The center of the Karpman triangle is pain/false hope. The victim/perpetrator/rescuer lives on the hope of escape from pain. Because of the good/bad mindset, there is 50% pain and 50% hope of relief (pleasure). This 50% keeps us on the hope treadmill, but it is a game that cannot be won. What an insult to human intelligence! We are playing a game that cannot be won. It’s just like football mania. We spend years rooting for our football team to win, and ten years later although they may have won a championship or two, everyone ends up playing about 500 ball. In the meantime we live on the hope of winning. We gamble on the Lottery against horrendous odds, and yet hope is renewed when we hear about someone winning. We gamble in Las Vegas with great anticipation and excitement and Las Vegas always wins more than we do over the long haul. We live on hope, do we not? We are going to beat the odds. Hope springs eternal.

But where does such stupid hope come from? And why do we have such irrational hopes? And why is a sucker born every minute? And why are there easy marks for every scam that comes along? Is it because the con artist is so clever? Why do we believe liars? Why are we subject to a line of bull? Why do we buy into flattery? Why do we get duped over and over? Why do we become victims? Why does perpetration seem to work sometimes?

These are interesting questions for the stupid geniuses that we are. In spite of our apparent stupidity, I believe every person is a genius in their own way. It is true that people have different talents, but infinity is our nature. But because we cannot even imagine our infinity, we are subject to the victimization of hope.

In other words, we are infinite beings with a finite belief system. This finite belief system makes us patsies because we know at some level that we live in an infinite universe. We want to believe it so much that we subject ourselves to unbelievable odds. And we are so excited when someone beats the odds. We are so tantalized by Guiness Records. We cheer when someone breaks the record! That means that we can too. Each of us is capab le of breaking some record. We can escape our confinement to mediocrity! Even if we have to drink or drug ourselves into oblivion, we refuse to be mediocre. We keep on cheering our team, we keep on playing the lottery, we keep on gambling at Vegas, we keep on hoping for that romance. Even at 75 years of age, we sparkle with hope of finding a lover. Even in the reading of the 700^th romance novel, we renew our hopes. Even with the 400^th diet, we read it again with fervor. Even with a record of 500 multi-level marketing failures, we read one more pitch with interest.

Oh, yes, we are skeptics and cynics, but none of our rational arguments prevail over hope. We are still setting ourselves up one more time. Just one more time. Just one more effort. Just one more try might do it. We cannot give up. Hope keeps the human experiment going. Even the suicidal person secretly hopes that at the last moment someone will rescue him. The magical rescuer will come. Someone will prove that my hope is not futile. Someone will love me unconditionally. Someone will give me the security and the money I am entitled to. Someone will find me attractive. The Cinderella story will come true. The Magic Wand does exist. The Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow must be true. Even at the latest meeting of Cynics Anonymous, the president of the club went on a wild goose chase and didn’t show up for the meeting! The fifth marriage has promise. I know it does.

At the bottom of Pandora’s Box lies Hope. Isn’t it interesting that we cannot get rid of Hope? You can bury it every day, but it will resurrect. You cannot get rid of Hope. You can destroy your body but you cannot destroy Hope. There is no such thing as a cynic. There are only naive Hopefuls and cynical Hopefuls. Every person you meet on the street is a Hopeful. Every person’s middle name is Hopeful. Don’t forget that.

Hope is a major key to our infinite nature. You are an infinite being conned by a finite belief system, victimized by your dominant daily thoughts. Hope is the source of your pain, and you cannot get rid of pain because you cannot get rid of Hope. Hope is eternal, because you are eternal. You can get your gun and go out and kill twenty people who seem to have it better than you, and spend your life in jail, but you cannot kill Hope. Even if you kill twenty people and then commit suicide, you cannot kill Hope. One day you will come back and hope again. And to compensate for your crime, you may choose to be killed twenty times in the next twenty lifetimes, but after twenty times, you will hope again.

Why can’t hope be destroyed? And why does hope bring pain? And why does hope make us victims? And why does Hope continue to drive us until we wake up?

Hope means that you are an infinite being who is still pretending to be merely finite, and you can’t get away with it. No matter what a sad pityful story you create to prove that life is a bitch, you can’t do it. You will never prove to yourself or to anyone else that life is hopeless. Even if you are the president of the Complainer’s Club and even if you are a scientist who collects horror stories, you will never convince even one person that the world is evil and hopeless, not even yourself. It can’t be done.

Even the sickest, oldest, poorest, loneliest, most negative person on their deathbed has hope. No one wants to die, even those who beg for it or shoot themselves. Even the serial killer, even the rapist, even the cancer victim has hope. Even the criminal facing execution hopes for a last minute pardon. Even the murderer who hates himself for what he did and asks for execution to punish himself, has hope. All such people have hope for peace of mind when their pain and horror cease.

And so we have the irrationality and indestructibility of hope. In the face of all odds, we have hope. Look at the survivors of unbelievably tragic situations, of wars, of prisoners of war, of concentration camps, of fires…a baby who lives through an ordeal of several hours in the snow. Race car drivers who live through unbelievable crashes and injuries. People go to these races knowing that their favorite driver may be killed on the very next curve, but they have hope he will survive. Otherwise sane and decent people become fools at the race track to beat the odds of death-defying risks.

We climb high dangerous mountains in snowstorms where our chances of survival are slim, but we hope to beat the odds. We hope that we can clone the human body. We hope we will find the Fountain of Youth. We hope to live long enough that a cure for cancer will be found and we can live forever. We hope to find new energy sources to replace gasoline and oil. People want to be immortal. We want to leave something that will survive time. We want to leave something for our kids. We want to get that house built or that book written before we leave here. We want a memorial to our life in the world, a living trust that will bless our grandchildren. We hope to be famous or at least infamous. Even on our deathbed we are thinking of what we can leave behind that will signify the feeling of immortality.

Every culture and civilization known in history had religions that taught immortality. The Egyptian kings had their bodies mummified and placed in immortal pyramids to signify the hope of immortality. We place our bodies in concrete boxes and bury them in the finest metal caskets, dressed in our Sunday best, signifying our hope for the resurrection. Nothing can extinguish this hope.

Even in the face of the terrorism of September 11, 2001, when New York and Washington were attacked, a national resolve was aroused, a determination to make the world safe for democracy, a hope to restore a sense of safety and freedom in the face of such devastating destruction, terror and danger.

What are we saying here? We are saying that hope will never be extinguished because man is an infinite being with a finite belief system. Pain arises because even though we want to believe in infinity and even though we have to believe in infinity, we cannot see how to do it. We are trapped in a frozen energy system of belief in our limitations. Our body’s eyes and our mind’s eyes can only see the finite. But the soul’s hope for infinite vision cannot be eradicated because it is grounded in Reality.

Your rational mind can never convince your immortal spirit that you are less than infinite. It cannot be done. You may collect all the evidence and arguments you wish, but you will never be able to eradicate hope, nor the pain that goes with it, until you awaken to infinity.

Yesterday seven patients came to my office and tried to convince me that their situation is hopeless, that they are impossible. But I cannot be convinced. I know that they are human gods. No matter how sad and horrendous their stories of victimization are, I know that they are hooked, that they are destined for immortality, and that nothing can destroy or stop them. I know that who they are blaming for their suffering is not to blame, any more than they are to blame. I know that the finite belief system is the only problem, and it can be changed because it is not true. It is an illusion, a fiction, a state of mind. The finite belief system is the only hopeless thing in this universe, and it too holds hope because it is a symptom and it can be changed.

I don’t care how shameful, awful, irrational, ludicrous, selfish, and far out your desires, wishes, fantasies, feelings, beliefs, dreams and fears seem to you, they are all indicators of one single thing: your basic, infinite nature.

Your divine human nature is the one thing you can never escape. The question of the ages is: What is human nature? And human nature has always been thought to be evil, and at best, good.

I am arguing that human nature transcends both good and evil, that a human being is best understood as an infinite being in a finite mindset. All of our troubles are due to the ignorance of our infinite imagination. If you really open your eyes, you will see infinity everywhere!

Nothing is separated unto itself. Everything is connected to and part of something bigger than itself. Everything is infinitely connected and infinitely akin to everything else. You have an Infinite Family because you are Infinite. There are no limits to your consciousness or your energy.

Time is a symbol of Eternity; space a reflection of Infinity; sight a contraction of Vision; science a path to Knowledge; the mind a door to Spirit; the body a house for the Absolute. All lust, jealousy, greed, and envy are desires for God contracted into time and space.

Why does hope cause pain? Because hope is not perceived as a symbol of knowledge. Until hope becomes knowledge we shall suffer. Hope says that you are a victim of a dream of something outside of yourself; a fantasy that you will be rescued by something outside of yourself. When hope becomes knowledge, victim/ perpetration/rescue disappear. Faith is the bridge between hope and Knowledge. You cannot cross the chasm between hope and knowledge without the leap of faith, the risk of trust. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, said St. Paul.

What, then, is the clue to your Infinity? Be a scientist and find out. In my case, "lust" or "pornography" was the clue. I had an infinite desire to see the naked female body. It was insatiable. Do you understand? I had an insatiable desire to see!

I also had an insatiable desire to "know." I have over 5000 volumes in my library. I have probably spent more money on books, journals, audio and video tapes, and education than on all of my other necessities. My craving to know was insatiable.

Also I am a fanatic about gadgets, gadgets to save time and to increase efficiency and control. I was at one time a fanatic about winning in sports. Also I was a fanatic about action and adventure movies, cops and robbers, as to who would win in the battle of good and evil. Sometimes I pulled for the good guys and sometimes for the bad guys. Many of our infinity fantasies are embodied in television dramas, movies, science fiction stories.

Fortunately I didn’t have an insatiable craving for food, although I did have a "sweet tooth" which did not help my cavities and my low blood sugar. A money addiction is also not unfamiliar to me. Greed, envy and jealousy are not strangers in my laundry list of insatiable fixations either. I have seven computers which again ties into my insatiable desire to know and to see.

Go through this checklist of desires and honestly check those that might be clues to your infinity:

( ) The desire to be important, recognized, known

( ) The yearning to be loved, approved, accepted

( ) The urge to get even when rejected

( ) A feeling that you are entitled to respect

( ) A desire for more money, security

( ) The belief that you never have enough time

( ) A drive for excitement, fun, danger

( ) An urge for power and control

( ) A constant demand for appreciation

( ) The need for certainty

( ) The desire to be "right"

( ) The need to be good, better or best

( ) The desire to be bad, worse, worst

( ) The desire to be desireless

Now, lets also be honest about another thing: do you believe you lack what you just said you wanted or desired or needed? Do you tell yourself you don’t have enough of what you said you desired and lack? Are you ashamed of saying what you are lacking?

That desire, that lack, that "not enough" feeling, as well as that shame, are all indicators of your infinity. An infinite being has no lack and no shame. Lack is a belief in limitation. Infinity is not a belief. Infinity is truth because it is everywhere at all times. Lack comes and goes. Lack is a relativity; infinity is an absolute. Lack is a state of mind; infinity is your natural state of being.

When infinite vision awakens in you, you realize that the entire universe belongs to you. In fact, that you are the universe. You are separate from nothing, lacking in nothing, and trapped by nothing. There are no victims, perpetrators or rescuers in this infinite universe.

All of your insatiable desires, hopes and painful deficits point to your unrecognized and forgotten infinity. We live in an infinite universe where there is no lack. There is plenty here for everyone. Only a sense of lack makes greed seem necessary, but lack is a total fiction.

Our lacking mind has created a fictional, lacking world and a sense of greed. The world always and only reflects our state of mind. Awareness of our infinity will reflect an infinite universe.

Watch for clues of infinity in your daily life, in nature, in human excesses and oddities. We are going to consider this teaching as Infinity 2001. We are here to consider our infinite nature and the infinite nature of others. What are your current beliefs about finite human nature? Do you have any data on infinite human nature? Everyone has at least one area where they have seen or touched on the infinite. Find that area in your life. What is the highest idea you ever had? Did you ever say "forever" or "far out" or "incredible" or make exaggerations?

Did you ever notice that on a dollar bill there is a picture of a pyramid with an eye on the top? If you climb to the top of a pyramid you could see a panoramic vision in all directions, could you not? We have had a worm’s eye view of life, instead of a god’s eye view.

Arnold Mindel helps people to push their edges. Life itself pushes us over the edge all the time. That is the only way a bird learns to fly. Your biggest and worst symptom is trying to push you over the edge of your self-limiting belief system.

Tell me one thing that speaks of your infinity. Talent is one ability where you do not believe in your limitations as much as others do in theirs Desire is one place where you allow the thirst for infinity to be admitted. The paradox of hope is one of the chief keys to your awakening to your infinite nature.