ANNOUNCEMENTS
[Walter Driscoll asked to interview me in order to preserve on video some of the latest modifications and evolutions in the versions of the message offered here since 1989. He would label the discussion, "Unlearning with Floyd Henderson."
Please note: For those who have a problem hearing what is being shared, the video offers a fairly accurate set of closed captions which some listeners might want to activate.
The interview is available for viewing by clicking on video "NUMBER THIRTEEN" in the column to the right.]
1. [See the offer in gold text following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj]
2. Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of god," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the green text after today's post for the full meaning and implications of that.
3. A new video ("Number Ten: Awakening Together Satsang, March 2018") has now been added in the far right column of this page, offering the opportunity to view a recent 2018 satsang session with Floyd being interviewed by Regina and Jacqueline of "The Awakening Together Group." (See the details in the blue text after this post.)
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How Dualistic Thinking Reinforces Ignorance, Justifies Inaction, and Prevents the Understanding of Causation
[Continued from yesterday]
THE ANATOMY OF ONE OF THE GRANDEST OF ALL RELIGIOUS / SPIRITUAL CONS
Religions and spiritual movements have long thrived on the promises they make. Consumers are warned to read the fine print in any guarantees made which encourage them to turn over their money to leaders who are savvy brokers of false assurances, pledges, oaths, and vows.
Religious and spiritual and political and business persons' words have no such fine print. Nowhere do they admit, "Well, we believe what we're saying, but it might be BS."
All religions and spiritual movements have what they claim to be their “holy” books which supposedly codify their promises and which are used to sell their beliefs.
One of the grandest religious / spiritual cons has been conducted on a planet-wide basis by the sell and circulation of one book in particular which is not among the well-known “holy” books of organized religion or spiritual groups.
** It is a book which has sold over 40 million copies.
** It is a book which has been translated into 67 languages.
** It is a book which the Library of Congress declared in 2012 to be “one of the 88 books that shaped America.”
To understand . . . what that book has done to dissuade those with addictions from seeking trained, professional treatment for their particular personality disorder (one of scores of disorders which are centered in the mind) and to understand as well the workings of a body’s sugar allergy and certain under-functioning organs involved with metabolism . . .
is to understand how millions have missed out on effective treatment plans and have had their insanity reinforced rather than treated.
While claiming a “success rate” of 90% plus on some occasions, a $22,000,000.00 international study revealed that most who join a group that uses that book stay sober for five years or less with many staying sober for 1 to 2 years at the most.
The book is called “The Big Book,” and the lie that it and the members of groups that use that book tell is this:
“Alcoholism is caused by ‘a spiritual malady’ and only God can restore a person with the Addictive Personality Disorder to a state of sanity.”
And millions upon millions around the globe from the late 1930’s to this very day believe that lie; therefore, instead of addressing their mental and emotional issues with a trained professional, they allow amateurs who claim to be spiritual and who claim to have been restored to sanity to guide them after convincing them that their problem is rooted in their “sick spirit” or in their “spiritual malady.”
There are some revealing comparisons which can be drawn between
(1) the ineffective methods which persons use to address the problem with a personality disorder called “alcohol addiction” (or any of the hundreds of other types of addictions which those in various subgroups which have been formed to address addictions to sex, drugs, shopping, porn, nicotine, ad infinitum.
Moreover, there are some revealing comparisons which can be drawn between a problem which centers in the mind and (2) the ineffective methods that persons use to address the problem that non-dualists call “the Ultimate Sickness” or that psychologists call “personality disorders” or that mental health professionals call “neuroses or psychoses” or that other professionals call “varying degrees of insanity.”
Please indulge this opportunity to share some background information on what has been said to be “one of the best-selling books of all times” and then see how all duality-based beliefs blocks any ability to understand actual causation (which is a prerequisite for formulating a more effective treatment plan).
There was a man in New York who was planning to write a how-to book on treating and recovering from alcoholism. His plan was to write a 500-600 page work in which he would use the first 150-175 pages to introduce to the readers a summary of what was, at the time, the current medical opinions on alcoholism;
a summary of his own riches-to-rags downfall as a result of abusing alcohol; a
recounting of how he eventually recovered; and then a detailed analysis of the
method that he and certain non-professional associates used to guide others to
recovery from alcoholism.
He intended to include elements of certain Far Eastern philosophies that he had
been attracted to over the years and which he felt could broaden the
perspective of persons and inspire some to visualize things on a grander scale
and to see “The Big Picture” (and thereby provide some additional understanding
of the way the universe functions while shifting persons away from focusing
solely on the silliness and pettiness of the relative existence).
After that, he intended to include around 400 pages of “personal stories” and “personal
testimonies” that would give credibility to the efficacy of the method he was
touting.
Then, the bigger plan was to open a network of hospitals around the globe, each
with a professional staff of medical doctors and psychologists who would
address the mental and emotional root causes of addiction - including the
untreated effects of trauma that were common to most sufferers - and then
reverse the insane, self-destructive behavior that manifested alongside
alcoholism.
He arranged for the funds to publish the first edition of the book and began
writing, not really intending to collaborate with the people in Ohio where he
first sobered up. He was not intending to seek any input from them except for
the 400 pages of stories he needed to flesh out the book and to give
credibility and standing to his message and the nickname “the Big Book.”
He was surprised when they began playing “hardball” by demanding to see
chapter-by-chapter previews of the manuscript before they were sent to the
publisher.
He was further surprised when the first major argument broke out over his
statement that “the main problem centers in the mind.” Being a group of people
who had bought heavily into the religious roots of the plan they had used to
sober up (which was not this author's plan but was the plan that he was copying
and modeling his method on) they objected to that line. They believed that
moral shortcomings were the root cause of alcoholism, so the original program
called for moral rearmament.
The author stood fast, saying something to the effect that all of the
professionals in the field agreed that the roots of the illness were mental and
emotional - along with a physical quirk or allergy that was also recognized. At
that point, a form of blackmail began when the Ohio group said,
basically:
“You can only include the line about 'the problem centering in the mind' if you
add another line that says if alcoholics become religious (which they agreed to
call “spiritual” to make the process more palatable to rebellious drunks) then
those alcoholics would heal both mentally and physically.”
He tried to stand fast again, saying that “being spiritual” had nothing to do
with addressing the mental and emotional issues that the doctors had identified
as what had to be treated to be free of the effects of alcoholism.
Their reply was something along these lines: “Refuse to make the point that
spirituality is the end cure for alcoholism and we will refuse to submit our
stories, which are going to be about 75% of the book you plan to write. No
spiritual cure, no stories; no stories, no book.”
He caved. The result: millions upon millions of people over the last 80+ years
have studied the most widely-read book ever on the subject of alcoholism's
cause and treatment, and millions upon millions have been convinced that they
do not need professional treatment for the trauma and mental and emotional
issues that drive their illness but that they instead only need to be super
spiritual.
(The author did get the final word in, but only via an appendix, so few every
reach that point in their reading because it is the 569th page of 575 pages in
the third edition. Therein, he inserted a line that went back to the original
point that he and the professionals intended to make all along regarding the
root problem with the alcoholic.
So he
wrote a major point at the end of the book, as if an afterthought and in a
small font that the Midwest crowd accepted, and he included another of the Far
Eastern-based pointers (regarding the inner guru or the “inner resource” as
opposed to an outer resource such as “a God in another realm”). He wrote:
“With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unexpected inner
resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power
greater than themselves” (that is, greater than their false selves). So “the
Power” is an inner resource, not an outer resource, he said (which is a purely
Eastern teaching shared by a few in that region).
The author then differentiated between their religious and non-religious
members, using the term “awareness” to refer to that which came to the
non-religious members and then saying of the other group-within-the-group: “Our
more religious members call it God-consciousness.”
“God-consciousness” for one group; “awareness” for the others.
So much for those who brag that they are in a “spiritual program, not a
religious program” but then mention God and God-consciousness. In that very
act, according to the co-founder of their program, they are by definition “religious”
if they talk about “God” instead of an awareness of that which comes via
the inner resource.
So what has been the end result for the millions of persons who use that book
and focus on a “spiritual” cure for what is actually a physical and mental illness?
The results of that $22,000,000 worldwide study of the current effectiveness of
their plan revealed the program has a 1.5%-3.5% average “success rate,” and “success
rate” was defined in the study as maintaining at least five years of
sobriety.
The message for non-dualists is the same message that was intended originally
by that author: the main problem on this planet nowadays centers in the mind
and is rooted in what Maharaj called “stupidity verging on insanity.”
While
insanity can most assuredly have a physiological component (chemical
imbalances, nutritional deficiencies, etc.) insanity is primarily a mental
issue, so the problem of the “mind” must be addressed.
Thus, Maharaj shared these pointers:
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told
by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
“First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then,
in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God.
Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good
to happen to you.”
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove
false.”
“Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this
objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world.
All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud.”
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the
meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
“Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an
end.”
“There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a
question of understanding.”
“There is no progress.”
“Go to zero concepts.”
Two key points to consider:
1. If you are suffering from cancer and go to a doctor who tells you to take
two aspirin for what ails you, his advice is only going to guarantee more
suffering and pain . . . and possibly a hastened demise.
2. If you are (a) suffering from cancer and go to a doctor who tells you that
you are suffering from an operable cancer but that (b) his or her
recommendation is that (c) instead of undergoing surgery to remove the cancer
within that you (d) try to pray away the tumor as an alternative, then only one
of you is suffering from “stupidity verging on insanity.” Only if you agree
with her or his recommendation to pray away the tumor, then only are you both
suffering from “stupidity verging on insanity.”
Yet it is quite typical among those suffering to take the word of the one
presenting himself or herself as the expert, is it not? Ah, now there's the
rub.
Now some ask, “Surely you are not saying that alcoholics would be better off if there were no AA to go to?!” First, no advice is given regarding what venues persons should or should not seek in. But there are some considerations offered in regards to the following:
A. In regards to any program or organization recommending a spiritual (magical / supernatural) treatment for an illness when their treatment that has been shown by research to have a 96.5% to 98.5% failure rate should inspire caution (more on that to follow); however, those entering that treatment program are usually told that their success rates are far higher.
The same caution should be exercised if looking for healing from
B. those using “black magic” or “voodoo” to heal or when a self-described medicine woman or medicine man suggests they can determine the proper treatment for what ails you by squeezing the testicles of a goat.
C. Additionally, the same caution should be exercised if searching for answers to the problems of the planet (or if believing one has been given all of the answers) via organized religion when the facts show that more people have been killed as a result of religious beliefs and dogma and ideologies that from any other factor except “natural causes.”
The same caution should be exercised if
D. a religious adviser suggests that prayer is the only proper and acceptable means for healing one's children when a simple round of antibiotics is required to cure an infection. (More on that later.)
And finally, the same caution should be exercised if
E. looking for healing via “spirituality,” because it too can result in adverse effects, relatively speaking.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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"From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality");
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THE EXPLANATION
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."
teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.
