who
was appointed to the court of the Emperor. He was afraid to accept the job, and when,
after practicing mind fasting he said this to the teacher the teacher said, ?Yes,
you have attained enlightenment and you can safely assume this position.? What made
it safe?
Student: He didn?t exist.
Dr. Hora: He didn?t say he didn?t exist. No. He knew the truth of his being. Therefore,
he would not provoke the Emperor to be mad at him or be jealous of him or to argue
with him. The Emperor would appreciate the wisdom coming from his enlightened consciousness,
and that?s the way to be safe, not only in China, but also in New York, even though
it is a little more difficult here. You just call a taxi and start a conversation

with a taxi driver and pretty soon you get your head chopped off. Yes. Yen
Hui is a beautiful story of what happens to someone who becomes enlightened and how
it is that someone gets enlightened. You have to learn not to hear with your ears,
not to see with your eyes, and not to understand with your mind or intellect. What
is that? There is the great void.
Student: Collectively, these things are saying, ?Don?t judge by appearances.?
Dr. Hora: Yes, and don?t imagine that you can think, and that you have a mind of
your own. The Bible says, ?It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing? (John 6:63). When we are unenlightened, we are used to judging by appearances,
imagining that we are hearing something that nobody said, or we are seeing something
or figuring something out. None of these things are really happening. It is the spirit
that is life and the spirit is in us, and then we are alive and then there is wisdom
and freedom and harmony and beauty and PAGL (peace, assurance, gratitude, love).
Everybody longs for it. People study spirituality in many forms everywhere throughout
the world, and it has always been that way. But somehow it never hits the mark. It?s
all there, and people study in every language, in every tradition, in every religion.
People seek enlightenment.
Student: What?s the meaning of the fact that we never hit the mark?
Dr. Hora: We are usually too attached to our husbands or spouses. And they mislead
us ... with cockamamie ideas. (laughter)

Student: It?s a beautiful thought that that?s what we are all looking for
? God. Is everybody looking for God?
Dr. Hora: Everybody without exception is looking for God; there is nothing else to look for.
Student: They just don?t know where to look. I was talking to an individual this
week, who is very talented and very creative, but is constantly looking and doing
things without any fulfillment. You can see the searching and doing many wonderful
individual works and briefly enjoying a pleasure filled life. But always a sense
of emptiness comes through. It occurred to me that this individual is really looking.
Dr. Hora: Sure.
Student: Dr. Hora, most people seem to think they are empty; yet we?re told here
that they are fulfilled already. What?s the mistake? Are we supposed to meditate
on the fact that we are already fulfilled in God, and don?t have to look for something.
It seems to be a big mistake, this looking for something. Yet we?re being told it?s
already present. Is that all it takes ...
Dr. Hora: Who told you that we are already fulfilled? Student: I thought we said
we are already the sons of God.
Dr. Hora: Yes, but we don?t know that. Jesus said, ?Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness [right understanding] for they shall be filled? (Matt.
5:6). So we are not fulfilled until we have reached the right understanding. You
hear some people in religious circles saying that we are already enlightened. There
is nothing to do, so let?s go have a pastrami sandwich. Now, we live in ignorance,
and we suffer

the consequences continuously. This is purgatory. This life is purgatory.
Do you know what purgatory is?
Student: Hell. It?s between heaven and hell.
Dr. Hora: You know the geography? The word purgatory ? where does it come from?
Student: To purge.
Dr. Hora: Yes. What are we purging? Student: Ignorance.
Dr. Hora: Ignorance. We are full of ignorant ideas and we share them generously.
Wherever you look, people share their ignorance with each other, having a good time
about it.
Student: This story of Yen Hui puzzles me. If you are unenlightened and you haven?t
studied any spiritual teaching, you just see people as they appear to be. Then we?re
told that instead of seeing the person, the physical manifestation, we must look
to see spiritual qualities in the individual and that we can practice seeing spiritual
qualities. But that doesn?t seem to be anywhere near what Yen Hui discovered. Is
it possible to tell anyone what it was that he really saw other than to say?
Dr. Hora: You could ask, ?What is it about mind fasting that would precipitate you
into enlightenment?? Isn?t that what you want to know? What is it about mind fasting
that would bring about your enlightenment?
Student: Basically, I don?t know the answer, but last week we talked about making
a radical stand against fantasies. We could start with that. And every time that
tape starts spinning,

the ignorant tape, we can see it, and we have the God given ability to turn
to a valid principle. And if that?s mind fasting then perhaps that is how we discover
the void or what is that we?re turning to. If we continue with that, maybe we break
through to something.
Dr. Hora: What we have said about Yen Hui and the practice of mind fasting was not
all we could say on the subject. Yen Hui was a long time student of this famous Chinese
teacher called Chuang Tsu. When he came to Chuang Tsu, he was already recognized
as a great philosopher and was known among the intelligentsia, so he was better able
to make use of this discipline of mind fasting than anybody else. He was so sincere
that he withdrew from the world for three years and studied day and night. I suppose
he started something like this. Every morning he would wake up and say, ?I am not
this body. I am not this person. I am not what people call me, Yen Hui. Everything
I see and everything I was told about myself seems true, but it is not true.?
It is very helpful to deny the appearance world, and work from the negative up
to the positive. And in the process, when you hear a bird singing, ask yourself,
do I hear this, or is my ear hearing this? If you see a snake coming toward you,
you say am I seeing this or am I just imagining this? You question every thing about
yourself that you have always taken for granted. Gradually you reach a point where
you annihilate your sense of self and you are more and more in the void that they
call emptiness. Then gradually you begin to see that you are something other than
what you have believed yourself to be. So when you hear with your ears, don?t think
that it is the ears that hear. Beethoven could hear a symphony while

he was deaf. So with this discipline, with great understanding Yen Hui reached
a point where he could say that he always thought that he was Yen Hui, but now he
could see that there never was a Yen Hui. So then you ask him, ?If there never was
a Yen Hui, what was there? Can you touch him? Can you punch him? Can you kill him?
Can you love him??
What is this great mystery of identity? So he took a trip to Texas and they explained
to him that ?You ain?t never was nothing? and that brought a big laugh. But he became
free; we call it, liberated. So next time you?re getting a haircut, and the barber
asks, ?Mister, are you something?? you will know what to say. That?s what we get
from Metapsychiatry. There is an interesting theory that is occurring now. We ask
how come some people have a sense of humor and some people don?t. What is this great
gift? No other life form has it except us. It seems that in order to be able to laugh,
we have to be able to endure the idea of our own nothingness. Because if you see
an individual who has no sense of humor, what do you see right away? He takes himself
seriously. He has no sense of humor. What does it mean if we take ourselves seriously?
It means that we think that we are somebody, right? At that point we are dead, because
an individual who cannot laugh is really dead. Maybe comedians are closer to enlightenment
than they realize. I remember Jack Benny. He was always laughing at himself in a
sort of charming way. He was a wonderful comedian.
Student: There was Bob Hope with his wonderful longevity.
Dr. Hora: Yes. If you see a serious man keep away from him. I remember as a young
professional I would attend yearly conferences of the psychoanalytic society and
what struck me was

that nobody had a sense of humor there. Everybody walked around with an air
of great importance and thought that they all were very serious people who imagined
that they had more knowledge in their heads than anybody else in the world. It was
so boring. I wasted those years studying their stuff and looking up at the imposters,
ignoramuses and very serious people. ?For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge
of the Lord as the waters cover the sea? (Isa. 11:9). This is the good future.
Student: I always wondered why I like the sea so much. Now I know.
Dr. Hora: Yes, you have described how much you like the ocean, the water.
Student: Dr. Hora, how can we not take mind fasting seriously?
Dr. Hora: If you take mind fasting seriously, you will never accomplish it. It?s
a gift of God. It?s a gift of self-transcendence. It?s from God. We are able to rise
above our customary ways of thinking. So you say, I am not this body and I am not
this brain. I am not this intelligence: I am not my eyes or my ears. All are symbolic
structures pointing beyond themselves. And then you can laugh. Don?t take yourself
seriously, for heaven?s sake.
Student: Actually, that sounds very liberating. Dr. Hora: Sure, sure.
Student: It reminds me of what I read by the writer William Faulkner. In his fiction,
one of his techniques consists of saying it?s not this, it?s not that, and so on
and so on until finally

saying what it is: some quality or affect of character. He goes through all
these negatives to reach a positive.
Dr. Hora: This is called via negativa, the negative approach to the study of reality.
It?s very good.
Student: So, it isn?t possible to really understand something unless we go through
this negative process so that we can see what it is that is not. Is that right?
Dr. Hora: Well, you cannot jump at Faulkner?s idea and that of a few other people
as a foolproof technique of attaining enlightenment. It is just interesting to hear
how some people seek to understand more of the truth. So it?s not bad for you to
wake up in the morning and to look around and to ask yourself, ?Who is this person
in bed, now; is he my husband or is it a stranger?? (laughter) So you start by asking,
?Is this me, etc?? And if this seems too simple for you, you can ask, ?Who are you?
Who is he??
Student: I was thinking about what you said about symbolic structure. I find myself
wanting and thinking about having a dog again and I can almost fantasize a dog, whether
it would be right to get one?
Dr. Hora: Dogs are highly recommended, except the rabbis don?t like dogs. I once
lived in another building on Central Park West and in that building was a great rabbi
of a nearby synagogue. I had a dog at that time, a beautiful white poodle. The rabbi
seemed to abhor him. He said, ?Don?t come close with him; this is a kelev.? You know
what a kelev is? That?s a Hebrew name for a dog. He had an aversion to dogs. And
that dog was so sweet, so bright, so full of life. I loved him very

much. So don?t worry. If you can get a dog and are able to care for him,
by all means do so. They are wonderful companions, and they bring out all the love
in you, whatever is left yet. (laughter)
Student: But I?m thinking, though, that maybe I am trying to substitute something.
Dr. Hora: Well, it is worthwhile. You?ve had dogs before, so you know how it is to
have a dog. You have to take him out. (laughter) It is a great urinary responsibility.
(laughter)
Student: Well we had a different life style then. So I guess what I get concerned
about is that part of it, the affection, is just something about it that seems loving.
But it?s questionable, as you say, if I?m ready to undertake the responsibility.
Do I get involved like that again with the caring?
Dr. Hora: First you have to buy him a license and then you have to buy him a country
estate, surrounded with a fence, so it will be easy to take care of him. If he wants
to go out, you just let him go. That?s a nice way to have a dog. But if you have
to take him in the city, and let him smell everything, you can get tired of that.
And then there?s the pooper scooper (laughter), the law of the city, right?
Student: I heard a wonderful comment about people who have an urge to have dogs.
On my way to work, I walk past a pet store and it?s enough to break your heart. Every
time you want them all. And someone said, well there are two phenomena: one is getting
the dog and that?s where you pick out the animal and there is all that great excitement
and you bring it home and have all the initial enthusiasm, and then there?s having

the dog, and having the dog is three walks a day, seven days a week for the
foreseeable future.
Dr. Hora: It?s important to have the space.
Student: I was trying to understand if I was trying to substitute something. By wanting
or having this urge for a dog, I wondered if it was really about something else.
I am trying to substitute with a dimensional thing as opposed to maybe there is something
else that needs to be ...
Dr. Hora: There was an American poet who lived in Paris who said, ?A rose is a rose
is a rose.? And we can say a dog is a dog is not a substitute is a dog. And they
are all adorable, wonderful creatures. So don?t speculate that it is a substitute
for mother or for somebody else. It?s a dog. You love a dog because it is very affectionate.
So if you can manage to care for a dog it is wonderful to have one. It?s the same
with baby children, you know, but you cannot return the child to the store.
Student: Is what we are talking about, loving to be loving? I mean, that?s the challenge
for a love object, and taking care of it. Think we ought to get a dog? (laughter)
Student: I found that when we had an opportunity to purchase a dog that was already
trained, I didn?t do it. But when I let it go and didn?t follow through, I felt heart-broken.
But again I noticed that emotionalism, and what was that all about? Feeling that
way about feeling something ... may not be kosher.
Dr. Hora: Well, it is human affection; it is always good and bad. Attachments develop.

Student: It was as if I was becoming attached to the entity of it.
Dr. Hora: I saw a film where a middle-aged man came to a prostitute and they were talking
it over, and he said, ?My wife treats me like a dog.? And the prostitute said, ?Well, I
can do that to you anytime.? So they made an arrangement that once a week he would visit
her. And she said, ?I even have a choking collar. And we can start by learning to heel.?
So they made an agreement, but this man was so accustomed from childhood on to be treated
as a dog, that he longed to have this experience. Many of the perversions that people
display are just desires to relive certain abusive experiences from childhood. What was
interesting was that in this film the director understood the dynamics of the situation.
It was a very helpful prostitute; I can do this for you right away, treat you like a dog.
There are people who have a desire to be maltreated because in their childhood they were
mistreated. It is a very tragic aspect of the human condition that we can desire pain and
humiliation and abuse, because somewhere in the memory bank there is a remembrance of the
experience, which was extremely self-confirmatory. You see, when a child is abused, beaten,
tortured, or humiliated, he feels pain, but he also feels important. Nothing is worse
than being ignored. So if you have no choice you choose abuse; it?s better than being
ignored. This is the dynamic of the tragedy we hear about, of so many women, children, and
people who are abused in their childhood. The trouble with that is that you fall in love
with the experience and then you attract it to yourself. Nothing comes into experience
uninvited. So we can invite disasters, sicknesses, maltreatments, abuses, all kinds of
what are called perversions in order to re-experience that

childhood experience. And the rationalization is that maybe such repetition
would help you to overcome it. But you never overcome it. The only way to overcome
it is to know that we are not that person. When you understand the Yen Hui story,
then all the invalid ideas of abuse of the past are erased, because you are not that
individual. You are free of that conditioning. It is very sad when a child gets abused,
because he is being conditioned for that experience.


Student: Yesterday we were talking with you about the parable of the shepherd who
had 100 sheep and one was lost. He left the 99 to go out and find the one that was
lost. I wondered if you would discuss that some more. I pondered it today and I don?t
believe I know the full implications of that parable.
Dr. Hora: Who knows the parable of the lost sheep? (Matt. 18:12?14).
Student: Jesus described how if there is a flock of 100 sheep and one of them gets
lost, the shepherd will leave the 99 and find the one that is lost.
Dr. Hora: This was on television yesterday and we were watching it. A man who was
a member of the church told the story that the shepherd went after the one sheep
that was lost to look for him. The man said this was very stupid to do because in
the meanwhile he could have lost the 99 other sheep, right? That would be logical
and reasonable for a human shepherd. How can he take care of all the 99 sheep and
go after the one that was lost? The Bible says that he did that and he

found the sheep, put him on his shoulder and he brought him back to the flock
and there was great rejoicing, right? So what good is such a stupid parable? If you
are a normal, human person you will say, ?This is a stupid story.? It has no relevancy
to anything. Now, does the Bible have stupid stories? Well, there are all kinds of
stories, but it is good to understand them. Does anybody understand this story? Nobody
dares to understand it?
Student: Is this where the misconception came, that from the religious point of view
we are supposed to go out and save the one that is lost?
Dr. Hora: Yes, of course. So is the Bible teaching us how to be a stupid shepherd?
It doesn?t make sense if you have 99 sheep, to turn your back on them and go after
the one that was lost.
Student: Wasn?t the implication that the 99 were safe?
Dr. Hora: No, he didn?t say that. They didn?t run away. It?s a mystery why they didn?t
because if it is a stupid story then they would probably get scattered.
Student: I think it?s wonderful imagery in the sense that if we recognize God as
our shepherd, our director, and if we are lost, meaning that we are separated from
God, reality is such that we will be found, that we will eventually be directed back
to
Dr. Hora: How do you know that? Isn?t that just a theory? There are these 99 sheep
and he goes off looking for the 100th.
Student: In reality none of us are separated from God. It just appears that way.

Dr. Hora: In reality. What do you mean?
Student: In reality there is no such thing as being separated. Dr. Hora: Your little
doggie. Suppose he runs away.
Student: He did, by the way. Dr. Hora: He did?
Student: A couple of days ago and there was a reason for it. Dr. Hora: Did he come back?
Student: Yes, wagging his tail.
Dr. Hora: That?s an enlightened dog. Student: He was hungry. (laughter)
Dr. Hora: There were two professors of theology. They were talking about this parable
and they were giving each other very complicated explanations and the more they talked
about it, the clearer it became that they didn?t understand it at all. Theology will
not help us to understand the Bible. It is very interesting.
Student: When you hear two people talking like that or some of the comments that
were made here, how do you know what the parable is really about?
Dr. Hora: That?s a good question.
Student: That happens all the time. There are so many different things that we can
point to and then you can wonder, what is the real meaning of it, and how come it?s
this and it

isn?t that and how do we know that this is the meaning and other things aren?t the meaning?
Dr. Hora: Do you have any answers?
Student: To that question, no.
Dr. Hora: Anybody?
Student: Would it helpful to give an example of this problem? Dr. Hora: Yes.
Student: We had a business situation where we found out yesterday that we were being
sued because a man fell off a scaffold at the job site where we have construction
supervisors. He is suing everyone involved ? all contractors involved ? and since
we decided to go out of business about a year ago, our insurance is in question.
I am not sure whether we didn?t renew it at the same rate, or if we didn?t renew
it at all and therefore we do not have the proper coverage. He is suing for millions
of dollars and it is a frightening thing when you consider it in human terms where
you could be faced with the loss of everything. So when I presented it to Dr. Hora,
he repeated this parable that we just heard and in this context what I understood
was that in divine reality these astronomical numbers don?t really exist because
there are no 99 sheep and there is no one sheep that was lost. In divine reality
you don?t quantify. There is only the harmonizing principle of God and infinite omni-action
and good and that?s all that really is there. What is in divine reality is not what
we customarily think of in our daily lives. If we could come to see this, then we
could transcend all of these fearful thoughts about these

fantastic numbers and the question of no insurance or of how much insurance.
Dr. Hora: And how many sheep? Are they cheap or are they expensive?
Student: There are these numbers that you can get caught up in and frightened by.
But since they don?t really exist I did understand what you are saying to a large
extent. It?s still hard for me to understand how if we live in this world, which
is governed by human laws and by human practices and human requirements for insurance,
it is still difficult for me to see how it doesn?t figure into the mix but I am going
to try to understand it.
Dr. Hora: How will you do it?
Student: Well, it seems that in the past and even now when I contemplate the things
that I am taught here, I don?t know how, but they just seem to sink in and they become
real to me, little by little. That?s how we?ll do it.
Dr. Hora: Who among you can remember that piece of stone, which an archeologist found
in Egypt, and with the help of that stone he could read the hieroglyphs? The Rosetta
stone. For thousands of years nobody could decipher the hieroglyphs on the tombstones
or the pyramids and all the writings in Egypt. Nobody could understand what it meant
and this researcher happened to find a solitary stone and on that stone were certain
writings, which suddenly helped him to understand. With the help of the Rosetta stone,
he could read everything that was written on the pyramids and the tombs in Egypt
and ever since then, it is all open knowledge. Anybody

who has studied it can read the complicated, fantastic carvings on these
Egyptian monuments. It is an interesting side issue, because if you understand something
crucial and of central importance, it opens up to you a whole world, which prior
to that was a mystery. Nobody, for thousands of years, could understand what is written
in those hieroglyphs. That man found this stone, the Rosetta stone, and that stone
opened it up for everybody to read. Isn?t that a fantastic story? Now there is such
a Rosetta stone in Metapsychiatry. What is this Rosetta stone? It is not a stone.
It is a discovery of the meaning of all koans. Zen masters were working for thousands
of years with the help of koans. What does a koan tell us? It?s a great secret, but
if you understand the meaning and purpose of the koan, you can understand all the
koans that were ever invented by the Zen masters for purposes of this teaching. If
you understand this one koan, you can become enlightened every time you face up to
a koan. So has this ever been explained to you?
Student: No.
Dr. Hora: It?s very simple. Ask yourself. What is the purpose of a koan? What is
the mystification that these Zen masters are always throwing at their students? They
struggle for years and years in trying to figure them out and they never manage to
figure them out. They get so disgusted and so frustrated that it makes the whole
study of Zen very mysterious and arduous. It is simply this. The purpose of a koan
is to help us to understand divine reality. There are thousands of koans that the
Zen masters throw at new students and they all have one purpose. It?s like the Rosetta
stone. The purpose of the koan is to help us to get closer to God, and when we get
closer

to God, the more we understand divine reality. Without this Rosetta stone
of Metapsychiatry, all the professors and religious teachers and leaders of the world
are wracking their brains to understand what it is all about.
What was the mission of Christ? The mission of Jesus Christ was to help people
understand God. The purpose of the Rosetta stone is to help people understand Egyptian
history. Anytime somebody throws a koan at you, and life does it all the time, you
can just start out by saying, ?This is a message from God, coming to us from Jesus
Christ in order that we might understand divine reality.? So, if you keep that in
mind as you approach a koan, you will become enlightened because what is enlightenment?
Enlightenment, simply is understanding the nature of divine reality, the truth of
being. You remember that we pray contemplatively, seeking to understand the truth
of being. Now here is a koan, which says there were these 99 sheep and one sheep
strayed away and the shepherd went and retrieved this sheep and there was great rejoicing.
Whenever we understand a koan, there is a great sense of peace and gratitude because
an incomprehensible mystery has revealed itself as the glory of God. Now what is
the glory of God in connection with this particular sheep story? Once you understand
the meaning of this parable, you will understand the nature of divine reality. So
you are, to some extent, getting enlightened because you have understood the mystery
of God. What is this mystery?
Student: Reality is perfect but seems imperfect because human beings have the tendency to think?
Dr. Hora: This story tells us we have to see reality in the context of divine mind,
which is infinite Love-Intelligence. There

are no partial divine minds. Everything is one, infinite, God, good, omnipotence,
omnipresence, omniscience, love. So we are not going to particularize divine reality.
Nothing can ever get lost in the kingdom of God because God does not lose his flock.
Everything is one. You have heard me speak of the non-dual nature of divine reality.
This particular koan says, ?Don?t worry about the insurance company.? There are no
insurance companies in God?s kingdom. There is only perfection. There is infinity.
There is harmony. There is the good of God. This is an important insight into the
nature of divine reality. Once you understand divine reality, you are not going to
speculate about one sheep or 500 sheep. There is no particularization. There are
only sheep. We don?t have to worry about the one that got lost. He did not get lost.
You remember several times I told you stories where something got lost, I lost a
little piece of metal and the way to find it is to stop looking for it and to acknowledge
that in divine reality nothing ever gets lost. Everything is where it is and God
can reveal to us where it is, provided we are not looking for it. What happens when
we are looking for it?
Student: We can?t find it. Dr. Hora: Okay.
Student: We are thinking of it all the time and we are trying to figure out where it is.
Dr. Hora: We are losing sight of reality because in reality, everything is already
there. It comes to us. It reveals itself and then we don?t see just a piece of screw
or something. We see that God knows everything that needs to be known all the time.

Student: This would apply to a sickness too.
Dr. Hora: A sickness, of course, yes, particularly the stock market. So just remember
there is a Metapsychiatric Rosetta stone. The Rosetta stone of Metapsychiatry is
that the Zen masters were trying to do the same work that Jesus was doing. He was
constantly revealing the true nature of God and his creation. That is the work of
the Zen masters, too. We are called upon to be here for God. So is anyone who pays
attention to the meaning of everything. We want to become enlightened. That is enlightenment
when you find a little piece of screw in the forest. The light has shined in your
consciousness for a moment and there it is. We live in the expectancy of a perfect
universe gradually revealing itself to us until we know and see everything as it
really is.
Student: So in answer to the question of how do you come to know this?
Dr. Hora: You ask somebody, and he tells you that there are two intelligent questions.
You don?t start wracking your brains about how do you find 40 million dollars to
pay to the insurance company for insurance. Then you could ask well how could God
fix it for me, right? God is not worried about the insurance company. You need to
understand that the purpose of these parables is that they lead us toward an understanding
of God.
Student: If a problem seems unsolvable to us, the problem is a koan.
Dr. Hora: All problems are koans and they have a purpose. If you remember the Rosetta
stone, you will understand the

purpose of the koans, and the koans will reveal themselves to you in the
form of ?aha.? Problems are lessons designed for our edification, and the more koans
we can understand, the more enlightened we become, and certain miraculous events
keep happening in our lives. So the Zen masters do not pray the way we pray. They
do not recite words. They meditate, and meditation is focusing attention on the message,
which the particular koan contains, and when this message reveals itself to us, we
have made a step forward in the direction of the light. Otherwise the light shineth
in darkness and darkness comprehended it not. The whole world suffers from a lack
of comprehension. Even professors of theology at various universities have all kinds
of rationalizations but they really don?t understand.
Student: As soon as we look at something in particular, I mean whether it?s a lost
screw or a sheep or a problem, we have separated that out from reality.
Dr. Hora: Yes, we lost touch with reality.
Student: Last week we talked about interest and cultivating interest in Metapsychiatry.
Could you make a parallel here between the growth of interest? Interest doesn?t seem
to be something that just comes all at once. As you say you take one step toward
the light. Could you make a parallel with the fact that our interest grows slowly
a little at a time?
Dr. Hora: Can you remember what was said here about the Rosetta stone? What was said?
Now when you start out with a problem, this becomes a koan. Every problem is a koan.
You remember that every problem is an interaction thought. That too is another form
of the Rosetta stone. We have this

Rosetta stone. It is a little piece of stone, which you can hold in your hand.
Student: It's very big, the stone. It's huge.
Dr. Hora: I got the impression from the description. Well, the size doesn?t matter.
The purpose of it matters. Without this Rosetta stone, all Egyptian history would
be in darkness. Nobody would know but those hieroglyphs are saved. Without Metapsychiatry,
God remains largely unknown. There are all kinds of theological explanations of God,
but they do not shed any light. If you are really interested in being enlightened,
you start out by saying, ?Dr. Hora said that every problem is a koan.? It is a Jewish
problem. (laughter) So, if nothing else works, try scratching your head. Maybe that
will work.
Dr. Hora: Any questions?
Student: I know that it is important to try to meditate and pray so that some amount
of understanding is allowed to come into consciousness. That is what I try to do
and I find myself saying words, I guess, about things that I have learned here. That
is the same as if I didn?t see this program that you were watching; however, I have
seen other programs where certain issues are being discussed where there is no communication
or any kind of understanding and you come away from watching this blank. There is
nothing helpful there, just a lot of words that sound very intelligent but have no
context. So that seems to be what happens to me when I just listen. The only reason
I know it is that I can see that when in the context of this parable and what you
were saying here in group, something happens where peace descends on me. Sometimes
there is a sense of assurance that is very different from when I am by

myself. So the question is, where do you look or do you just have to keep
asking questions all the time hoping that some day you will really understand?
Dr. Hora: Well you just heard what particular question one has to ask. What is the
message in the koan?
Student: Let?s say I am home and I ask that question. It?s different when I am home
than when I am here.
Dr. Hora: Well you are probably scared at home because everybody else is scared,
but you don?t have to be scared if you remember that the mystery is in your hand.
You have the Rosetta stone and that will reveal to you everything you need to know.
The doors of paradise will open up. It?s a marvelous thing.
Student: There is a passage in the Bible that goes, "I shall open a door for you
that no man will shut? (Rev. 3:8).
Dr. Hora: Right. Exactly. Student: It?s really beautiful.
Dr. Hora: You open it and no man will shut it. That?s it. Again, you have to understand
the purpose of the koan, of the mystery. You have to ask, ?What is this trying to
teach me?? Jesus was appointed by God to teach the whole world about divine reality.
If you become a sincere seeker of the truth, you have the Rosetta stone in your hand
and this will open to you the light and you will become an enlightened lady and no
more will you have to speculate about religious teachings.
Student: When the meaning is not clear, is it appropriate to do nothing, be patient
and keep mindful in trying to understand?

Dr. Hora: If the meaning is not clear, then the question is not being properly asked.
Student: Or sincerity or interest in wanting to know is not there.
Dr. Hora: Exactly. That?s what I just said. That?s what it means. Many times we are
so insincere that we formulate the question in such a way as to avoid understanding,
because we just love to lie.
Student: If we are scared, it?s really hard to ask the question.
Dr. Hora: After being present tonight, you will never be scared because you know
that the secret is in your hand.
Student: It?s there. It?s there.
Student: What if we are angry? What if we are mad?
Dr. Hora: Then we haven?t understood this lecture because if this lecture is understood,
you will be rejoicing over the lost lamb.
Student: So what is the meaning of the rejoicing? The rejoicing
is...
Dr. Hora: It is gratitude. It is God who gave us this tremendous gift of seeing the
light. We don?t have to walk in darkness. ?I am the light of the world; he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness but he will have the light of life? (John 8:12).
Student: Just to continue with the parable with the rejoicing of the lost sheep.
The lost sheep might be this koan that has presented itself and that the rejoicing
comes like, ?Thanks, I needed that.? You are just grateful. You have the ability
to

find gratitude for the fact that this lost sheep is exactly what is required.
Dr. Hora: When I was confronted with losing this screw assembly, I described it and
I found it. It has no meaning to me, the screw assembly. But the fact that I was
able to find it, that was the gift of God and that was a great joy. Not the value,
the price of the thing. The fact that there you are in the forest, among all the
leaves on the ground, and you say God knows where this screw assembly is and He will
surely reveal it to me and I turn around and there it is.
Student: What is even more remarkable is creation?s remarkable quality. But I mentioned
to you a couple of weeks ago that I had not known that I had lost my keys when visiting
you in Bedford Village. They had dropped out of my pocket and in leaving I just looked
down and there were the keys amongst the pachysandra. If I had known they were lost
I never would have found them. But even before I lost them I found them. (laughter)
Dr. Hora: The Rosetta stone itself must have been a tremendous joy for the Egyptologists,
who had been wracking their brains over the many messages all over the monuments
that nobody knew how to read. Here is this piece of stone and suddenly somebody could
understand.
Student: We had the experience several months ago in London when visiting a British
museum of being shown the Rosetta stone by a historian. She just described it again
and again with excitement in her voice. She showed how the hieroglyphics were discovered
through reading what was on this stone because it literally led them very logically
to the discovery of

what those hieroglyphics meant. She had such enthusiasm and such excitement
in her voice in showing us this.
Dr. Hora: Yes, it is a great gift of God to this generation.
Student: You mentioned the issue of not being able to find the meaning and that there
is not enough sincerity because we like to lie to ourselves. I can think of so many
times that I have come for a meeting with you with what seemed like a problem to
me and you have instantly seen that what I saw as a problem as I presented the circumstances
wasn?t a problem at all. I don?t believe that I would ever have come to that awareness.
Is that always lack of sincerity or is it simply lack of growth and understanding?
Is the truth always available to all of us all of the time?
Dr. Hora: God does not discriminate. (laughter) Student: Is it at every moment a
question of sincerity? Dr. Hora: Yes.
Student: I am trying to see the difference between the need to be sincerely interested
in understanding and what actually leads to understanding. You are saying that God
is not a punishment and reward system, meaning that if you don?t understand you are
not going to be punished. Or are you saying that if you do understand you won?t be
punished and if you don?t understand you will suffer?
Dr. Hora: It is just a fact of reality that if you are sincere, you will find what you need.
Student: We can?t be insincerely sincere; in other words we can?t manufacture sincerity.
We can?t...

Dr. Hora: Oh yes, some people can be sincerely insincere.
Student: And get away with it, you mean?
Dr. Hora: No. You don?t get away with it. The motivations can be widely varied. There
are people who go for years to psychotherapy and get nothing out of it because what
they want to get is not valid. Most of the time they want power over other people.
This isn?t going to work ? to acquire something that somebody else has or to impress
somebody or to confirm oneself or to brag. There are millions of invalid motivations,
which people seek in life and when you are obsessed with something invalid, you will
never find the truth. That is why sincerity is so very important; otherwise, you
are just wasting your efforts.
Student: Where I think I have encountered my insincerity is that when a problem presents
itself, I had a thought of what is the solution to this problem. I was looking for
the outcome, what I considered to be a healing of the problem. I am so set on that
outcome that I am trying to find meaning there or whatever will logically lead there.
The thing that I think has been most remarkable in my studies in Metapsychiatry is
that outcomes really don?t matter.
Dr. Hora: Right. Sincere seeking of the light is the right motivation. We are truth
seekers. You know the first principle. Thou shalt have no other interest before the
good of God, which is spiritual blessedness. If you are interested in something else
that is not existentially valid, it cannot help. It hinders. Somebody said, ?Why
should I bother looking for the light when I am interested in money.? But then all
your

attention is focused on making money. How will you find the light if you
are looking in the wrong places? Let?s face it, most people are preoccupied with
invalid goals, those that are existentially not valid. The world will say, ?If you
are smart you will invest in real estate and they don?t make it any more so you better
buy.? Then you put your mind to that and you are just misdirected. Seek and ye shall
find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Ask and you shall receive (Matt. 7:7).
All these Biblical sayings admonish us to make sure that we are focusing our attention
in an existentially valid direction.
It reminds me of a broker who once tried to study Meta-psychiatry and right at
the first session he said, ?I want to tell you what I want. I want sex and I want
money.? I told him you can?t find it here. (laughter) That was the end of his study.


Student: Sometimes we react to situations, or sometimes we respond to situations.
Sometimes we calculate and think about situations beforehand. We have spoken about
spontaneity before. It seems that if we?re spontaneous we?re not calculating. But
then when we react, we?re not calculating either. We reflect later and realize that
we said something that was invalid. So what?s a good way to be beneficial and aware
of being a valid presence and, therefore neither calculating nor reacting, but being
reflective and spontaneous?
Dr. Hora: It would be very helpful to admit that we don?t know what this word means.
Most everybody assumes they know what it means to be spontaneous. Hardly anybody
knows, even after twenty years, after explaining over and over again, people don?t
know. It?s a mystery, or, as it says in ?The King and I,? ?it is a puzzlement.? What
is this word spontaneous? It?s not calculative, it?s not unreflective, it?s not reactive;
none of these things are spontaneous. If you step on a nail and you say ?ouch,? is
the ?ouch? spontaneous?
Student: It?s probably a reaction.

Dr. Hora: Of course, it has nothing to do with spontaneity. It?s a very interesting
word. When you have an experience and you try to figure out how to deal with it,
that?s not spontaneity. That?s calculative reasoning, isn?t it? If you have an experience
and you react to it, that?s not spontaneity. That?s reaction. So you cannot think
and you cannot not think in order to be spontaneous. There is no human quality or
faculty that can explain it. It?s a total mystery. Smart people are not spontaneous.
Stupid people are also not spontaneous.
Student: It seems that when we respond, that it comes through the grace of God; that
no human or personal thing is happening.
Dr. Hora: Right. Now what is this grace of God that you are talking about?
Student: I can?t explain it; it?s just something that is. I used to think there were
miracles; now I realize they?re not miracles.
Dr. Hora: There are miracles everyday, all the time; nobody notices it.
Student: What is a miracle?
Dr. Hora: After we have explained this so many times! (laughter) Now what do you
think of the response that out of left field comes a question and the response is
appropriately present. What happened?
Student: Spontaneity.
Dr. Hora: So what happened? How is it that there is suddenly spontaneity in this
room? How did it come in? Through the door? A human person cannot have spontaneity.
There


is just one quality of consciousness that can respond spontaneously, and it is a
great mystery. It is the miracle of life and it is called love. Have you ever heard
of this word, love? Love can respond with spontaneity. How is that? We know that
fearful people cannot be spontaneous; angry people cannot be spontaneous; jealous
people cannot be spontaneous; envious people cannot be spontaneous; rivalrous people
cannot be spontaneous; ambitious people cannot be spontaneous. None of these behavioral
human factors can manifest spontaneity. Love alone can reveal what spontaneity is.
Do we all follow this?
Student: What is the definition of spontaneity?
Dr. Hora: It comes from the Latin, sponte tua, out of the will of God. When love
is in our consciousness, God is there in the form of love and intelligence and that
manifests itself as spontaneous responsiveness. It?s non-personal and non-conditional
and it is always benevolent. It?s like a breath of fresh air, clarifying all the
smog that normal human interaction generates. Next week I will ask you again, ?What
is spontaneity?? I bet you won?t be able to answer. It?s a difficult question to
answer.
Student: So many times after various situations in life, you look back and say what
might have been, what would have been more valid. ?I shouldn?t have said that.? That?s
not even valid, but you wish it had been more valid.
Dr. Hora: A human person cannot respond spontaneously. Only love can do it. Now how
is it that love can manifest itself as spontaneity?


Student: Because it is selfless. It is not a personal self.
Dr. Hora: Yes, because it is intelligent and it is spiritual and divine. If anybody
doubted the existence of God, if this individual understood spontaneity, he would
automatically acknowledge the reality of God. And certainly people who are agnostics
or anti-God or not fully accepting the fact of God?s existence have no way of being
spontaneous. No way. It?s always the human mind messing things up.
Throughout the history of art, there were great works produced. Who produced them?
If we just judge by appearances, we see that Michelangelo was a man, maybe even homosexual.
Yet he created all kinds of great works of art, of music and painting and sculpture,
and we marvel how a human person could have this in him to produce such marvelous
works. If we think that it comes out of a human person then we don?t understand anything.
A truly creative individual will tell you, ?I don?t remember having done this. It
just happened.? Something within the consciousness of the creative individual expresses
itself in a certain way of beauty, honesty, goodness, and love; this is spontaneity.
Great art always came about spontaneously. The great artists developed the ability
of letting God work through them. They were very leery of accepting credit. Money,
yes (laughter) but credit, no. All credit goes to God, infinite love-intelligence.
It is the creative principle of the universe and is responsible for everything that
is beautiful, good, intelligent and worthwhile in life. So whoever understands spontaneity
understands God in action. There is a patient in Connecticut who has been suffering
from being hard of hearing. He has gone to all kinds of doctors with his ears; he
took his ears with him, and the doctors examined the


ears and found nothing. And then we asked the right question: ?What is the meaning
of your difficulty in hearing what people are saying?? It turned out that he is a
calculative speculator who isn?t interested in hearing what people say, so he cannot
hear. As the Bible says, ?He that hath an ear let him hear? (Rev. 2:7).
Student: Dr. Hora, suppose you adhere to a certain value system, let?s say, of honesty.
Then, when there is a temptation to be dishonest, and you immediately reject that
because you cherish the value of honesty in your consciousness, is that spontaneity?
Dr. Hora: No. That?s commitment to the truth of being or the quality of character.
It is mostly educationally derived, the result of the right kind of education.
Student: So it?s a human trait?
Dr. Hora: No, it is a divine quality. The truth, as expressed through human behavior,
is not an area of spontaneity. Spontaneity is closely associated with creativity
and responsiveness to inspiration from God. You don?t have to be a creative individual
to be truthful or honest under all circumstances. Of course, if you are clear about
spontaneity, you could never be dishonest or a liar. It would be impossible. That?s
part and parcel of the whole perception of reality. If we are dishonest or lying
and deceiving ourselves, and others, then we are adulterating reality. So Jesus said,
don?t be an adulterer. Don?t adulterate the truth of God. Cherish the truth and realize
that all good comes from being here for God. We are here for God. We?re spontaneous.
We have inspired wisdom and we


are non-conditionally benevolent. If we?re not benevolent, everything is off. It?s
good to be good, right?
Student: In life, there are thousands of different situations that we encounter,
so we?d like to respond appropriately. And they are all different and we can?t know
what?s going to come and we can?t know how to respond. If we meditate and understand
what it is to have a loving consciousness, then that?s what?s going to make those
situations just fine. We would be responding in a healthy way, in a beneficial way,
and that love is what we practice.
Dr. Hora: Well, there are people who take courses in conversation and how to socialize,
how to bullshit, how to sell, how to buy, how to deal with people. As Dale Carnegie
wrote, ?How to Win Friends and Influence People.? These are artificial means of trying
to approximate spontaneity and truthfulness. But it?s artificial; it?s nothing.
Student: Those things seem to be inauthentic. But if we accept the principle that
?Nothing comes into experience uninvited,? then the things that we encounter that
the other student was speaking of, all those myriad experiences are being invited
by our consciousness. So we really need to pay attention.
Dr. Hora: Yes. Our educational system is geared to what is called by a strange technical
name: relationships. If you watch television or listen to the radio you will find
this word ?relationship? innumerable times. They are always talking and thinking
in terms of relationships, which means interaction between individuals and others.
And you go to school and learn psychology, sociology, good manners, street smarts
and this smart and that smart and this is really an endeavor to sort


of deal with the world on the basis of personal mind. And the harder you try, the
more you study the more trouble you get into. All the marriages and the group experiences
that people have invariably disintegrate because it is not possible to sustain harmonious
communication on the basis of psychology. It is well known that, out of the entire
population, psychiatrists and psychologists have the worst kind of marriages of all.
And the more an individual is trained in psychology the more impossible it is for
him to live and communicate harmoniously; because when he or she is positive it leaves
an unpleasant aftertaste and when he or she is negative it results in conflict. There
is no way that you can function in life on the basis of calculative thinking. That?s
what these things are and what they breed are politics and politicians. Calculative
thinking drains their minds and they learn all kinds of things ? selling themselves
and selling things; it is full of suffering. It cannot be done. But if we understand
spontaneity as a manifestation of divine love in human encounters, then we don?t
have to learn how to communicate. It is spontaneously there. And it?s good and harmonious.
It?s free; it?s effortless, reverent, and loving, based on awareness of the truth
in all situations. We don?t have to learn how to handle people. You see on television
all kinds of schemes that people have devised to influence people, to sell, to convince,
to seduce, to lure away, to pressure; all this goes on due to ignorance. People try
to manage how they get along in this world.
Now if a hostess gives a party or has visitors, after the party there comes the
reckoning. What I should have said, and didn?t say! How should I have made this?
Did I do it right? What did I say? What are you thinking now about what I was thinking?
Was I right? Did I make a mistake? And then


there are headaches and the inability to find peace. But true spontaneity is timeless,
mindful, effortless, loving, and non-conditional. It?s all forgiving, because God
is infinite love and mercy. As human beings we can slip out of the spontaneity of
timelessness, and mistakes may occur. But there don?t have to be worries about it
because it never really was. You made a mistake? No, it never was. The only thing
that really is, is the presence of God, as infinite love-intelligence, and that?s
genuine spontaneity. You cannot take a course in spontaneity.
Student: Isn?t this a course?
Dr. Hora: No, this is an iconoclastic course of everything else that isn?t God. We
are here to destroy the world totally, so that the presence of God may become clear.
In this world you shall have tribulations, no matter what you do, no matter what
courses you take, no matter how many psychology books you have read. It cannot be
done. You just have to surrender to perfect love. In perfect love there are no persons.
So it?s no use trying to use your mind, or what you have learned or read in a book.
In perfect love there is non-conditional benevolence. This includes compassion, forgiveness,
peace, assurance, gratitude, freedom, etc. It?s a whole ?nother smoke. People suffer
so much anxiety when it comes to meeting somebody, friend or foe. Will I behave and
handle this situation in the right way? Yes, spontaneity is a tremendous miracle
of God in the human domain. So if we would like to function in the world we have
to meditate on the question of what is spontaneity? If you meditate on this issue
you may come to the point where it is tangibly present in your awareness and you
function spontaneously in any situation, and that?s good. And you understand that
you don?t worry whether you are liked, or


appreciated, made an enemy, or criticized, or maligned in any way; it doesn?t touch
you. There is no reality to it whatsoever. Now what was your question?
Student: What is a miracle?
Dr. Hora: Spontaneity is a miracle. (laughter) A miracle is an observable event,
which defies all customary ways of reacting or dealing with it; it?s totally surprising
and always good. All the healings of Jesus were miraculous. Now if someone understands
something here or anywhere else, that?s a miracle, because nobody can do it. Every
time we understand a little bit, that?s a miracle. If you understand a lot you are
very happy, and blessed. The more we understand the truth of being, the more miracles
will appear in our lives.
Student: It is difficult to know, if you are maligned, that it?s not real. How does
it come to the awareness that it is not real?
Dr. Hora: Well, does anybody know the answer to the problem of malicious thoughts?
Student: If you hear someone talking maliciously about someone else, or someone has
been talking about your ideas, those kinds of thoughts seem hard to know that they
are not real. You said that we can get to a point where we understand that they are
not real and cannot touch us, but how do we know that and how do we come to understand
that, beyond just believing the words?
Dr. Hora: Well it requires first a belief and then a conviction and then an understanding
that God is infinite good and it is good to be good, and if someone is not good,
but is malicious, then he or she is hurting himself or herself. And we don?t


have to do anything. We just have to be conscious of the fact that here is a phenomenon
that falsifies reality.
Student: Einstein?s remark is also relevant. Dr. Hora: Yes?
Student: He said, ?Arrows of hate have been shot at me many times, but they never
touched me because they came from a world with which I have nothing in common.?
Dr. Hora: Yes. What did he mean by that? They came from a world with which he had
nothing in common.
Student: Well it is a world of interaction, and a world of personal-ism.
Dr. Hora: If you have learned this and have understood and you come across someone
who is malicious, gossipy, and full of ill will, you have compassion for the guy
because he is just hurting himself. He cannot touch you if your consciousness is
not of this world but of omni-action. As long as we cherish relationships and interactions,
either in families or business, we will be vulnerable to these things. That?s why
Jesus said that in this world we?ll have tribulations. We have to transcend the world
by knowing that these things are mistakes. People make mistakes and suffer from them
and we don?t have to suffer from them if we understand reality. We constantly pray
and work and meditate and study to know reality. And here, this student asked this
beautiful question about spontaneity and she tried to answer it and ran into an impenetrable,
invisible wall of the truth. We all have to face the fact that nobody knew the answer.
Was there anyone of you who understood spontaneity? If you were to ask a thousand
people in church


and out of church, in synagogue and in mosque, nobody would understand what it is.
It is a miracle, a mystery. Spontaneity is a word, a beautiful word. Everyone believes
that they know what it means. It would be a great blessing to know. But if we deceive
ourselves, if we like to say, ?I am right,? we will just suffer. It is very important
to know that if we understand spontaneity we understand God. What could be more important
than that?
Student: It is interesting that the word ?spontaneity? originates with God, and yet
that component of its meaning or its origin is lost. If we look in the dictionary,
this meaning would appear as a minor usage.
Dr. Hora: The interesting thing about this word is that no matter how many times
we have spoken about it here, when it comes up again, nobody remembers, nobody knows,
nobody has really attained understanding of it. It is easy to lose it. But if you
don?t use it you lose it. How do we use spontaneity in our daily lives? How do we
use it, now that it has been explained to us?
(To a student) In your next party, visitors will come and may have all kinds of
unloving fantasies. How will you use it? The way to use it is to cling to it tooth
and nail. You have to cling to the understanding of what it is and pray that it works
in you. ?But the father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works? (John 14:10). When
our interest in perfect love is greater than personal success and power and influence
and defensiveness, then it is there and we don?t have to worry about it; it will
be there. We are oriented toward letting it work in us. We cannot do it. But if we
are imbued with the understanding of what it is, it works. It does its own work


because God is God. ?It is the Father in you who doeth the works.?
Student: That?s really helpful because that?s the problem. We get distracted all
the time. But if we just stay with that...
Dr. Hora: Sure, sure. Of course it is easier if we don?t have to go to parties (chuckle),
but some of us are forever going to parties and trying to like it, trying to make
it a pleasant experience. But I think it is seldom so; parties always leave an unpleasant
aftertaste because of the interactions which take place. You cannot make it otherwise.
Student: How is spontaneity different from PAGL? It seems as if aspects of it are
in line with PAGL and compassion and forgiveness.
Dr. Hora: PAGL is the fruit of spontaneity. Or, as the medical establishment says,
it?s the side effect. (laughter) Isn?t it interesting that everything that doctors
do has side effects. ?The good that I would I do not; but the evil that I would not,
that I do? (Rom. 7:19). That?s the godless experience of godlessness.
Student: I think I?ve lost spontaneity. I have to admit that I?ve forgotten what you said.
Dr. Hora: What? Already? You didn?t wait until you got to the subway.
Student: Well, part of it is clear, that it is perfect love.
Dr. Hora: Right. And you know perfect love, so you have to practice, practice.


Student: So it?s not different from perfect love?
Dr. Hora: It?s a precondition to it; perfect love makes it possible. It brings into
manifestation this highly desirable state of consciousness, called spontaneity. Practicing
perfect love is really the easiest and the most wonderful discipline that we can
apply for ourselves, except that you have to approach every day and every moment
contemplating the importance of perfect love. It helps if you remind yourself that
it is good to be good. You will become more and more spontaneous.
Student: It?s good that you speak of a good that is good, that only comes through
the grace of God. Because we are taught to be good and that is not good. And that?s
something we can do, but we cannot do the good that you speak of.
Dr. Hora: Well nobody said here that we have to do the good.
Student: No, what I meant was that the good that is beneficial just seems to come spontaneously.
Dr. Hora: So if we say, ?It?s good to be good,? we are not talking about how to do
it. We are making a statement about a mental orientation in life.
Student: I understand. This seems to also be something that just is another miracle;
it?s something that?s a response. It comes from God only.
Dr. Hora: Anybody can be interested in being good. It doesn?t mean that he has to
produce this goodness.
Student: It?s spiritual.


Dr. Hora: We have to be interested in goodness and if we?re sincerely interested, it appears.
Student: A miracle.
Dr. Hora: Yes. Now St. Paul tried to do it and the result was this famous statement,
?The good which I would I do not [he approached it operationally], but the evil which
I would not that I do [again operational].? We?re not talking about operationalism;
it?s a dirty word here. Yes, it?s almost as dirty as relationships. In watching television,
you listen carefully, and you can take a pad and make statistical studies of how
many times within a span of half an hour or so you will hear the word ?relationship.?
Student: And also interaction.
Dr. Hora: Not so much, because it?s fancier. But ?relationship? almost anybody can
use. It has become an epidemic ever since psychology became popularized and everybody
forever talks about relationships. And the idea is that if you can handle relationships
you?ll be all right; so people are trying, but it doesn?t seem to work.

Man suffers from insufficient understanding of Reality. Enlightened man views life
as a dream from which he has awakened. While others around him are still involved
in the dream, he himself is just a nonparticipating observer. Or, let us put it this
way: enlightened man is like someone who sits in a movie and, while others around
him are fully absorbed in experiencing the actions on the screen, he himself remains
unaffected by the plot or by the behavior of others around him. He is just a nonparticipating
observing presence. He can walk out of the cinema at any time, whereas unenlightened
man gets sucked into the movie and experiences the scenes on the screen as if they
were happening to him. Enlightened man is not interested in entertainment; he is
unimpressed by the lure of personal experiencing.
Unenlightened life is just a movie. Everyone is dreaming the dream of life as personal
selfhood. We are all dreaming that we are physical personalities interacting with
one another, positively or negatively. And we are very serious about this because
we do not know that we are dreaming, and so our experiences are very important to
us.
The Bible says: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for
they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). There is a great chasm between natural man and enlightened
man. Natural man thinks that enlightened individuals are foolish, that they are missing
out on all the fun in life, and he has some difficulty in understanding what it is
all about.
The good of enlightened life is not based on experiences,


but on pure bliss. Bliss is blessedness, which is happiness. But the happiness of
the enlightened man is not the same as that of the dreamer. The dreamer seeks happiness
in excitement, in physical sensations, and frictions. Enlightened man finds happiness
in beauty, harmony, peace, perfection, joy, freedom, love, creative intelligence,
inspired wisdom. The Lord’s Prayer says: "Give us this day our daily bread." To the
enlightened man this means: The good of God is realized daily in inspired wisdom,
peace, assurance, gratitude, and love.
We are making a point here about the difference between experiencing and realizing.
Even a so-called "religious experience" is but a dream about becoming enlightened.
Therefore, it is a form of self-deception. Reality cannot be experienced. It can,
however, be realized.
On the road to understanding Love-Intelligence as the light of the Christ, we come
face to face with the belief that the essence of life inheres in experiencing. The
love of darkness could be interpreted in present-day understanding as the love of
feeling good and the love of having pleasurable experiences. As a matter of fact,
we love experiencing so much that we can even enjoy pain.
Man is attached to the dream of experiential living, pleasurable as well as painful.
Life seems to be synonymous with experiencing. Experiencing means sensual, emotional,
and intellectual stimulation. The darkness we are attached to is the idea of experiencing
and doing. Doing is also a form of experiencing; we call it operationalism. We consider
real living or being alive as consisting of activities and experiences in the world.
This is the great stumbling block.
The ninth principle of Metapsychiatry states: "Reality cannot be experienced or
imagined; it can, however, be realized." Many sincere seekers after the truth and
the light fail to reach it because they live in the expectancy of religious and spiritual
experiences. Experiencing is not a proof of life and of truth. Just because we are
experiencing something does not prove that it really exists. For instance, through
hypnotism man can be induced to experience whatever a hypnotist may


suggest. This is a simple proof of the illusory nature of human experiences. As a
matter of fact, experiences are but dreams, or illusions. They are perceptualized
thoughts. The Buddhists and Hindus speak of samsara or maya, meaning illusion.
Real life cannot be experienced. Therefore, not many people are really conscious
or awake, nor are they interested in being awake. Just like drug addicts — admittedly
an extreme example — we too are most interested in dreaming a better dream. Drug
addiction is but a socially unacceptable way of dreaming. Most of us appear to be
hypnotized most of the time, even without drugs, until we wake up. When we wake up,
we discover that life and being consist of Love-Intelligence.
This book deals with the convergence of Metapsychiatry and spiritual guidance.
Metapsychiatry is a scientific discipline based on a metaphysical concept of man
and the universe. The healing method in Metapsychiatry is found in a special mode
of communication centered around a process of hermeneutic clarification of existentially
valid principles. This, in turn, brings about qualitative changes in consciousness
and results in improved cognitive faculties.
The aim of Metapsychiatry is to heal man of his afflictions by elevating his consciousness
to the recognition of his identity as an image and likeness of God, a spiritual being
capable of transcendence.
Spiritual guidance endeavors to help man realize his own divinity and life in the
context of God. Man is seen as a "place" where God’s presence reveals itself as omniactive
Love-Intelligence. We are led to "overcome the world" by discovering in practical
ways how to be "in this world" and yet "not of it" (2 Corinthians 10:3). This level
of realization is referred to in the apocalyptic passage which speaks of a "new heaven
and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1).
Enlightened man has a different perception of reality. He has attained a spiritual
level of cognitive integration. As Meister Eckhart put it: "God sees me with the
same eye as I see God."







Metapsychiatry transcends psychiatry. It asks a fundamental question, namely, What
is man? It does not ask, What is wrong with man? but What is man? If we ask this
simple question, we run into a complicated situation. There are many ways of perceiving
man. Medical science simply assumes that man is a physical organism, and that his
basic issues are the physiological processes taking place within the organism.
However, there is much more to man than that. Man is a psyche, an individualized
consciousness, even though he may appear to be a collection of physiological systems.
Thus, the very simple question, What is man? elicits complex and confusing answers.
And so today there are many definitions of man, such as: man is a social animal,
a socio-biological phenomenon, a molecular structure, a biochemical process, a product
of interpersonal relationships, a conditioned reflex system, etc. These various assumptions
about man lead to a variety of schools of thought and many forms of therapeutic methods,
which are forever changing. This clearly indicates that they cannot be valid because
Truth is immutable; it does not change. Whatever is mutable and transitory cannot
possibly be the correct idea.
Now, we can be forgiven if we accept incorrect ideas because we don’t know any
better. But if we don’t know that we don’t know, then difficulties arise. The philosopher
Heidegger compares this situation to a blind man who does not know that he is blind.
Such a man is in great danger; he may



hurt himself. But if a blind man knows that he is blind, then he can proceed wisely
and cautiously, actually begin to see in certain ways, and be safe. So then, first
we have to come to know that we really don’t know and then we must seek to know as
much as possible. Metapsychiatry, having recognized the tragic insufficiency of knowledge
about man, has been led to seek out a definition of man which has endured over the
ages. This knowledge is the pearl of great price which has been neglected, skimmed
over, and not taken seriously by the scientific world. It has been accepted on the
basis of pure belief by the religious world, namely, that man is an "image" and "likeness"
of God. Everyone is familiar with this; it is a religious cliché. Religious people
believe it. Scientists disdain it, since it cannot be proven. Nevertheless, it is
exactly this definition of man that Metapsychiatry takes as a basic premise for its
entire structure.
In order for something to be a basic premise of a scientific system it must be
understood, not only believed in; it must be actually realized, otherwise the whole
structure is built on shifting sand. In order to understand the definition of man
as an image and likeness of God, two things are requisite. First of all, man must
be seen in the context of God. It would be impossible to understand an image and
likeness of God apart from God. Therefore, all endeavors which try to study man apart
from God, as a thing in itself, must be inadequate because there is no such thing
as man in and of himself. Attempts to understand man as if he were a self-existent
entity are based on erroneous impressions. We can study cadavers, do autopsies, we
can study anatomy, physiology, and psychology; we can study group behavior, we can
study man in his relationships to his fellow man, to nature, to animals, and we can
bring together everything in a holistic way, but it is impossible to understand man
apart from God, his Creator. Once we have considered the possibility that perhaps
the biblical definition of man might be valid, we are impelled to study man in the
context of God. But how can we study man in the context of God unless we already
know what God is? So this definition



presents us with an additional dilemma: not only don’t we know what man is, but now
we have to find out what God is, and do it scientifically!
For this, we must define science in broader terms. The traditional concept of science
is that whatever we are studying must be accessible to quantification, measurements,
and experimental validation. That limits the scientific approach a great deal to
things which are tangible, which have dimensions, which have weight, etc. But science
has already reached levels of understanding where we can study things which are not
measurable, not quantifiable, and not accessible to sensory perception. So Metapsychiatry
takes for its fundamental premise the biblical definition of man as the image and
likeness of God and proceeds to ask the questions: What is God? What is Life? How
can an infinite power, a creative Intelligence, have an image and a likeness? How
can an invisible nonquantifiable force be imaged and reflected and manifested through
individuals? What a dilemma! How can we reach sufficient understanding of this elusive
Reality? Well this is where existentialism comes in.
Existentialism is a philosophical inquiry into the nature of existence and the
context in which it manifests itself. What is existence? Existence is that which
exists. Surprisingly, there are many things which seem to be but do not exist. Existence
is that which exists in contrast to that which only seems to exist. Let us explore
the meaning of the word "exist." The derivation of the word "exist" is a combination
of the Greek and Latin: ek — meaning outside; sistere or stare — to stand, to stand
out, to be; ek-sistere means to stand out, to stand apart. Existence is a quality
of consciousness which is capable of observing itself, or of being aware of itself.
So there is something about an existent (an individual who is capable of standing
apart) who is aware of what he is doing and thinking. We are given this faculty of
conscious awareness of self. This is an interesting discovery in that, under normal
circumstances, there seem to be two levels upon which our lives are taking place.
Animals don’t seem to have this faculty at all, or only to a limited degree. But
man



seems to have this faculty and he can develop it even further. He can discover the
"transcendent observer" within himself.
Now the question arises, What is healthy man? In Metapsychiatry we define healthy
man as a "beneficial presence" in the world. In contrast to this, religion requires
us to be beneficent persons in the world. What is the difference? One is being; the
other is doing. The Chinese sage speaks of "actionless action" and "the way to do
is to be." In our culture, however, we are what we do. When we emphasize being in
contrast to doing, we do not say that being precludes doing because then we would
be dead. But our minds are so conditioned to think in dualistic terms that whenever
we say black, we think of white; whenever we say white, it is assumed it is not black.
This tendency toward dualistic thinking must also be transcended. We juxtapose operationalism
with existentialism. We do not imply that a beneficial presence will be passive,
but the quality of his actions will be entirely different from that of the one whose
view on life is primarily operational.
The word "beneficent" is derived from the Latin bonum facere, to do good. A beneficent
person is a do-gooder, and we know that this is fraught with problems. It brings
to mind St. Paul’s phrase: "The good which I would I do not; but the evil which I
would not, that I do" (Romans 7:19). This is a common dilemma in all areas of life.
When we have an operational approach, there will always be good and bad in what we
do. Take, for instance, the tremendous accomplishments in medical science. Much progress
has been made in pharmacotherapy and in surgery, but how much damage is being inflicted
upon the recipients of these blessings at the same time? It is a terrible tragedy
that the more progress is being made, the more damage is being done. There is no
way of separating the good from the evil. We speak of "side effects," but the consequences
are due to the dualistic trap of operationalism.
Let us consider the meaning of a beneficial presence in the world. Beneficence
is an activity, while beneficial is a quality. A person is someone who thinks of
himself as self-existent, selfmotivated, self-energized, self-propelled. What is
the difference




between a person and a presence? A "beneficial presence" is a quality of consciousness.
It may be difficult to conceive of an individual who can be a great blessing to a
situation just by the quality of his consciousness. Some people have the best intentions
to be helpful, and yet things go sour in their presence. Sometimes we may hear someone
exclaim in exasperation, Please, don’t help me! This is the opposite of what we call
a beneficial presence. It may be easier to understand certain concepts in juxtaposition
to their opposites.
In the presence of a beneficial presence — which is a loving consciousness — things
have a tendency to work together for good in an almost mysterious way.
Anyone who really wants to attain an understanding of God beyond that of a religious
symbol or of a theological abstraction will be greatly helped by understanding those
aspects of life which cannot be done. The great confusion in which we live stems
from the assumption and erroneous impression that we can do everything and that everything
entails doing something like, for instance, "making love." The other day someone
said: "I realize that I don’t have love. I wonder where I could get it and how I
could get it." Around the issue of love there is a great deal of confusion stemming
from the operational bias with which we view life. We cannot get love. We cannot
make love. We cannot give love. If we try, we turn out to be inauthentic, consciously
or unconsciously. At Christmas time and other holidays, families come together and
the members make a supreme effort to express love toward each other. They try to
do it and the result is that after these holidays people tend to run into various
problems (side effects).
Love can only be realized. What does it mean to realize something? It means to
become conscious of the reality of something. When we realize love, we discover that
love really is, and that which is does not have to be produced since it already is.
And when we are conscious of what really is, then that which really is becomes manifest
in our experience. We say: Love expresses itself through man. We become aware of
it by the quality of our presence. Such presence has a healing,




harmonizing, enlightening impact on whatever situation we happen to be participating
in. The right understanding of those aspects of life which cannot be done leads us
to an understanding of God because they are the constituent attributes of God. Thus
God becomes a Reality and we do not have to believe in God, or disbelieve in God,
or intellectualize about God; God is then a tangible Reality to us, and we live and
move and have our being in Him.
We may ask, What is the difference between creation and creativity? Creation is
the emergence of the visible universe with all the phenomena of life. We can speak
of creativity as the manifestation of inspired wisdom expressing itself through human
consciousness. God is the source of all creative intelligence, and a creative individual
is one who is receptive to inspired creative ideas coming from that great source
and expressing itself in multifarious ways. There is an analogy here concerning what
we said about love: the love of God expresses itself through man in individual ways.
Similarly, the creative power of God reaches human consciousness in the form of creative
ideas which man can then express. These qualities of God flow through man, who is
the image and likeness of God. When we speak of an image and likeness of God — to
come back to our definition of man — we are not talking about form, we are talking
about the formless in the process of taking shape. Man gives expression to divine
qualities in form. The Zen Master says: "Form is formlessness and formlessness is
form."
I am reminded here of the Metapsychiatric definition of marriage. Conventional
psychological thinking assumes that marriage is a relationship between husband and
wife. Of course, when we are relating one to another there is a lot of friction,
often resulting in a stalemate, and quite often there is parting. If our concept
of marriage is based on conventional thinking, we are in trouble, and we know that
in our culture marriages are frequently troubled. The more psychologically minded
one is about marriage, the more troublesome it tends to be. Metapsychiatry conceives
of marriage not as a relationship




but as joint participation in the good of God. Of course, many people do not want
this. We can say that most suffering is the result of pursuing invalid ideas of what
is good. The valid idea about marriage as a joint participation in the good of God
will result in harmony and blessings. We call this existential validation. It is
a process whereby an idea can validate itself as harmony, peace, assurance, gratitude,
and love.
In Metapsychiatry we are not satisfied with assumptions; we seek realizations,
and in the search for realizing the nature of God we have come to understand what
evil is. Realizations come about through a process of juxtaposing Reality and illusion,
good and evil, what is divine and what is not, what is true and what is false. We
seek to attain the realization of the true nature of God, and one of our main methods
of realizing the nature of God is by continuously increasing our awareness of those
aspects of life which cannot be done. Gradually we come to understand God as the
harmonizing creative principle of the universe. The Bible says of God that He is
of purer eyes than to behold evil ("Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and
canst not look on iniquity," Habakkuk 1:13), and that "God is light and in Him is
no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
In juxtaposition to God as the principle of all good, we are led to consider the
nature of evil. In juxtaposition to evil, the good of God becomes more clearly outlined
in our awareness. In our pursuit of understanding Reality we have a method based
on "two intelligent questions." In all our work in Metapsychiatry we ask two questions:
(1) What is the meaning of what seems to be? and (2) What is what really is? With
the aid of these two questions we are able to separate the real from the seeming,
the good from the evil.




Ice is water in crystalized form; vapor is a gas. Vapor can change into liquid
and liquid into crystalline form. Gas is evanescent, intangible, with the property
of expansiveness. Water is liquid and ice is solid. We see that the same substance
can take on three radically different appearances. Phenomena are thoughts in visible
form. It is remarkable to consider that, analogously, thoughts can undergo transmutative
processes and appear either as language, or as emotion, or as behavior, or as illness,
or as health.
We also speak of gaseous substances as having energy; they have the energy which
we can measure through the power of the expanding pressure they exert. Similarly,
thought is energy, mental energy. It has the power to manifest itself in various
forms. And so it is that we speak of phenomena as thoughts having become accessible
to sensory perception.
The science which studies phenomena is called "phenomenology." The philosopher
Heidegger called himself not so much a philosopher as a phenomenological anthropologist,
which means that he used the phenomenological method to study the nature of man.
Phenomenological anthropology is the study of man as a phenomenon. Teilhard de Chardin
wrote a book titled The Phenomenon of Man. Clearly, he considers the totality of
man as a phenomenon. Thus we may say that man is a thought, having become transmuted
into visible form. This




may sound startling at first, but as we consider the basic nature of all phenomena
we see that they have the tendency to appear and to disappear. And man, also, can
be thought of as appearing on the scene and disappearing from it.
To better understand phenomenology, we propose to consider a most simple case of
erythrophobia in order to demonstrate the clinical relevancy of phenomenological
investigation. We aim to demonstrate that this is not just an esoteric philosophy
about highly speculative theories; phenomenological perceptivity and understanding
are practical issues, relevant to daily clinical work. Erythrophobia means a fear
of blushing. Interestingly enough, the more fearful one is of blushing, the more
prone one will be to blushing. The Bible says, "For the thing which I greatly feared
is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me" (Job 3:25).
From what has been said until now, it is possible to understand that what we are
afraid of tends to become an experience. Since fear is a thought present in consciousness,
it tends to express itself as a symptom. There are three main categories of thoughts
which have particular clinical relevancy. These are: (1) What we cherish, (2) What
we hate, and (3) What we fear. These three types of thoughts tend to have clinical
consequences. The question may be asked, What is so special about these three types
of thoughts? These are highly charged thoughts, just as some gases have a higher
expanding energy value than others. Furthermore, the more a gas is compressed, the
more expansive energy it will contain. What we cherish, what we hate, and what we
fear are highly charged thoughts carrying a powerful energy level in the direction
of manifesting themselves in visible form. Of course, other thoughts also have a
tendency to manifest themselves clinically, but not as powerfully as these three.
Sometimes hate and fear are referred to as emotions rather than thoughts. Here
we must understand that emotions are thoughts transmuted into neurovegetative reactions.
The important thing to realize is that the basic stuff of life is thought, just as
the basic stuff of matter is energy. Emotions are




thoughts transmuted to the first stage. This differs from the psychological assumption
which claims that first we feel and then we think. We believe thought to be primary.
It is the fundamental energy form of existence. When God said: "Let there be light,"
He did not have a feeling that there should be light. He had an idea, a thought:
"Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). The thought of God is the
creative impetus which is the beginning of all that really is. "Creatio ex nihilo"
means that God created the universe apparently out of nothing. Actually the universe
is an idea of God, and the basic stuff of the universe is that mental energy which
we call thought or idea. "Idios Cosmos" (Heraclitus) means the universe of ideas.
Heraclitus also said: "Sine ratione nihil est," which means nothing can exist without
thought. The universe is mental. "So God created man in his own image" (Genesis 1:27).
He created us by thinking us; we are God’s invention.
Similarly, man too is an inventor, with a tendency to invent many thoughts. The
thoughts which man invents also seem to have creative power; alas, man is a miscreator.
What we invent is often a miscreation. But we can be instruments of healthy creativity.
The right kind of creativity is not an invention; it is a discovery. A discovery
is the uncovering of something that God has already invented.
Let us now return to erythrophobia, which provides an elementary clinical example
of phenomenology. A man thinks that he might blush in a social situation facing others,
and indeed he does. If someone comes to us with the symptom of blushing, we are not
going to try to find out why he is blushing, or who is to blame for it, or what he
should do about it. In Metapsychiatry we understand that cause-and-effect reasoning
has no therapeutic value; as a matter of fact, it tends to be therapeutically counterproductive.
Furthermore, this realization has been substantiated by research in atomic physics
where the study of the behavior of subatomic particles revealed that there is no
such thing as cause and effect (Heisenberg uncertainty principle). What do we mean
by therapeutically counterproductive? Suppose we figure out why




someone is blushing. What will happen? This will not help him to stop blushing. Quite
to the contrary, it will provide him with an excuse and a justification of his problem.
"Why?" is a reason, and whenever we seek reasons, all we find is excuses.
Thus, if someone comes to us with the problem, say, of blushing, we are not going
to try to find out why he is blushing, but we shall try to discern the meaning of
his blushing. In order to find the meaning of a phenomenon, we must develop a certain
faculty which we all have but which is rather dormant in most people. This faculty
is called "phenomenological perceptivity"; this means discerning the patient’s main
mental preoccupation. This can reveal itself to us in the course of conversation,
or just while being with someone for a while. Let us take, for instance, a gentleman
who has such a problem. While being with him, it became clear that he was preoccupied
with his baldness. Uppermost in his mind was the thought of whether women will like
him, find him acceptable or not. This became clear right from the beginning. Essentially,
it was a problem of vanity. Rejection by women would be intolerably embarrassing.
Thus the meaning of this clinical syndrome became clear right away. In other words,
the man was suffering from an invalid idea about what is important. So we see that
underlying this clinical syndrome was a set of erroneous ideas. The therapeutic process
would involve here clarifying to the patient, first of all, what the meaning of his
blushing is, and illuminating to him the error of his reasoning. This process is
called in Metapsychiatry hermeneutics, which means shedding light on the mental processes
which underlie certain problems, thus leading the patient out of his troublesome
way of reasoning to a more intelligent, mature, constructive way of seeing himself
and the world. This therapeutic process is called "hermeneutic elucidation."
The question can be asked whether a patient would be willing to give up his faulty
way of reasoning. It is not necessary for him to give up anything. This therapy is
not operational. When a problem and its solution are sufficiently clarified, the
power which brings about a change lies not in the patient, nor




in the therapist, but in the realization of the truth. Through hermeneutics the patient
comes to understand something; he comes to see that there are more valid ways of
thinking about the situation. He may realize that whether he has hair or doesn’t
have hair is not an essential issue. The essential issue for each of us is to be
a beneficial presence in the world. This points up how valuable it is for a therapist
to have a valid and clear concept of mental health. Without a valid concept of mental
health we would be at a loss as to what to tell this man; we would have nothing positive
to offer. Since we do have a valid concept of mental health, we can help the patient
realize that he can be just as beneficial a man in the world without hair as with
it.
How do we know that the Metapsychiatric definition of mental health is really valid?
Do we have to study all the previous theories about mental health, like, for instance,
genital primacy, social adaptation, ego strength, emotional maturity, etc. in order
to understand the validity of this definition? Or is there a way of understanding
it independently of anything that preceded? The truth of an existential concept validates
itself in individual experience. In other words, it bears good fruit. Jesus said:
" ... by their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20). We base our sense of direction
on the principle of existential validation.





There has been a controversy in the field of psychology for some time now about
what is primary — thought or feeling. This controversy has not been out in the open
very much because of the prevalence of authoritative writings which are in favor
of the assumption that first we feel and then we think. Paracelsus said: "Nihil est
in intellectu quod primum non fuerit in sensu," which means, "Nothing is in the mind
that has not been first in the senses."
It is true that in human experience everything begins with sensory perception;
in other words, our five senses provide us with information about what seems to be.
Therefore, it is natural to come to the conclusion that first we perceive, or feel,
or sense, and then we think.
What has been said until now would seemingly settle the whole controversy right
at this point. However, let us not jump to premature conclusions. Things are not
as simple as they appear. We must realize that there is more to human consciousness
than just sensory input. If man were just under the influence of sensory perceptions,
he would be nothing more than a computer. But there is much more to man. For instance,
we mentioned phenomenological perception. Sensory perceptions give us information
only about the material world, our apparent environment. But they cannot discern
thoughts and affective states. However, phenomenological perceptivity goes beyond
the five senses and makes it possible for us to be aware of qualities of thought
and the mental climate which




surrounds us. Even with closed eyes we can know if someone loves us; we can be aware
of a loving presence. Similarly, we can be aware of envy, jealousy, competitiveness,
tension, hatred. There is a deeper sense of awareness which we are capable of and
which computers don’t have. There is, then, more to us than just sensory information.
Going beyond phenomenology, there is a whole universe of inspiration, inspired
thought, creative intelligence, which comes into consciousness through suprasensory
channels. For example, a teacher may be with a class of students and not know what
to talk about. But pretty soon an idea may appear in his awareness in response to
subliminally perceived needs. We speak of ideas obtaining in consciousness. The word
"obtain" has special interest for us, for it indicates a process of receptivity.
Creative ideas are received into consciousness from a transcendent source. We speak
of God as Cosmic Mind, the infinite source of creative ideas.
Metapsychiatry goes beyond traditional psychological thinking about man as a stimulus-response
organism. The oriental religions speak of the process of opening the "third eye,"
dharma, prajna, paramita, etc., which corresponds to our concept of the process of
awakening to spiritual consciousness which makes man available to inspired wisdom,
creative intelligence.
Wisdom is not intellectual. Education cannot provide man with wisdom. A well-educated
man may be well-informed, but he is not yet a wise man. He can become a wise man
only if his consciousness is spiritualized. This makes him a different man, a man
who is tuned in on a source of higher intelligence which is God. And the more he
is tuned in on this intelligence, the more creative, the more loving, the more harmonious
and healthy he becomes. Interestingly enough, he becomes healthier not only emotionally
and mentally, but also physically, and this is very important. Otherwise Metapsychiatry
would have no justification for its existence.
Now let us come back to the question as to what is primary — thought or feeling?
As stated before, sensory perceptions




occur as a result of external stimuli. In psychiatry they are called exteroceptive
stimuli in contrast to enteroceptive or proprioceptive stimuli, which refer to internal
perception. While it is true that in the human experience everything starts with
sensory perceptions, it is quite different with feelings,
emotions, and moods. Feelings are byproducts of thought processes.
Feelings, emotions, and moods arise as a result of our interpretations of sensory
data. For instance, let us imagine two people walking in the forest. Suddenly one
of them stops, breaks out in a cold sweat, starts trembling, and points with his
finger at an object in front of him, being frightened and speechless. The other man
standing beside him is peaceful, unafraid, and smiling. He looks at his friend, then
moves over to the object in front of them, reaches down and picks up a dried piece
of wood. Now what happened here? Two people received the same sensory stimulus but
one of them interpreted it as a snake, and the other as a twig. The feelings, emotions,
and psychological reactions which followed were clearly manifestations of thought
processes which expressed the particular way the sensory stimulus was interpreted.
So we say that there is a difference between feelings, emotions, and sensory perceptions.
This process is analogous to the process of digestion. Just as bowel movements
are byproducts of digestive processes, feelings and emotions are byproducts of thought
processes. There are some people who become very involved with and unduly interested
in their excrements. And there are many who become unduly concerned with their feelings
and emotions. Individuals who are unduly concerned about their bowel movements are
in danger of developing intestinal dysfunctions; individuals who are unduly preoccupied
with their feelings and emotions tend to become emotionally disturbed. We can say,
"Where a man’s ‘treasure’ lies, there shall his problems be also." In order to be
healthy, we must treasure spiritual values, such as love, harmony, beauty, goodness,
intelligence, generosity, peace, assurance, gratitude, etc.
Let us consider what happens if in psychotherapy a patient




is led to study his feelings and emotions. The therapist is repeatedly inquiring
about how the patient feels, helping him to observe the minutiae of his affective
states. Such a patient is being unwittingly indoctrinated and mentally anchored in
a self-concern. This is not going to be very helpful to him.
In Metapsychiatry there is a technical term for this kind of mental preoccupation;
it is called "self-confirmatory ideation," which means thoughts are constantly reverting
to the self, and seeking to find a certain sense of security in self-awareness. Self-confirmatory
ideation is the essential basis of all pathology. This is a universal human inclination
out of which proceed endless forms of problems, illnesses and suffering. Therefore,
in Metapsychiatry we seek to save man from this proclivity by helping him to discover
transcendence.
Transcendence can be defined essentially as rising above self-confirmatory ideation.
In traditional psychological thinking it has been observed quite early that self-confirmatory
ideation is not conducive to health. Freud called it narcissistic thinking. Narcissism
is, of course, one of the most blatant forms of self-confirmatory ideation. Consequently,
the assumption was that the remedy would be to help the patient to become concerned
with others instead of with himself. The idea was to guide the patient to establish
meaningful relationships with others. However, this is just another pitfall and exercise
in futility, for another is just another self. Selfconfirmatory ideation is interest
in self, in one’s own self. In meaningful relationships we become additionally interested
in the self of another. The result is a compounding of self-confirmatory ideation.
We can only be unselfish for selfish reasons. To be selfish or to be unselfish is
the same.
Orthodox psychoanalysis focuses attention on the self and calls it the study of
intrapsychic processes. Reformed psychoanalysis focuses attention on interpersonal
relationships, which is an extension of the interest in the self and is still mired
in futile preoccupations with the mystery of the self. So the extent of this reasoning
is shallow, primitive, and horizontal.




Horizontal thinking means thinking in terms of self and other, or self and society,
or self and environment. The existential psychotherapist Binswanger speaks of Eigenwelt,
Mitwelt, and Umwelt, which mean the world of self, the world of relationships with
others, and the world of relationships with the environment. But this is still horizontal
thinking. As long as our thinking is horizontal, we have not attained a realization
of the Transcendent.
In transcendence we rise and expand our conscious awareness into the full-dimensional
mode of thinking, and the context of our reasoning includes God, Love-Intelligence,
the Source of all energy, wisdom, love, power, freedom, and creativity. Once we attain
a transcendent perspective on reality, everything changes, just as when we climb
up on a mountain, the view is entirely different than it was in the valley. As man
attains the realization of his full potential, the various concepts which previously
were considered very scientific and important lose their validity, and life is seen
entirely differently. For instance, the concepts of interpersonal relationships and
marital relationships disappear, and in their place there emerges a discovery of
joint participation in the good of God, which makes harmonious coexistence possible.





Thought is fundamental to life. Essentially, thought is energy which has the tendency
to transmute itself into phenomena. Invalid thoughts will transmute themselves into
invalid phenomena, which means that invalid thoughts are harmful, while valid thoughts
are health promoting. It is not a mystery that it is not a desirable condition of
mind to entertain unloving thoughts. As we grow in the understanding of this basic
principle of the transmutation of thought energy, we will become very careful about
what we are thinking. We may develop a discipline of mind where we do not indulge
ourselves any more in negative and existentially invalid thought processes.
What are fantasies? Fantasies are pictorial thought processes. As we said previously,
thoughts constitute mental energy, and this mental energy, like all energies, has
the quality of transmutability into other forms of energy. The first transmutation
of thought energy tends to be image making. Thought is at first conceptual, second
pictorial, and third behavioral or somatic.
For example, let us suppose someone envies another for owning a beautiful automobile,
and suppose he allows himself the luxury of indulging in thoughts of envy. There
develops a certain cathexis, which means an emotional charge in connection with that
envy. Then, pretty soon, he may find himself fantasizing about something happening
to that automobile, an accident, or it being stolen or damaged through




some malicious mischief. Already the idea of envy begins to transmute itself into
pictorial form. He is already producing a movie in his mind. This is called imagination,
which is synonymous with fantasizing. Imagination is image making in consciousness.
There is a movement here from concept to image. This may progress into behavior
if there is a desire to act out the fantasies. This is the third stage of transmutation
of energy from idea to action, which is behavior. Behavior can be verbal or physical.
But suppose one is too civilized to act out his fantasies and does not permit himself
this form of energy transmutation, in which case he may have to find another form
of transmutation. Instead of physical action, this energy is then channeled into
the body. It becomes transmuted into a physical symptom. This is called somatization.
Every time this individual may see the automobile, he may get a migraine headache,
or his blood pressure may go up, and he may hate the car or the owner. So the original
thought has now become psychosomatic pathology.
Let us repeat then: first there is the idea, then the concept, then the image,
then behavior, then somatization. After that follows the rationalization of the somatization,
which means trying to cope with it by explaining it away, or developing a defense
mechanism of denial and "reaction formation." For instance, "I don’t hate the owner
of this car: I am not interested in this car; as a matter of fact, I love him." There
is an attempt to transmute the original energy from envy to love. This mechanism
is frequently encountered also in homosexuality, lesbianism, and other forms of carnal
interaction.
To cope with existentially invalid thoughts in this manner is very burdensome,
complicated, and makes life miserable. Therefore, we must learn the discipline of
thinking and seeing life in the context of existentially valid ideas. If our outlook
on life is existentially valid, then we are not subject anymore to these troublesome
ideas; we do not envy, we are not jealous, we are not competitive, hostile, afraid,
irrationally ambitious. None of these things moves us anymore. We are imbued with




the right perspective, which is the spiritual outlook on life. We are involved with
spiritual values. The thoughts which obtain in our consciousness are determined by
the perspective which we have on life.
There are five invalid perspectives on life which are prolific sources of existentially
troublesome thinking, and an endless variety of problems flow from them. As will
be seen later, these are the "five gates of hell," namely: sensualism, emotionalism,
intellectualism, materialism, and personalism. A perspective on life based on any
one of these five categories of thought is a source of many difficulties.
Sometimes we encounter a certain category of thought which is referred to as religious
scruples. Scrupulosity is viewed in psychiatry as obsessive-compulsive neurosis.
The trouble with religious prohibitions and intimidations is that people are not
given a chance to understand the dynamism of the transmutations of mental energy.
Dogmatic religion says: "Thou shalt not.... " If we forbid someone to think certain
thoughts, like for instance, "thou shalt not covet," which means you should not envy,
this may result in an intrapsychic conflict where the religious man tries to suppress
his covetous thoughts. He is prohibited from entertaining certain thoughts; consequently
he develops defense mechanisms against these thoughts. Obsessive ideas and compulsive
symbolic acts are ways of attempting to repress the forbidden thoughts. This is the
meaning of scrupulosity.
Arbitrary prohibitions without understanding lead to complications. Religion, which
Jesus hoped would liberate man, can actually enslave him, and instead of healing
him can make him sick. Consequently, some people have a fear of religion and an aversion
to the Bible. This, of course, is tragic because Jesus was the greatest healer who
ever lived and his teachings can really set us free, provided they are understood
in an existentially valid way based on sound epistemology.
The right understanding of Jesus’ teachings is not repressive but liberating because
they do not say what we should think or should not think; they tell us what really
is. "The




law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Jesus
reveals to us what is existentially valid; he turns us away from the five invalid
perspectives on life and gives us a new perspective, the spiritual perspective, in
the context of which all thoughts which obtain in consciousness are health promoting,
harmonizing, and existentially valid.
Now then, if our thoughts transcend the "five gates of hell," it stands to reason
that when these thoughts transmute themselves, the result will be peace, harmony,
assurance, healing, freedom, love, intelligence, creativity, harmony, and joy. And
this is health.
There is another thought form which in psychoanalysis is referred to as "free association."
It consists of revealing the random thoughts coming to mind in connection with some
dream, or childhood experience, etc. The thoughts which obtain in consciousness at
any moment are determined by the perspective within which we view life. Therefore,
if our perspective on life is any one of the previously mentioned five invalid categories,
then the thoughts which occur to us in the course of free association will also be
determined by that particular context. Therefore, the issue is not so much the thoughts
which come up in the course of free association but the context which gives rise
to these thoughts.
Suppose someone had a dream of having a pleasurable encounter with Gina Lollobrigida.
It stands to reason then that all his thoughts in the course of free association
will have the character of sensualism, because Gina Lollobrigida, as portrayed in
her movies, is a symbol of sensualism. So we can say that free association is not
really free, but is circumscribed by the context in which our perspective is focused
at a particular time.
In order for therapy to be effective and valid, we must help our patients to transcend
the "five gates of hell" and find that perspective which is the fountainhead of existentially
valid thoughts. These, in turn, through the process of transmutation of energy, manifest
themselves as healing. And that is how




health comes into being. The Bible puts it very simply: "As he [man] thinketh in
his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7).
To be healthy, happy, effective, and successful we need to learn to think right.
Right thinking must not be confused with positive thinking. For while right thinking
is always positive, positive thinking is not always right. Right thinking is existentially
valid thinking.
Other phenomena worthy of consideration are witchcraft, voodoo, black magic, hypnotism,
cursing, and so on. Since all thoughts — valid and invalid ones — seem to represent
energy, they can transmute themselves and create phenomena. For instance, voodoo
is perhaps the best known system where, in the context of religious superstition,
certain destructive thoughts are suggested to individuals, or expressed about individuals
either in their presence or their absence. These thoughts often manifest themselves
in some tragedy concerning those individuals. There have been cases reported in medical
literature where certain individuals, upon whom a voodoo curse had been pinned, actually
died, in spite of efforts of physicians in a hospital trying to save them. They just
died and no one could explain it medically, so powerful is a voodoo curse upon those
who believe in it.
Voodoo, cursing, witchcraft, and hypnotism each have power and impact on people
as long as they believe in it, or on people who disbelieve it. If we believe that
a curse has power, we are vulnerable. But if we disbelieve it, we are vulnerable
as well. To believe or to disbelieve is the same. In both instances we are involved
in struggling against a power. When we disbelieve in something, we are fighting against
believing in it; therefore we are honoring it as a power. There are two interesting
relevant lines in the Bible which say: "But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil"
(Matthew 5:39) ... "but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21), which means if we
are resisting evil, we are honoring it as a power. But if we understand that only
the good of God is real and has power, then we do not get involved with evil either
in a positive or a negative way.





The habit of thinking in terms of what should be or what should not be tends to
make us willful and tyrannical. Many a tyrannical parent is an involuntary victim
of this semantic trap. However, we need not be victims of habits of thought. With
a little attention and discipline we can abandon such arbitrary and coercive language
and attain "shouldlessness." Shouldlessness is a most attractive and desirable quality
of mind. In the Beatitudes Jesus speaks about it as meekness: "Blessed are the meek:
for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). We can consider shouldlessness as
synonymous with meekness.
Interestingly enough, when we become shouldless, our lives become simple and efficient
(fuss-less). For instance, there is a case of a young mother who had a great deal
of trouble with her four-year-old child at feeding time. The child would refuse to
feed herself and would demand to be fed. The mother kept insisting that a four-year-old
child should be able to feed herself. Consequently, every meal became a "battle royal"
with a great deal of fuss. The mother did not realize that she had a tyrannical approach
to the whole process of feeding. Only when she heard herself say, "You should feed
yourself," did she awaken to the realization that what is needed is a "shouldless"
mentality.
Tyrannical words produce tyrannical attitudes and these in turn provoke tyrannical
and rebellious reactions. The life of a tyrannical individual is very difficult because
he encounters




many types of resistance. The word "should" tends to trigger negative reactions.
Absolute shouldlessness can only be attained when the following principle is understood:
"Yes is good, but no is also good" (the fourth principle of Metapsychiatry). Whenever
this principle is first mentioned, there are always some misinterpretations voiced.
For instance, some may say this principle is fatalistic philosophy, meaning that
man is a victim of circumstances. The second misinterpretation believes this principle
to recommend Pollyannaism, which is a form of self-deception. And the third misinterpretation
calls it a principle of nihilism, meaning that nothing matters. None of these, however,
constitutes the right understanding, for this principle refers to a cognitive realization
of the nondual nature of Divine Reality, where everything is harmonious, intelligent,
and "very good." Whenever we understandingly affirm this principle, we have placed
our problems into the hands of God, and from then on, things tend to work out in
a most favorable way, for God is the harmonizing power of the universe and is omniactive
Mind.
Contrary to the human dimension of experience, yes and no in Divine Reality carry
no value judgment. In human terms we assume that "yes" is good, meaning positive,
and "no," being negative, must therefore be bad. But in the context of Divine Reality
nothing is ever bad: Therefore, even "no" has a positive connotation.
The Metapsychiatric therapist does not speak about what should be or what should
not be. Metapsychiatry is concerned with developing the faculty to discern what is.
The habit of thinking in terms of what should be or what should not be constitutes
a "mind-set" which clouds the ability to see what is. It is therefore advisable to
dispense with the habit of thinking in these terms. For instance, we don’t say that
horizontal thinking shouldn’t be. We say that it interferes with the faculty of perception.
A fundamental ethical point in Metapsychiatry is the respect for people’s right
to be wrong. It is important that




patients be given the freedom to be wrong. It is not the therapist’s task to influence
his patient. Someone asked, But what do you do if the patient does not want to change?
Patients have a right not to want to change.
Patients seek help believing that they are unhappy or sick and hoping to find a
way to be happier and healthier. Let us take for example a middle-aged man who went
to see a therapist because he was getting increasingly less capable of enjoying his
homosexual marriage. He was becoming impotent. He was hoping to have his potency
restored. He believed that it was wrong to be impotent. The therapist refrained from
thinking about what should be or what should not be, and instead sought to understand
the meaning of the problem. He knew well that whatever change may occur in the patient’s
life will not be brought about by what the therapist wants, nor by what the patient
wants. Change occurs under the impact of the truth realized in consciousness.
The therapist invited the patient to try to understand the meaning of his impotency.
In the course of exploring the meaning of this phenomenon, it was discovered that
the patient had recently become interested in spiritual studies. He had taken an
intensive course in Transcendental Meditation. He also became interested in the study
of comparative religions. As a result of this, he was awakening to new realizations
about what God is, what man is, what life is, and what health is from a spiritual
standpoint. As a result of his progress in spiritual understanding, it was becoming
more and more difficult for him to continue in his previous lifestyle. This manifested
itself as a growing inability to sustain his homosexual involvement. Consequently,
it dawned on him that he was not getting sicker but healthier, that his impotency
was actually a good sign, that it was not something to fear but to accept. The right
understanding of spiritual values is a power active in his consciousness to bring
about a transformation of his mode of being-in-the-world.
As we see, the therapist did not have to impose his own ideas on the patient, nor
did he have to accept the patient’s




ideas about what should be or what shouldn’t be. The power to bring about change
lies in the understanding of what is, which, in this case, was the emergence of spiritual
consciousness in the patient.
According to Jesus, it is the knowledge of the truth that makes man free. This
fact eliminates one of the great psychoanalytic stumbling-blocks, namely, the concept
of resistance. Resistance always requires two people: one who wants something, and
the other who does not want it. Since the therapist has no personal wants, there
is no one to resist. In Metapsychiatry there are no interpersonal relationships.
As for intrapsychic conflicts, they are considered to be collisions of two or more
forms of ignorance. When two forms of ignorance collide, we can speak of an "implosion"
of nothingness. Since truth is irresistible and omnipotent, it abolishes all forms
of ignorance, just as light abolishes darkness.
As mentioned above, the Metapsychiatric therapist does not influence his patient;
nevertheless, he is influential. The therapist is influential by virtue of the quality
of his being and by his ability to shed light on what is. Metapsychiatric therapy
is a hermeneutic process. The Metapsychiatrist is neither a "should" thinker, nor
an influencer, nor a "why?" asker. He is an elucidator, a clarifier. To ask "why?"
would imply that there is a cause. For instance, had the therapist asked why this
patient was getting impotent, he would have had to blame it on Transcendental Meditation.
But since he was exploring the meaning of this impotency, he wound up giving credit
to the increasing spirituality in the patient’s consciousness.
Cause-and-effect thinking is a narrow-minded way of looking at life, and Metapsychiatry
seeks to transcend it. Here there are mainly two questions asked: (1) What is the
meaning of what seems to be? and (2) What is what really is? To illustrate, let us
come to the gentleman with the impotency problem. If we ask, What is the meaning
of his problem? we see that the meaning of his problem is an erroneous mode of being-in-the-world.
"Mode of being-in-the-world" is an existential term. Everyone has a specific mode
of being-in-the-world




which can be, more or less, in harmony with the Fundamental Order of Existence. Our
patient had a specific form of misdirected mode of being-in-the-world, manifesting
itself in a homosexual life-style, centered around the idea that the good life can
be found specifically in the practice of sodomy.
Thus, the first question helps to understand a patient’s mode of being-in-the-world.
Following that, we ask the second question, But what is what really is? This question
refers to the issue of what constitutes a healthy mode of being-in-the-world. The
answer to it is that man, as an image and likeness of God, is a spiritual being and
participates in existence as a beneficial presence in the world. When this is brought
home to a patient, his mode of being-in-the-world undergoes a confrontation with
what really is. What seems to be collides here with what really is. Regardless of
the patient’s initial reaction at this point, he will never be able to shake off
the power of the truth which was planted in his consciousness, somewhat as a seed.
The seed will germinate and, sooner or later, bear fruit.
If potency is expressing itself in coerciveness, violence, and trespassing under
the guise of love, it is a sickness. Sickness drives man to seek therapy. When a
man seeks spiritual understanding, he is being drawn to the Christ. There is a spiritual
hunger in man, no matter how depraved he seems to be, or how deeply immersed in perversion
and ignorance he may be. Everyone is drawn to the Christ-idea because it is the light
of the world.
Jesus said: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.... For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29, 30). The yoke which Jesus described as easy and
the burden which is light could be understood in our terms as "letting-be." "Letting-be"
is an existential term. It originated in Taoism. Letting-be, translated into existential
philosophical conceptualization, actually means reverent, loving responsiveness to
that which is from moment to moment. It is a highly constructive, supremely spiritual
attitude toward all life forms, not




unlike Albert Schweitzer’s reverence for life. Essentially, it is a Christ-like stance
of the Metapsychiatric therapist. Letting-be is a most enlightened form of love,
but it must not be confused with leaving alone, which is neglect.





We tend to assume that everything written in the Bible is spiritual, and everything
religious is spiritual. Nothing is further from the truth. For instance, the Ten
Commandments are not really spiritual laws but moral principles. The law of karma
is an epistemic law because it refers to thought processes. For instance: "Whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7), is an epistemic law. The
word "karma" is a Sanskrit word referring to actions and the consequences of actions.
Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge, i.e., mental action, or processes
of the mind. The Bible speaks in many instances of the significance of mental processes.
For instance: "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7).
We have been able to realize a law which says: "Nothing comes into experience uninvited."
This, too, can be called an epistemic law. Thoughts entertained in consciousness
express themselves either in words or actions, and they have a tendency to attract
corresponding experiences. Therefore, this can also be called the law of correspondence.
Thoughts, indeed, seem to carry quanta of energy; and whenever we have a thought,
we can express it either verbally, or emotionally, or through action, behavior, or
activity. Whenever we send out a thought, it tends to return to us in some form.
Thought then is energy which can manifest itself in a variety of forms. If we don’t
send out a thought, it can expand its energy internally in a beneficial or harmful
way. These phenomena can be called the epistemic law of mental energy.


Unenlightened man is at the mercy of these mental processes. In proportion to our
ignorance, we are vulnerable to our own thoughts and to the thoughts of others. Jesus
strongly emphasized the importance of thoughts. He said, for instance: "Take no thought,
saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles [the ignorant] seek" (Matthew 6:31–32).
Most religious systems encourage their devotees to work within the karmic law in
such a way as to produce positive results. For instance: "As ye would that men should
do to you, do ye also to them likewise" (Luke 6:31). This can help us understand
the difference between religion and enlightenment. Most of what religion consists
of is the effort at utilizing moral and karmic laws in a positive way. Prayer thus
becomes an endeavor to escape the consequences of having violated the moral law.
It is therefore a mistake to confuse religiosity with spirituality.
Life on the level of the karmic, or epistemic law is very difficult. It consists
mostly of interaction experiences, that is, what one individual does to another,
and their consequences. When it comes to spiritual understanding, we rise above this
level; we realize that all this is just relative ignorance. It is life as it seems
to be. On the level of personal interaction and the karmic law, life is not really
what it seems to be; it is just one thought relating itself to another thought. It
is as if two and two is five were talking to two and two is six. This would not really
be mathematics. It would only seem so. Moreover, it is very troublesome. It reminds
us of one of the problems of trying to manage a friendly relationship. It involves
much effort and is not easily sustained.
As long as we see life in these terms it is a constant struggle to be nice, to
be good, friendly, just, honest, helpful, generous, and to be liked and avoid being
disliked. This is spoken of as getting along with people and managing our affairs
with the least amount of conflict. Furthermore, on this level of understanding we
are also very vulnerable to hypnotism.
There are many forms of hypnotism. Whatever is a new


trend in the culture, or among friends and relatives, or whatever is suggested in
the broadcast media exerts a great influence. The question arises: How can we protect
ourselves from being influenced? We cannot stick our heads into the sand. However,
the apostle Paul shows us the way of protection when he says: "The law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).
What does that mean? It means that when we understand spiritual law, when we become
spiritually enlightened, when we catch a glimpse of omniactive Truth as the sole
Reality of the entire universe, then we are lifted up to a higher level of awareness
and discover that God is the only power, the only Presence, the only Life, the only
Mind there is, and this Mind is not susceptible to hypnotism, to intimidation, seduction,
and provocation, to praise, pampering, persecution, or to self-confirmatory ideation.
We discover life above the level of personal interaction. Suddenly, we understand
what Paul meant when he said: "None of these things moves me" (Acts 20:24). We cease
to be carnally minded and we become spiritually minded. When we are spiritually minded,
God is our mind and we gain immunity from the tribulations of this world, which means
there is a way to rise above the inanities of this world. However, it must be pointed
out that if we are to rise above the tribulations of this world, we must lose interest
not only in its pains but also in its pleasures.
From the perspective of spiritual enlightenment, the karmic law is revealed to
us as no law at all but as a mockery of law. Everything in the human dimension of
consciousness is transitory, including human existence. It appears and disappears.
But in Divine Reality nothing can disappear. Life is immortal, life cannot die. Spiritual
laws convey the nature of Spiritual Reality.
Spiritual laws must be realized in individual consciousness to the point that one’s
outlook on life changes drastically. Spiritual law and Spiritual Reality are identical.
When we say, "There is no interaction anywhere; there is only Omniaction everywhere,"
we are referring to two laws. We are making two



statements: one about human appearance — life; and one about the nature of Divine
Reality —Spiritual law. We must come to discover in individual experience that it
is really true. And the more clearly we can see that this is so, the higher we have
risen on the Mount of Revelation.
Spiritual law cannot be violated; it is inviolable. But we can be ignorant of it
and suffer the consequences. Even a most hardened sinner is ultimately just an ignorant
individual. In proportion that we come to understand spiritual law, in that proportion
it will become impossible for us to ignore it. So we are lifted gradually from the
quagmire of human mockeries.
Everything on the level of personal mind is a mockery of the Divine Mind because
the Divine is nondual. In Divine Reality there is no good and evil; there is only
good. And there is no such spiritual law that would work ill. Whereas karmic law
is two-sided, it can bring evil as well as good into experience. Therefore, it is
not really a law, it just seems to be. The serpent spoke to Eve in the garden of
Eden. He said: If you eat of this fruit, "ye shall not surely die. For God does know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:4–5). This was the first mockery of God because
God knows no evil; evil is unknown to God. God is good, period.
The Sermon on the Mount as well as many other passages in the Bible show us the
way out of the karmic law and are pointing in the direction of spiritual law. For
instance, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked.... For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the
Spirit reap life everlasting" (Galatians 6:7–8). Sowing to the flesh means entertaining
carnal thoughts and being preoccupied with the pleasures and pains, the glories and
disasters of the body. On the other hand, sowing to the spirit means turning our
thoughts with increasing appreciation to Spiritual Reality and spiritual values.
This results in increasing harmony, health, freedom, love, longevity.





A Viennese psychoanalyst remarked once that writing things down is the first step
toward forgetting. The Metapsychiatric principle of learning is as follows: What
we understand we do not have to remember, and what we remember we usually don’t bother
to understand. This is an epistemological principle. Epistemology —the study of the
nature of knowledge — is an important part of Metapsychiatry because only what we
really know has an impact on our mode of being-in-the-world, not what we just know
about.
The process of understanding is a fascinating study because understanding is something
that we cannot do. Here again, we are facing the fact that there are vitally important
things in life, which, however, cannot be done. How does one partake in something
which one cannot do? We all realize that to understand the truth is very important,
and yet it is something that we cannot actively bring about. We can volitionally
express ideas, behavior, affection, emotions. If we are trying to express love, for
instance, at will, then it will be artificial. We may deceive ourselves or we may
deceive our loved ones. Let us take a flower, for example. A flower expresses beauty,
but this kind of expression is entirely different from what we express volitionally.
Similarly, beauty, harmony, integrity, love, joy, peace, assurance, wisdom, freedom,
health are all qualities that express




themselves through man. If we wanted to express these qualities volitionally, actively,
we would become inauthentic. Existentialism emphasizes the importance of authenticity
of being. The human experience is fraught with conscious and unconscious falsehoods
because we do not differentiate clearly between what is genuine and what is a "put
on." Authenticity of being is important for health and for fulfillment in life, but
it requires commitment, attention, and understanding. We have to become perceptive
of what is genuine and what is false, what just seems to be and what really is. There
are many things in life that seem to be but are not really.
Let us come back to the issue of understanding. Here again, authenticity and radical
sincerity are required because we can easily fool ourselves that we know something
while we only know about it. This is also called intellectualism. Intellectualism
is fundamentally fraudulent. Every intellectual statement is a "lie and the father
of it," because when we make an intellectual statement, we pretend that we know something
and actually it is not true; we only know about it. The essence of intellectuality
is fraud. Jesus must have known this clearly when he spoke about "a liar and the
father of it" (John 8:44). But how does understanding, genuine knowing, come about?
Let us ask, Is it possible to understand that two and two is five? No, it is not
possible to understand what is not true. It is only possible to believe it. We can
understand, i.e., realize only what is true. Again, we are here confronted with an
epistemological principle, namely, that it is not possible to understand what is
not true. Only truth can be understood.
Some people believe that they can understand what they have experienced. But suppose
we experience something that isn’t true? Where are we then? Therefore, experiencing
is not reliable as a road to understanding. Experience is an organismic reaction
to some situation, a reaction through emotions, sensations, intellect; the totality
of the organism reacts to certain factors. These things are not reliable; we cannot
judge truth on the basis of experience.
In Metapsychiatry there is a great deal of stress laid on epistemology




and semantics. Therefore we say, Truth and Reality cannot be experienced; they can,
however, be realized.
To come back to the issue of understanding, there are several prerequisites for
understanding to occur. One of them is not to try to remember what is being said;
the second is not to agree with what is being said, nor disagree; the third is not
to believe what is being said, nor to disbelieve it; the fourth is not to try to
trust someone, nor to distrust him. What happens when these four categories of thought
are eliminated from our way of facing an issue? The open mind is attained and it
is only under the condition of open-minded receptivity that understanding can come
about. "Except ye become as little children, ye shall in no wise understand the kingdom
of heaven." The primary requisite for understanding to happen is the open-minded
confrontation of that which reveals itself from moment to moment.
Now in what way does remembering, believing, agreeing, trusting, disbelieving,
disagreeing, mistrusting — all these mental attitudes — interfere with understanding?
All these mental attitudes are willed; we can will ourselves to believe, to disbelieve,
to agree, to disagree, to trust, to distrust, or to remember. These are ego functions.
The ego interferes with that receptivity which makes grace possible. Understanding
is nothing else but grace. It is by the grace of God that this cognitive event occurs
in consciousness which we call understanding or realization. "As many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God," said Jesus (John 1:12). We
may ask, What about the rest of the people? The rest of the people were trying to
figure him out, and trying to decide whether to believe him or to disbelieve him,
to agree with him or to disagree with him, or to label him as, say, a Rogerian or
Jungian, etc., to diagnose him and thus "put him in his place."
Receptivity is not an ego function; it takes place in the absence of the ego. The
open mind is open when the obstacles are not there. The natural way is the open mind.
The closed mind is a product of experience and education. Education helps us to develop
a closed mind.




Realization is a synonym for understanding. If we want to define realization we
can say that realization happens when a certain aspect of truth becomes real to us.
The truth has its own power of self-validation. We can realize, for example, that
two and two is not five but four through the fact that it works and brings harmony
into our computations. Truth imparts harmony. Truth heals, liberates. Falsehood creates
problems. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).
And this applies to our checkbooks, our marriages, to our jobs as well. Whenever
we are "standing under the light of truth," we are healed and liberated from our
problems.
What is understanding? It is "standing under the light of the truth." Ideally,
education means e-ducere, which means to lead out of darkness into the light.
Truth cannot be spoken of directly because it would be a defilement of it. If we
speak of the truth directly, it is not the truth. For instance, if we say, God is
Love, that is not the truth; it is only a statement about the truth. Therefore, all
spiritual guides throughout history have had to resort to parables, riddles, analogies,
and mythology in order to lead individual minds toward the realization of the truth.
The Zen koans also belong among these aids to realizing the truth. A Zen Master gave
this koan to a student: "Things are not what they seem to be; neither are they otherwise."
St. Paul said something similar when he said: "Things which are seen were not made
of things which do appear" (Hebrews 11:3).
Experiences are organismic reactions to certain stimuli. Grace is spiritual awareness.
Understanding and realization are not organismic; they are spiritual. There is another
dimension to knowing which is not organismic, which is not in the brain but in the
being of man, in consciousness, spiritual consciousness. It is a transcendent realization.
The worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and theology are confusing the two things;
they are confusing realization with experiences. When someone says, I have an experience
of grace, he is revealing the prevalent confusion existing in the world of psychology
and religion, because grace cannot be experienced. It can only




be realized as a blessing. Realization is the awareness of what is real, and this
awareness is not an experience. A great deal of confusion is generated in religious
literature which speaks of "religious experiences." This is a self-confirmatory term.
There is no such thing as a religious experience.
Experiences and spiritual realizations are two entirely different things; there
is a radical separation between the two. Until we understand this difference, we
shall not understand ourselves as spiritual beings and God will remain just a concept.
As mentioned before, experiences are organismic reactions to stimuli coming either
from the outside or from within and they can be sensory, emotional, or intellectual.
We experience our thoughts, our fantasies, our dreams, our imaginations, all the
mental and organismic processes in the body and outside the body — all these can
be experienced.
Sometimes a spiritual event in consciousness is misinterpreted as an experience.
This is happening to those people who have genuine so-called "religious experiences."
They do not realize that they are not having an experience; they are having a transforming
realization, a spiritual awakening. A spiritual realization comes to consciousness
very peacefully, like the white dove which settled on Jesus after he was baptized.
It comes peacefully, without fireworks. It descends imperceptibly and it transforms
our entire outlook on reality, on life. Our character is healed and we become a "new
man."
These things cannot be discussed or argued about or debated. We can only enter
into dialogue about it, which means to jointly participate in the search for truth.
Dialogue is entirely different from conversation, chattering, debating, discussing,
or contending. What we are engaged in here is a joint participation in the process
of hermeneutic clarification of the truth.
It seems appropriate to say a few words about remembering. What is remembering?
It is a brain function; it is a human effort at storing information and retrieving
it. Therefore, it interferes with understanding. Accepting-rejecting, believing-disbelieving,
agreeing-disagreeing, trusting-mistrusting, and




remembering-forgetting are all ego functions; therefore they interfere with understanding.
Is there a spiritual equivalent to remembering? Yes there is. It is called recollection.
We call back some knowledge. We rely on the spiritual faculty of recall. While remembering
is an ego function, recall is a spiritual faculty of calling on the "Great Computer"
to retrieve the information which is needed at a particular moment. It is generally
believed that the faculty of remembering is diminishing with age; what about the
faculty of recall? This faculty, being spiritual, improves with the passage of time
through an improved understanding of Spiritual Reality.
If we are studying to be spiritual guides, it is necessary that we understand the
spiritual faculties of man. After all, a spiritual guide needs to awaken in other
people their spiritual faculties. And how can we be spiritual guides unless we understand
clearly the difference between ego functions and spiritual faculties?
If we are eager to transcend our egos, then there is no dualism. There is only
God and there is only the glorious liberty of the children of God. There are no entanglements
with the yoke of psychological bondage. Spiritual guidance transcends psychology,
psychiatry, and all other "ologies." This is the road and we are free to take it
or to depart from it, should we find it difficult. But it is possible to overcome
the world, if we are interested. Jesus said: "In the world ye shall have tribulation:
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). If we are followers
of Jesus, we have to be committed and not drag our feet, so to speak; those who wish
to drag their feet take courses in psychotherapy, not in spiritual guidance.
If you want to benefit from what is said and not suffer unduly from the shock of
unusual information, don’t try to remember. Just let it do its work. It is not necessary
to exert a mental effort to understand anything. As a matter of fact, the harder
you try to understand what is being said and to remember it, the less likely it is
that understanding will occur. Just relax and let what you hear do its own work.
All that is needed is to cultivate an interest; God’s only requirement of




us is to be sincerely interested. Actually, there is nothing else we can do in the
area of spiritual growth. If we are ambitious in this area, we shall be like the
gardener who is trying to pry open a rosebud. We have to be patient and maintain
a sincere interest. Otherwise we shall not be able to become enlightened. A teacher
can point in a certain direction, explain and clear the way in the desert, and if
one is sincerely interested in understanding, it will come by the grace of God. This
type of education is entirely different from other forms of education. Conventional
education requires an effort and hard work. In spiritual education effort and hard
work are a hindrance. What is needed is sincerity and interest because they are the
basis of receptivity. God’s grace is flooding the whole universe all the time, but
there is not enough receptivity to it in human consciousness. Therefore the blessings
are scarce. God is not stingy with His love and with His power, but we are distracted.
One of the main distractions of ambitious people is effort.
Let us explore what ambition is. It is again an ego function. What does the word
"ambition" mean? What is ambivalence? It means being of two minds about something.
In ambition we have the word "ambi," meaning double, and "ition," which stands for
eo, ire, ii, itum, which means moving in two directions at the same time. Thus the
word "ambition" reveals that ambitious people are caught up in the dualism of human
intending. One cannot be successful without being a failure at the same time, and
that is ambition. Ambitious people are successful and failing at the same time. That
is the tragedy of the human dualistic mode of being-in-the-world. So instead of ambition
we aspire for understanding. We cultivate an interest in Spiritual Reality, and by
the grace of God it comes to us like a white dove, descending on consciousness. There
is a story about the nuclear physicist Oppenheimer, who was observed staring out
of a window for a long time, and when asked what he was doing, he replied, "Don’t
you see? I am working!"
We must also understand that receptivity is not a passive state. Our dualistic
inclinations assume that we are either


ambitious — which is an active state — or we are not ambitious, which is a passive
state, and receptivity therefore may be misinterpreted as passivity. But if receptivity
is neither active nor passive, what is it? Receptivity is attentiveness and responsiveness.
When we are floating on water, for example, are we passive or active? Floating is
neither active nor passive; it is attentive. What are we attentive to when we are
floating? We are attentive to an invisible power called buoyancy. This is an analogy
for wakeful receptivity. The search for enlightenment is neither ambitious nor lazy;
it is reverent, loving, grateful, attentive, and responsive to that which reveals
itself from moment to moment. This is an existentially valid position which we need
to learn. The world is a distraction from Reality and is constantly working against
our receptivity to God. The world is "every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 10:5). At this point we are trying to understand
the existentially valid attitude which facilitates the unfoldment of understanding,
and whatever interferes with this is distraction. Anything external, internal, worldly,
cosmic, operational — whatever interferes with that basic, reverent, loving, receptive
orientation — we call the world, the world of distraction. What we are seeking is
conscious grace, which is enlightenment.
An interesting thing happens when we come to realize God to a sufficient degree.
Distractions come to our attention, but they do not come into our experience. If
a distraction comes into experience, we get disturbed by it; but there can be distractions
that do not distract and therefore are not distractions. They are just phenomena.
We speak of this world as the phenomenal world. What does the word "phenomenon" mean?
The word "phenomenon" is derived from the Greek and is composed of two root words:
phaos, which means light, and apophansis, which means statement. Another explanation
of the word "phenomenon" is phainein, phainomenon, which means light. So phenomena
are appearances and the phenomenal world is the world of appearances. A great tool
of existential psychotherapy is phenomenological analysis, which we shall




discuss later. Suffice it to say at this time that all distractions are phenomena.
They are things that seem to be. They are appearances but not realities. We can say
that they are thoughts appearing as form.




I have been asked about the meaning of excarnation. The meaning of excarnation
is implied in the Bible first in the ascension, then in the scene on the Mount of
Transfiguration, and by the following statement: "Whilst we are at home in the body,
we are absent from the Lord.... We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:6, 8).
The Bible also states that "the Kingdom of God is within you." Let us explore what
"within" means and clarify it. We are so used to thinking organismically and psychologically
that we assume that within means inside the body. Even if we don’t admit it, that’s
how we think. This seems to be the natural way, but actually it does not make sense.
Where is the Kingdom of God located? In the lungs? In the nervous system? In the
brain? Where within you? Someone suggested that it is in the heart; what does the
heart symbolize? In Meta-psychiatry we speak of consciousness rather than of heart,
and so within means in consciousness. Where is consciousness? Neurophysiology would
locate consciousness in the brain, but we know that the brain does not really have
consciousness; it is just a relay system. Therefore consciousness cannot be localized.
Consciousness is not in the organism; the organism is in consciousness. Awareness
is what religions call soul, and it is a synonym for consciousness. Soul is the faculty
of awareness.
In Metapsychiatry we speak of consciousness. Consciousness is a unique faculty
of man, enabling him to be aware



of himself in a transcendent manner. This is the divine element in us. To fully appreciate
it is very important, because until we have learned to appreciate the Divine in us,
we are undeveloped and we live below the level of our potentialities. Heidegger speaks
of being-in-the-world as transcendence. The more perfectly we realize being-in-the-world
as transcendence, the more perfect spiritual guides we become.
It is important to differentiate between being a psychotherapist and being a spiritual
guide. The perspective of a spiritual guide is spiritually transcendent; the perspective
of a psychotherapist is dependent upon what school of thought he adheres to. Psychotherapeutic
systems can be intrapsychic, interpersonal, social, interactional, mythological,
bio-energetic, etc.
It is interesting to consider the development of knowledge in general, because
there is a parallelism in this field. If we take, for instance, the development of
astronomical knowledge, we see that first there was the flat earth viewpoint, which
is called the geocentric viewpoint. This indicates a primitive and narrow mental
horizon. The geocentric viewpoint assumed that the earth was the center of the universe.
In psychotherapy the intrapsychic viewpoint assumed that everything can be known
about man by looking inside of him, into his body and into his psyche. The idea was
that studying the dynamics of the psyche would help us to understand man. This viewpoint
is just as primitive as was the geocentric viewpoint in astronomy. After Kepler,
Galileo, and Copernicus, we gained a broader perspective in astronomy and we attained
the heliocentric perspective, which meant that the sun was the center of the universe,
a center around which the planets revolved. After the heliocentric perspective, we
attained a galactic knowledge. We have realized that the sun is one of an infinite
number of stars which make up a galaxy. From the galactic viewpoint we have attained
an intergalactic viewpoint. Here we suddenly see that there are many galaxies in
the universe. The intergalactic viewpoint led to a cosmic consciousness. Every schoolchild
today is already free to develop a cosmic




consciousness. This is a tremendous step forward. Today we are able to conceive of
an infinite expanding universe. Some astronomers have advanced from cosmic consciousness
to a cataclysmic consciousness. This is based on the discovery of black holes in
the universe and the matter-antimatter phenomena which indicate the possibility of
cataclysmic events taking place in the universe. There are exploding galaxies and
black holes which swallow up planets, and then there is the issue of matter-antimatter
collisions. Wherever matter comes into contact with antimatter, it disappears. It
turns into nothing.
Analogously, in the area of the knowledge of man we have the intrapsychic, i.e.,
anthropocentric viewpoint, then the interpersonal, then the socio-dynamic viewpoint,
then the interactional viewpoint, the transactional viewpoint, the mythological viewpoint,
then the existential viewpoint, indicating an ever widening context of perception.
The existential viewpoint is a largely expanded viewpoint, going beyond the socio-dynamic
perspective. In the socio-dynamic viewpoint society is the context, which can be
socio-economic, sociopolitical, cultural, etc., but in any case it sees man in a
much broader context than the original psychotherapies. The existential context sees
man in the context of existence. What is the context of existence? In this viewpoint
we speak of modes of being-in-the-world. Therefore the context of our study of man
in existentialism is his mode of being-in-the-world. How does man express his essential
potentialities within the context of the world around him, which includes everything
that preceded but goes beyond it? Here the world itself becomes a manifestation of
existence.
Metapsychiatry goes one better to existentialism. The context of Metapsychiatry
is Spirit, God, infinite omniactive Love-Intelligence. Here man is not only in the
world but also beyond the world — that’s what Heidegger means by being-in-theworld
as transcendence — we are "in the world but not of it." So of all the various schools
of thought concerning man, Meta-psychiatry approximates or speaks to the issue of
spiritual guidance in a most relevant manner.




What school of thought corresponds to that cataclysmic viewpoint in terms of the
study of man? The last book of the Bible is called Revelation, but its other name
is Apocalypse, which means cataclysm. This corresponds to the cataclysmic viewpoint
in astronomy. St. John’s description (vision) of the "new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away" (Revelation 21:1) indicates
a total spiritualization of consciousness. There exists here a remarkable parallelism,
and interestingly enough, there is a similar parallelism in atomic research as well,
but going in the other direction. In physics the movement of knowledge goes from
matter to molecules to subatomic particles to high energy physics, where there are
no more particles, there is just pure energy. This reveals the true nature of Reality
as pure energy (spirit=energy) and the disappearance of the phenomenal world. This,
too, is an apocalyptic, cataclysmic realization.
Let us now ask again, In what way is it more helpful to be a spiritual guide than
to be a psychotherapist? I am sure all of you know the proverbial story of the four
blind men trying to describe an elephant. If we have a spiritual perspective, then
we can see the whole elephant and only then can we know what an elephant is. If we
only see part of an elephant and try to put together all this information, we will
never really know what an elephant is. Therefore, the broader our perspective on
man, the more perfect our understanding will be. We can see then that to be a spiritual
guide is far beyond any type of psychotherapy.
Something happens to us when our perspective expands. The Bible refers to this
by stating: "As he [man] thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). The broader
our perspective on Reality, the more understanding, the more compassionate, the more
inspired, the more perceptive, and the more capable we are to benefit people on all
levels, even if they are in the stage of believing in a flat earth. Even then we
have the intuitive wisdom of communicating with them in a beneficial way. But if
we don’t have that perspective, we are as the psychiatrist who has certain preconceived
limitations within his specialty




from which he cannot get out. He is boxed in, so to speak, in a particular knowledge
in which he was trained.
No matter what wonderful contributions to psychotherapy were made by individuals
in that field, it does not mean that they have already attained ultimate knowledge.
The danger is that we can get attached to a particular frame of reference. There
seems to be a fear in many to go beyond these viewpoints. They are afraid to expand
their mental horizons. We may ask, What is this fear? This fear is an indication
that we are cherishing what we already know and leaning on it for a false sense of
security. The trouble with this kind of subjectivity is that it misinterprets reality
and generates a great deal of anxiety. We cannot rely for information on feelings.
In this connection it may be helpful to consider the "five gates of hell." The
"five gates of hell" are (1) sensualism, (2) emotionalism, (3) intellectualism, (4)
personalism, (5) materialism.
What is sensualism? It is a mode of being-in-the-world where the primary preoccupation
is with sensory awareness: pleasure and pain. It judges reality purely by sensory
awareness. This is a very troublesome condition, for it leads to all sorts of disorders:
disorders of the senses, of the skin, sexual problems, etc.
Emotionalism is a mode of being-in-the-world which is primarily preoccupied with
emotional experiences and seeks to cognize reality on the basis of feelings. Emotionalists
try to use their feelings as sources of information concerning what is and what is
not real. Feelings provide misinformation, but they seem to us very valid. We are
convinced that things are really the way they feel, which of course is a mistake.
We cannot rely on feelings to provide us with valid information. Furthermore, people
who become emotionally based have a tendency to develop anxiety neuroses and a wide
variety of emotional disturbances.
The third gate of hell is intellectualism. Intellectualism is knowing about things
and placing great importance on being known as knowing. Intellectualists are living
filing cabinets




and they like to display their contents. So the sensualist leans on his sensory perceptions,
the emotional man uses his feelings as a source of information, and the intellectual
tries to figure things out in his head. He is on a continuous "head trip." Various
difficulties stem from intellectualism, such as contentiousness, headaches, high
blood pressure, and various other somatizations.
The fourth gate of hell is personalism. Personalism is thinking about what others
are thinking about what we are thinking. It can be very painful and disturbing when
one is caught up in such ruminations. Personalists have difficulties with people,
conflicts with friends, family, etc.
The fifth gate of hell is materialism. Materialists are involved in accumulating
material objects and possessions.
The process of obtaining an open mind can be very frustrating and painful and even
anxiety provoking. Besides the "five gates of hell" which have specific pathogenicity,
there are three more factors which we must become aware of, namely, what we cherish,
what we hate, and what we fear. The gates of hell comprise the things we are inclined
to cherish: a sensualist will cherish his sensory perceptivity; an emotionalist will
cherish his feelings; an intellectualist will cherish his knowledge; a personalist
will cherish his relationships; and a materialist will cherish his possessions. So,
then, the underlying common denominator in these modes is that we are inclined to
cherish that which is familiar and that which other people cherish, because if two
people cherish the same thing, they have something in common and it makes them feel
good. It gives them the impression that they are on the right track. This is the
basis of group formations, school loyalties, and loyalties to various ideologies.
Anything that would threaten to deprive us of what we cherish, or invalidate what
we cherish, will provoke fear and resentment. The more we are inclined to cherish
any one of these "five gates" — or all of them — the more vulnerable and insecure
we shall be in life, and the more we shall be given to anxiety reaction, resentfulness,
frustration, and even hatred. Therefore, the Zen Master says: "Above




all cherish nothing." In our language this saying translates as "Cherish only God,"
because "nothing" is a Buddhist God. In other words, God is no thing, and the Buddha
nature is love, beauty, intelligence, harmony, peace, serenity, assurance, joy, health,
freedom, perfect being. The Buddha nature is a synonym for the Christ consciousness.
Thus, the gate of Paradise is to cherish nothing. "Thou shalt have no other gods
before me" (Exodus 20:3) and "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul and with all thy mind" (Matthew 22:37).
The Bible says: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a
highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3). What does that mean? We cannot produce grace,
but we can study and meditate, and listen to some teachings which show us how to
get rid of the obstacles to grace. And that is what we are engaged in here. Our aim
is to prepare the way of the Lord, make straight a highway in the desert. Every mountain
of selfishness must be brought low, and every valley of sin shall be exalted; the
rough places must be made plain, and the crooked straight, so that we may become
receptive to grace and inspired wisdom. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every
mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and
the rough places plain" (Isaiah 40:4). This is what we call being spiritually integrated
and enlightened. We have an open and receptive consciousness where Divine Intelligence
has the possibility of reaching us.
Righteous judgment requires inspired wisdom. Every moment of the day and night
God is pouring out His love and wisdom to anyone who is receptive enough to hear
it. Jesus was struggling with people who had various kinds of impediments to receiving
the word of God, or who were hampered in their spiritual perceptivity. For instance,
at one point he said: "For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are
dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts,
and should be converted, and I should heal them" (Matthew 13:15). This points to
an




epistemological problem. The knowledge of God requires us to purify our consciousness
of all the things which we have been miseducated to cherish, because as long as we
cherish certain things which we are accustomed to, we cannot receive, and we cannot
perceive spiritually. Under such circumstances we do not know what is really going
on; we only know what someone else is saying about what is going on.
In view of the fact that Metapsychiatry relies heavily on the Bible, especially
the teachings of Jesus, the question frequently arises about the relationship between
Metapsychiatry and religion. Is Metapsychiatry a new religion? Or, if it is not a
religion, does it in any way interfere with traditional religious practices?
Essentially the question boils down to this: What does it mean to be religious
and what does it mean to be spiritually enlightened? It is said that religions are
more often than not involved with moralism, formalism, even ethnicity. For instance,
a Polish Roman Catholic may find it difficult to be accepted in certain Catholic
churches which are predominantly, say, Irish; or blacks may feel unwelcome in a prevalently
white Protestant congregation, etc.
Unfortunately, religions in the past have tended to divide people and to foster
intolerance, fear, guilt, and other forms of conflict. In contrast to this, spiritual
enlightenment —which is the goal of Metapsychiatry — is concerned with existentially
valid universal principles to enable man to love his neighbor as himself and be transcendentally
compassionate to all.
However, the most fundamental difference can be found in the basic questions which
constitute the point of departure between religion and Metapsychiatry. All formal
religions start with one implicit question, namely, What should we do to please God?
Metapsychiatry starts with radically different questions, namely, What is God? or,
What is what really is? and, How is it possible to know what really is?
The religious question results in operationalism; the Metapsychiatric question
leads to existentialism. Operationalism is concerned with mastery, influencing, and
inevitably with manipulation




bribery, and fear. Existentialism is concerned with understanding what is in order
to live in harmony with the Fundamental Order of Existence.
In the history of religions and civilization there have emerged from time to time
certain exceptionally gifted individuals who hit upon the right questions and found
right answers. These individuals appeared to have exceptional powers and wisdom,
and they tried to convey their knowledge to the world, but the world always found
it hard to hear the message and to learn to ask the right questions. Jesus is known
to have exclaimed — perhaps somewhat despairingly — "Having eyes, see ye not? and
having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark 8:18). And again: "And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). It is possible to surmise that the word "deeds"
refers to operationalism.
Enlightened man actualizes within himself the principle which Jesus formulated
the following way: "I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:30); "But the Father
that dwelleth in me [omniactive Mind], he doeth the works" (John 14:10). Omniactive
Mind expresses itself through man in specific types of necessary and useful activities
from moment to moment. Therefore, man who is involved with mental busyness is disregarding
the impulses of omniactive Mind.
In Metapsychiatry we do not worry much about Western or Eastern thought. The question
we are concerned with is, "Is it existentially valid or not?" Here we have the principle
of existential validation. This is a very useful idea which unifies all cultures
by transcending them, and makes it possible to evaluate them in a pragmatic way.
The values which come to us from various parts of the world, from various cultures,
times, and ages, can be known as to their validity.
The principle of existential validation comes to us from Jesus Christ. Jesus formulated
this principle of existential validation the following way: "Ye shall know them by
their fruits" (Matthew 7:16). What does that mean? Any idea, or system of values,
or religious system, anything that impinges on individual




existence, can validate itself or disqualify itself by its consequences for the health
and fulfillment of the individual. That which is existentially valid is subject to
existential validation. If it is life enhancing, health promoting, increasing the
capacity for love, wisdom, and beneficence of the individual, if it makes it possible
for an individual to realize his inner potential, if it brings man into greater harmony
with the Fundamental Order of Existence, it is valid. If it has a disruptive, pathogenic
effect, it is not valid. This principle of existential validation liberates us from
sectarianism and cultural isolation. It makes it possible to know what to consider
seriously and appreciate and what can be dismissed out of hand. "Ye shall know them
by their fruits." If this marvelous principle were more universally understood, there
would be no more intolerance or prejudice, xenophobia, fear, religious hostilities,
or political strife. It would be a unifying principle.
In Metapsychiatry, where the primary objective is the health and the fulfillment
of the individual, the principle of existential validation is very important. The
art of the healing dialogue is based on clarification of certain values which individuals
have consciously or unconsciously espoused and which have resulted in a misdirected
mode of being-in-the-world. If we grow up in a certain culture, we tend to accept
unwittingly certain values which may be socially and culturally acceptable but which
are existentially invalid. The result is that we wind up with a misdirected mode
of being-in-the-world.
In Metapsychiatry pathology and sickness are considered manifestations of misdirected
modes of being-in-the-world. Consequently, we do not treat diagnostic categories,
neither do we treat personalities, nor do we treat diagnostic categories along traditional
psychiatric lines (like schizophrenia, neurosis, manic-depressive states), and, furthermore,
we do not diagnose people in a traditional way. What we treat is modes of being-in-the-world.
Let us be clear about the fact that there is no such thing as a person. Person
is just a concept. "God is no respecter




of persons," says the Bible (Acts 10:34). Man is not a person. He is an individual
consciousness and this consciousness can be imbued with certain ideas. If these ideas
are existentially valid, they manifest themselves in health, harmony, freedom, and
fulfillment. If the ideas which fill an individual’s consciousness are invalid, he
will find suffering and various forms of disturbed and frustrated ways of being-in-the-world.
The healing dialogue is based on a method which is called hermeneutic clarification
of the underlying value system which governs the thinking and the activities of an
individual. We have already mentioned ambition, for instance, as an invalid value.
If we subject ambition to an existential analysis, we discover that ambition, while
socially approved and accepted, is existentially invalid because it really creates
a conflict within individuals. It is moving in two directions at the same time, forward
and backward. The same applies to the idea of personal success; it is not possible
to pursue success without, at the same time, courting failure. So the success-hunting
individual has a misdirected mode of being-in-the-world.
Every one of us is like a sponge which has absorbed certain ideas about what is
good, what is desirable, and what is important; and it is these ideas which determine
our mode of being-in-the-world. The question now is, How can we discern the ideas
which govern an individual’s mode of being-in-the-world? This is accomplished through
a method which is called phenomenological analysis. Phenomenological analysis requires
us to be trained in phenomenological perceptivity. Everyone has the faculty of phenomenological
perceptivity, but it needs to be developed through training. The basic requirement
for this faculty is the open mind. The father of phenomenology is Edmund Husserl,
the German philosopher, who called this feat of the mind époché, which translated
from the French means "bracketing." It refers to the need to put everything that
we already know into brackets and put it up on a shelf, so to speak, so as to be
able to confront whatever reveals itself in a nonjudgmental open-minded way. Once
we have learned to confront situations and individuals in that manner in an




interview situation, we will find that suddenly things reveal themselves and we have
a clear picture of what makes an individual "tick" — what values, what objectives,
what ambitions, what wants, what desires, what misconceptions, what miseducation,
what ideas, govern his mode of being-in-the-world. Jesus spoke of the need for this
kind of open mind when he said: "Except ye [be converted, and] become as little children,
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3), which means in order
to be receptive to inspired wisdom and to realize spiritual values and Spiritual
Reality, this capacity for the open-minded confrontation of that which reveals itself
from moment to moment is an absolute requirement.
Self-confirmatory ideation is a mental process whereby we are constantly seeking
to reassure ourselves that we exist. It can take physical form, it can take emotional
form, or it can take intellectual form. The essence of personalism reveals this universal
tendency toward self-confirmatory ideation (ideation means persistent thinking about
something). When we are involved in personism or personalism we ruminate over our
thoughts about what other people may be thinking about what we are thinking. The
essence of personalism is self-confirmatory ideation and it can result in paranoia.
Some people do not like the term "self-confirmatory ideation," and they prefer
to talk about egotism instead, but actually this is not just simple egotism. The
basis for self-confirmatory ideation is the dread of nonbeing. Everyone is scared
of nothingness, of nonbeing, of annihilation, of being nothing, of dying, of being
ignored. This is a universal fear and is called "existential anxiety." It is this
existential anxiety which we try to combat through a process of self-confirmatory
ideation. And the more scared we are, the more intense the desire to confirm ourselves
in one form or another; there are a million ways in which we can reassure ourselves
that we really exist, and so it is an almost inseparable aspect of the human condition.
Of course, it can be healed.
How can existential anxiety be healed? How can we be liberated from this dread
of nonbeing? Salvation, liberation,




resurrection, healing, enlightenment have a common objective, namely, to help us
to be unafraid and to live with a sense of assurance that we are not alone, that
we are not separated, that we are not what we seem to be, but that "neither are we
otherwise." It is possible to know ourselves in a larger context. In proportion that
we come to realize this existential fact, in that proportion the "dread of nothingness,"
as Heidegger calls it, will be mitigated, or diminished, and the compulsive urge
for self-confirmatory ideation will leave us, and it will be possible to live in
PAGL, which is peace, assurance, gratitude, and love.
A more advanced understanding, based on existential research, has abandoned the
concept of "person" and sees man as an individual consciousness. Personhood implies
self-existence, whereas an individual consciousness is an aspect of the divine consciousness.
We can have great appreciation of each other as individual manifestations of divine
consciousness. This may appear strange to some people because all the great knowledgeable
people in the field of theology and psychology speak of personhood. But, of course,
there is progress going on and progress in understanding often requires us to revise
our ways of conceptualizing. Great progress is being made in understanding the brain,
for instance, and the nature of reality. A group of scientists (Bohm, Pribram) has
developed a new way of looking at reality which is quite revolutionary. They have
developed a holographic paradigm of reality. Holography is a form of photography
which uses laser beams to project three-dimensional pictures into space; the projected
image seems real and seems to be there in three dimensions, while it is only illusion.
The idea is that the human brain is a hologram and what we see is not really what
is. The material world is but a holographic projection and the brain functions as
a lens which transmutes certain frequencies of vibration coming from the Infinite
Source and projects them as material forms. These scientists’ claim is that there
is no such thing as solid matter anywhere, that this is a phenomenal world, and everything
that seems to have form and shape




and solidity and texture is just a holographic image. The brain interprets reality
and the universe as material and finite.
When the question was asked, How is it possible that we all see the same thing?
the point was made that our brains are conditioned by the culture and our common
assumptions. Thus we have very similar lenses and we interpret what we see in a similar
way, with only subtle differences. It is said that mystics were able to perceive
reality not through their brains, and they could see what ordinary people cannot
see, because most of us rely on our brains to interpret what we see. The mystic can
apparently transcend this holographic instrument and discern reality in a nonfocused
manner. ESP, psychokinesis, seeing at a distance, and other phenomena are also explained
by this research. Time and space are explained as results of the brain’s way of interpreting
reality; that is, there is no such thing as time and space. For instance, if someone
through ESP becomes aware of something happening, say, in California, the explanation
is that California is simply not there but here; if there is no space, then there
is no such thing as "there," and there is no such thing as "was." There is only "is,"
because there is no time.
Thus we go beyond the concept of personhood and endeavor to see one another as
individual divine consciousnesses, and that is just another way of saying that man
is the image and likeness of God. The only reality about us is consciousness. It
is becoming more and more evident that consciousness survives the body. Therefore,
the more clearly we shall understand ourselves as consciousness, the less afraid
we shall be of dying. The less we understand this, the more we are pushed by fear
into self-confirmatory ideation and out of that push come all sorts of problems.
We have to clarify the issue of consciousness. There is consciousness and there
is the content of consciousness. One can be conscious of garbage. One can be conscious
of two and two being five. We can be conscious of many invalid thoughts. An unenlightened
consciousness may have many mistaken and misguided ideas filling it and distracting
it from what really is.




The fantastic things which Jesus was demonstrating, such as walking through closed
doors, walking on water, transporting himself instantaneously from one place to another,
all illustrate his understanding that there is no "there," only "here"; that there
is neither time nor space. Solidity of matter, distance of space, or duration of
time — these were of no consequence to him.
So far we have spoken of the "five gates of hell" and of self-confirmatory ideation,
and now we may consider the four "Ws." They are: (1) Who am I? (2) What am I? (3)
Where am I? (4) What is my purpose in life? As can be seen, this is a meditation
in our "closet," the secret compartment of our consciousness. The answer to the first
"W" is: I am an image and likeness of God, a manifestation of Love-Intelligence.
Omni-active Love-Intelligence is an existential name for God. God is also omnipresent,
omnipotent, omniscient. The second, What am I? is answered by: I am a divine consciousness.
Where am I? I live and move and have my being in omniactive Divine Mind. The fourth
"W," What is my purpose in life? is answered: My purpose is to be a beneficial presence
in the world. Students of Metapsychiatry meditate on the four "Ws" daily. People
sometimes ask what the distinction is between the first and the second "W." The first
refers to identity; the second refers to substance.
What is the value of meditating on the four "Ws"? It establishes us in the awareness
of the right context. To see ourselves and others in the right context is very important.
For instance, the question was asked, How do you encourage your children or praise
them without indoctrinating them in self-confirmatory thinking? If, for instance,
a child brings home from school good marks and the parent wants to praise him, how
does he praise him without making the child proud or egotistical, vain or self-confirmatory?
If a parent criticizes a child, he is teaching him to be self-confirmatory in a negative
way. If he praises the child, he is doing the same thing because then the child will
be self-confirmatory in a positive way; if he tells the child he is great, it is
the same as




if he tells him he is no good; in all cases the result is self-confirmatory thinking.
And we know that self-confirmatory ideation is the basis of all problems in life.
It was said before that the four "Ws" help us to see ourselves and others in the
right context. Unless parents are able to see the child in the context of God, as
an expression of Divine Love-Intelligence, no matter how they phrase their words,
it will lead to self-confirmatory thinking in the child. But if they have the right
viewpoint on the child, then implicitly it will be communicated to the child that
God is manifesting Himself in the good work. Clearly, it is not a matter of handling
things; it is a matter of seeing and knowing something. When things don’t work out,
we know that it was a manifestation of ignorance. The child made a mistake. He was
not sufficiently aware of who he is and where he is and what he is. Therefore he
made a mistake. So we do not blame him. We blame ignorance. And when we praise him,
we do not praise him. We praise the Lord for making it possible for the child to
do well. The context of parental seeing and thinking is crucial in being able to
praise and criticize without ill effects. Without that, no matter what technique
and what words we use, they will always be personalized anyway. And that is how meditation
on the four "Ws" can help us.
It is a fact that the outside world (outside of the home) sees the child as a little
person, an autonomous entity entirely apart from God —who may not even exist, or
perhaps exists only as a symbol — but isn’t such a child, whose parents are able
to see him in the right context, greatly blessed?
In spiritual guidance it is important not to judge and not to blame under any circumstance.
The moment we are judging and blaming, we have disqualified ourselves from the possibility
of being helpful; therefore, we observe but we do not judge. In judging we approve
and disapprove. In observing we clarify. Only clarification is helpful. Blaming leads
to self-confirmatory ideation. Sometimes an individual whom we have loaded with guilt
and blame may seem to have reformed, but while his behavior may have changed, his
thinking




processes have possibly become more self-confirmatory. So it is possible to help
someone outwardly, while aggravating his condition inwardly. The basic problem is
the tendency to self-confirmatory ideation. This must be guarded against.




The concept of self-confirmatory ideation is particularly important to spiritual
guides. Among religiously inclined individuals it is not unusual to come across some
who can quote the Bible from beginning to end and seem very religious, and yet their
interest in spiritual life is not authentic. I am reminded of a young man, a patient
in a mental hospital who was a convert to Christianity, who to all appearances was
very sincerely interested in God, but was not able to live right. He was frequently
getting into trouble with his family and others, and was irritating people. Occasionally
he would hallucinate. His was a case of pathological religiosity. Sometimes it is
difficult to know whether an individual is sincerely religious, spiritually minded,
or mentally disturbed. One thing is crucial in recognizing pathology, namely, the
presence of the element of self-confirmatory ideation. When an individual —no matter
how theologically sophisticated — is exploiting his knowledge for his own self-aggrandizement
and is referring to himself overtly or covertly, crudely or in subtle ways, he is
bearing witness to himself under the guise of bearing witness to God or to the truth.
Here we can know that we are faced with a serious problem. The differential diagnostic
point in such situations is the element of self-confirmatory ideation.
Health requires self-transcendence. The healthy, spiritually minded individual
loses himself in Christ, while in pathological religiosity there is no self-transcendence.
If we understand this important differential diagnostic sign, we will also know




how to help such individuals. In Metapsychiatry there are no special techniques,
only principles. One of the principles is: "If you know what, you know how." If we
can discern the problem and if we understand the process of being healthy, of being
truly spiritually minded, we will know how to approach such an individual in a helpful
way.
The most essential requirement for a spiritual guide is the attainment of such
integration that the very quality of his presence is beneficial. Beyond this we have
to know that the main feature of healthy spirituality is self-transcendence. In addition
to this, there is another important element. It is described in the Bible that Jesus
was accused by his listeners of bearing witness of himself. "Thou bearest record
of thyself; thy record is not true" (John 8:13). The Bible clearly states that if
someone bears witness to himself, his spirituality is not authentic. Jesus’ reply
to this accusation bears on our work in spiritual guidance. He said: "Though I bear
record of myself, yet my record is true; for I know whence I come and whither I go;
but ye cannot tell whence I came, and whither I go" (John 8:14). We see here the
importance of the four "Ws," the realization of which must take place in a patient,
or any other individual, as to who he is, what he is, where he is, and what his purpose
in life is. If there is a basic understanding of our identity, of our substance,
of our location, and of the quality of our presence, then self-confirmatory ideation
will cease to be a problem.
It may take a certain amount of creative intelligence to be able to communicate
this to an individual, but that cannot be taught. It comes through inspiration based
on purity of motive in the healer. Purity of motive makes it possible to be inspired
moment to moment in conveying these ideas in such a manner that it may become meaningful
to the individual in distress.
In spiritual guidance we do not resort to techniques based on preconceived notions
as is done in psychoanalysis or various forms of psychotherapy. We rely on inspired
wisdom. Inspired wisdom is creative intelligence obtaining in receptive consciousness
from moment to moment under conditions of PAGL (which is peace, assurance, gratitude,
and love). Inspired




wisdom makes it possible to communicate meaningfully with individuals who are in
need of guidance. It is a spiritual method of responding to people in need, and it
can be learned by all who have given up relying on feelings, the known, on what we
think or what someone else has thought, what is in vogue, or what is official, etc.
Inspired wisdom comes when there is a willingness to rely on God unconditionally.
It is the open mind.
Heidegger speaks of the Gelassenheit zu den Dingen, which means it is all right
to have everything, to have technology, to have possessions, to have information,
to have filing cabinets, to know about everything as long as one is not clinging
to these things. We are not advocating ignorance but freedom. The issue is open-minded
receptivity to Divine Intelligence.
Let us return to the concept of self-confirmatory ideation as a diagnostic criterion
for pathological religiosity and also for all forms of pathology that we can run
into in life. One of the forms of self-confirmatory ideation which is frequently
encountered in academic circles is the cherishing of what one already knows. It is
very difficult not to lean on what we already know. There is nothing wrong with knowing,
but we must be alert to the tendency to lean on the known for a sense of security.
Such a sense of security is acquired at a great price; if we lean on what we already
know and cling to it, we cannot learn anything new, and certainly we are not open
to God, to inspiration. Our lives become less and less creative and more and more
routinized. Among psychiatrists and psychotherapists we can distinguish two kinds:
the artisans and the artists. Even in spiritual guidance one can imagine that some
individuals might tend to become artisans. We certainly know that some clergymen
are just artisans who perfunctorily perform certain services. Their sermons are boring.
They seldom come up with an original idea. Their lives are uncreative. To live and
work creatively it is necessary to lean on God, and that requires courage. It is
somewhat like trying to float on emptiness. But once we have learned this, it is
easier. Life then becomes most interesting. We are never




bored — and more than that — we are not boring. Sometimes we seek parameters for
functioning. We want to lean on parameters. This hampers creativity and inspiration
because we then have preconceived ideas as to what should be. We may rationalize
that an individual isn’t yet ready for this, that he must first be psychotherapeutized
along Adlerian or Sullivanian lines, etc., and that perhaps afterward he could be
guided toward the spiritual path.
There is, of course, a great tendency to think that in order to be a spiritual
guide one must first be a psychotherapist. But the glorious thing about spiritual
guidance is that it transcends all psychotherapy; a spiritual guide does not have
to be a psychotherapist. A spiritual guide has to be a divinely inspired understander
and clarifier of an individual’s mode of being-in-the-world. Someone may say, If
you want to run, you have to first learn to walk, but in spiritual guidance we want
to "fly." The Zen Master Suzuki was once asked, "How does it feel to be an enlightened
man?" Suzuki replied, "Oh, just like an ordinary man, except about two inches above
ground."
If we take as an example the ability to float, we see that in floating one leans
completely on buoyancy, and so it is with God; when we lean on God, we lean on seemingly
nothing. Some people get the hang of it right away and they can float. The analogy
about floating approximates what it is to let go of all the cherished idols we cling
to, and learn to face life with nothing but God.
The issue of time is another problem which is very interesting to consider. It
is called the issue of temporality. Temporality is closely associated with character.
There are three categories of character disorder from which we are inclined to suffer.
One is pride, another is ambition, and the third is vanity. If we inquire into the
temporality of these character disorders, we find that pride is always related to
the past. Ambition is oriented toward the future, and vanity is in the present. People
who live in the past are inclined toward pride; people who look forward to the future
have a tendency to become




ambitious, and people who live in the present like to look into the mirror. Associated
with these three categories of character problem is the flip side of each. The flip
side of pride is shame; the flip side of ambition is fear, while vanity’s flip side
is embarrassment. Were we to tell someone, "Your problem is that you are proud,"
will he be able to stop being proud? Not likely. None of these character problems
responds to a direct attack. Therefore, such an approach is not helpful. In psychotherapy
these problems become horrendous because they are unyielding. In Metapsychiatry we
can talk about such a problem without condemning it or without demanding of the patient
that he stop being proud or ambitious. We don’t say, "You shouldn’t be proud" or
"You shouldn’t be ambitious" or "You shouldn’t be vain." We can say instead, "I discern
that your suffering has something to do with certain ways of relating to time." Or,
"It seems that you are living in the past," or, "You are thinking too much about
the past and about yourself in the past," or "You are future oriented," or "Your
problem seems to be connected with temporality." We do not say, "You shouldn’t live
in the past, or in the future." We try to clarify these problems in terms of how
they are connected with thinking about time.
Our definition of mental health speaks of being a beneficial presence; a presence
is not the same as living in the present. There is a very helpful passage in the
Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, which says: "That which hath been is now; and
that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past" (Ecclesiastes
3:15). This passage describes the problem of being time-bound. Unenlightened man
is stuck in the dimension of time, but Reality is timeless. Therefore, if we are
time-bound, we cannot be in touch with Reality. The only way to be healed of pride,
ambition, and vanity is to abolish time. How do we abolish time? By learning to appreciate
timelessness. In creative, inspired living, whenever God is speaking to us, at that
instant when inspiration reaches consciousness, the temporo-spatial coordinates of
experience are suspended. By learning to appreciate timelessness we become




liberated from the imprisoning effect of time and are healed of these three common
forms of character disorder.
God is not in the past and God is not in the future and God is not in the present.
Where is God? We have to have some verbal expression for that dimension of Reality
where God can be found: It is eternity, the timeless now. It is good to understand
the difference between the present and the timeless now. The present, the past, and
the future are time frames, and God cannot be framed. Therefore, we need a certain
concept which is extratemporal, and that is the timeless now which is synonymous
with eternity. Eternity is timeless.
This, of course, is of great practical value whenever we are disturbed by something
that has happened in the past. Most people have had some unpleasant, regrettable,
painful, disturbing experiences that happened in the past and that they fear never
being able to get over. The right understanding of timelessness and of God’s omnipresence
makes it possible to pray effectively for the healing of the past.
Recently, a very disturbed gentleman came for help. He had given a speech in a
certain organization where he was a guest. He got carried away, and what he was saying
to the people in that audience was very disturbing to them. As he spoke, he lost
control of himself; he did a lot of bragging and made some provocative statements.
Afterward he was crestfallen; he received letters accusing him of having caused people
suffering by what he said. He didn’t know what to do. We considered the possibility
of healing the past through prayer. We considered the fact that God is not in a time
frame but in the timeless now, and that what is needed is to catch a glimpse of God’s
presence and to know that in the presence of God all things are healed. Therefore,
we proceeded to lift the "curtain of time" and peek, so to speak, underneath this
curtain and behold the healing presence of Divine Love. We further considered what
the curtain of time was made of. This curtain of time, i.e., the existential structure
of time, is made of dreams, fantasies, and imagination. The past is a dream, the
future is a fantasy, and the present is imagination. A Zen Master put




it this way: "The past is gone, the future is not yet, and the present eludes us."
As long as we live in time, we do not perceive Reality. We see our own thoughts
about Reality. By peeking under the curtain of time we seek to behold Reality, the
presence of the healing power of Divine Love. Such perception can relieve us of the
burden of past mistakes. How is that possible? It is the realization that we do not
have the power to cause unalterable wrong, because God is the only power and the
only intelligence, and what was is, and that which is, is not under our control but
under God’s control. Therefore what is needed is a healing to take place in the consciousness
of the individual who is disturbed by what was. As he gains peace in the awareness
of God’s presence, the past is erased and is healed. An interesting thing happened
in the aforementioned case; after we had peeked under the curtain of time, this individual
became peaceful and grateful in the knowledge that God can heal the past. The next
day he received a telephone call from the man in charge of the organization where
he gave his talk, and found that things had changed. His talk was, in fact, appreciated
and no ill effect remained from what he said. Thus we had confirming evidence of
the fact that it is possible to heal the past by contacting God in the timeless now.
This is a very comforting realization. We do not have to suffer for past mistakes.
All we need is to understand the three "Rs" of Metapsychiatry.
The three "Rs" of Metapsychiatry are as follows: recognition, regret, and reorientation.
When we have a problem we need to recognize its meaning. Then we need to regret
it, because problems usually ensue from mistakes or insufficient understanding. Let
us clarify what we mean by meaning. Meaning must not be confused with cause. As we
said earlier, we transcend cause-and-effect thinking. Meaning is the mental equivalent
of a problem, of a phenomenon. Phenomena are externalizations of thought processes.
Therefore, if we seek to understand the meaning of a problem, we seek to discover
the underlying thinking




processes which have expressed themselves as a problem. Thought processes have a
tendency to become phenomena and become perceptually accessible. By recognition we
mean coming to understand the meaning of a problem. In other words, we have to see
that we made a mistake, that we were mistaken and in what way we were mistaken. In
the above case, the man got carried away with himself and spoke on a level which
was both self-confirmatory and above the heads of the audience. That created the
disturbance. He came to recognize the meaning of that problem and he regretted it
sincerely. Then he sought reorientation by peeking under the curtain of time and
realizing that God is the only power and the only presence and the only intelligence
and has the power to heal the past, the future, the present, and everything. In that
realization he found his peace and that peace was the healing, which then was confirmed
by the telephone call. It is possible to heal the past because the past is a dream,
the future a fantasy, and the present imagination.
We spoke earlier about phenomenological perceptivity. It is a method described
and explained by Edmund Husserl whereby an open-minded confrontation with that which
reveals itself can make it possible for a spiritual guide to discern the meaning
of a problem and shed light on it for the patient, thus helping him to understand
it. This kind of shedding light we call hermeneutic elucidation. It helps the individual
to attain the first R, namely, recognition. Recognition entails knowing the meaning
of the suffering —not "why" we are suffering — but what the meaning of it is, i.e.,
its mental equivalent. The next step is regret, which would correspond to repentance,
followed by the reorientation process where the mistaken mental thought processes
are corrected through a confrontation with Divine Reality. In that correction the
outlook of the individual is spiritualized and healing takes place.
Recently a man was complaining about a hernia. As we were talking about this and
his other problems, it became clear that he had a mode of being-in-the-world in which
he was exerting much effort to get people to feel sorry for him. He was




in the habit of exerting himself to get his family, his friends, and even business
associates and strangers to feel sorry for him. This was a method of self-confirmatory
manipulation. It became clear that his hernia was an expression of that effort over
some years. This was clarified to him. He could see it. He recognized it. But he
did not regret it. He then had surgery performed. The hernia was repaired. He enjoyed
the experience, praised the surgeon, and spoke of the wonderful care he received
in the hospital. The whole experience was right down his alley, since people were
solicitous of him. After the operation he seemed happy, but he hadn’t stopped exerting
himself to get people to feel sorry for him. This mode of operating continued. A
short time afterward his hernia returned. He could see that this was his way of confirming
himself. He could see that he was doing it. But he had not realized that there is
a more intelligent way to live. He was not ready to take step No. 2. He did not regret
it. What needs to be healed, then, is this idea which is in his mind, that the successful
way to live is to have the power to get people to feel sorry for him.
Contrary to conventional thinking in the field, this is not a psychosomatic case;
psychosomatic implies that the body can get hurt by the mind. But this is an obsolete
concept. There is no such thing any more as psychosomatic medicine. There is only
phenomenology. Mind and body are one, and what we see in the world is the manifestation
of certain ways of thinking. Thought is the basic stuff of life. Thought is a unit
of mental energy which can manifest itself as speech, as activity, as behavior, or
as symptom. The hernia in the above case needed to be repaired surgically and it
will probably have to be done again, but all that work will be of no help unless
this individual’s thinking is redeemed; so the issue is the mode of being-in-the-world.
It is the basic ethic of psychotherapy, and particularly of spiritual guidance, that
we cannot heal anyone unless he has reached the point of sincerely desiring to be
healed, and it would be a trespass to try to heal anyone against his will.
The first of the eleven Metapsychiatric principles is as follows:




"Thou shalt have no other interests before the good of God, which is spiritual blessedness."
The issue of interestedness is crucial. We have to reach a point where we are more
interested in living in harmony with God, which we call omniactive Love-Intelligence,
than anything else. Perhaps that is what Kierkegaard meant by "willing one thing."
Purity of heart means purity of interest, wholehearted interest in spiritual good.
What is spiritual good? It is PAGL (peace, assurance, gratitude, and love). The interesting
thing about PAGL is that it is also a criterion which can help us to know whether
we are on the right track on any issue in life, or whether we are just deceiving
ourselves. If there is no awareness of PAGL, chances are we are just deceiving ourselves,
which is very easy to do. PAGL is a sort of landmark, or a sign, which can help us
to know whether or not we are on the right track. And when we are praying about any
problem we may face, if we reach the point which we call the "PAGL point," then we
know that the problem is healed. If we meditate and reach PAGL point in our meditation,
we can stop. There is a sense of assurance that whatever we are facing has been healed.
Psychoanalysis does not have the awareness of the dimension of the spirit. What
it is working with are purely humanistic concepts. It is an attempt to change the
past by altering the present. But the present is still a time frame. It is not really
possible to change the past by altering the present. It is possible to be healed
only if we succeed in abolishing the past ("And God requireth that which is past,"
Ecclesiastes 3:15).
We are also trying to understand the possibilities beyond what has been experienced
until now. What were considered limited possibilities are gradually receding. We
are continually expanding the horizons of limitation and pushing into areas which
have not yet been realized. It is better to be idealistic than realistic. Had the
Wright brothers been realistic, there would be no aviation today.
Let us ask again, What is spiritual guidance? At the outset of these lectures it
was stated that spiritual guidance is not an activity. It is a quality of consciousness
which is receptive to




inspired wisdom and which is responsive to manifest needs. If we are going to teach
spiritual guidance, then the primary issue is learning the open-minded receptivity
to creative Intelligence which meets every moment’s requirement. The open mind is
the central issue in spiritual guidance.
Conventional psychological thinking knows only sensations, emotions, and intellect
as basic factors. It presumes that if one is intellectual then one supposedly has
to learn to feel. If one is emotional, one has to learn to think. If one is sensual,
one has to sort of distribute these three human experiences evenly so that one may
become an integrated human person, with one’s feelings, sensations, and intellectual
thinking ability in balance. And this supposedly makes for a healthy person. This
is the avowed purpose of psychotherapist manipulation of man, namely, to bring about
a balance. But we cannot mix psychology with spirituality, just as we cannot mix
oil with water. What is needed is to understand what spirituality really is. When
we confuse our feeling responses to situations and issues with intuition, we just
don’t know what we are talking about. The way we feel about something is not the
same as having intuitive understanding of something. Intuition is a colloquial word
for inspiration. Intuition based on feelings is not intuition. It is subjectivity.
Furthermore, it is totally unreliable and is inseparable from judgment. But true
inspiration, spiritual insight, is on a different level of consciousness.
In Metapsychiatry we distinguish two sources of thought: one is the "sea of mental
garbage," from where all invalid thoughts, which we are constantly being flooded
by, come. We can surmise that Teilhard de Chardin would call this the "noosphere."
The other source of thought is the "infinite ocean of Love-Intelligence," from where
all intelligent, valid, constructive, helpful, and creative ideas come. The dividing
line between the human and the spiritual modes of awareness we call the firmament.
If we are going to be spiritual guides, we cannot mix up the two; we cannot practice
psychotherapy one minute and spiritual guidance the next minute. Those who




wish to practice psychotherapy are entitled to study psychotherapy, but those who
are interested in spiritual growth and realization must be helped to rise above the
firmament so that they may have a Divine perspective on Reality rather than a human
one.
Above the firmament, in the "ocean of Love-Intelligence," man does not become callous,
unfeeling, and intellectual; man becomes intelligent, infinitely compassionate, spiritually
loving, serenely dignified, peaceful, assured, grateful, and harmonious. He lives
in a different dimension of consciousness which transcends all psychology (including
Jungian psychology), psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and other human systems. And
that is what Metapsychiatry understands to be spiritual guidance. There is a difference
and a radical separation between psychology and spiritual consciousness. Anyone who
mixes the two just does not understand what the difference really is, and a great
deal of confusion follows this kind of mixing.
The vast majority of people want to make a go of life below the firmament, and
they try to manipulate and conduct things in the "sea of mental garbage." There are
a great many pleasures in the "sea of mental garbage," and there is a great deal
of suffering and confusion there as well. As the Bible says: "Wide is the gate, and
broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it" (Matthew 7:13–14). And we may add: "Few there are who are
interested in finding it." But it is not our job to make people interested. That
is God’s job. If we are going to be spiritual guides, this is what it is all about:
"the straight and the narrow." We must be prepared to face the fact that there will
be a great many people who will not want to have any part of the narrow way. We must
understand that this is not a matter of liking, disliking, or arguing about it. It
is something to contemplate. Is it possible to debate or argue about the merits of
two and two being four? It can only be considered by everyone and contemplated. If
we are sincerely




seeking God, we must eventually commit ourselves to this. This is spiritual guidance.
Everything else is just messing around in the "sea of mental garbage."
As mentioned before, the basic issue in training for spiritual guidance is learning
the open-minded confrontation of that which reveals itself from moment to moment,
which is entirely different from training for psychotherapy or the legal profession
or philosophy or any academic subject.
Metapsychiatry is offering the tools necessary for a spiritual guide in the form
of the three "Rs." It also explains what recognition requires of a spiritual guide:
it requires recognizing an individual’s mode of being-in-the-world through phenomenological
perceptivity. So a spiritual guide needs to discern a patient’s or a client’s mode
of being-in-the-world and the meaning of his presenting problem, so that he can hermeneutically
clarify it. He then explains that regret of the mistake on the part of the client
and his reorientation are requisite for a healing to take place. The healing is always
one of the "signs following," as the Bible states. When consciousness is elevated
above the firmament, human problems are healed. This is not psychotherapy. It is
phenomenology. Training in phenomenological perceptivity rests on the attainment
of the open mind.
It may be helpful at this point to clarify the difference between intellectualism
and intelligence. To put it into simple language, intellectualism is a desire to
be known as knowing. This was designated previously as one of the gates of hell.
Intelligence, on the other hand, is the ability to utilize, express, and communicate
ideas in a clear and concise form.
We might mention here that spiritual consciousness is not very popular or highly
valued when it comes to individuals being committed to it. It may be popular to profess
it, to talk about it, to read about it in books, but not to commit oneself to it.
There are two ways we can become committed to spiritual life: one is through suffering,
the other is through wisdom. It is, of course, difficult to become totally committed
to the spiritual life through wisdom alone. Even Jesus is described in




the Bible as having been "in all points tempted like as we are" (Hebrews 4:15).
At times it happens that individuals come to us ostensibly for psychotherapy while
actually seeking to find God. Therefore, we have to tune in on the wavelength upon
which an individual is starting out with us, and gradually clarify the difference
through the process of hermeneutic elucidation.
The eighth principle in Metapsychiatry states: "Problems are lessons designed for
our edification." This is a very important principle because it helps us not to be
afraid of problems, but actually welcome them as opportunities for growth. Every
time a problem is understood in its meaning and is clarified and appropriately regretted,
it leads to reorientation and we ascend a rung on the ladder of consciousness.
A young wife and mother reported the following: "It came to my attention recently
that I go around all the time cherishing a completely fictitious concept of my husband,
and I am interpreting everything that is going on in the home in the light of an
idea which has no relation whatsoever to his view of himself. When I saw this, I
became increasingly embarrassed about my hateful point of view of him. I seem to
be locked in a dream, my own dream, which I am projecting onto other individuals
to the detriment of the entire family, including myself. I have suffered for many
years from the idea that I am being hated. Now the question which preoccupies me
is, how could I get out of my dream?"
The way to be healed of such problems is by realizing that our dreams are not ours.
The dreams which we are dreaming are not our dreams. They are just suggestions and
fantasies which have taken hold in our consciousness; they happen to be there but
they are not ours. Only what God gives us can be ours and God does not give us hateful
dreams or unloving ideas. Unless we recognize that these things are no part of our
true being, we can never be helped. If there really were a hateful individual, he
would be beyond hope. Hateful thoughts do not belong to the man God created. He is
a pure consciousness of Love-Intelligence. Just because certain factors are messing




up our life experience, it does not mean that they are ours, that they belong to
us, or that we are such individuals. These thoughts must be separated from us in
order that we may be healed.
Some garbage thoughts are being transmitted from generation to generation and are
at times cherished like heirlooms. Still, they are no part of our true being, even
if we got them from our parents or grandparents. This is good to know, because if
we were to blame ourselves, there would be no way to be healed. When we blame ourselves
we claim ownership and are secretly proud of our disastrous heritage. So the dreams
we are dreaming are not our dreams. The prejudices which we feel and express are
not our prejudices, they are just prejudices. If we walk in the streets of New York
City and our faces get dirty from the soot and smog, that does not mean that we are
dirty people. It only means that we happen to have dirt on our faces. The dirt is
no part of our true being. Our insanities are no part of our true being either. That
realization is very helpful when it comes to healing and liberation. We disavow these
ideas and we endeavor to behold our pristine purity as expressions of Divine Love-Intelligence.
The Bible says: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are
the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with
Christ" (Romans 8:16– 17). The wave bears witness to the ocean and the ocean to the
wave. The wave is the ocean and the ocean is the wave. And so the son of man is the
son of God and God expresses himself through the son of man, and man is the manifestation
of God. The only way that God can be known is through man expressing the qualities
of God. That’s what we really are.
Garbage thoughts and dreams are no part of our being, just as pollution is no part
of the sea. All the garbage in the sea may be moving with the waves, but pollution
is not the sea. It is not even part of the sea. It does not belong to the sea. The
sea is pure and always was pure. The garbage is entirely separate from the sea. But
the wave and the sea are one as man and




God are one. The purity, the perfection, and the love of God constitute the real individual.
Whenever something needs to be healed, this separation must be clearly realized.
The moment this is clearly realized, the healing can take place.
Sometimes people get panicky about "their own" thoughts. But if they realize that
what seems to be their own thoughts are not really their own thoughts, they do not
have to get panicky. Only God’s thoughts constitute the real man.
There are certain aspects of mental pollution which create in us experiences. For
instance, hate is exciting; interaction is entertaining; intimidation can be overwhelming,
etc. When we understand the illusory nature of these experiences, they can be successfully
transcended, especially interaction, which seems to be the most ubiquitous element
in human experience. Interaction seems particularly desirable when we feel alone,
isolated, neglected, ignored, or unloved. These conditions conjure up a dread of
nothingness, which then leads to a desire to stir up some interaction.
I know a couple who had a very stormy marriage. For many years they had frequent
fights. In exploring the problem, we found that the wife was terrified of solitude
and quietness. She could not stand being in the house because it was too quiet. This
gave us the clue as to what the problem was. It was the dread of nothingness, and
the marital squabbles were but a form of entertainment and reassurance that they
are really there as individual beings.
On the spiritual path we are studying to realize the glory of our "nothingness."
Unenlightened man clamors for confirmation of his personal somethingness. Heidegger
made the dread of nothingness the central theme of his philosophy. ("Nothingness,
in contrast to all that seems to be, is the veil of being.") When we realize the
true nature of being, we come to understand that nothingness is not dreadful but
supremely comforting, because nothingness is allness, for that is what really is.
It is not nothing but the divine essence of everyone.
At this point true compassion can emerge as love based on




understanding that the garbage is not part of real being. Compassion, then, requires
the presence of enlightened love. It is clear then that compassion cannot be turned
on at will. Real compassion requires some understanding of what is man and what is
not man. Here it is helpful to distinguish between compassion, empathy, and sympathy.
The compassionate man says, "I love you because I understand you." The empathizing
man says, "I know how you feel." The sympathizing man says, "I feel for you."
Human sentiments like empathy and sympathy have little to do with Reality and are
devoid of healing power. They have a temporary soothing effect, but they do not heal.
Quite to the contrary, they tend to make a reality of the problem. True compassion
heals because it is based on understanding of the truth of man as an expression of
divine consciousness where nothing enters "that defileth ... or maketh a lie" (Revelation
21:27).




Metapsychiatry is timeless. What do we mean by that? In Metapsychiatry we are not
working in the dimension of time. Metapsychiatry is ahistorical, acausal, and nonteleological.
This means we are not interested in the history of the patient; we are not interested
in why he is sick and who is to blame for it; we are not interested in the purpose
for which he is sick.
Temporality has a lot to do with character, and we have described certain problems
associated with it, as well as their flip sides: pride and shame; vanity and embarrassment;
ambition and fear. It is now becoming clearer that these characterological factors
have their own temporality: pride and shame are in the past, vanity and embarrassment
are always in the present, and ambition and fear are of the future. So we have here
six characterological factors which have their own specific temporality. If we abolish
the temporality, we abolish the problem. If there is no past, we cannot be proud
or ashamed. If there is no present, we cannot be vain or embarrassed. If there is
no future, it makes no sense to be ambitious or even afraid.
Suppose someone said, But ambition is important; couldn’t I retain at least a little
ambition? But the question is, Is it possible to be ambitious and be free of fear?
Certainly not. If we want to be free of fear, we must sacrifice ambition. We cannot
make a deal with the devil. There is no possibility of living a fearless life as
long as we are ambitious. The moment we are future oriented, there is fear.




So let us face the fact that if we don’t want to be ashamed and prideful, we must
give up the past; if we want to be free of fear and ambition, we must give up the
future; if we want to be healed of vanity and embarrassment, we must give up the
present. Where does this leave us? After we have given up the past, the future, and
the present, we find ourselves in the dimension of timelessness.
What do we find in the realm of timelessness? In the realm of timelessness we discover
God. Time is just something that seems to be, viewed from the narrow perspective
of human experience. In Reality there is no such thing as time. In the dimension
of timelessness we discover inspiration, which is the dynamic of enlightened living.
Reality cannot be experienced. All the previously cited characterological factors
can be experienced, but Reality is timeless. It cannot be experienced; it can only
be realized. Contrary to the prevailing statements of mystics in the literature that
Reality can be experienced but cannot be described, we can say unequivocally that
anyone who claims to have experienced Reality is either a fraud or else that person
is deceiving himself.
What is the difference between experiencing something and realizing something?
Experiences are mediated by the neurovegetative nervous system, whereas realizations
take place in consciousness. If Reality is timeless, then none of the temporalities
belong in the realm of the real. They are purely experiential. Therefore, they only
seem to be. And the more involved we get in the experience of time, the more we live
in unreality.
Since Metapsychiatry is ahistorical, acausal, and nonteleological, it is firmly
anchored in Reality. Someone may ask, Is faith necessary for this realization? No,
all we need is understanding. If we thought about faith, we would be talking about
religion; but we are talking about science. Neither faith, nor believing, nor accepting
is required. We are simply working in the direction of understanding Reality. This
Reality happens to coincide with many biblical statements, especially




the teachings of Jesus, understood existentially, but this does not mean that we
are talking about religion. We are talking about life lived in absolute Reality.
Psychotherapy can be effective only to the extent that it helps the patient to
realize more and more of what is real and what is not real. Unfortunately, sometimes
we try to achieve the impossible. For instance, a patient may be suffering from anxieties,
fears, and phobias, and we try to cure him of his fears, never noticing the fact
that ambition is also a problem. It is like trying to give the patient a coin which
has only one side. There is no such thing as a one-sided coin. So this kind of psychotherapist
fantasy is just that. If the aim of psychotherapy is to help the patient attain better
contact with Reality, then he needs to be guided out of temporality into the realization
of the timeless. In the realm of the timeless there is no fear, no anxiety, there
are no neuroses, no psychoses, no depressions, there are no problems. Everything
is perfect and healthy and loving and harmonious and supremely intelligent.
When we speak of the aim of psychotherapy, the impression is unavoidable that we
are talking about the future of the patient, and thus we seem to be contradicting
ourselves. However, this is not so. We have to understand the difference between
"now" as an aspect of the present, and "moment by moment" as an aspect of the timeless.
The word "aim" is unavoidable because our language itself is time-bound. The realization
of the difference between now as a time frame and moment by moment as an aspect of
the dynamism of the timeless is very helpful.
Similarly, the word "hope" seems to point toward the future. Hope, however, is
a religious concept. Enlightenment reveals the good of God which already is and manifests
itself moment by moment in timelessness. Therefore, we "hope to dispense with hope"
and replace it with the grace of actual realization.
When someone comes to us asking for help with a problem, it is important to have
a clear idea of what would be helpful. To bring this understanding to the patient
is the aim, but this




aim is not in terms of the future, but moment by moment. The therapeutic process,
which is conducted in the realm of the timeless, is not now. It is moment by moment.
The timeless is not static. It is dynamic, but not in the terms in which we are accustomed
to thinking. It is not really possible to understand something tomorrow or yesterday.
If we explore the amazing event which takes place in consciousness in a moment of
understanding or inspiration, we realize absolute timelessness. The famous French
phenomenologist-psychiatrist Eugene Minkowski wrote a book entitled Le Temps Vécu,
in which he speaks of the transcendence of the temporo-spatial coordinates of experience,
which takes place in the moment of inspiration and understanding.
Actually, real life is not happening in time. It transcends the experience of time
and space. If we have ever become aware of the moment when we understood something,
we must have realized the extratemporal nature of that event. In psychoanalytic literature
this is sometimes referred to as the "aha experience."
It is interesting that in the English language we speak about making extemporaneous
comments. Usually we mean to say that our comments are not premeditated and prepared
ahead of time. But if we consider the word "extemporaneous," we see that it hints
at the fact that unpremeditated speech has a quality of transcending time. Extemporaneous
means outside of time. Indeed, the gift of making extemporaneous comments hinges
on our receptivity to inspired wisdom, reaching our consciousness from the realm
of the timeless, which is the realm of Love-Intelligence.
All realizations of Reality are extratemporal. The Metapsychiatric therapeutic
session, while it is restricted to a segment of time — say thirty minutes — is essentially
timeless in its process. The entrance into the realm of the timeless abolishes all
problems: fear, tension, guilt, shame, pride, ambition, vanity, obsessions, and compulsions;
emotional hang-ups disappear in proportion to the extent that the timeless Reality
of true existence is glimpsed. Every little glimpse has a




powerful therapeutic impact. It is like beholding God. In proportion to the degree
that God becomes real to us — and not only in terms of a religious denomination but
existentially — in that proportion we are lifted out of the quagmire of human temporality.




In most forms of teaching, the basic style consists of debating and also, to some
extent, contending, especially if there are pharisaical tendencies in the students.
In the Metapsychiatric area of seeking spiritual understanding, however, only dialogue
can be fruitful. This means that opinions have no place in this kind of learning.
The Zen Master strongly recommended, "Above all, cherish no opinions." In order to
be able to participate in a dialogic process, we must be willing to abandon, or put
aside, opinions. What are opinions? They are cherished ideas, personalized ideas.
As long as we cherish opinions we cannot participate in a dialogic process, because
we have an investment in affirming our opinions.
If we cherish opinions we are inclined to contend. Therefore, opinions have to
be set aside — at least temporarily. The Zen Master also says: "The wise man has
no opinions whatsoever about anything." We may ask, What does a wise man have? A
wise man has a thirst for understanding. He does not claim personal knowledge. At
the drop of a hat he is ready to alter his thoughts. There is an amusing story about
an American newsman who traveled all the way to the Himalayas to see a famous wise
man, living on a mountaintop. When he finally arrived, he said: "Great and exalted
Master, please tell me what is the secret of life?" The wise man thought very deeply
for a long time and then he said: "The secret of life is like that river." The reporter
exclaimed, "Is that all?" And the wise man said, "You mean it isn’t?"...




The thing to keep in mind is that in order for dialogue to take place — and by
the way, this is essential in the healing process as well — the focus of attention
must be on the increasing realization of whatever aspect of the truth is necessary
to be known at a particular time.
Let us recall the three "Rs" of Metapsychiatry: recognition, regret, and reorientation.
These three factors can become clear only under conditions of dialogue. The Bible
character Daniel was a great spiritual guide, as can be seen from his therapeutic
sessions with King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and visions which troubled
him greatly, and there was no one who could understand or interpret them, until finally
Daniel was called in. Nebuchadnezzar, who was a man in an existential crisis and
was very fearful, asked Daniel to interpret his dreams to him. Nebuchadnezzar was
faced with the necessity of recognizing the meanings of his dreams. But even though
he asked for it, he was not willing to accept them because they were too horrible
to face. We may look at this situation from our own standpoint as spiritual guides,
called upon to help someone.
King Nebuchadnezzar suffered from delusions of grandeur. He had an exalted image
of himself. He had fantasies about his own greatness. He thought himself to be the
king of the whole world and that his kingdom, power, and fame reached to heaven,
and from one end of the world to the other. Daniel saw through this and said to him,
in a sense: "Beware, because you are going to become psychotic if you continue in
this way of thinking, and you will go through a period of depression where you will
be like an animal of the fields, knowing nothing but complete degradation. And this
depression will last until you come to recognize that God alone is mighty and you
are His servant" (see Daniel 4). Daniel was trying to help him recognize the problem
— which was self-confirmatory ideation of psychotic proportions — and was trying
to get him to the point of regret where he would recognize his mistake and abandon
his self-exaltation. Daniel was also prescribing the reorientation process which
would be necessary in order




to be healed. Had Nebuchadnezzar listened to Daniel he could have been spared seven
years of total desolation. It took the king seven years to come to recognize his
mistaken mode of being-in-the-world, to regret it, and to reorient himself. When
he reformed by acknowledging God as superior to himself he regained his sanity.
Here the Bible provides us with a beautiful model of a spiritual guide endeavoring
to heal and to prevent a tragedy from occurring, failing in the short run but succeeding
in the long run, because Nebuchadnezzar remembered that the God of Daniel is supreme,
and after seven years of psychotic depression he finally was willing to see that
point; only then was he healed. His thinking about himself and about reality was
reformed, or reoriented. So Daniel is a marvelous model of a therapeutic spiritual
guide, and also of an individual who could be in the midst of malicious intrigues
and hostility from the courtiers around him, and even beastliness, and yet remain
unscathed. The whole empire around him was collapsing from malice and moral decay,
yet he remained unscathed (see Daniel 6). Daniel is truly a paradigm of spiritual
uprightness.
Let us come back now to the issue of dialogue. In dialogue we put aside all other
considerations except the search for understanding whatever is existentially valid.
For instance, Nebuchadnezzar had an existentially invalid fantasy about himself,
an exalted self-confirmatory idea. In his own eyes he was the strongest, the smartest,
the most powerful man in the world, and it was hard for him to listen to the interpretation
offered by Daniel. In order to be able to participate in a dialogue, we must be interested
in one thing, as Kierkegaard says: "Purity of heart is wanting one thing." If we
can put aside all other motivations, all other thoughts and opinions and just seek
to understand as much as possible of the truth which is existentially valid, then
we can participate in a dialogic process. In a dialogic process there is a place
for asking questions and seeking clarification, but there is no place for debating,
because the truth cannot be debated; one cannot arrive at existential truths through
a process of debating. Debate has its




place in a courtroom and politics but not when it comes to existential hermeneutics.
A dialogue can be very easily aborted. The moment a dialogic explanation hits upon
an opinion, a resistance phenomenon occurs and at that point dialogue stops. There
is nothing we can do in such a situation except wait until the other individual becomes
ready for dialogue. When we understand an eternal truth, there is a sense of peace,
assurance, gratitude, and love (PAGL). When we harbor opinions, we are "uptight."
This understanding makes it easy to differentiate between truth and opinions. As
far as others are concerned, we respect people’s right to be uptight, to cherish
opinions. There is nothing we can do about it, and even if we could, it would be
wrong to try. It would be trespassing. If someone therefore insists upon clinging
to an opinion, that is his privilege and we have no right to try to rob him of it.
But when we harbor opinions, we tend to run into existential crises. Thereby we can
be sure that opinions are not the truth, because truth is liberating and opinions
are enslaving. The freedom Jesus speaks about is not sociological or economic or
psychological. It is spiritual freedom, which we call PAGL. It is also accompanied
by wisdom, joy, harmony; these are the spiritual qualities which we become aware
of and which heal us every time we get a glimpse of the truth which is beyond opinions,
which is existential.
Jesus said: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world,
that I should bear witness unto the truth" (John 18:37). A spiritual guide who is
a beneficial presence in the world bears witness to the truth, both by the quality
of his presence and by voicing the truth to those who have ears to hear. "He that
hath an ear let him hear" (Revelation 2:7,11, 17, 29). It is not something that we
can force on people. We have to wait until they ask. Unsolicited solicitude is trespass.
Jesus never healed anyone who didn’t ask him to. He was not offering unsolicited
solicitude. He respected people’s right to be wrong or to be sick or to disbelieve.
He was constantly bearing witness to the truth through the quality of his presence




and through his words, but he was not pushing it on anyone. When he returned home
to Nazareth, he was not able to heal the sick because there was no receptivity. He
said, in fact: "Nemo propheta in sua patria" (No man is a prophet in his own country).
And so he left. He did not force his healing ability on anyone.
I am reminded of a poster I once saw. The caption went as follows: "The truth will
make you free, but first it will make you mad!" Praying for someone who is not receptive
is also a trespass. When we pray we try to behold in our mind’s eye man in the context
of God. We are required to love our neighbor as ourself, and since we pray for ourself
at all times, we also endeavor to pray for our neighbor. But this is a blessing,
not intercessory prayer.
A very helpful way to pray for ourselves is by meditating on the following statement:
"I am a place where God’s presence reveals itself as omniactive Love-Intelligence."
And if someone asks that we pray for him or we want to bless someone in a specific
way, we can endeavor to behold him in a similar way as a place where God’s presence
reveals itself as omniactive Love-Intelligence. If we pray for ourself this way and
if we pray for others this way, then we are loving our neighbor as we love ourself.
This way we can pray even for people who call themselves atheists, not in order to
influence them but in order to fulfill the commandment, because influencing is a
sin. It is a trespass. To be influential is right. A beneficial presence in the world,
a witness to the truth, is influential, but he does not influence.
The question was asked, What is the meaning and the benefit of thinking of ourselves
as a place? It leaves the ego out of our thought. The existentialists speak of man
as clairiére de l’existence. Heidegger speaks of man as Lichtung des Daseins, which
means that man is a place where existence manifests itself. We think of ourself as
a transparency, or a place, or a consciousness, or a presence. In all these conceptualizations
of prayer the ego is put aside, and that is important. If our prayers contain a thought
of what should be, it is a trespass; if it is




an acknowledgment of what already is, then it is prayer. The prayer of beholding
endeavors to see spiritually in the mind’s eye what really is beneath what seems
to be. Someone may be a very aggressive, cruel, and objectionable character, but
beneath that we know that he is a child of God. The important differentiation is
that there must be no thought of what should be. We seek to behold what really is.
The second principle of Metapsychiatry states: "Take no thought for what should
be or what should not be; seek ye first to know the good of God, which already is."
In our prayers we seek to behold (not visualize, fantasize, or imagine, which is
qualitatively different), or see in consciousness, what really is in spite of what
seems to be. That is true prayer in which there is no influencing, no trespassing,
because the objective is to know the truth. The meaning and purpose of life is to
come to know Reality.
Matter is being discovered more and more as just a holographic appearance of vibrations
and therefore as not what it seems to be. With holography it is possible to project
images in space, which look very substantial, but actually they are just coherent
light projected through a special photographic plate. The latest scientific research
claims that the brain is this kind of holographic plate through which vibrations
are being projected into space which makes the universe appear in the form of material
substance. But actually matter is not substantial, and the basic stuff of life is
just vibration.
As to emotions, they are just thoughts organismically interpreted. The basic stuff
of life — even beyond vibrations — is thought. We tend to see everything in the context
of our organism, but that does not mean that our organism is what it seems to be.
Joy and love are not emotions. They are spiritual qualities which we can be aware
of by the grace of God; they are attributes of God.
We seek to understand ourselves ever so deeply in the context of God’s creation.
In various periods there were and are new theories put forward. The latest one is
that the visible universe is a holographic image of God. Divine ideas flow




into His universe and are interpreted by the brain through a process of holographic
projection, which makes ideas appear as solid stuff. But the solid stuff is not really
solid. We are trying to understand this. There is no man alive — not even Karl Pribram
and David Bohm who are in the forefront of this research — who can fully understand
what is being discovered. But one thing is becoming clear, namely, there is no such
thing as solid stuff anywhere, contrary to our sensory perceptions.
Since God is the source of all intelligence, life, love, wisdom, and truth, if
we are going to petition God, there is only one thing we can sensibly petition for,
namely, we can plead for understanding. We all pray all the time, even the avowed
atheists. Man is unavoidably, inescapably, a prayerful creature but many pray to
the wrong god, and that is a tragedy.
What happens if someone seeks spiritual guidance believing that that’s what he
really wants and, while sitting with him, it becomes clear that this is not what
he really wants? What can the spiritual guide do in such a case? The spiritual guide
has to discern the discrepancy in the motivation and find a way of meaningfully communicating
it and clarifying it to the individual so that he could become aware of this dichotomy
of motivation within himself. Once the individual becomes aware of divergent motivations,
he has the freedom to say, "Well that’s what I really want," or, "That’s not what
I really want," or he can say, "All right, I will give this up and choose the other."
The more clearly we can help someone to see his conflicting or divergent motivations
and his self-deceptions, the more helpful we shall be to him, but this requires the
ability of discernment. There is a very interesting Taoist saying relevant to this
issue: "If the right man does the wrong thing, then the wrong thing will work the
right way; but if the wrong man does the right thing, then the right thing will work
the wrong way." Motivation makes the difference; the right man is the one who has
existentially valid motivations. And so if someone comes to us for spiritual guidance,
we can help him to see that as long as he has wrong motivations he is not being the




right man, and things will keep going awry in his life even if he behaves in a Christian way.
Thought is a basic unit of mental energy. Thought is energy. There are two kinds
of thoughts: valid thoughts and invalid thoughts. The principle of existential validation
helps us differentiate between the two. If a thought or a series of thoughts are
life-enhancing, health-promoting, healing, loving, and clarifying, they are existentially
valid and they are energy which blesses us and heals us. Invalid thoughts, while
they may appear rational and logical within a certain context of reasoning, have
the opposite effect.
Everything intellectual is an abstraction, but if the abstraction is valid, it
can be helpful. Let us take, for instance, the very useful intellectual abstraction
"God is love," which is not the truth but a statement about the truth. Anything that
appears in the form of a thought is, in a way, an abstraction of Reality because
Reality is beyond thought. Thoughts can help us to discern Reality, but thoughts
themselves are not the Reality. The Zen Master says: "The finger is not the moon."
Once, when I told my dog, "Look, there is your food," he began licking my finger.
And that is, in a sense, what we do, too.
The more clearly the truth is established in our consciousness, the more protection
we have from invalid thoughts. If we are unenlightened about what is valid and what
is not valid, then we are at the mercy of all sorts of invalid ideas invading our
consciousness and showing up in various forms, in problems which can be physical,
mental, emotional, social, economic, behavioral, or any other type.
Mind fasting is a Taoist concept which corresponds to the statement Jesus made
when asked by his disciples why they could not heal the epileptic boy: "This kind
goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:21). Jesus did not refer to
abstaining from food. He referred to abstaining from certain ways of thinking. He
placed great emphasis on the power of thought. At one occasion he said: If you only
think about committing adultery, you have already committed it. ("Whosoever




looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in
his heart," Matthew 5:28.) So the entertainment of invalid thoughts is harmful to
us and has a tendency to transmute itself into problems. Energy, according to the
second law of thermodynamics, has a tendency to transmute itself into other forms.
As mentioned before, the basic stuff of life is thought and thought appears to be
energy. It behaves as energy because it has the tendency to transmute itself into
emotions, feelings, sensations, symptoms, behavior, speech, and various other phenomena
of daily living. A phenomenon is a thought in visible form. When thought energy transmutes
itself and appears in visible form, then we speak of phenomena.
"Bracketing" helps us to participate in a dialogue and in discerning the meaning
of phenomena, because it provides us with an open mind. Mind fasting is an integral
aspect of the healing process. For instance, if we have critical thoughts about someone
and we begin to feel very uneasy about it, then in order to see that individual in
the context of God, we must abstain from critical thoughts about him. This is mind
fasting. It is the abstaining from entertaining existentially invalid thoughts and
prayerfully endeavoring to acknowledge what is existentially valid. Thereby we heal
ourselves of the burden of malice, hostility, antagonism, and all sorts of unpleasant
thoughts which can easily transmute themselves into a stomach ulcer, or a headache,
or into allergies, etc. Mind fasting is a very helpful and important mental hygiene
principle. The closer we are to the truth of being, and the clearer we understand
ourselves as spiritual beings, the more perceptive we are of invalid thoughts. It
is somewhat like when we have learned to appreciate taking showers every morning
and being clean, the more intolerable it is for us to be dirty. We are stewards of
consciousness. It is our task to maintain the purity of our consciousness. The more
we appreciate PAGL, the more intolerable it is to think and talk in critical ways
about anyone.
Attitudes are congealed thoughts. Congealed emotions are emotional disturbances
where the emotions rule our lives,




such as when someone is chronically angry and hateful and gets high blood pressure
or something else from it.
The question was asked about the difference between bracketing and the Buddhist
concept of self-emptying. Bracketing is, as mentioned before, the seeking of open-minded
confrontation of whatever reveals itself from moment to moment. The Buddhist form
of self-emptying is a method of mind fasting sought in meditation where all calculative
thinking ceases and one is completely receptive to inspiration: where there is no
more cogitation taking place, ideas obtain.
Let us clarify the meaning of ideas obtaining in consciousness. It is insight into
God as a source of all creative, intelligent and valid ideas. Right knowledge comes
to all who are willing to be receptive in this open-minded way where ideas can obtain
in consciousness.




The central focus in Metapsychiatry is God, but not the God of the traditional
religions. In religions God is a symbol of reality. In Metapsychiatry we seek to
develop the faculty of direct contact, not with the symbol of reality, but with Reality
itself, the "God beyond God" (Tillich).
Reality and absolute truth are synonymous. Jesus explained how healing occurs by
saying: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).
Not the symbol of truth. The symbol of truth cannot make us free, but the knowledge
of the truth itself can make us free, that is, it can heal us. In this sense we are
radically different from religious teachings and denominations. Our endeavor is to
help our patients to come into contact with this Reality. This may sound very difficult
and, indeed, it is not easy, but it can be realized.
An important thing to know is the difference between information and transformation.
It is common knowledge that no amount of reading of books — or even the Bible — will
have any therapeutic effect. One can become very educated and well-informed, but
there will not be the slightest therapeutic effect. Healing will not occur through
reading books. Neither will it happen through listening to lectures and sermons.
Reading books and listening to lectures is gathering information. Information in
and of itself has no therapeutic value.




What is needed is transformation. There is a relevant passage in the Bible: "Be not
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that
ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Romans
12:2). In this passage the secret of transformation in contrast to information is
revealed.
To move from information to transformation, we are required to do something. Goethe
said something relevant to this issue, namely: "Whatever we have inherited, we must
reacquire." Information is something that we receive from books and lectures. But
in order for this information to become existentially integrated, it must be proven
in individual understanding. The information we receive must be put into practice
through participation in existence as a beneficial presence in the world. For instance,
it is not enough to know that God is love. We must also be loving. It is not enough
to know that God is truth. We must also be forthright and honest in our daily life.
It is not enough to know that God is beauty, harmony, joy, freedom, intelligence,
and goodness. We must also live that way. Information is passive gathering of data.
Transformation requires participation.
In therapy we are not only providing information. We seek to help our patient attain
transformation. In order to help him attain transformation, we must gain a clear
understanding of his mode of being-in-the-world. For instance, there is a case of
a young man who keeps getting fired from his jobs and repeatedly rejected by his
friends, both male and female. The harder he tries to ingratiate himself with people
and establish close relationships with his employers, friends, or relatives, the
more he gets rebuffed. In Metapsychiatry we refer to this as a misdirected mode of
being-in-the-world. This is a broader concept than the concept of "repetition compulsion"
introduced by Freud.
Psychoanalysis seeks to explain repetition compulsion on the basis of childhood
experiences. Psychoanalysis asks: "What’s wrong with this man? Why is he behaving
this way? And who is to blame for it?" In Metapsychiatry we do not ask




these questions. We ask, What is he doing? What is his mode of being-in-the-world?
What is the meaning of this mode of being-in-the-world? And what is the healing remedy?
So we do not blame anyone — not his parents, society, not even the patient. But we
see that this problem is based on an erroneous assumption about what is important
in life. The patient assumes that the important thing in life is to have good personal
relationships, and in order to have good personal relationships, he has to be clever
and manipulative and make a pest of himself. As a result of such behavior, he suffers
repeated rejections which, in turn, have a devastating effect on him.
So what is needed here is for the patient to become aware of his mode of being-in-the-world
and of his erroneous assumptions about how to live in an intelligent way. Then he
needs to come to understand what constitutes a truly intelligent mode of being-in-the-world.
The model of the intelligent mode of being-in-the-world for us is Christ Jesus, whose
main qualities can be summed up in two outstanding features, forthrightness and love.
Our patient, however, was neither forthright nor loving, but calculative, scheming,
manipulative, and obsequious. By acquainting him with the qualities of the Christly
mode of being-in-the-world, we are providing him with information about an existentially
valid way of living. He may agree with us and accept this information, even gratefully
and eagerly, but chances are he will try to use forthrightness and love as a technique
for more successful interpersonal manipulation. He may not commit himself to the
Christly way until he has suffered much more. Suffering may eventually compel him
to a point of commitment to the right values, and only then will a healing occur.
The Bible says: "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring
it to pass" (Psalm 37:5).
The psychoanalytic theory behind transformation is based on the concept of the
corrective emotional experience. The idea is that man has certain bottled-up emotions
from childhood on, and through free association, dream interpretation, and




transference analysis within the context of the relationship between the therapist
and the patient, a corrective emotional experience can take place in the patient.
This, in turn, will have a therapeutic effect on him. For instance, coming back to
this patient, the idea would be that he would begin to "butter up" the therapist
and try to establish a close, interpersonal, emotionally charged relationship with
him and make a pest of himself. If the therapist, in spite of all this, persisted
in being patient, kind, and accepting, this would give the patient a corrective emotional
experience, which would hopefully lead to understanding.
Now let us ask, What is the difference between a corrective emotional experience
and a real healing? We have seen that emotion is not enough, because it is just information.
No matter how powerful the corrective emotional experience may be, it is essentially
still just information occurring on an affective level. The patient discovers what
is wrong in a more meaningful way. So now he knows what is wrong. Knowing what is
wrong will not heal him. Jesus did not say, "Ye shall know what’s wrong, and you
will be healed." That is not enough. It is the integration of the truth in an existentially
meaningful way that brings about a healing.
What is the difference between an emotional experience and existential integration?
Emotions and feelings are not reliable indicators of Reality; they are purely subjective
and subject to misinterpretation. Existential integration is of an entirely different
order. Existential integration takes place when the truth validates itself by transforming
our mode of being-in-the-world. A healthy individual has a harmonious and fulfilling
mode of being-in-the-world, fulfilling in the sense of being able to express his
inherent potentialities in a most beneficial way in his daily life.
Far from being just metaphysical and theoretical, Metapsychiatry provides us with
a most practical and useful way of being in this world as a beneficial presence.
The interesting thing to contemplate is that Metapsychiatry starts out with a metaphysical
assumption about man and the universe and



winds up being supremely practical in daily life. This indicates that its metaphysical
assumptions about man and the universe are thus validated. If they were just mystical
nonsense, they could not possibly have practical consequences of a beneficial, life-enhancing
nature.



What is the important thing about a lamp? The important thing about a lamp is the
light it sheds. The important thing about Jesus was the Christ. The important thing
about a teacher is the teaching. The human tendency, however, is to get hung up on
the concrete rather than on the abstract. We get attached to personalities, and we
have a tendency to see life in terms of interpersonal relationships.
This is what happened to psychotherapy. Psychotherapy has fallen victim to myopia,
or shortsightedness, which is a universal human frailty. It is a tendency to cling
to the concrete, the tangible, or the material, and lose sight of the essential which
is spiritual. A lamp is good for nothing if it does not shed light. A teacher is
good for nothing unless he has something valid to teach. It is the teaching that
is important, not the teacher. It is the Christ that is important, not Jesus. Jesus
was a man who expressed the Christ, who manifested the light of truth and love and
perfection and reality to the world. He even said: "I am the light of the world:
he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life"
(John 8:12).
And so in psychotherapy we have to be careful to see beyond personality, because
no amount of "improving" of personality can be therapeutically valid. There are politicians,
psychopaths, and all sorts of con artists in the world who have beautiful personalities.
They are very clever, very smooth, very articulate and appealing, and yet that has
nothing to do with health. A beautiful personality can be a terrible disease. So
if



psychotherapy is conceived of as the restructuring of personality, it is like trying
to polish up a lamp to make it look nice in the living room, without ever considering
whether it will give light.
Man is a manifestation of Love-Intelligence. Everyone has the potential of being
what he really is. But if psychotherapy focuses attention on improving the personality,
then it is dealing with make-up. Psychologists speak of personality make-up. Personality
is just make-up. If psychotherapy is to be authentic and helpful, it must deal with
the essence of man. Essentially, we are spiritual beings. We are not personalities.
We just seem to be.
There are no creative personalities. There is only creative intelligence, and some
people have awakened within themselves a higher degree of receptivity to certain
aspects of that creative intelligence. They are called artists. But we can aim at
higher levels of awareness where it is not only in a circumscribed area of activity
that we are receptive but in the totality of being. An enlightened man is an existential
artist; his life is a work of art. Everything about him expresses beauty, harmony,
originality, joy, and love. He is a substantial being. He is authentic. In existentialism
this is a very favored term. Authenticity of being means becoming manifestly what
we really are potentially.
In ordinary life there is a lot of copying going on. What do we mean by copying?
People copy each other. They imitate each other. In psychology it is called identification.
If something appeals to us about someone, we try to copy him. This gives rise to
fashion, fads, and trends which keep changing. The basis of this idea is that man
is what he appears to be, and that all one has to do is to improve one’s appearance.
This kind of shallow reasoning gives rise to admiration and envy. Admiration is nothing
but disguised envy.
Children learn to live in accordance with the values of significant adults around
them. If adults around them believe in emulating others, admiring certain models
and envying them and trying to copy them, then naturally, children will grow up trying
to live that way. This is called adaptation. The child



adapts himself to the world according to the basic assumptions which govern the thinking
of his parents. We could say that children are extensions of parental consciousness.
Admiration, envy, identification, imitation, copying, pretending, stealing, lying,
make-believe — these are universal tendencies of unenlightened man, who is judging
by appearances. Jesus said: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous
judgment" (John 7:24). What did he mean by righteous judgment? Righteous judgment
means judging according to what really is.
It is interesting that unenlightened man wants to be like everyone else and, at
the same time, he would also like to be unique, which is very difficult to accomplish.
Sometimes these two tendencies become separated, and there are some who are mainly
concerned with being like others. These are called conformists. But then there are
people who sense that there is something wrong with monkeying others, and they discover
a great idea — nonconformity. This reveals the human tendency toward dualistic thinking.
If "yes" is bad, then "no" must be good. So if the establishment is governed by rules
of conformity, then the nonconformists conform to the rules of the nonconformists,
and we see the same process going on in both camps, which means that to be a conformist
or a nonconformist is the same. Always there is fear of being in or out of step with
the herd.
This process is going on in all walks of life: the social, scientific, political,
cultural, religious, and psychotherapeutic spheres of life. The conformists condemn
the nonconformists, and the nonconformists have contempt for the conformists. This
is the mockery of human existence. It is also tragic. Shakespeare said: "To thine
own self be true." How can man be true to his own self if he is forever trying to
copy others? It is possible to overcome this mode of being-in-the-world. Jesus once
said that the difference between him and other people was that he knew where he came
from and he knew where he was going. ("I know whence I came, and whither I go," John
8:14.) What Jesus was pointing out to us was that



authenticity of being and liberation from the mockery of ordinary unenlightened life
requires us to become acquainted with the truth of our being. We are required to
discover what it means to be an image and likeness of God, what it really means when
we say that we are spiritual beings. It means that God is our mind, that all intelligent
ideas, all vitality, all energy, all love, all happiness, all joy and beauty, all
the spiritual qualities which constitute true being, are manifestations of God’s
self-revealing activity. And while we are all expressions of these qualities of infinite
Mind, everyone is unique and different from everyone else. This surprising idea points
to the infinity of creative Mind. We are all manifestations of the same God, and
we all manifest the same God in individually unique ways.
So here we have the authenticity of being established as a fundamental aspect of
Reality which says: "You don’t have to envy anyone or anything; you are the most
perfect and unique individuality that you can possibly desire to be. There is no
need to copy anyone, or to try to be like someone else. It is foolishness. You just
become aware of what you really are, and you will find excellence, perfection, beauty
and intelligence. There is nothing more to be desired." Spiritually we are unique
individualities created by Divine Mind. Once we become aware of this, then what Jesus
said about perfection does not sound so absurd to us anymore. He said: "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). The right
understanding of the truth of being gives man a great sense of assurance and peace,
and makes it possible for him to be loving and satisfied.



Most of the time we think of love in the context of interaction between individuals.
We want to get love and to give love. If we think in these terms and see love as
coming to us from someone, we feel good, secure, and unafraid. We have the illusion
of security. But when this is not forthcoming and instead something else is coming
forth — as for instance criticism or rejection —we get frightened and hurt. We can
become resentful. This often takes the form of a headache or some other symptom.
Therefore, it is important to understand love in a broader context.
The third Metapsychiatric principle says: "There is no interaction anywhere; there
is only Omniaction everywhere." When we say that there is no interaction anywhere,
we mean that a great deal of suffering comes from expecting love from others and
building our lives on that idea. If we are living in that context or with such a
mind-set, then we are vulnerable, insecure, and easily disturbed. But if we understand
love as the essence of God expressing itself through us freely as goodness, intelligence,
generosity, and assurance, then love is a spiritual sea, the medium in which "we
live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
No one can deprive us of the happiness and assurance of knowing that we are living
expressions of Divine Love. It relieves us of the curse of conceptualizing the good
in interactional terms. Problems are basically psychological, which means interpersonal.
Solutions are spiritual, which means



omniactional. There is nothing wrong with Reality. It is just that we do not see
it clearly. We need to expand our vision.
It is interesting to consider what happens to an individual whose perspective on
love and on life is expanded into infinity. If such an individual comes into contact
with someone whose vision is interactional, this contact is entirely different from
the usual contacts between people. Interaction between unenlightened people could
be characterized somewhat along the lines of Zen symbolism as the sound of two hands
clapping. But the former situation represents what the Zen Masters have so mysteriously
designated as the "sound of one hand." This means that instead of clashing personalities,
there is transcendence.
Now the question could be asked, What is so attractive about conflict and friction
and clashing of personalities? In asking several people about it, the unanimous answer
was that it either feels good or it feels bad. But the important aspect of it seems
to be that it "feels," which means that it is a self-confirmatory experience. Thus
it seems that we want to feel that we exist, and we are afraid to become aware that
perchance we don’t.
Loneliness and abandonment is something we all dread. We are afraid of nonbeing.
Truly, this fear would be justified if it were possible to "not be." But it is not
possible to not be. Thus we secretly live in fear that something might happen which
is an impossibility.
The fear of nonbeing is a universal human experience which needs to be individually
confronted. Furthermore, we have to come to see how this fear drives us to seek escape
from loneliness, or from being ignored, or being insignificant, abandoned, etc. Loneliness
is often experienced as excruciatingly painful and frightening. We have to come to
understand that what we are afraid of is an impossibility. In order for an individual
to cease being, God would have to be destroyed. Therefore, our being is absolutely
secure. We are inseparable from God. God is our being. Therefore, nonbeing is an
impossibility.
The fear of nonbeing underlies all the self-confirmatory



schemes to which we are inclined to resort. Dreams and fantasies constitute self-confirmatory
ideation, which functions as a mental defense against the emerging sense of nothingness,
or, as the Buddhists call it, "sunyata" (emptiness). The healing remedy is, of course,
as follows: The more we learn to become conscious of God’s being and our oneness
with God, the more peaceful and assured we will become about our existence.
It is clear to anyone that it is impossible to isolate a wave from the sea. Similarly,
man can never be separated from his creative principle, God. Jesus said: "I am not
alone, because the Father is with me" (John 16:32). The realization of this truth
will relieve us of existential anxiety and make it possible to endure solitude. When
nothingness has been understood as a purely subjective experience, not an actual
reality, we become capable of beholding Reality.
Beholding is seeing with the inward eye, the eye of God within us. Meister Eckhart
said: "I see God with the same eye as God sees me." It makes no difference whether
the individual we are beholding is in the next room or thousands of miles away, because
in Divine Reality there is no distance; there is neither time nor space.
We see that we are emanations of Divine Mind and so is everyone else, and when
this is clearly established in consciousness, we behold ourselves and others in the
context of Divine Reality, which is infinite, timeless, spaceless, and completely
perfect.
In the prayer of beholding we do not beseech God to make someone well; we endeavor
to realize that he is well because he is God’s spiritual manifestation. At most,
we ask God to help us to see that the perfection of his creation is already an established
fact, that we are joint participants in the good of God. Our work is nothing else
than a constant endeavor to improve and increase this realization. The more clearly
we can see this, the more our lives will correspond to what really is. "Open thou
mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Psalm 119:18).
The possibilities of the prayer of beholding are limitless, and



with it comes a release from self-confirmatory ideations which are but manifold compulsive
defense mechanisms designed to ward off the fear of nothingness, or nonbeing.
Another aspect of this process is the attainment of enlightened decisiveness. Decisiveness
is a very desirable quality. However, there are healthy ways to be decisive and unhealthy
ways to be decisive. Unhealthy decisiveness is based on willfulness, or superstition,
or a gambling instinct of taking chances, or being reckless, which is imprudent to
say the least. Healthy decisiveness is based on prudence, flowing out of reflection
and inspired wisdom.
Recently, while driving on the road, a couple had the following experience. While
the husband was driving, the wife noticed that the gasoline indicator gauge had not
moved from its center position for a long time. She suddenly turned to her husband
and said: "Let’s get off at the next exit and find a gasoline station." As they turned
off the road, the car began to sputter and slow down, coming to a halt at the nearest
gasoline pump. The gas tank was empty.
This example illustrates the nature of enlightened decisiveness, which requires
the ability to hear and to obey. The ability to hear is attained through a willingness
to forgo daydreaming, fantasizing, and calculative thinking. The ability to obey
requires "shouldlessness" and an understanding of God as omniactive Mind, the source
of all wisdom and love.
The word "obedience" tends to elicit negative reactions, because of the connotation
of human tyranny and childhood coercive experiences. But the obedience we are talking
about here refers to the willingness to listen to and to be governed by impartations
of Divine Mind, coming to us moment by moment. "And thine ears shall hear a word
behind thee, saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand,
and when ye turn to the left’" (Isaiah 30:21).
In order to enhance our receptivity to inspired wisdom, it is desirable to start
out the day by prayer and meditation. This must be continued until PAGL is reached.
PAGL — meaning peace, assurance, gratitude, and love — is the Metapsychiatric



equivalent of an enlightened, i.e., spiritualized, consciousness. With that state
of consciousness we can look forward to the day with confidence.
The human consciousness could be compared to a delicate musical instrument which
must be kept in perfect tune if right musicianship is the aim. And if at any point
it gets out of tune, one must stop all activity and retune the instrument. If in
the course of the day we find ourselves disturbed, or out of sorts, or insecure,
it is best to withdraw into prayer and meditation until PAGL is reestablished. Jesus
recommended that we be "sober and vigilant, watch and pray" (1 Peter 4:7; 5:8).
A young lady reported the following: "My work consists of key punch operation,
and all I know is how to put information into the terminal. I don’t understand the
rest of the process at all. On several occasions I heard some inner voice speaking
to me and urging me to ask about the correctness of the data before me. At first,
I didn’t think much of it, but as it occurred repeatedly I started paying closer
attention to it. It was like having an invisible supervisor talking to me. Later
on, I started to hear this voice in consciousness in other areas of my life. And
again, I was reluctant to pay attention to it. But later on I realized that this
is a familiar experience and I began paying attention to it all the time, and thus
I have come to know what inspired wisdom really is. I listen, I pay attention, I
obey, and it helps me in every situation."
Inspired wisdom is often referred to as intuition. This is but a conventional term
for inspiration. However, most people tend to disregard it, preferring to rely more
on calculative, rationalistic reasoning. Intuitive insights and inspired wisdom are
often in conflict with rational reasoning. Intuitive, inspired wisdom tends to override
superficial logic and calculative thinking. If we are obedient and know how to hear,
we can make decisions which seemingly make no sense at all, yet prove to be supremely
intelligent and ingenious.
Of course, we are not talking about "hunches" and so-called "gut feelings" and
"brain storms," which tend to be just subjective emotional preferences. We are talking
about being



in conscious awareness of infinite Mind’s promptings in the context of PAGL.
The fifth principle of Metapsychiatry states: "God helps those who let Him." This
principle can be utilized consciously whenever choices and decisions confront us.
To let God help us means to suspend all calculative thinking, anxiousness, and worried
mental agonizing about what should be or what should not be. We need the courage
which dares to "not know" in order to discern what God knows. The Oriental sages
tell us that "knowing can come only from not knowing." Therefore, willingness to
not know can make us receptive to inspired wisdom.
To many this may seem like foolish passivity, or even irresponsible "do nothingness."
But, in fact, this is not negligence, or apathy, or passivity, or aggressiveness.
It is "alert reverent responsiveness" which forms the basis of enlightened, creative,
and intelligent decisiveness.



The process of understanding spiritual guidance, or enlightenment for that matter,
can be compared to climbing out of a valley. In the valley everything looks natural
and things seem to make a lot of sense. As we begin climbing out of the valley and
up the mountainside, things begin to appear in a different light. With every step
we take upward, new vistas open up and things which we saw before reveal themselves
as not at all what we thought them to be while in the valley. We gain a different
perspective and we are able to encompass things in a broader context.
It is interesting to consider that medical science has traditionally moved from
the wider context to the narrower. The microscope has helped us to narrow down our
focus on reality to ever smaller areas. Similarly, in the field of psychiatry medical
science has also tried to move from the wider to the narrower perspectives, exploring
ever smaller details of the brain, hoping to find answers by learning about microscopic
elements of the structure of the brain. Research has moved from the anatomical structures
to the histological structures, then to the molecular structures, and the chemical
structures, and finally the electro-physiological structures of the brain.
Our studies of matter move from the macroscopic to the microscopic, and beyond
the microscopic into the atomic configurations. Thus scientific research, including
physics, has a tendency to move from the larger to the smaller, from the


wider to the narrower perspectives. In physics we have come to the point of studying
the behavior of subatomic particles, which are way beyond microscopic and molecular
dimensions. Physicists tell us of an area where matter disappears into waves. And
the substance of these waves is pure energy. But what energy is, is not clear.
These waves supposedly behave in peculiar ways. They seem to be unpredictable and
subject to influences coming from the observer in some mysterious ways, so that the
observed is determined by the observer. A further fascinating aspect of these waves
is that they can intermittently appear as particles — meaning materially substantial
— or as waves — meaning materially insubstantial. Thus matter disappears into a mysterious
something called energy.
There is a story about the definition of a specialist: A specialist is someone
who learns more and more about less and less, till finally he comes to know everything
about nothing. So then psychology, medicine, and physics, by moving from the larger
to the smaller, are like the proverbial Cheshire cat, which gradually disappeared
until there was nothing left but the smile.
In Metapsychiatry, while we do not spurn research into ever smaller elements of
matter, we are moving in the opposite direction, namely, from the smaller to the
larger, from the narrower to the wider horizon, from the finite to the infinite,
out of the valley, up the mountain, to the limitless vistas at the summit. The aim
here is ascension. In ascending into ever wider perspectives, the hope is of attaining
the viewpoint of infinity. We wish to see life sub specie eternitatis. We seek to
behold Reality in the context of infinite Mind.
So no matter what psychotherapeutic school we may be studying, we are all studying
the same phenomena, except from different levels of perception. When we descend into
the narrowest spheres, matter disappears into a mysterious undefinable something
called energy. When we move up the mountain to ever higher perspectives, the same
thing happens —matter disappears into an undefinable substance called



Spirit, God, Mind, Love-Intelligence. At the end we come to the same place.
If we study the students of matter, we find that those who have advanced the furthest
in their understanding of physics have become philosophers (Schroedinger, Heisenberg,
Einstein, von Braun, and others). Their philosophy has the character of metaphysics.
They have moved from physics to metaphysics just as we are moving from psychiatry
to Metapsychiatry. In whichever direction we move, when we come to the end of our
journey, we all meet. We meet in Spiritual Reality where everything becomes very
clear in its own particular way.
For those of us who are still in the process of the journey it is of great value
to know that the higher we rise on the upward path, the healthier we become and the
less problematic life becomes. In contrast to that, the narrower the outlook on reality,
the more troubled life seems to be. How is that possible?
In Metapsychiatry, we have succeeded in identifying five areas of narrow-mindedness
which are endless sources of suffering: (1) sensualism, (2) emotionalism, (3) intellectualism,
(4) personalism, and (5) materialism.
All these are going on in the valley. But as we rise out of the valley higher and
higher, we begin to see man not in parts but as a totality, an integrated whole,
a functioning manifestation of Love-Intelligence. Then we are in Love and in Intelligence.
In the valley people think that love is an emotion and that intelligence is intellect.
But as we rise out of the valley we see that love and intelligence are something
else. They are not intrapsychic processes. They are not in man; man is in them. Love
and intelligence do not come from inside us; we live and move and have our being
in Love-Intelligence, somewhat like fish in the sea. We do not produce love or intelligence;
intelligence and love govern us. We begin to see ourselves in a broader context,
and that is of vital importance.
Psychoanalysis, moving from the wider to the narrower, has focused attention on
intrapsychic processes and seeks to understand man by penetrating, so to speak, into
him. The



more we study what is inside, the more we find that there is nothing there. In the
meanwhile we discover psychodynamics, parental relationships, introjection, primal
scene problems, defense mechanisms of the ego, and all sorts of other things, not
unlike the atomic physicists who find electrons and protons and mesons and quarks
and seemingly endless other things until they come to the end and discover that there
is really nothing but energy.
Real energy is found on the top of the mountain to be spirit, as we mentioned before.
So, as we move out of the inwardness of things into beholding the context in which
life manifests itself, we begin to see ourselves in a different light. Perception
depends on context. The Bible says: "In him [God] we live, and move, and have our
being" (Acts 17:28). God is the context in which life occurs. Therefore, in order
to understand life and all things in the universe, it is necessary to view things
in the context of infinite Mind, Love-Intelligence.
Here the universe reveals itself as perfectly harmonious and all things within
it are beautiful, good, and meaningful. There comes upon us an awareness of peace,
assurance, gratitude, and love, and problems just vanish. Each individual becomes
a beneficial presence in the world. Without doing anything, by the mere fact of his
perspective on Reality, his presence becomes a focal point of harmony and healing
in the world. And that is the Christ consciousness. In this perspective all psychotherapeutic
schools lose their significance and are seen as just transitory phases of the human
struggle for understanding.
It is helpful to know that no matter what we are involved with in the valley, it
is just a transitory phase in our journey, and it will disappear as we rise higher
on the ascending path. It is also interesting to consider that when Jesus ascended,
his physical body dissolved. In other words, matter became spirit — just as the subatomic
particles disappear into waves and the waves turn into energy. So in ascension the
substance of matter disappears. It dematerializes itself. We can rightfully think
in terms of incarnation progressing to excarnation.
When Jesus was born, the Bible says: "Spiritus caro factus est,"



which means spirit became flesh (matter), and when he ascended, matter disappeared
into spirit. We could take this as an indication of scientific progress. Science
is already reaching the point of transubstantiation of matter. Physical science is
reaching that point by narrowing its perspective to its ultimate. Metapsychiatry
seeks to reach that point through broadening its perspective into infinity.
Jesus said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life" (John 8:12). The journey which Jesus took was from the valley to the
pinnacle, and we are trying to follow in his footsteps. Every step of the way we
find very worthwhile because as we climb higher, things get better and more beautiful.
Our burdens fall away. Of course, while climbing up the mountain there is a great
deal of downward drag to be overcome, and we may ask what this downward drag is.
It is the collective thinking of the people in the valley.
Many well-meaning people would like to be loving but find it difficult. We hear
them ask, Why can’t I love? What’s wrong with me that I cannot love? The sixth principle
of Metapsychiatry states: "If you know what, you know how." For instance, if we know
what a car is, we will know how to maintain it in running order. Similarly, we must
first find out what love is and really understand it. Then we shall know how to love.
We have defined love as the ability to express the good of God. Love is the very
substance of life. Love and intelligence constitute the substance of Reality and
we are the manifestations of this substance. So we are not really made of flesh and
blood (as we seem to be), but we are made of love and intelligence.
When Jesus gave his disciples bread and wine, he said: "Take, eat; this is my body."
And he took the cup, saying: "Drink ye all of it: For this is my blood of the new
testament... " (Matthew 26:26–28). In the history of Christianity many wars were
fought over the meaning of this statement, individuals were tortured and burned at
the stake, and all sorts of theological disputations and conflicts were fought. Even
today this still remains a controversial issue in some circles



But if we understand substance to be spiritual love and intelligence, then the "flesh
and blood" of every divine creation is spirit, and the problem of transubstantiation
becomes insubstantial. Jesus was saying, in fact, that "by accepting and partaking
of my teaching you will wake up to realize that you are made of the same stuff as
I am, because everyone is an image and likeness of God." We are emanations of Divine
Love-Intelligence. The realization of this truth makes it possible to be spontaneously
and naturally loving and to lose all sense of prejudice against our fellow man.
The Bible explains: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing"
(John 6:63). We understand this to mean that Love-Intelligence is life-giving energy.
Flesh and blood as matter are but their symbolic manifestations in the phenomenal
world. As spiritual beings we are made of the same stuff as God. In Metapsychiatry
we speak of God as Love-Intelligence. Love-Intelligence is indestructible, omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent, and omniactive. We live and move and have our being in Him,
or Her, or It.
Communion is only possible between identical substances. Water cannot commune with
oil; spirit can only commune with spirit, light with light, love with love.
Sometimes we are asked whether the appearance of flesh and blood has a purpose.
To this we can answer that the purpose of the appearance of flesh and blood — and
matter in general — is analogous to darkness. The purpose of darkness is to make
it possible for us to be conscious of light. Jesus said: "This is the condemnation
[problem], that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). Suffering stems from attachment
to darkness (materialism and operationalism). We cherish the idea of material (experiential)
living. This is the dream from which the Christ is seeking to awaken us.
On the road to understanding Love-Intelligence as the light of the Christ, we come
face to face with the belief that the essence of life inheres in experiencing. The
love of darkness could be interpreted in present-day understanding as the love



of feeling good and the love of having pleasurable experiences. As a matter of fact,
we love experiencing so much that we even enjoy pain.
What man is attached to is the dream of experiential living, painful or pleasurable.
Life seems to be synonymous with experiencing. Experiencing means sensual, emotional,
and intellectual stimulation. So the darkness we are attached to is the idea of experiencing
and doing. Doing is also a form of experiencing. We call it operationalism. So what
we consider real living, or being alive, is to have experiences and to operate in
the world. This attachment is the great stumbling block.
The ninth principle of Metapsychiatry states: "Reality cannot be experienced or
imagined; it can, however, be realized." Many sincere seekers after the truth and
the light fail to reach it because they live in the expectancy of religious and spiritual
experiences. Experiencing is not a proof of life and of the truth. Just because we
are experiencing something does not prove that it really exists. For instance, through
hypnotism man can be induced to experience whatever a hypnotist may suggest. This
is a simple proof of the illusory nature of human experiences. As a matter of fact,
experiences are but dreams, illusions, and perceptualized thoughts. The Buddhists
and Hindus speak of it as samsara or maya, meaning illusion.
Real life cannot be experienced. Therefore, not many people are really conscious
or awake, nor are they interested in being awake. Drug addicts, for instance, are
only interested in dreaming a better dream. Drug addiction is but a socially unacceptable
way of dreaming. Most of us appear to be hypnotized most of the time, even without
drugs, until we wake up. When we wake up, we discover that life and being consist
of Love-Intelligence.
The question now remains, Is there a way of facilitating the process of awakening?
Yes, there is one thing we can practice besides prayer, study, and meditation. We
can learn to lose interest in our experiences. For instance, it is quite impossible
to stop smoking, because if we were to stop smoking, we would be just dreaming the
experience of nonsmoking, which is a



dream of deprivation. However, it is possible to lose interest in smoking, because
smoking is just an experience, i.e., a dream. It is possible to lose interest in
excitement, in contending; it is possible to gradually disassociate ourselves from
our experiences and reach a point where events come to our attention but not into
our experience.
The seventh principle of Metapsychiatry states: "Nothing comes into experience
uninvited." When we are advanced on the spiritual path, we reach a point where we
have stopped inviting experiences. Events come to our attention only and we respond
to them dispassionately with intelligence and love. For instance, someone I know
was stung by a bee and the place began to swell up and become red and clearly very
painful. But this individual observed the process without fear, quite dispassionately,
and didn’t say, "I got stung by a bee." Instead, she thought to herself, "This is
an event of a bee sting, and tissue reaction seems to be taking place. It seems to
be happening, but right now I am interested in looking after my friends and my other
activities. I am an expression of Divine Love-Intelligence. That is my life." Quickly
she forgot about the pain and the entire incident. The symptoms promptly disappeared
without a trace.
This example must not be interpreted as recommending carelessness and negligence.
It illustrates the power inherent in a right understanding of man’s true substance
as Love-Intelligence, which, in turn, gives man dominion over his fears and entrapment
in the hypnotism of his experiences.
We are learning to transcend experiential life and to lose our attachment to darkness
and operationalism. The aim is to discern the light of the Christ, Reality, true
Life, which is the true substance called Love-Intelligence.
When we come to know ourselves as Love-Intelligence rather than flesh and blood,
then we are enlightened, liberated, and saved. This is bliss-consciousness.



A young woman reports the following: "I have a situation at my place of work where
one of my colleagues, a man, doesn’t seem to do any work at all, and this is driving
me insane. I am working very hard, nonstop, and he is just loafing on the job and
is getting away with it. It disturbs me no end. I tried to talk to myself and tell
myself that it is none of my business; nevertheless, I suffer a great deal from this
situation. I keep thinking that he should work just as I do."
This is a good example illustrating the fact that what we are suffering from is
not what other people do or don’t do, but what we are thinking about them. Our tormentors
are not people but our thoughts. However, God gave us dominion over our thoughts.
What does that mean? It means that we have the power to turn our attention to more
valid thoughts. Or, to put it in another way, a certain shift has to take place in
what we cherish, what we hate, or what we fear. Someone put it this way: "It seems
to me that what is asked of us is ‘capitulation.’"
This, of course, is correct because healing can occur only if we are willing to
capitulate before the will of God. The most marvelous and liberating capitulation
is this: "Father, thy will be done." This is an acknowledgment of Reality. The moment
we acknowledge Reality, we are lifted out of the insanity of "should" thinking into
the sanity of conscious awareness of what really is. Reality is the fact that God
is the only power, the only Mind, the only Operator, the harmonizing principle



of the universe, and that of our own selves we can do nothing, and we can control nothing.
By capitulating to God we regain our sanity because we get in touch with Reality.
"Should" thoughts are insane thoughts because there is no such thing as personal
power, personal mind, personal control and will. As long as we are thinking "should"
thoughts, we are existentially insane (which is not a psychiatric category). Contact
with Reality brings healing, not only to ourselves but to the situation in which
we happen to be, as well.
Yielding or capitulating to the will of God sometimes feels like dying. "Whosoever
will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall
find it" (Matthew 16:25).
One of the significant methods leading to surrender is a linguistic method, namely,
we seek to eliminate from our vocabulary and thinking process the word "should."
This method is very helpful if sincerely applied. Then there is the method of learning
to be interested in spiritual good rather than in personal power and control.
With the help of these and other steps we come closer and closer to a realization
of a life in God under the governing presence of omniactive Mind, Love-Intelligence.
Gradually, our willfulness and stubborn resistance and rigidity disappear, and more
and more we become mindful of a higher intelligence working in our affairs. Finally,
we reach a point where not for an instant do we lose sight of the fact that God is
our life, and Divine Mind governs all our thoughts, decisions, choices, motivations,
actions, responses, and expressions. We thus become spontaneous people instead of
rigid, tyrannical, and self-righteous individuals. Our entire mode of being-in-the-world
becomes spiritualized and there is a complete and radical transformation in the way
we are thinking, speaking, seeing, acting, and responding.
Among the many new trends which come and go with great rapidity in our culture
is the trend of "assertiveness training" which, interestingly enough, follows right
on the heels of



another trend called "relaxation response." These arise from the seeming fact that
life appears to be humanly controlled and dualistic. People don’t seem to understand
that to be assertive or to be timid is the same thing. Assertiveness is self-confirmatory
and so is timidity. As the French say, "Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose."
The more things seem to change, the more they remain the same.
Unenlightened life is anchored in the self-confirmatory world of ideation. What
we are about is liberation from the self-confirmatory idea of life because the self-confirmatory
idea of life is self-destructive and is the source of all suffering and confusion.
"Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans
12:2).
All self-confirmatory ideation is seductive, provocative, and intimidating. If
we live in the belief of personal power, then we live in dread of powerlessness.
The question may be asked, Does it take personal power to surrender to the will of
God? Two things are required: exhaustion or wisdom.
A schoolteacher reported the following: "I work in a nursery school and there is
currently an epidemic of colds among the children and teachers. Oddly enough, this
is quite a frequent occurrence. The whole school tends to come down with something
from time to time. Since I am working in this school, I would like to know how not
to get a cold. This seems to me to be a very difficult situation because in looking
at these children, one has the impression that sickness is their normal condition
of life. They are neglected children. Some of them are even so-called ‘abused’ children.
Most of them come from disturbed families. I would like to know how to be helpful
to them and protect myself at the same time."
There are mainly two ways to get sick: by wanting to or by not wanting to. At this
point we must ask, What is the meaning of epidemics? Epidemics reveal a universal
preoccupation with one’s physical selfhood. There is a universal natural inclination
in everyone toward self-confirmatory thinking. And



whenever someone comes up with a new way of doing it, everybody jumps on the bandwagon
and then we have an epidemic. Every time a new type of disease is publicized, it
starts a trend.
Some years ago, when appendectomy was perfected as a surgical procedure and publicized
in the papers, there was an epidemic of appendicitis all over Europe. Then there
was a time when doctors discovered the technique of tonsillectomy, and there followed
an epidemic of tonsillectomies. The world seems to be eagerly waiting for new forms
of self-confirmatory experience.
However, those on the spiritual path know that there is divine permission and power
to refuse to indulge in self-confirmatory ideation. Thus one can be spared the suffering
so common among people. One must be willing to be interested in the good of God more
than in physical experiences. The Bible says: "We are confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians
5:8).
The prevalence of self-confirmatory thinking centers on the body; we want to feel
that we have a body. It is interesting to consider the legal term "habeas corpus,"
which means that you have a body and are therefore a legal entity. Consequently the
law respects your right to physical integrity. But we say: "You just seem to have
a body, and the sooner you realize that you are a spiritual entity rather than a
physical person, the sooner you will be free of this pervasive desire for self-confirmatory
experiences."
The understanding of man’s spiritual nature is not easily arrived at, yet it is
possible. And when that realization is attained, the inclination to illness and grief
is greatly diminished.
There is a story in the Bible of a rich young man who came to Jesus and said, "I
am very interested in spiritual enlightenment; I would like to be your disciple.
What must I do?" Jesus said to him, "Go home and give away everything that you have."
He couldn’t do it because he cherished his material possessions.



As long as we cherish material possessions — which includes the body — it is impossible
to attain spiritual consciousness, because whatever we cherish is our reality. If
we are materialistically inclined, we cherish the physical presence of our loved
ones, and that is called possessiveness. Possessiveness is a particularly stubborn
form of materialism which makes it impossible to see that what is really valuable
is not matter but spirit.
When we look at a statue of the Buddha, we see that it is made of a piece of metal
or clay worth a few cents, but what the face is expressing and communicating is priceless.
It cannot be bought for money. And the value of that sculpture is not in the brass
but in the expression which it communicates. That is spirit in juxtaposition to matter.
When we love one another we love the spiritual qualities which we manifest rather
than blue eyes, brown hair, organs, etc. We have to outgrow the primitive form of
love which focuses on the tangible, and we have to cultivate an appreciation of spiritual
qualities in one another to a point where these become of primary value. In proportion
that we have learned to appreciate spiritual qualities, our interest in the material
substance of people, things, and places will fade out of awareness and will lose
its importance. This can reach a point when a piece of property or a physical body
completely disappears from thought and the spiritual qualities are clearly present.
And thus it happens that enlightened people do not grieve. They do not have that
great sense of loss when a loved one departs because the spiritual qualities are
always present. They never die. "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted"
(Matthew 5:4), provided they come to understand that they haven’t lost what is truly
essential.
The way to heal grief is to spiritualize our concept of the departed one. The more
clearly we are able to see the spiritual qualities of an individual, the less grief
there will be because there will be no sense of loss. The real cannot be lost. If
we are more mature in our love and ask ourselves, what do we love about our children
or our friends, we will see that it is



not their physical appearance but their qualities. Therefore, it is impossible to lose a loved one.
A mother of a college-age boy related the following experience: "Recently, we went
to visit our son at his school. Lately, I was able not to miss him because I have
learned to see him in spiritual terms rather than as a physical personality. But
on our way down, as we approached the school, certain emotionalism invaded my consciousness
and I couldn’t wait to see him and to feel him near me. I wanted to be near his body.
This was a great setback for me, and I realized I did him a disservice too, because
all I was interested in was to make myself feel good by using him. It is incredible
how that kind of thinking can take you out of spiritual consciousness and plunge
you into the ‘sea of mental garbage.’ This experience was an eye-opener to me. Especially,
I was keenly aware of my sadness at parting, which previously usually was not there."
The enlightened way of communicating love is without much physical contact, because
the love which is communicated through the senses is, in fact, mutual exploitation
for the purpose of sensory pleasure. Real love, being spiritual, needs no physical
contact, and yet it communicates itself and has a powerful affirmative impact. The
stimulation of the senses through bodily contact increases the desire for self-confirmatory
experiences, and the more we love someone in this manner, the more susceptible he
or she becomes to physical illness, because through physical love, petting, fondling,
hugging, kissing, pampering, we are just whetting the appetite for self-confirmatory
ideation. But spiritual love has a contrary effect. It lifts the loved one out of
his body awareness into the consciousness of Divine Reality, where everything is
perfect and man is not susceptible to illness and problems.



In everyone’s life experience there are occasions of criticism, attacks, and rejection.
The question is, How to cope with these or minimize their effects? Man has no right
to influence anyone; it is, however, his duty to God to be influential. How are we
to understand that? We become influential by embodying the right values and by making
valid statements about what is intelligent, what is good, what is helpful, what is
creative, what is beautiful, what is wholesome, and leaving it up to others to accept
or reject. We can never be clever enough to prevent people from thinking the way
they want to think, and even if we were, it would not be right to do it. Therefore,
in order to be beneficial presences either in spiritual guidance, in psychotherapy,
in marital life, in group life, or in life in general, we need to learn the nonpersonal
mode of being-in-the-world.
Whatever ideas we present, we must know that those are not our own ideas. Good
ideas come from God through inspiration. They are gifts of creative Mind. We present
them for free consideration and allow people the freedom to respond to them positively
or negatively. To some business people and politicians this, of course, would seem
absurd because in the business world and in politics there is a belief that one has
to sell ideas to people. But if we do sell our ideas to people, they will be troublesome;
if we do not succeed, we will be troubled. In either case no good can come of it.
The only solution is to be a nonpersonal beneficial presence, voicing whatever seems
to be existentially valid in any particular situation. And then,



if there is criticism and contention and opposition, it will in no way have an effect
on us or on anyone else. The truth cannot be destroyed by criticism. It stands by
itself. It is indestructible. And since we are not personal owners of it, we can
in no way be frustrated or affected by its rejection. Interestingly enough, when
the truth is presented in a personal way, it becomes unacceptable because we don’t
know where the truth begins and we end.
It is not easy to learn the nonpersonal mode of communicating ideas because we
are so interested in our own personhood or in the personhood of other people. Often,
when we try to be nonpersonal, we wind up being impersonal. The impersonal, however,
is personal. When we are nonpersonal then the ideas are the focus of attention. When
we are personal, we are pushing ourselves into the focus of attention. When we are
impersonal we are sort of rejecting others and thereby making them the focus of attention.
To reject or to accept is the same. If we reject someone, we are making him important
as a person in a negative way. If we accept someone, we are making him important
positively.
A beneficial presence in the world is a witness to the truth. It is not the witness
that is important but the truth. The nonpersonal way is issue-centered, and people
are given the right to misunderstand, even distort the issues, without this constituting
a personal attack.
All these things sound rather simple. However, they are not really simple because
the nonpersonal mode of being-in-theworld can be frightening. To most people it conjures
up the fear of utter loneliness. Most of us have a fear of letting go of the old
and facing something new. People can be attached to persons, places, things, and
ideas, and these attachments can be unconscious and can be very strong. Anyone and
anything that would tend to separate us from our attachments is liable to arouse
a great deal of anxiety. In psychoanalysis this is called separation anxiety, but
we call it existential anxiety. All of us have a tendency to lean on some person,
some place, or some thing. We say we get used to certain relationships. When



a necessity for a change arises, let us say, to part with some person — it could
be a friend, or a spouse, or a child going off to college — we are often seized with
tremendous anxiety. This anxiety can manifest itself in the form of some physical
illness. We may believe that some outward circumstance is responsible for our condition
and we do not realize that actually what we are confronted with is existential anxiety.
Sometimes, as we grow more mature and our values change, it is inevitable that
we have to give up certain things which we have come to lean on for a sense of security.
It can be a big issue or it can be something trivial. In teaching Metapsychiatry
it sometimes happens that the viewpoints expressed point up the invalidity of some
other viewpoints. If among the students there is someone who has developed an attachment
to a certain psychotherapeutic school or a certain way of thinking, such a student
may become disturbed, contentious, and defensive of his previous position.
Everyone is, to a certain degree, superstitious until he finds that power which
can never be lost, refuted, or destroyed. And this power is God, omnipotent Mind,
Love-Intelligence. This is the only way to attain a real sense of assurance. The
Bible says: "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace" (Job 22:21). If we do
not have this acquaintance with omniactive Love-Intelligence as an existential Reality,
we are forever reaching out for some invalid thing to cling to. The false systems
of security are personal, materialistic, and intellectual. If we learn to lean on
omnipresent Mind, we can never be separated from the source of our strength.
Here we can mention a startling fact, namely, whenever we find ourselves facing
some physical symptom or any other kind of problem, we can be sure that we are in
a state of fear. Some would say that the fear is generated by the threat to our health,
or to our peace, but that is not correct. It is exactly the other way around. The
fear is primary and the sickness or a distressing situation is just an indication
of the fact that we are in a state of fear because something is threatening our security
system. This can be a person, or the dawning of a new



idea which is threatening to invalidate an old idea, etc. There is no sickness or
problem that is not based on an underlying fear of the collapse of a false system
of security.
Recently I spoke to a young lady whose great system of security was self-reliance.
This young writer lived for the past two years in a primitive hut in the woods of
Maine, all by herself writing a novel. She was proud to relate how she was able to
take care of herself and all her needs fearlessly and efficiently, relying on no
one at all, how she could surmount all obstacles in her life without anyone’s help.
However, lately she had come up against an enemy which she was unable to "handle."
She had developed some kind of a spinal condition and no one seemed to be able to
help her. This had completely disorganized her security system. She lives in great
fear and with a sense of utter failure, not knowing which way to turn, whom to believe,
and what to do.
Metapsychiatry is endeavoring to help her understand that self-reliance or ego
strength, while it is universally extolled as a virtue, is actually just an illusory
and unreliable security system. In order to be healed, one needs to find the existentially
valid way of fearlessness, namely, conscious awareness of that "love [which] casteth
out fear" (1 John 4:18). This alone is fail-safe.



What does it mean when we lose our sense of humor? When we lose our sense of humor
it is a sign that we have become involved with the cares of this world, that we have
begun to take things seriously, that we are hypnotized and afraid. At this point
we seem to be unable to transcend the material world and to take a higher view of
things. We have also lost sight of God.
Some Zen Masters believe that Jesus was always joyous, even under the seemingly
most trying circumstances. And indeed, they reveal to us that enlightened man is
never serious; he is reverential, but his outlook is joyful, confident, assured,
and peaceful.
To be serious is to be self-righteous. The foundation of healthy humor is joy.
Before we can have a sense of humor, we must be joyous. If we are joyless, we are
humorless. The question is now, What does it take to be joyous? This may become clear
if we consider the fact that one of the most undesirable qualities anyone can manifest
is that of a man who takes himself too seriously. Almost everyone finds this objectionable.
What does it mean when we take ourselves too seriously? It is an indication that
we believe that we live in our heads. There are people who have the illusion that
they live in their heads. There are people who believe they live in their senses.
Some believe they live in their emotions. These are the intellectuals, the sensualists,
the emotional people, and the materialists. The stronger this belief is, the more
serious



and anxious such an individual will be and, as a consequence, he will be joyless.
Joy comes to us when we begin to see that we live and move and have our being in
God, in infinite Mind. When these insights dawn upon us, we begin to see ourselves
in a larger context, and with that, there is a growing sense of freedom and dominion.
It is important to distinguish between healthy humor and sick humor. Sick humor
is not really humor. It is pseudo-humor and in actuality it is but a release of hostile
feelings. It is a disguised way of expressing hostility and hurting people. It is
a seduction to join in demeaning people or circumstances. Real humor is based on
a sudden unmasking of the paradoxical nature of human experiences. This is tension
releasing, enlightening, and uplifting. It liberates us from the danger of taking
ourselves too seriously.
There is a Zen story which describes a monk who reached Satori, which is the experience
of sudden enlightenment. This monk is described as having had a sudden spell of laughter
lasting two days. It is safe to assume that from a divine perspective the human condition
must appear quite ridiculous. At times we can catch a glimpse of this truth while
reading historical novels, or seeing reruns of old movies which at one time were
considered serious portrayals of real life.
Some humorless people tend to exert a hypnotic spell over others and intimidate
them to the point where no one dares to be happy in their presence. Some religious
leaders and evangelists have a tendency to mesmerize their audiences causing them
to be joyless and fearful. They induce a sense of oppression, a gloom of doom. A
characteristic feature of their mode of communication is that of pointing their fingers
at people and waving their hands in an endeavor to personalize their message.
It is very important to understand how hypnotism works, so that one may become
immune against this nefarious endeavor to deprive one of joy. Hypnotism works three
ways: through seduction, provocation, and intimidation. We can tell when we



are hypnotized by the fact that we find ourselves suddenly joyless, with no sense
of humor. In this condition we are very susceptible to accidents, illness, and conflicts
with our fellow men. Jesus warned us against mesmerism and admonished all to be sober
and vigilant, to watch and pray.
Another powerful defense against hypnotism is compassion. Compassion understands
that the would-be hypnotist is an ignorant individual — usually power-mad — and that
his is a very troublesome condition. Compassion can see through the error and forgive
because it is not threatened.
By understanding ourselves as manifestations of Divine Love-Intelligence, living
in Divine Mind, we can transcend this human mockery and remain free. Then there can
be joy, the laughter of release, and freedom in the knowledge that "none of these
things moves me" (Acts 20:24).
A young lady remarked, "The more I struggle to be somebody, the more joyless I
become and tend to develop backaches and headaches, etc. Things become especially
bad when I start thinking about my background and the influence my parents had on
me. Somehow I keep having the idea that because of my past, I am where I am and I
cannot get out of it. These thoughts express themselves in painful spasms in my back.
The question which plagues me is this — how can I disconnect myself from the past...
?"
First we must realize that there is no such thing as cause and effect. The present
is not caused by the past; it only seems that way. The moment we accept a "logical"
cause-and-effect explanation, we are lost in a sense of victimization, which is self-confirmatory.
We have descended into the quagmire of interaction thinking wherein there is no hope
of healing. We are involved in thinking of ourselves as conditioned human personalities.
On that level there are no solutions. The human condition is incurable. Real solutions
are spiritual, not psychological. We must resist the temptation to diagnose our problems
psychologically.
To find healing we must make a radical departure from the past, from psychology,
and from the human condition, and



recognize that we are spiritual emanations of infinite Love-Intelligence. We must
let go of the past and of the illusion that we are human persons, molded by our parents.
Man is a divine consciousness and the past never was, for God is not in the past,
He is not in the future, and not in the present. God, life, and Reality are in the
timeless now. We do not live in a time frame, for the past is pride, the future is
ambition, and the present is vanity. Spiritual existence takes place in the timeless
now and is therefore perfect.
The above-mentioned young lady was asked whether she cherished her past. She quickly
answered, "I hate it." At this point she was confronted by the fact that whether
she cherished her past or hated it, it was essentially the same thing because it
means that she was involved with it.
This again demonstrates the paradoxical nature of the human dilemma, which can
at times be very humorous when it comes into awareness as a surprise. On such occasions
the light of the truth breaks through in consciousness, and we may receive a healing
realization of the nondual nature of Reality. Here all human problems disappear,
just as darkness disappears with the coming of light.
In Metapsychiatry we often talk of the good of God. Just what the good of God is,
is not easily understood. For instance, we can understand what the good of an apple
is because we can "sink our teeth" into it, but the good of God is more elusive.
Yet it is very important to understand it and to develop the capacity to be aware
of it.
What makes the understanding of the good of God difficult is materialism, personalism,
sensualism, emotionalism, and intellectualism, for it is natural to think of the
good things in life in terms of "tangibles." The Bible clearly states: "The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto
him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians
2:14). Therefore, if we have not yet developed this spiritual discernment which we
all have but which is just hidden, we really do not know what we are talking about
when we talk about



the good of God. It is just words to us. But if we cultivate spiritual awareness,
we can develop the faculty of spiritual discernment.
When we have awakened this faculty in ourselves, we leave behind the natural man.
We are not human beings any more. We are spiritual beings. "Awake thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Ephesians 5:14). Materialism
is deadness.
We seek to become aware of the fact that the good of God already is, always was,
and always will be. But in order to know what it really is, we must have first-hand
experiential awareness of it, and we speak of the awareness of spiritual blessedness
and ask, What is it? Is it warm? Is it cool? What does it taste like? What does it
look like? What is its shape? Where can it be found? Where is it located? How much
does it weigh? It has none of these characteristics. Spiritual blessedness is a recognition
of the fact that everything everywhere is already all right and all things are working
together for good; that yes is good and no is also good.
When we have developed this awareness, we know that we do not have to agonize over
what should be or what should not be; we do not have to control anything anymore.
There is a higher intelligence present, active, operating, harmonizing all our affairs
and blessing us.
Now the question arises, What does it take to have spiritual discernment at all
times? We have to be willing to give up the natural man and welcome spiritual existence
and identity, for we cannot serve two masters. For instance, we cannot be greedy
for money and possessions and at the same time maintain spiritual consciousness.
The more we are willing to leave behind the "five gates of hell" (sensualism, emotionalism,
intellectualism, personalism, and materialism), the easier it is to wake up to the
good of God, and the more real it will become to us.
The Bible says, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive"
(1 Corinthians 15:22). We could paraphrase this passage by saying: As in Adam all
are subject to sick-



ness and suffering, to feeling good and to feeling bad, even so in Christ Jesus all
are healed and live in spiritual bliss. The supreme good is bliss-consciousness,
which is entirely separate from conventional human experiences. Bliss-consciousness
is not a human experience. It is a spiritual condition.
Once we have discovered bliss-consciousness we are no longer interested in feeling
good or feeling bad, being rich or being poor, being right or being wrong, having
power or being powerless. We are interested in true happiness which "changeth not."
This is not in the domain of feelings. It is not experiential. It is a state of consciousness
which is the Kingdom of God. Therefore, we do not ask each other, How do you feel?
And we do not speak about how we feel. We pay very little attention to these preoccupations
of natural man.
At this point perhaps it would be helpful to remind ourselves what the word "spiritual"
means. Spiritual is that which is neither material nor psychological, for psychology
is the activity of the fleshly mind. So whatever is psychological is actually material.
Spiritual is that which transcends the material, the psychological, the emotional,
the sensual, and the temporal.
The right understanding of the good of God can turn our attention from the tribulations
of this world to spiritual blessedness, and this may result in healing and comfort.
We could say: In the world of "should" and "should not" we shall have tribulations
but let us be of good cheer, for there is a way to overcome (transcend) this world.
Whatever we experience seems to us to be real. We say, This is real because I can
experience it. But a hypnotist could make us experience anything he wanted to and
it would not be reality. This proves that what we experience is a dream, whether
it is food, or aches and pains, or time, or feeling good, or feeling bad. This is
the dream from which Jesus Christ comes to awaken us. It is not really life. It is
a dream about life. Therefore, the biblical statement says: "Awake thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead" (Ephesians 5:14).



A thirty-five-year-old man reported that he developed a bad cold on the occasion
of his parents’ visit with him over the Christmas holidays. During this time he became
aware of the fact that his parents were neither interested in him, nor in his work,
nor in anything else connected with his life, that they were only pursuing their
private pleasures. He had a massive experience of abandonment.
The question may be rightfully asked, What does it mean to feel abandoned? A sense
of abandonment awakens in us certain deep-seated fears of annihilation, stemming
from childhood. The interesting thing about this is that it seems to be timeless.
This unconscious fear does not diminish with time, and the experience can occur in
adults just as easily as in children.
Often, when grown up, we may believe that we have outgrown our parents, that we
have espoused entirely new ways of living, that we have come to live by different
values, and that we are fully emancipated from our parents. This, however, is not
as simple as it would seem. Occasional encounters with our parents may stir up deeply
rooted anxieties and this may be accompanied by certain physical and emotional breakdowns
and disturbances.
It is well known that at Christmas and other holidays, when families gather usually
in anticipation of happiness and love, unpleasant side effects tend to develop. It
is exactly the fear of abandonment which makes it so difficult to espouse values



contrary to, or different from, those of our parents. We dare not abandon our parents’
values lest they abandon us. Interestingly enough, this fear can be just as strong
after the parents have died. There is deep-seated fear of abandonment, a fear of
annihilation which we call existential anxiety.
Sometimes our parents live by weird value systems. For instance, if parents believe
in physical beatings and abuse, a child may grow up with a conviction that he loves
to be beaten and that he craves it. He may even pay someone to beat him. Being beaten
is associated in his thoughts with survival. Therefore, he loves it. He may even
get sexual pleasure out of it. If life depends on being beaten, then there is a love
of being beaten.
These instances of irrational cravings may come in a variety of forms and are called
compulsions. When survival is at issue, then there is a compulsion to perform whatever
is required. Thus it seems difficult to change values, because it may mean separation
from significant people in individual lives.
Actually, there is only one way to be healed of existential anxiety, namely, to
really come to understand that God is our father and our mother, that we are offspring
of omniactive Love-Intelligence, that we are individual expressions of divine consciousness.
Once we understand that, then our parents become our sisters and brothers and we
are not living in deep-rooted fear of abandonment, because our real father and mother
can never be separated from us. We can never be abandoned by omnipresent Love-Intelligence.
Without that realization we would be just deceiving ourselves about our independence.
No amount of psychologizing will really bring about an emancipation of an individual
from dependency on his parents. He may gain intellectual insight into his situation,
but he will not be free. Without God this is not possible. With God all things are
possible.
The questions may be asked, How can the realization of divine parenthood occur
in the consciousness of an individual seeker? Is there anything that can facilitate
this process? An important factor in the achievement of this goal is a willingness



to be "scared." Our compulsions and our clinging to our human parents and their values
are efforts at warding off our fear of abandonment.
A young lady lived with the conviction that she hates all men, particularly her
husband. She was actually living the life of a compulsive man-hater and a sower of
dissension. One day, while talking with her mother on the telephone, she became aware
of, and actually heard her mother say that she would not come to visit her as long
as her husband was in the house. After she hung up the phone, she became aware of
a sense of intimidation. This alerted her to the problem and she began to pray by
affirming: "God is my Mother; my mother is not God. My life is in God; I refuse to
be intimidated. No one can make me hate my husband."
Thus, this example illustrates that first we must become aware of the fact that
our compulsions are efforts at avoiding fear. We are afraid to be afraid. Just as
we have to be willing to be embarrassed if we want to become humble, we also must
be willing to endure the fear of annihilation in order to discover that beyond nothingness
there is God. "The everlasting arms of Love" are awaiting us beyond the curtain of
fear.
A free-lance photographer reported that his life was very disconcerting, especially
on days when there were no assignments to fill. He wished he could have a regular
job to go to in the morning and set hours of work every day. In other words, he longed
for a structured life-style where time and space and activity were clearly circumscribed
and under control.
There seems to be in man a universal longing for structure. There seems to be a
fear of the formless and a corresponding desire to give form to every idea. Some
individuals can feel comfortable only in the army or in jail or in some other severely
structured setting. There are some who like to wear restrictive clothing; for instance,
some women cannot function without wearing a corset, etc. In general, we can say
the more structure the less life. A corpse is a completely structured man.
On the other hand, we could say that without structure



there would be chaos, anarchy, and confusion. Life would not be possible. Thus, we
must admit that structure is necessary for intelligent and orderly existence. The
question is, What kind of structure would be most compatible with healthy, fulfilling
life? It seems that it would have to be a structure which would permit the maximum
freedom of expression for the creative spirit.
This brings us to a consideration of the issue of order. From an existential standpoint
we can distinguish two types of order: sick order and healthy order. In sick order
there is tyranny and repression. It is based on human willfulness. It is a manifestation
of "should" thinking. By this we mean thinking in terms of preconceived ideas of
what should be or what should not be. This kind of sick order can be found in totalitarian
systems of government, in which case we speak of pathological societies; or in family
situations it can manifest itself in rebelliousness and obsessive-compulsive neurotic
disturbances of individuals. Another form of sick order is the result of permissiveness
which results in licentious disorderliness, or chaotic conditions of confusion, neglect,
and criminality both in individuals and society, as for instance in some school systems
under the influence of mistaken philosophies and educational policies.
Thus we see that structure, while absolutely necessary, remains a constant problem,
and it seems almost impossible to have just the right amount of it at all times and
under all circumstances. If there is too much of it, it leads to strangulation; and
if there is too little of it, it leads to disorganization, anxiety, and chaos. We
see that totalitarian regimes have their problems and the so-called "free" societies
with democratic systems of government have their problems. Analogously, institutions,
families, and individuals also suffer from either too much structure or too little.
Thus we have to consider the possibility of healthy order. As was mentioned before,
sick order or structure is based on human willfulness or human will-lessness, overconcern
or neglect, tyranny or permissiveness. Sick order is a disease of the



human will. Sick order is man made. Pathological structures are indicative of the
failure of the humanistic idea.
In contrast to this, healthy order is primarily characterized by principles of
aesthetics. Here beauty, harmony, joy, intelligence, love, and the enhancement of
the quality of life are the basic ingredients. For instance, a bouquet of flowers
or a blossoming forsythia bush may be judged very unstructured, even haphazard; yet
inherent in each is a higher type of order and structure signifying aesthetic value.
Aesthetic structures are transcendent and independent of human volition and calculative
thinking. When Mao Tse-tung proclaimed, "Let a hundred flowers bloom," he didn’t
realize what consequences this order would have on his ideological tyranny. Little
wonder he had to rescind his statement shortly thereafter.
Healthy order is spiritual. Spiritual values and principles constitute the "infinite
structure" which makes freedom and responsibility compatible with creativity and
fulfillment. Healthy order is under the control of infinite creative Mind, cosmic
Love-Intelligence.
The biblical warning against "graven images" can be understood as an attempt at
counteracting the tendency of the human mind to give form to the formless and in
the process lose sight of the true God, infinite Love-Intelligence.
The well-known tendency of various religions toward formalism and ritualism also
belongs in the category of attempting to confine the infinite to finite structures.
Whenever this happens, man stops asking, What is God? and starts asking, What should
I do to please God? In this process he winds up worshiping himself as a worshiper.
The right understanding of "infinite structure" makes it possible to live and function
in the world effectively in great freedom and usefulness. It is possible to become
fearless, loving, and creative under most circumstances. When Jesus spoke of "being
in the world but not of it," he may have been pointing to the possibility of transcendence
of the restrictive structures of unenlightened existence. In a similar vein the Zen
Masters speak of enlightenment as entering the "Gateless Gate."



When human consciousness awakens to Spiritual Reality, it comes into conscious
at-one-ment with infinite Mind. This is also spoken of as Cosmic Consciousness. Here
spiritual and aesthetic values govern man’s functioning, and life is a manifestation
of the divine order. All things are governed by creative Love-Intelligence. Here
there is neither tyranny nor permissiveness.
"Infinite structure" makes freedom and responsibility compatible because responsibility
is man’s ability to respond to the beautiful, the good, and the true.
Jesus’ heart-rending cry from the cross, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew
27:46) has been a great problem to many sincere believers and students of the Truth.
Many answers have been given. For instance, one reply was that Jesus was reciting
the lines from the twenty-second Psalm, or that he was speaking for the world whose
sins he took upon himself, etc. Somehow these answers do not seem satisfactory, and
debates about the sentence have never stopped.
The question is usually divided into two parts: First, why did he say what he said?
Second, how could he say it, since he himself was God, or the son of God, or the
most enlightened man who ever lived and whose central theme was "I and my Father
are one" (John 10:30)?
Whenever satisfactory answers are difficult to arrive at, it usually indicates
that the wrong questions are being asked. An invalid question can never provide a
satisfactory answer. Therefore, instead of asking, Why? and How? it might be preferable
to ask, What is the meaning of the cry "Father, why hast thou abandoned me?"
Here it is helpful to remind ourselves that Jesus was an existential teacher. This
means that he utilized every life situation to teach the world about the human condition
and how to overcome it through the right understanding of God.
Since the cross is the symbol of human suffering, his outcry could be understood
as a demonstration of what happens to all of us when confronted with severe pain.
We all tend to cry out in agony that God has abandoned us. We have the impression
of



a separation between God and man. It is possible that Jesus endeavored to teach us
that the meaning of suffering lies in an unawareness of man’s inseparability from
God. We do not suffer because God has abandoned us, but we suffer because we are
ignorant of our at-one-ment with God, infinite Love-Intelligence.
At times when the importance of constant conscious awareness of God’s presence
becomes clear to a student of the Way, he may wish to avoid contact with people and
other forms of distraction. The danger here is that of becoming a recluse. Monasticism
has often been misinterpreted in terms of avoidance of the world and spiritual isolationism.
However, Jesus clearly stated that we must be "in the world, yet not of it" (2 Corinthians
10:3). Metapsychiatry takes this to mean that an enlightened man is a participant
in the affairs of the world as a "beneficial presence" rather than a beneficent person,
which means that he is a constructive citizen without being a so-called "do gooder,"
or manipulator, or power broker. He is influential without influencing anyone. He
neither seeks nor shuns social participation.
All things tend to work together for good around him for he is a focal point of
harmony and healing. His consciousness is in constant relation to the source of all
life, power, wisdom, and love. He is conscious of Omnipresence, which precludes the
possibility of separation between God and man.
In order to participate in the world as a beneficial presence it is also needed
to understand what constitutes healthy communication. For there are many forms of
communication, for instance: debating, discussing, arguing, persuading, negotiating,
selling, contending, propagandizing, boasting, baiting, bullying, bickering, etc.
A beneficial presence in the world practices the art of hermeneutic dialogue, which
is a joint participation in a process of shedding light on the truth at hand. As
the Bible puts it: "Come, let us reason together" (Isaiah 1:18). The Buddhists speak
of "tathata" or "true suchness," which could also be called issue-oriented communication,
or Truth-centered living.



Our culture seems to be obsessed with sex. Recently there was a three-hour-long
program on the educational television station devoted to the topic of sex. Elegant
and sophisticated professional people talked with scientific authoritativeness about
the desirability of sex. For three hours they advised the public on how to do sex.
"How to do" was the basic consideration upon which the whole program was built.
How to? is an operational question. The existential question is, What is it? The
sixth principle of Metapsychiatry is this: "If you know what, you know how." But
if we are studying "how," we may never know "what." Therefore, whenever we approach
any issue in life or in our profession, the first question to ask is, What is it?
not, How do you do it? Suppose we then apply this existential inquiry to the mystery
of sex and ask, What is sex? A panel member on the television program called it "pleasuring,"
which seems like a new word. Others called it recreation; someone else referred to
it as "penile thrust."
The main idea that came through on that program was that the central issue in sex
is orgasm. Assuming that the most important thing in sex is orgasm, they arrived
at the conclusion that any kind of sex is desirable and good as long as it leads
to an orgasm. So they were talking about sado-masochism, homosexuality, lesbianism,
oral sex, sex "above the belt and below the belt," etc. On the surface it seems to
be a liberation from Victorian and religious prudishness and hypocrisy. There is
now the freedom of talking about and practicing sex



without shame and guilt, and it has become the topic of conversation on all levels
of society, even on television, where children of all ages are exposed to it.
Surely there is some good in freedom of expression because prudishness and hypocrisy
were ways of repression and perpetuation of ignorance. But there are two types of
ignorance. There is negative ignorance and there is positive ignorance. In the Victorian
era and in the ages of religious hypocrisy there was negative ignorance; people just
did not know anything. Ignorance is always troublesome. But there is a worse kind
of ignorance and that is positive ignorance. It is when we think we know but we don’t
really know. As mentioned previously, the philosopher Heidegger speaks of positive
ignorance this way: If a blind man knows that he is blind, he is safe because he
knows that he cannot see and he proceeds carefully. But suppose that there was a
blind man who believed that he could see. Wouldn’t he be in grave danger of hurting
himself?
Which ignorance is more dangerous, the negative or the positive ignorance? When
we have an operational view of sex we are in a state of positive ignorance because
we think we know and we proceed recklessly. It is very possible that many of the
tragedies of marital life, which present-day statistics allude to, are based on attempts
to lead a sex life in marriage based on positive ignorance. People think they know
what sex is and they try to live accordingly, and it does not really work.
It is a very naïve assumption that sex is a physical act. If we give it a little
thought, we notice that it is absolutely impossible to have sex without certain kinds
of thoughts. It is absolutely impossible for a man to have an erection without some
specific erotogenic thought. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said: "Sine ratione
nihil est," which means nothing can happen without thought. So the fundamental element
in all sexual activity is thought. Since it is not possible to have sex without thoughts,
therefore sex is a mental activity; it is not just a physical act. In the operational
approach to sex this "minor" detail is completely overlooked.
If sex is not a physical act but a mental one, wouldn’t it stand



to reason that the primary issue to consider are those thought processes which underlie
the sexual activity? We could say that the sexual act itself is but a shadow of thought.
The essential element of sex is thought. Sex, therefore, is not physical but mental.
If we want to understand good sex — and by good I mean healthy — then we have to
study those mental processes which underlie healthy sexual expression. Any kind of
sexual act which has unhealthy mental content, even though on the surface it is seemingly
pleasurable, may be pathological and pathogenic, which means one could have seemingly
good sex but actually become sicker in the process.
If we understand sex as a shadow of mental processes, then we will see that every
sexual act, whether seemingly healthy or unhealthy, has a meaning. That is, it has
a mental equivalent. Previously we defined meaning as a mental equivalent of a phenomenon.
Sex is the phenomenon and the thoughts which underlie the sexual act comprise the
meaning of that phenomenon, i.e., the mental equivalent.
Earlier we mentioned a case of a man who was developing many problems and who lived
in a homosexual marriage. His favorite mode of sexual expression was sodomy. He claimed
to love his partner. He claimed to have terrific orgasms. Sex to him was the focus
and center of all creativity, and he built a certain romantic fantasy around it.
As we were exploring his mode of being-in-the-world, we discovered that his fantasies
revolved around having power to coerce, to subjugate, and to humiliate other people.
And this fantasy was the mental basis for his sexual expression. But of course, sex
is just one aspect of life. Fantasies cannot be limited to sexual expression. They
tend to overflow into other areas of life experience. One cannot be a sadistic aggressor
in bed only, and be an intelligent beneficial presence in the world and a healthy
individual in one’s social and professional life. Whatever the underlying fantasies
that nurture the sexual desires are the same fantasies that will enter and color
the mode of being-in-the-world, namely, the character structure and mental health.
So the character and the mode of being-in-the-world of this particular man was that
of



a coercively interacting, willful-aggressive, hostile-demanding individual who had
many other problems in life besides his particular mode of practicing sex.
We are as healthy as our thoughts are. Mental health depends on existentially valid
thinking. What constitutes existentially valid thinking? How do we know what is a
healthy-minded individual? Is there a way of being sure? Who is to tell us how we
should think? The sex educators imply that whatever can provide man with the most
pleasurable orgasm is healthy. However, a rapist gets his most powerful orgasm through
raping. A masochist gets his orgasm through being defiled, humiliated, abused, even
tortured. There is no limit to how far erotic fantasies can take man. The aim of
erotic fantasies is the attainment of maximum orgiastic pleasure.
There is a general assumption that the greater the pleasure, the healthier the
sex, and the healthier the sex, the healthier man is. Initially Freud believed that
too. He postulated a criterion of mental health and called it genital primacy. He
believed that if one can perform the sexual act genitally and get a big charge out
of it, this is proof positive of health. Later he had to revise this naïve idea,
and that is how ego psychology came into being.
But the above-mentioned television program, which may have been watched by millions
of people throughout the United States, gave the impression that any kind of sex
is good and desirable as long as it is pleasurable. However, pleasure and orgasm
are in no way indicative of health. Metapsychiatry is not against pleasure but neither
does it consider it to be a criterion of health. Suppose we put pleasure under the
existential microscope and ask the question, What is it? We already discovered that
sex is mental and now we ask, What is pleasure? We do not ask, How do you get pleasure,
but, What is it? The answer is that pleasure is a thought, a self-confirmatory idea.
Pleasure says: "I feel, therefore I am." Now suppose we ask the question, What is
pain? It is the same thing. What does pain say? It says: "I feel, therefore I am."



It would seem that man’s central preoccupation is the question, Do I exist, or
don’t I exist? Self-confirmatory ideation is the underlying dynamism which drives
man to seek pleasure, pain, excitement, sorrow, remorse, hatred, feeling good, feeling
bad, etc. Sex is just one of the many ways man seeks to confirm himself as actually
existing as an individual physical person. Now we can understand how it is possible
that to be a sadist or a masochist is the same, that to be a sex fiend or an ascetic
is the same; sex and nonsex is the same.
At this point the question arises, Where do we go from here? The ancient sages,
brilliant philosophers, various religious seers, and the Bible show us the way into
the spiritual dimension of consciousness. What do we find there? We find truth, love,
joy, harmony, supreme intelligence, creativity, peace, assurance, healing, perfect
life, and freedom. Ye shall know the truth of existence and this truth shall make
you free. Free from what? Free from pleasure? No. The Bible says: "For with thee
is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9). "Thou wilt
show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there
are pleasures for evermore" (Psalm 16:11). The spiritual life is not devoid of pleasure,
but this pleasure is qualitatively different because it is not self-confirmatory.
It is confirmatory of the basic goodness of Reality. Reality is all good, perfect,
wholesome, and without complications.
When we understand what Reality is, we are not losing anything that is good. We
are only discovering what is really good and not what is good and evil. Ignorant
man is crucified between good and evil, pleasure and pain, yes and no. Enlightened
man knows the good which has no opposite. He knows
the nondual realm of Reality.
Spiritual existence is not an operational idea; it is a fact of being. If we are
to educate people about anything, it is important to start out with the right question.
If we start out teaching and educating with the wrong question, we will not be educators.
We will be miseducators. The television program was a massive example of miseducation
offered to the nation under



the pretext of authoritative scientific knowledge. And that is sad, because the people
who got educated through that program will have to suffer the consequences of their
positive ignorance.



It has been often observed by individuals who are trying to lose weight that they
run into a situation where they feel depressed if they don’t eat, and they feel depressed
if they eat. If they don’t eat, they feel deprived of the pleasure of eating, and
if they eat, they feel deprived of the prospect of becoming slim. Thus they are caught
on the horns of a dilemma.
This predicament reveals an important aspect of spiritual progress. On the spiritual
path we are required to give up many cherished notions with which we have grown up
from childhood on and which we have come to consider vitally important for happiness,
even survival.
I remember a little boy who used to stop at store windows displaying toys, and
over and over again he would cry out: "I want this more than anything else in the
world!" This little one is in all of us, and there are many "toys" which we believe
to be absolutely essential for our happiness. On the path we must yield them up one
by one. In the process we may experience depressions, episodes of feeling deprived
and sorry for ourselves. If we don’t understand the dynamics of this process, we
may get scared about what is happening to us. Therefore, it is helpful to know that
when we feel the worst, that is when we make progress. When we seem to be stagnating,
we are not stagnating. We are gestating. We are in the process of parting with some
cherished idea.
Sometimes this cherished idea is what we love, sometimes it is what we love to
hate, and at other times it is what we



love to intimidate ourselves with. These are three forms of self-confirmatory ideation
which we have to yield up sooner
or later, for without yielding there is no healing. No matter how
much we know about the truth, no matter how well we understand the meaning of our
problems, without yielding them up there can be no healing.
I remember a young woman, well advanced on the spiritual path and very receptive
to spiritual truths, who had periods of depression and a sense of futility, hopelessness,
and self-pity until it was discovered that she loved to hate her mother-in-law with
such great passion that she was unwilling to give it up. She kept this consuming
passion sort of encapsulated in her consciousness to avoid facing up to it until
her periods of depression became intolerable.
When a healing does not come for a long time, it does not necessarily mean that
the problem is serious; it may only mean that we are reluctant to yield certain cherished
notions of what is important in life. To others these may seem silly and trivial,
and yet we cling to them as if our very life depended on them. In one case it may
be food, in another sex, or intellectualism, or secret ambitions, or anything else.
In the process of having to part with our cherished beliefs we have the impression
that without them life would be completely empty and there would be nothing worth
living for. When we reach the point of staring down into the abyss of absolute nothingness,
then we can say: "But the good of life is spiritual. There is no other good but the
good God gives." At first, of course, we may not believe it even if we say it, but
if we persist we may begin to have a sense of being "uplifted." The truth of that
statement begins to make sense and we realize that the good we seek is spiritual
blessedness, and that actually nothing else is really good.
In proportion that our yielding to this truth is sincere and complete, in that
proportion there will always be a healing, and more than healing. For as the Bible
puts it: "My cup runneth over" (Psalm 23:5). There is a special meaning to this metaphor.
Whenever a genuine healing occurs in our experience,



we are not only relieved of a certain problem, but we become stronger and more assured
about life in general. So it is always healing plus, because we have ascended a rung
on the ladder of realization. Jesus did not heal people only in order to relieve
their suffering, but to help them realize that life is God. He healed sickness in
order to help people awaken to Divine Reality. Healing is just a byproduct of the
process of awakening and of giving up certain cherished ideas hitherto clung to.
Occasionally we hear of some individuals who were able to discard their eyeglasses
after many years of depending on them. It is interesting to contemplate the fact
that many people find wearing eyeglasses — in a certain sense — ego gratifying; it
enhances the impression and awareness of oneself as a physical person equipped with
a symbol of scholarliness and intellectuality, somewhat like a pipe is for some psychologists.
Many people find that they feel more secure while smoking a pipe, or a cigar, or
wearing glasses.
It would seem then that a sense of eyesight has something to do with the sense
of ego. In all of us there is a great desire to be seen and to be recognized as a
tangible, significant presence. In turn, we have a desire to see those people who
see us in this way. The internal dialogue goes somewhat like this: "I am a significant
physical personality and everyone can see that I really am."
A common feature of the enlightened state is the absence of this desire. Enlightened
man says: "It does not matter whether I am seen or not seen. What is important is
to see what really is, because the visible world is but a world of appearances."
He is interested not in illusions or phenomena but in Reality.
Under ordinary circumstances one of the greatest pleasures in life is seeing people,
nature, art, beauty, etc. Life without seeing would be most frightening. The central
point of human experience is the awareness of oneself as tangibly and visibly material.
Jesus said at one point: "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which
see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind" (John 9:39). In connection



with this it is important to take note of the fact that physical infirmities tend
to disappear when Spiritual Reality is discerned.
Jesus also is known to have said to some people: "Having eyes, see ye not? and
having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark 8:18), and to others he said, "But blessed are your
eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (Matthew 13:16).
Apparently, seeing is not just the function of the organ of the eyes. We can say
"there is more than meets the eyes." Seeing is often used as a synonym for understanding,
and understanding is clearly a spiritual faculty of consciousness. There is a mode
of seeing which transcends anatomical structure and the physiology of optics. Whenever
we have some difficulty in seeing with our eyes, we assume that the trouble is in
the eyeballs and we seek to remedy it with corrective lenses, because we have a clear
impression that the trouble is localized in the eyeballs, somewhat as when we have
a running nose. It feels like the problem is in the nose, and we go to the pharmacy
to buy some nasal spray or drops and apply them to the nose to fix it, so to speak.
But we know that even though the symptom appears to be in the nose, the problem is
not in the nose but in the thought of the individual.
Physical problems are mental. They always have a specific individualized meaning.
We speak of mental equivalents of outward manifestations. If our vision is in some
way impaired, this is a physical manifestation of a certain mind-set which can be
understood and corrected. Thus healings are possible, for the problem is not in the
eyes but in thought or in a specific belief system which governs us.
Everyone has grown up in certain specific belief systems which determine his mode
of being-in-the-world, including his predilections to various physical illnesses
and qualities. Eye problems are just as mental as any other physical phenomena.
The question may be asked, If our eye problems are mental, how is it possible that
glasses can effectively improve our eyesight? To answer this question, the analogy
with the running



nose might again be helpful. We claim that the running nose problem is also mental;
nevertheless, when nose drops or spray are applied to the mucous membrane, there
is instant relief of limited duration. This is followed by rebound worsening of the
condition. Similarly, the use of eyeglasses gives us instant relief with progressive
deterioration of the condition. Corrective lenses do not heal the problem. They just
mitigate it temporarily.
The body is a mental concept appearing in visible form. "The word was made flesh"
(John 1:14), and anything connected with the body is just a variation of the mental
concept. Therefore, eyesight is also mental; eyesight is "mindsight." It is the mind
that sees. Concerning material man, the Bible makes the following statement: "Cease
ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?"
(Isaiah 2:22). We can also think about it as saying, "Cease ye from man whose sight
is in his eyeballs; for wherein is he to be accounted of," which seems to say that
the material appearance of an individual is just appearance. It is nothing substantial.
Therefore the material, fleshly mind which sees and hears and tastes and smells,
calculates, imagines, schemes, and fantasizes, argues and debates, suffers and enjoys,
is not to be taken as a reality, for it is illusion. It is not the real man.
The more we are able to see the mental nature of the universe and everything in
it, the closer we are to Reality. Once we see the mental nature of the personal,
fleshly mind, we have reached the point of transcendence. Then we become aware of
the fact that the universe is governed by another mind, which is the mind of the
universe or the universal Mind. And this universal Mind is infinite Love-Intelligence
and it manifests itself in an infinite variety of ways which comprises all possible
faculties, including perfect sight. A theory is useful only if it has practical applications
and consequences. And here we see that the slightest glimpse of the truth of this
theory frequently results in healing.
To pray effectively about sight, we can proceed somewhat along these lines: Only
God can see. Man is an individualized



divine consciousness. Therefore he partakes in all of the faculties of Divine Mind,
which are individualized in everyone’s being. God sees through man perfectly. God,
the Divine Mind, and the faculty of sight are not subject to deterioration or any
kind of imperfection. God is man’s I am, and God is man’s eyesight. Man sees with
the same eyes with which God sees. God sees and man partakes in that seeing. Our
faculties are not our faculties but are individualized expressions of the faculties
of God.



In this day and age, when occultism is again in vogue in its various forms, it
seems desirable to have a clear understanding of the difference between the natural,
the supernatural, and the spiritual. Many people make the mistake of confusing the
spiritual, and the metaphysical with the so-called "supernatural." When that happens,
the Bible, the teachings of the prophets, and religion in general tend to be lumped
together into a pejorative package under the title "the mystical, the irrational,
the fantastic, the foolish."
However, this kind of confusion is tragic, because it tends to discourage people
from seriously considering that dimension of consciousness which is the source of
all that is beautiful, real, good, and existentially valid.
For purposes of clarity we can define the natural as that aspect of human awareness
which is mediated by the senses. This area of inquiry belongs to the domain of the
so-called "natural sciences." The supernatural is an area of human interest which
is outside of sensory perception. This is the area of the so-called "paranormal"
psychic phenomena, hypnotism, magic, witchcraft, satanism, demonology, necromancy,
and such. The spiritual, however, is neither natural nor supernatural. It is a dimension
of Reality which is neither sensory nor suprasensory; it is not normal or paranormal
or abnormal. It is a faculty of awareness, uniquely human, consisting



of man’s inherent capability of appreciating aesthetic and spiritual values and principles.
Love, honesty, harmony, beauty, compassion, justice, freedom, joy, gratitude are
neither natural nor supernatural. They are spiritual qualities belonging to the domain
of Divine Reality.
The study of the natural is the domain of scientific research and is motivated
by man’s desire to control his environment and secure his own physical survival.
The study of the supernatural is motivated by man’s desire to control his fellow
man and secure his own superiority. The study of the spiritual is motivated by man’s
desire to come into harmony with the Fundamental Order of Existence and actualize
in himself the optimum qualities which are potentially present and available to him.
The clear differentiation between the natural, the supernatural, and the spiritual
is also important when we are studying the phenomena of healing. Medical science
endeavors to heal on the basis of scientific research within the limits of the natural,
material world. The scientific viewpoint is that man is part of nature, just like
any other life form and, therefore, the only valid approach to his problems must
be based on data gathered through sensory evidence.
Another approach to healing is based on the belief in the supernatural. These are
sometimes called psychic healings, faith healings, miraculous healings, hypnotism,
mesmerism, auto-suggestion, laying-on-of-hands, etc.
In the domain of the natural, healing power is sought in nature. In the domain
of the supernatural, healing power is ascribed to individuals, or to locations and
rituals, etc.
Spiritual healing is of an entirely different order. It is based on enlightened
realization of transcendent Reality in individual consciousness. Essentially, spiritual
healing requires at least a partial awakening of the patient to a recognition of
some aspect of Spiritual Reality. It is important to emphasize that spiritual healing
is not synonymous with faith healing or anything else.
It is safe to say that, except for spiritual healing, all other



forms of healing are essentially based on phenomena of suggestion and hypnotism.
Hypnotism is an experience based on man’s belief in the power of a person, place,
thing, or idea. Whenever hypnotism is at work, the healing is but an illusion, because
the essence of hypnotism is illusion. Of course, many forms of illness, and other
problems are essentially illusory. Therefore, when such a healing occurs, what happens
is that an undesirable illusion is replaced by some acceptable illusion.
One of the most powerful instruments of hypnotism in our electronic age is television.
The television exercises a powerful hypnotic influence on the viewer. It can encourage
criminal behavior, it can propagate illness and it can sell remedies for illness.
The right understanding of the difference between the natural, the supernatural,
and the spiritual can provide us with a modicum of immunity against becoming victimized
by the forces of suggestion, persuasion, seduction, intimidation, and provocation.
Enlightened man is able to observe these phenomena without being affected by them.
He can preserve his integrity through the knowledge of the truth which indeed makes
him free. But the Bible says: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).



We are often asked to define consciousness. In order to understand consciousness
it is helpful to distinguish between consciousness and the content of consciousness.
Consciousness is the faculty which makes us capable of becoming aware of the content
of our consciousness. Consciousness is the faculty of being aware of being aware.
Progress on the spiritual path essentially consists of an expanding faculty of awareness
of the content of our consciousness and a growing ability to discriminate between
valid and invalid ideas.
When the Bible speaks about laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven "where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal"
(Matthew 6:20), it refers to a process of increasing appreciation of spiritual values
and principles and a diminishing interest in materialism and psychological preoccupations.
Whenever we have a problem and we are helped to see its meaning, our faculty of
awareness is being expanded. We are helped to become aware of the presence of certain
invalid thoughts and thought patterns. This is a growth experience. From then on
these invalid thought patterns can be replaced by valid ones. Whenever that takes
place, a healing occurs. Not only does the problem disappear, but our consciousness
has expanded and increased in its ability to discern its own content.
In Metapsychiatry we can avail ourselves of the method of "two intelligent questions."
These two questions are: (1) What



is the meaning of what seems to be? and (2) What is what really is? With the help
of these two questions anyone can learn to heal himself by becoming aware of the
content of his consciousness and improving it.
These two questions also reveal the tragic nature of the unawakened human consciousness
which is subject to enslavement by an endless variety of hypnotic suggestions so
that man falls prey to dreams. When human consciousness is invaded by a dream, man
becomes unaware of God and suffers the consequences. We are continuously victimized
by dreams of a multifarious nature. The Bible speaks of man’s tendency to "fall asleep."
Most often we are inclined to blame ourselves for our problems as if we were the
originators of them. Sometimes we say, "I am guilty of thinking the wrong thoughts
and I am being punished for it." But actually this is not correct, for man cannot
invent wrong thoughts to think. Adam and Eve did not invent the serpent. The serpent
came and ensnared Adam and Eve. They fell victim to an evil thought.
The question may now be asked, Who made the serpent? If God were responsible for
the appearance of the serpent, that would make God a very nasty creator, a miscreator.
But God is Love-Intelligence. Therefore He could not have placed the serpent there
to entrap Adam and Eve into sin by causing them to get befuddled. Similarly, it is
helpful to realize that man is innocent. No matter how twisted he seems to be, essentially
he is innocent.
It is a universal human experience to be invaded by dreams and invalid thoughts
coming from the "sea of mental garbage." For instance, if someone manifests symptoms
of power-madness, vanity, greed, contentiousness, etc., he did not produce these
qualities in himself, and certainly it would not help to blame him. As long as man
blames himself for his problems, or is blamed by others, he cannot be healed. For
if problems had a creator, then they would be real, and Reality cannot be abolished
or corrected. Reality is immutable.
To come back to Adam and Eve, let us reiterate that they



did not sin. They were victims of entrapment by an invalid thought. And this invalid
thought, coming to them from the "sea of mental garbage," obscured their vision of
Reality. Thus they are mythological prototypes of the human condition. Of course,
many might say that this interpretation is an attempt at doing away with original
sin and man’s responsibility toward God. However, there is a difference between responsibility
toward God and culpability. Man is not culpable but he is responsible, that is, he
is able to respond to the good of God and consequently be redeemed.
Traditional religions have held to the idea that man is a sinner and that he is
guilty, blameworthy, evil, and culpable. As a result of that, very little healing
has actually taken place in the world. Experience has shown that reformation of character
and redemptive healings are much more easily attained when man’s fundamental innocence
is recognized and instead of condemnation he is faced with compassion. "For God sent
not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might
be saved" (John 3:17).
Ignorance is not a sin but a tragic aspect of the human condition from which man
can be redeemed. In Metapsychiatry we understand the word "sin" to be derived from
the Latin sine Deo which means to live without the awareness of God. This does not
make man culpable or guilty, but unenlightened.



At times, if we work in an agency or in a hospital or in any other kind of institutional
setting, it is easy to become confused and, under the pressure of internal politics,
actually forget that we are therapists. Unwittingly we may become bureaucrats. It
is therefore very helpful to have a clear concept in mind as to the difference between
being a bureaucrat and being a therapist.
While bureaucracy is necessary, we have to know that being a bureaucrat and being
a therapist are two mutually countervailing functions. A good bureaucrat works for
society or for the institution where he is employed. A bad bureaucrat works primarily
for his own advancement in the hierarchy of the institution in which he is employed.
The good bureaucrat’s aim is to benefit society; the bad bureaucrat’s aim is to benefit
himself. In either case, a bureaucrat is not interested in the welfare of his client.
By definition the client here is a means to an end, a pawn in the hands of bureaucratic
interests, even if well intentioned. Since the client is aware of the fact that he
is being used, manipulated either in favor of society or the agency, or in favor
of the bureaucrat’s self-interest, he often develops an intense hatred of bureaucracy.
In contrast to all this, the therapist is primarily interested in benefitting the
patient. While the bureaucrat is primarily thinking about what society wants, what
the agency wants, or



what he himself wants, the therapist thinks about what the patient wants. Having
established to his own satisfaction what the patient wants, he seeks to discern what
the patient really needs. There is an important difference between what a patient
or client wants and what he needs.
Most often a patient’s wants, especially in an agency setting, are primarily socio-economic.
For instance, let us take the example of a divorced woman on welfare with a disturbed
child of school age. She comes to an agency primarily seeking economic support and
a solution to the child’s school problems. The patient wants to survive. She wants
to preserve her dignity in the community and to protect her child from diagnostic
labels which would handicap him for the rest of his life. So the patient’s concerns
are primarily social and economic. This is what the patient wants.
But a therapist must go beyond all this and try to understand and, if possible,
provide what the patient really needs.
It is helpful to contemplate the fact that, in general, God does not seem to be
interested in what we want. Whenever we pray to God to give us what we want, He does
not seem to answer. But God is ready and willing to give us always what we really
need. And it is the therapist’s job to discern the real need of the patient, to clarify
it, and make it possible for the patient to receive what he really needs. Whenever
the real needs are supplied, there is a healing, even in socio-economic terms.
It is important to repeat that bureaucracy is not really interested in what a client
wants or needs; bureaucracy is mainly interested in perpetuating itself. There is
no such thing as a generous bureaucracy; often there is only corrupt and noncaring
bureaucracy. A therapist, however, transcends the limitations of bureaucratic systems
and seeks to supply the patient’s needs.
Needs are mostly spiritual. The need of the individual mentioned above would be,
for instance, to come to understand that she is not a social parasite, that she can
have genuine self-esteem, that she has inner potentialities which can be realized,



that she can come to know that she is loved and worthy of being loved, that she is
acceptable in the sight of her Creator, that it is possible for her to live a useful
and dignified life. These realizations are her spiritual and existential needs. A
therapist would focus on awakening her to a realization of her full worthiness and
acceptability as a spiritual child of God. And out of that sense of self-worth there
would come the solution to all her problems.
So the therapist aims at expanding the consciousness of the patient, because therein
lie all solutions. Man is an individual divine consciousness. All this points to
the fact that if someone is a therapist, no matter under what circumstances he may
be functioning, his perceptions and his responses will be motivated by an entirely
different system of values than that of a bureaucrat.
The bureaucrat and the client are inevitably in an adversary relationship, since
their interests lie in opposite directions. However, a poorly trained or immature
therapist may also find himself in conflict with the patient if he believes himself
to be a "personal helper."
The Metapsychiatric therapist knows that there are not two. The therapeutic agent
is the Truth of Being. In the realm of Love-Intelligence there is neither self nor
other. Since there are not two, there is neither cooperation, collaboration, resistance,
nor conflict.
Truth is not personal. Love is not personal. Intelligence, understanding, healing,
are not personal. The Christ is not personal but universal. Thus a therapist can
function as a beneficial presence regardless of the structure which society imposes
on him.



The problem of safety is particularly timely these days when we hear and read about
crimes, accidents, violence, and victimization in general. The seventh principle
of Metapsychiatry states: "Nothing comes into experience uninvited." Many people
find this somewhat hard to believe. Some are even offended by the idea. Nevertheless,
let us look into it and try to consider the following seemingly outrageous statement:
There are only two ways to become a victim —by wanting to, or by not wanting to.
How is that possible?
The point is that, either way, the idea of the possibility of victimization is
maintained in consciousness. Whatever we cherish or hate or fear tends to come into
experience. Therefore, the question is, How can one be safe in a world seemingly
rampant with crime? In what way can the knowledge of the above principle benefit
us and provide us with protection? Some are beginning to understand that carrying
a weapon, such as a gun or knife, not only does not afford protection, but actually
tends to invite trouble. If we carry a weapon, it means that we have in mind the
possibility of becoming endangered. Now if we have that thought in mind, that in
itself tends to act as a magnet, attracting corresponding experiences.
Now the question may be asked, Should one just remain naïve and ignorant, and walk
around without any idea of the possibility of danger? Is naïveté protection? Is ignorance
bliss? No, naïveté and ignorance are not desirable either. Therefore,



it would seem that there is no solution. This brings to mind a Zen saying: "Yes is
no, and no is yes."
This paradox is particularly troublesome when parents try to admonish their children
to be careful, to watch out crossing the street, or to drive carefully, or "do this,
don’t do that," because unwittingly they are implanting ideas of fear and danger
into the children’s thoughts. On the other hand, they cannot say, "Don’t be afraid
crossing the street, never mind the dangers," etc., because this would have the same
effect. Neither would it be advisable for them to ignore the whole problem of danger.
This truly seems to be a conundrum. There is actually no solution to the problem
of inviting experiences, as long as our viewpoint on life is purely human. A solution,
however, begins to emerge when we consider what Jesus said to his disciples on one
occasion: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore
wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16). He did not say to his disciples,
"Be careful not to be devoured by the wolves, or arm yourselves against the wolves."
He recommended a certain quality of being. What determines the quality of our being?
The quality of our being is determined by our state of consciousness. What determines
the state of consciousness? Our state of consciousness is determined by the values
we cherish. To be wise as serpents and harmless as doves means cherishing qualities
which Jesus considered necessary for safety in a hostile world. What does the Old
Testament have to offer in regard to safety? The ninety-first Psalm offers the safety
of spiritual consciousness. It says: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the
most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalm 91:1). "Because thou
hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there
shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling" (Psalm
91:9, 10).
It is not what others can do to us that is the problem, but what our own thoughts
bring into experience. The enemy is not on the outside. It is in our own consciousness.
We suffer



the consequences of our own habits of thought rather than what other people do to
us, or what conditions impose on us.
It is also very important to understand what Jesus meant when he said: "A man’s
foes shall be they of his own household" (Matthew 10:36). The most intimate aspects
of our life are our own thoughts. Our own thoughts are the most dangerous factors
which we must learn to beware of and to purify. Our own thoughts can make us or break
us. Therefore, right thinking is of paramount importance for safety, for mental health,
for physical health, for social integration, and for happiness.
How is an individual to know which thoughts are safe to entertain and which thoughts
are dangerous to entertain? We can find out in the course of life that if we give
hospitality to certain thoughts, these will bring disaster, or suffering, or discord,
or illness into our lives. If we are ignorant, what usually happens is that we replace
one set of invalid thoughts by another set of invalid thoughts, and we are forever
looking around to find out what kind of thoughts other people entertain, in the hope
that they may, perchance, have a solution. Then we find that there are certain trends
in our culture which come in waves. Every now and then some kind of new fad appears.
It becomes fashionable to think about this and that. All sorts of thought systems
are sweeping the world. And if we have no solid anchor in understanding what is valid,
we are repeatedly swept away by tides of trends. These can be political, philosophical,
religious, pseudoreligious, etc. However, again and again we get disappointed.
There is only one way to cope with life, namely, to find that system of values
which is not subject to fashionable trends, which is basically existentially valid,
which will never change, and will always bear good fruit in terms of bringing us
peace and health and assurance, even in the midst of a very insecure world.
It is impossible not to think of something, but it is possible to be so imbued
with the knowledge and the awareness of spiritual values and the presence and the
power of God that we can have a sense of safety and we actually can be safe.



Please note that we did not say that one has to know the Bible, or that one has
to be religious, or be a theologian. We said we need the awareness of these values
and the awareness of Divine Reality. Consciousness has to be imbued with these truths,
and then one does not just know about them, but one actually realizes them. This
is the only way we can be liberated from the conundrum of "yes is no, and no is yes."



In our modern times marriage is becoming a controversial issue. Many young couples
ask themselves the question, Should we get married or shouldn’t we get married? This,
of course, is the wrong question. The right question to ask is, What is marriage?
For if we know what marriage is, that is, if we have a clear understanding of what
an existentially valid marriage is, then the right action will be easier to follow.
No one could hope to have a good marriage if he approaches it on the basis of "should"
thinking. Here we may profitably seek to clarify the difference between making a
decision to get married and committing oneself to a "mode of being-in-the-world"
which includes being married. If one is making a decision, then whatever action follows
is subsidiary to the ego; we call it self-confirmatory action. But if one is making
a commitment, this is subsidiary to a greater idea. This we call God-confirmatory
action.
The second Metapsychiatric principle states: "Take no thought for what should be
or what should not be; seek ye first to know the good of God which already is." When
a man and woman find a great deal of compatibility between themselves, they can ask
the question, Is the good of God discernible in this situation? Can we find joint
participation in the good of God? If the answer to these questions is yes, there
usually follows a spontaneous commitment to this participation which is for all eternity.
This constitutes an existentially valid marriage. The details follow as a natural
unfoldment of the basic



recognition that in this partnership the good of God is discernibly present. Thus
one can get married without having to be pressured into it, or making agonizing decisions
about it.
The idea of love between persons is an insufficient basis for marriage, but the
idea of love as a contextual basis for living with someone is valid. The idea of
love between two persons is a very narrow-minded way of seeing life, but love can
be seen in a broader sense as constituting the spiritual environment in which a marriage
can thrive and be securely founded.
It is also helpful to consider the concept of responsibility. On the human level
responsibility has its opposite, namely, irresponsibility. But on the spiritual level
responsibility has no opposite. In Divine Reality there are no opposites. All is
non-dual. On the human level responsibility is a burdensome idea of being obligated
or ensnared, and it is closely associated in our thought with blame and guilt. However,
the spiritual concept of responsibility is beautiful because it connotes the ability
to respond to the good of God. We all have this ability. When two people find the
good of God in their lives together, they can respond to this goodness with gratitude,
joy, and commitment. They respond in a responsible way to the will of God.
Whatever we are interested in, we are responsive to and that is how commitment
takes place. Someone asked, What if one of the partners is not interested in the
good of God and they are already married? This is a situation where the spiritually
minded partner must hear "the sound of one hand." The "sound of one hand" is a Zen
Buddhist koan which stands for the ability to transcend the pressures and the temptations
which enter into interaction thinking and behavior. It is based on a constant conscious
awareness of the presence and the power of omniactive Mind, the governing principle
of life.
This ability is also of great importance in enlightened parenting, because children
have a tendency toward self-confirmatory, interactive, and provocative behavior.
The enlightened parent will preserve his transcendent perspective



and seek to be an inspiration to the children through prayer and right comportment,
so that eventually the children will begin to appreciate the upright position in
life and be inspired by the parents’ way. If the parents are not sufficiently enlightened,
they may have the tendency to mold the children, control them, and impose certain
"shoulds" and "should nots" on them. The result of these erroneous ways is "the sound
of two hands" which, as explained earlier, means collisions, conflict, rebellion,
and strife.
Here we may very well remind ourselves of the eighth principle of Metapsychiatry:
"Problems are lessons designed for our edification." Essentially, there are three
kinds of parents: 1) learning parents, (2) teaching parents, and (3) daydreaming.
The learning parent is an inspiration and a model for growth. The teaching parent
is tyrannical and creates resistance in his children. A daydreaming parent is perhaps
the most damaging one, for he rejects his children in favor of his own fantasies,
and at times may set impossible conditions for love in a nonverbal way. For instance,
there are parents who fantasize about having mentally retarded children, or insane,
or sexually aberrant children and the children may be aware of these unspoken demands
on them on a subliminal level and seek to comply. This, of course, leads to endless
possibilities of suffering and misdirected modes of being-in-the-world.
Of course, no one can be blamed for these processes, whether conscious or unconscious,
because they are just manifestations of ignorance. In general, we can add that children
help their parents grow up. By the time the parents reach middle age, the children
have finished their job and moved out.
There is a story attributed to Mark Twain, who supposedly said that when he was
seventeen years old he was convinced that his parents were the most ignorant people
in the world; but when he was twenty-seven, he was amazed to find how much his parents
were able to learn in just ten years.
It seems vitally important that children have a chance to perceive that the parents’
interests are focused on spiritual



values. Whatever the parents are interested in will attract the children’s interest.
Thus there may follow a spontaneous unfoldment of the Christ-consciousness in them,
provided the parents do not try to impose these values on them.
We do not indoctrinate; we seek to inspire. To influence is to trespass; it is
tyranny. But to be influential is good. We seek to be inspiring and influential.
In the 1960’s the feminist ideology deteriorated into a fashionable chic of women
spending their time in groups complaining about their marriages and encouraging one
another to take a dim view of men and the relationship of women to their husbands.
Under the title of "consciousness raising" many women fell into the error of becoming
more and more unhappy and discontented in order to be fashionable. The constant rehearsal
and advertising of problems is just as unhealthy as a medical diagnosis.
The fad of griping about one’s marriage will in no way facilitate the attainment
of harmony and conjugal bliss. Furthermore, politicizing of marriage and introducing
civil rights concepts and legalistic fantasies result in the assumption that marriage
is an adversary relationship where a power balance is the real issue. This, of course,
is a complete perversion of the whole idea of harmonious living in an atmosphere
of love and mutual approbation.
Marriage is not political, socio-economic, sexual, or legal; it is primarily an
existential situation. What do we mean by this? Existential means that the real issue
in marriage is survival under the most favorable and fulfilling conditions. The institution
of marriage is ideally designed to improve the quality of life for both husband and
wife and their offspring by creating a harmonious unit. Unfortunately, invalid ideologies
are invading this institution and creating havoc in individuals’ lives.
Marriage is not a place to fight for equal rights. It is not a battleground for
ego-gratification, nor an arena for power-madness. Marriage is a situation where
the beautiful, the good,



the harmonious, and the intelligent life can be cultivated and realized. It is a
joint participation in the good of God.
Recently someone said: "The only thing that is good in our marriage is sex. Everything
else is rotten. We are both very unhappy, except for short moments in bed." This
is an example of how invalid preconceived ideas about marriage can result in unhappiness.
Without the right concept of marriage, people enter into this covenant with a wide
variety of impossible expectations and fantasies. Therefore, it is very important
to have a clear, existentially valid understanding of marriage and of life in general
because only then is there the possibility of realizing and partaking in the good
of God. The ideal marriage is without interaction thinking.
A great deal of suffering and illness in life comes from interaction thinking,
so much so that whenever we get sick, it is a good idea to ask ourselves, "Who am
I sick against?" It is helpful to realize that all interaction — even physical —
is essentially mental. It is based on the belief of personal mind-powers acting against
each other. Interaction is thinking about what another is thinking about what we
are thinking.
When a marriage is based on joint participation in the good of God, the quality
of happiness and well-being is entirely different from moments of pleasure based
on ego-gratification. Ego-gratification is exciting and pleasurable (thus the word
"heady"). This is counterfeit happiness; it is short-lived and has an obverse side
of pain and disappointment. If a relationship is pleasurably exciting, then we are
on an ego-trip. If in a situation there is an awareness of the good of God —which
is spiritual blissfulness characterized by peace, assurance, gratitude, and love
— then we are on the right track.
The right understanding of the good of God and the awareness of PAGL (peace, assurance
gratitude, love) are very helpful indicators whereby we can judge whether our happiness
is genuine or not. The poet Kahlil Gibran gives us two beautiful symbolic pictures
of healthy marriage when he says: "The pillars of the temple stand apart," and "The
strings of the harp vibrate separately to produce beautiful harmony." This illustrates



the concept of being separate but not separated and of jointly participating in a
harmonious marriage.
This also clarifies what a fallacy it is to think that marriage is an interpersonal
relationship, or a sexual relationship, or a civil rights battleground, or a power
struggle, or a legal contract. These cultural assumptions are existentially invalid
and underlie a wide variety of problems and marital discord.



Since Metapsychiatry is based on the metaphysical definition of man within the
context of God, it is naturally important to have a very clear and existentially
valid concept of God. There are many concepts of God, and they are mostly religious
concepts. In the Old Testament God appears to be first a frightful judge, a warlord,
and a legalistic authority. Later on He gradually becomes more benevolent and less
punitive until, with the advent of Jesus, He becomes a loving Father. In fact, we
can view the Bible as a record of man’s evolving concept of God.
The more primitive the mentality of man is, the more frightful, intimidating, and
even monstrous is his god, but Jesus speaks of God as a loving Father. Here we can
already breathe a little easier, but still there is the problem of anthropomorphism.
We can ask, What prompted Jesus to speak of God as a Father and thus give rise to
male supremacist fantasies and reinforce the tendency toward anthropomorphism? We
can theorize that the reason for this may have been the fact that Jesus was talking
to very primitive people who were not yet sufficiently evolved to conceive of infinity
or the possibility of an intelligence and power governing the universe and having
no form.
It took many centuries for human consciousness to develop the capacity for abstract
thinking and to conceive of a power and of an intelligence which is infinite, because
infinity cannot be imagined. The moment we try to imagine something,



it must assume a form. The formless cannot be imagined. Therefore it is very difficult
even today for the average religious individual to conceive of God as an infinite
presence, an infinite power, an infinite intelligence.
There was one man who went beyond Jesus in his definition of God. It was John who
defined God as Love, not someone who loves, but simply Love. Thus, he is the first
one to define God as a quality. Qualities do not have form. Here we already reach
an evolutionary stage where individual human consciousness is able to speak of God
without ascribing form to it.
It is interesting to remind ourselves that among the Ten Commandments in the Old
Testament we find the prohibition against making "graven images" of God. Graven images
refer to a mental process based on the power of imagination. In fact, it is a prohibition
against the attempt to visualize God in some finite form. It is noteworthy that this
commandment appears at a time when human consciousness was not yet ready to behold
the formless. In order for something to be thought, it had to have a form. Abstract
thinking was not a common ability. Undoubtedly there were unique individuals in ancient
Egypt and in the Orient who were able to conceive of the formless and the infinite,
but this was not true of the average human being.
In order to understand God in an existentially valid way — and this is crucial
— it is necessary to reach such a level of mental development that one is comfortable
with the idea of formlessness. We must come to know the unimaginable God, because
that which can be imagined is purely imaginary, and we are not dealing with imaginary
things. We seek to apprehend Reality.
To understand man in the context of God, it is important to understand God as unimaginable
Reality; we have to be capable of knowing that which cannot be imagined. In Metapsychiatry
we speak of God as Love-Intelligence. Love-Intelligence is a cosmic force constituting
ultimate Reality. It cannot be given a form. This Love-Intelligence is the creative
power from which everything real emanates. And man,



as the image and likeness of God, is likewise unimaginable. The man that can be imagined
is not man but a phenomenon, namely, an appearance. This man is formlessness masquerading
as form. The famous Zen Master Suzuki used to startle his students with the mind-boggling
statement: "Form is formlessness, and formlessness is form."
When we speak of masquerading, we imply that the form of the phenomenon is misleading
and distracting and thus interfering with true perception. Jesus warned us, "Judge
not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24), which
means if we judge man by his appearance, then we shall arrive at false conclusions
about him and this will give rise to "many schools of psychotherapy." But if we judge
righteous judgment, then there will be only one school of psychotherapy because then
we will know the truth of what man really is, and the truth will make us free from
error.
Thus, in order to have a solid, existentially valid foundation for a school of
psychotherapy or spiritual guidance, we must know man as he really is, in the context
of God. There is no such thing as man apart from God. It is impossible to arrive
at any valid understanding of man when he is studied apart from his context.
Once I asked an artist, who had some problems, whether he could paint a picture
without a background. He said, "Of course. It is very simple. I just take an empty
canvas and paint the foreground and leave out the background...." He thought that
if he did not paint the background, there is no background. But, of course, the empty
canvas would be the background. It is impossible for anything to exist in the world
in and of itself. It is impossible for man to exist without his creative background.
And the creative background of man is infinite Love-Intelligence. And the background
always determines the foreground. The foreground has no power over the background.
Man, in the context of God, is revealed to be a manifestation of Love-Intelligence.
God can also be spoken of as Cosmic Consciousness. The quality of this infinite Love-Intelligence
is consciousness



and life itself. Cosmic Consciousness determines its infinite manifestations. Therefore,
man is equipped with the capacity to be conscious. So infinite Cosmic Consciousness
— which is the background — determines the foreground of an infinite variety of individualized
consciousnesses. Man is a conscious expression of infinite Love-Intelligence. This
is seeing man in the context of God.
The question may be asked, How can we see that which has no form and cannot be
imagined? There is more to man than meets the eye. We all have the faculty to discern
spiritual qualities in the world. We can see honesty. We can see integrity. We can
see beauty. We can see love. We can see goodness. We can see joy. We can see peace.
We can see harmony. We can see intelligence. None of these things has any form. None
of these things can be imagined. None of these things is tangible, and yet they can
be seen. What is the organ that sees these invisible things? Some people call it
the soul, or spirit, or consciousness. Man is a spiritual being endowed with spiritual
faculties of perception.
Recently I worked with a young woman who was blind from childhood on, and I told
her: "You can really think of yourself as a sighted individual because Reality is
available to you to perceive. In fact, you are able to see Reality because you are
able to discern the spiritual attributes which comprise Reality, just as anyone else.
Your spiritual faculties of perception are unimpaired." This was of great comfort
to her. At once she felt herself closer to the rest of humanity and to God. She realized
that all the essential elements of Reality are available to her to be "seen."
Our spiritual faculties of perception constitute the real essence of the good life.
Whatever is good in life, whatever makes one happy, whatever is comforting, whatever
is healing, whatever matters in life, is the awareness of these spiritual attributes
of Reality. There is no human being who is not spiritual, but the vast majority of
people are so involved with experiential living that they are distracted from the
awareness of the spiritual dimension.



There is a radical difference between what is mediated through the senses — that
which has form, is imaginable, and can be experienced — and that which is formless,
unimaginable, and cannot be experienced but can be realized and spiritually perceived.
It is the universal Love-Intelligence, man’s true dwelling place. The apostle Paul
said: "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are
not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not
seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18), meaning real.
The universal tendency to desire and "experience" life is a great distraction which
prevents us from using our spiritual faculties of perception. When a Metapsychiatrically
oriented therapist sits down with a patient, he will not focus his attention on whether
the patient is male or female, well dressed or poorly dressed, educated or uneducated,
tall or short, heavy or slim, etc. His focus will be on the Reality of the individual
and his concern will be to help him to awaken his innate faculties of spiritual perception
and discover himself in the right context.
So the therapist views the patient in the context of absolute Reality, and that
helps the patient to see himself in that context. When that realization is awakened
in us, everything becomes transformed and healed.
In Metapsychiatry diseases are understood to be symptoms of misdirected modes of
being-in-the-world. What we are helping people to be healed of are their modes of
being-in-the-world, regardless of diagnostic labels. Misdirected modes of being-in-the-world
can be recognized, regretted, and reoriented, and thus replaced by valid modes of
being-in-the-world. These validate themselves through healings. Of course, no one
can be healed against his will and it would be arrogant and intrusive to attempt
to do so. The desire to be healed arises under two conditions — suffering and wisdom.
Without them there is no motivation for healing, and the therapist has no right to
attempt it.
In Metapsychiatry we see man in a larger context. In conventional



psychological thinking man is seen as an autonomous unit, acting from his own mind
and being affected by intrapsychic processes motivating him from the unconscious.
When we look at man as a psychophysiological organism, then we see that indeed
there is such a thing as the unconscious. We do not see any place where a so-called
"unconscious" could be located, but we are aware of the fact that there are many
things we are not conscious of and there are things we are semi-conscious of, or
more or less conscious of. There is a popular saying: "What you don’t know can’t
hurt you." Thus, we say there is no unconscious, but there is unconsciousness. In
Metapsychiatry, however, this is a triviality because the moment we see man in a
wider context — in the context of God — then this issue disappears and what we have
is God, infinite Cosmic Mind, completely determining man.
Many things which seem to be important in a narrower context completely disappear
when the mental horizon is expanded to a wider context. In Newtonian physics, cause-and-effect
relationships are a matter of fact, and in our everyday lives everyone knows that
there is cause and effect. However, when we expand our mental horizon, we discover
that there is really no such thing as a cause-and-effect relationship. In Metapsychiatry
we seek to expand our mental horizon to the maximum possible dimension, that of Infinite
Mind.
Let us consider, for instance, an object which we let drop to the ground. If we
ask, Why did the object fall down? we are, in fact, asking what caused it to fall
down. The answer is, the object dropped because it was let go of. This seems like
common sense, cause-and-effect reasoning and an example of conventional, psychological
reasoning. We always ask, Why do certain things happen? Why does someone have a headache?
Why does someone fight with his employer? Why are we afraid of the dark? etc.
In Metapsychiatry we understand that there is no such thing as a cause-and-effect
relationship. Therefore, we ask a different question. We ask, What is the meaning
of what seems to be? If we ask, What is the meaning of an object dropping to



the ground? we receive an answer, saying: This phenomenon reveals the existence of
an invisible force called gravity. Or we may ask, What does it indicate that objects
tend to fall to the ground? We immediately recognize that at this moment our mental
horizon has become much broader than previously when we reasoned from the standpoint
of cause and effect. The cause-and-effect dimension of reasoning is narrow-minded.
It is applicable only within certain circumscribed, limited perspectives on life.
Therefore, it is very important to know what questions to ask.
Metapsychiatry has isolated six questions, designated "futile" questions. These
questions are universally asked in all schools of psychotherapy. As a result of these
"six futile questions" our perspective on life and Reality remains limited. They
keep us from expanding our mental horizon. The questions are as follows: What’s wrong?
How do you feel? Why? Who is to blame? What should I do? How should I do it? We have
taken these questions for granted and it is time to question their validity. We are
born ignorant and are educated to become increasingly so.
Just as cause-and-effect reasoning disappears in the context of Cosmic Consciousness,
so the issue of conscious and unconscious thinking also fades away, and many other
things tend to disappear when the mental horizon becomes wide enough.
We may now ask, If these "six futile questions" which are the foundation of conventional
reasoning are eliminated, what is left? How are we going to function in life and
in psychotherapy? Is it possible to live and function intelligently without these
commonsense questions? Is it practical? Yes, it is. In Metapsychiatry we found two
very useful "intelligent questions." These are: "What is the meaning of what seems
to be?" and, "What is what really is?"
The "two intelligent questions" underlie and make possible the hermeneutic process
of clarification, which is the basic method of Metapsychiatric therapy. To illustrate:
A man comes seeking help for a marital problem. His marriage has deteriorated into
a continuous state of discord. He hopes that the



psychiatrist will find a way of straightening out his wife and making her do what
he wants. This man, who happens to be a salesman and a hockey player, reveals a certain
mode of being-in-the-world which could be best described as a "steamroller." It is
pointed out to him that while he professes to be seeking guidance, he never gives
the doctor a chance to get a word in edgewise, and that he continuously endeavors
to instruct the doctor how he should "handle" his wife. After a while, it is explained
to him that he is not really a hockey player and not even a salesman, because God
never created such people, and that he happens to be a victim of miseducation concerning
his own true nature, which is that of a man who could express peace, assurance, gratitude,
love, and intelligence. At first, he finds this unbelievable. But slowly he begins
to see that his marital discord reveals his misdirected mode of being-in-the-world
and that this can be healed just as soon as he discovers the truth of his own being.
Many who read this may be tempted to reexplain what they are reading in terms of
what they already know. Someone may say, But this is nothing new, it is not different
from what others do. It is just a different vocabulary and attitude. Following is
another example of the tendency to put "new wine into old bottles."
In Metapsychiatry mental health is defined as being a beneficial presence in the
world. Whenever this definition is presented to an audience, shortly thereafter someone
will invariably "correct" or reexplain it by speaking of a "beneficent person." When
we inquire as to the meaning of this phenomenon, it is revealed to us that the concept
of "beneficent person" is more in keeping with conventional thinking, which is operational
and personalistic. Conventional psychological thinking views man as a self-existent
personality, acting autonomously in the world, independent of God. But Meta-psychiatry
says, Let us expand our mental horizon and behold man in the context of God, infinite
Love-Intelligence.
A beneficial presence is not an operator. Neither does he assume attitudes. We
cannot make ourselves into beneficial



presences. It is a quality of being arrived at through a liberated consciousness.
What is our consciousness to be liberated from? We need to be liberated from the
narrow confines of conventional thinking. We are all prisoners of conventional thinking.
The bars of our prison window are built of the "six futile questions."



In Metapsychiatry the seventh principle states: "Nothing comes into experience
uninvited." Occasionally, when this principle is presented to a group of people,
someone will remark: "Do you mean to say that the victim invites disaster? Is the
victim responsible for what is happening to him? Isn’t this principle preposterous?"
In response to these questions it is important to explain, first of all, that a
principle must apply under all circumstances, otherwise it is not a principle. For
instance, if two and two is four, then two million and two million must be four million.
Therefore, it is important to clarify the principle. When we say that nothing comes
into experience uninvited, we are not saying that the victim is to blame for what
happened to him. This would be a horrendous injustice, for it would seem to absolve
the victimizers. We must understand that whether on an individual basis or on a national
or international scale, whenever experiences are invited, it is not the person or
persons who are doing it.
The real problem was and always is the existentially invalid thinking prevailing
in consciousness. To repeat, it is always the existentially invalid thought, present
in consciousness, which attracts corresponding experiences. It is always the thought
which is the culprit. Mankind always has been and still is victimized by ignorance
and by clinging to existentially invalid thoughts and mental images.
When we consider the various stories of miraculous escapes



of certain individuals and groups in history, we find that these people happened
to be, to some extent, independent thinkers, not in conformity with the prevailing
mental assumptions of their culture. Consequently, their experiences were at variance
with those of the majority.
We can at this point clearly see that the victim and the victimizer have this in
common: they are both driven by ignorance. It is also important to understand how
the victimizer invariably becomes a victim in the end. Thus error destroys itself.
Invalid ideas are not viable. Unfortunately, this problem is rampant in the world.
We see that the problem lies in man’s insufficient understanding of what constitutes
existentially valid thinking, in spite of the fact that the Old Testament contains
the ninety-first Psalm, which is a clear presentation of what the remedy to this
problem is. Unfortunately, the ninety-first Psalm and other important passages in
the Bible are not considered in the context of their existential meaning. Few realize
that the Psalmist intuitively discovered what is existentially valid for man, giving
us a blueprint for survival and protection from illness, accidents, disasters, and
even terrorism.
In the 1980’s there was a great deal of publicity about atomic warfare in connection
with a television movie. Millions of people had an opportunity to read about it,
to see it, and to experience all the gruesome horrors by watching it on the television
screen. The general assumption was that this exposé increased the sense of abhorrence
in people and, hopefully, would insure that such things would never happen.
In considering this logic we may ask, Suppose scientific progress were to arrive
at a point where someone developed a little pill which could produce a uniform nightmare
of horrendous violence in all the people of the world. Would this pill cure mankind
of wars, once and for all? Looking at it from this standpoint, we must regretfully
face the fact that filling our consciousness with thoughts of violence, brutality,
injustice, and evil will not heal these problems, just as studying psychopathology
will not bring about mental health. Only the study



of mental health can result in mental health. Only the study of what is existentially
valid can bring about a transformation of human character in individuals and nations
alike.
It is therefore clear that watching such television programs and saturating consciousness
with images of pathology on a planetary scale — or any other scale for that matter
— is not beneficial to anyone. There is a difference between the study of history
and the exposure of the mind to the influences of television imagery. The study of
history is nothing but information dealt with by the intellect; but the television
screen has the power to change information into experience and that has existential
implications for the viewer. Consequently, instead of having a beneficial effect
for world peace, it tends to have a harmful effect, particularly on the mental and
psychosomatic balance of individuals.
When we understand that all mankind is suffering —or, as the Bible puts it, "groaning"
("For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
now," Romans 8:22) — in disastrous experiences due to ignorance, then we have great
compassion. We do not take it lightly; we are not callous or indifferent. Just because
we refuse to swallow the "nightmare pill," it does not mean that we have no compassion
for mankind.
In the history of civilization there have been only a handful of spiritual giants
able to rise above the sea of ignorance surrounding them and provide mankind with
some guidance. These are the Hebrew prophets, Jesus Christ and his disciples, and
the Oriental spiritual luminaries. We must gratefully acknowledge the fact that in
this period, in spite of all the horrors of recent history, the light of spiritual
enlightenment shines brighter than ever and is seen by increasing numbers of people.
And this is the hope of the world.



In a class of projective techniques a teacher used a method of projecting certain
pictures onto a screen and asked individual students to reveal their thoughts about
what they saw. To her surprise, a number of students refused to respond to this request
and a few others "drew a blank." The teacher explained that these students were exhibiting
a "fear of self."
In conventional psychological thinking there is a tendency to ask two futile questions:
one is, Why am I afraid? the other, What am I afraid of? Whenever these two questions
are asked, many explanations can be found. If we explain something, this gives us
the illusion of understanding. However, this is not so. In order to reach understanding
of certain phenomena we must know the right questions to ask. In this case we would
ask, What is the meaning of drawing a blank? In this case it would be revealed to
us that it is a form of resistance and fear of being tricked into self-disclosure
and being made into an object of investigation without conscious consent. We don’t
like to be objects of investigation.
The psychotherapeutic situation is set up according to the medical model, where
the therapist functions as an investigator, seeking to find out what is wrong with
the patient. He intrudes into the patient’s personal life in order to find faults;
he explores the most intimate details of the patient’s past and of his present life.
Unless one is just an outright exhibitionist, this is a very unpleasant experience.
If we visualize the original Freudian set-up with the patient lying flat on his back



and the doctor sitting behind him, out of his visual field and making notes and asking
probing questions, it conjures up a picture of some sort of medieval inquisitory
scene where the assumption was that man is an object, filled with some evil ideas
which need to be brought out in order for him to be purified.
This kind of approach inevitably creates the well-known phenomenon of resistance.
This also explains the generalized misgivings people tend to have about psychiatry,
psychology, and psychotherapy, for these are perceived as forms of intrusion into
the privacy of individuals and families under the guise of scientific helpfulness.
Projective tests are particularly suspect, because they are perceived as tricky
ways of eliciting confidential information from unsuspecting patients, students,
and applicants for jobs and promotions. The basic assumption is that therapists have
a right to "help" people whether they like it or not, whether they want it or not.
Of course, many patients believe that they want to be objects of scientific exploration,
but if that were true, there would be no phenomena of resistance.
In traditional forms of psychotherapy resistance phenomena appear to be ubiquitous.
They come in the form of many disguises, such as drawing blanks, missing appointments,
hostility, contentiousness, even feigned cooperativeness. And then, of course, psychotherapy
assumes that what is needed are more skilful techniques of resistance analysis to
detect and break down these resistances.
Resistance occurs whenever a therapist is treating a patient or a disease. But
there is a better way. We do not have to treat the disease and we do not have to
treat the person. We can help the patient to see his mode of being-in-the-world,
for the problems he encounters in life are manifestations of misdirected modes of
being-in-the-world. When a patient is able to see the connection between his suffering
and his erroneous mode of being-in-the-world, then he becomes interested in reorienting
himself in accord with what is more existentially valid.



For instance, earlier a salesman was mentioned whose mode of being-in-the-world
was reminiscent of a steamroller. It was not necessary to therapeutize the patient,
nor to discuss his problem, which was a marital one; instead, his mode of being-in-the-world
was clarified to him. It was explained to him that misdirected modes of being-in-the-world
are manifestations of certain assumptions about life, arrived at through miseducation.
The salesman was educated to be very articulate and to "snow" people with words and
clever arguments. He was very good at it. Furthermore, he absorbed the value system
of the game of ice hockey, which is known to be one of the more aggressive forms
of sport. These factors played an important role in his mode of being-in-the-world,
which, being existentially invalid, resulted in marital discord. As all this became
clear to him, he naturally became interested in finding a better way and thus there
was no resistance whatsoever. There was just recognition, regret, and reorientation.
The better way is found in the model of perfect being manifested by Jesus Christ.
The qualities and values which he taught the world are available to anyone to contemplate
and to accept. The result is healing for all concerned. Not only was the patient
in the above case healed, but his family was relieved of the pressures which he used
to bring home from work.
When we treat modes of being-in-the-world, we preserve the patient’s integrity.
He does not feel threatened. He is not in the position of being an object of tricky
investigations and intrusions into his privacy. He is just learning to perceive reality
in a more valid fashion. Therefore, problems of resistance do not arise. Neither
are there any transference and countertransference phenomena to cope with.
So now we have to consider again the issue of fear and fearlessness. As we mentioned,
it is important to ask the right question in order to get a valid answer. In order
to become fearless, we must come to understand what fear is. Millions of people suffer
from fear unnecessarily. Fear is self-concern. It is the habit of being concerned
about oneself. In Metapsychiatry



we call it "self-confirmatory ideation." From childhood on we are conditioned to
ask ourselves two questions: How do I feel? and, How am I doing? These questions
are always present in the background of our thinking.
Interestingly enough, if we are in the habit of fearfully contemplating our condition
in life, this thought is present in consciousness, and whatever is present in consciousness
acts as a magnet attracting corresponding experiences to reinforce that mental preoccupation.
The more we are in the habit of fearfulness, the more we shall attract experiences
of intimidation. All sorts of little experiences will come our way to increase our
fearful self-concern until we may develop a full-blown anxiety neurosis. We are trained
from childhood on to be fearfully preoccupied with ourselves. One young lady came
to her session and said: "When I arrived here today, I got very scared because I
noticed that I forgot to be anxious."
If we unmask fear as a chronic form of self-confirmatory ideation — and as such
it constitutes a misdirected mode of being-in-the-world — then we can slough it off.
Jesus often said to people: "Fear not: believe only" (Luke 8:50). Is that possible?
Is it possible to shake off fearfulness and be rid of it once and for all?
Fear is a prolific source of illness of every kind: emotional, mental, physical,
social, economic, etc. Behind all our problems lies the unfortunate inclination toward
self-confirmatory fearfulness. If we could be fearless and loving we could truly
be healthy all the time. How is this possible? What did Jesus mean by saying, "Believe
only?" We have to realize that fear is nothing other than misdirected interest. When
we are fearful we are interested in ourselves. Even if we are concerned with the
welfare of others, we are still interested in ourselves, and when we are interested
in ourselves we are fearful. When Jesus says, "Believe only," he actually says: "Shift
your interest to something higher, more valid; turn your attention to something that
is existentially more valid; reorient yourself mentally toward God, infinite Mind,
Love-Intelligence, the source of your existence, the foundation of all life."



So when we realize that what we suffer from is a misdirected interest in self instead
of in God, the Transcendent, then we see that it is possible for man to be healed
of self-confirmatory mental preoccupations and thus become fearless, loving, intelligent,
and joyful. He can attain his full and conscious spiritual identity. He can become
conscious of himself as a spiritual being, a divine manifestation of Love-Intelligence,
and thus attain the ability to be a beneficial presence in the world, which is mental
health. Hence we see that fearfulness, while inevitable, is actually not necessary.
In conclusion, it seems desirable to point out the difference between fearlessness
and courage. The difference can be understood if we compare the philosophy of Stoicism
with Christlike meekness. The courageous Stoic relies on willful resistance to fear,
thus struggling against it. The Christlike meekness is based on a higher understanding
of life as divinely governed wisdom and love. Therefore it is effortless and free.
The enlightened man is naturally fearless and loving.



Traditional psychotherapies see love as requiring an object. In psychoanalysis
one speaks of a love object, which is very strange because if we turn our loved one
into an object, we have denied his basic humanity and ignored his spirituality.
Someone could say that we don’t really turn people into objects, that this is just
a semantic license. However, this is not just a semantic refinement; actually, the
prevalent mode in love relationships is that of objectification. This is one of the
main themes of Martin Buber’s work. His most important point is that man has a tendency
to deal with his fellow man as if he were an object. Instead of "I-thou" relationship,
which is Martin Buber’s idea of love, unenlightened man tends to function on the
presumption of "I-it." We tend to turn our fellow man into an "it." And what happens
when we deal with one another as objects? We become manipulative.
To be manipulated is not a pleasant experience; it is dehumanizing, humiliating,
even infuriating. The hostilities and resentments and strife which we can observe
in everyday life have much to do with an erroneous approach to our fellow man. It
is the manipulative object-relations approach. In psychoanalysis, especially the
interpersonal theory of psychoanalysis of Sullivan and others, this terrible term
was made respectable. It has become respectable to talk about an "object-relations
theory" of psychoanalysis. It simply means that we treat our fellow men as if they
were objects. If they are objects,



like for instance a chair, they can be pushed around, turned upside down, even smashed.
Now someone may say, But a man can defend himself; he can resist our manipulation.
To this we can answer that if we were to encounter such resistance, we would want
to improve our skills of manipulation to such a point as to make it impossible for
our love object to resist. Rape could be considered an extreme case of object love.
Combined with murder, it would carry the theory of object-relations to its ultimate
point of absurdity by rendering an animate "object" into an inanimate object. If
our assumptions about life were based on such theories, the result would be indeed
disastrous.
Without realizing it, people are led to believe that a loved one is an object who
is here for our personal gratification. If we love someone, we have the right to
use that individual to make ourselves feel good. Love thy neighbor as if he were
an object. This is what it comes to.
Many of the phenomena of resistance, so widely discussed in psychoanalytic therapy,
have much to do with the fact that the patient is being treated as an object of exploration
and manipulation. Psychoanalysis has not introduced the idea of object-relations
but psychoanalysis has legitimized it and made it respectable as quasi science. This
tendency was always present in human relationships. This explains the need for the
commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Leviticus 19:18). What does
this command mean? It means that we must know and see our neighbors as spiritual
beings or manifestations of God, just as we are. Then there will be a different situation
at hand. There will be no objectification of the loved one. There will be no manipulative
abuses. There will be just the love of being loving.
True love is not object-related. We do not love anybody or anything. God is not
somebody who loves somebody. God is love and man is the expression of God’s love.
Therefore, man loves to be loving. What happens if a therapist loves to be loving?
What "technique" is he going to use on his patients? How is he going to "handle"
them? Of course, these are utterly objectionable



words. A Metapsychiatric therapist does not use techniques, he does not handle people,
he does not influence people. He is, however, influential.
Metapsychiatric therapy is not interpersonal. The focus of Metapsychiatric therapy
is not the patient, not the therapist, and not the relationship. It is the truth
of being. The task of the therapist is to continually shed light on the truth of
what really is. How does healing take place in such a nonpersonal therapeutic situation?
Let us put it this way: A traditional psychotherapist could be compared to someone
who discovers that the statement "Two and two is five" is erroneous and who then
proceeds to work on making two and two not to be five. He may work hard at it for
years, exploring all the whys and wherefores, and the historic background, and the
blameworthiness of this condition. In Metapsychiatry we are not trying to make two
and two not to be five. We say that two and two is four, and this truth abolishes
the five and the whole problem.
It is not the therapist who abolishes the error but the truth. Therefore, one of
the principles in Metapsychiatry is: "The understanding of what really is abolishes
all that seems to be."



We are often asked about the treatment of children in Metapsychiatry. In Metapsychiatry
we consider children to be extensions of parental consciousness and, later on, of
significant adults in their particular lives. Therefore, the best approach to the
treatment of children is through the consciousness of the parents. If children have
problems, the best thing to do is to work with the parents, particularly the one
who has the greatest impact on the child.
The parental consciousness constitutes the context in which the child experiences
life. The child does not have the ability to transcend the context of parental consciousness
and attain a different mode of being-in-the-world. Therefore, from this vantage point
conventional child psychotherapy does not seem to make much sense. Sometimes, when
a significant rapport is established between a therapist and a child, it can happen
that the therapist becomes a parent substitute and actually takes over the process
of child rearing. This, however, is not psychotherapy.
The great tragedy nowadays is that parents tend to be so impressed by psychotherapy
that instead of being parents they become amateur psychotherapists to their own children.
Child raising disappears and is replaced by a clinical form of parenting. The fundamental
difference between a psychotherapist and a parent is this: Loving parents seek the
good in the child; the psychotherapist is oriented toward finding out what is wrong
with the child. Parents who espouse the clinical



approach thus become habitual fault-finders and inflict upon a child the idea that
he or she is sick. If parents become impressed by professionalism, then love, which
is a positive viewpoint, is shoved into the background and a negative, clinical attitude
takes over.
Children need to be seen through loving eyes and not through clinical eyes, because
love sees the beautiful, the good, the harmonious, the intelligent, the divine qualities.
The clinical eye is harmful even if it is practiced by a legitimate psychotherapist.
This also applies to the therapy of adults.
As mentioned before, Metapsychiatry has isolated "six futile questions" which are
to be consistently eschewed if we are to be helpful, and the first of these questions
is, "What is wrong?" The Metapsychiatric therapist seeks to understand an individual’s
mode of being-in-the-world, not whether it is wrong or right, but as an indication
of his way of perceiving reality. We do not condemn it but ask, Is this individual’s
mode of being-in-the-world valid? If we find that it is existentially invalid, it
does not mean that it is wrong or that the individual is to be blamed for it. Nobody
is to be blamed. We are born in ignorance. We grow up in ignorance, and through miseducation
we become increasingly ignorant. As a consequence, we develop certain world-views
(Weltanschauungen), that is, certain ways of looking at life and perceiving reality.
If these perceptions are not valid from the standpoint of existential principles,
then we are going to suffer. Therefore, the entire question, What’s wrong with someone?
is not necessary and not asking it makes it possible for us to be nonjudgmental.
The usual diagnostic approach to people places us in a position where we are scientifically
entitled to pass judgment on others. Whether we are scientifically entitled or not,
it is damaging to the patient to be judged. It is well known that the Bible admonishes
us not to judge. "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged" (Matthew 7:1, 2). "For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest
thyself" (Romans 2:1). It is possible to be a



psychotherapist and remain nonjudgmental. Thus we preserve a positive regard for
patients. Positive regard is compassion and love.
If the therapist has the freedom to be nonjudgmental, compassionate, and loving,
then the patient or client finds himself in a therapeutically helpful climate. The
climate in which the therapeutic process is taking place is determined by the quality
of the therapist’s consciousness, not unlike a child who lives and grows and actualizes
his potentialities in the context of parental consciousness. The therapeutic tool
and the therapeutic environment is the therapist’s consciousness. The power which
heals the patient is the truth which the therapist knows. When we say that the therapist
knows the truth, it must be understood that we don’t say that the therapist knows
about the truth. Knowing about the truth would make the therapist religious. This
has little beneficial effect. But knowing the truth will make the therapist free
and make it possible for him to set the patient free. Therefore, the education of
a therapist is neither intellectual, nor operational, nor academic, but existential.
What do we mean by that? By existential we mean that the knowledge which we acquire
through an educational process must have a transforming effect on our lives and character.
It is not enough to be well educated and to know techniques. We must actually be
healed and transformed by what we have learned, for there are two kinds of education.
There is education which is information and there is education which is transformation.
Academic education is essentially based on information. Real education must bring
about transformation of character and mode of being-in-the-world, so that the quality
of consciousness of the therapist might become a therapeutic environment in which
patients can be healed.
What is environment? What determines it? Suppose an interior decorator comes into
an empty room and decides to create an environment by decorating that room. We may
ask, What determines the particular environment which he will create? The answer
is that his value system and aesthetic concepts



will externalize themselves in a certain specific form and determine the environment.
This indicates that environments are mental, whether in a room, a house, an institution,
a community, or a culture. All things are externalizations of mental processes revealing
the underlying value systems governing the thinking of the significant individuals
who participate in the creation of the environment. We live and move and have our
being in a universe of Mind, and everything depends on the value system which fills
that mental climate. Our perceptions are determined by our values.
Recently I read a quotation attributed to Albert Einstein, who in 1926 in a conversation
with Heisenberg said: "Our theories determine what we shall observe in our experiments."
Thus even research in atomic physics cannot be said to be objective, but is mentally
determined. The consciousness of the observer determines what will be seen. The experiments
take place in a mental environment. Internalized values and thoughts determine perception.
External reality is not objective.
In psychotherapy it is the mental climate which governs the therapist’s environment
that determines the effectiveness of the healing process. There is no such thing
as an objective scientific procedure. This would explain the mysterious fact that
in spite of the number of various schools of psychotherapy, effective therapists
can be found in all of them, notwithstanding "party affiliations."
It is known that Freud never cured a patient in his entire career; apparently he
didn’t have a therapeutic consciousness. He was essentially an investigator. And
it is said that the psychoanalytic method which he devised is not a healing method,
but a method of investigation. Certainly, an investigator is not a therapist.
The greatest therapist was Jesus Christ. He never analyzed people. He never investigated
anything. He never asked futile questions. The special faculty which he had was an
infinite outpouring of nonpersonal love. The quality of his consciousness created
a climate of love around him and anyone who



came into contact with that love was instantaneously healed. The Bible describes
the story of a woman who was bleeding for twelve years and no one could help her.
She sneaked up behind Jesus and touched the hem of his garment, which means she reached
out for contact with that mental climate and was instantaneously healed.
The ideal therapist seeks to cultivate within himself the maximum possible loving,
compassionate, intelligent consciousness, so that anyone who comes into contact with
that environment, which takes place in his presence, will become affected in a favorable
way.
It is not necessary to investigate our patients to find out what is wrong with
them and why, and who is to blame for it, and what we should do about it, and how
one should do it. Whatever is invalid in a patient’s thinking reveals itself spontaneously
in the right mental climate. If we know that two and two is four, we can instantaneously
spot that two and two is not five. But if we don’t know that two and two is four,
we wouldn’t know that two and two isn’t five. In a therapeutic climate whatever is
existentially invalid reveals itself spontaneously as error.
A Metapsychiatric therapist asks himself two questions: "What is the meaning of
what seems to be?" and "What is what really is?" The meaning of what seems to be
cannot be figured out through calculative thinking. We have to wait till it reveals
itself to us. If we have learned to live in the right consciousness, the meaning
of every problem will reveal itself spontaneously. The work is without effort.
The tenth principle of Metapsychiatry states: "The understanding of what really
is abolishes all that seems to be."
The question is sometimes asked, What role do drugs play in psychiatric treatment?
There are many people who are not interested in a healing, but only in temporary
relief. For instance, suppose someone likes to be domineering and push other people
around. He may enjoy hurting other people, but he himself does not seem to suffer
until such time that he comes up against someone whom he cannot tyrannize. At that



point he may begin to suffer. He may go to a doctor and the doctor may find that
he has high blood pressure or some other physical symptom. On that basis this individual
might try to take some tranquilizing drugs and for a little while get along that
way. But eventually the drugs become less and less effective and his problems may
increase until, finally, he runs into an existential crisis of some sort. At that
point he may be forced to recognize the error of his ways, regret his ignorance,
and perchance reorient himself and thus be healed.
Thus the healing process consists of three steps: recognition, regret, and reorientation.
Reorientation means coming into harmony with the Fundamental Order of Existence:
peace, assurance, gratitude, love, freedom, wisdom, joy, beauty, goodness, and being
a beneficial presence in the world. This is the Christly standard of being healthy.
Lately there have been widespread discussions in the nation about the issue of
capital punishment. All sorts of arguments have been raised pro and con. In general,
we can distinguish positions based on pure vindictiveness, on crime deterrence, and
on economic issues (it is claimed that a prisoner in jail costs $30,000 a year to
the taxpayer). Certain religious arguments are also brought up. And then there are
others who are convinced that capital punishment has no effect on discouraging crime.
The arguments seem to go on endlessly.
It appears that, by reasoning from the standpoint of human emotions and human logic,
it is not really possible to arrive at an intelligent answer to this problem. Consequently,
it is not possible to be for or against any of these positions in a clear-cut way.
A Zen Master would say: "When it comes to the issue of crime and punishment, yes
is no, and no is yes."
In contemplating this issue we may ask, What does it take to become the victim
of a crime? There are only two ways to become a victim: by wanting to or by not wanting
to. Therefore, if we could find an alternative to these two conditions, this might
provide us with some valid answers. In answer to this dilemma we can say that the
solution lies in being interested in something other than wanting or not wanting
to be victimized.



Thus when we are faced with the decision of whether to vote for capital punishment
or against it, we cast our vote for crimeless living. In the universe of Mind crime
is not known. There is brotherly love, harmony, peace, assurance, gratitude, freedom.
Someone may object and ask, Yes, yes, but what about in the meanwhile? In the meanwhile
we suffer the trials and tribulations of living in an ignorant world. Thus the issue
boils down to this: not how to punish criminals, but how to live in safety in spite
of the crime-ridden environment. In order to be safe, we rely on our meditation which
we have called the four "Ws": Who am I? What am I? Where am I? What is my purpose
in life? The answers to these questions are as follows: I am an image and likeness
of God, a manifestation of Love-Intelligence. I am a divine consciousness. I live
and move and have my being in omniactive Divine Mind. My purpose is to be a beneficial
presence in the world.
It is a well known and widely observed fact that animals react to the quality of
consciousness in people. For instance, if someone is afraid of a dog, the dog may
— more often than not — behave in a hostile, threatening way toward him. This indicates
how important the state of consciousness is when it comes to safety.
So when we meditate sincerely and with understanding on the four "Ws," then we
dwell in the "secret place of the most High... under the protection of the Almighty"
(Psalm 91:1). And this is the secret of safety and a remedy to the crime problem.
Nothing will ever stop crime except if individuals in large numbers learn to dwell
in the secret place of the most High.
An unprotected consciousness is exposed to mental contagion propagated by the news
media or hearsay, which captures the imagination and perpetuates and magnifies the
adverse experiences of the culture. Today we have epidemics of terrorism, of arson,
blue collar crime, white collar crime, government corruption, etc., perpetuated by
a marvelous system of communication. The blessings of scientific progress are always
accompanied by the cursed problems of its side effects. Purity



of good, however, can only be found through spiritualized consciousness, which is
the essence of what we have called the healing environment. In such an environment
neither illness nor crime can endure.



Whenever new ideas are presented in a seminar or at a lecture, it invariably happens
that someone will attempt to reformulate them in terms of what has been previously
learned. This is often spoken of as "putting new wine into old bottles." We could
say that concepts are containers for ideas. For instance, let us consider the concepts
of attitudes, integration, and holistic wholeness. These concepts have no existential
usefulness. Nevertheless, they keep cropping up in discussions.
In existential Metapsychiatry we cannot speak of attitudes because the concept
is an operational one. An attitude is something that we can assume. It can be done.
Whatever we can do, we call operational. It is a transaction. We can assume an aggressive
attitude, or a passive attitude, or a friendly attitude, or an unfriendly attitude,
etc. We can do it. There is a certain autonomy about it which is very appealing to
us because we would like to be able to do whatever seems helpful to do. In juxtaposition
to operational concepts there are existential realities.
The second concept mentioned was integration. This is a marginal word which suggests
that we can bring together something old and something new, as well as some other
factors and ideas, and put them together and make something valid out of it. So it
is a marginally operational idea, but whatever is operational is not existential.
Nowadays we hear about a concept called holistic health and wholeness. We have
to view this concept with a grain



of salt, i.e., carefully, because it depends on what we consider wholeness to be.
In general usage wholeness is conceived of as an expanded view of man in the context
of his environment. Metapsychiatry does not consider this to be valid because man
is not a plant, nor an animal, nor a rock. Man is not natural. While it is true that
being in conflict with nature would make man sick, nevertheless, coming into harmony
with nature would not make him whole.
Man is radically different from all other life forms on earth. Therefore, we can
speak of wholeness only in terms of consciousness. The central fact of human existence
is the quality of consciousness, and to understand human wholeness we must see it
as consciousness which is in harmony with the Divine. Jesus has put it succinctly:
"I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). "I am in the Father, and the Father in me"
(John 14:11). To understand this we may ask, What was so special about Jesus? Certainly
it was not his physical organism. Neither could we think of him as a "nature boy."
He represented the spiritually enlightened man whose wholeness was based on the quality
of his consciousness. We certainly appreciate ecology and nature in the admirable
unity and delicate interrelatedness of its elements, but our appreciation of nature
is essentially aesthetic rather than biological. This fact also points up the radical
difference between man and other life forms. Only man seems to have the faculty of
aesthetic appreciation and only man is capable of artistic expression. These are
spiritual faculties in man. Even primitive man, who is usually very close to nature,
gives evidence of expressing himself artistically and reveals a capacity for aesthetic
appreciation.
To understand human wholeness we must consider the fact that this wholeness is
entirely different from all other ideas of wholeness. The wholeness of man is attained
when he is in conscious harmony with the Fundamental Order of Existence, which is
Spirit, God, infinite Love-Intelligence. Interestingly enough, when we approach that
state of realization, we find our health improving in every possible way — emotionally,
mentally, physically, socially, economically, maritally,



etc., which is proof positive of the fact that we are moving in the right direction.
Metapsychiatry seeks to help people to attain or to approximate that kind of wholeness
which we call conscious at-one-ment or union with God, infinite Love-Intelligence.
Love and intelligence are basic qualities of God which man can realize, actualize,
and express. To the extent that we succeed in bringing our lives into alignment with
this transcendent Reality, we approach the Christly standard of wholeness.
This, of course, is not an attitude which we can assume. If we tried to do this
in terms of assuming an attitude, the best we could achieve would be religious hypocrisy.
But we are concerned with existential realization, namely, we are seeking to become
what we have truly understood. Knowing is being. What we really know, that is what
we really are. What we just know about, we pretend to be. Pretending is one of the
great mistakes which lead to attitudes. The operational approach to knowledge leads
us into believing that we already are what we only know about. This is called behaviorism.
There is a school of psychotherapy called behaviorism where people are being trained
to assume certain attitudes and to behave in certain ways which are considered socially
desirable. The more successful we are in terms of behavior, the less authentic we
become, because we are then just a set of conditioned reflexes, like the Pavlovian
dogs. The school of behavior therapy seeks to help man by turning him into a functional
animal.
In general we can distinguish three kinds of people, depending on the level of
their spiritual development. There are animal people. There are human people. And
then there are spiritual beings. Of course, everyone is a spiritual being, but we
are not all on the same level of development in terms of consciousness. For many
centuries the Sphinx was considered a great riddle. The Sphinx appears to be a very
mysterious and fascinating creation of ancient man, endowed with some deep knowledge
of the secrets of life. Many people report that they are awe-struck facing the Sphinx
and cannot understand what it is that elicits this reaction.



A well-known writer and philosopher by the name of Ouspensky describes in detail
his own fascination with the Sphinx. He spent prolonged periods of time standing
in front of it and trying to fathom the meaning of the Sphinx by seeking to understand
his own reaction to it. He seemed to have come very close to understanding it, but
he didn’t make it quite clear enough in his descriptions. If, however, we consider
the Sphinx in terms of the three levels of human consciousness which we have described
above, we may find an adequate explanation of the riddle of the Sphinx. As is known,
the Sphinx has an animal body and a human head, but what is most mysterious about
it is the peculiar gaze in its eyes. The animal body could be thought of as symbolizing
or representing animal man. What is animal man? Animal man is "nature boy," namely,
sensual, emotional, material, animalistic, instinct-ridden man, seeking instinctual
gratification and expression. Animal man is primarily concerned with instinctual
gratification. On the second level is human man. The Sphinx progresses from an animal
body to a human head. What is a human man? Human man is psychological man, a man
who "uses his head." By that we mean commonsense thinking, cleverness, craftiness,
calculative thinking, manipulativeness, deviousness, political ideation. In other
words, human man is a man who uses his head and lacks creativity. The highest attainment
of the human man is politics and psychology.
The Sphinx seems to represent the development of man from animality through psychology
to transcendence. The eyes of the Sphinx do not focus on anything in the material
world. They stare into infinity. Spiritual beings have their focus on infinite Love-Intelligence,
the source of all wisdom, creativity, aesthetic perceptivity, divine consciousness.
We could say that behaviorism deals with animal man, and psychology deals with human
man. Metapsychiatry seeks to elevate the entire being of man to the level of divine
consciousness, to awaken within him the dormant faculty of spiritual awareness which
reminds us of the Bible passage: "Awake thou



that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Ephesians 5:14).
The meaning and purpose of life and Metapsychiatric therapy is to help us attain
the highest level of consciousness through right understanding of Divine Reality.
This understanding results in a transformation of man: he becomes a spontaneous expression
of Divine Love-Intelligence.



An attractive young lady reported the following: "I find that my happiness most
of the time depends on whether or not I am being fed compliments. When no one is
complimenting me, then I feel awful. I know that all these things are totally futile
and childish, but this is how it is anyway. I can talk myself into really being depressed
just because I am not getting any compliments. I would like to be free of this roller
coaster. I have recently read a book entitled Zen in the Art of Archery, written
by a Westerner by the name of Herrigel. In it he is told by a Zen Master that he
must rise above the buffetings of pleasure and pain. I wonder how I could do that?"
There is a more precise way of looking at the problem. We have to rise above the
habit of self-confirmatory ideation. If we rise above the buffetings of pleasure
and pain, we don’t know where we are. We could find ourselves in a position of stoicism,
or catatonic self-mortification, or apathy. These are not felicitous solutions. But
if we rise above self-confirmatory ideation, then we find ourselves in a dimension
of consciousness which is aware of and acknowledges God’s allness. We call this the
God-confirmatory mode of being-in-the-world. In this situation we are aware of pleasure
and pain, but they have lost much of their importance. Our interest has shifted toward
an appreciation of spiritual bliss: peace, harmony, assurance, gratitude, love, transcendent
joy.
This, then, is the healing of vanity. Vanity is a desire to be admired, which is
an eminently self-confirmatory idea. Pleasure



and pain are just two sides of the same coin, which we have called self-confirmation.
Self-confirmation is self-destruction, and self-destruction is self-confirmation.
These two constitute two sides of the same coin.
Sometimes we can observe an animal licking himself and biting himself intermittently,
thus trying to heal himself and destroy himself at the same time. Such are the dualisms
of unenlightened life.
Some people are constantly fishing for compliments, in a way asking to be licked,
but often they wind up getting bitten because they provoke and irritate others. So
licking and biting belong together, and in this duality yes is no and no is yes.
Vanity is a thin-skinned balloon filled with hot air.
Recently, a young man was cornered by his mother who insisted on knowing whether
or not he liked her new blouse. Being thus put on the spot, he remembered that it
would not help to say yes, and it would not help to say no. After thinking a while,
he hit upon the following answer: "I understand that you would like me to compliment
you." This response brought about the collapse of the balloon of vanity and enabled
our friend to break the "double bind" of his mother’s demand.
It is interesting to note that the concept of self-confirmatory ideation, which
is so helpful to us in coping with these problems, cannot be found anywhere in the
literature, neither in the East nor in the West. While the term is linguistically
not very attractive, it is nevertheless worthwhile because it clarifies and pinpoints
an important source of human suffering. The explanation of this omission may be found
in the fact that most philosophical systems endeavor to explain the human condition
and its transcendence without a forthright and explicit acknowledgment of the existence
of God.
It is advisable to point out here the difference between the God of traditional
religions and the God of enlightenment. In traditional religions man is seen as separated
from God and as seeking to establish a relationship with God through prayer, ritual,
and conduct. In enlightenment there is no relationship between man and God. Enlightenment
is based on a realization



of at-one-ment of man with God. God manifests himself in the world through man. As
the rays of the sun are one with the sun and the waves of the sea are one with the
sea, so God and man constitute an inseparable unity. This, of course, is easier to
conceptualize than to realize. The moment this oneness is realized, vanity becomes
impossible. The gratification of vanity could be compared to a thirsty man drinking
salt water; the more he drinks, the thirstier he becomes until he may die. Modern
psychology has come up with a new method of controlling children in schools and prisoners
in jails. It is called operant conditioning or behavior modification, and it is based
on the principle of focusing attention on good behavior and continually rewarding
it with praise and gifts, and not punishing bad behavior. The results seem to be
promising, except if we understand the underlying issues, we see that while the behavior
may temporarily improve, the children are actually being trained to expect continuous
and ever increasing ego gratification. This, of course, must inevitably lead to problems.
It may succeed in producing large numbers of ego-maniacal individuals.
The fact is that praise is not good and punishment is not good. Pampering is not
good and persecution is not good. Complimenting is not good and criticizing is not
good because they are the same. They are all ego-confirmatory modes of thinking.
The more we feed the ego, the sicker we get. This indeed is a great problem in education,
in parenting, and in life in general.
Now the question is, Is there a valid way of approbation, which means acknowledging
the good? Of course there is. But who can do it? Only the "right man" can do it.
The "wrong man" can try to do it but it will be phony, manipulative, and it will
backfire, for "if the wrong man does the right thing, then the right thing works
the wrong way" (Chuang-tzu). Now, teachers, psychiatrists, executives, and parents
need to become the "right man." How do we become the "right man"? What does it mean
to be the "right man"? The right man is capable of acknowledging the good of God
wherever something good



occurs, not the good of persons, but the good of God. The right man acknowledges
it and rejoices in the fact that God’s good is in evidence.
In Zen in the Art of Archery there is a scene described in which the student finally
succeeds in hitting the bull’s eye in perfect form, and the Zen Master, noticing
a self-satisfied smile on the face of the trainee, says to him: "Let us bow to perfection,"
and together they bow. This, then, is the model of existentially valid approbation.
Perfection is not personal; it is the manifestation of the divine impulse acting
through man. We honor the good of God wherever and whenever it becomes manifest.



Most of our knowledge is based on judging by appearances. If we look at ourselves
just with the naked eye, we see that we are highly emotional people, and feelings
constitute a very impressive aspect of our humanness. We are keenly aware of our
feelings and, as a consequence, we have assumed that we are controlled by our feelings,
and that emotional reactions determine our judgment and our mental health.
It is not surprising then that this phenomenon has assumed in psychology the significance
of an a priori fact. As it is with many things in life, that which seems to be is
not necessarily what really is. And again it goes back to the question, What is man?
Is man what he seems to be, or is he something else? Many schools of psychology have
been developed on the basis of what man seems to be. But we are coming to realize
that judging by appearances can be highly misleading.
Conventional psychological thinking states that feelings are primary and thoughts
are secondary. It assumes that feelings and sensations give rise to certain thoughts.
We, so to speak, interpret reality by the impact things have upon our feelings and
sensations, which means that sensory perceptions appear to be the primary mediators
of our contact with reality. Even Paracelsus, the famous medieval physician, believed
this to be so. He said: "Nihil est in intellectu quod primum non fuerit in sensu,"
which means nothing can be in the mind which has not been first in the senses. So
what Paracelsus took for granted, conventional psychology has accepted.



However, Metapsychiatry sees it otherwise. It states that thought is primary, and
feelings and emotions are byproducts of thought processes. This, of course, is a
revolutionary realization which turns everything upside down — or better yet — right
side up. This realization brings hope and possibilities of healing within reach.
If feelings and emotions were primary, then our situation would be hopeless. How
many times have we heard people say: "I can’t help how I feel!" For instance, someone
may say, "I feel like strangling that person. I can’t help it, that’s the way I feel."
If it were true that feelings and emotions are primary, then man would be at the
mercy of his impulses. But if we come to understand that thought is primary and that
our feelings and emotions — and even sensory perceptions — are determined by our
thought processes, there is a possibility of healing because thoughts can be improved.
With the improvement of thought processes, emotional responses and even sensory perceptions
and cognition improve.
Let us now examine how it is that feelings and emotions are byproducts of thought
processes. In considering this issue, it is helpful to remind ourselves of a famous
quotation attributed to Einstein: "Our theories determine what we shall observe in
our experiments." Thus, even sensory perceptions and cognitive processes depend on
our thinking. In psychotic conditions we have come to understand that hallucinatory
experiences are not primary feelings and sensations, but perceptualized thought processes.
This realization made it possible to heal such conditions by improving the thinking
processes of patients, either through chemical intervention or through skillful psychotherapy.
When our thought processes are existentially valid, then our feelings, emotions,
perceptions, and cognition improve and we are healed. "For as he [man] thinketh in
his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). Just as bowel movements are byproducts of digestive
processes, feelings and emotions are byproducts of thought processes. This leads
us to the important discovery that man is not a perceptual organism relating himself
to



reality with his senses and with his feelings, but that man is consciousness. Man
is an individualized divine consciousness. And the quality of his consciousness determines
his mode of being-in-the-world. The quality of our consciousness will determine what
we see and how we interpret what we see, and what reactions we have to what is going
on around us.
In the Old Testament God seems to be subject to emotional reactions. He is capable
of wrathfulness, vindictiveness, jealousy. He seems to have many psychological problems.
But as we have evolved over several thousand years, we have come to understand God
in a more advanced way. God is totally devoid of emotionalism and sensualism. God
is just pure consciousness. The attributes of this pure consciousness are love, intelligence,
creativity, life, beauty, harmony, joy, perfection. This understanding of God in
its pure form helps us to understand ourselves. While in the Old Testament God is
man-like, our present-day understanding of God helps us to see man as God-like.
Divine attributes must not be mistaken for emotions. They are spiritual qualities
existing in consciousness and manifested through realized man. By contrast, emotions
and feelings are psychophysiological processes occurring in the neurovegetative system
of the organism. These processes do not exist in God. Man, as an individualized aspect
of divine consciousness, is capable of being aware of spiritual attributes and even
expressing them. Joy, love, creative intelligence have nothing in common with affectivity.
They are qualities of consciousness and they are spiritual rather than organismic.
To understand this is very helpful. For instance, if we misunderstand love and believe
it to be an emotion, we can be subject to rapid changes of experience. Our love can
quickly turn to hate and our joy into sorrow. If someone makes us feel good, we love
him. If someone makes us feel bad, we hate him. Thus we are unstable. But real love
is steadfast. It has no opposite. It is a quality of being which is focused on the
good of God unconditionally. It is a mode of being-in-the-world.
If we assume that the primary issue in mental health is



affectivity, we may become psychologically disturbed. This unfortunately happens
in those instances when the psychotherapeutic method used consists of focusing the
patient’s attention on his feelings and emotions. The more we try to help someone
to feel good, the sicker he gets. "Where a man’s treasure [interest] is, there shall
his heart [problems] be also" (Luke 12:34).
In Metapsychiatry we are not dealing with emotions, because these are secondary.
The focus is on the quality of consciousness, because that is primary. How do we
improve the quality of consciousness? If we would improve our consciousness we must
learn to see life in an existentially valid context. Oddly enough, the most existentially
valid context that has ever been revealed to us comes from the teachings of Taoism,
of Zen Buddhism, and of Jesus Christ. These happen to overlap to a great extent.
The right perspective on Reality requires us to come to recognize the existence of
God and our absolute contingency and inseparability from the divine context. Anyone
who tries to understand man apart from God is sadly mistaken.
If we want to see reality in an existentially valid way, it is inevitable that
we come to understand life in the context of God. That does not mean that we have
to go to church, or that we have to espouse a particular religion, or that we have
to perform certain rituals. What is required is learning to see ourselves and others
in the context of God, Divine Reality. And this must be an existentially valid concept
of God, that is, a fundamental power, a force which underlies all life processes,
creativity, intelligence, and love, in the universe. Without this force nothing can
exist. Neither can we very well survive.
Recently there was a debate on television between a well-known representative of
American atheism and a panel of religious leaders of various denominations. The members
of the clergy were trying very hard to discredit the opinions of the atheist. However,
she was very articulate in her counterattacks and succeeded in rendering her opponents
quite ineffectual in their arguments. What these religious scholars



failed to notice was that the atheist, in fact, was quite religious, except that
she worshiped scientific materialism as her god.
Everyone worships something. It is impossible for man to be an atheist. There is
no such thing, but we have a variety of choices of what to worship. If we have a
multitude of gods we can choose to live by, how can we know which god to choose?
Since there is no such thing as a godless individual, the question boils down to
this: Which god is the real God? And how can we know Him? We have three ways of worshiping
our private god: whatever we cherish, whatever we hate, and whatever we fear. But
surely, we all need to know whether we are worshiping the right God. All religious
intolerance and strife indicates that mankind does not know for sure which is the
valid God. Knowing which god to worship is of supreme importance to man. The God
which validates Itself existentially must be the true God.
What is existential validation? Existential validation is a way of coming to know
what really is. That which truly is, validates itself by healing, by its power to
bring harmony and fulfillment of man’s potentialities.
We could ask, What is the meaning of Jesus’ healing work? What was he trying to
do? He was demonstrating the existential validity of his God. In proportion that
our understanding of God is existentially valid, in that proportion do we become
healthier, more harmonious, more loving, more intelligent, more fearless, more perfect
in every possible way.
So the process of Metapsychiatric therapy, focusing attention on the quality of
consciousness, simultaneously helps people to understand God and themselves as a
unity of man and God in an existentially valid way. Whatever enhances life is existentially
valid, and the central issues of life are not emotions, feelings, and sensations,
status, competition, jealousy, sex, gender identity, but consciousness.



One of the frequent complaints we hear is the experiencing of tension. If we ask,
What is tension? the explanation offers itself that tension is the experiential aspect
of intentionality. There is no tension without intention. Thus we can see that tension
is not physical but mental. It is a thought.
There are various forms of tension; we speak of tension headaches, muscular tension,
hypotension, and hypertension. The most frequent forms of medical treatment of these
problems consist of attempting to alleviate these tensions at the point of their
manifestation. For instance, tension headaches and high blood pressure are most frequently
treated by specific types of medication designed to relieve the condition at the
point of its appearance. Thus the phenomenon of tension with its multitude of manifestations
such as backaches, kidney troubles, cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems
— as in asthma and emphysema, etc. — is a very important illustrative point which
can help us understand that the physical is mental.
Unfortunately, physical symptoms tend to create such alarm and fascination in us
that we get hypnotized into believing that we are dealing essentially with organismic
disturbances rather than epiphenomena of certain mental processes. This explains
the fact that when an illness is approached on a purely medical or surgical basis,
the problem is at best alleviated but never really healed. Cures alleviate conditions,
which is not synonymous with healing. But if we understand that



physical problems are mental, then there is the possibility of getting to the core
of the issue. For instance, if someone suffers from migraine headaches, we would
not therapeutize the head of a patient with drugs, but we would deal with the meaning
of the problem.
There is, however, universal resistance to facing up to meanings. For instance,
a man developed a severe dental condition with complications which involved going
from a dentist to a root canal specialist and finally to a dental surgeon, with a
resultant alarming swelling of his face. This individual is not a student of Metapsychiatry,
but his wife is. At the height of his suffering he kept pleading with his wife to
look into his mouth. She resisted this request because she knew the problem was not
in the mouth. But he insisted, so she yielded to his request twice, but she saw nothing.
This, however, did not reassure the patient. We could ask, What could be the meaning
of this patient’s insistence on this action? The meaning was that the patient wanted
to have his wife confirm his own belief that the problem is a dental one and is located
in his mouth. But his wife knew that this problem was not what it seemed to be and
was not where it seemed to be; it was some festering thought in her husband’s consciousness
which happened to flare up and assume alarming proportions. His insistence was —
in a sense — a desire to defend himself against facing up to the meaning of the condition.
If a problem is physical then the patient can think of himself as an innocent victim
of some adverse circumstance which has befallen him. But if the problem is mental,
then there is a tendency to blame oneself for one’s thoughts and feel guilty for
having brought upon oneself such suffering. What most people do not understand is
that even though we are responsible for our problems, we cannot be blamed for them.
For example, in the above case it was discovered that this patient entertained hidden
antisemitic prejudicial thoughts about his son-in-law, who happened to be a Jewish
dentist. His prejudicial thoughts festered in his consciousness for a long time until
at one point the whole package of impurity flared up at the root of his



teeth. But certainly it would be a mistake to blame this man for his problem, or
for his prejudicial thoughts, because prejudice is only a common form of ignorance
to which most of us are easily subject.
Nevertheless, to be healed, this ignorant pocket of impurity must be cleansed out
from consciousness and the truth of spiritual identity in God must be recognized
and accepted as a fact. This would result in complete healing.
The process of purifying our consciousness is called the prayer of beholding. This
must be distinguished from wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is preoccupation with
what should be; the prayer of beholding is an endeavor to realize what really is.
Wishful thinking is self-deception, beholding is prayer. The consciousness which
beholds Reality becomes aware of its own purity as an aspect of the Christ-consciousness.
This realization manifests itself in healing. Whenever one individual attains the
purity of the Christ-consciousness, everyone around him is blessed, including, of
course, himself. Such an individual becomes a beneficial presence in the world. His
being is a focal point of harmony and healing. In beholding there are neither others
nor self, there is only the awareness of God’s perfect Reality as the infinite background
upon which manifest themselves all life forms in absolute perfection and beauty.
"In the realm of Love-Intelligence there is neither self nor other, there is only
that which really is."



Metapsychiatry views all phenomena as modes of being-in-the-world. If we are healthy,
we have a certain mode of being-in-the-world. If we are neurotic, we have a certain
mode of being-in-the-world. And if we are psychotic, schizophrenic, or whatever,
all these conditions are expressions of a certain mode of being-in-the-world. This
way we do not have to label people with preconceived diagnostic categories, which
may or may not fit them. Instead of labeling people with diagnostic categories and
obscuring the real issue, we seek to discern the specific and particular mode of
being-in-the-world in every case.
When we discern an individual’s mode of being-in-the-world, then we really understand
him, and only when we understand him can we truly be helpful to him. By pinning a
label on someone we are making it harder to help him. And certainly he will feel
judged, condemned, and pigeonholed, and he will lose a sense of his specific unique
individuality. So we reserve our official diagnostic labels for purposes of intraprofessional
communication and for insurance and legal purposes. Let us understand that when we
say that someone is a schizophrenic or a neurotic, we are only "rendering unto Caesar
what is Caesar’s" ("Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s... " Matthew
22:21). Just because we are able to fill out forms to the satisfaction of bureaucratic
demands, that does not mean that we can already help someone. More often than not,
the contrary is true. To be really helpful



we must understand the specific mode of being-in-the-world of every individual who seeks our help.
What do we mean by "mode of being-in-the-world"? In contrast to official diagnostic
categories, which are based on symptomatology, the Metapsychiatric view is based
on the meaning underlying the clinical picture. In other words, the mode of being-in-the-world
is determined by an individual’s belief systems, which may be conscious or unconscious.
Belief systems determine the quality of thoughts and the extent of cognition. The
Bible says: "For as he [man] thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). And
indeed, our thought processes determine our mode of being-in-the-world.
When we understand an individual’s mode of being-in-the-world, we know whether
his fundamental outlook on reality is existentially valid or invalid. Then we know
that the therapeutic process will consist of finding a way of helping him shift his
perspective on reality into the sphere which is existentially more valid. A basic
presupposition, of course, is that the therapist is imbued with a value system and
a world-view which is existentially valid. Otherwise the "blind would be leading
the blind, and together they would fall into the ditch."
There is one interesting aspect of Metapsychiatry which is all-important. If one
is properly trained in it there is no transference or countertransference reaction,
which makes for a very clean work situation. It is well known that transference and
countertransference reactions tend to create complications in psychotherapy. What
makes it messy is the irrationality of these reactions. In Metapsychiatry, if we
understand what we are doing, there is no occasion for transference and countertransference
to develop.
Many experienced therapists of other schools would say that this is impossible,
but the most wonderful feature of this work is the nonpersonal nature of it and the
total absence of any manipulative intention on the part of the therapist. Since the
therapist’s focus is not on the patient but his value system and his belief system
and his mode of perceiving reality, there is



no possibility for any kind of interpersonal complications to occur. For instance,
if the Metapsychiatric therapist says: "Two and two is four," he does not say: "I
tell you that two and two is four, and I want you to believe it," or "I want you
to know that two and two is four." He only says, "Two and two is four. I didn’t make
it that way, and you cannot change it. It is."
In Metapsychiatric therapy it is not the person of the therapist and not the person
of the patient that is the issue, but Reality. Jesus said: "Where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20). Many
think this to be a religious statement, but actually it is a statement of a principle
of Metapsychiatric therapy. It is the nonpersonal principle, which means that truth
and Reality do not belong to anybody. Reality just is.
What does it mean to gather in Jesus’ name? It means that two or three or more
people gather with the aim of understanding existentially valid Reality. If the Christ
is in the midst of us, he takes over everything. There is no self and there is no
other. There is only the truth of being. Thus the attention of the patient and the
therapist is focused on that which really is. In Buddhism this is called "tathata"
— true suchness.
The tenth principle of Metapsychiatry, which is worth repeating, goes as follows:
"The understanding of what really is abolishes all that seems to be." Thus it is
not the therapist who abolishes the patient’s problems and it is not the therapist’s
viewpoint which changes the patient’s belief system. There is no interpersonal encounter
here. There is only an encounter with the truth of what really is. It is the discernment
of the truth of what really is that abolishes all that seems to be.
The healing factor in Metapsychiatric therapy is the Christ-truth. The Christ-truth
transcends all religions. It is existentially valid Reality. When someone is healed
in Metapsychiatry, he does not necessarily become a religious man, or a Christian,
or a Jew, or a Buddhist. He becomes capable of seeing what is valid in life and what
is not valid in life. He is free to choose any form of religious organization or
practice.



This explains the mysterious fact that, while we are deeply immersed in the Bible
as a source of understanding of Reality, yet we are not advocating any particular
system of religious worship. Metapsychiatry is truly transdenominational.



Children live in the climate of parental consciousness. If children suffer, it
is always the parents that need to be healed. When parental consciousness is brought
into harmony with the Fundamental Order of Existence — which is spiritual love —
children are healed. The story of Abraham and Isaac speaks of such a situation. God,
in a sense, said to Abraham: "If you continue being possessive and proud of your
son, he will have to die. If you want him to survive, you must correct your thinking
and know that he is not your son but God’s son, and that he is not a material possession
but a spiritual being, a divine consciousness, belonging to God. If you are willing
to love him in this manner, then he will not have to die."
This mental influence extends not only to children but also to material possessions.
If we cherish our car, for instance, and are proud of it, then something will surely
happen to it. There seems to be such a mental influence extending itself even into
the inanimate sphere of life, and we have to learn to be intelligent owners of our
homes, furniture, automobiles, etc. We must see these things in the context of God.
People who do not understand this principle tend to encounter a great many difficulties
with their possessions. Not long ago there was an advertisement on television which
went as follows: A man was sitting on his bed, staring out of the window. His wife
asked him, "Sam, what are you doing? Why aren’t you sleeping?" He replied, "I am
watching our new car so that no one scrapes the



fenders." "But you never used to do it before when we had the old car," said the
wife. The husband replied, "Don’t be silly. Nobody scrapes the fenders of an old
car!" This advertisement reveals a widespread belief that whatever we cherish tends
to attract some untoward events or experiences.
The question may now be asked, What happens when we hate someone or something in
a malicious way? If there are mental influences emanating into the world to our loved
ones and cherished items, there must then be a corresponding mental influence emanating
into the world of a malicious, destructive nature from us also. Of course, we all
know that it is not a healthy condition to entertain malicious and hateful thoughts.
But strangely enough, other people can be adversely affected if we entertain evil
thoughts about them. This is called malicious hypnotism, and hypnotism seems to work
either through direct contact or through indirection. For instance, if it is directed
toward someone’s possession and if that individual is not sufficiently spiritually
minded, then that possession can be destroyed. We are all very susceptible to hypnotism
as long as we are materially minded. But if we are spiritually minded, then hypnotism
has no effect on us. It is important to recall here a remark Albert Einstein once
made: "Arrows of hate (‘fiery darts’) have been shot at me many times, but they never
touched me because they came from a world with which I have nothing in common." What
did he mean? Where was he dwelling that these arrows of hate couldn’t reach him?
He was dwelling above and beyond interaction thinking, in the land of spiritual consciousness.
An ancient Chinese proverb says: "A poisoned arrow can find no place to lodge itself
in an enlightened man."
Love and spiritual mindedness, far from being just religious clichés, have great
existential value. Not only are they blessings for us and others around us, but they
make us invulnerable to malicious hypnotism. In the material world people frequently
hurt each other, even kill each other, not only physically but also mentally. In
the Caribbean region the process of mental assassination has evolved into a religious
cult known as



voodoo. Voodoo is murder perpetrated through mental means on people who are susceptible
to these influences, and it is apparently effective either in direct contact or even
at a distance through telepathic communication. Sometimes we are not fully aware
of the fears and beliefs we entertain, and these unconscious factors make us susceptible
to hypnotism.
Most of us have seen hypnotists work in a theater in front of an audience. They
often start hypnotizing a whole crowd, and a certain number of people will immediately
respond to their suggestions. These people are more susceptible than others; the
others may also be susceptible but to a lesser degree. This indicates that it is
not the power of the hypnotist which is at play here, but individual susceptibility
of those who believe — consciously or unconsciously — in the so-called "mind-power"
of the hypnotist.
Following are some of the factors which render us particularly susceptible to hypnotism:
pride, vanity, ambition, lust, greed, envy, jealousy, materialism, admiration, contempt,
malice, sowing of dissension. The only protection from all these is increasing spiritual
mindedness. Jesus said: "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer;
I have overcome the world" (John 16:33), which means that we have to rise above the
petty narrow-mindedness of interaction thinking which characterizes the world of
the unenlightened materialist.
There are several statements in the Bible which point to protection against malicious
hypnotism. One is: "Your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). Anyone
who can understand this line will realize that one who is hid with Christ in God
is out of the reach of all malicious intentions and is protected. In the Old Testament
we have the ninety-first Psalm, which says: "He that dwelleth in the secret place
of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.... He shall cover
thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shalt be
thy shield and buckler.... Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even
the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither



shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.... Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror
by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh
in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday" (Psalm 91:1, 4, 9,
10, 5, 6).



In the Bible we read: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and
with all thy getting get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7). It is important not to fall
into the error of assuming that the Bible recommends an acquisitive approach to wisdom
and understanding. Acquisitiveness interferes with understanding. Understanding cannot
be acquired since it is spiritual. Only material things can be acquired. Spiritual
treasures unfold in receptive consciousness. Understanding comes by grace to those
who are receptive. Receptivity and acquisitiveness cancel each other out. They are
mutually exclusive. If we are materialistic in our view of the good of life, then
we are inclined to be acquisitive. We tend to transfer the acquisitive idea into
the spiritual realm. We can acquire books containing a great deal of knowledge in
the form of information, but we cannot acquire understanding.
There is another semantic curiosity related to this issue, and that is the word
"apprehend." This word attempts to straddle the issue between acquiring and understanding.
It sort of refers to acquiring understanding. It is good to know that neither understanding
nor true realization can be acquired.
The materialistic approach to the spiritual life can be a serious stumbling block
to progress, and it often goes unnoticed for years. Therefore, semantic analysis
such as we have undertaken up to this point is not just a frivolous play on words,
but actually can unmask certain modes of being-in-the-world rooted in materialistic
presuppositions which hamper individual



progress on the spiritual path. The right understanding of receptivity is of central
importance. The Bible says: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). It does
not say, "to them that acquired his knowledge," but "to them that received him."
The emphasis here is on receiving.
In considering the issue of receptivity, it becomes clear to us that acquisitiveness
is greedy and aggressive and willful, whereas receptivity is humble, grateful, and
alert in the expectancy of good. The greedy, acquisitive, aggressive, anxious materialistic
approach defeats itself. It is not unlike catching a pigeon. In order to catch a
pigeon, one must be quiet and patient with one’s offering, whereas an aggressive
reaching out to catch one invariably turns out to be futile. Understanding requires
reverent loving receptivity and responsiveness to that which reveals itself from
moment to moment.
Interestingly enough, the materialistic approach tends to be self-defeating even
in the material world. For instance, if we are very acquisitive about money, it may
elude us; but if we are receptive to money, it will come to us. This also applies
to jobs and other opportunities. It may be a common experience that if we go shopping
determined to buy certain specific items we may go from store to store not being
able to get them. But if we are receptive to certain ideas about items of usefulness
to us, we may just stumble over them while strolling by a store. I know a young lady
who spent many an hour searching in department stores for a piece of furniture and
could not find what she wanted. After she had given up on it, she noticed from her
window that across the street from where she lived there was a small furniture store
featuring the very item she was hunting for, and at a discount, at that.
The acquisitive approach is an aspect of an existentially invalid mode of being-in-the-world.
The receptive, grateful, spiritual mode is valid.
It is a great blessing to be able to discern the spiritual essence of all reality.
When we can see the spiritual basis of life,



then our vocabulary will undergo a corresponding change, and, as the Bible says,
we shall speak with "new tongues" (Mark 16:17). We could speak of vocabularies of
materialism, operationalism, and in juxtaposition, the language of the spiritually
minded. The aim of semantic analysis is to bring about an altered mode of perceiving
life and participating in it. Our language affects our ways of seeing, and our seeing
affects our language. "As thou seest, so thou speakest; and as thou speakest, so
thou seest."
Another pitfall of materialistic thinking is the constant expectancy, even demand,
to "get something out of" every endeavor. This is the so-called "profit motive."
One student remarked: "I have been studying hard and laboring on the spiritual path
for a number of years and getting nothing out of it. I still have the same job, I
still live in the same crummy apartment, and I still haven’t found the right girl."
The profit motive does not apply to spiritual progress. It is not a "getting something
out of it" process. Spiritual enlightenment is its own reward. It expands the boundaries
of awareness, transforms characters, alleviates suffering, and inspires with wisdom
and love.



It is not possible to emphasize enough the importance of mental discipline. If
we realize that nothing comes into experience uninvited, we clearly see how vitally
important it is to discipline our thoughts and thereby gain dominion over what will
be admitted into consciousness and what will not be permitted to take root in consciousness.
Everything depends on the quality of consciousness. God gave us the power to be stewards
of our consciousness.
Sometimes it seems like a very hard struggle to give up pleasurable fantasies which
provide, for instance, erotic sensations in various parts of the body. Interestingly
enough, in most harmful thinking the issue is mostly physical sensation. No matter
what kind of imaginings we are partial to, in the final analysis, what we are aiming
at is some kind of special physical sensation. In other words, fantasies have one
common denominator, namely, the confirmation of the physical self. If we do not understand
the importance of spiritualized consciousness, we are forever hurting ourselves with
our thoughts. The more pleasurable the thoughts, the more harmful they may be. Where
a man’s pleasure is there will his pain be also.
As mentioned above, mental discipline is not easily attained. It requires years
of devotion and practice, plus a real, deep understanding of what it means to be
a human being and what it means to be a spiritual being. Human beings are preoccupied
with their physical sensations. Everything in the human



condition revolves around feelings and sensation in the body; therefore, human beings
are forever thinking about how to invite pleasurable experiences. They are thinking,
for instance, about what they will eat, drink, what they will wear, how they will
improve their bodies, etc., and how to have more and more interesting, exciting,
and pleasurable experiences. This is what human existence revolves around — sensations,
feelings, emotions, etc.
Discipline must not be confused with control. Control is based on "should" thinking
which is willfulness. Discipline is based on wisdom, love, and understanding of what
is good. "Discipline" is derived from the word "disciple." Discipleship means following
the teachings of a master. When we love the wisdom of the master, we become naturally
disciplined.
The most remarkable physical sensation, of course, is sexual arousal and climax.
Therefore, sex plays an important role in the quest for human pleasure. All sorts
of complicated methods and practices are invented to achieve orgiastic sensation.
The few seconds of intense physical sensation are often considered the ultimate good
of human existence — the summum bonum vitae. When we gain a little perspective on
the human condition, we see the futility and emptiness of this entire quest. In addition
to the short-lived nature of the pleasurable experience, there are longer lasting
consequences of an unpleasant nature connected with this mode of being-in-the-world.
Interestingly enough, our physical illnesses are part and parcel of our preoccupations
with physical sensations. Therefore, sooner or later, we have to lose interest in
these pursuits and we must come to discover what it means to be a spiritual being.
God did not create human beings. God knows nothing about human beings. God knows
only spiritual beings because God is Spirit, and anyone who wants to communicate
with God must be spiritual.
Natural man cannot commune with God. As long as we believe ourselves to be human
beings, we can only theorize about God. Jesus said: "God is [a] Spirit: and they
that worship him

must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). The truth is that we are spiritual
beings. Spiritual beings are not interested in physical sensations. They have long
left that behind. What are spiritual beings interested in? Spiritual beings also
are interested in happiness, but the happiness of a spiritual being is not sensual
or emotional. It is spiritual. Therefore, his thoughts are on an entirely different
plane. The aim of his thoughts is PAGL (peace, assurance, gratitude, and love), not
orgasm or other pleasurable experiences. A spiritual being has a different notion
about the good and what is important and what is desirable. His thoughts move in
a different direction. The good he seeks is in consciousness, not in the body.
PAGL contrasts with physical sensation in that it is not short-lived, there is
no let-down, and it is not pathogenic (illness producing). On the contrary, it is
healing, harmonizing, health-promoting, inspiring, liberating. It is not an experience
but a realization. To understand this difference is a great blessing, and the more
clearly we understand this difference between being human and being spiritual, the
easier it will be to discipline our thoughts for the attainment of this realization.
The mental discipline we are referring to is called "mind fasting," which means
refraining from entertaining thoughts which lead to the confirmation of one’s self
as a physical body. Having suffered for a while, we may be willing to engage in the
practice of mind fasting and thus emerge gradually from the darkness of materialism
into the light of spiritual consciousness. "In the world ye shall have tribulation:
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). It is possible to
overcome the world. To overcome the world means to transcend the body, because everything
in the human dream revolves around the body.
It is becoming clearer that the more ignorant we are of Spiritual Reality, the
more painful our living and our dying is; whereas when we realize that we are spiritual
beings and truly understand it and have transcended the body, there is a loss of
fear of death, and dying is not an agony but a more or less



peaceful process of transition. Grief also is less of a problem. Therefore this has
great importance.
The whole human race seems to be evolving toward the attainment of universal Christ-consciousness. Some are driven (through suffering) and some are drawn. Blessed are they who are drawn. A famous Zen koan (riddle) says: "There is a goose in a bottle. How does the goose get out of the bottle?... "



Anger is an epiphenomenon of frustration. The meaning of anger can be found mainly
in one single phrase — "I want." Another source of anger is the habit of "should"
thinking — thinking in terms of what "should" be and what "should not" be. Habits
of thought and words are our tormentors.
An interesting example of an angry man was Saul of Tarsus, who was a known persecutor
of the early Christians. On the road to Damascus he had a remarkable experience.
He saw a blinding flash of light all around him and heard a voice saying, "Saul,
Saul why persecutest thou me? ... It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks"
(Acts 9:4, 5). We understand this to mean that willful aggressiveness and anger are
self-defeating ways of living, resulting in painful experiences. The victimizer becomes
the victim of his own aggressiveness. Typically, Saul responded with an operational
question, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" And the answer was: "It shall be
told thee what thou must do" (Acts 9:6). But the task required of him was not an
operational one but an existential one, namely, study, prayer, reorientation, and
transformation of character until the "scales fell off his blinded eyes" (Acts 9:18),
and he learned to see Spiritual Reality. Then he understood that the way to do is
to be. Finally, he reached the point where he could say: "I live; yet not I, but
Christ [liveth] in me" (Galatians 2:20).
It is helpful to point out here that aggressiveness and passivity are two sides
of the same coin because both are ways of ignoring the power and the presence of
God. If there were



no God, there would be no third alternative. In such a context man is either victim
or victimizer, persecutor or persecuted. Someone said, "If there were no God, we
would have to invent him." Without the third alternative, life would be a miserable
condition. No wonder Sartre called his play "No Exit." In that play there are three
people in a hotel room from which there is no exit, and they are doomed eternally
to endure each other’s aggressiveness and passivity. Sartre called that condition
hell and said: "Hell is people." But to those who have God-consciousness there is
an exit, for God, infinite Mind, is the controlling power in all our affairs. To
understand this makes "shouldlessness" possible, while without it shouldlessness
seems unattainable.
Conventional psychology assumes that the best way to deal with anger is to express
it. This amounts to saying "You will feel better if you make someone else feel bad."
Unfortunately, the more anger is expressed, the more there is of it. However, keeping
it bottled up is also not the answer; we can’t let it out and can’t keep it in. Some
people believe that being angry is good because it makes it possible to have courage
(Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman-philosopher). In a Godless frame of reference this
seems to be true, but in the context of God, omniactive Love-Intelligence, the alternative
to animal courage is loving fearlessness. Salvation is found in the Christly perspective
on Reality, which says, "Perfect love casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18). Spiritual
beings are fearless because they are loving. They are neither passive nor aggressive.
They are responsive. Courage, rooted in anger, is unintelligent, whereas fearlessness,
rooted in love, is based on a sound mind and clarity of vision.
It is very important to be aware of our self-identity as emanations of the universal
Mind, and to be aware that the firmness and forthrightness and the ability which
we express is God manifesting Himself through us.
At this point the question may be asked, Is it possible for man to be free of the
tendency toward anger? The answer is: Yes, in proportion to his understanding and
conscious awareness



of God’s omnipotent, controlling, governing presence. In order to attain this realization
it is helpful to conceive of God as omniactive Mind. This dynamic concept facilitates
our cognitive awareness of a power and presence, a mental force, always present and
active in our affairs. This leads to the realization of two principles: the third
principle of Meta-psychiatry, which states, "There is no interaction anywhere; there
is only Omniaction everywhere," and the fifth principle of Metapsychiatry, "God helps
those who let Him."
Anger and passivity are forms of interaction. In juxtaposition to this, Omniaction
becomes a reality to us. When a theory becomes existentially valid for us, we have
attained its realization.



If we are to consider the problem of alcoholism, we must first view it in the context
of addictions in general because alcoholism is just a special form of addiction.
Let us then consider the meaning of this addiction. Alcoholism is an attachment to
a chemical substance and its effects upon the mood and the thought processes of an
individual.
All men have a tendency and an urgent desire to find some way of managing their
moods and their thoughts in order to find contentment, happiness, and freedom from
undesirable mental preoccupations. It is a remarkable thing that what man suffers
from most are his own thoughts. It is not so much conditions or people that torment
us but rather our own thoughts about them. The Greek philosopher Epictetus already
knew this. He said: "Man does not suffer from conditions, but rather from the views
he takes of them." For instance, if there is a rainy day, some people get depressed.
Now rain will not cause us to be depressed, but the thoughts which we may entertain
about the bad weather can torment us.
So man is burdened with the universal problem of managing his own thought processes
in such a way as to escape suffering. Certain thoughts make us happy, while other
thoughts can make us miserable. Of course unenlightened man does not realize that
and he has a tendency to think in terms of cause and effect. When he falls into the
trap of cause-and-effect thinking, he is inclined to blame some external factors
for his internal torments. To the extent that his primitive thinking



has him under control he blames external conditions for his unhappiness and, naturally,
he is inclined to seek external remedies for his problems.
The meaning of all addictions could be defined as endeavors at controlling our
life experiences with the help of external remedies. These remedies can be persons,
places, things, and ideologies. Places, persons, and things are symbols, and their
effect is ideational. Chemical substances affect the functioning of the organism
by altering perceptivity and experience. So alcohol is a chemical substance which
man uses to control his experience of life.
Unfortunately, all external means of improving our life experiences are doubled-edged
swords: they are always good and bad. No external remedy improves our condition without,
at the same time, making it worse. When Eve saw the beautiful apple on the tree of
knowledge, she reached out for it to enhance her life experience, and by using this
external means, she discovered good and evil. This is the original prototype of man’s
quest for happiness — seeking the Kingdom of God on the outside rather than within
consciousness.
In considering the story of Adam and Eve, it is helpful not to omit the role of
the serpent. It was the serpent which was suggesting to Eve to reach out for external
means. What does this talking serpent stand for? It stands for a mode of thinking
based on sensory impressions, that is, judging by appearances. The universal tendency
to judge by appearances is the source of all ignorance. Judging by appearances, man
jumps to false conclusions and becomes a victim of his own errors.
Let us consider someone who has reached the point where he is unable to snap out
of his depression. He may reach for a drink of alcohol and find, indeed, that his
thinking has changed, his mood is lifted, and suddenly he feels better. As the Bible
says: "Then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil" (Genesis 3:5). This is the beginning of alcoholism. The moment we reach out
for alcohol as an external remedy for our internal distress, we have found a wrong
solution. The same goes for smoking, pill-popping,



drug taking, etc. The basic issue in all addictions is the desire to control the
quality of inner experience with the help of external remedies.
Interestingly enough, traditional medical thinking about addictive substances is
as follows: If one substance is harmful, let us find another substance, less harmful,
which might perhaps replace the previous one. A most blatant example of this is the
present day endeavor of substituting the drug methadone for heroin. The results of
this treatment, of course, are highly unsatisfactory — as could have been expected.
There is only one remedy to all addictive problems of man, and it is to return
to that condition where life is lived in the original purity of consciousness. Man
has a God-given power which is called "dominion." What does that mean? It means that
we don’t need to resort to external means in order to manage our internal conditions.
It is possible with this God-given power to manage our thought processes in such
a way as to live in the constant conscious awareness of peace, assurance, gratitude,
love, freedom, wisdom, joy, beauty, goodness, and truth. We have the power to be
spiritually minded; we have the power to turn our interest in the direction of transcendent
values. We are capable of inspired wisdom and creative intelligence. We can learn
the art of management of our internal affairs.
What are the methods of attaining control over our internal affairs? They are prayer
and meditation which includes "mind fasting," which means refraining from entertaining
certain harmful thoughts and fantasies. Thus we see that prayer and meditation are
not just forms of religious observance, but a method of survival. It is a mental
hygiene technique par excellence. It is hard to imagine how anyone could survive
without prayer and meditation. It is the most important thing to learn in life if
we want to be healthy and effective. Without it we are at the mercy of all sorts
of erroneous remedies which the world (the talking serpent) is constantly offering
us.
There is a story about a teenage girl who was overheard talking on the telephone
and saying: "I don’t know what to do;



should I take a benzedrine and go out on my date, or should I take a phenobarb and
go to sleep?" This may be called "scientific progress" and "better living through
chemistry.... "
The healing of any addiction requires getting to the point where one is willing
to forsake all external remedies and turn with absolute sincerity toward internal
remedies, which are spiritual. This process is facilitated through supportive guidance
either by recovered fellow sufferers and/or experienced therapists who understand
the dynamics of spiritual healing.
Jesus has described in one single statement both the phenomenology and the healing
process of the addictive individual. He said the following: "For this people’s heart
is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed;
lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them" (Matthew
13:15). He beautifully describes the condition of the addict who doesn’t want to
hear, who doesn’t want to see, who has become callous in his absolute self-centeredness,
who does not care about anyone, and only thinks about his own comfort.
What has to happen in a therapeutic process is that the addict has to begin to
hear, to see, and to become responsive to positive values. He has to begin to understand.
He has to undergo a conversion from externally oriented remedies to internal remedies
and then he can be healed. Thus the rehabilitation process is essentially a conversion
process.
Sometimes we hear that psychologists recommend that certain attitudes be assumed
by the family of an alcoholic. It is important to understand that attitudes are really
operational concepts and manipulative devices to be employed on behalf of a patient.
This can never be helpful because no one likes to be an object of manipulative intervention.
More often than not, this provokes a patient and aggravates his condition. A family,
of course, could be helpful just as an Alcoholics Anonymous group, when sincerely
working together, can be very helpful, not on the basis of assumed attitudes, but
on the basis of understanding what the underlying issues are.



The remedy is existential, not operational. We do not believe in the effectiveness
of "right attitudes." They are just pretensions of helpfulness. It is not what we
do that is helpful, but what we know.



Human consciousness seems to exert its influence throughout the planet earth and
even beyond. Ignorant human consciousness seems to exert a devastating influence
everywhere, and we see it even in the animal kingdom. Beastliness in the animal kingdom
may very well be an expression of low-level human thinking. When man reaches enlightenment,
then the Christ-consciousness will become manifest throughout the world — as the
utopian picture which the prophet Isaiah paints for us reveals that animality will
vanish even among the so-called "wild" beasts: "The wolf also shall dwell with the
lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion
and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them" (Isaiah 11:6).
Thus we see that the world we live in reflects the qualities of consciousness which
prevail among us. Therefore, there is only one task ahead of us, namely, the purification
and elevation and spiritualization of our consciousness to the highest possible level.
We can distinguish six levels of cognitive integration. These are: (1) the sensual,
(2) the emotional, (3) the intellectual, (4) the materialistic, (5) the personalistic,
and (6) the transcendent. By cognitive integration we mean, "As thou seest, so thou
beest." On a sensual level we are primarily concerned with the pursuit of pleasure
and the avoidance of pain. These are the pleasure-seeking ways of life. This is the
lowest form of existence. Then there are those of us who see life in terms of feelings
and emotions. On a little higher level



is intellectualism, where life is seen in terms of the intellect. This includes craftiness
and fraudulency of mind. Then there is materialism, where the value of life is seen
in material possessions. Next are the psychologically minded, who see life in terms
of personal relationships and interaction thinking.
The highest level of cognitive integration is the level of transcendence. On this
level the central issue of life is awareness and spiritual discernment of transcendent
values, such as: peace, assurance, gratitude, love, freedom, wisdom, joy, harmony,
beauty, etc. The human race is evolving toward this level of cognitive integration.
The closer we come to it, the more harmonious and wholesome life becomes, not only
for mankind but for animals and plants and the whole earth as well.
It is interesting to consider the fact that traditional psychological thinking
considers mental health to be based on the ability to function primarily on the first
five levels of cognitive integration. Mental diseases are seen as consisting of fixations
on any one particular level. As someone remarked, "You are only in trouble if you
specialize, but you are O.K. if you can enjoy being polymorphously perverse."
Life on the first five levels can be experienced as good and bad. Sooner or later
the bad tends to become aggravated and there is a desire to shift from one level
to another. More often than not, life consists of traveling up and down this ladder
of cognitive integration. But then there are those who are willing to forgo the experiential
life and seek to attain the level of transcendence where the central issue is not
experience but awareness. These individuals seek to understand that man is an individualized
aspect of divine consciousness, just as a raindrop is an individualized aspect of
the seas. Here, being is synonymous with knowing. Awareness is the central function
of enlightened man. Such consciousness becomes a luminosity and a beneficial presence
in the world.
Zen literature abounds with interesting stories describing such individuals and
their modes of being-in-the-world. For example, there is a story about a fishmonger
who was poor,



ragged, and smelled of fish. This man was a student of Zen and became enlightened.
People were talking about him in the fish market, and one day one of his friends
came to him and said, "I heard that you became enlightened through your studies of
Zen, but I see no difference in you. You are just as poor as ever and you are still
selling fish, so wherein lies your enlightenment?" The fishmonger answered: "To tell
you the truth, I don’t know myself, except that I have noticed one thing. Wherever
I walk even the dead trees come alive."
Another Zen story tells of a laundryman who was known in his neighborhood as the
man with the heavy bundle on his back. This man studied Zen with a Master for some
years. One day he came to his teacher and said, "I had my enlightenment." The Zen
Master said to him, "All right, so tell me what is the meaning of Zen?" Whereupon
the student threw his bundle to the floor. "That’s good," said the Master. "Now tell
me what is the meaning of enlightenment?" In answer to this, the student picked up
his bundle and walked out....
A third story is about a very saintly Zen Master, living in a cave above the village.
In the village there was a young girl who became pregnant. In her distress she made
up a story that the Zen Master was the father of her child. When the child was born,
the villagers became incensed and took the child and dumped him in the Master’s lap,
accusing him of being guilty of this shameful act. When the Master heard these accusations,
he looked around and said, "Is that so?" and accepted the baby without protest. Years
passed and the young woman had a change of heart; she confessed in the village that
she had lied about the Zen Master, whereupon the villagers became incensed again,
and a crowd of angry men and women came to the Zen Master, accusing him of keeping
the child unlawfully for himself, whereupon the Zen Master, having listened to their
accusations, said, "Is that so?" and returned the child.
All these examples describe that mode of being-in-the-world which we have called
the transcendent level of cognitive integration. On this level man is a beneficial
presence in the world. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. He is fearless and
loving.



Today we are asked to consider the meaning of being attacked. If we are prone to
experiencing attacks against our person, then our love, our joy, and our sense of
security are precarious. Human existence in general seems to be very precarious.
At any moment something may happen that can destroy not only our mood, but life itself.
Recently, a man was passing by a bank in New York City and a bomb exploded and killed
him. And a woman was walking near the Pan Am building when a helicopter crashed onto
the roof and a fragment of the propeller fell to the street, killing her.
In psychology there is a well-known concept called accident proneness. We may ask,
What makes an individual accident prone? This question is answered in Metapsychiatry
by the seventh principle: "Nothing comes into experience uninvited." There are only
two ways to get into accidents, by wanting to or by not wanting to. How can that
be? In the book of Job we read: "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon
me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me" (Job 3:25). How can we make any
sense of this? Some people would quickly conclude that we are indulging here in magical
thinking by ascribing power to our thoughts, the power to make things happen just
by thinking them. This, of course, is not what we are talking about.
In order to understand this principle we might profitably consider the problem
of friction. In daily life we experience a great deal of friction. People constantly
come physically



and psychologically close together, and they experience either pleasurable or painful
forms of friction. To caress someone or to hit someone is essentially the same thing;
it is friction of various intensity.
Friction is also spoken of as interaction, which can be gentle or abrasive, even
violent. Friction, then, is a fundamental element in human experience. It would seem
that what we dread above all is frictionlessness. Frictionlessness is experienced
as being ignored, or as nonbeing. What we dread most in life is the experience of
nonbeing, or being nothing. Therefore, we all have a craving for friction. One lady
of my acquaintance is in the habit of saying: "A kick is as good as a boost."
We pay lip service to a desire for peace and harmony but actually we seek friction.
Even flight requires friction of the plane against the atmosphere, and a bird needs
the air currents in order to fly.
There is a story about Chuang-tzu, the famous Taoist sage. One day his students
reported to him that in the neighboring province there lived a man who was so enlightened
that he could ride on the wind. Chuang-tzu was unimpressed and said: "He still needs
the wind!"
The philosopher Heidegger wrote about the "dread of nothingness." The dread of
nothingness impels us to seek friction, and the more fearful we are of nothingness,
the more urgently we seek friction. Children who are afraid of being ignored tend
to make pests of themselves, become hyperactive, provocative, even violent, and of
course, accident prone.
Psychology proposes to teach people how to live in a relationship with minimal
friction. This is called "getting along with people," or "learning to relate," but
this is just a technique. If we learn how to be smooth operators in society, this
is not synonymous with liberation from existential anxiety, which is another way
of speaking about the dread of nothingness. Social functioning tends to break down
and complications do arise because there remains in man the fear of becoming insignificant,
rejected, and ignored.
So, from time to time, when we become anxious about being



nothing, we may reach out in clumsy ways for some kind of approbation from our fellow
men and get rebuffed and hurt. And that’s how life may proceed as a process of coping
with an undercurrent fear of nothingness or insignificance. Man cannot be healed
of his problems unless he learns to think in existentially valid ways.
So let us now consider the issue of attack and ask again, What is the meaning of
being attacked? Attack is nothing else but an incident of heightened friction of
short duration.
Elsewhere a case was described of a young man who, while driving on the road, was
attacked by a pheasant which smashed into his windshield. A few miles further down
the road, while stopping at a red light, another car bumped into his car. Later on
that night, his parked car developed a flat tire in front of his house. When we explored
his thought processes and his entire mode of being-in-the-world, we understood that
this man was very anxious for admiration and sought to get it from people. He realized
that to get admiration or to get attacked is essentially the same, because if one
is the recipient of intense admiration, this can actually amount to an attack. A
good example are the rock stars who are literally assaulted and their clothes ripped
apart by admirers. So then to get a compliment or an insult are really just variations
on a theme. And the basic theme is friction.
Let us now recall the above-mentioned principle, which says: "Nothing comes into
experience uninvited." The Bible says: "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of
the flesh reap corruption" (Galatians 6:8). We may ask, What is the basic seed of
life? It is thought. Whatever thoughts we entertain in consciousness and communicate
to the world will manifest themselves in corresponding experiences. They will not
cause these experiences to happen, but they will manifest themselves as such experiences
according to the principle of transmutation of energy. A thought as a seed of life
is a unit of energy.
The Bible also gives us the healing remedy to the dilemma of friction and all its
complications. It says: "But he that soweth



to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Galatians 6:8). This points
up that the solution to safety, harmony, freedom from accidents and violence as well
as illness, is "sowing to the Spirit," which means that our thoughts must be imbued
with spiritual values and we must see ourselves in the context of Divine Reality
where nonbeing is unknown. Therefore, the dread of nothingness is healed and we are
no longer afraid of being ignored. As a consequence, we are no longer driven to crave
friction.
The fear of nonbeing can be healed by understanding the following statement: "God
is cognizant of us while we are mindful of Him." If anyone wants to be healed of
the dread of nothingness, he must learn to be mindful of his oneness with and inseparability
from the love of God.
God never ignores us, but we can ignore God by allowing ourselves to be distracted
by the "five gates of hell" which, as mentioned earlier, are: (1) sensualism, (2)
emotionalism, (3) intellectualism, (4) personalism, and (5) materialism. When we
allow ourselves to be distracted by any of these means, we become susceptible to
existential anxiety and an urgent craving for friction. Friction is a form of self-confirmatory
striving. But Omniaction is the power and presence of Divine Love-Intelligence expressing
itself through individual beings. This is a different dimension of reality and is
free of the dread of nothingness. Therefore, it is harmonious, intelligent, wholesome,
and perfect.
Perfection is not only possible but actually the only Reality there is. What is
needed for man is to awaken to its realization and then he will be able to partake
in it. Otherwise, all we will have is an endless variety of friction with its disastrous
consequences.



From time to time we hear certain sincere individuals say, "I would like to be
a good Christian, but there is one thing I cannot do — I cannot turn the other cheek."
This saying of Jesus: "Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the
other" (Luke 6:29), has been interpreted as a requirement to be either masochistic
or arrogant or stoically unfeeling and hard, a collector of injustices. In order
to understand this most unusual utterance and recommendation, it is helpful to ask
ourselves what the meaning of "cheek" is. Cheek is the quality of thought which we
present to the world.
Unfortunately, there are individuals who — without realizing it — are very much
attached to the experiences of being persecuted, so much so that they misinterpret
even friendly gestures as designed to persecute them. They are so attached to this
idea of being victims that it is hard for them to turn another cheek. Human nature
tends to be rather perverse, and we know that pain is just as self-confirmatory as
pleasure; however, most people would be embarrassed to admit this. There is a form
of mental disease in which the individual interprets everything as cruelty and persecution.
This disorder is called paranoia. There is a desire here to be the butt of persecution,
and a strange refusal to distinguish between kindness and cruelty. There are various
degrees of this kind of thinking, but the real issue in this condition is self-confirmatory
ideation. Thus we can say that here everything becomes grist for the mill. It makes
no sense to call such an individual a



masochist because he will enjoy the feeling of being accused of masochism. There
is a universal inclination in man toward self-confirmatory ideation. And this could
be considered the "original sin."
Occasionally someone gets incensed against Metapsychiatry because it reveals this
secret of self-confirmatory ideation. The remedy to self-confirmatory ideation is
transcendence of the ego and commitment to God-confirmatory living. This is the other
cheek. In practice this means being issue-oriented in our responses. When we are
personally slighted, tempted, provoked, or intimidated, we turn an "other cheek"
and deal with the issues at hand. In order for this to come about there must be a
willingness to be embarrassed about secret self-confirmatory desires. The heat of
embarrassment is the consuming fire of "hell" in which the ego is annihilated.
The pilgrimage on the spiritual path is in the direction of realizing that we are
not what we seem to be. We are not autonomous persons in interaction with other persons.
We are individual spiritual beings, emanations of divine consciousness capable of
nonpersonal intelligent responsiveness to situations and issues.
It is possible to awaken — and indeed we must — from the dream of interaction living
and realize our spiritual individualities as manifestations and instruments of omniactive
Love-Intelligence which is the Metapsychiatric name for God. We do not live in dreams
of interaction, but we coexist harmoniously as living Souls in the universe of Mind.
Persons react personally. There is a Latin saying: Argumentatio ad hominem et argumentatio
ad rem, which means that we are either debating personalities or issues. Interpersonal
relationships tend to be troublesome. They constitute the dream of life as interaction.
Spiritual beings, on the other hand, respond to issues nonpersonally.



Because anxiety is a universally discomforting, unpleasant experience it is generally
assumed that it shouldn’t be. Unfortunately, if we accept that proposition, our problem
will get worse, and in proportion to our antagonism to that experience, it may loom
as a formidable adversary to the point of paralyzing constructive activity, or social
participation. Thus, while the problem seems to be anxiety, it is actually not the
problem. It is our antagonism to it which creates the difficulty.
If we examine the meaning of anxiety phenomenologically, we see that it is actually
just a heightened state of alertness, connected with an anxious desire to succeed
in some project. Therefore, it is actually healthy to be anxious. We can say, It
is all right to be anxious as long as we are not timid. Timidity is a fear of appearing
anxious, and it gives rise to a desire to stifle and cover up the anxiety. Anxiety
can be accepted as something positive and timidity can be refused as something cowardly,
unproductive, and self-indulgent. It is always good to know the enemy, because then
we can see what the real issues are.
Timid people often blame anxiety for their suffering, but if they realize that
the foe is timidity hiding behind anxiety, then they can simply refuse to be timid
and the whole problem disappears. Therefore, we can say that it is all right to be
anxious as long as we are willing not to be timid. Anxiety is eagerness to do well.
Timidity is a desire not to feel bad. "God hath not given us the spirit of fear [timidity];
but of power,



and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). Thus we do not have to be against
anxiety. We can make friends with anxiety. We must learn to welcome it as a heightened
state of alertness which makes creative responsiveness more available.
As it is with anxiety so it is with the problem of pain or discomfort of any kind.
If we take an antagonistic position against pain and try to stop pain, thinking that
it shouldn’t be, it will get worse, because we have accepted the reality of an illusion.
The harder we try to get rid of it, the more we confirm its reality. But if we say,
"I am aware of pain, but I am not against it. I want to understand its meaning,"
then we shall befriend the pain and it will reveal to us something about our mode
of being-in-the-world which is important for us to know at that particular time.
And when we have understood the message and corrected our thinking in a certain specific
way, the pain will cease because it has accomplished its mission.
It is good to remember that problems thrive on attention. Therefore, we must learn
the art of transcending them and seeking to understand the meaning behind them. The
important thing is not to get ensnared into preoccupation with the symptom, but to
turn away from it and focus attention on Reality. The more we learn the art of focusing
attention on Reality, the greater dominion we gain over distractions of physical
existence. Every symptom is an invitation to be preoccupied with oneself.
In the final analysis all problems require us to come to understand the truth of
being and our self-identity as individual expressions of God.
A young woman said: "I have a strange problem. I seem to enjoy having colds. When
I have a cold I enjoy staying in bed, drinking tea and pampering myself. This in
spite of the fact that I am well aware of the three ‘Ps’ which I have learned here,
namely, that praise, pampering, and persecution go together and are inseparable experientially."
This is a good example of the perversity of the human condition, where feeling
good and feeling bad are actually the



same, with the common denominator being self-confirmatory ideation. If we do not
understand this, then we naturally assume that the remedy to feeling bad is finding
a way to feel good. The devil is portrayed as having two horns. We could say that
this symbolism points toward the trap of dualistic thinking in unenlightened man.
Divine Reality, however, is nondual. Therefore the solution to human problems lies
in taking refuge in Divine Reality and transcending the tendency to be preoccupied
with how we feel.
Upon meeting someone we are in the habit of asking each other, "How do you feel?"
This is actually a harmful custom because it suggests that it is important to feel
good and to avoid feeling bad. It suggests that our feelings are arbiters of our
state of health. As a consequence, the vast majority of people are constantly preoccupied
with finding ways of feeling good.
This brings to mind a story about a Zen Master who, when asked how it feels to
be enlightened, replied: "When I am hungry, I eat, and when I am tired, I rest."
Whereupon the inquirer asked, "Isn’t this what everyone else is doing?" The Master
said, "Not at all. Everyone else eats when he feels hungry, and rests when he feels
tired." "So what’s wrong with that?" asked the inquirer. And the Master said, "Don’t
you see, you can feel hungry right after you have eaten, and you can feel tired after
a night’s sleep."
Unenlightened people, without realizing it, base their lives on how they feel.
They are guided by their feelings. Enlightened man is guided by Reality. The word
"tathata" means that which really is, or "true suchness." As long as you take your
feelings as a measure of reality, you are a "goose in a bottle" — which means that
you see yourself as living in the body.
As long as we are anchored in our feelings, we cannot possibly conceive of any
other index by which to live. If the Zen Master does not concern himself with how
he feels, how can he know when he is hungry, or how can he know when he is tired?
Surprisingly enough, it is possible to know the difference between being hungry and
just feeling hungry and



similarly, between being tired and just feeling tired. The secret lies in a heightened
awareness of our thoughts. It is possible to know whether or not we are using food
and rest for self-confirmatory purposes or for valid reasons of nourishment and recuperation.
Enlightened man does not think about how he feels and does not talk about how he
feels.
Returning now to our story about the Zen Master and his interlocutor, we hear the
interlocutor say, "But Master, I still don’t understand the difference." Whereupon
the Zen Master says, "When enlightened man eats, he eats; and when he rests, he rests.
But unenlightened people think of ten thousand things when they eat, and dream of
ten thousand things when they rest."
The consideration of this issue can be quite illuminating in the context of marriage
and family life. When members of a family are governed by their feelings, then there
is constant jockeying and striving to get pleasure from each other. Everybody wants
something from everybody else in the hope of feeling good (or bad). There is a natural
tendency to use not only food and rest, but people also, for the purpose of feeling
good. And it is generally assumed that this is natural and right and that’s how things
should be, for what is life without feeling good? There seem to be only two choices:
either one feels good or one feels bad. In such a marriage there is constant pressure
and mutual manipulation, as a result of which endless complications may arise.
For some time now this emphasis has dominated the thinking of lay people, starting
from the "hippie" movement of so-called "doing your own thing," through the fad of
encounter groups all the way to respectable psychotherapy. For instance, one of the
pet phrases one heard from psychotherapists was "get in touch with your feelings."
And in encounter groups the basic assumption was that whatever one feels is the truth;
therefore an honest man would always speak about how he feels and "tell it like it
is." The result was that large numbers of people were trained to express unabashed
and ruthless egotism. One of the oddities of television at that



time was a weekly program where a young woman — very sexy —would sing a few songs
and wind up her show with the following pearl of wisdom: "And remember folks, our
saying: If you feel like doing it, do it!... "



What practical value is there in considering the question of the origin of the
human individual? Buddha said: "We are what we think, having become what we have
thought" (Dhamapada). However, it would be more correct to say that we seem to be
what we are thinking, having become what other people have been thinking about us.
But this only refers to our appearance and to our experiences. It is not really what
we are and it has little to do with our true selfhood. Our true selfhood was never
born and it never dies. It just is. It is a manifestation of God in the world.
The philosopher Heidegger said that man is a place where God reveals Himself in
the form of existence (Lichtung des Daseins). And that is what man really is, while
the other just seems to be. If we speak about the origin of man, it is important
to ask ourselves: "What is man?" Who are we talking about — man who is a thought,
or man who is a place where God can manifest Himself as Presence?
What are the practical implications and consequences of understanding this? Is
it just fanciful speculation for philosophers and theologians to argue about, or
does it have practical relevancy to our lives? If we think that we are what other
people have thought about us — which seems to be so — then we can become disturbed,
trying to blame certain individuals from our past for having thought the wrong way
about us, and we may engage in a futile endeavor of attempting to



change the past, which is an impossibility. A great deal of suffering can flow from
such ways of thinking about ourselves. It is therefore of great value to understand
that the Buddha was not precise in his historical statement. We are not what we think
and we are not what others have thought about us. That is what we just seem to be.
We really are emanations of Divine Love-Intelligence, or we are places where God
reveals Himself as a presence of intelligence and love. If we see ourselves this
way, then all problems tend to disappear and Jesus’ injunction, "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48), does
not strike us as an impossible demand.
We have to realize that God’s thoughts constitute our true being and not our parents’
thoughts, nor our teachers’ thoughts, nor our brothers’ thoughts, nor our sisters’
thoughts. It is therefore very helpful to learn to distinguish between human factors
and divinely inspired ideas. When we are fearful, when we are envious, when we are
jealous, when we are superstitious, prejudiced, malicious, etc., we know that this
is not what we really are, that these thoughts are no part of our true being, and
we can disassociate ourselves from them and affirm passionately the truth of our
being.
Divine consciousness gives us immunity against seduction, provocation, and intimidation.
As long as we maintain an awareness of our true selfhood, we transcend the tendency
to have human reactions to various stimuli, which are part of the everyday experience
of unenlightened man.
Sometimes symptoms of illness can have an enticing effect on us and we are tempted
to indulge ourselves in them. Sometimes they frighten us and sometimes they get us
angry and upset. In either case we must quickly take refuge in divine consciousness
and this way we may learn to deal effectively, quickly, and competently with human
problems.
The tragedy of the human experience is the universal tendency to judge by appearances,
which results in a misperception of reality in which we have the impression that
we are separated from God. If one were so enlightened as


to know the truth of being perfectly, there would be no more need for prayer and
meditation. Prayer and meditation are but endeavors to reestablish our sense of at-one-ment
with God.



Recently, in an adult education class, the story of the prodigal son came up for
discussion. Interest became focused on the good son who was faithful to the father
but who, upon the return of his rebellious brother, became jealous and complained
about the reception accorded to him. The class asked whether the meaning of the story
is a lesson in humility.
That is the usual moral and religious interpretation of the parable. However, the
spiritual meaning of it is this: To be good or to be bad is the same. Sometimes children
are very good, while at other times they misbehave. What is the difference? Essentially
nothing. For when a child is "good" he seeks to be praised, and when a child is
bad he seeks to be punished. The common denominator is a desire for attention, which
we call self-confirmation. We can confirm ourselves by being bad or by being good.
Let us consider the meaning of the father’s statement in the parable. He didn’t
say, You must be humble, or, You shouldn’t be jealous, or, You should be nice to
your brother. He did not make any reference to moral or ethical behavior or religious
sentiment. His answer was aimed at clarifying the truth of what really is. He said:
"Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine" (Luke 15:31), which means
that the good of God is infinite, spiritual, and always available to everyone. No
matter how many people are getting how much, it is limitless. Envy, jealousy, greed,
pettiness, rivalry, make no sense whatsoever. If we are faced with infinite good,
there is nothing



to quibble about, and enlightened man knows the good of God is limitless. There will
never be a time when God will run out of love, intelligence, joy, beauty, health,
harmony, peace, assurance, wisdom, or happiness.
The two brothers in the parable were reasoning from the standpoint of material
limitation. Once life is understood in its spiritual dimension, humility, arrogance,
goodness, and badness become insignificant. Trying to improve a human person is like
trying to straighten out a snake. How long will a snake remain straight?
In this context it is interesting to contemplate the various systems and institutions
which man has evolved in the hope of improving the human race. Efforts at improving
the human person are not very effective and often disappointing. This indicates that
our assumptions about man must be inadequate. Man clearly is not what he seems to
be. According to the Bible, man is image and his substance is spirit. How are we
to understand this?
One way to attempt the clarification of this mystery would be to imagine a circle,
or a loop. This circle, when viewed at an angle to a source of light casts a shadow.
When the circle is at a right angle to the source of light, the shadow will be a
line. A line has a beginning and an end; a circle has neither beginning nor end.
A line can be straight or crooked and still remain a line. In a way, we could speak
of a sick line or a healthy line. A straight line is a healthy line, while a crooked
line could be considered a sick or distorted line, but it is still a line. A circle,
however, must remain perfect at all times. Otherwise it cannot be considered a circle.
A perfect circle can cast a shadow in the form of a straight line or a distorted
line, depending on the surface upon which the shadow falls. In other words, environmental
factors can affect the appearance of the line.
The circle, however, has no beginning and no end, and is perfect all the time.
It represents our true selfhood in the context of Divine Reality. The light represents
divine consciousness. In the context of divine consciousness we are all perfect and
immortal. The line represents the human personality.



The circle is not accessible to sensory perception. All we see with our eyes is the
shadow and its problems. When we have a crooked line, we may try to improve the environmental
situation — this could represent medical science and psychology, or social engineering,
etc. — but we are still engaged in trying to improve a shadow, a phenomenon.
What is the substance of a shadow? It is nothing. It is an optical illusion. Therefore,
it is insubstantial. The visible is insubstantial and the invisible is substantial.
"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:
for the things which are seen are temporal (illusive); but the things which are not
seen are eternal" (timeless, infinite, perfect, real immutable) (2 Corinthians 4:18).
What is needed is the realization of what really is in contrast to that which seems
to be. It is not a simple reversal of facts, but a cognitive awakening to an awareness
of God’s omnipresence and man’s perfection in the context of divine consciousness.
As long as attention is focused on other shadows, all we see is shadows. In order
to discern the divine consciousness — the light and the circle — attention must be
turned away from interaction to the awareness of omniactive Mind.
There is an interesting parallelism between the shadow and money. A dollar bill
is but a piece of paper indicating the existence of a corresponding value, either
in the form of gold or other monetary standard which is kept by the government. So
a dollar bill is not really a value, but a symbol of value. Our currency transactions
and economic life proceed on the level of symbolic logic. The human personality is
a symbolic structure indicating the existence of the real being which is spiritual
man in divine Consciousness, the governing Principle of the universe. Our activities
on the level of human personality are, therefore, symbolic gestures expressing in
a symbolic way certain values and witnessing the existence of these values in the
realm of the real.
Work is an activity aimed at expressing usefulness, intelligence, and beneficence.
Income is a symbolic appearance of the flow of God’s good to man and man’s receptivity
to it. Therefore,



income is not directly related to work; work is related to usefulness, and income
to receptivity. The more useful we wish to be, the more opportunities will arise
for work. This is a spiritual solution to idleness and unemployment. The more receptive
we are to the good of God which is spiritual, the more income will be manifested
in our experience. This is the spiritual remedy to a sense of lack.



Ordinarily, life is thought of as proceeding on four levels: First is the level
of self-awareness, self-consciousness, preoccupation with oneself — how one feels,
what one is thinking, what one wants, what one needs, what one would like. The second
level is concerned with relationships of the self with others. The third level is
a concern of man’s relationship to the environment, and the fourth level is the relationship
with God.
The world of the self is the domain of psychoanalytic inquiry. The world of relationships
or interactions with others is the domain of social psychology. The world of the
environment belongs to ecology. The world of man’s relationship to God is the domain
of religion.
Enlightenment is none of these things, and none of these things can lead to enlightenment.
Enlightenment involves radical iconoclasticism. Iconoclasticism means the destruction
of cherished symbols.
There is no self and other, and no relationship of self to other. There is no relationship
between man and God. There is no God apart from His creation. There is only God manifesting
Himself in the universe in multitudinous life forms. God and His universe are one.
Man and God cannot have a relationship; man is a direct expression of God. There
is no relationship between the sun and the sunbeam; the sunbeam is an emanation of
the sun. The sun and the sunbeam are one. So God and man are one. Jesus said: "I
am in the Father, and the Father in me" (John 14:11). "I and my Father are one" (John
10:30).



If we are one with the divine Godhead, how can we have a relationship?
In enlightenment all symbolic structures and relationship ideas are discovered
as nonexistent. They are only appearances. The third principle of Metapsychiatry
says, "There is no interaction anywhere; there is only Omniaction everywhere," and
if we really understand it, we are enlightened. When we can understand, behold, and
realize reality as Omniaction, then we have completely transcended the world of symbolic
structures. And indeed, Jesus said: "I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world" (Matthew 28:20). Furthermore he said: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but
my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33). This is usually
interpreted as referring to some historical event in the future, but Jesus was talking
about the process of enlightenment in individual consciousness.
At the point of enlightenment we realize that the material world is a conglomeration
of symbolic structures, pointing beyond themselves. Problems in human experiences
arise from unwittingly confusing symbolic structures with Reality.
In the process of approaching enlightenment we come to a realization that indeed,
as the famous Zen Master Hui-neng said, "From the beginning nothing is." This is
one of the most radical Zen statements ever uttered. Enlightened man sees that everything
is nothing, and nothing is everything. The Zen Buddhists avoid referring to God.
The Hebrew religion also has a prohibition against naming God. It is a sin to name
God, and it is an even greater sin to portray God pictorially. St. Paul said we must
not try to use imagination to imagine what God looks like. In the Moslem religion,
likewise, there is a severe prohibition against making images of God. This prohibition
resulted in the limited presence of representational art in the Moslem culture; there
is mostly abstract art, usually in the form of geometric ornamental designs.
The use of the word "God" in our culture is both helpful and unhelpful. It can
become a stumbling block if it is an intellectual concept, for it tends to conjure
up anthropomorphism



in thought. It creates a tendency to imagine God in human form. When Hui-neng proclaims:
"From the beginning nothing is," he really says: "In the beginning God, and besides
Him nothing." ("All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made
that was made," John 1:3).
In Buddhist meditation the aim is to attain a realization of "emptiness," which
is synonymous with "nothingness," where one has seen through the world of symbolic
structures. At this point, man’s Buddha-nature emerges. The Buddha-nature is synonymous
with the Christ-consciousness. Instead of love, the Buddhists prefer to speak of
compassion, which is synonymous with spiritual love (agape). This compassion is combined
with wisdom and understanding, and thus man becomes spontaneously a beneficial presence
in the world. This is the point where Christianity, Buddhism, Sufism, and all other
spiritual disciplines converge in the same truth.
The question is sometimes asked whether it is possible to perform daily tasks and
still preserve a constant conscious awareness of God. To understand this issue, it
may be helpful to distinguish between thinking about God and being aware of God.
If we are thinking about God, we are religious. A religious individual will from
time to time think about God. An enlightened individual will be in a state of constant
conscious awareness of God as the source of all intelligent ideas flowing to him
and enabling him to function effectively.
When we speak of God it is also important to point out that we are not talking
about a corpse hanging from a cross, nor of a personage somewhere in outer space,
nor of a plastic Jesus on the dashboard of a car, nor of a rabbit’s foot. God is
the source of all intelligence, power, wisdom, understanding, love. Enlightened man
does not have to think about God. He is an open channel of awareness, and he is constantly
listening for intelligent ideas to obtain in his consciousness. These intelligent
ideas make it possible for him to function. In fact, Jesus said: "My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17).
Religious man has a relationship with God; enlightened individuals are at-one with
God. Relationship implies two.




At-one-ment is one. God is All-in-all; therefore, whatever good work we accomplish,
the credit goes to God. We can never boast about it. Whatever mistakes we make, they
are due to ignorance. We take neither credit nor blame. This leaves us in the realm
of nothingness.
The question may be asked, Is it desirable to attain a consciousness of our nothingness?
a complete freedom from self-confirmatory strivings? Certainly. Ordinarily, we all
want to be somebodies. A great deal of energy is being expended to establish oneself
as somebody. When we seek enlightenment we desire to become nothing. We go against
the stream of prevalent thinking. We suddenly realize that the greatest, most glorious
freedom is being nothing. When we are nothing, God is all; and when we become nothing,
we become divine, and that is the Christ-consciousness.
When we are nothing, we don’t have to make anything happen. There is no need to
influence, to pressure, to fight, to worry; there is no interaction, only Omniaction.
All things work together for good to them that love to be nothing. "He that loveth
his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto
life eternal" (John 12:25).
As long as we want to be somebody or something, we live in interaction and we are
crucified. When we want to be praised, pampered, and persecuted, what is it that
we want? We are seeking self-confirmation through interaction. It is quite amazing
what a hunger there is in most of us for interaction experiences. It seems to be
built-in into the human condition because there is a tendency in man to interpret
reality within a horizontal perspective. Some people get panicky when alone, even
for a short time. It is a dread of solitude. On the other hand, there are those who
seem to avoid contact with others. These are spoken of as "loners," "antisocials,"
"schizoids."
When we avoid interaction, we are engaged in interaction. Avoidance is a negative
form of interaction. Yes is no, and no is yes. Enlightened man neither seeks interaction
nor shuns it. To him it is just a dream of life as a person.



A businessman reported the following experience: He spent a weekend sulking over
the fact that his family had not made enough of a fuss over his birthday. On his
way to work the following Monday morning, he stopped his car at a curb and stepped
out to buy a newspaper. While his back was turned, someone jumped into the car and
drove off with it.
It was pointed out to this man that nothing comes into experience uninvited and
that, therefore, the incident had a special meaning, relevant to the quality of his
thoughts. Whereupon the businessman said: "You mean I caused this to happen? Am I
to blame for this? Was it my fault that my car was stolen and that my family deprived
me of my birthday party?... "
The difference between cause and meaning is not easily understood. To get beyond
cause-and-effect thinking requires a certain degree of developed consciousness. At
certain levels of mentation we begin to see that there are no cause-and-effect relationships,
only meanings. There is no interaction, only Omniaction. The more we see, the more
we can see that there is less and less to see until, finally, we come to see that
there is nothing to see. And then we can really see.
In other words, in order to see Omniaction, we must begin to suspect that there
is no such thing as interaction. In order to discern meanings, we must begin to suspect
that there is no cause and effect. In order to participate intelligently in a dialogue,
it is necessary to see that it is impossible to ask a question while making a statement.



There are many ways we ignorantly try to do the impossible, or claim responsibility
and accept blame for something that we could not have done, especially if we believe
in cause-and-effect thinking.
One of the more common forms of mental disease is power-madness. That, too, is
based on the illusion that man has the power to make things happen, to influence
people and events, and to be a prime mover. The Bible says: "A double-minded man
is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8). Double-mindedness seems to be almost a
social requirement if one is anxious about being "in" with the crowd and not being
isolated. In this connection it is helpful to consider the difference between being
lonely and being solitary.
Contrary to general belief, the remedy for loneliness is not companionship but
solitariness. The Bible speaks of it by saying: "Come out from among them, and be
ye separate" (2 Corinthians 6:17). The more one relies on companionship, the more
one tends to suffer from loneliness. It is like drinking salt water when we are thirsty;
the more we drink, the thirstier we become.
Daniel (the Book of Daniel) is a model of the solitary man who is never lonely.
Solitary man is a man who never seeks companionship, has no need of friends, and
is always available to everyone in need. Daniel was a great blessing to all around
him. He never had a friend and never sought one, yet he was never lonely. He was
a model of spiritual excellence.
Solitariness is not synonymous with solitude. Solitude can be experienced either
as pleasant or unpleasant, depending on the state of one’s consciousness. But solitariness
is a realized mode of being-in-the-world. Solitary man is always with God and with
the world, at one with the universe. He does not use people to make himself feel
good. He lives in the consciousness of the presence of omniactive Mind. Solitary
man can be male or female, married or unmarried. Solitary man enjoys solitude, but
he also enjoys company, and though he does not seek friends, he is very friendly.
Truly, this is freedom and dominion.



Whenever Daniel is mentioned, people tend to associate him with the story of his
survival in the lions’ den. Some think that he was a skillful hypnotist or animal
tamer. But the real meaning and importance of Daniel is not in that, but in his mode
of being-in-the-world. The lions’ den is best understood in a symbolic way. Since
he had no need for companionship, he was untouchable, immune to the animal or beastly
tendencies of people around him. He was immune to gossip, intrigue, and malice, which
abounded at the royal court where he lived. Nothing could touch him. He was invulnerable.
He called it "innocency." He said to the king: "My God hath sent his angel and hath
shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency
was found in me" (Daniel 6:22). This is the power of solitariness to make one immune
to the mental poisons which fill the atmosphere in organizations and in political
and cultural institutions, etc.
Daniel demonstrated that it is possible to be in a vicious mental climate and remain
completely untouched by it. As a matter of fact, the whole empire collapsed around
him and he remained unscathed. He is like a man standing in the midst of an earthquake,
with everything tumbling around him, and not a speck of dust falling on him. He was
not a do-gooder. He was just good.
Daniel demonstrated that a solitary man cannot be victimized since he does not
crave interaction and confirmation by his fellow man. The above-mentioned businessman,
however, sought to be the focus of human solicitude, and thus there was an unconscious
vested interest in victimization. This mental set acted as a magnet attracting corresponding
experiences into his life. His mode of being-in-the-world was that of a man anxiously
seeking self-confirmation through solicitude.



In traditional Protestant revivalist religions we hear a great deal about "deciding
for Christ." The Bible, however, speaks of commitment. At first glance, it would
seem that making decisions and committing oneself are synonymous terms. However,
there is an important difference. Decisions are usually willful, arbitrary, and voluntary.
In contrast to this, commitment could be spoken of as semivoluntary. Decisions seem
to be more autonomous actions than commitment. Decision is an ego function. The ego
cannot decide to be egoless. Commitment to a higher power is an act of letting be
what is.
Commitment becomes greatly facilitated by understanding the fourth principle of
Metapsychiatry, which says: "Yes is good, but no is also good." This is not a statement
of fatalism or renunciation; it refers to the nondual nature of Divine Reality, the
will of God. Having understood that the will of God can only be beneficial under
all circumstances, commitment becomes a simple matter of trusting what has been realized
about the nondual nature of omniactive Mind, God, the harmonizing principle of the
universe.
A very good example of such a committed mode of being-in-the-world is the biblical
story of Joseph, who was exposed to a series of negative experiences —being sold
into slavery, being falsely accused and thrown into jail — and yet every negative
experience unfolded higher evidences of God’s blessings. What was characteristic
of Joseph was his constant conscious awareness of God’s sustaining presence.



Today, when we endeavor to maintain a constant conscious awareness of omniactive
Mind as the governing power and principle of our lives, we may be challenged by apparently
very intelligent and erudite people, and thought of as being superstitious wishful
thinkers. We may be judged as believing in magical incantations and religious shibboleths.
The challenging questions and opinions of our skeptical friends must be taken seriously,
and we must ask ourselves, What evidence is there of the validity of our position?
How can we be sure that we are on solid ground? Is there a way of understanding and
proving the validity of our claims? Is there a way of communicating, or even just
attempting to explain? Are we just believers or wishful thinkers, or do we really
understand something which to many others may seem absurd and illogical?
Jesus was in a similar position when he was challenged by the Pharisees and the
scribes who were the contentious skeptics of his time. At one point he was accused
of bearing record of himself, and he was told, "Your record is not true because you
are bearing record of yourself." Whereupon Jesus answered: "Though I bear record
of myself, yet my record is true; for I know whence I came, and whither I go" (John
8:14).
Now we may ask ourselves, Do we know where we came from and do we know where we
are going? Certainly. Those of us on the spiritual path know full well that we came
from the land of suffering, which we have identified as based on self-confirmatory
ideation; and we move toward the land of peace, assurance, gratitude, and love, which
we have found to be the "God-confirmatory" enlightened consciousness. It is the promised
land of conscious awareness of omniactive Mind, the harmonizing principle of the
universe.
So the answer to the skeptics consists of explaining the process of transformation
of human consciousness and its beneficial consequences. It is no mystery. It is not
superstitious belief. It is verifiable truth, available to any sincere seeker. With
increasing understanding there is growing commitment. With growing commitment there
is increasing understanding. This is a process of unfoldment rather than willed deciding.



The general belief is that the capacity to feel guilty is very important and is
a sign of mental health. It is also believed that psychopathic personalities and
criminals are incapable of feeling guilty and, therefore, they are incurable.
It is important to differentiate between guilt on the one hand and regret or remorse
on the other hand. There is no such thing as healthy guilt, or neurotic guilt, or
insufficient guilt because all guilt is boasting. It is a self-confirmatory mode
of ideation. It is also presumptuous, devious, and self-promoting. It is presumptuous
because it is based on the presumption that man is capable of being knowingly evil.
It is devious because it claims not to be ignorant; and it is boastful because it
is self-referential, i.e., self-confirmatory.
It is possible to observe a universal eagerness to feel guilty. People are easily
convinced that they are guilty. The Viennese psychoanalyst Steckel observed a frequent
symptom among his patients which he called "the compulsion to confess." Confessions
are nothing else but formalized boasting.
The more guilty a criminal feels, the less will he be receptive to rehabilitation.
It is difficult to reform someone who feels guilty, for the rehabilitation process
itself becomes an occasion for self-confirmatory boastfulness. If a man says, "I
know that I am bad," there is no hope for him. Only if he is able to say, "I know
that I don’t know," is there hope for him. This brings to mind the words of Jesus:
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).



The real issue is ignorance, but people in general would rather admit to guilt
than to ignorance. To admit to ignorance requires humility.
The issue of guilt is a hoax which the "devil" plays on mankind; and there will
never be any effective rehabilitation of criminals as long as they are allowed and
even encouraged to feel guilty.
Psychopathic personalities commit crimes and the world expects them to feel guilty.
But they refuse. Psychologists and criminologists have assumed that these criminals
are unable to feel guilty. They think that there is some kind of defect in their
personality make-up which makes it impossible for them to feel guilty. Of course,
if we understand the workings of self-confirmatory ideation, we can see that to not
feel guilty and to feel guilty is really the same. In either case the ego is being
asserted and gratified.
A psychopathic personality has such contempt for social conventions that he refuses
to abide by the expectations of society to feel guilty, thereby asserting his ego.
The hypocrite says: "I feel guilty because I am bad." The psychopath says: "I am
bad and I refuse to feel guilty." Essentially, both of them would loathe to admit
to ignorance.
The question may now be rightfully asked, What are the requirements of a healthy
response to a misdeed? The healthy response to a misdeed is comprised of the following
three steps: (1) recognition, (2) regret, (3) reorientation. We recognize our mistake,
regret our ignorance, and reorient ourselves by forsaking our errors. All these take
place in the privacy of our consciousness.
The more clearly we understand that two and two is four, the less likely we are
to make the mistake of thinking that two and two is five, or six, etc. The more clearly
we have been given to know what the truth of life is, or what Reality is, the more
clearly it will stand out to our eyes whatever does not conform to that standard.
In Isaiah we read: "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the
Lord shall lift up a standard against him" (Isaiah 59:19). We must be educated



in the Christly standard of values and the understanding of Divine Reality. And the
clearer this is established in consciousness, the more perceptive we shall be of
whatever does not meet this standard.
Moses gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments to have a standard of right and
wrong. Jesus gave us the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus also gave us the Lord’s Prayer
(Matthew 6:9-13) as a standard mode of contemplation of Divine Reality and man’s
place in it. Unfortunately, the Lord’s Prayer tends to conjure up an anthropomorphic
image of God and man’s relationship to God, notably concerning the issue of forgiveness,
when man seeks forgiveness for his misdeeds.
The Lord’s Prayer is a form of meditation about Divine Reality and how man can
come into greater harmony with the laws governing Reality. On the basis of what has
been said before about guilt, regret, and reorientation, we now propose the following
interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer, based on Metapsychiatric insights.
Meditation on the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
I cherish the knowledge of God as omniactive Love-Intelligence.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Heavenly harmony is available here and now to the "shouldless."
Give us this day our daily bread.
The good of God is realized daily as inspired wisdom, peace, assurance, gratitude, and love (PAGL).
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
I abandon the error of interaction thinking.



And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
God consciousness is immune to seduction, provocation, and intimidation.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
God-centered living is the only alternative to self-confirmatory ideation.
Multitudes recite the Lord’s Prayer every day without ever giving a thought as
to what it could mean. The routine recitation of the Lord’s Prayer could be considered
a form of conceptual expression where the meaning is lost. It is words without meaning.
In juxtaposition to this, there is a form of communication which consists of meaning
without words, and that is music. Music is nonconceptual communication of meaning.
What does music communicate? Sound? No. Sound forms the basis of music. Music communicates
musical ideas which are nonconceptual and yet universally understandable. There is
sensual music, there is emotional music, there is intellectual music, and there is
spiritual music.
God can be conceptual to some people, but existential to others. To theologians
God is conceptual. To religious people God is symbolic. To enlightened people God
is existential awareness. Enlightened man seeks to know God in a direct awareness
as a presence and a power affecting every phase of existence all the time.
Jesus expressed it in a most simple but infinitely inspiring way when he said:
"I and my Father are one" (John 10:30) ... "I am in the Father, and the Father in
me" (John 14:11). The right understanding of these statements can provide a healthy
solution to practically every problem. When that happens, we have partaken in an
existential, epistemological, spiritual realization of God as Reality, a power, and
a presence which governs the whole universe. It is not just a theory any more. It
is not just a ritual. It is not just an intellectual scholastic idea.



It is Reality. We are seeking the realization of Reality; that’s what life is all
about. Problems arise only to show us that we have not yet reached a sufficient degree
of realization of this Reality.



Experiencing evil is inevitable, even though it is not necessary. The Bible says:
"Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity" (Habakkuk
1:13). The transcendent Ego is completely devoid of evil and knows nothing about
it. God knows nothing about evil. The Bible also says: "God is light, and in him
is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
Now if the transcendent Ego is our ego and is all good, intelligence, love, harmony,
truth, and vitality, then what is evil? What is sin? What is the autonomous ego of
individuals? It is ignorance. Notably, it is the ignorance of God. When we live without
the conscious harmony of God, when we try to live as if God did not exist, then we
are living in sin. If we define sin in this manner (sine Deo), then sin is synonymous
with ignorance. Ignorance is the ignoring of that which is available to be known.
When we are ignorant of God, we judge by appearances, and as a result of that, we
arrive at erroneous conclusions about the nature of existence and reality.
Ignorance is not passive but existential, which means that it is built into the
human condition. We distinguish two kinds of ignorance, as mentioned earlier: negative
ignorance and positive ignorance. Negative ignorance is when we don’t know and we
know we don’t know. Positive ignorance is in evidence when we don’t know but we think
we know. Negative ignorance is existential. Positive ignorance is acquired through
education. Buckminster Fuller calls our schools "ignorance factories."



Let us put it this way: We are born naturally ignorant. Then we go to school and
acquire an unnatural form of ignorance, based on miseducation. It is clear that the
negative form of ignorance is much easier to heal than the positive one.
Interestingly enough, Jesus knew that because he had a running battle with a large
and powerful group of positively ignorant people, namely, the Pharisees. These were
the most educated elite group of his time, but they were miseducated as to the nature
of Divine Reality. They had a legalistic approach to God. At one point Jesus said:
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children [ye shall in no wise become
enlightened] ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). He knew that
in order to become enlightened, we must be willing to admit to negative ignorance.
The Zen Masters and Buddhist scholars also understand this because they say, "Knowing
can only come from not knowing."
The source of all ignorance is the tendency of man to judge by appearances. We
draw erroneous conclusions based on false premises. The fact that there is such a
great variety of psychotherapeutic schools demonstrates that they all have different
assumptions about what man is. Every founder of a psychotherapeutic school has his
own assumptions — either conscious or unconscious, explicit or implicit — about what
man is. And if we start with a certain premise, we will inevitably arrive at certain
conclusions determined by that premise. Thus the result is a multiplicity of psychotherapeutic
schools. We cannot blame people for being Jungian, Freudian, Adlerian, Rogerian,
etc. It does not help to blame and it is not fair to blame. We must understand how
these things have come about, and then there will be no problem in communication.
The truth cannot be imposed on anyone. In psychotherapy it is absolutely futile
to preach the truth to a patient. We are not receptive to the truth until we have
suffered enough from the consequences of our ignorance. The therapist cannot impart
the truth to a patient until such time when the patient has reached a point of receptivity.
The purpose of suffering is



to bring us to a point of receptivity to the healing, liberating, enlightening truth.
In Metapsychiatry we speak of God as omniactive Love-Intelligence. This is a dynamic
concept of a cosmic Power which has the qualities of intelligence and love. This
concept is eminently workable and helpful when we want to liberate people from their
epistemic isolation. What do we mean by epistemic isolation? The epistemic isolation
is built of the universally accepted habit of asking wrong questions, harboring opinions,
and clinging to preconceived notions and invalid assumptions about life and the nature
of reality.
The problem of epistemic isolation was beautifully portrayed in a recent television
play called "The Cube." In this play a man is imprisoned in a room, the walls of
which open and close to any visitor at any point. Visitors come and go. They taunt
and torment the prisoner with their ideas. They leave through the walls at will,
but the prisoner has no way of escaping. For him the walls of the prison have no
opening. They are impermeable. He is hopelessly trapped and no one helps him.
Of course, none of his visitors come to him in the spirit of Christlike compassion
and Divine Love, and no one helps him to know the truth of God which makes man free.



We receive most of our thoughts from significant adults in our formative years.
To a large extent we are what others have thought of us. The thinker and the thought
are one. Since the thoughts are not our thoughts, our sense of selfhood is alien.
We are what we think, but our thoughts are not our own. Therefore, we are not acquainted
with our true selves. When a transsexual, for instance, says, "I feel that I am a
woman in a man’s body, and I want to undergo a sex operation," he is in fact saying,
"I have accepted the thought that femininity is fulfillment for me. I feel I should
be a woman." These thoughts act as a dynamic force, or a highly charged dream in
search of a dreamer. The dream creates the dreamer. After the sex operation, the
dreamer and the dream are one. Anatomy is made to conform to the dream.
The devil is called the whisperer. The whisperer whispers into consciousness various
suggestions about what should be, what is important, what could be pleasurable, what
should not be, etc. These suggestions originate in the "sea of mental garbage," or
the noosphere, and are mediated by significant adults in childhood and by the media.
Since these suggestions are active in consciousness, we have a strong impression
that they are our own thoughts. We accept responsibility for them and identify ourselves
with them.
These thoughts, then, have the quality and dynamism of long-lasting posthypnotic
suggestions. A hypnotized subject, who has been given a posthypnotic suggestion,
finds it impossible



to resist even the silliest command exactly because he has the feeling that he is
acting out his own thoughts. The amnesia as to the origin of the suggested idea makes
him a slave of the thought. In fact, the suggested thought makes the thinker. Thus
the thinker becomes a behavioral expression of the suggested thought.
Recently, a forty-year-old man reported that he has an overwhelming desire to be
a little boy and to be pampered by his mother. He is in the habit of periodically
going on binges and indulging himself with sweets, consuming large quantities of
chocolate and cookies. Recently, when he visited his mother, he was shocked to hear
her say, "You are my sweet little boy." At that moment, it occurred to him that this
idea is not his own, that it was suggested to him through his mother’s thinking many
years ago. This idea affected him somewhat like a posthypnotic suggestion, where
the subject is under the influence of the hypnotist’s thoughts, but he has the illusion
that those thoughts are his own. Thus, this grown man has become what his mother
was thinking about him.
Ordinarily, there is no way that man can be liberated from this hypnotism. What
usually happens is that there is an exchange of one hypnotic suggestion for another.
For instance, the man who indulged in sweets went through a period in his life which
in Adlerian terms could be called "masculine protest." In his early twenties he developed
an interest in guns, and toyed with the idea of becoming a soldier. These fantasies
came to a sudden end when he accidentally shot one of his neighbors, wounding him
slightly.
The human condition is fraught with hypnotic suggestions and various forms of mental
bondage. We are all more or less hypnotized by our parents, and go through life either
protesting, or submitting, or trying to escape in various ways, usually going from
one error to another. Several methods of psychoanalytic therapy have been devised
which were meant to liberate man from the hypnotic effects of his childhood experiences
and influences. But what happens in such psychoanalytic therapies is that the hypnotism
of the parents is



replaced by the hypnotism of the psychiatrist and the particular theories he advocates.
This is called "doctrinal compliance" (Ehrenwald).
Individually significant thoughts underlie modes of being-in-the-world. The only
salvation, liberation, deliverance, or healing is the discovery of God as omniactive
Mind, the source of all valid thoughts. And then the hypnotism disappears, and inspired
wisdom, Love-Intelligence, and assurance appear because then we come to know ourselves
as sons of God, and know that only what God thinks of us constitutes our true being.
In proportion to our receptivity to this truth we are liberated from hypnotism.
When we say that only God’s thoughts constitute our being, we don’t say that thoughts
which we have gleaned from certain books or lectures can liberate us. We must be
humble enough to let God heal us. The fifth principle of Metapsychiatry says, "God
helps those who let him." If we are trying to heal ourselves with the help of certain
intellectual concepts, we are not letting God help us. It is somewhat like a child
who insists on dressing himself when he cannot do it, but doesn’t let his mother
help him. The result is a stalemate.
We have to understand the difference between a "do it yourself" method and letting
God heal us. The Bible says: "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God" (John 1:12). The key word here is "receive." What does it take to
receive God’s thoughts? It takes humility, "shouldlessness," interest, but, above
all, being still. Being still means not trying to figure things out and waiting for
God’s thoughts to reach consciousness. The universal Mind, which is Reality, is the
source of a continuous flow of relevant, pertinent, intelligent, needed ideas, obtaining
in consciousness, supplying every need, healing all hypnotism, and liberating from
mental enslavement.
The qualities of forthrightness and humility are essential for receptivity to what
we call God’s thoughts, or what God is thinking toward man. "I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give
you an expected end" (Jeremiah 29:11).



The purpose of man is to come to know God and manifest Him in the world.
Returning to the gentleman we mentioned earlier, the way he lives now indicates
that he is manifesting the thoughts of his mother, and his mother believes that she
has created him for herself. She enjoyed him when he was a baby and she would like
to preserve that happiness forever. And as long as he accepts this belief and shares
this belief with his mother, he is the image and likeness of his would-be creator.
But that is a very troublesome condition, especially when one is already forty years
old. Now he needs to be liberated from this hypnotic spell and really come to understand
that God is his creator and not his mother. She has not created him for herself.
She was just an instrument in God’s creative scheme of things. When he understands
that, he will have a desire to manifest his full manliness, forthrightness, and love,
and all the qualities of God as it becomes clear that he is God’s idea and not his
mother’s idea. And that is salvation.
We all have to reach that point when we find it perfectly natural to live as God’s
manifest ideas. As long as we believe that we are creations of our parents, we cannot
help but bear witness to their fantasies about us.
The only remedy for a victim of hypnotism is to awaken to a realization that the
thought which is active in his consciousness is not his thought, and the expression
of that thought is not what he truly is. "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Ephesians 5:14). This sentence actually
affirms the fact that human experience is a dream and unenlightened man a dreamer,
oblivious of Reality.
The Christ illumines the truth of our being as sons of God, or expressions of the
mind, the will, the wisdom, the love, the spiritual good of God. God is the only
true source of valid ideas. Only divine spiritual ideas constitute our true selfhood.
"The Son can do [think] nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do [think]:
for what things soever he doeth [thinketh], these also doeth [thinketh] the Son likewise"
(John 5:19).



When we understand that the dream creates the dreamer, for instance, that Marxist
ideas create communists and not the other way around, we can suddenly understand
compassion. Compassion is not synonymous with sympathy, or with empathy, or with
pity or sentimentality. Compassion is a transcendental form of love which says: "Father
forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
Compassion sees that the human condition is a state of hypnotic counterfeit existence,
and the evils of this world are vicious dreams appearing in the form of evil dreamers,
acting singly or collectively. The history of the Nazi movement in Germany was one
vicious dream engulfing an entire nation and expressing itself as the Second World
War. It was a horrendous tidal wave of the "sea of mental garbage" sweeping over
the world.
Compassion cannot be willed. It is existential. Man can decide to be sympathetic.
He can make himself concerned and sad. He can will himself to feel pity. But true
compassion is possible only when consciousness has awakened to the faculty of spiritual
discernment of the difference between Reality and dream.
It is helpful to understand that, contrary to general belief, sympathy, pity, and
empathy are actually pathogenic, which means they make a bad situation worse. When
we sympathize we say, "I feel for you," which means, "I acknowledge and agree with
you that you are in a bad way." When we pity someone we say, "I feel sorry for you,"
which means, "You have every reason to feel bad, miserable, and hopeless." If we
empathize with someone we say, "I feel exactly the way you feel," which means, "Your
misery is real because I share it with you." These three modalities of interaction
remind us of the three "miserable comforters" who came to visit Job in his hour of
trial. The Christ-truth is the only valid and effective comforter.
This process of awakening starts with the individual when he begins to forgive
himself by realizing that his sins were never really part of his true being and that
only good thoughts



constitute his true selfhood. When he becomes able to have compassion for himself,
his capacity to have compassion for others emerges spontaneously. Thus he can fulfill
the commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:39).
Compassion is an essential ingredient of mental health, for without it one is constantly
involved in judging, criticizing, condemning, and getting upset over the evils of
the world. This, in turn, tends to disturb the homeostatic balance of the individual.
The compassionate man, however, is capable of transcendent regard, which is an
ability to view life and people from a higher standpoint. I think it was Emerson
who defined prayer as an endeavor to see life from a higher viewpoint. The higher
viewpoint broadens our perspective beyond the interpersonal context of reasoning
to the transpersonal.
Transpersonal psychology is possible only in the context of God, or the Christ-consciousness.
It is quite clear that Jesus saw life and reality from a divine perspective and in
the context of Divine Reality. The Bible says: "Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5). We understand this to mean that the enlightened
man is not a schemer, a manipulator, or a politician. He is not engaged in calculative
thinking, but relies entirely on inspired wisdom and love.



There are many things in life of which we are not aware. And what we are not aware
of is unconscious. This does not mean that there is an unconscious as such, but there
is unconsciousness. There are thoughts which we prefer not to be aware of, and we
can either repress these — just as Freud said — or we can suppress them, or avoid
them, or try to escape from becoming aware of them. For instance, one of the most
universal issues in life which we are all trying to escape from and avoid knowing
about is the fear of nonbeing, or the dread of nothingness.
The manifestations of this universal fear can be seen in self-confirmatory ideation,
activities, and pursuits. Translated into social experience, the fear of nonbeing
manifests itself as the fear of being ignored, a fear of being unimportant, a fear
of being a nobody or nothing, or of being unloved or unnoticed. This fear is so tremendous
that very often we settle for almost anything in exchange. For instance, if we cannot
be loved, we may settle for being hated. If we cannot be praised, we may invite criticism.
If we cannot be beautiful, we may want to be ugly. If we cannot be considered smart,
we may put on pseudo-stupidity just to avoid being ignored.
The fear of nothingness diverts our attention from what is important. The fear
of nonbeing is called existential anxiety or, as the philosophers call it, "the dread
of nothingness." St. Paul refers to it this way: "If a man think himself to be something,
when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself" (Galatians 6:3).



Throughout life we are driven to make sure that we are something and not nothing.
This unconscious urge is the basis for all self-confirmatory ideation. Psychopathology,
and even pathology in general, has this common dynamism. Unenlightened man, whether
educated or uneducated, is constantly preoccupied with the issues: "Do I exist? Am
I real? Am I safe?" The basic desire to reassure ourselves of our own individual
reality drives us in many directions, such as: to be successful, to be admired, to
be loved, to be famous, to be hated, to be operated upon by surgeons, to be persecuted,
to be pampered, etc. We seek self-confirmatory experiences in an infinite variety
of ways.
We could say that ontologically we have a one-track mind, namely, to confirm the
reality of our selfhood. It is paradoxical. Unenlightened man has an overriding desire
to be acknowledged as existing. This kind of acknowledgment is reassuring and comforting.
Unfortunately, the comfort is short-lived; no sooner do we get reassured that we
are really somebody than the fear begins to mount again and we need new reassurances.
The more we get, the more we want.
The question is, Is there an alternative? The philosophers Heidegger and Sartre,
and most other existential philosophers who are not oriented toward God, offer us
an interesting solution. They say: What is needed is to take a resolute stand, a
"courageous resolve" to face up to the dread of nothingness and cope with it. But
what happens if we do that? If we decide to conquer our fears, what does it mean?
It means that we have made an act of self-confirmatory assertion: "I can cope with
my fear of nonbeing; therefore I am being." These great philosophers are really mistaken,
for we cannot heal self-confirmatory ideation with self-confirmatory ideation. We
cannot fight fire with fire. The more we assert ourselves against our fears, the
more fearful we become. This, then, is not a solution. This is no different from
what psychoanalysis aims at, namely, ego control, which actually means self-confirmatory
self-assertion against self-confirmatory ideation. It is like Auroborus, the mythical
snake, swallowing its own tail.



A question then is, Is there no way out of this human dilemma? Yes, there is. Man
has to come to understand that he is not a self-existent personality, cast adrift
in the world as Heidegger put it with his notion of Geworfenheit (being thrown).
This is not really so. The remedy to the problem of the self-confirmatory mode of
being-in-the-world is to understand its meaning, which we have just explained as
the dread of nothingness, and come to realize that we are not self-existent life
forms apart from the creator. We are manifestations of a creative power, underlying
all of life in the universe, all the laws of nature, the harmony, the beauty and
infinite intelligence discernible all around us. This is the power which expresses
itself through us. Therefore, we are not adrift in the universe all on our own, but
we are sustained, supported, governed, cared for, and loved by this infinite power
which we call Love-Intelligence.
Now the question is, How can we come to realize that this is really so? Our fears
are self-evident. We also know that self-assertion and various other actions can
be consensually validated. But when we talk about Love-Intelligence and Cosmic Power,
this is not as easily validated. Various religions have claimed the existence of
God for thousands of years, but this was just based on belief. To the vast majority
of people on earth God still remains a putative issue. Religions tell us: "If you
believe in God, a transcendent power, this will make you feel better, and it will
comfort you." Believing is better than nothing, but believing is a long way from
knowing.
In the history of Christianity there was a movement which was concerned with coming
to know the Reality of God. This was the Gnostic movement. But this was considered
a heresy and its adherents were severely persecuted. Even today, if someone wants
to say something bad about a Christian or a religious individual who wants to understand
God, he can label him a gnostic to discredit him. It seems more respectable to be
an agnostic than a gnostic. The word gnostic is derived from the Latin cognoscere,
which means to know, to recognize, to understand. And it is certainly not a sin to
desire to know.



Of course, many people question the possibility of knowing God, and this seems to
be a legitimate point.
In the history of religions there were unique individuals who claimed to have known
Divine Reality, and this knowledge came to them through a special grace of God. These
people were called mystics. Of course, it was difficult to ascertain whether they
really knew or just claimed to know. And today it is still easy to claim to know
and thus deceive people. So the issue of knowledge remains an important problem.
The question is, How can a finite mind know infinite Mind? Fortunately it is getting
to be less and less a heresy to admit to a desire to know, and today there is less
of a chance to be burned at the stake. Today there are new ways of coming to know
more and more of Divine Reality. It helps to begin to call God new names. For instance,
in Metapsychiatry we call God omniactive Love-Intelligence, Cosmic Consciousness,
infinite omnipresent Mind, the source of inspired Wisdom, Love, creative Intelligence,
and healing Power.
It is interesting to consider that Jesus chose to teach people about God through
the process of healing. He was not a charlatan, nor was he a physician, really. He
was a carpenter. But he wanted to help people to understand God, so he healed them
of their illnesses. The question could be asked, In what way did the healing of diseases
help people to understand God? Today, when a doctor prescribes a treatment and accomplishes
a cure, this in no way facilitates the understanding of God. Jesus healed the sick,
fed the hungry, and taught the ignorant; he supplied them with whatever they needed
most. He did this with his great understanding of the human condition. He knew exactly
what people were suffering from. He said: "I am come a light into the world, that
whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness" (John 12:46) which means
that he understood that all human problems arise from lack of understanding. Darkness
stands for ignorance and fear. When we are in darkness, we don’t know and we are
fearful.
These were the two basic and essential problems of mankind two thousand years ago,
and they are the same today. What



we are suffering from is the darkness of ignorance and fear. All human approaches,
all psychotherapeutic schools, as well as any other solutions that have ever been
devised, are ineffective endeavors at coping with ignorance and with fear. They are
ineffective because they are rooted in the same mistake, which is self-confirmatory
ideation. When we are afraid, we are driven to say, "I am," and we can say it in
a million ways. The more we say it, the sicker we get because it is not true.
The Bible says: Be still. Stop saying, "I am," and know that God is the only I
am. ("Be still, and know that I am God," Psalm 46:10.) Jesus knew that there is no
such thing as a personal ego, that God is the Ego of everyone. He was able to heal
people and provide for their needs because he knew what they needed to know. If we
come to catch a glimpse of this truth that God is our Ego, that we do not exist apart
from God, in that moment all fear disappears, and when fear disappears, all the bad
"fruits" of fear also disappear.
The universal remedy for problems is the abolishing of existential anxiety. When
existential anxiety is relieved, self-confirmatory ideation becomes unnecessary and
healing can take place. Healing is derived from the word "wholeness." Man cannot
be whole until he is consciously in at-one-ment with his real Ego, which is God.
When Jesus wanted to explain his own wholeness to the world, he said: "I and my Father
are one" (John 10:30). I don’t exist alone by myself.
There is no such thing as wholeness apart from God. In order to be whole, we must
be united with God in consciousness. This is called conscious union with God, i.e.,
conscious awareness of the fact that our life, our vitality, our vigor, our intelligence,
and our love are emanations of the Divine Mind. When we clearly understand this inseparability,
this oneness of God and His creation, then we are whole; then existential anxiety
disappears and we discover the "peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Philippians
4:7), and there is no more self-confirmatory ideation. And that’s when all pathology
disappears because pathology is nothing else but a



constant unconscious mental process of seeking to confirm our existence apart from God.
Here again we may ask the question, Is it really possible to know this? The Metapsychiatric
method of coming to know is based on "two intelligent questions." Whenever we are
confronted with a problem, we approach it with the following two questions: The first
is: "What is the meaning of what seems to be?" And the second question is: "What
is what really is?"
To illustrate, suppose we have a splitting headache. We do not ask, What is wrong
with me? Why do I have this headache? Who or what is to blame for it? What should
I do? Instead, we ask, What is the meaning of this seeming headache? If we ask this
question and remain still for a while, pretty soon we may become aware of certain
thoughts which reveal to us some resentfulness, vindictiveness, frustration, etc.
This explains the meaning of the headache as a certain emotionally charged thought
of a self-confirmatory nature. If we seek the meaning of phenomena, they will reveal
themselves to us as self-confirmatory ideas. Thus we become aware of the fact that
a symptom is a phenomenon, i.e., thought transmuted into symptom.
These self-confirmatory thoughts can be chronic and well hidden even for years,
and often there is resistance against facing up to them. But if we are willing to
face up to these mental processes and perchance be embarrassed by them, that constitutes
effective repentance. Such repentance can proceed into forgiveness and reformation
of character.
After this comes the second question which brings Divine Reality to our attention
in a meaningful light. As a result of this process remarkable healings can take place,
notwithstanding diagnostic labels. The second question reveals to us the allness
of God and the wholeness of man, inseparable from the love of God.
A glimpse of the validity of this truth results in a sense of peace, assurance,
gratitude, and love. And that is a sign of healing. When this occurs, we are aware
of the fact that our thought processes have come into alignment with Divine



Reality, and the disappearance of our problems, the healing of them, gives us a sense
of clear knowledge that God really is. This we call existential validation. In this
manner we move from believing to knowing. We may even catch a glimpse of the fact
that in Reality there is neither something nor nothing. God, Mind is all in all.



Contrary to prevailing opinions, discipline is not synonymous with self-control.
Discipline is related to discipleship. A devoted disciple of a Master or a teacher
finds it easy to live a disciplined life. A disciple enjoys living up to the standards
of his teacher. To live a disciplined life on that basis is not arduous.
Discipline is not self-inflicted tyranny; it is enthusiasm and love for a value
system. If there is no discipleship, then there is self-indulgence. The trouble with
self-indulgence is that we lose contact with the source of what is. Either we are
devoted to ourselves — our feelings, sensations, and possessions — or we are devoted
to some higher values. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart [devotion]
be also" (Matthew 6:21; Luke 12:34).
It is, however, important to be devoted to existentially valid teaching. Sometimes
we may become devoted to something that is not valid, or to something that is personal.
We call that a tragic blunder.
Sometimes there is an expectation of reward for one’s devotion to spiritual values.
However, God is not a reward-system. God does not reward us for being good, nor does
He punish us for being bad. Children universally tend to think in terms of reward
and punishment. There is an educational method in vogue nowadays called "operant
conditioning." It is an attempt at behavior modification based on the principle of
rewarding the good and ignoring the bad. This system



seems to work in schools and in prisons and generally with immature subjects. However,
it is clear that the price of such conditioning of necessity must be a fixation of
minds on a very immature level. Behavior is modified at the price of mental stagnation.
Many traditional religious systems have fallen into similar patterns where God
is presumed to be a rewarder of good behavior and a punisher of sin. This is a primitive
concept of God and man, and it leads to certain difficulties. As long as God is presumed
to be a capricious authority figure, there will always be a tendency to get around
him. Enlightened man has a different view of God and His system. Instead of seeing
God as a reward and punishment system, enlightened man sees God as an "Is system."
What do we mean by an "Is system"? An "Is system" means that God is absolute Reality;
and being in conscious union with it brings us a realization of perfect life. The
right understanding of what really is abolishes all problems which seem to be.
If we consider all the strictures of traditional religions, we see that they are
being constantly circumvented and compromised. There is a saying, "Laws are made
to be broken." But if we understand God as an "Is system," it will make no sense
at all to violate it. For instance, if we know that gravitation is, it is clear that
no one in his right mind would want to challenge it by jumping out of the window.
But suppose the law of gravitation would depend on a person. Then one would be tempted
to try to circumvent it.
In Metapsychiatry we speak of theistic existentialism, which means a God-centered
view of Reality.
The early Hebrew idea of God was that of a warlord, a tribal chief, or a judge,
or a legal authority, who set down very complex laws and rules of behavior. The Bible
represents a record of the continuing evolution of the concept of God from a punitive
agency to a benefactor of mankind, until gradually God was seen as a benevolent father,
and beyond that, as pure Love. God ceased to be a person and became a Reality. Today
we are sufficiently advanced to be able to conceive of God as being.



Not a being, but Being itself, which is what is, a Life Principle. If we understand
God as a Life Principle, then there is no one to reward us or punish us. There is
only being in harmony with the Principle and thus prospering, or being out of step
with it and suffering the consequences.
We like to speak of God not only as Life Principle but also as Love-Intelligence.
Love and intelligence cannot be separated. There is no such thing as unintelligent
love. Unintelligent love is not love. It is just ignorance. Love is intelligent,
creative, life-enhancing, all-knowing, all-powerful, and omniactive. All these adjectives
help us to gain a more precise understanding of God which is not a person but a power,
a Reality, an "Is."
And in order to be in harmony with something, we must understand it. In order for
man to be able to fly, he had to come to understand the principles of aerodynamics.
In order to live in an intelligent, wholesome, and good way, we must understand God
in an existentially valid fashion.
Unfortunately, the human race is just beginning to go beyond childish ways of thinking
about God. This leads to many problems. Of late, we can see how some churches resist
the struggle of women trying to gain equality with men.
When we understand God as an "Is system," we are not concerned with being religious
but with being in harmony with what is, i.e., being enlightened. Since God is infinite
consciousness, enlightenment means conscious union with Cosmic Consciousness, or
at-one-ment with Love-Intelligence.
While traditional religions emphasize behavior, conduct, ritual, ceremonies, tithing,
etc., the enlightened way is to focus on consciousness, which is in keeping with
the teaching of Jesus, who laid great stress on the quality of thoughts and their
manifestations.
An enlightened individual is one who is able to live in constant conscious awareness
of omniactive Mind. This makes it possible to completely lose interest in fantasizing,
daydreaming, scheming, influencing, manipulating, and being afraid. If we are full-time
in conscious awareness of the good of God, then there is nothing else.



Jesus, speaking about observant religious people of his time, said: "Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which
indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of ... uncleanness" (Matthew
23:27), thus referring to the importance of maintaining an inner purity of thought.



Forms of Maturity
1. Organismic, when the human body is fully developed.
2. Psychosexual, when the procreative faculties are developed with a capacity for human affection.
3. Psychosocial, when an individual becomes a useful member of society.
4. Ethical, when an individual develops a sense of fair play.
5. Moral, when an individual develops an appreciation of the Ten Commandments.
6. Religious, when the formal worshiping of God becomes sincerely appreciated.
7. Existential, when one becomes committed to being here for God. Such an individual
is a beneficial presence in the world.
8. Spiritual, which is the realization of the Living Soul.
The process of spiritual maturity entails outgrowing the galloping evils of the
"four horsemen." The "four horsemen" are: Envy, Jealousy, Rivalry, and Malice.
Envy is a desire to have what someone else has. Jealousy is a desire to be what
someone else is. Rivalry is a desire to be better than someone else. Malice is ill
will.



The first crime ever committed is described in the Bible in the story of Cain and
Abel. This is a story of jealousy and rivalry resulting ultimately in murder. Here
we have an immature god making comparisons between two brothers and favoring one
over the other. This kind of parenting often leads to tragedy. The irony of this
story is that the very god which instigated the rivalry between the siblings winds
up blaming and punishing the jealous brother who is both a malefactor and a victim
of his own immaturity. Immature people have immature gods. There is a saying that
nations have the kind of governments they deserve.
We may very well ask, How can God be immature? Since time immemorial man has been
suffering from his immature and invalid concepts of God. The Bible is a record of
man’s evolving, maturing ideas of God, from a vengeful, intimidating warlord, to
a legal authority, a judge, an oriental ruler, a punitive agency, a merit system
operating on the basis of reward and punishment, a moral disciplinarian, a loving
father of Jesus Christ, the divine love of the apostle John, the disciple of Jesus,
and finally to a cosmic Principle of Love-Intelligence in Metapsychiatry.
Man, who is an image and likeness of God, has a tendency to turn the tables on
God and make Him over in his own image. Thus immature man conceives of immature gods.
One of the most prevalent ideas about God is that God is here for man. Man wants
to find a way to "get a handle" on God through prayer, incantations, and ceremonies.
Man wants to influence God and get God to serve him. This kind of effort of telling
God what He should do is practiced either in solitude or collectively in congregations.
Metapsychiatry states that God is not here for man but man is here for God. Everything
in the universe has the purpose of manifesting the glory of the Creator. We say that
everything and everyone is here for God, whether they know it or not. To some people
this is a shocking and revolutionary idea, not unlike the discovery that the sun
does not revolve around the earth, but that the earth revolves around the sun.



Thus we come to see that spiritual maturity is not attainable unless we are given
a mature and existentially valid concept of God. What do we mean by an existentially
valid concept of God? An existentially valid concept of God makes it possible for
man to overcome the "four horsemen" and to grow into an authentic, beneficial presence
in the world.
The process of maturation can be studied with the help of the cross as a symbol.
The cross consists of a vertical bar and a horizontal bar. Without the vertical bar
there is only the horizontal bar. The horizontal bar symbolizes the conditions under
which agnostic, i.e., Godless, man lives. He only knows human relationships where
the basic issues are envy, jealousy, rivalry, and malice. These motives can be conscious
or unconscious, but they are always present and play a dynamic role in all aspects
of life, even in so-called "love" relationships. In the horizontal dimension of life
love is mostly a cover-up for envy, jealousy, rivalry, and malice. Generosity is
mostly bribery and manipulation. Admiration and praise are also disguised forms of
envy and jealousy. Teaching is often a desire for mental domination, preventing learning.
Information is misinformation. Giving is getting. Everything has an ulterior motive.
Self-confirmatory ideation is ubiquitous. The apostle Paul put it very succinctly,
"The good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do" (Romans
7:19).
The biblical story of Samson and Delilah is rather instructive. Samson is described
as a beautiful and intelligent man of great power and attractiveness. His qualities
aroused a great deal of admiration, envy, jealousy, rivalry, and, finally, malice.
Delilah, who was very much taken by him, discovered that all his power and attractiveness
were located in his hair. It is safe to assume that Delilah envied the power of Samson’s
seeming personal mind, and this made it easy for her to betray him into the hands
of his enemies, the Philistines. Therefore, she proceeded to seduce him and rob him
of his power. Envy always aims at destroying whatever someone else has.
We can say that it is not uncommon to find a Delilah complex in women and even
in men, where envy is consciously



or unconsciously covered up as admiration or even sexual attraction. Such unconscious
duplicity often results in tragic consequences to all who participate in it. Delilah’s
envy not only wanted to deprive Samson of his beauty, power, and mind, but she wanted
to do it in such a way that Samson would not be aware, could not see what was happening
to him; so he was attacked in his sleep and he was also rendered blind. When he became
aware of what had been done to him, his rage was so overwhelming that he brought
disaster on himself and everyone else around him.
When the horizontal bar is combined with the vertical bar we have the cross. The
cross is an instrument of torture. It symbolizes the agony of religious man who tries
to live in two dimensions at the same time. He tries to have a vertical relationship
with God and, at the same time, continue his psychological relationship with his
fellow man. His human inclinations toward envy, jealousy, rivalry, and malice are
in constant conflict with the moral demands of his religion. He makes an effort to
be a man for others (i.e., a beneficent person), but inevitably winds up being here
for himself. Hypocrisy is inevitable.
When the horizontal bar is removed we have a vertical bar only. This vertical bar
is a symbol of man’s orientation toward God. In this phase of development man is
committed to being here for God. This is not a religious commitment but an existential
one. Here the individual progresses beyond religiosity into an actualization of being
a beneficial presence in the world by manifesting Divine Love-Intelligence as a primary
issue of life. "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established"
(Proverbs 16:3).
In this phase of development man becomes increasingly healthy and blessed, and
tends to prosper harmoniously in all his affairs. He lives effortlessly, efficiently,
and effectively.
In the final phase of spiritual maturation even the vertical bar disappears and
there is a realization of at-one-ment with God. There is a discovery of the Living
Soul which was never born and never dies, which is "hid with Christ in God," or as



the Zen Master speaks of it, "a realization of the Unborn." The Living Soul is a
nondimensional entity of awareness within infinite Mind, or divine consciousness.
In Hebrews 7:3, we read: "Without father, without mother, without descent, having
neither beginning of days nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God." When
the Living Soul is realized, the sense of personhood disappears and with it all the
human mockeries.



In Metapsychiatry "Soul" is a word used to describe a non-dimensional entity which
is alive, which was never born, and which never dies. It is synonymous with the Christ.
It is a quality of consciousness attained through the process of studying and meditating
on ultimate issues. When we realize that we are living Souls, we have beheld ourselves
in the context of God. The Buddhists speak about the Buddha nature. Both these concepts
point to the Christ consciousness.
The purported aim of Zen training is to realize one’s own Buddha nature. The aim
of Metapsychiatric study is to realize oneself as a living Soul which was never born
and never dies, which is "hid with Christ in God," and which is the source of everything
real and good and beautiful. All the spiritual qualities and ideas flow from God
into this individual living Soul which we all are. When we say that everything and
everyone is here for God, we mean that we are all living Souls at different levels
of realization. When the Buddhists speak of the "unborn" it is the same thing as
the living Soul, the ultimate nondimensional identity of everyone.
This reminds us of the Zen Master who asks: "Show me your face which you had before
your parents were born." This koan liberates us from the fantasies of our parents.
We have often spoken about the fact that we are unconsciously living out the fantasies
of our parents. Now the koan says we have to realize our true identities, which are
completely antecedent to any parental fantasies about us. In order to be really aware
of



one’s true identity, one has to be free from parental and educational influences.
In working with this koan one can reach a point of total freedom from other people’s
thoughts. Therefore, we seek liberation in becoming aware of ourselves as God has
created us. This process of liberation is the freedom to be what God wants us to
be. Our spiritual selfhood is hidden from ourselves and from the world, because few
suspect it. Few can really understand it. It is a mysterious sense of identity beyond
the comprehension of unenlightened man. It cannot be apprehended by the senses, but
we can come to know it through the spiritual faculty of beholding. The beholder beholds
his own true identity, which is devoid of all human influences. This is complete
authenticity of being.
It is not advisable to attempt to visualize a living Soul. If we are eager to form
images in our consciousness, that means that we are descending into the dimensional
world, and we don’t really understand ourselves as living Souls. We just imagine
things. Whatever we can imagine will be purely imaginary. We will not be aware of
Reality but only of fantasies. It is to escape from fantasies that we have to realize
nondimensional Reality. The living Soul is pure wisdom and love and individualized
spiritual life. It cannot be visualized and we cannot draw a picture of it. If we
try, we lose it. We cannot even think about it. We have to be aware of ourselves
as nondimensional units of awareness. God is infinite Mind. Infinity has no dimensions.
We cannot measure infinity. It is nondimensional and everything in the context of
infinite Mind is also non-dimensional. The human mind cannot conceive of anything
nondimensional. The human mind is an illusion, anyway. God is the Mind which makes
it possible to be aware of Reality. Whatever can be imagined cannot be real. It is
easy to kid ourselves that we are in touch with Reality when trying to visualize
it.
When we speak of material man, we speak of the phenomenal world. In this world
everything is an illusion, even the seeing of man as a dimensional form. When we
ask, What sees man? we can only say, "The so-called ‘carnal’ mind sees dimensional
reality."



Dimensional reality can be thought of as a dream or a shadow. In order to be liberated
from the problems of the phenomenal world, we have to reach a realization of nondimensional
Reality which is unimaginable but discernible spiritually.
In the Bible it is described that God said: "Let there be a firmament — and let
it divide the waters.... And God made the firmament and divided the waters which
were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament" (Genesis
1:6, 7). Metapsychiatry interprets this as saying: The waters below the firmament
are the "sea of mental garbage" in which unenlightened man lives and struggles, appears
to be born, gets sick, and dies. This is what seems to be going on below the firmament.
The firmament itself we understand to be the faculty of awareness, which we call
spiritual discernment. This faculty makes it possible to be aware of the difference
between the phenomenal world and noumenal Reality. Above the firmament is the infinite
"ocean of Love-Intelligence." The firmament is the dividing line which is not structural,
but a faculty of awareness. Until this faculty is awakened in us, we don’t know Spiritual
Reality. All we know is the "sea of mental garbage." When we start studying Metapsychiatry
we discover that there are other dimensions to life, and then we gradually awaken
to the faculty of awareness, i.e., spiritual discernment. The word "discernment"
refers to a capacity to separate Reality from unreality. It is like separating the
tares from the wheat. We are all familiar with the parable of the tares and the wheat
(Matthew 13:24–30). When a farmer’s employees discovered tares in the field of wheat,
they came to him and asked, "What shall we do? The whole field is infested with this
poisonous weed and everything is lost." But the farmer said, "Wait until harvest
time. When the wheat ripens, then you will be able to discern the difference between
the tares and the wheat and you will separate the two." When we reach the harvest
time of our spiritual development, then the faculty of discernment emerges in consciousness
and we have the ability to separate Reality from unreality. The spiritual and



the material can now be clearly seen, and that constitutes the emergence of the firmament.
From here on, we work and pray and meditate in the direction of rising ever higher
to the point of beholding.
The faculty of beholding is the capacity to see Spiritual Reality. At this point
we discover that we are living Souls, incorporeal nondimensional spiritual identities,
living in the context of infinite Mind. We are not dealing any more with images but
with realizations of our individual places in that Reality. Interestingly enough,
at that point our lives begin to improve in every direction. We harvest the blessings
of expanded awareness of spiritual consciousness. Our understanding of ourselves
as living Souls becomes evident in healings, both of our bodies and of our so-called
"temperament," as well as in our relationships with the world. Experiences become
more harmonious. We find ourselves responding to daily challenges in more intelligent
and effective ways. There is less strain in living. There is increasing effectiveness
and new blessings.
The material world is seen as the shadow of Reality, a shadow of true substance.
In proportion to our awareness of the perfection of life in the nondimensional realm,
the shadow images cease to torment us; they disappear because there is nothing to
feed them. A living Soul is unhampered by the inanities, the fantasies, the wants
and not wants of the world. Therefore, Love-Intelligence can freely express itself
in life. As a result, things become less complicated. There is less stress. Whatever
is needed is responded to effortlessly, efficiently, and effectively.
Before the harvest time there is often a period of war between the spirit and the
flesh. It is a conflict of interests. If there is conflict within us, that means
that we have not yet reached a wholehearted interest in the spiritual life. We are
just straddling the firmament, so to speak. This is where the flesh wars against
the spirit. The Soul does not enter into issues below the firmament. The firmament,
being the dividing line between the "sea of mental garbage" and



the "ocean of Love-Intelligence," is aware of both so-called "worlds." The firmament
is awareness. The firmament knows whether we live under the firmament or whether
we sincerely seek to rise above it. Most of the struggle consists in turning away
from ego-gratification. Ego-gratification is what drives the unenlightened world.
Everything that is accomplished by unenlightened man is accomplished in quest of
ego-gratification. Enlightened man is an instrument of omniactive Love-Intelligence,
the creative principle of the universe.



Man is unavoidably prayerful at all times. Without realizing it, we live in a condition
which requires us to pray in order to have a sense of direction in life. Without
prayer we judge by appearances and tend to become disoriented. Our senses are not
adequate to provide us with reliable information about Reality. We tend to wind up
with misdirected modes of being-in-the-world. Whatever we cherish, whatever we hate,
and whatever we fear are our gods, and we pray to them all the time.
Prayer can also be thought of as a mental hygiene principle. Sanity depends on
being in touch with Reality. Thus, prayer is an existential necessity. We are not
talking here about religious prayer, which is mostly petitionary. We define prayer
as a constant conscious endeavor to be aware of our place in Reality.
The world is constantly intruding on our consciousness, creating disturbances,
fears, confusion, and emotional upheavals. We misinterpret what we see. This results
in discords and disasters. To live in harmony, we must learn to pray effectively.
Effective prayer is based on seeing Reality rather than getting something from it.
In Buddhist literature we came across a prayer which could be thought of as "symbolic
prayer." It speaks of a calm lake on a windless night which reflects the moon without
distortion, so that it glows from the lake. This is a symbolic portrayal of man as
a "place," or a consciousness which perfectly reflects



the spiritual qualities of God. When human consciousness is filled with Love-Intelligence,
God glows in it. Such an individual becomes a beneficial presence in the world. He
finds his bearings in what we call PAGL (peace, assurance, gratitude, and love).
Metapsychiatry helps us to be keenly and painfully aware of the universal human
tendencies toward self-confirmatory ideation and interaction thinking. Instead of
being aware of our oneness with God and our contingency on Love-Intelligence to guide
us and inspire us, we are constantly seeking to confirm our separateness from God.
Every self-confirmatory thought is an assertion of our separation from God and leads
to many kinds of problems. Misperceiving ourselves leads to misperceiving others,
and this is essentially the nature of our ignorance.
The question now arises, How can we be aware of our complete oneness with God at
all times? To understand this issue it is helpful to reexamine the biblical scene
in which Moses asked God what His name was. According to the biblical text, God answered:
"I AM THAT I AM." It seems that this is what Moses heard. This statement has led
to many theological speculations and interpretations through the years. Judging by
the consequences of these speculations, we must conclude that either the interpretations
of various teachings have proved unsatisfactory, or that Moses may have misheard
the message. As the record has it, he continued to relate himself to God as to a
separate entity throughout the forty years of the Exodus. Shortly after this encounter
with God, he was told to go to speak to Pharaoh on behalf of the children of Israel.
Moses balked at the mission and said: "I cannot do this because I am slow of speech."
Then God said: "I will be with thy mouth" (Exodus 4:12). Moses reluctantly obeyed,
but he still did not understand his at-one-ment with God. The Bible also states that
Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. This may very well mean that he
failed to become enlightened. He failed to realize his at-one-ment with God.
On reflecting on the problem of realizing our at-one-ment



with God, we begin to suspect that the original message may have been: "I am the
only I am," rather than, "I am that I am." And indeed, this discovery opens up the
door to effective realization of at-one-ment with God because it closes the door
on all self-confirmatory ideation. It establishes in consciousness the awareness
of man’s inseparability from his Creator. Jesus, of course, understood this when
he explained: "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). "I am in the Father and the
Father in me" (John 14:11).
The prayer of at-one-ment is a healing prayer because it abolishes the complications
of unenlightened life, which is rooted in a sense of autonomous existence, independent
and apart from God. It becomes clear that man does not have a relationship with God.
He is an individualized aspect of God. His substance is Spirit. He is a living Soul,
"hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).


MEDITATION
A little boy was weeding a strawberry patch. A man passing by said, "This is
amazing. There are so many kinds of weeds. How do you know which ones to pull out?"
The little boy answered:
"Mister, I only know the strawberries!" So it is with meditation. There are so
many theories and practices, one could get dizzy trying to study them all:
The most frequently asked question is: How do you meditate? This is a futile
question. It is a peculiarity of the personal mind to be naturally hypocritical and
operational. It is hypocritical because it pretends to know what meditation is, and
it is operational because it assumes that it can be "done." The result of this is
that multitudes of so-called seekers after the truth are performing certain ritualistic
techniques of meditation without having the slightest idea of what to expect or what
the issue is. This is an exercise in futility and self-deception. The sixth principle
of Metapsychiatry is: "If you know what, you know how." Anyone who knows what meditation
is will know how to meditate.
Therefore, let us ask first, What is meditation? Meditation is a wholehearted attentiveness to

what God wants. Second, What is the right motivation for meditation? The right motivation
for meditation is a sincere interest in committing oneself to being here for God.
Most people, however, approach the issue of meditation with the idea of getting something
for themselves. They seek to get something out of it. This sounds very sensible.
Man assumes that God is here to satisfy his personal desires. Unfortunately, this
is not so. God is not a servant of man—man is an image and likeness of God. God is
not interested in what we want. God is interested in what He wants. In Metapsychiatry,
we meditate for God. Does God need our meditation? Yes. God created man to manifest
His qualities in the world. Meditation is a way of recommitting oneself to that task.
Everything in the universe has a built-in intentionality. Flowers and trees seem
to have the intention to manifest the glory of their essential nature to the fullest
extent. This intentionality can be discerned in everything in God’s universe.
In meditation we focus our attention on the will of God so that we might come
into ever more perfect alignment with the built-in intentionality of the creative
Principle — God. Thus we are learning to be here for God and not

• for ourselves, or for someone else. Anyone who understands this cannot possibly
ask anymore how to meditate. God has created us for himself that we may show forth
His glory, and we are here for that purpose.
The human race seems to be cursed with an ability to be distracted and to ignore
the will of God. This ability is called self-confirmatory ideation. Meditation is
not an activity — it is an action of the soul. The Virgin Mary said: "My soul doth
magnify the Lord" (Luke 1:46). The soul is responsive to the intentionality of creation.
When we have learned to be what God has meant us • to be, then our lives are most
harmonious, efficient, effortless, and effective.
The Bible describes the effects of meditation the following way: "Prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley
shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall
be made straight, and the rough places plain" (Isaiah 40:4,5). This means that meditation
opens our awareness to the reality and nature of God and this, in turn, has its beneficial
consequences: the barreness of ignorant life gives way to fruitfulness; the mountains
of self-aggrandizement are brought down; the valleys of self-depreciation are elevated
to

levels of health, the crooked mentalities become honest and forthright, and abrasive
personalities become frictionless. If we learn to be here for God, then our mode
of being-in-the-world becomes harmonious, egoless, frictionless and fruitful.
In meditation we become conscious of the fact that our being is an aspect of
infinite Being. We gain a broad perspective on Reality and our participation in this
Reality. The universal tendency of unenlightened man is to slide into ever narrower
perspectives. There is a tendency to become narrow-minded and to suffer the consequences.
For instance, a young mother who was scheduled to address a PTA meeting, developed
a sore throat and became hoarse. In examining the symptom, we discovered that she
imagined that she would bring her throat to that meeting and her throat would have
to deliver her speech. In other words, her mental horizon had narrowed down to an
organ of her body. When she considered the fact that the members of the PTA expected
to meet the totality of her being —which is an expression of God’s being — her throat
cleared up.
In connection with the issue of narrow-mindedness, there is a story about a young
medical student who came home for vacation and paid a

visit to the local family doctor. When the doctor asked him about his studies, the
medical student said proudly: "I am not going to be a general practitioner, but a
specialist. I have decided to specialize in diseases of the nose." The old doctor
remained quiet for a while; then he asked with great sincerity, ‘And which nostril?"
IMAGINATION AND VISUALIZATION
There is much controversy about the role of imagination,’ visualization and fantasy
in connection with meditation. There is a widespread belief that the creative process,
and even healing work, entails the application of these faculties of the human mind.
In the Bible there seems to be no indication that God engages in imaginations, fantasies
or visualizations. It appears that God creates by proclamation. "Let there be light"
(Genesis 1:3). "Let there be a firmament" (Genesis 1:6). God cannot possibly use
imagination because God is not a creator of forms. God creates nondimensional realities.
Now the question is: Who creates forms? Forms are not created. They are phenomena,
or appearances. They are thoughts in visible form. Imaginations and fantasies are
activities of an illusory mind engaged in creating forms. The

counterfeit mind is engaged in producing a counterfeit reality. The Bible says that
God has created us in His own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). To ‘understand this
intriguing statement, we must ask, What is the image of nondimensional Being and
what is His likeness? What does God look like? And what do we look like in the eyes
of God? God creates Living Souls. What is the shape of a Living Soul? A Living Soul
is never born and never dies and is "hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).
Lately, there is a growing tendency by some doctors and so-called holistic healers
to recommend the use of imagination, fantasy and so-called visualization techniques
in the treatment of diseases and pursuits of ambitions. The idea is that whatever
one wants and visualizes will happen. It is a way of telling God what we want and
He will give it to us. "Ask, and it shall be given you" (Matt. 7:7, Luke 11:9), especially
if you ask it in Jesus’ name. The amazing thing is that this occasionally seems to
work. What happens when a sickness is healed on the basis of imagination? The answer
is, we have a case of imaginary health. In what way is imaginary health different
from real health?
In order to understand this we must first consider the nature of imagination and fantasy.

To. imagine something means to give form to an idea which is formless. Forms are
dimensional. With the help of imagination, we are moving into the world of dimensionality
which consists of one, two, or three-dimensional objects. A famous Zen koan says:
"Form is formlessness and formlessness is form," which indicates that in the phenomenal
world there is constant
• • interplay between various dimensional appearances.
One of the most famous literary figures, Dr. Faustus, is described by Goethe
as a brilliant scholar who kept visualizing himself as the most outstanding and powerful
scientist in the world. One day a personage appeared before him who offered him the
fulfillment of his fantasies for a price. Namely, the loss of his soul. "What shall
it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark
8:36). We can get anything we want for the price of our soul. We lose our sense of
spiritual identity and become power-mad. Psychiatrists have known for a long time
that insanity is a belief in the power and reality of personal fantasies and imaginations.
When fantasy is perceived as reality, we are insane.
Reality is spiritual, therefore it is neither form nor formlessness — it is nondimensional,
If we

resort to visualizations, imaginations and fantasies as prayer and worshiping, we
are unwittingly inviting the devil (personal mind) to sign a contract with him. The
second commandment warns us against image-making. Notwithstanding, the human race
cherishes the faculty of imagination. Children are encouraged to use their imaginations,
we speak of creative imagination, etc. Real artistic creativity, however, is based
on inspired ideas reaching the artist’s consciousness from the divine Mind.
But when imagination and visualization become a religious ritual, we are in trouble,
because then we are entering an illusory world of our own creating. Whatever we can
imagine remains purely imaginary, even if it seems to be a healing. In contradistinction
to imaginary healings where we gain the world and lose our soul, real healing happens
when we find our soul and lose the world.
FINDING OUR SOUL
What do we mean by finding our soul and losing the world? The Bible says, "Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). Real healing then

consists of finding the soul. How do we find our soul? What happens when we are beginning
to see that we are Living Souls? How can we understand the fact that by finding our
souls we can be healed of whatever ails us? This question is answered by the tenth
principle of Metapsychiatry, which says: "The understanding of what really is, abolishes
all that seems to be."
The great question remains, How can we become aware of ourselves as Living Souls?
The soul cannot be imagined. We cannot draw a picture of it. We cannot visualize
it because it is nondimensional. The nondimensional can, however, be "beheld." What
is beholding? Beholding is seeing with our faculty of spiritual discernment or the
inner eye or, as the Oriental sages speak of it, with the third eye. This faculty
can be awakened in us by learning to "look not upon the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal (unreal);
but the things that are not seen are eternal (real)" (2 Corinthians 4:18). •
THE LIVING SOUL
In Metapsychiatry, "soul" is a word used to describe a nondimensional entity which is alive,

which was never born, and which never dies. It is synonymous with the Christ. It
is a quality of consciousness attained through the process of studying and • meditating
on ultimate issues. When we realize that we are Living Souls, we have beheld ourselves
in the context of God. The Buddhists speak about the Buddha nature. Both these concepts
point to the Christ consciousness.
The aim of Zen training is to realize one’s own Buddha nature. The aim of metapsychiatric
study is to realize oneself as a Living Soul which was never born and never dies,
which is "hid with Christ in God," and which is the source of everything real and
good and beautiful. All the qualities and ideas flow from God into this individual
Living Soul, which we all are. When we say that everything and everyone is here for
God, we mean that we are Living Souls at different levels of realization. When Buddhists
speak of the "unborn," it is the same thing as the Living Soul, the ultimate nondimensional
entity which is the true identity for everyone.
This reminds us of the Zen master who asks:
"Show me your face which you had before your parents were born." This koan liberates
us from the fantasies of our parents. We have often spoken about the fact that we
are unconsciously living out the fantasies of our parents. Now, the

koan says we have to realize our true identities, which are completely antecedent
to any parental fantasies about us. In order to really be aware of one’s true identity,
one has to be free from parental and educational influences. In working with this
koan, one can reach a point of total freedom from other people’s thoughts. Buddha
said that we are what we think, having become what we have thought (and we must add,
under the influence of others). Therefore, we seek liberation by becoming aware of
ourselves as God has created us. This process of liberation is the freedom to be
what God wants us to be. Our spiritual selfhood is "hid with Christ in God." It is
hidden from ourselves and from the world because few suspect it. Few can really understand
it. It is a mysterious sense of identity beyond the comprehension of unenlightened
man. It cannot be apprehended by the senses, but we can come to know it through the
spiritual faculty of beholding. The beholder beholds his own true identity, which
is devoid of all human influences. This is complete authenticity of being.
VISUALIZATION VERSUS REALIZATION
It is not advisable to attempt to visualize a Living Soul. If we are eager to form images in

our consciousness, it means we are descending into the dimensional world, and we
don’t really understand ourselves as Living Souls. We just imagine things. Whatever
we can imagine will be purely imaginary. We will not be aware of Reality but only
of fantasies. It is to escape from fantasies that we have to realize nondimensional
Reality. The Living Soul is pure wisdom and love and individualized spiritual life.
It cannot be visualized, and we cannot draw a picture of it. If we try, we lose it.
We cannot even think about it. We have to be aware of ourselves as nondimensional
units of awareness. God is infinite Mind. Infinity has no dimensions. We cannot measure
infinity; it is nondimensional, and everything in the context of infinite Mind is
also nondimensional. The human mind cannot conceive of anything nondimensional. The
human mind is an illusion anyway. God is the Mind which makes it possible to be aware
of Reality. Whatever can be imagined cannot be real. It is easy to kid ourselves
that we are in touch with Reality when trying to visualize it.
When we speak of material man, we speak of the phenomenal world. In this world,
everything is an illusion. Even seeing man as a dimensional form is illusion. When
we ask, What sees man? we can only say, the so-called carnal mind sees dimensional
reality. Dimensional reality could

be thought of as a dream or a shadow. In order to be liberated from the problems
of the phenomenal world, we have to reach a realization of nondimensional Reality,
which is unimaginable, but discernible spiritually.
THE FIRMAMENT
In the Bible, God said: "Let there be a firmament, and let us divide the waters
which are below the firmament from the waters which are above the firmament" (Genesis
1:6-7). Metapsychiatry interprets this as saying: The waters below the firmament
are the "sea of mental garbage" in which unenlightened man lives and struggles, appears
to be born, gets sick and dies. This is what seems to be going on below the firmament.
The firmament itself we understand to be the faculty of awareness, which we call
spiritual discernment. This faculty makes it possible to be aware of the difference
between the phenomenal world and noumenal Reality. Above the firmament is the infinite
"ocean of Love-Intelligence." The firmament is the dividing line which is not structural,
but a faculty of awareness. Until this faculty is awakened in us, we don’t know spiritual
Reality. All we know is the "sea of mental garbage." When we start studying Metapsychiatry,
we discover that there

are other dimensions to life, and then we gradually awake to the faculty of awareness,
spiritual discernment. The word "discernment" refers to a capacity to separate Reality
from unreality. It is like separating the tares from the wheat, as Jesus describes
in his parable (Matthew 13:24-30). When a farmer’s workers discovered tares in the
field of wheat, they came to him and asked, "What shall we do? The whole field is
infested with this poisonous weed and everything is lost." The farmer said, "Wait
until harvest time. When the wheat becomes ripe, then you will be able to discern
the difference between the tares and the wheat and you will separate the two." When
we reach the harvest time of our spiritual development, then the faculty of discernment
emerges in consciousness, and we have the ability to separate Reality from unreality.
The spiritual and the material can now be clearly seen, and that constitutes the
emergence of the firmament. From here on, we are working and praying and meditating
in the direction of rising ever higher, to the point of beholding.
BEHOLDING
Beyond the firmament is the faculty of beholding. This beholding is the capacity to see

spiritual Reality. At this point we may discover that we are Living Souls, incorporeal,
nondimensional spiritual identities, living in the context of infinite Mind. We are
not dealing any more with images but with realizations of our individual places in
that Reality. Interestingly enough, at that point our lives begin to improve in every
direction. We are harvesting the blessings of expanded awareness, of spiritual consciousness.
Our understanding of ourselves as Living Souls becomes evident in healings in our
bodies, in our so-called temperament, and in our relationships to the world. Experiences
become more harmonious. We find ourselves responding to daily challenges in more
intelligent and effective ways. There is less strain in living, increasing effectiveness,
and new blessings.
The material world is seen as the shadow of Reality, a shadow of true substance.
In proportion that we are aware of the perfection of life in the nondimensional realm,
the shadow images cease to torment us; they disappear because there is nothing to
feed them. A Living Soul is unhampered by inanities, the fantasies, the wants and
not-wants of the world; therefore, Love-Intelligence can freely express itself in
life. As a result, things are less complicated; there is less stress. Whatever is
needed is

responded to effortlessly, efficiently and effectively.
TRANSITIONAL STRUGGLE
Before the harvest time there is often a period of war between the spirit and
the flesh. It is a conflict of interests. If there is conflict within us, it means
that we have not yet reached a wholehearted interest in the spiritual life. We are
just straddling the firmament, so to speak. That is where the flesh wars against
the spirit. The soul does not enter into issues below the firmament. The firmament,
being the dividing line between the "sea of mental garbage" and the "ocean of Love-Intelligence,"
is aware of both so-called worlds. The firmament is awareness. The firmament knows
whether we live under the firmament or whether we sincerely seek to rise above it.
Most of the struggle consists in turning away from ego-gratification. Ego-gratification
is what drives the unenlightened world. Everything that is accomplished by unenlightened
man is accomplished in quest of ego-gratification. Enlightened man is an instrument
of omniactive Love-Intelligence, the creative Principle of the universe.

THINKING AND AWARENESS
Question: If I am seeing a flower, am I aware of the flower or am I just thinking
about seeing a flower? What is the difference between thinking and awareness?
In response to this question, two examples come to mind. The first one is about
a British military man who went to India to study with a guru. After several years
of intensive work in meditation, he had a very strange experience which he described
in a book entitled On Having No Head, by D. E. Harding. In this book the author relates
that one day, while walking on a crowded street in Bombay, he suddenly had a surprising
realization that he did not have a head. Strangely enough, this did not frighten
him. On the contrary, it gave him a great sense of peace, assurance, and freedom.
With this realization came a heightened sense of awareness of his surroundings, an
ability to appreciate beauty, goodness, and truth, and to respond to all things intelligently
and with compassion.
The second example is that of a mother who came to consult a psychiatrist upon
recommendation of school authorities, who were unable to cope with her two children.
These children

were bright and knowledgeable but out of control, hyperactive, argumentative, contentious,
and disruptive in the classroom. They had a seemingly irresistible urge to prove
that they were smarter than their teachers, yet their tests were mostly unsatisfactory.
In exploring the mother’s mode of being-in-the-world, it became clear that the
mother entertained a secret belief that all intelligence comes from the head and
that she was a proud possessor of a particularly good head. She was in the habit
of encouraging her children to "use their heads" to figure things out for themselves,
to think a lot and to be very smart.
So here we have a man who goes to India and becomes liberated by "losing his
head," and on the other side we see a woman who cherishes her head and produces two
sick children. What conclusions can we draw from these two examples? It would seem
that awareness is health-promoting and thinking is illness-producing. The question
may be asked, What makes thinking illness-producing? First of all, we can clearly
see that thinking is self-confirmatory. The thinker is inclined to take credit for
his thoughts and be either proud of them or ashamed of them.

THE BUDDHA VERSUS THE THINKER
One of the fundamental insights of Meta- psychiatry is that self-confirmatory
ideation is a common denominator in all human problems. It is a remarkable fact that
the sculptor Rodin conceived his famous statue "The Thinker" as the centerpiece of
his great work, "The Gate of Hell." Apparently, he was inspired by the same insight
as Metapsychiatry about the invalidity and futility of the illusion that man can
produce thoughts in his head. Elsewhere we have drawn a comparison between Rodin’s
"The Thinker" and statues of the Buddha. "The Thinker" depicts a tormented human
figure, and the Buddha is a serenely majestic model of infinite awareness and compassion.
Man is tormented by the illusion that he can produce thoughts in his head. Enlightened
man has discovered that he is aware of thoughts which obtain in consciousness. Man
is an • individualized unit of awareness. The question is, Can awareness be done?
No. Then who is it that is aware? And where is awareness located? What is the organ
of awareness? The Zen masters say, "Awareness is aware. The thinker

and the thought are one. The dreamer and the dream are one."
The Bible speaks of the soul. Man is a Living Soul. We are hid with Christ in
God. It is the soul which has the faculty of spiritual awareness and discernment.
Man is a spiritual being. He is an individualized aspect of infinite divine Mind,
the creative intelligence underlying all nondimensional reality.
So now we are faced with a surprising paradox: to have a "good head on your shoulders"
is insanity, and to have no head at all is glorious liberty. Unenlightened man longs
to have personal mind-power with which to control others and secure his own position
in life. Enlightened man sees himself as an emanation of divine Mind reflecting the
Christ, the "Buddha nature," the qualities of God. Metapsychiatry speaks of man as
a nondimensional unit of awareness. The center of all power, perception, comprehension,
creative intelligence, is the divine Mind in which we "live and move and have our
being" (Acts 17:28).
A famous Zen koan says, "Enlightened man sees with his ears and hears with his
eyes." This koan apparently aims at shaking the foundation of the belief in what
seems so self-evident to the senses.

THE TWO SHALL BE ONE
In the Gospel according to Thomas, Jesus is quoted as saying: "The Kingdom of
God shall come when the inside will be outside and the outside inside, and the two
shall be one, and the male with the female, neither male nor female." In the context
of our present consideration, we may understand him as saying: "Enlightenment reveals
that the outside world of visible forms is an externalization of internal thoughts
which are formless. Therefore, ‘form is formlessness and formlessness is form.’"
The two are actually one. The male sex and the female sex are externalized forms
of male and female qualities which are formless. Gender is externalized as sex. Sex
is form, gender is quality. Enlightened man is neither’ male nor female. He is one
Living Soul, a nondimensional unit of awareness endowed with all the qualities of
God.
THREE LEVELS OF MEDITATION
There are several levels of meditation. There is contemplative meditation, where
we are seeking clarity on a certain biblical passage or on a principle. We take a
principle and seek to understand it, we contemplate the meaning of

the words and the relevancy of that principle to our life experience. Meditation
on being here for God could be called existential meditation. One seeks to realize
being here for God and so improve one’s mode of being-in-the world. Then the highest
form of meditation could be called spiritual meditation. Here we are seeking to realize
the Living Soul, which was never born and never dies and is hid with Christ in God.
To realize the Living Soul is the highest form of meditation because it is synonymous
with enlightenment. The essence of all spiritual study and growth is the abolishing
of the illusion of existence apart from God. Now when it comes to this highest form
of meditation, it cannot be practiced until one has reached a readiness for it. We
have to always start at the beginning. So we begin by contemplative meditation of
biblical passages, metapsychiatric principles and teachings. We contemplate their
relevancy to our daily life and experiences. From there we go to the existential
meditation, where our mode of being is the issue. We learn to be here for God. This
is the place where
• healing takes place — physical, emotional,
• economic, and social. After we have learned to be here for God, we progress
naturally into spiritual meditation where the aim is no longer healing, but enlightenment.

We move from verbal prayer to contemplative meditation, to nonverbal awareness of
inspired ideas continuously flowing into consciousness from an infinite source. The
ideas which flow into such a receptive consciousness are always relevant to the need
of the moment even though they may seem "far out." God’s ideas seem to us far out
— meaning strangely irrelevant — and yet they are supremely relevant.
THE BIBLE AND MEDITATION
Is there instruction in the Bible as to meditation? Some may think of meditation
as non- Christian because the Old and New Testaments say relatively little about
it. The Buddhists and Taoists speak of it a great deal. But there are references
in the Bible to meditation. "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). "Blessed
is the man. . . that delighteth in the law of the Lord; and in his law does he meditate
day and night" (Psalm 1:1,2). "I will meditate in • thy statutes" (Psalm 119:48).
"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in they
sight, 0 Lord, my strength, and my redeemer" (Psalm 19:14). "My mouth shall speak
of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding" (Psalm 49:3).
"My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I

will be glad in the Lord" (Psalm 104:34). "0 how love I thy law! It is my meditation
all the day" (Psalm 119:97). "Thy testimonies are my meditation" (Psalm 119:99).
In meditation we become very still. Even our thought processes stop. In that
stillness we become aware that God is the only source of life, intelligence, love,
power, and healing. So meditation is learning to be still in order to realize God
is the only "I am." God is the only Ego.
THE PRAYER OF RIGHT SEEING
There is a way of increasing our receptivity to divine impartations and in Metapsychiatry
it is called meditating on "right seeing," which is included in the "seven steps
of seeing" (see Discourse entitled "Forgiveness.") On the seventh level is beholding.
How do we get to that level? A good way is to meditate daily to understand that everything
and everyone in the entire universe is here for God, whether they know it or not.
That includes ourselves, of course. We will find that the more we contemplate this
reality, the more we see things in the context of infinity. That is of great value,
because our ideas depend on the perspective

with which we view life. Intelligent ideas come to us when our perspective is on
infinity. Practicing the prayer of right seeing will increase our capacity to behold
all things in the context of infinite Mind.
PRAYER AS A MENTAL HEALTH PRINCIPLE
In meditation we can rise above fantasies and the pollutants of daily impressions.
At night we purify our consciousness from the pollutants of the day, and in the morning
we clean our consciousness from the pollutants of the night. We do this by turning
our attention to spiritual values. We become aware of what is valid and what is not
valid and we are separating ourselves from it. The garbage thoughts are not our thoughts.
They are just garbage. If there is dust in our living room, it is not our dust. It
is just dust. We clean it up, but if we become possessive of our dust, we may accumulate
a lot of it. It is not possible to empty our minds because it would take an ego to
get rid of the ego. The content of our mind actually constitutes the ego. If we wanted
to empty our minds, we would have to resort to a second ego to get rid of the first
ego, but then we would still have an ego. So all meditations which endeavor to achieve

emptiness through sheer will, or through some kind of technique of breathing or counting,
etc., do not really succeed. Fortunately, there are aspects of Reality which are
unimaginable —for instance spiritual values. We cannot form images of spiritual values,
ideas and qualities. We value highly Love-Intelligence as a synonym for God. Nobody
can form an image in his mind of Love-Intelligence. Therefore, by focusing our attention
on Love-Intelligence as an existential manifestation, we find that all imagery disappears
from consciousness. That way we attain a certain emptiness. The Zen Buddhists speak
of "emptiness," which means being free of calculative thoughts, fantasies, concepts,
and reaching a state of peaceful consciousness.
There is a story about a student of Zen, who in the course of meditation reached
a point where she spontaneously exclaimed, "The bottom of the bucket has broken through!"
We understand this to mean that this individual had suddenly become aware of the
fact that all mental content had left her and that she had become completely available
to inspired wisdom reaching her from the cosmic Mind. If we have a bucket and if
we knock out the bottom, what will we get? We get a funnel. A funnel is something
that lets everything through and

doesn’t hold on to anything. We cannot accumulate knowledge, information, fantasies,
or imaginings in a funnel. So unenlightened man’s consciousness could be compared
to a bucket which is constantly being replenished, kept full of images, concepts
and preconceived ideas. Enlightened man lets go of these things and as a result,
he becomes an open funnel or a channel through which inspired wisdom — Love-Intelligence
— freely flows. Such an individual is spontaneously wise, loving and responsive and
always capable of dealing with life in an appropriate fashion.
THE PRAYER OF BEHOLDING
Beholding is the highest level of awareness. It is God’s presence clearly discerned.
It is not something we "do." It is something we develop a capability for. It is happening
to us by the grace of God. First, there is the faculty of focusing attention. We
have this God-given faculty. This may be the essence of what the Bible describes
as "dominion." "And God gave man dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:26). We have dominion

over God’s creations, and we can focus our attention from one thing to another and
also on divine Reality. When our spiritual faculties have expanded to an optimum
level, beholding takes place. It is a participation in God’s perfect creation. A
conscious awareness of God’s perfection erases all imperfections. It reveals itself
to us as a healing. When Jesus healed a leper, he may have beheld the purity of God’s
perfect creation. He was able to see this leper in the light of truth. This resulted
in healing. The leper could see himself through the eyes of Jesus.
There is another point here. If our intention is to heal someone, then we assume
an operational position. We may want to heal another person. But we cannot heal.
Only God heals. God is truth. However, beholding an individual in the context of
the truth can have an effect of spiritual blessedness. What does it mean to behold
someone in the context of truth? It is helpful to remember that everyone is a place
where God’s presence reveals itself as omniactive Love-Intelligence. Everything in
this universe is here for the purpose of manifesting the qualities of God. If we
behold others as places where God expresses His own nature, then we lose sight of
the human person — of personality quirks, distortions of character, or

worried individuals. All we see are the qualities of God manifesting themselves in
a certain individual. The primary issue is not to produce a healing, but a willingness
to behold the presence of God right where a worried or frightened or sick individual
seems to be.
We must be careful not to be self-righteous about meditative practice. We must
not turn it into an ego trip. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
The word "fear" is a semantic oddity in the Bible. It means reverent mindfulness
of God’s infinite power and presence and total control over His creation. This is
the beginning of right practice.
We have the illusion that we make the decision to meditate. This is not true.
We are drawn toward meditation, drawn to God. Sometimes we are driven by suffering,
but always the Christ is drawing us. We are drawn to Christhood, towards God, towards
enlightenment. "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me" (John
12:32).

MEDITATION ON THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
1. I cherish the knowledge of God as omniactive Love-Intelligence.
Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.
2. Heavenly harmony is available here and now to the "should-less."
Give us this day our daily bread.
3. The good of God is realized daily as inspired wisdom — peace, assurance, gratitude
and love (PAGL).
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
4. I abandon the error of interaction thinking.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
5. God-consciousness is immune to seduction, provocation and intimidation.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. alternative to self-confirmatory
6. God-centered living is the only ideation.
THE FOUR W’S —A MEDITATION ON OUR IDENTITY WHO AM I?
I am an image and likeness of God, a manifestation of Love-Intelligence.
WHAT AM I?
I am a divine consciousness.
WHERE AM I?
I live and move and have my being in omniactive divine Mind.
WHAT IS MY PURPOSE?
My purpose is to be a beneficial presence in the world.

THE PRAYER OF GLOWING
"Now is the accepted time . . Now the Eye. of my eyes is open Now the Ear of
my ears hears Now the Mind of my mind knows Now the Love of my love glows. "I and
my Father are one ...
TWO MEDITATIONS
Man is but a tear drop
Falling from the sky.
Time is but a moment;
Darkness lives to die.
Man is not a tear drop
Falling from above.
Joy is man,
And Love.
\
Living is strain Living is strain
Dying is pain Dying is pain
Be still desire Be still desire
Do not complain. Do not complain.
Suffering pleasure? — — — —
Enjoying pain? All suffering is vain.
Life’s fading treasure Beyond the "I"
All seems in vain. There is no one to pair
And no one to die.
Not to resist
Neither give in
These are the source
Of suffering within.
Painless hurt
Joy ‘stead of pleasure
Letting be
Is freedom’s measure.
Serenely in Life
But guiding it not
Having desires
Yet desiring them not.
•Loving existence
Yet clutching it not
Expecting death
Yet fearing it not.

THE BEATITUDES
Jesus gave the world a set of principles to live by and to reach enlightened awareness.
They are called the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes have great existential relevancy.
Their meaning goes beyond words. Their aim is to transform our modes of being-in-the
world. Taken literally, they may appear as simple statements but when their deeper
meaning is understood, each one is found to be the "pearl of great price."
For example, in the Beatitude, "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted"
(Matt. 5:4), Jesus was not referring to the passing comfort offered by well-meaning
relatives and friends to one who has lost a loved one, for this comfort has no transforming
effect. He was pointing to the lasting, existentially relevant comfort derived from
divine Love. In all his teachings he was leading the human mind to transcend itself
and reach a higher understanding of life in God
It is the aim of these Commentaries to bring out the higher spiritual meaning
of Scripture, as seen from the perspective of Metapsychiatry.


BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN
Mourning is a very painful condition of grief and depression over the loss of someone
or something we have cherished. How then could Jesus talk of mourning as a blessing?
To answer this question we have to discern the meaning of the experience of mourning.

When we understand the meaning of our grief as an attachment to either a person,
place, thing, or cherished notion, it is revealed to us that it is this tendency
to form attachments that places us in a precarious and vulnerable position.
In Metapsychiatry we learn that attachments are troublesome, and if we wish
to be free of suffering, we must be very careful about what we cherish and what we
attach ourselves to. We must learn to avoid forming attachments to anything except
the good of God, which is spiritual. Spiritual values cannot be lost; no one can
deprive us of spiritual treasures. The Bible calls them "treasures in heaven."
Once we understand that we cannot afford to be attached to anything but spiritual
good, our mode of being-in-the-world is transformed and our grief is healed. And
that is the blessing implied in this Beatitude.


There is a passage in the Bible where Jesus speaks of the desirability of leaving
behind mother, father, sister, houses and other possessions. At one point he told
a rich young man to sell all he had and give everything to the poor if he wished
to follow him. Here again, we need to discern the deeper meaning of Jesus' words.
He was not recommending the rejection of families, he was pointing out the danger
of being attached to them. We still love our families and appreciate our homes,
but we learn not to be attached to them. Actually, attachment is not love. When
we are attached to someone, we do not really love that individual; we see ourselves
as dependent on him or her. There is a great difference between attachment and love.
Love is nonconditional, nonpersonal benevolence, which is liberating. Attachment,
on the other hand, is enslavement. It is rigidly personal and fraught with anxiety,
insecurity and compulsiveness. It immobilizes us and this inevitably leads to irritability
and resentfulness. Can you imagine two people shackled together with a chain and
having to go through life in this condition? Wouldn't they soon become irritated
with each other? Therefore, attachments are troublesome and they are not love.

And so we can see the existential lesson in


the deeper understanding of Jesus? words, always leading us away from the narrow,
limiting personal perspective on life- toward the liberating context of infinite
Mind.
POOR IN SPIRIT
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt.
5:3). Poor in spirit means being aware of a need for more spiritual understanding.
This awareness is a prerequisite to becoming a sincere seeker of the Truth. This
is the basic motivation which brings us into Metapsychiatry and assures progress
on our journey heavenward. Here again, Jesus' aim was transformation of our modes
of being-in- the- world through development of a capacity for spiritual discernment.

BLESSED ARE YOU IF THEY REVILE YOU
Jesus said: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you,
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely" (Matt. 5:11). This is another
strange and puzzling statement. One is reminded of the Zen master's way of dealing
with persecution, injustice, slander and malicious gossip. In one Zen story that
comes


to mind, the master, when confronted with slanderous remarks about himself,
replied, "Quatz," which could be taken to mean "Baloney." Another story tells of
a Zen master who was being publicly ostracized for allegedly having fathered an illegitimate
child. All he said was, "Is that so?" In other words, neither of them had a per-sonal
reaction to the accusations.
In Metapsychiatry we are learning not to condemn people who are accusing or
assaulting us. We learn to be compassionate, but above all, we learn to understand
that the attacker is not a person but ignorance. Therefore, we remain nondefensive
and undisturbed. The adversary, the accuser, the slanderer, is always personal,
always starting out by saying "you" or "he," etc. We are learning not to be defensive,
not to get embroiled in a controversy but to remain nonpersonal in the face of personal
attack. That, too, is an existential lesson and a blessing.
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL
"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy" (Matt. 5:7). Let
us try to understand the deeper spiritual meaning of this Beatitude. Mercy is an
aspect of divine Love, therefore


existentially valid; whereas carrying a grudge against people who treat us unfairly
or malign us is an interactive thought, invalid and harmful.
In the human condition, before enlightenment is attained, everyone manifests
a mixture of valid and invalid thoughts. These may be compared to the tares and
the wheat in the well-known parable of Jesus (Matt. 13:24-30). This parable describes
some farm workers who discovered that tares (poisonous weeds closely re-sembling
wheat) had infested a field of wheat. The workers were concerned that the entire
crop of wheat would be destroyed and alerted the owner. But he remained undisturbed
and told them to wait until harvest time when it would be easier to distinguish the
wheat from the tares and separate them.
This parable refers to the human condition, as mentioned above, where good
and bad qualities, good and bad motivations, are included in all individuals and
considered normal. The harvest represents maturity.
When we study Metapsychiatry we are engaged in a process of spiritual growth
with the goal of attaining spiritual maturity. On this journey the "tares" of human
personality, the evil thoughts and motivations, are discerned and exchanged for the
pure, enlightened manifestations of divine Love- Intelligence. This process


describes the movement from sense existence to soul existence, from unenlightened
human personality to enlightened spiritual being. We discover that in Reality we
are individualized aspects of divine consciousness in which no evil exists. All
is good, all is love, all is intelligence, because God is Love-Intelligence, infinite
mercy.
The parable of the tares and the wheat is very helpful if we are interested in learning to
forgive effectively and permanently. It is quite impossible to forgive anyone as
long as we are in the habit of seeing culpable persons instead of ignorance; therefore
it is important to learn to separate the offense from the offending individual.
The forgiver is even more blessed than the forgiven one because carrying a grudge
is an emotional burden that can have crippling effects if not corrected. There are
many people who carry a lifelong resentment without even being aware of it, because
they have repressed it. This may then lead to problems of a physical nature. When
we are experiencing certain difficulties, we can try to understand them as the tares
in our lives. The realization that they are no part of our true being, which is
pure spiritual consciousness, can result in their spontaneous healing.
It is a great mercy to be relieved of the tendency toward interaction thinking.


BLESSED ARE THE MEEK
The Beatitude "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth" (Matt.
5:5), translated into metapsychiatric language, says: "Blessed are the shouldless
for their lives will be fussless."
Fussless means that our affairs will be free from hardships, conflicts and frictions,
if we learn shouldlessness. The word "should" is a tyrannical one and implies an
endeavor to exercise personal control and influence over others and over situations.
We need to realize that God is harmony, God is love, God is intelligence, God is
vitality, and God gives us a sense of humor. "Should" thinkers are humorless, since
tyranny makes for seriousness.
God is the harmonizing principle of the universe, and when we are in proper
alignment with this principle, our responses to the exigencies of daily living are
such that all our endeavors become effortless, efficient and effective There is spiritual
blessedness.
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall


be called the children of God" (Matt. 5:9). What is a peacemaker? A peacemaker
is a beneficial presence in the world. He does not attempt to make peace on the
basis of interaction, but brings to light the fact that all interaction is illusion.
He does not interact with the warring parties but sheds light on the fact that Omniaction
is the only power. Omniaction enters into a situation when attention is turned toward
issues rather than personalities. The essence of all conflicts is interaction and
personalism.
When personalism and interaction are abandoned and attention is turned toward
issues, omniactive Love-Intelligence takes control of the situation and healings
occur.
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HUNGER
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled"
(Matt. 5:6). The principles of Metapsychiatry parallel the Beatitudes, and we understand
this Beatitude to mean that those who have a sincere desire and an overriding interest
in understanding the Truth will come to understand it.
If we are sincerely interested, we seek and find, we ask and we receive, we
knock and it is opened to us. We become seekers of the Truth


either through suffering or through wisdom. Jesus was teaching people how
to reach the intelligent and abundant life and what qualities are requisite in attaining
this goal.
BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART
The Beatitude "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matt.
5:8), points to the importance of right motivation. The heart is the symbolic center
of motivation. The first principle of Metapsychiatry states: "Thou shalt have no
other interests before the good of God, which is spiritual." This refers to purity
of motive. If our motivation is to understand God because we cherish spiritual values
above all else, we shall find fulfillment.
THE THREE TEMPTATIONS
We have come to understand through the teachings of Jesus, as well as the
great prophets and spiritual masters of the East, that the personal mind is an illusion
and its power illusory. And since it is an illusion and has no real power, we seek
liberation from it.
Unenlightened people are greatly impressed by this illusory power because they believe the


personal mind can produce marvels through the feats of astrologers, psychics,
psychic healers, tea leaf readers, telepathic media, etc. This, of course, is nothing
new. In biblical times these were called " necromancers," magicians, and wizards
who "mutter and peep," and were understood even then as possessing no power and were
discredited by the true prophets. Efforts at improving personal mind are moving
in the wrong direction, namely, into the world of phenomena.
The personal mind, with its illusory power, is a symbolic counterfeit of the
real Mind. Most everything in the phenomenal world, which in Metapsychiatry we call
the "sea of mental garbage," is a symbolic counterfeit of Reality. The devil, i.e.,
the personal mind, tries to seduce us by whispering: "You don't need God, I can give
you all the power God has, and you don't have to struggle to attain it; I can make
it very easy."
The three temptations of Jesus, described in the Bible, are very instructive
and important to understand. It is interesting to note what the devil was offering
to Jesus and at what particular time. Jesus had just spent forty days in the desert
fasting and meditating, and was very close to God and full enlightenment: It was
at that point that the devil suddenly appeared to him and


said: "Look, you haven't eaten in forty days, you must be very hungry. If
you are such a great master, a favorite son of God, why don't you turn this rock
into bread and satisfy your hunger?" (See Matt. 4:3-11).
This first temptation could be called awakening the desire for self-gratification.
The devil started off by suggesting, "You have mind power. You can perform miracles.
Use it to make your-self feel good." Self-gratification is the first thing humans
tend to think about. Jesus refuted the devil's enticement by saying: "Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

In the second temptation Jesus was being enticed to entertain self-confirmatory
thoughts: "If you are the favorite son of your Father, why don't you climb up to
the pinnacle of this temple and throw yourself down to show the people that God will
send His angels to catch you so you won't get hurt." But Jesus resisted and replied:
"It is written again, Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God." The first temptation
appealed to a desire for self-gratification, the second to self-confirmatory ideation,
a wish to show off.
In the third temptation, personal sense--the devil--promised Jesus personal
mind power. He said, "Bow down to me and I will give you


power over the whole world."
In the phenomenal world, unenlightened man longs for self-gratification, self-confirmation
and personal power. It seems natural to be interested these and, in fact, they are
readily available to anyone who is willing to sell his soul to the devil. There
are numerous systems offering the marvels of personal mind power through hypnotism,
chemical substances, and the like, but all of these belong to the world of illusion.
The phenomenal world is the world of illusions, and everything in it dishonors God
because it seems to be in competition with God. Jesus rejected this offer of the
devil by replying, "It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only
shalt thou serve."
Some people may say, Why must I be committed exclusively to God? Why can't
I be a human being and a spiritual idea at the same time? The Bible has the answer
to this question. It states, "We cannot serve two masters."
THREE KINDS OF PEOPLE
There seem to be three kinds of people: animal people, human people and spiritual
beings. Animal people are mainly interested in ego gratification. The human person's
interest centers


mainly on personal mind power. Spiritual beings have risen above these interests
and are sincere seekers after the Truth and Reality.
The first two categories of people suffer from an undeveloped spiritual sense
and rely strictly on the perceptions of their physical senses for orientation in
life. They judge by appearances and therefore they are not capable of righteous
(right) judgment of what is existentially valid and what is not. The apostle Paul
calls them ?natural men.? In I Corinthians 2:14, he says: ?Natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.?
Without spiritual discernment we cannot even hope to approach an understanding
of divine Reality. As long as our interests lie in the illusory realm of ego-gratification
and personal mind power, the development of spiritual discernment may not seem a
worthwhile aim. But having suffered enough from the pursuit of invalid interests,
we may become willing and ready to give them up and seek to be governed by Love-
Intelligence. This is what Metapsychiatry is all about.
Jesus was not interested in personal mind power. He repeated frequently, ?I seek not my


own will but the will of Him who sent me.? He was primarily a teacher, and
through parables, analogies, marvelous healings and so-called miracles, he was demonstrating
divine Reality. His aim was to elevate human consciousness to the faculty of spiritual
discernment, to an ability to understand God as ever-present