New Age Misinterpretations of Metaphysical Truth

We have now entered a very special time in human history. An Age of Healing and Joy has dawned in human consciousness on this planet. We now have tools, knowledge, and most importantly, clearer access to healing energy and Spiritual guidance than has ever before been available in recorded human history on this planet.

One of the perfect things that came into my path to stimulate me was a quote that I saw in a post to a mailing list I am on.  This was the quote:

This is an emotional trigger for me. It really makes me angry.  And it was, of course, perfect since right at that time I was writing my article about finding emotional balance through inner child healing - the article that was focused on "through the fear."  The message that there is only love and fear, is one that I have seen in quite a few places - from various authors, belief systems, Spiritual teachers.  It is a message that in my opinion is not only inaccurate, but is also abusive and shaming.

I will talk first about why it is an emotional trigger for me, and then why I think it is inaccurate.

It is an emotional trigger for me because I interpret statements like this one to be saying that fear - and anger - are negative things that one should not experience if one is evolved enough.  That one who is enlightened should be in love all the time and not experience these negative emotions.  It feels to me like what is being said is that if I am experiencing fear I am doing something wrong - that I haven't gotten "there" yet.

The reason that I have an emotional trigger around this kind of statement, that I give it power, is because I am judging myself on some level.  My disease is still in there giving me the message that something is wrong with me, that I am defective, that I am not doing it "right."   Other people's judgments have no power over me unless there is a level within me where I am judging myself.  And I believe that as long as I am in this body, on this plane, in this lifetime, that old programming will not go away completely.  It does not have anywhere near the power it used to possess.  Where is used to be a big monster screaming at me, now it is like a cricket in the corner chirping at me.  But even a little cricket chirping can get real annoying at times.

Because I teach best what I need most to learn, and I am trying to learn how to Love myself - I am sensitive about messages like this, because I know how much power they can carry.  As a recovering codependent, I know how long and hard I have had to work to learn to honor my own Truth and my own feelings, instead of giving power to "experts."  I have also learned on my path, how many of the so called experts were giving out shaming, judgmental messages because of their own wounds.  I have empathy and compassion for them, but I also hold them responsible for the messages they convey.  (Which are of course perfect for wherever they are on their own path.)

In working with codependents trying to overcome the power of the shame, I have often said, "You can't tell a shame based codependent enough that it was not their fault - that they were powerless to change until it was time to change."  When people who are healers reinforce the judgment and shame of the disease through making black and white statements like the one above, I get angry because I have used such statements in the past to beat myself up.  Until I learned how to have internal boundaries, and trust my own Truth, I took in statements from experts (whether they were authors or people with more recovery than I had or anyone that I saw as knowing more than defective me) and allowed it to fuel and feed my disease in shaming and judging and beating myself up.  I am constantly needing to tell clients that such messages are not necessarily the Truth.

And of course, I have been going through a time of great fear, so I took the quote as a personal assault on me.  At a time when I have been recently struggling to be Loving to myself, this type of message is not one that reinforces the belief that I am Lovable and worthy.  To give out shame bearing black and white messages in the name of teaching love, is to me, just as destructive as a parent shaming a child to try to control them.  Our society teaches us to be shaming, manipulative, and controlling in the name of love and I find it just as screwed up and dysfunctional as fighting war in the name of God.