| Article: The Nature of Illness |
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by Jose Stevens We are in the habit of viewing our world as physically stable and firmly anchored as if it were outside of ourselves to be seen, heard, touched, smelled, tasted, and sensed. We record this seemingly fixed world through our five official senses that we think faithfully depict an independent world happening to us. In many respects this is a rather archaic and primitive understanding of the world when seen in light of quantum physics. Yet in some of the world’s foremost religious philosophies the world is considered nothing more than a complex series of manifestations of the mind being continually projected as discernable to the fiction of the senses. From this point of view the world with all its objects and conditions is simply a projection of a universal mind. Even our own bodies with all their apparent states of health would be considered manifestations of the mind. In this way of looking at reality the false personality or ego is an influential but illusory manifestation invested in the illusion of separation. It creates illnesses and accidents that force a preoccupation with the body as a real entity with the consequent attention to curing the body with pills, operations, and treatments of all kinds. All this makes it seem like we are doing something constructive, but since the body is a projection, totally symbolic in nature, then anything done to the body is at best a temporary fix. Occasionally we realize temporary benefits from these treatments but mostly these corrections are not made at the level of the mind so the symptoms are just replaced by new symptoms and so on until the body eventually dies. In our projected dream of life our senses constantly focus on what is foreground. This tends to be the territory of the ego. Anyone who has tried meditating knows this to be true. It is rather difficult to keep from having a steady stream of thoughts while attempting to remain still and peaceful. The large majority of these thoughts and foreground sensations are itches, cramping, joint or muscle pain, worries about the future, painful memories of the past, anxieties about daily affairs and so on. A favorite trick of the false personality is to constantly distract us with foreground sensations and thoughts like illness, imbalance, and disharmony in either ourselves or others. Instantly we scan the other person to see if they are well or not. One of our favorite questions then becomes, “Are you OK?”, Meaning, “You are not OK.” Rather it would be more effective if we were to say mentally, “You are perfect”, even if our friend were to appear to our senses as not so well. Part of our distraction with foreground thoughts is to constantly be thinking up cures or ways of waylaying illness so that we will be OK. This is all a way of saying to our subconscious that we are not OK. The subconscious then faithfully projects not OK-ness onto our bodies and our lives. The trick in meditation is to focus on the background, behind all the thoughts, the silent screen upon which all of them are being projected. The world we appear to live in is a young soul (success oriented) world, that is dominated by the values of billions of people who are emotionally fixated at about nine or ten years of age. Young souls are enamored of fads just as children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of school are fixated on social fads like music preferences, slang, and ways of dressings and talking. The “in-crowd” wears certain types of shoes, fashions their hair in a particular way, listens to certain music, watches particular TV programs, likes specific sports teams and so on. In these school grades, if you want to be part of the “in-crowd” you have to keep up in all these areas. Sometimes those children that are outside the in-group form their own in-group like the nerds, the goths, and other rebellious groups. In the end it is all the same. A few go their own way and they are usually the older souls who prefer walking to the beat of their own drum. They are part of no in-group but often accepted by all. Similarly in the world at large there are also fads in the collective subconscious. These fads extend to health conditions created by the collective false personality or ego. For a time the health fad may be diabetes, cholera, polio, malaria, plague, Spanish flu, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and obesity, a reaction to another fad of thinness. All people on Earth are in the same collective soup so they all participate in these fads regardless of soul age. If you look at history you will see a parade of physical conditions that seem to come and go as methods are devised to cure them for a time before they are quickly replaced by the next wave of scary illnesses. Here is why. Since each person projects their own version of the collective, they project these health fads outwardly into the world. If I have friends that have cancer or are obese, I have projected them with these conditions. Remember that projection originates within the mind of the scriptwriter who then uses a projector to displace outwardly so that the scenario seems to be over there on the screen or on someone else. Thus if my friends have cancer or are obese, the source of that cancer or obesity is within my own mind, but I have not taken responsibility for it. I may say “You poor sucker” or “Something is terribly wrong with you” or “I’m glad it’s not me” or “You are damaged and it’s your fault” or “Ugh, that is disgusting” or whatever. Now it seems like the problem is over there, with that person, and I could not possibly have anything to do with it at all, could I? Yet at the level of the universal mind their apparent illness is a projection of my fears about illness. Because of this I might always have a secret fear that cancer lurks somewhere and it might someday show up in me. Therefore perhaps I should avoid that person who seems to have it or ward off illness with vitamins, nutrition, exercise or other preventative measures. Or perhaps I too could become fat so I judge others as fat and follow all kinds of diets to prevent becoming fat. Everything thus gets turned around and assumptions get made about who is at fault for this or that. On the other hand well meaning people who want to be of service to others who appear to be sick often become health providers. Unfortunately this approach to illness is often quite destructive even though well intentioned. Our projections follow one of the basic laws of the universe that what you give is what you get. Seeing others as sick is the same thing as giving them illness. This poorly understood law results in terrible ironies. What it means is that many caregivers are actually making their patients or loved ones sicker by continuing to see them as very ill. Diagnosing someone as ill tends to ensure that the results will be more sickness. People often get well despite their diagnosis, not because of them. On the other hand, within the context of the projected dream, a good diagnosis may prevent someone from taking the wrong medication that could kill them. So as long as people believe in sickness they better have good diagnostics operating. The corollary to this is that the more people you tend to see as sick the more likely it will be that you yourself will fall ill because what you give is what you get. This is why so many caregivers fall ill themselves. How many doctors and nurses are actually healthy people? By contrast seeing people as well is like giving them wellness and receiving wellness at the same time. So this last statement hints at the remedy to this monstrous situation in which we are all literally making each other sick by our projected fears and indentifications? The answer is preposterous and so far away from conventional rational thinking that most people, will probably dismiss it outright. Therefore illness perpetuates itself even though the solution is relatively simple, so simple in fact that it seems impossible. The remedy involves true compassion and forgiveness. Compassion calls for me to look at my friend with cancer or any other condition and mentally understand that it is part of my projection. I might become aware of the following, “There go I and I am truly sorry for perceiving and experiencing you as ill. What appears to be your illness is actually my own projection of dysfunction and separation within me, my own preoccupation with my body and its condition and your body and its condition. I have become so identified with my body that I am fearful about it’s health and project many of these fears onto others. Because of this I can no longer see you for who you truly are, 100 % Spirit perfect in every way. I will no longer be deceived by the lies that my eyes produce knowing that the eyes are capable of seeing anything they are programmed to see and not what they are programmed to be blind to. I forgive myself for this error in perception.” “I also realize that you think you are sick and therefore I will outwardly respect your concerns. If you ask for medicine I will give you medicine and I will do what I can to lessen your suffering. However inwardly I will not buy into this belief. I will hold the position that you are actually well in every way and will presently manifest your true nature of wellness. Should your body die I will accept it and understand that this was a choice and was appropriate for you on a spiritual level. From this point on I will no longer see illness because it won’t exist for me. I see only perfect beings as is their nature.” There are three important considerations regarding this approach. The first is that this reasoning sounds totally insane to conventional ears. Yet consider the insanity and hopelessness of the present situation that the world takes for granted. Will science really some day put an end to all illness? The evidence is really quite clear. As many people appear sick today as were sick centuries ago. If we are honest we will see that although conditions and symptoms change, illness is just as much part of the human experience as it ever was. Just look at all the hospital soaps on TV and the preoccupation with physical bodies in everything from murder mysteries to sex. Yes, people live longer now but unfortunately they now have longer to obsess about their health. What is more insane? Trying to fix symptoms instead of the cause or going to the source of the problem and straightening it out there. The second thing is this. The process of taking responsibility may appear cumbersome at first but with practice it becomes rapid and automatic, yet it is a discipline and is in some ways hard to do because one has to buck all conventions to keep at it. Notice that all enlightened beings and great spiritual teachers exhibited great mental discipline and have been decidedly unconventional. The more wisdom one has the less mainstream they are until they are completely misunderstood by the world at large. Perhaps no one has been less understood than Jesus whose message almost no one clearly understands. The third consideration is this. You may say that with increased pollution, food contamination, and radiation levels that sickness is an actual reaction to a toxic world and that we must guard against that. Yes, we must clean up our environment as long as we believe that the body is vulnerable and as long as we are heavily identified with our bodies. But with a shift of perspective our bodies are capable of handling almost any conditions without breaking down. Bodies are incredibly resilient, powerful, and adaptable. The main reason for taking care of our environment is to honor its beauty, not only so that we can survive. The great seventh level old soul warrior shaman don Juan Matus was known for making outrageous statements about the nature of reality. He repeatedly stated that reality is just composed of thoughts and that a man or woman of knowledge must break the retaining walls of the mind to become free, free to become much more than mere men. The way of the shaman appears lonely in this regard but ultimately connects us with what don Juan called the great mystery (Great Spirit or Tao). How can anyone be lonely connected to that? When Carlos Casteneda whined about his health or his fears don Juan would quickly point out how he was indulging in deeply limiting thoughts. Isn’t that us when we obsess about our health or pity others with illness? To become free is hard work but consider the alternative, to remain in the prison of beliefs for thousands of years. Consider then the possibility that there is no real illness anywhere and that those symptoms we experience are a result of collective beliefs spread by the false personality, errors of the mind that can be corrected. This does not mean that you should deny your symptoms or those of others. They seem very real but so does a well made scary movie. If you don’t like the movie then rewrite the script and project a new movie, a new dream without the scourge and suffering of illness. Originally posted on December 3, 2007 |
