Be not afraid of growing slowly.
Be afraid of standing still.
Chinese Proverb
Humanness is a chronic disease of separation – ongoing disconnection from others, from ourselves, and from our God. When other problems are added to our humanness -- like alcoholism, mental and physical illness, poverty, etc…, the disease of humanness becomes more and more acute and painful.
There are two basic treatments for humanness – and its subcategory illnesses. Both work effectively. One is the easier, softer way and the treatment used by upward of 95% of all human beings. The other requires conscious effort and life experience. Few people ever find it and live it.
The first and most widely used treatment for humanness is unconsciousness. It is very effective in eliminating conscious discomfort and pain. It involves using things, people, and situations as drugs of distraction to cause the loss of conscious contact with ourselves to the point that there is little to no conscious pain. The pain exists but it is anesthetized into different forms and levels of numbness – unconsciousness.
Drugs and alcohol have an addictive ability to do this for addicts and alcoholics. But drugs and alcohol are by no means the most widely used and effective anesthetizing substances.
Thought, by far, is the most effective and pervasive “agent” of unconsciousness used by human beings.
The primitive involuntary part of our brains possesses ultimate control the actual operation of our brains. It monitors and attempts to control the amount of neural energy – consciousness – we experience at any given time. It has been programmed by past stress and pain of actual and possible separation from others.
It controls by using the rational and thinking part of the brain – the cerebral cortex – to lower and control the level of conscious neural energy being experienced at any given time. It does this by inserting massive quantities of thought into the conscious stream of experience – which slows the brain’s impulses down, and suppresses its overall functioning. Thought can be a depressant or a stimulant – whichever is needed to take the overall brain, and mind away from consciousness of what is. It can be racing thoughts, memory loss, or even overwhelmed and blank thoughts.
Denial is one very effective result of thought. I have experienced that denial means “Don’t Even kNow I Am Lying.” Thought is so effective that a person can be staring at the facts and be unable to consciously see or experience what is. Unconsciousness works.
The second and rarely used treatment for humanness is consciousness. This treatment involves increasing our conscious contact with God, with ourselves, and with other human beings. Instead of thinking ourselves into an oblivion, we experience our neural perceptions and reactions initially as feelings, which can continue until they become an expansive and flowing conscious experience of ourselves with our God.
This treatment is normally avoided because it will always begin with the conscious experience of pain and fear, which the primitive brain perceives as “life threatening”. The primitive brain will attempt to avoid consciousness in any way possible – at any cost – including physical and mental illness.
Another major barrier to consciousness is that it is not the default setting on our brains, and so our brains instinctively and involuntarily return to this unconscious setting without conscious choice or intent. To remain conscious requires an ongoing process of conscious vigilant experience of ourselves and an ongoing process of conscious contact and reconnecting with the unconditionally loving Presence of our God.
Spirituality is about conscious contact with our personal God, frequently through the means of conscious contact with others. It is possible to have spiritual experiences of heightened consciousness without it becoming an enduring and continuing spiritual state of consciousness.
People can attend church, spiritual support groups, and meetings with other spiritual persons, experience a higher consciousness, and then quickly return back to their unconscious selves.
Frequently consciousness is difficult to maintain because higher spiritual contact with God also increases our conscious contact with ourselves, resulting initially and sometimes persistently in pain and emotional discomfort – a sense of separation and abandonment.
What occurs with spiritual experiences is that the constriction that the primitive brain maintains on neural energy relaxes in conscious Presence with our God. So there is a temporary relief without the numbing constrictions of thought. And then there is a heightened vulnerability to the effects of life events and relationships. So, when we are reexposed to normal life, our primitive brains have to reconstrict the energies to protect our brains from death by abandonment -- the lack of consistent conscious contact with God and others.
To become and remain spiritually conscious and less constricted --- to begin to heal and grow into health and well being -- we have to establish a consistent practice or “life” of ongoing spiritual maintenance – a steady flow of our God’s intimate Presence.
But why bother? Unconsciousness works fine! It’s just not that bad. Don’t fix it if it is not broken.
If it does not consciously hurt “bad enough”, we are hopelessly and helplessly lost within our own unconscious abyss.
If it maybe sometimes hurts “bad enough”, we can begin to develop a steady life practice of experiencing God’s Presence. Who knows?
13 Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. 14 For narrow is the gate, and narrowed the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.
Matt 7:13-14 (ASV)
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Matt 7:13-14 (ESV)
Another "WOW"!!
ReplyDeleteThe last 2 paragraphs are still confusing for me. But the part about the thought process being a numbing agent is crystal clear.