Two Worlds
We live in two worlds: the outer and the inner; the world of
opinions and the world of fact, the pretend world and the real world, the dualistic world and the world of oneness, the imperfect
world and the perfect world, the world of time/space and the world of the infinite. We live in the world of our finite story,
World # 1, and the world of infinite reality, World # 2. The world we are aware of (World #1) is illusory, self-constructed
and untrue, and the world we are unaware of (World #2) is true.
Our two worlds are separted by a wall of mis-belief, the door
through which rarely opens, and when it does, it is usually by the experience of a crisis, pain or symptoms. When it does
open, we must decide to get our foot in the door, lest the door close as we scramble to regain our familiar sense of comfort.
We live in two worlds. One seems real but is fictional; the
other seems fictional but is real. World #1 we are very familiar with even though it is an ambivalent relationship; World
# 2 we are almost a stranger to, even though it is our real home. World # 1 seems visible and World # 2 seems invisible. We
cling to World # 1, and generally avoid World # 2. World # 1 is the world of trance, of hypnosis, of brain-washing and cultural
conditioning. World # 2 is God’s pristine creation.
The door to World # 2 rarely opens, unless it is by the hand
of crisis, and it makes us uncomfortable. World # 1 we trust, but are invited to learn to question; World # 2 we doubt, but
are invited to learn to explore.
The door between these two worlds rarely opens without a crisis.
We devise all sorts of strategies and medicines to avoid or numb the pain involved in the opening of this door.
We are heavily invested in our identity with the duality of
World # 1. We resist the awareness of the oneness of World # 2.
What is the wall that divides these two world? It is the wall
of belief, opinion, judgment, illusion, trance, cultural conditioning, and concepts. There are two doors actually located
in this wall: the Door of Revelation and the Door of Crisis. If you do not go through the Door of Revelation, you will go
through the Door of Crisis. The position of Spiritual Psychotherapy is that you have a choice of which door you will take,
but you do not have a choice of leaving out or avoiding both. In other words, we have limited free will. You are free to go
through both doors, but not through neither. This limited freedom is due to the Grace of God.
Whether you go through the Door of Revelation or the Door of
Crisis, when you decisively enter World # 2, you experience what is called awakening, second birth, liberation, salvation,
regeneration, inspiration, transformation, integration, or enlightenment. I call it the Infinity Experience or Infinity Awareness.
People of all races, cultures and religions have developed their
own language to describe the penetration of this wall. Poets, artists, scientists, philosophers, and great seers from all
walks of life have been trying for generations to put this insipirational breakthrough into human language. Pioneers and researchers
of all types have been trying to chart maps and paths into this unknown territory of the soul.
Everyone unconsciously seeks on an hourly basis access such
an altered state of consciousness. Thousands of shortcut methods are used daily to escape the limitations of World # 1, such
as drugs, sex, money, power trips, food, and manipulative life strategies of all types. Symptoms are the signposts along life’s
pathway which warn us that we are stuck in World #1, and that we are getting off-track through the use of our shortcut methods
to take the heavenly experience of World # 2 by storm. The more we ignore these signposts, the more drastic the warnings become.
We usually take these warnings as nuisances, as punishment, as threats, and as just part of the expected cycle of disease,
suffering, aging and death.
In Spiritual Psychotherapy, we consciously place our foot in
the door. Whether it be the Door of Revelation or the Door of Crisis, we can choose to place our foot in the door by the awareness
that these two worlds exist, that there are doors between them, and that in certain moments of grace, they open.
The Foot in the Door Position
I teach all of my clients in the first or second session the
enormous value of "getting their foot in the door" by realizing the gift of their symptom. This door only opens occcasionally.
This door is the passageway between the story world (World # 1) and the real world (World # 2). Ordinarily we aren’t
even aware of this door to self-knowledge. We usually just identify with and cling to our story about who we are and what
the world is. As long as that is comfortable, we do not look any deeper. Only when life gets very uncomfortable do we usually
inquire and look throughly. Why should we rock our identity boat?
Once you question the consensus view of reality, you have begun
the path of individuation which Jung spent his life describing. On this journey into the uncharted inner world, you will not
be voted the most popular kid on the block. You will be hacking your own unique trail through the jungle of your self-created
belief system. If your therapist has been through this jungle himself and gone through his own door into the Inner World,
he or she will understand the meaning of your pain and your symptoms, and will develop a therapeutic language with you, through
which you may share the experiences on your journey.
Ordinary language with its usual dualistic meanings will not
suffice for healing because the conflicted meanings conveyed by our semantic brain dictionaries keep us locked into World
# 1. Our story is strung together by various groups of language units, words or concepts which create the setting for our
symptomatology. Our language is a mixture of negatives and positives, but even the positives are fear-driven to an extent
that we would find surprising. Of all the opposites that we experience in our story, fear is the underlying controlling factor.
Every symptom is an indicator of the fearful and dysfunctional
mis-use of language. Out of that dsyfunctional language we spin a tale of weal and woe, of good and bad, of win and lose,
advantage and disadvantage, abundance and poverty, togetherness and separateness. This psychological story is so subtle that
we don’t realize we have made it up and are fueling it, and thus deepening the morass in which we are trapped.
Are we trapped? Not except in our story.
Are we separated? Not except in our story
Are we lacking? Not except in our story.
Are we anxious and fearful? Not except in our story.
Are we victimized? Not except in our story.
Are we failures? Not except in our story
Beliefs create our experience and we create our beliefs, and
out of these mis-creations and mis-beliefs, arise our experiences of entrapment, separation, lack, anxiety and victimization.
Each person has created his own language about self and world, and are trapped in that language and its story No two people
speak the same language. Each person’s unique language has its own unique meanings. Although we assume when we talk
that the words we speak mean the same thing to the speaker as to the listener, it is not so. Each of us is isolated in World
# 1 in a unique language we have made up. And then we wonder why people have trouble communicating.
Every couple in therapy list as their number one complaint that
they have poor communication. Every work dispute, every legal problem, and every war is supposedly due to mis-communication.
However, mis-communication between people is only a symptom of mis-communication with self. Communication with others cannot
be sufficeintly fixed in World # 1. Therapists spend countless hours trying to help people communicate with other people on
the assumption that this is where the problem lies. The root of the problem lies in an inner split within each person, a split
or wall between their two worlds. While it is true that we need to work on interpersonal communication and that some things
can be accomplished through that kind of focus, it is also true that such hard-won gains can easily slip back into the war
of words again. Unless the inner split is specifically and directly addressed, the gain is slow and tentative. Poor communication
just becomes another symptom rather than the problem itself.
A client says that his problem is his spouse’s complaints
about his drinking or drugs. Then he finally says that his problem is his drinking and drugging. Then he says that the problem
behind his drinking and drugging is his anger. Upon investigating his anger, he says that his problem is that he feels powerless
and this makes him angry. Then he says that his father beat him and that is what made him feel powerless. Now just suppose
that the therapist regards any of these things as the problem: whether it be the complaining, the drinking and drugging,
the anger, the powerlessness, the beatings by the father, or the poor communication. I have made such assumptions thousands
of times in my therapeutic career, but each time I became as stuck as the client. None of these is the problem. All of them
are merely symptoms. To call the symptom the problem is mid-diagnosis and leads to mis-treatment. To take the next step, however,
into the search for what the symptoms means, is to enter the realm of Spiritual Psychotherapy.
The cause of symptoms is never found in World #1. The cause
of symptoms is only discovered when you recognize the wall of beliefs which separates World # 1 and
World # 2. Only when you "get your foot in the door" that opens
between these two worlds will you begin to experience where the symptom comes from and what it means. That door is the door
of unconscious beliefs, brainwashing, and cognitive distortions. It is the story about ourselves and our world which controls
and victimizes us, rather than some person or circumstance. If you are so fortunate as to have your apple cart turned over
by a crisis large or small, please get your foot in the door and keep it there long enough to find out what this crisis means.
And believe me, we don’t "know" what it means. We minimize the significance of a crisis and try to hurry through it
with a "quick fix."
I guarantee you that you will be tempted to slam that door and
run back to your comfort zone, seeking any advice or outer adjustment which promises to get things back to "normal."
But "normal" is the problem. "Normal" is whatever or whoever
you have thought you were up until now. The words of Plato should ring in your ears "Know thyself", but do they? Of course
not. Everyone "knows" who they are, they just don’t like it. They just want to self-improve a little, or more likely,
they want someone else to change. But a little change won’t cut it. And all of our "changing others" and "changing the
environment" projects are short lived "successes."
We are still churning around in World # 1, and unconsciously
setting ourselves up for more symptomatic experiences. All of our manipulative manuevers in World # 1 "fail" ultimately and
end up as "self-sabotage. And that is the Good News! Failure in World # 1 is the prerequisite for the Good News of Self-realization
in World # 2. All of us have felt horrified and humiliated by "failure" of any sort. "Failure" is just a judgment. There is
no such thing as failure, except in our World # 1 story. Apparent failure in World # 1 is no different than apparent success
in World # 1. Both are symptoms and have their price. Both are invitations to the inner world of Self-Realization. Success
and failure in World #1 are endless cycles. Today you are the rage, tomorrow you are the pits. The football hero is done by
age 34. The movie starlett gets wrinkles or bad press. All such highs and lows are merely symptoms of your infinity, wake-up
calls from World # 2. Whatever it takes, place your foot in the door and keep it there until Grace appears.
