Charlie’s symptom is addiction to pornography. His polarity, like anyone else’s, is the good guy (ego) versus the shadow. The shadow is the hidden, shameful, secretive, self-indulgent "solution" to many of his so-called problems. Upon analysis, this shadow symptom is designed to offer him external (polarized) food for an assumed internal lack. The "costs" of this "solution" is wasted time, self-confusion, self-distraction, a false sense of power and control, a denial of his real power and real self-knowledge, money, artificial comfort, self-deception, as well as the re-enforcement of his ego story of lack, separateness, and entrapment. He tells himself that he is more important, more desirable, more in control, more satisfied, when he watches pornography, all of which are lies. Actually he has contracted himself, minimized himself, made himself seem less desirable, made himself less in control of his real life, and re-enforced his belief in emptiness. But will this analysis stand up against the story of lack and emptiness which he has programmed into himself?

Each time that this sense of "lack" and desire for "control" is triggered, he is given the opportunity to say "Yes" to the Self-Realization choice. It is that simple. Moment by moment he chooses to deceive himself with a "lack-and-control" story or Self-Realization. His choice, like anyone else’s, is always and only his fictional finite story or Infinite Reality. The shadow or the Sun. Pornography seems to release some tension, but actually it only intensifies the underlying split, the underlying polarity, the underlying self-deceit that he is not infinite. The naked female form symbolizes the qualities of beauty, eternal youth, innocence, passion, love, the hidden Self, unity, self-exposure, food, availability, and freedom. All of these qualities are already existent in the forgotten Self of Charlie. To pretend that these qualities only exist outside of him is the ultimate self-deception, which leads to self-weakening, and to a greater need to seek the answer outside. Charlie is now learning the power of saying "Yes" to the Self-Realization possibilities and potentialities hidden in his Shadow. His real power always arises from within and each time he realizes this, his power increases.

Desire and fears produce shadows in our story

Desires and fears always go together in our story

I desire to keep what I have and to get what I want; I fear losing what I have and not getting what I want. These desires and fears produce the Shadow

The symptom always conceals and reveals the Infinite, if we choose to be aware of it. What else is pornography about, except concealing and revealing? Clothes conceal and nakedness reveals. That’s not quite it, is it? Nakedness conceals and nakedness reveals. That’s not quite it , either. Clothes and nakedness can conceal or reveal. That’s closer.

"I" refers to "what I want"

"Not-I" (the shadow) refers to "what I don’t want."

Both "I" and "not-I" make up the basis for the symptom and have the power to conceal or reveal.

What was intended to be ego food turn out to be ego-starvation

What was intended to be ego medicine turn out to be ego-poisoning

What was intended to be ego strengthening turn out to be ego-weakening

What was intended to be ego unifying turn out to be ego-divisive

What was intended to be ego-protective and ego-rescuing turn out to be ego-defeating

How can you find out what your addictions mean? Analysis shows that an addiction is composed of desire and fear. An addiction is whatever you believe to be necessary to your survival, comfort, security, pleasure, control, freedom, power or self-worth. In short, an addiction is whatever belief system you depend on.

A phobia is whatever you feel you must avoid and resist.

Analyze your phobias and desires, and you will find that they are always self-limiting and always involved with your symptoms. Desires and phobias both conceal and reveal infinity.

What would you expect, since Infinity and the illusions of the finite is all there is?

What does your symptom conceal? Reveal?

Every spare moment is an invitation to Self-Realization. It is totally an inside job.

Every apparent finite thing, event, or experience is symbolic of the infinite and is able to conceal or reveal the infinite.

Ask yourself: what quality of the infinite does this particular experience conceal and reveal? Every quality is a quality of God, rightly understood. Look at every experience you have and name it as a quality of God. Keep on naming it until the muddy water clears up and you can see crystal clear.

Does this experience reveal the mystery or obviousness of God, the quietness or chaos of God, the rhythm or stillness of God, the disguises or revelations of God, the precision or the wild abandon of God, the contentment or discontentment of God? Is God mean or merciful? Is God selfish or altruistic? Is God violent or peaceful? Is God withdrawn or within? Is God punitive or forgiving? Every quality has its positive meaning. Have you looked for that meaning? We consider anyone mean, selfish, violent or withdrawn who seems to be at cross purposes with our ego agenda, do we not? Analyze your judgments and your ego agendas and see if they are shadow phenomena.

God is a perfect projection screen for our own inner conflicts. God is totally willing to help us see through our concealing and revealing perceptions into the clear light of truth. If we do not do it voluntarily, we receive symptoms as wake-up calls. We are free to live out our stories, but they will not be symptom-free. How could illusions be symptom-free? There is a price for non-awareness, and there is a great blessing in awareness.

When you truly discover what is most addictive and symptomatic in your story, you will have found your key to the Kingdom of Heaven, and you will be chewing on that bone for years to come. That is what is meant in AA when they say "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic". The alcoholic is always "recovering." The real meaning of such statements is that we are hopelessly infinite beings trying to recover from the addictive and symptomatic belief in our shadow story.

Spiritual Psychotherapy is one place in life that Charlie can examine his symptoms and shadows to discover how they both conceal and reveal infinity. 

Today humanity, as never before, is split into two apparently irreconcilable halves. The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.  That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner contradictions, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves.

C.G. Jung