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.)
4. Some prefer paperback books even if they have to wait a day or so to receive it and have to pay more for a printed book and its shipment. Now, 10 paperback books by Henderson are in print and available in two anthologies through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and over 40,000+ booksellers around the globe including in the Americas, Germany, India, Italy, Poland, Russia, China, Spain, Brazil and South Korea. See the end of this post in red text for details.
5. Would you like to have us send to someone as a gift from you a copy of any ebook in our inventory? See the offer in purple text at the end of this post.
6. Or, you may purchase a Floyd Henderson Shopify Gift Card here for someone and offer recommendations for the books in Floyd's store which might be of assistance to them.
7. You may click here to visit Floyd's bookstore which offers both digital books and paperback books which deal with non-duality, non-duality-based fictional adventures, recovery, financial sanity, financial planning, and more.
SEEKING: WHY, WHAT AND HOW?
To review for those that are still inclined seek:
1. Seek to abide as all life-forms on the planet abide except for humans: naturally, not unnaturally and not supernaturally.
2. Seek not to find all that you supposedly are; it is enough to find who / what you are not. (Maharaj)
3. Seek to understand how you were programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed resulting in you and all humans at some point ending up with no ability to use logic and reason but instead accepting anything from any authority figure as truth without questioning and based on blind faith alone.
4. Relatedly, seek to comprehend how phony personality identities subconsciously determine and control your every thoughts, words, and deeds, thereby eliminating the ability to make conscious choices.
5. Seek to find the real source of the Ultimate Sickness and then seek the effective version of the Ultimate Medicine which can treat the Sickness.
So here are the ways that three supposed bases or roots or sources of the
Ultimate Sickness differ:
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “There is a place where God / gods / goddesses abide that is beyond what is experienced in ‘this world.’ There are places beyond 'this world' where one can experience reward or punishment. If people live in a way that earns an eternal reward, then life in ‘this world’ will improve.”
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: “People are spirituality sick, and if they get spiritually well, it will cure whatever physical or mental problems they have as well. Establish conscious contact with God; be quiet and listen; then, you will hear him tell you what you need to hear.”
The MENTAL ILLNESS view: “If you believe you are hearing the voice of a God (or god or goddess) who is speaking just to you, seek professional help. You are schizophrenic at best, and may have far more serious mental and emotional issues, all of which are rooted in the assumption of false, personal identities.”
Maharaj: “You know only what is in your consciousness. What you claim exists outside conscious experience is inferred” – meaning “supposed” or “mere conjecture,” such as in the case where concepts have been dreamed up about
a “second world for all of the good people” and
“a third world for all of the bad people” or
“one life and then reward for holy and pure people” or “multiple, miserable lives for not-holy enough people and for not-pure enough people.”
Based in the MENTAL ILLNESS view, what is happening on planet earth is this:
There is an Ultimate (mind-and-personality-based) Sickness that is transmitted via what Maharaj called “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” . . .
which can inspire a non-questioning acceptance of a belief in gods and goddesses or in a male God
and
which can convince persons that Supreme, Celestial Power(s) live in “another world” from which they control everything that happens in “this world”
and
which can lead persons to further believe that such a Power or Powers control even the most insignificant, self-centered minutiae which occupies the minds of humans
and
which can convince persons that a god or goddess or a God can carry on 7 billion conversations at the same time
and
which convinces persons, egotistically, that a God or gods or goddesses will single them out and talk to them one-and-one.
Thus, this was offered:
“If you believe you are hearing the voices of a God or gods and goddesses who are speaking just to you, seek professional help. You are schizophrenic at best, and may have far more serious mental and emotional issues, all of which are rooted in the assumption of false, personal identities.”
And where are persons led to believe
that (1) they can talk to entities in “other worlds” and
that (2) they can hear messages intended specifically for them which come from those “other world” Controllers of “this world” or even - as evidence of the most extreme self-will imaginable –
that (3) they can hear messages which “other world” gods are passing along to them as intermediaries and that some Heavenly Power or Celestial Controller wants those persons to pass the message along to one or to many other humans?
(Before the answer, consider how those circumstances in #3 must, most certainly, give a message far more creditability since it is coming from one so close to God supposedly and since it is being shared by one who was especially chosen, supposedly, and by one who has been singled out by a god or goddess, supposedly, or by “the one, true God” to serve as a special messenger and a singular representative of god on earth,” supposedly.)
So, where are persons led to believe those beliefs?
They are led to believe those beliefs in places where persons gather who are certain, in their minds, that the ills of the planet are a result of there being too few religious people or a result of there being too few who belong to the “right” religion or the “right” sect or denomination; or,
in places where persons gather who are certain, in their minds, that the ills of the planet are a result of too many people having “an untreated spiritual malady”
(which is a misdiagnosis that, in turn, prevents persons from continuing the search for a proper diagnosis of what really ails them and which, therefore, prevents them from receiving the actual treatment from trained professionals which is often what is actually needed.)
Again, “if you believe you are hearing the voices of a God or gods and goddesses who are speaking just to you, seek professional help.”
From the eBook entitled “Spiritual Sobriety”:
In Psyche News International (April, 1996) Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler offers professional insight into the connection between religion and mental disorders:
“Psychosis” refers to a way of thinking and speaking. It depicts an apparent failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real. People are labeled psychotic when they refer to mental representations of the world as if they were substantive and real. Another example of confusion is the description of the “voice of conscience” as the literal voice of another being (known as “hearing voices”).
The failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real may be intentional (artistic license) or strategic (lying) or the result of a cognitive inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality. There are three ways of using “psychosis” to refer to people speaking and behaving in certain ways:
(1) Psychosis is used to refer to the state of mind wherein symbolic representations of the world (and metaphors) are confused with the real (literal) things they represent.
(2) Psychosis is an applicable label when one ascribes confused speech (such as talking in tongues?) to something else.
(3) Finally, the term psychosis is also used to describe abnormal speech and behavior.
Blaming a psychosis allows some people to justify doing certain things to certain other people. For example, criminals can be absolved of responsibility for their actions (the insanity defense).
Schizophrenia is said to be characterized by hallucinations, i.e., self-reported imaginings. Belief in God is a socially-acceptable self-reported imagining.
Another example of self-reported imaginings, i.e., hallucinations, is the popular belief in the existence of angels. This belief is considered normal by supposedly mentally “healthy” people. Belief in the existence of aliens, on the other hand, is considered abnormal and is a sign of mental illness.
Yet, insofar as angels and aliens are both hallucinations (that is, self-reported imaginings), there is no difference between believing in angels and believing in aliens. Moreover, people who believe in angels are just as adamant in claiming the reality of angels as are those who insist on the reality of aliens.
The difference between these two hallucinations has to do with the effect of these self-reported imaginings on others. That effect is determined by the values of the culture or context within which the self-report occurs.
When self-reported imaginings conflict with socially-accepted norms of belief, speech, and behavior, the claims are considered psychotic.
When self-reported imaginings are consistent with socially accepted norms of belief, speech, and behavior, the claims are considered normal, although perhaps eccentric.
The 12 / 27 / 93 issue of TIME magazine depicts an angel on its cover with the following caption beneath it: “The new age of angels. Sixty-nine percent of Americans believe they exist (a number that has now risen into the high 80's).
The result: most people in the United States (and many all around the globe) are psychotic. All self-reported imaginings of a religious nature come under the heading of psychosis. The symbolic is mistaken for the real, the metaphorical for the literal.
All self-reported imaginings labeled psychosis are essentially religious. To label religious claims as psychotic is no more derogatory than to label psychotic claims as religious.
Calling things by the wrong names may be intentional or strategic behavior not only among those who label “psychosis” a mental illness but also among those who are labeled “psychotic” and who are just as likely to behave that way for their own strategic purposes.
Hearing voices in one's head is normal. We generally call it “our conscience.” [Other times, it is just our self-will, our ego, granting itself what it wants in the guise of God.]
Psychosis is the belief that the voices in one's head belong to another person. The denial of voices-as-self is an attempt to deny the truth. It is a way of saying “this is not me.”
[Consider the self-appointed “Message Carrier from God” mentioned above. Consider how much more impact such a person is trying to give to his or her personal, self-generated, manipulative message when it has tacked onto it “the authority and weight of God.”]
Pretending that the self is split or dissociated is a way of avoiding responsibility. The person with accurate perception can clearly differentiate the symbolic from the real and the metaphorical from the literal.
Accurate use of the term “psychosis” in effecting public and clinical policies must consider the validity of the distinction between socially-unacceptable forms of psychosis (designated as “mental illness”) vs. socially-acceptable ones. That difference is a function of mores, not objective science.”
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.
