When you get past the conditioning of the mind and all of the emotional conflicts thereof, you encounter infinite potentiality itself, the Life Force, the raw God Power which Freud misnamed the Id. This Life force is what we most desire and most fear. Uncovering, experiencing and being re-directed by this Life Force is the task of a lifetime. Ignorance and fear of this force is the essence of our symptoms. We have erected all sorts of defenses against the awareness of this basic life energy. We have trivialized or repressed this awareness. We have avoided or abused this infinite experience. The scriptures say you cannot see God and live (as you have been living).

Out of the fear of loss of control of our self, we anesthetize or numb or deny the existence of this infinite energy. We fear going crazy, raping or killing, being destructive, hurting people, being condemned, being selfish. We think that this inmost power is harmful, stupid, primitive, animalistic, sadistic, irresponsible, selfish, and ugly. We imagine that it will break loose, go wild, go beserck. Look at the morning newspaper and see what people do when they lose self-control. And so we seek to develop self-control and self-discipline. We fear this inner power and project it onto others, lest we act it out and go to hell. Hasn’t God and society erected all sorts of laws and rules so that this inner, rotten, sinful, self does not take over?

We can name numerous relatives and neighbors who lost control of their impulses, became alcoholics, beat up their spouses and kids, sexually molested the daughters, and got into fights. These impulses had to be deadened and sedated. We fear that the enemy is within, and it is better to be a mechanical robot than a wild man. Just look at the loss of restraint and dignity all around you. People acting like animals. Once you get started on that downhill plunge, you can’t stop. Something evil takes over. Look at how people lose control, go on rampages and shoot innocent people in the bank or post office. Look at the jails full of criminals and at the senseless wars where millions are slaughtered. What can be done about young people who get into gangs and into drugs and lose control of their lives for years? Spanking and punishing may be unpleasant but at least kids learn to be decent and respectful rather than disobedient and disrespectful idiots. Why, without drugs the mentally ill would be impossible to control, and without jails the psychopaths would take over the streets. Fighting crime and drugs is a constant battle. Isn’t this the way we think?

The dilemma seems to boil down to:

If I let go, will I do bad things?

If I don’t let go, will I go crazy trying to restrain my impulses?

When this Life Force is misunderstood and misjudged, it is restrained, sealed off, rejected, and projected onto others as a shadow or dark side.. It is believed that at the very core of the self there is not a force for intimacy and unity, but a force for pain and injury and irresponsible hedonism. We have feared this unknown inner power and sought to trivialize, secularize, somatize, and intellectualize it. We believe that this force, unless thoroughly controlled, will be used negatively to manipulate, abuse and take advantage. We believe this energy is a greedy and selfish power which we have to guard against and keep secret. At best it has to be stoically controlled. It is perceived to be a godless, ungrateful, rebellious, mean-spirited, fearful and hateful attitude that must be punished, kept in line, restrained, lest one become hurtful, do bad things and feel guilty, live at risk, feel over-powered. It is better to feel powerless than over-powering Family closets are full of skeletons that are guarded from the public eye. Secret sins and desires are kept in the closets of homosexuality and all kinds of unmentionable evils. Pandora’s box is supposedly full of delicious horrible creatures that disturb the good people of the world. If you once give voice to this inner anger and passion, you will lose control and ruin your life of decency and honor.

If everyone gave vent to this inner force, what would happen to the structure of society? Would we have anarchy, blood running in the streets, families falling apart, debauchery and sexual impulses taking over? Would everyone selfishly pursue his own ends at any cost? Would self-expression destroy law and order? We sometimes seem to believe that the innermost rotten core of man must be warred with, that without soldiers and police, this would become a state of war. Isn’t it obvious that evil and the devil is at the heart of man, not God? That God rules the world from above and that we must join him in the battle against the demonic, sick, dangerous, and anti-social forces within?

Such beliefs and fears have ruled humanity from the beginning. Right off the bat, Cain slew his brother, Abel. The whole race ended with a flood. Sodom and Gomorrah happens, and what can you expect except the wrap-up of history with the final catastrophe of Armageddon? No one can trust himself or others. People will steal you blind. You have to be on guard at all times. If anything is infinite, it is our pettiness, lying and cheating. How can anyone say that man is inherently divine? What a ridiculous idea! It’s a rat-race and a dog-eat-dog world, realistically speaking, is it not?

It is said that Jesus "knew what was in man." Was Jesus a realist or a hopelessly romantic idealist? How could he have seen past the evil in man to something sublime and beautiful? How could he say to bring the little children unto me? Where were the brats? How could he hug the lepers, what about their rotten energy? How could he associate with the drunkards and prostitutes? How could he forgive a thief on the cross? How could he trust his life to a cowardly band of so-called disciples? Did he see and trust something we don’t see and trust? How could he maintain Infinite Vision in such a cesspool of human selfishness? That is our challenge in this lifetime. If God is the deepest spiritual force within us, our hidden potential, the Infinite within, is it worth our continual effort to find out the truth and sort out our confusion? If God is this living inner force, then maybe we do not have to drive motorcycles 135 mph to feel alive. Maybe the Id is just a human caricature and misinterpretation of the God Force. Maybe the devil is the God Force misnamed, misjudged, and misused.

Spiritual Psychotherapy operates on the assumption that the innermost force in humankind is a spiritual force, which has been maligned, misjudged and mislabeled for generations, thus producing the most bizarre symptoms imaginable. Re-connection with the truth about this force leads to transformation.