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Re: Mental Health issues - ancient meets modern

Apr 26, 2005 03:14 AM
by Murray Stentiford


At 15:17 26/04/2005, "thalprin" <thalprin@yahoo.com>wrote:

Murray interesting rap I'm sure Mark and Cass will ejoy it -but- I
have no mental illness, depression/anxiety/panic attacks -
I'm pleased to hear that you do not have any of these but in case you thought so, I was not making any such point. I became aware of this discussion only yesterday, so am not speaking to stages of it before then. However, things like EFT have had excellent results with depression, anxiety and panic attacks, as in the water phobia case in my last message.

My opinion is, ifn you have a problem, fix it or -yup- you have a
problem.
And that is one of the advantages of EFT etc - they can be used on oneself (at your own responsibility), though it sometimes pays to have an experienced practitioner because they can help in unearthing obscure or intense issues.

I'm also not particularlly interested in discussing folks' mental
health/illnesses as if it's Theosophy.
Suit yourself, but Theosophy (in a broad sense, not some one author's, necessarily) is a framework for approaching anything in this phenomenal world, because of its fundamental nature. IMO, mental health need not be excluded from discussion on this list as long as the Theosophical relevance is demonstrated.

This isn't hard; mental illness has a whole range of aspects that Theosophy embraces, eg karma, the different energy bodies and principles in the human constitution, the potential for healing, the opportunities for service that illness provides, the nature of incarnation and the limitations that it imposes along with the opportunities for self-expression.

I don't know where you're coming from, but part of the difficulty with modern Theosophy, IMO, is that it has distanced itself from psychology for reasons that were very good in the past, but are weaker today.

Psychology in a broad sense, would cross-fertilise magnificently with Theosophy if people who knew both would help it to happen. This doesn't have to be unscientific, either. Too many scientists, in my experience, fail in their adherence to scientific method by stating that if they can't observe something with the 5 physical senses or physical extensions of them, then it can't exist. Believe it or not, I've seen and heard this. It's scientific tribalism, comparable with the worst aspects of religion that they claim to have left behind. Thankfully, the bridge between science and spirituality is being built from both sides these days at an increasing rate. I have a degree in physics, but I see little need for the theoso-phobias (new word?!) that a lot of scientists still exhibit.

I can say I'm not surprised
that some of the folks who've expressed what I consider unrealistic
idealisms to begin with are now confessing/conferring that they suffer
from anxiety/depression, so on. These matters often walk hand in
hand.
Indeed, and an awareness of the nature of the human shadow, in a Jungian kind of sense, would illuminate a lot of Theosophy and Theosophists if they would open themselves to the reality of it. It is an important aspect of the spiritual path, to encounter one's own dark side and discover how to release and heal it, as appropriate to each aspect. It's quite normal to have idealism as the lamp drawing one on, alongside with denser psychic accretions from the past of one kind or another. As the latter come into view - and often this is painful - it becomes possible to let them go or transmute them.

One way to describe the path is as an approach to integration, and this refers to a whole huge process of self-discovery, as well as discovery of what one is not. By integration, I mean a balanced activation of the different aspects of our being, which can be conveniently summarised as mental, emotional, spiritual and physical, in healthy relationship to each other.

I consider EFT and many of the other energy psychology tools to be efficient ways to release people from suffering and trauma and limiting patterns of the past, freeing the spirit within. This should appeal to anyone with a bit of Bodhisattva in them, to those who are tired of hurting themselves and others, and to those who might want to save a bit of money in the health system.

Murray





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