Letting The Witnesses Speak

Whenever a society places a severe penalty on committing a crime there is a danger that the life of anyone who witnesses that crime may be put in danger.  If the criminal knows that by allowing the witness to live, they will be severely punished, they may feel it is necessary to make sure that the witness is never allowed to identify them.

There are a lot of people who have tried to put an end to the practice of one person trying to hurt another person spiritually and psychologically.  They have made it known that they disapprove of such practices and that they think that people who engage in such practices should be punished.  But by being so open in their disapproval of these practices, they have created a situation where people who hurt other people spiritually and psychologically now feel that it is necessary to more or less destroy the people who they have damaged.  They feel that they must make certain that the people who they have damaged are never allowed to become strong enough so that other people will want to listen to what they have to say.

If we want to make sure that people stop hurting other people spiritually and psychologically, we have to make sure that we do not reward the ones who commit the crimes because we are so impressed by their spiritual energy and then punish the victims for their lack of spiritual energy.

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Self-Recrimination and Self-Destructive Guilt

It has often been noted that many spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people have a problem with self-recrimination (being overly critical of themselves) and that they also have a problem with self-destructive guilt (feeling bad about the wrong things that they have done).  But a lot of people have trouble figuring out just what it is that these vulnerable people have to feel so guilty about.  The spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people are the ones who are often forced by the stronger members of society to become the scapegoats for everything that goes wrong.  And in doing so these vulnerable people often end up helping other people much more than they hurt them (but of course they may not always be happy about the fact that they are always forced to be the scapegoats).

One of the things that spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people are criticized for (and one of the things that makes them feel guilty) is not speaking up and letting other people know how they feel about the things that bother them.  But over the past few years many of these vulnerable people have learned that when they do speak up and when they do let other people know how they feel, these same people who had previously encouraged them to speak up will more or less tell them to "put up and shut up".  After this happens the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people will no longer be critical of themselves for not speaking up through the years because they will realize that if they had spoken up, it would not have made any difference anyway.  So where is all of their self-destructive guilt coming from if they are no longer angry with themselves and if they are no longer critical of themselves for not having spoken up in the past?

The answer to that question appears to be that through the years the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people were dominated by the stronger members of society.  And the guilt that they are experiencing was imposed on them through the years by the stronger members of society who had been dominating them.  Some of the vulnerable people had a higher percentage of guilt imposed on them than did others but what they all shared was that through the years they had picked up deep-rooted feelings of guilt from the people who had dominated them.

As these vulnerable people try to understand the nature of this guilt that was imposed on them (guilt that is now inside of them and that is now tearing them up inside) they may at first come to the conclusion that the people who had been dominating them had felt guilty because of the spiritual and psychological damage that they had done to the vulnerable people.  The vulnerable individuals had always sensed that the ones who dominated them also seemed to care about them.  But now that they realize that these people were not actually trying to help them, they have to figure out why the people who had dominated them had seemed to be good people who had seemed to care about what happened to them (when now they have come to believe that these people who had dominated them actually didn't care about them).

Whenever a group places a person in the position of the scapegoat, the one who is the scapegoat starts contributing spiritual energy to the other members of the group.  The stronger members of the group really do care deeply about the scapegoat because they want to make sure that the scapegoat continues performing the role that they were given by society.  If the scapegoat becomes stronger and if they step out of the role that they were assigned, there is a chance that the people who had benefitted from the spiritual energy that was contributed by the scapegoat will start to become weaker.  In analyzing the situation, it appears that the ones who dominated the scapegoats through the years cared about them because of what the vulnerable person's weaknesses did to strengthen the group, not because they wanted the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person to become stronger.  They were carefully monitoring the vulnerable person to make sure that they never became strong enough to step out of the role that they had been assigned.  The people who dominated them did not feel guilty for having damaged the vulnerable person spiritually and psychologically.  In fact, the people who had dominated them might have felt guilty for not having done more to weaken them so that the vulnerable person would have been forced to, in their role as the scapegoat, give even more of their spiritual energy to the group. 

Most of us like to help other people if we are given an opportunity to do so.  But we like to do it voluntarily.  The use of sacrificial lambs and scapegoats is a part of our heritage but we should perhaps start to think about moving onward.  Instead of forcing people to give their spiritual energy away for the benefit of the group, maybe we should ask them if they want to give.  And if they say no, maybe we should say "that's fine, you don't have to".  

If you asked 20 people what they thought about the argument that was presented above that spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people should not be forced to give their spiritual energy to other people , you would probably get different opinions.  One person might say, "yes, it is time for mankind to move onward in its evolution and stop the old fashioned spiritual practice of robbing Peter to pay Paul (taking one person's spiritual energy and giving it to another person or to other people).  But another person might say, "wait a minute.  Let's be realistic for a moment.  If it is true that we have been taking spiritual energy from the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people and giving that spiritual energy to the other members of society, and if we suddenly start to give these people an even break and start to treat them equally, then we are going to have a big problem on our hands."

"At this point in history (right here, right now), we know that many of our religions are based on myth, yet in spite of this we have still continued to hold onto some of our religious beliefs.  We no longer believe in the myth of God, but we sense very deep and very complex exchanges of spiritual energy taking place between ourselves and other people and this makes it impossible for us to turn our backs on our belief in spiritual forces.  We are in a transition period where we know that the myth of God is not real, but we also know that the spiritual power that we feel in our everyday lives is similar in some ways to what God was described to be like in the myths."

There are a lot of people in the world who think (and who believe deep in their hearts) that people who are spiritually and psychologically vulnerable will never be able to break out of their spiritual and psychological bondage (and for this reason will always be crazy).  They know that as long as people throughout the world feel that they need spiritual sacrificial lambs and scapegoats to keep providing spiritual energy to the other members of society, then it is unlikely that these spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people will ever be able to break free of their spiritual bondage.  The spiritual will of the majority will be enforced and this very deep and very complex spiritual force that some people call God and that other people in another part of the world might call something else will block any effort made by spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people to develop strong (or normal) exchanges of spiritual information and spiritual energy with other people.  But if people throughout the world eventually decide that they would be better off not relying on spiritual sacrificial lambs and scapegoats for their spiritual fulfillment, then the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people might be able to start breaking free from the spiritual bondage that makes them crazy.

You may have found yourself in a situation where you went to a store or a car dealership because of an advertisement you saw that was displaying a product that you wanted to buy and that was quoted at a very attractive price.  When you got there you were told that the product was no longer available. At that time you might have gone home frustrated and disappointed or you might have just fallen for the false advertising, allowing yourself to be convinced by the salesperson to buy another product that ended up costing you more money than you had intended to pay.

The store or the car dealership had told their salespeople that  a "nail-down order" had been issued in regards to the item that had been advertised.  In other words, the item was more or less "nailed-down" to the floor (no one was going to be allowed to buy it).  The advertised item was only being used to bring people into the store or the car dealership so that the salespeople could sell the customers products that would bring in much higher profits than the advertised item would have brought in.

When spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people become spiritual sacrificial lambs and scapegoats early in life they might find themselves in the role of a customer who went into a store not knowing that a "nail-down order" had been issued on the product that they were interested in.  The spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people might have tried to early in life to make the people in their community understand that they felt they had been unfairly deprived of their spiritual energy and that they wanted that spiritual energy back.  But just like salespeople are sometimes forced to go along with a "nail-down order", the people in the community where a person has been made into a spiritual sacrificial lamb or a scapegoat might be afraid to help the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person for fear that the people who had made the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person into a spiritual sacrificial lamb or scapegoat might do the same thing to them if they try to help the vulnerable person.     

Individuals who are approached by a spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person early in life will tend to develop relationships with the vulnerable person that are very polite.  They will feel that they cannot afford to get too close to the vulnerable person because they are afraid that they will accidently let out the "secret" that society has robbed the vulnerable person of their spiritual energy and that society has no intention of giving that spiritual energy back to them.  Because of the fact that the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person's relationships are based on this artificial premise, they naturally have trouble getting close to other people.  They end up having polite relationships with men and polite relationships with women.  But because the men and women they are involved with tend to dominate them, they are likely to get into situations where the men they know and the women they know may start relating to each other indirectly by exchanging spiritual energy through (or by way of) the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person.  For example, a spiritually and psychologically vulnerable man may transfer the spiritual energy he receives from the men he knows to the women he knows (and likewise, he may transfer the spiritual energy he receives from the women who he knows to the men who he knows).

Early in life this transferring of spiritual energy that is done by the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable man is not too much of a problem.  But as he gets older, he will naturally want to start getting closer to the women he knows.  And he will sometimes sense that these women want to get close to him.  When a woman meets him she may be reminded of times in the past when she knew men like him who transferred to her the spiritual energy of other men who she was attracted to at that time.  The woman may show a lot of interest in him at first.  But as she senses what is happening (that she is actually just receiving the spiritual energy of other men who the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable man knows), it may occur to her that it might be more efficient for her to directly form relationships with the men who she is interested in, rather than routing those relationships through another person (the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable man).

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It is important for us spiritually and psychologically to feel that we are giving something to other people.  We feel good when we give to other people but we also like the fact that when we give to others, they often will try to give something back to us.  They might not be able to give us money in return for what we give them but they usually will give back appreciation and love to those who help them.  The appreciation and the love that we receive from the people who we give to can make us stronger spiritually and psychologically and can enrich our lives.  

But sometimes things happen where a person is forced against their will to give their spiritual energy to another person (a person in this situation becomes a spiritual sacrificial lamb or a scapegoat).  An example of this might be a situation where one of the popular students in a high school classroom starts showing up late for class or starts turning in their assignments late.  The teacher might be afraid to discipline this popular student out of fear that the disruptive student might not be able to handle the loss of face that would result from the discipline.  The teacher might decide that the disruptive student needs a boost of spiritual energy.  The teacher might start to suddenly make life difficult for one of the quiet students in the class who is always on time and who is not disruptive in class.  By timing his attack on the more quiet student to coincide with the time when he should have been disciplining the more popular and disruptive student, it would demonstrate to anyone observing the situation (in this case everyone in the class) that the teacher wanted to take some of the spiritual energy of the quiet person (and also any respect that the other students previously had for the quiet student) and give it to the disruptive student.  This would save face for the disruptive student and would also protect the teacher from criticism that he did not use discipline when the popular student was disruptive.  The teacher did use discipline, but he disciplined the wrong person (he disciplined a student who less popular and who was in his opinion less worthy than the more popular and disruptive student was).  After the "discipline" the behavior of the disruptive student would improve at least temporarily.  While it would certainly be unfair for the student who took the blame (and who had to unfairly receive the discipline that should have gone to the other student), it would make the teacher look good and it would also give a spiritual boost to the disruptive student (who would no doubt find the situation to be "delicious").  The teacher gave a spiritual gift to the disruptive student and the disruptive student probably gave the teacher feelings of appreciation and love in return.

A question arises when looking at the above situation.  Was the gift that was given by the teacher an example of "giving from the heart"?  In some ways it was an example of giving from the heart and in some ways it was not.  The teacher was not really giving the disruptive student anything from his own heart.  He was taking the spiritual energy of the quiet student and giving it to the disruptive student.  The quiet student was the one who was giving from the heart, not the teacher.  The teacher was not giving up anything at all.  For the teacher it was a win-win situation that had very little to do with the heart.

Most of us can tell when we meet a person if they are a giving sort of a person or if they are a selfish person who is just totally wrapped up in themselves.  But we need to realize that it may be possible that early in life some of the people who we define as being selfish and totally wrapped up in themselves may have been unfairly deprived of their spiritual energy (when their spiritual energy was unfairly taken away from them) and they may have as a result been forced to give away a lot of their spiritual energy to other people.  It is not a perfect world and sometimes things happen that should not happen.  If it is true that they did not want to end up in their present situation but were forced down that path when their spiritual energy was taken away from them (and if they tried to stop what was happening but were not able to), then it can be argued that even though they may have given away a lot of their spiritual energy and even though they now appear to be selfish and totally wrapped up in themselves, they should not be blamed as much as they presently are.  They are not really selfish by nature.  They were simply forced by their community into a spiritual position that they did not want to be placed into.  They appear to be totally wrapped up in themselves because they are nervous about the fact that their spiritual energy is constantly being drained out of them and that there is nothing they can do to stop the situation.

In the years preceding World War II many people began to abandon their religious beliefs because of the conflicts between religious myths and science.  During World War II the excesses of the warlords in Asia and the white supremacists in Europe also led many people to abandon their faith in men who tried to make themselves into gods. This led to a short period in history where people began to question the long-standing notion that cruelty and abuse were necessary components in a civilized society.

In the period following World War II there were many books and articles published that showed how people are capable of putting complexes on other people by doing something unfair to them or saying something unfair about them and then tying them in psychological "knots" from which they cannot escape by denying that they have done anything wrong. There were a lot of people at that time who believed that by the year 2000 people would no longer want to gain feelings of personal power by taking advantage of other people psychologically.  It was thought that once people realized the manner in which they were hurting other people, they would want to stop doing it. It was also felt that by the year 2000 the old-fashioned practice of making other people into spiritual sacrificial lambs and scapegoats would also be abolished.  It was thought that by this time in history we would all be secure enough spiritually and psychologically that we would no longer need to make other people into our spiritual slaves.

Over the past few years the new class of warrior that has developed around the world has shown that it takes pride in taking advantage of people who are spiritually and psychologically vulnerable.  Instead of using the information that has been published on psychological weaknesses to help other people become stronger, they have used that information to purposely abuse people who have been abused enough already and have also used that information to continue making spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people into their spiritual slaves.  

But recently something new has started to take place.  It appears that we have started to enter an era where the new class of warriors who have taken such pride in abusing spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people and making them into their spiritual slaves have developed such a strong dislike for the people who they have been dominating through the years that they are starting to want to have nothing to do with these vulnerable people.  The warriors are so sick of the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people that they don't even want them around as spiritual slaves anymore.  But from time to time they might try to "get under the skin" of one of the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people and bring out some of that repressed anger that they used to enjoy watching these people display when they were mistreated.  It might give them a laugh or two occasionally to bring back the old game but we are moving into a period where many people are moving away from the idea of using spiritual sacrificial lambs and scapegoats.

Being as we may be moving away from the time in history where people are forced to serve as spiritual sacrificial lambs and scapegoats it is probably better for spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people not to spend too much time worrying about what happens when one person is forced to serve as another person's spiritual slave.  We do seem to be moving into a period of time where there will be less of that sort of thing going on.  Nonetheless, it might be useful for spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people to have a basic understanding of what happens when one person serves as another person's spiritual slave.  As the old practice of people using other people as spiritual slaves slowly fades away there will still be situations where someone gets forced into the role of the spiritual sacrificial lamb or scapegoat by another person. 

Spiritual slavery appears to exist in many cultures in the world and the mechanics of how spiritual slavery works no doubt varies from culture to culture.  For this analysis we will look at how a person might become a spiritual slave in one of the developed countries of the western world and how their efforts to escape from their spiritual slavery will probably end in failure.  Early in life the individual who becomes a spiritual slave in one of the developed countries of the western world is never given an even break.  Other kids get away with things that they do not get away with.  If they question anything or ask for the same things that the other kids ask for they will be put under a lot of pressure.  They learn to keep their opinions to themselves because whenever they speak up they are punished.  By being treated in this manner their spiritual energy is never really allowed to develop.  They eventually get into a position where anytime one of the other kids feels bad about something they will take advantage of the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person (the spiritual slave) knowing that no one will protect the more vulnerable person from the spiritual and psychological attack that is being made on them.  Because of this process the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person ends up absorbing the pressure that should be going to the people who have attacked them and who have made them into their spiritual slaves.  They have to deal with not only the pressure of their own lives but they also have to absorb the pressure of the people who have made them into spiritual slaves.  If they eventually, with insight into the nature of their situation, get some sort of psychological release where they no longer feel the need to absorb the pressure of the people who made them into a spiritual slave, they will notice very soon that they will have increased pressure put upon them by people who are upset that the person who made them into a spiritual slave is not happy about the new situation where they have to absorb the pressure that was previously absorbed for them by the spiritual slave.  The spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person will also be accused of being evil after they break free from their spiritual slavery.  The ones who have been using them as spiritual slaves might say that they are feeling increased negative spiritual energy coming into them and they might claim that the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person is evil and has put a curse on them and that is why they are feeling increased negative spiritual energy coming into them.  Actually, they are just feeling the negative spiritual energy that the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person has been absorbing for them through the years but being as the person who made the more vulnerable person into a spiritual slave is going through obvious spiritual and psychological pain as a result of what has occurred, it will appear to anyone observing the situation that the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person probably has in fact put some sort of an evil curse on the other person.  The group will now cast the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person in the role of an evil person and the vulnerable person will be forced to go back into their old role where they were being forced to absorb the pressure that was being directed towards the person who had made the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person into their spiritual slave.

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It appears that cultures throughout the world are starting to move away from old fashioned practice of using spiritual sacrificial lambs and scapegoats.  Of course, it will take some time for this change to take place.  It would be good for us to keep trying to understand more about the nature of spiritual slavery.  The transition from the old way of doing things to whatever new order that may develop will probably be smoother if we can learn to understand more about the dynamics of the old fashioned practice of using other people as spiritual slaves.

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In the spring of 2008 a young college student named Thomas was returning home to Los Angeles from Chicago.  Sitting next to Thomas on the airplane was the pastor of a church in the Chicago area named Ronald J. Dickerman.  Pastor Dickerman was headed to Los Angeles to attend the yearly annual meeting of his church.  (Thomas and Pastor Dickerman are people who are real for the purposes of this story but who are not real in real life).  Neither Thomas nor Pastor Dickerman were the types of people who generally got into long conversations with other people on the plane but this night was different.  Thomas and Pastor Dickerman started talking shortly after takeoff and within about 20 minutes Thomas (who considered himself to be a bit of an atheist) was on a first name basis with his new friend, Pastor Ron.  He had already told Pastor Ron that he was very concerned about his best friend back home in Los Angeles.  Thomas had talked to his best friend Jeffrey several times on the phone during the time that he was in Chicago.  It seemed to Thomas that Jeffrey had become somewhat depressed recently.

Pastor Ron asked Thomas to give him some background into Jeffrey's situation so that he could maybe give Thomas some insight into what Jeffrey might be going through.  "OK, Pastor Ron.  Let me first tell you about an experience that Jeffrey had at a summer job last year before he started his senior year of high school.  Jeffrey told me that his boss at the place where he was working did something very unfair to him.  He punished Jeffrey for no good logical reason.  Jeffrey also said that he could tell from sarcastic comments made to him by his coworkers that his boss had bragged to his coworkers about the unfair thing that he had done to Jeffrey.  Jeffrey told me that when this problem with his boss started, he felt so bad that he would have to lay down in bed almost every night when he got home from work.  Jeffrey had felt this same sense of panic in the past anytime a person in a position of power over him was treating him unfairly and when there was nothing that he could do to stop it.  Jeffrey knew that he needed to think rationally and that he needed to snap out of what he was feeling but his underlying feelings of panic that he had kept below the surface and that were now coming to the surface made it impossible for him to think rationally.  Being as he did not know what he could do to resolve the problem he decided to just let the situation unfold and hope that the solution to the problem would somehow appear magically."

"As the days went by Jeffrey noticed that his boss was becoming a little bit more accepting of him and he also noticed that some of the other employees who had been having trouble with a lack of motivation at their jobs were now doing better at their jobs than they had done before.  Jeffrey realized then that when his boss treated him unfairly, it motivated the other employees and the work of the other employees improved as a result.  Jeffrey then realized that his boss must be at least somewhat happy with him and must be happy to have Jeffrey working for him because Jeffrey was indirectly responsible for improving the performance of the other members of the group.  But as soon as Jeffrey started to be comfortable in his new role as the person who was responsible for the improvement in the performance of the group, the other employees started to lose their motivation because they were unhappy that Jeffrey was no longer being treated unfairly.  At this point his boss started to once again start treating Jeffrey unfairly."

Pastor Ron thought about what Thomas had said.  Then he asked Thomas if Jeffrey had ever had a serious relationship with any of the girls who he knew.

"Let me give you an example of what usually takes place between Jeffrey and the girls who he gets to know", said Thomas.  "Last year, Jeffrey was getting to know a girl named Audrey.  One night he was talking to Audrey at a school activity and a boy in his class named Brent came over and broke into the conversation.  After his conversation with Audrey, where Brent broke into the conversation, Jeffrey noticed that Audrey seemed to be more reluctant to talk to him than she had been before.  But he also noticed that she was acting like there was now some sort of an emotional attachment between him and her.  Jeffrey had sensed this sort of thing with girls before and he had always been troubled by the fact that the girls only seemed to feel an emotional attachment with him after they had decided that they wanted to start avoiding him.  What do you think might be going on here, Pastor Ron?"

Pastor Ron thought for a moment and then said:  "Thomas, in regards to Jeffrey's summer job, I think that Jeffrey was correct in his analysis that when his boss treated him unfairly, it motivated the other employees and the work of the other employees improved as a result.  Jeffrey was also right in noticing that the boss was pleased that the performance of the other employees had improved after he bullied Jeffrey.  And I think that Jeffrey's final observation that the other employees lost their motivation when the boss stopped bullying Jeffrey was also correct.  But I think that Jeffrey probably does not realize that what happened when he was bullied by his boss is similar to what happened to him when he was getting to know Audrey and when Brent cut in and interfered.  Just like the manner in which the other employees at the summer job did not want Jeffrey to benefit from the bullying that was taking place, when Jeffrey develops a relationship with a new woman (or a new girl), there will be people who do not want Jeffrey to benefit from his relationship with the new woman.  Throughout his life, Jeffrey's emotional involvements with the women (or the girls) who he knew were probably very weak.  He was able to exchange spiritual energy with the women but he was probably not able to exchange a lot of spiritual energy with them.  Whenever Jeffrey would develop strong enough exchanges of spiritual energy with a woman so that other people were able to notice what was taking place between Jeffrey and the woman, those other people would then start to express their opposition to what was happening and they would try to destroy the relationship before it got strong enough to be of any benefit to Jeffrey.  Jeffrey would at this point be in a worse situation than he was in before he got to know the new woman.  The woman would at this point realize that her relationship with Jeffrey was similar to relationships that he had developed with other women throughout his life.  She would think that Jeffrey must really be strongly attached to her if during the short period of time that she had known him he had developed feelings for her that were similar to the feelings that he had developed for the other women who he had known in his life.  She would misinterpret the situation and she would start telling everybody she knew that Jeffrey considered her to be an incredibly amazing (or an incredibly "hot") woman.  I'm afraid that unless Jeffrey figures out a way to increase his levels of spiritual energy, he will just keep repeating the same pattern over and over again where every relationship he develops with someone of the opposite sex ends before it actually begins."    

"Thomas, I think that Jeffrey's problem with his boss at the summer job and his problem with Audrey and Brent were both indirectly based on guilt.  It might seem strange for you to hear me say that because from what you told me Jeffrey seems to be a pretty nice guy who tries not to hurt other people.  I'd like to present to you an example situation to explain what types of events in Jeffrey's life might have made him into a person who suffers indirectly from guilt.  I'd like to present an example that shows how some people who suffer from guilt may not actually feel guilty for what they have done (or for what they have not done) in their lives.  Some people who suffer from guilt have had their guilt imposed upon them by other people.  Here is an example of how that could happen and how that could rob a person of the spiritual energy that they need in order to succeed in life and the spiritual energy that they need in order to develop good and long-lasting relationships with other people."

"Thomas, most of us have been in situations where we were going through a hard time and then we were very disappointed when the people around us (who we hoped would encourage us during our time of trouble) actually seemed to be happy about our misfortune (thereby making our pain even worse).  When a family is going through a hard time (such as a death in the family or a financial set back) and a new family member comes along, there is a danger that some of the more aggressive and unkind members of the community that the family is involved in will start to put increased amounts of pressure on the family in an effort to hurt the family at a time when they are down and vulnerable.  Some families can handle this type of pressure and humiliation better than others, but it is not easy for anyone to feel negative spiritual energy coming into them from members of their community when they feel that those people should be trying to help them in their time of difficulty.  When a family is pressured in this sort of a way and a new member is born into the family, there is a danger that the family will transfer the negative spiritual energy that is coming into them from the members of their community that are pressuring the family to the new family member.  The other family members are able to keep their equilibrium because they do not have to absorb the negative spiritual energy that was previously coming into them."  

"While the other family members are allowed to develop normal types of spiritual and emotional relationships with other people outside of the family, the new family member who was forced to take on the negative pressure that was coming from the community into the family will develop only limited spiritual and emotional relationships with other people.  When the family realizes that the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable family member is having trouble developing relationships with other people, they might decide to take some action to try to correct the situation.  For example, they might remember back to the pressures that the family was under when the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable family member was born and they might talk to the new family member about those times in an effort to hopefully help them understand what might have led to their spiritual and emotional problems.  They might explain to the new family member how those pressures were so hard on the family that they were afraid that the father (and family breadwinner) might not be able to hold onto his job because of all of the pressures that he was feeling.  The new family member might at this point feel bad that they caused these problems for their family.  They might express to the other family members some feelings of guilt for the problems that they caused for the family and they might apologize for what happened.  Thomas, I don't know for sure what Jeffrey's situation was but I think it is possible that something like this example situation I'm describing might have been what happened to Jeffrey early in life."

"Unfortunately, when the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable new family member tries to accept part of the responsibility (and acknowledge some feelings of guilt) for the circumstances that they were born into, there is a good chance that the other family members will start to feel increased negative spiritual energy coming into them at the same time that the new family member is starting to feel some new feelings of spiritual freedom and is starting to feel increasing amounts of spiritual energy coming into them.  Now that the new family member is not being used as the scapegoat for the family's problems, the other family members will start absorbing the pressure that the new family member had been absorbing for them.  The other family members might at this point decide that it would be better for them to not accept the apology of the new family member.  The new family member will once again be forced to start absorbing the large amounts of negative spiritual energy that are being sent by the members of the community towards the family.  It may appear to some people at this point that the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable new family member is suffering from feelings of guilt, but they are actually suffering from a lack of spiritual energy caused by being forced to absorb not only the pressures in their own life but also the pressures of other people (the other members of their family)."

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"I appreciate your insights into Jeffrey's situation, Pastor Ron.  I think I understand now what Jeffrey might be going through and why he might be so discouraged.  I have another question for you, if you don't mind.  This is something that I've always been curious about.  I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to things of a spiritual nature but I've often wondered how church people sometimes are able to speak in tongues (languages that they never actually learned).  What is actually happening when a person is speaking in tongues in a church service?  How could that be possible?"

"In regards to speaking in tongues, I think it is possible that when this type of spiritual event occurs someone at a meeting in their office in Chicago might be communicating subconsciously through the Collective Subconscious with a person who is speaking in tongues in a church meeting in another city.  The person in Chicago might be providing feelings of comfort to that person who is speaking in tongues.  Another person who is in Eastern Europe might also be communicating subconsciously with the same person in the church meeting who is speaking in tongues.  This other person might be providing the foreign language component that is being used in this spiritual event.  There might be several people from different parts of the world participating in the spiritual event with none of them being consciously aware of their involvement in what is taking place.  And I think that something similar might be happening in the Collective Subconscious when a person is sick or dying and where they appear to be speaking to someone who is not in the room.  They may actually be talking to someone who is trying to comfort them through the Collective Subconscious and the person (or people) who are comforting them probably have no conscious awareness of the spiritual event that they are participating in."

"Pastor Ron", said Thomas.  "I know that some people believe that when we die our souls remain in the Collective Subconscious and perform tasks such as helping people who are still living when they take part in spiritual events such as the ones that you have just described.  This seems logical in some ways but it seems like a very cold and limited sort of an afterlife to me.  It seems to me that the afterlife would have to be more fulfilling than that."

"Thomas", said Pastor Ron.  "Spiritual energy travels between us and other people so quickly that we are not consciously aware of it.  For this reason, it seems to us that the spiritual world is very limited and very non-fulfilling because we can only sense, or can only see, the spiritual world in a very limited sort of a way.  But I believe that there are spiritual things below the surface that we cannot see that might be very rich and that might be very fulfilling.  Religious leaders throughout the world and throughout the centuries have presented a very positive picture of what heaven (or the afterlife) would be like.  Of course, no one knows for sure, but I like to think that our activities in the afterlife will not seem strange to us at all and that those activities will be very fulfilling."

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One night in the spring of 2008 a young man named Thomas, who had just returned to his home in Los Angeles from Chicago the night before, was enjoying a late dinner at his favorite pizza restaurant with his best friend Jeffrey.  Thomas had been in Chicago going to school for the past three months.  Thomas and Jeffrey had talked to each other a few times on the phone during the time that Thomas was in Chicago .  Thomas knew that Jeffrey had become somewhat depressed recently and he was hoping that he could help Jeffrey feel better about his life (Thomas and Jeffrey are people who are real for the purposes of this story but who are not real in real life).

After a few minutes of talking to each other about what they had been doing since the last time that they saw each other Thomas said to Jeffrey, "Jeffrey, if it's OK with you, I was hoping that we could talk tonight about some of the reasons that you have become depressed recently.  I'd like to start out by talking about spiritual energy.  Sometimes people such as yourself who are spiritually and psychologically vulnerable have a lack of spiritual energy and this lack of spiritual energy can make it hard for them to develop good relationships with other people.  You might have heard people talk about how their current lover was able to tie up their emotional loose ends and was able to help to bring their life into perspective.  It was almost as if the spiritual energy that the individual had been exchanging with their previous lovers (who were no longer physically present) was transferred to their new lover (who was physically present).  I believe that individuals who are spiritually and psychologically vulnerable also have a tendency to transfer their exchanges of spiritual energy from people who they knew in the past (people who exchanged spiritual energy with them in the past) to people who they know now (people they know in the present who exchange spiritual energy with them).  Jeffrey, I see our waitress Amber coming over this way.  I'd like to ask her to explain something to you."

"Amber", said Thomas, "Do you remember how you told me about what happened last summer when you got involved with a guy who was spiritually and psychologically vulnerable?  I was wondering if you could explain a little bit about that relationship to Jeffrey."

"Sure", said Amber, "at first, I was reluctant to get too close to him.  I was pretty sure that it would not develop into a serious relationship so I felt kind of guilty getting involved with him.  But still I sensed that he was reaching out to me and that he wanted to get to know me.  After a while I realized that even though the exchanges of spiritual energy between us were not strong enough for me to be able to get seriously involved with him, it seemed to him like our relationship was serious.  I guess he was exchanging more spiritual energy with me than he had ever exchanged with any other girl before.  When I met him, I could sense that he wanted to get involved with me but I didn't really understand why.  Now I understand why he was interested in me.  His relationship with me was the best relationship that he had ever had even though some of the people who knew both of us at the time thought that I was just using him.  What a lot of people had trouble understanding at that time was that there was a logical basis for us to have a relationship.  Just like he had been exchanging spiritual energy with girls who were similar to me (girls with normal spiritual structures) in the past, I had been exchanging spiritual energy with spiritually and psychologically vulnerable guys in the past.  He was exchanging with me spiritual energy that he had exchanged with other girls in the past and I was exchanging with him spiritual energy that I had exchanged in the past with other spiritually and psychologically vulnerable guys."

"Thanks a lot Amber", said Thomas.

When Amber left their table to help some of the other customers Jeffrey commented to Thomas that he could feel some very positive energy being exchanged between Amber and Thomas, and he asked Thomas why he had never gotten involved romantically with Amber.  "Jeffrey", said Thomas, "most people as they are growing up develop two types of emotions.  They develop deep emotions for the people who they are really close to emotionally, and they also develop a "practical" set of emotions that they use when they are in situations where they are dealing with people in their school while they are growing up or where they are dealing with people in business types of situations when they start their working lives.  For example, a girl who is running for homecoming queen or for a class office while in high school might develop "practical" relationships where she merges the practical part of her soul with her fellow students for the purpose of getting their votes in the school election.  This sort of thing also happens quite often in business situations where a salesperson, for example, might feel that it is important for them to form a temporary spiritual bond with their client so that they will be able to influence the client when they need the client to do something that they want them to do (such as when they need the client to sign a contract).  The salesperson knows how to use spiritual links to influence the client's thinking at that important point where the client might be tempted to back out of the deal.  What I think is happening between me and Amber is that I am exchanging my practical  types of emotions with her and she is exchanging her practical types of emotions with me.  So even though the exchanges of spiritual energy between us are positive, those exchanges of spiritual energy are not a good basis for developing a serious relationship."  

"Thomas", said Jeffrey, "I know that salespeople can be very influential in guiding their customers to make a decision, but I don't really understand how they work their magic."

"Well Jeffrey", said Thomas, "I think that salespeople, for a short period of time, will merge a part of their soul with the soul of the customer.  They merge the part of their soul that is practical with the part of the customer's soul that is practical.  It might seem to the customer that the salesperson is reading their mind when the customer purchases a product that they had not planned to buy when they started talking to the salesperson.  When the salesperson opens up the practical part of their soul to the customer, they are not only guiding the customer with what they are saying to the customer but they are also guiding the customer in a very deep sort of a manner that they don't really understand but that they know is effective.  Here is an example situation that I think is similar to what happens when a salesperson allows their customer to use their soul when they are trying to help the customer to make a decision.  If two individuals go into a car dealership and test drive a new car, one of the individuals might take the car out in the country or out on the freeway to see how fast it will go.  Another person might use the car to pick up their kids after school.  When they come back and the salesperson realizes that the test drive has helped the customer to overcome the doubts that they originally had, the salesperson will be happy with the end result but they will not know where the customer went on their test drive.  The difference between a salesperson allowing a customer to test drive a car and a salesperson allowing a customer to test drive their soul ( by merging the practical part of their soul with the practical part of customer's soul) is that when a salesperson lets a customer test drive a car they will have no idea where the customer took the car.  But when a salesperson lets a customer test drive their soul, the salesperson might know at a deep subconscious level what the customer had been thinking during the period of time when the salesperson had merged their soul with the soul of the customer."

"Jeffrey", continued Thomas, "In the example I gave a couple of minutes ago about a high school girl merging the practical side of her soul with her fellow students for the purpose of getting votes in an election, the girl will notice that one of three things might happen.  First, they might not vote for her and she will have wasted her effort in merging the practical side of her soul with that student. Second, they might vote for her and her effort will not have been wasted.  Third, someone of the opposite sex who had previously been a casual friend might start to think that there is a basis for him to develop a serious relationship with her."

Jeffrey thought for a moment and then said "Thomas, why is it that spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people really feel like they might be developing a relationship with a person who is only merging the practical side of their soul with them?'  "Well, Jeffrey", said Thomas, "let's say that you got a know a girl named Vanessa who merged the practical side of her soul with you for a short time.  While that took place you were exchanging your spiritual energy with Vanessa and she was exchanging her spiritual energy with you.  Compared to the amount of spiritual energy that most people exchange with other people you might not have been exchanging a lot of spiritual energy with her, but you thought that there was a magical exchange of spiritual energy taking place between you and Vanessa because you could sense that your subconscious mind was communicating with her subconscious mind.  Then another girl came along who also merged the practical part of her soul with you.  It was similar to your exchange of spiritual energy with Vanessa, but it was different because now your subconscious mind was communicating with this new girl's subconscious mind.  During the time that you knew these girls, I believe that you would have been exchanging your spiritual energy with them through the Collective Subconscious when you were with them, and I believe that you would have been exchanging your spiritual energy with them through the Collective Subconscious when you were not actually with them."

"Pastor Ron told me he thinks it is possible that when this type of spiritual event occurs someone at a meeting in their office in Chicago might be communicating subconsciously (through the Collective Subconscious) with a person who is speaking in tongues in a church meeting in another city.  The person in Chicago might be providing feelings of comfort to that person who is speaking in tongues.  Another person who is in Eastern Europe might also be communicating subconsciously with the same person in the church meeting who is speaking in tongues.  This other person might be providing the foreign language component that is being used in this spiritual event.  Pastor Ron feels that there might be several people from different parts of the world participating in the spiritual event with none of them being consciously aware of their involvement in what is taking place.  He also thinks that something similar might be happening in the Collective Subconscious when a person is sick or delirious and where they appear to be speaking to someone who is not in the room.  They may actually be talking to someone who is trying to comfort them through the Collective Subconscious."

"Then I told Pastor Ron that I knew that some people believe that when we die our souls remain in the Collective Subconscious and perform tasks such as helping people who are still living when they take part in spiritual events such as the ones that we had been discussing.  I told Pastor Ron that I thought that this would be a very cold and a very limited sort of an afterlife.  In answer to my comment, Pastor Ron explained to me that spiritual energy travels between us and other people so quickly that we are not consciously aware of it.  For this reason, it seems to us that the spiritual world is limited and non-fulfilling because we can only sense, or can only see, the spiritual world in a very limited sort of a way.  Pastor Ron believes that the spiritual things below the surface that we cannot see are probably very rich and very fulfilling."

"Jeffrey", continued Thomas, "earlier this evening I went online with my computer.  I noticed an ad for a psychic from India named Kala who was offering a free introductory session so I did a video chat with her for a few minutes.  I wanted to ask her what she thought about some of the things that I talked to Pastor Ron about last night.  After explaining some of Pastor Ron's ideas to Kala she told me that she liked Pastor Ron's ideas about the afterlife.  But she added that she felt there were a lot of pastors and other church people who would challenge the idea that there might be an afterlife where there is no Hell.  Then Kala said "Thomas, I know that some people in your country might say that their Jesus would never send anyone to Hell.  Other people in your country might say that their Jesus would not hesitate for a moment to send people to Hell and that their Jesus is a warrior who will someday come back to the earth to lead an army in an attempt to destroy the enemies of the church."  Kala told me she thinks that in recent years a new Jesus has been created.  The spiritual entity of the original Jesus (which is the combined spiritual energy of all the people who believe in the original Jesus) is still alive.  The spiritual entity of the original Jesus is loving, compassionate, and forgiving.  The spiritual entity of the new Jesus that has been created (which is made up of extremist conservative church people) is the combined spiritual energy of all of the people who seem to take pleasure in being cruel to people who are weak and who are eager to send other people to Hell."

Jeffrey thought about what he had just heard and said to Thomas "I think that what Kala said made a lot of sense.  As you know, Thomas, the church that I grew up in was made up largely of extremist conservatives.  I know that there are a lot of liberal people and a lot of moderate people who do not like it when the extremist conservative church people try to legislate morality.  These liberal people and moderate people think it is very strange that the extremist conservatives want to pass laws to control the lives of people who they have never met, people who they would not want to meet, and people who have done nothing to hurt them.  But sometimes, Thomas, when I hear the extremist conservatives talk about the liberal people and the moderate people who they dislike so much I sense that they really believe deep in their hearts that they have personally been hurt by these people."

Jeffrey thought for a moment and then said "after hearing what Amber had to say a little while ago about her involvement with a guy who was spiritually and psychologically vulnerable and after hearing you talk about how people communicate subconsciously through the Collective Subconscious, I think I have an idea now as to how I might be able to communicate better with other people.  For example, I could try to, with insight into the situation, program my subconscious mind to communicate to the subconscious minds of the girls who I meet that I have been misinterpreting the situation in the past and that I am sorry if my subconscious mind is sending out signals to their subconscious minds that are stronger than what is appropriate.  I am not the type of person who would want to barge in on someone uninvited when they are at home at night after a long day of work.  But by trying to form a strong relationship with a girl who is only merging the practical part of her soul with me (the part of her soul that she usually only uses for work situations), I might be getting her to think about me more than she would like to think about me during her free time when she is not supposed to have to think about things that are related to work.  And I think that it would be beneficial for people such as Dan, who has had a serious involvement with a girl who was only merging the practical part of her soul with him, to realize that he might be sending stronger signals to the subconscious minds of girls who he knows now who are only merging the practical parts of their souls with him than he was sending to the girls who he knew before he got involved with the liberal girl who he knew in college.  I hope that people such as Dan and myself can, with insight into the situation, get to the place where we are not trying to form serious relationships with people who are only merging the practical parts of their souls with us."

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