Now that we have looked at what we are and why we are here, the next phase of personal discovery is to determine what can go wrong and how. We do this is in order to narrow the search parameters in our quest for the basis of any difficulties we may be experiencing in our approach to life.
Cogo Ergo Sum translates from Latin as: I Think Therefore I Am. This fundamental tenet of logic has been used by philosophers as a priori proof of our existence within the framework of reality. This assumes that the most basic and essential aspect of existence is thought; that, even if we lost all physical sensation of our bodies, we would know that we were alive solely from the fact that we were thinking.
I believe that most people would be more likely to define the fact of their existence in terms of both their physical bodies and their mental awareness. Some might possibly even mention the spiritual aspect of existence, but fewer would recognize or acknowledge their animal or emotional selves as essential aspects of their humanity.
Cause and effect are most comfortably and acceptably seen in terms of logic and deductive reasoning that is based upon physically demonstrable evidence of the senses. This elevation of rationality to the summit of western thought has left us vulnerable in areas where feeling is the dominant theme. The mere suggestion of the possibility that some condition may have a purely emotional basis is viewed with suspicion, distaste and, perhaps even fear -- so little is our understanding of such things.
Ideas for which no concrete proof exists or which seem to run counter to accepted reasoning are often completely disregarded by the average person. Many display confusion, anxiety, agitation, and irritation when faced with matters involving intangible influences. The result is a certain predisposition toward acceptance of only comfortable explanations and solutions.
With regard to the emotional difficulties with which a huge and growing portion of the population are finding themselves beset, the comfortable explanations are the ones which suggest that the problem lies within a person's genetic makeup. For the one suffering, there is a certain security in the fatalistic outlook implied by "It's just my nature, nothing I can do about it." For others, the absolution that such ideas seem to grant society make them irresistible.
It appears that we simply do not want to believe that our offspring are the product of the environment that we created for them -- that we could have prevented the suffering if we had done a better job as parents, teachers, friends, and family. This pervasive form of mass self-delusion is exactly the "walking in blindness" that Aristotle called hamartia and which leads to the tragic outcome in classic drama. The implications here are ominous indeed.
In order for life to unfold into the grand and interesting adventure that it should be, we must be able to meet its challenges in an exuberant and creative manner, be able to forge rich and satisfying relationships with others, and be able to discover some things both meaningful and enjoyable to do to lend direction and stability to existence. This requires that we become whole in our humanity, understanding our various selves and their needs, getting them met, making real (actualizing) the full potential of our beings, and cultivating a healthy style of life in harmonic accord with our surroundings.
Health and wholeness may be viewed as inner peace because inner peace results in a state of clarity in which we discover that we are not really separated from one another but actually share a common self which emanates from the spiritual centers of our beings. When we have achieved this quiet state within and can clearly visualize and contemplate our centers, we gain access to an inner voice which will always point us in the correct direction. This is not to be confused with the internal dialogue or chatter between ego states of our personalities which we can hear almost any time we choose to be aware of it. On the contrary, this inner voice is an echo of our higher spiritual existence which manifests itself as visual imagery when we are in a deep meditative state. Shakti Gawain, describes, in detail, the process of becoming aware of and utilizing this inner direction [Gawain, Shakti - Living in the Light: a Guide to Personal and Planetary Transformation, (San Rafael, CA: New World Library, 1986)].
In a hypothetical "perfectly nurturing" environment, all of our component selves would mature simultaneously, growing in a mutually complimentary manner and a life predisposed to health, wholeness, love, wisdom, and happiness would be the result. In actuality, unbalanced nurturing, erroneous information from our families and external sources, faulty programming, and for some, outright harm, conspire to produce varying degrees of fear and confusion.
A dysfunctional individual results from a developmental environment which allows or promotes the unbalanced growth of one or more of the five selves or a disharmonious interrelationship between them. It was estimated in 1974 that 96% of American families were in some way dysfunctional. This is significant since it shows that improper development is not only the overwhelmingly dominant paradigm, but that observable examples of properly balanced humanity are few and far between. The average person may have encountered but few examples, and at the very least, would probably have difficulty recognizing them as such. This lack of appropriate models for living can only increase the rate of dysfunctionality until now, 20 years later, the figure is probably nearer 100%.
All social ills are born in the above-described process including: crime, chemical dependency, madness, depression, disintegration of marriage and family structure, and even the greed behaviors which lead to the unbalanced distribution of wealth and resources, causing hunger and poverty amidst plenty, and preventable disease conditions in world of high-tech medical capability. By the same token, all of these problems are preventable by the application of proper nurturing and developmental strategies within the environment of the primary family group. They are also treatable and correctable when the appropriate tools are properly employed. These tools exist today but have yet to achieve widespread acceptance and use.
Fear, the psychological equivalent of a security alarm, functions to warn us away from potentially harmful situations. When we examine the validity of our fears, we are able to eliminate those which do not represent a response to actual danger. Currently, however, it seems that most of us do not take the time, or even see ourselves as having the time, to examine our feelings. Unexamined fears linger in our minds even if they have no rational basis.
The accumulation, over time of a substantial titer of irrational fear leaves us with a generalized, vague sense of anxiety and apprehension which tends to cause us to withdraw, to avoid, and to begin to feel disconnected from one another. This effect is most pronounced with certain traumatic, deeply-etched, leftover terrors from childhood with which we, as adults, are often out of touch, yet which profoundly affect the cognitive root structure upon which so much of our adult thoughts and feelings are based. Such a feeling of disconnectedness results in confusion and a gnawing doubt or distrust of our ability to cope creatively with new experiences. Ultimately, the growth of one or more of our Five Selves becomes impeded, causing disharmony and bringing unhappiness and dissatisfaction to our lives.
Two different patterns of disruption and dysfunction can be recognized in a system where individual parts must grow and mesh smoothly together for proper function. We must evaluate each of our Five Selves from both perspectives in order to determine the starting point on our journey toward wholeness and a balanced existence. These two patterns, called contamination and exclusion, are of general application and will be used again later to evaluate the functioning of the individual parts that make up the personality. The diagrams below are provided to help visualize the nature of these problems and to allow us to draw conclusions as to the effects that each could produce in a person's life.
Contamination results from the confusion of one part of one of our component selves with part of another. A common contamination occurs between the Emotional and Intellectual Selves. Some people do not fully understand their feelings and confuse them with thoughts and ideas. They might say, for example, "I feel this is the correct way to do this," rather than "I think . . ." or "I believe. . . ." Using these terms correctly in conversation can help to alleviate this type of confusion.
Physical/spiritual contamination occurs when a bodily phenomenon becomes confused with a character trait. Examples of this can be found with certain superstitious beliefs such as the idea that some diseases or afflictions result from or reflect a character flaw or spiritual corruption. I have recently heard fearfully misguided persons state a belief that AIDS is some kind of punishment from God for the "wickedness" of homosexuality?!
Contamination between the animal and emotional selves might produce a statement such as "that's just the way I feel. It's just my nature. I can't do anything about it." A person's feelings, of course, are not part of his/her biologically programmed responses (Animal Self). One chooses how to feel about something and may, in fact, change that feeling if one so chooses. Persons who make such statements may come to view themselves and their options in life in a very rigid and limited manner.
The common myth espoused by practitioners of certain forms of therapy that chemical dependency is a disease represents, at least, triply-contaminated thinking. Since addiction is a learned behavioral response, or script, resulting from faulty childhood decisions and emotional confusion early in life, this contamination involves a minimum of the Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual Selves. These are but four examples of how contamination can lead to unbalanced thinking and a disharmonious lifestyle.
Exclusion occurs when the growth and maturation of one of our component selves becomes impaired or retarded. The mechanism may be lack of proper attention and nurture or active suppression. It is not uncommon these days for men to experience difficulties arising from emotional exclusion due to sex role programming against the acknowledgment, experience, and honest expression of feelings. Others of us may be taught to be appalled by, revolted by, or even to fear our natural biological functions and drives, and may attempt to suppress awareness of all or part of the Animal Self. Many people become alienated or split-off from their bodies, lose contact with its signals and needs, and ignore its proper nurture and development. This proceeds with the impairment of the ability to experience and appreciate the joys of one's physical reality. When traumatic early learning experiences result in the distrust of one's ability to reason and think as well as others, exclusion of the intellect can occur with disastrous consequences, often reducing existence to a fearful, brutish, and superstitious level or to outright madness.
A simple analogy by which we may visualize the effects of exclusion can be constructed by allowing a person to be represented by a child's toy wagon. The four wheels are the four existential components: Physical, Animal, Emotional, and Intellectual. The front two wheels by which the wagon is steered signify the combination of the Emotional and Intellectual Selves that form the personality which, in the individual, guides and controls the interplay of internal forces to produce behavior. The two axles and frame represent the character portion of the transcendental or Spiritual Self because they not only arise from the individual wheels but also serve to connect them to the whole in an ordered manner allowing for smooth and balanced function. The payload and motivating force is, of course, the soul. I believe that, from this, the effect that would result from wheels that are small or deformed or from a twisted or broken axle can readily be seen.
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