There are so many forms of depression. Neurotic depression is another form of depression that is observed in people. It is also known as dysthymia disorder. It is a chronic form of depression and is distinguished by the frames of mind that are constantly low however it is not as severe as the other forms of depression. Psychotic depression is the most dangerous form of depression. People that suffer from this form of depression experience the problems like Hallucination and Delusions. Hallucination causes problems in vision and hearing problems. Delusion causes fears and development of negative thoughts in human minds.

Difference between Psychotic and neurotic depression

The cause of Neurotic depression is completely unknown. So many researches have been done to identify the reason of neurotic disorders but none of the research has been successful. This form of depression is not as severe as other forms of depression. It causes depressed mood, hopelessness and despair almost everyday. It is mostly observed in women as compared with men. It can also occur in children as well. The cause of Psychotic depression is also unknown. However few researches have shown that it has something to do with hormonal changes. Hormone named Cortical is the main cause of psychotic depressions that normally leads to stress. It is also not a severe form of depression but should be cured in time. Neurotic depression generally affects four to five percent of general population. It can easily be cured by the help of medicines prescribed by the specialist. It may persist for years if not cured at the right time. In case of this type of depression consulting with a specialist is a wise decision.

Other causes of Neurotic depression

1. Appetite problem, you tend to overeating or less eating.

2. Sleeping problems

3. Your energy level gets low.

4. Ability to Concentrate gets affected

5. Poor self admiration.

Other causes of Psychotic depression

1. Sleeping problems

2. It plays a huge role to get you in the state of Anxiety.

3. You tend to loose the ability to move.

4. Your ears and eyes do not work normally.

Neurotic depression can be cured easily both by medicines and psychotherapy. Medicine that is frequently used to get rid of this disorder is Fluoxetine (Prozac). Along with medicines talk therapies are also very much used to cure this disorder. It has been observed that the interpersonal and behavioral therapies have been a great help in Neurotic depression. Psychotic depression can be cured by antidepressants. Antipsychotic drugs and antidepressants are greatly helpful in the treatment of this type of depression. Trained professionals also use ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) technology to treat psychotic depression. People have found it really very good that have been through ECT. The recovery from psychotic depression takes more than one year time, but the result is always satisfying. Neurotic depression also takes almost the same amount of time. The results in case of neurotic depression are also very good.

Being open, tolerant, and unafraid of the world around us is energizing and healing. And it’s catchy.

When you adopt a positive view of life and the world, you send vibrations and bio-messages to people around you, your loved ones, co-workers, and even total strangers. It’s an unspoken language immediately discernible and works like magic, like a genuine warm smile that melts the scowl of the sourest of faces. And perks up a room full of lonely strangers.

Call it an expression of the principle of allurement or law of attraction: show a warm and positive interest in the people you interact with daily and in most cases, you will be delightfully rewarded with their agreement and cooperation.

It’s human nature: we like people who like us and are turned off by the chemistry of those who are aloof, abrasive, and thoughtless.

This cause and effect dynamic is a variation of the Buddhist perception of karma that states, in simple terms, that we get what we deserve. And that no one is to blame for our thoughts and deeds but ourselves. Consequently, whatever we think and do in our everyday lives has an effect on the outcome of our future. Hence if our action was motivated by anger, greed, or delusion we would be unhappy. On the other hand, the right (intelligent) action, one that is free of anger, greed, or delusion results in happiness.

AFFECTS EVERYBODY

Zen, like other schools of Buddhism, views karma as an inescapable, causal force on Earth that affects everybody. Karma usually refers to deeds corrupted by ignorance. To free oneself (and others) from that ignorance-caused karma and the recurring cycle of samsara, one must be enlightened through the direct experience of satori and its extension or outcome, the sublime state of consciousness, nirvana.

Karma is limited in scope to causality at the human level of thought and behavior. Karma comes from the Sanskrit word Kri which means “doing.” The Western equivalent is “action”. It is therefore volitional and has nothing to do with moral punishment or justice administered by mysterious forces: there is no Supreme Being (in Buddhism) to punish the wicked and reward the good. We do it to ourselves.

YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

Karma is simply human action and reaction, with all their physical, psychological, moral, and socio-economic ramifications. To use a popular expression, “You reap what you sow.”

In this context, the fruits of karma are direct consequences of our volitional or karmic acts. In the case of an earthquake, for example, human failure of judgment (volition) such as building flimsy homes near fault lines or in the harm’s way of volcanoes may lead to unnecessary deaths, injuries and suffering among the affected populace (effects or fruits).

The survivor’s karma of tragic proportions would compel them to rebuild their broken lives from scratch, a struggle that may take an entire lifetime.

There are many great foods to eat to ensure strong cognition, and those who don’t eat such foods obviously will not have the ability to think as well, and could very well experience a mental decline in both short-term and long term acuity. One of the smart things to eat is pork as this white meat is high in protein and very good for you. Those who don’t eat pork will not be as smart. Why is all this so important you ask? Well, the way I see it, failure to eat pork may cause long-term mental memory loss, and could lead to delusions or even brain rot. Okay so, let’s talk.

These findings are not new at all, in fact the ancients realized that white meat, and pork led to significant strengthening of mental abilities, this is why many of the leaders told their armies not to eat it, as they didn’t want them to rebel against the leadership. Of course, this isn’t the only reason. You see, it has been written that pork was difficult to produce in any abundance and the leaders wanted it for themselves, even made up stories as to why folks shouldn’t eat pork. That is a pretty dirty trick in my view. In fact, those leaders claimed the animals themselves were dirty, diseased and not healthy to eat. Actually, pork is much better than other meats to eat.

There is an interesting research paper on this topic titled; “Brain Food,” which was published in October/November 2007; Scientific American Mind; by Ingrid Kiefer. In this article are a number of foods you should be eating to ensure proper cognition and a healthy brain.

In studies of large populations and IQ scores the proof is positive – those who don’t eat pork have a higher percentage of mental derangement and far more in their population who are mentally challenged. The numbers don’t lie. In fact the numbers are staggering and the differences obvious. Still, the myth that pork is bad for you still permeates today in many parts of the world, so much so that many cultures still believe it is bad, unfortunately their populations suffer because of it.

Indeed, better education is needed, however if one has difficulty reasoning and thinking due to lack of the important foods, they may not even be able to grasp the concept that certain foods such as this make one smarter, and prevent delusional episodes. It is my sincere hope that you will please consider all this and think on it.

The most frightening human being I have ever met in my short time on this planet was an Islamic cleric in neighboring Mali who urged me, in all seriousness, to do everything in my power to kill infidels or kaffirs (non-believers in Arabic). He was a sweet old man in his early sixties, and I had just interviewed him for a radio program to be broadcast in Dakar. I had also shared a meal with him and his advisors. I cannot imagine that he personally ever killed anyone, but it was the froideur, the icy coldness, with which he approached the whole idea of killing another human being because of his or her religious beliefs that sent icy chills down my own spine. To this day, I do not know from what part of the human soul this impulse springs.

God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World, Cullen Murphy’s magisterial study of the Inquisition, now available in e-book format, reminds us that the most frightening and most dangerous people in the world are zealots who believe they are right because they are also righteous. Too, they sometimes even believe that they are divinely guided, as my Islamic zealot did. They lack that helpful self-doubt that assails the rest of us. Certain communist leaders from the 20th century suffered from this delusion I believe, Mao Tse Tung, for example, and Stalin, though their self-certainty appears not to have sprung from personal dialogue with the Almighty. More recently, Ayatollah Khomeini had no compunction about also wishing to see kaffirs dead.

Islam has yet to experience a Protestant Reformation, and to be surrounded by Islam sometimes makes one feel that one is living in the eleventh century and not the twenty-first. The gripping tale told by Cullen Murphy starts in a dark time in human history almost that far back, a millennium ago. Established by the Catholic Church in 1231, the Inquisition continued in one form or another for almost seven hundred years. Though associated with the persecution of heretics and Jews, and with the well-known practice of burning at the stake, its targets were more numerous and its techniques more ambitious.

What was completely new to me was the degree to which we owe to the Inquisition so many modern tools of the authoritarian state — the invention of the apparatus of state surveillance for example, along with state censorship, and what former Vice President Dick Cheney refers to euphemistically as “enhanced interrogation.” With the passage of the centuries, the methods of the Inquisition as well as its mindset spread far beyond the Roman Catholic Church to become tools of secular organization and persecution.

Cullen Murphy takes us from newly opened manuscripts he was privileged to be the first to see in the Vatican Library to the connections he so boldly makes to the detention camps of Guantanamo and the filing cabinets of Germany’s Final Solution. Torquemada may be long dead, but his spirit and that of his cohort Grand Inquisitors not only survive him, but are more actively abroad in the world than ever, and doing as great if not greater mischief.

It seems to me that this is the great value of such a book, and the only reason to immerse onself, especially at night before being subject to possible dreams, into these very real nightmares: for Murphy’s real point is that it is only by understanding the Inquisition’s history that we can hope to explain the iron grip of some of its most totalitarian methods in shaping our present world.

With the combination of vivid immediacy and learned analysis, Murphy puts a human face on a familiar but little-known piece of our past and argues that only by understanding the Inquisition can we hope to explain the making of the present. He traces the 700-year history of successive Catholic Inquisitions to expose their underlying consistencies and contradictions, their mechanics and diabolical devices, to highlight those common threads that start a millennium ago and stretch right into today’s newspaper headlines. The “enhanced interrogation” I mentioned earlier, as it is practiced at Guantanamo, is quite similar to the Roman process of rigoros esamine (Latin: rigorous examination), he explains. Indeed, modern interrogation techniques as outlined in a U.S. Army manual are eerily parallel to the sophisticated inquisition techniques first outlined in a manual from the 1300s.

Another important point that I had to grasp was that inquisitions need not necessarily be religious (though my personal experience with zealots in West Africa is that they are always religious fanatics). But the deeper point is that moral certainty is a very dangerous self-attribute, be it religious, political, corporate, or chauvinistic.

The true believers are the most dangerous men and women who walk the earth because they are prepared to judge you and me by standards we not only do not accept, but may never have even heard of. They believe that they alone know the path that is true, the path that is right, and we must deeply fear their certainty because the “inquisitorial impulse” springs directly from it, whether it is religious or atheistic.

Murphy asks us to consider many the inquisitions over the last century, citing a litany in the United States alone: The Palmer Raids (an early Red Scare led by the young J. Edgar Hoover in the 1920s), the Japanese internment in California, Cointelpro, and more recently the Patriot Act. The McCarthy Era alone was more far-reaching than any church inquisition, he argues.

This is a sobering book, an excursion into history that may prove far more relevant to the present than any of those who pick the book up casually first guess, but the present relevance of God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World is its most important message — and reason alone to read and study this text.

Living in the world of duality is like a roller coaster ride; at one moment, you are moving up, and at the next you are moving down. In the many lifetimes we have spent on this planet we have sown the seeds of Karma (karma is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘action’ and implies that every action causes a reaction). Some of this sprouted and began to bear fruit during the same lifetime but much of this remained for other lifetimes that followed. We already know that in order to hold the universe together, every particle has an anti-particle.

This same principle applies to karma; every action has its anti-action or reaction. This is universal law. Since we are currently living in the realm of three-dimensional space-time reality, time seems to move in a linear fashion. It is our perception that things occur in sequence, one after another. An action here causes a reaction there, after a certain time has elapsed. Although this is just an illusion created by our 3D-oriented senses, most of us live by this notion of time. This allows us to perceive cause and effect as two separate events in time and space. Based on this delusional perception we experience duality as a concrete reality, and this delusion runs through every event in our lives and is part of every relationship of ours.

We have purposely sown the seeds of happiness, joy, forgiveness, compassion, justice, friendship, caring, giving, saving life, health, strength, etc. many times over during our many existences on Earth. But we have also sown the seeds of fear, anger, depression, sadness, revenge, harshness, injustice, enmity, insensitivity, selfishness, destroying life, sickness, weakness, etc. What could possibly motivate us to cause harm to others and ourselves other than the conviction that we are essentially evil by nature? The answer is found in the fact that love cannot assume its role in life unless we feel how it is not to have loved. So we had to co-create, together with the members of our soul family, the ideal scenarios that would allow us to experience hateful relationships, feeling rejected, being lonely and/or isolated, etc.

All the players of the drama of duality here on Earth have known beforehand which role would benefit them most to bring them closer to conscious alignment with Spirit. We have all chosen to play the roles both of the victim and the victimizer innumerable times. I personally killed scores of people during my lifetimes as a warrior in the battlefields of the Middle Ages. I had been instrumental in bringing hardship and torment to many. Yet I could not have done that if other souls had not agreed and volunteered to play the victims, which then paved the way for me to sow the seeds of healing, love and understanding in other lifetimes, such as this one. In return, I offered to help others in mastering their life lessons by playing the victim in a similar fashion and according to the principles of karma.

There is no judgment in the law ‘as you sow, so shall you reap’. It is merely a self-evolving, perpetual principle of life that sustains our perception of duality until we are able to transcend it and perceive it for what it is. We are not being judged by God or anyone else, except perhaps by ourselves, for taking duality to its extremes i.e. for being a saint in one lifetime and a sinner in another. On the contrary, we are praised by the angels and masters on the other side of the veil for doing such painful work. It takes a saintly vision and a lot of compassion to see God in a murderer.

There are many throughout the world who believe we are being visited by…Extraterrestrials. Local as well as National news networks are reporting on objects and lights seen in the sky. For the uninformed it is easy to dismiss these occurrences as delusional experiences by the observer.

On March 13, 1997…the state of Arizona hosted an event that has come to be known as The Phoenix Lights. The event was witnessed by an estimated 10,000+ observers over a period of several hours. The basic story is that an object…more than a mile wide…with five to seven glowing lights…shaped in a V…swept from the North to the South of the state. The object was very low to the ground…moving extremely slowly…and made no sound whatsoever.

Was this a delusional mass hysteria event? Let’s examine the three key words: delusional, mass, and hysteria. I will rearrange their order for the purpose of this article.

• The definition of mass is to assemble or cause to assemble a large body of people. For those who have studied this event, there is evidence that suggests more than 10,000 people observed this phenomenon on the day of March 13, 1997 in the state of Arizona.
• The state of being delusional is holding a false belief. A delusional disorder is an ongoing psychological experience in which a person relates to the world while holding false beliefs about reality. Some would suggest that this mass of people are clinging to a false belief or interpretation of what they believe they saw.
• Hysteria is the state of operating with exaggerated or uncontrolled emotion or excitement. Within an individual or group…there would be high levels of fear or panic. Irrational emotions would take over the calm and reasoning mind.

The question remains…was The Phoenix Lights phenomenon…a delusional mass hysteria event? My short response would be no…by definition. And this is my reasoning for making that assertion.

This event was witnessed by many people over a period of time. It wasn’t a snapshot moment. It was a progressive event. People were going about their daily routine…when the event began to unfold. And documentation indicates that more than 10,000 people witnessed a similar experience. So it was a mass event.

However, to suggest it was a delusional experience doesn’t fit the facts. There were thousands of everyday people involved. It is hard to imagine that all of these people were drawn into a hoax all at the same time. And that the end result of that experience was that a false belief of reality was somehow forced upon them.

It is a fact that highly competent and respected community leaders witnessed the same event. These were not backwoods people who others think are easily swayed by superstition. There were government leaders, police officers, medical doctors, owners of businesses, trained psychologists…and the list goes on…of people who observed this event.

And lastly, there remains the question of hysteria. It is interesting that in the following months…community leaders and volunteers organized themselves in a calm manner to discuss what had happened. They were orderly and methodical in their approach. They all had witnessed an event. Their question was…What did we experience?

Do you have a crush on a hot girl? Do you want a hot girlfriend? Do you want hot girls to like you instantly? No matter how ugly you are, you can still get any girl you want.

A hot girl is usually popular and enjoys shutting down guys. And she believes that everything will go the way she wants it for her. Here are a few keys tricks to make a hot girl desperate for you…

Delusional Sense of Coolness

Everything is an illusion therefore let your beliefs be a delusion. Talk to yourself in a pimpish way. Tell yourself that you are the coolest guy on the planet.

“I AM THE COOLEST GUY ON THE PLANET”.

Keep repeating that to yourself every single day. This is extremely powerful and very important if you want to land hot girls and gain instant respect from guys.

Social Proof

Do you know almost everyone in your social circle? Everyone in the bar/night club must know you well. Have you seen that most of the hot girls surround the DJ? Do you know why?

It’s because he’s popular and he’s the party. All the guys know him and all the girls know him.

Social proof makes a woman become desperate for you. You will begin to gain social proof naturally if you have the delusional sense of coolness.

Playfully Tease Her

Don’t give her a compliment. A hot girl can’t be given a compliment right away. This is what almost every guy does. You have to be different if you want to land the hot one easily.

When she’s near you, take a look at her and tell her that she’s got something disgusting coming out of her nose.

Or you can tell her that there’s some food stuck on her face or there’s something stuck in her teeth.

This will instantly get drop her off guard and make her self-conscious.

Be Your Best Self

You’ve got to be your best self every minute. Putting your best self forward isn’t just about putting on the best suit.

It’s about being your best self every single minute of the day. You have to be the best if you want the best.

Even if you’re looking for a girlfriend, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure you’re looking for the best girlfriend on the planet for you.

Every single minute, be your best self. Look your best, do your best and trust yourself in your ability to be the best. Never ever be self-conscious about what other people might think of you.

Disregardance

This is very powerful and requires a delusional sense of belief and faith that only a few men naturally possess.

And those who possess this don’t get laid that easily. But they do have the power to get any chick they want.

Disregard everything that is external. If a guy comes up to you and says, ” I’m better than you at this!”

Tell him, “Balls to you! What the xxxx do you know? I can do it better than you”.

This is the attitude you must have all the time. This will naturally help you develop social proof and get the hot girl attracted to you instantly.

People tend to confuse between Psychoses or what is also called a Psychotic Disorder, to Schizophrenia. In one word the schizophrenia is the disease or illness and the psychosis is the active manner of it. Here are 7 differences that will help you differentiate between psychosis and schizophrenia:

1) The active signs

When you suffer from psychosis, you have what is called active signs. Those signs are hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, hearing voices, imagining things and thoughts and so on. All of these are the active signs and reflects a psychotic disorder or psychosis. These active signs usually appear for about a maximum of 5% of your life.

2) The negative symptoms

When your psychosis is under control by anti psychotic medicines or other means, then you tend to suffer from post psychotic effects that are called the negative symptoms such as depression, lack of motivation, lack of vitality, fatigue, being closed in yourself and so on.

3) Self control

During your psychosis, your self control tends to be minimize or even not to be at all. The ability to distinguish between right and wrong and to control your movements and reactions is very low, while during the schizophrenia negative symptoms your self control is as normal people.

4) Self awareness

When going through psychosis, your self awareness tends to be minimal or even not to be down to the point that you can not distinguish if you are in some kind of psychosis or not, while during the schizophrenia negative symptoms, your self awareness is as a normal person.

5) The reality distinction

When you suffer from psychosis, you usually can not differentiate between what happens for real to what is only in your mind as a delusion or hallucinations. The ability to distinct between what is real and what is not, remains as a normal person when you suffer from the negative symptoms of the schizophrenia disorder.

6) The duration

Psychosis usually tend to stay for a short time between few days to few weeks, while the schizophrenia negative symptoms tend to stay in some level for your entire life.

7) The treatment

The best and usually the only treatment for psychosis are anti psychotic medicines, while treatment for the schizophrenia negative symptoms are more various and ranges from exercise, having a mate, having social life, having an occupation, sleeping well, keeping your hygiene, eating well and right, having a diet and so on.

Let us look at ways in which the aspirant can sabotage or disrupt their progress to the Threshold of Transformation.

Misinterpreting

The aspirant may misinterpret what is happening, perhaps because they would rather see things that way or in order to have events conform to their hopes and wishes. For example, the aspirant feels and announces that she has “finished” with her parental or other childhood attachments. Unfortunately the inner world is not as defined or explicit as the outer world. When we paint a picture, cook a meal, or go for a walk, we may clearly know when we have completed the task. But the progress and attainments of inner work are subject to our projections, delusions, and fantasies. In misinterpreting, she is avoiding completion, holding on to her parents, and retaining a trace of childhood dependence, rather than truly releasing herself from any attachments. The probes for the therapist are: How are you still holding on? How does dependency reveal itself in your present life, for example, in your current relationship and in attachments to others, or in your fears based on past hurts or childhood dynamics? How do you feel you may be dependent on your therapist and the therapy process itself?

Bargaining

Internal bargaining involves some psychological negotiations or haggling in order to get round some obstacle or get away with something, in the hope that you may avoid the inevitable. While bargaining may serve some purpose in the outer world, in the inner world taking from one part of ourselves to benefit another is counterproductive and negative from the point of view of the psychological state of wholeness. Remembering that the inner state of wholeness is a relatively new condition of life for the aspirant-seeker, some new understanding must arise. The therapist needs to skillfully show the aspirant that “robbing Peter to pay Paul” is no longer an option. We cross the Threshold whole unto ourselves or not at all. Partialness is not an option. The therapist reinforces and helps the aspirant to cultivate and nurture trust, faith, and surrender at this time. The therapist asks the aspirant: Are you aware that you are bargaining? What do you think you can achieve through internal bargaining? In your life up to now you have been innerly conflicted, but the state of wholeness demands your unified self – what changes do you need to take in how you meet life and accommodate this new reality?

Delusion

The reality of the aspirant’s situation must be faced squarely. Delusion has no place and is sharply damaging and even subversive now. This is a good time for an ultra-honest audit of the inner world. The therapist reinforces and draws attention to the need to follow the authentic heart, the central core of honesty in the aspirant. The therapist’s probes and themes and focuses include: What remains to process? Where are you truly… really? What are your current challenges? What are you avoiding? What are you resisting?

Compensating

The insecurity of the present condition, teetering on the edge of the transformational threshold causes the aspirant to seek security in some established aspect of life – relationship, work or professional life, creative endeavors, even spiritual practice. Many a aspirant poised on the Threshold “backs up” and takes consolation from some aspect of their past life that suddenly appears compellingly positive, fruitful, and fulfilling. The aspirant announces: I have decided to devote myself to my partner and make my relationship work or I have accepted a new position job in my firm.

Compensation has a strange perhaps synchronous way of appearing in your aspirant’s life as eminently solid, practical, and sensible. The therapist conducting his aspirant across the Threshold at this point is keenly aware that events and opportunities are likely to emerge out of left field and undermine the inner processes that lead to transformation. In some ways as I write this I feel what it is I feel when I confront a aspirant about the sabotaging strategy of compensation… which is somewhat arrogant – after all who am I to tell someone that what is happening to them, what they are choosing, is somehow bogus while the legitimate route for their life lies straight in front of them… onward and over the Threshold. Nonetheless, I am convinced, because I have seen this so many times, that compensation even with the cooperation of outside forces in the word that appear to deliver the opportunities on cue is an avoidance of transformation.

The therapist probes and questions like this: What makes you work/relationship seem suddenly so worthy of your undivided attention? What are you afraid of? I have the feeling you are getting cold feet about your inner work and your therapy. Don’t you think it rather strange that these opportunities should present themselves at this very point in your inner work? Are you trying to avoid the transformative threshold?

Sudden Crisis

One such is the appearance of a sudden crisis. The crisis necessitates the aspirant’s relocation, attending to a relative or friend, immersing herself in a new life path professionally, relationally, or creatively. Although a sudden crisis in the aspirant’s life is a form of the previous compensation strategy, I have included it separately because I have found it so common.

The therapist’s probes include: Why do you think this crisis has appeared in your life now? Is this crisis as serious as you think it is? Have you noticed how this present event coincides with an important critical time in your therapy? Is your response to this crisis a way of avoiding a breakthrough in your therapy?

Transferring

As apparent as it is to anyone but the aspirant, the aspirant transfers this crucial opportunity onto someone close to them and perceives them as experiencing an initiatory event. The aspirant is compelled to help or facilitate the process and illogically this means they have to end therapy at this critical point in their own development. It is indeed remarkable how blind a previously aware and observant aspirant may be to the sequence of events that sabotage their inner work in this way. The therapist probes: What is it you see in the other person that reflects what is happening in your life? If you were [name of the friend] what would you need to do now? How does withdrawing from your personal therapy benefit anyone now? I feel you are transferring your current life situation onto your friend.

Bailing out

The aspirant is unexpectedly drawn to another therapist, training, or psychotherapy approach. Glowing reports of this new way, this new method have reached them via new friends or old ones and it places your therapy at a disadvantage. Modern versions of this are the Ayahuasca ceremony, charismatic spiritual teachers, a welter of therapy approaches that promise immediate or fast results, and the ubiquitous mainline “hit” of large-scale events based on principles from humanistic psychology and Zen Buddhism, complete with celebrity endorsements proclaiming the event to have been turning points in their highly successful careers. Whatever it is, it constitutes bailing out.

The therapist’s probes are: What makes you think the new approach will benefit you more than following through with your present therapy process? What other instances of the grass is greener did you experience before? What attracts you to [name of therapist or charismatic leader]? What has convinced you after this time of working with me that you can do your work faster?

Taking the Shortcut to Grandeur

The aspirant becomes convinced that they have crossed the threshold. But they haven’t. In my experience this may go hand in hand with a withdrawal from the therapy relationship, a little “disloyalty” by conferring with another or other practitioners, and becoming susceptible to outside lane influences i.e. forming an alliance with personal development methods that promise quick results. Either way your aspirant chooses to take the shortcut to grandeur.

The aspirant who sits before you and starkly announces their psychological enlightenment is a challenge. We are reminded of Yalom’s reluctance to be Loves Executioner and how therapy pursues reality beyond and through the destruction of romantic dreams. So neither may we want to be Transformation’s Executioner, but of course we sit in a seat marked Truth. What is therapy without the guiding principles of Truth, Reality, and authenticity?

The kind of aspirant who falls for this harmful shortcut is typically effusive, perhaps hysteric as a character strategy, certainly impressionable, and has a history of breaking loyalties, an inability to sustain or a deficit of the following through energy we discussed in module 3 of this course. Being aware of these tendencies can forewarn us as therapists that our aspirant approaching the threshold may succumb to the delusion of grandeur.

A further difficulty is that we as therapists are invited to collude. The alleged transformation is usually offered as a vindication and fulfillment of all they have experienced and the trials and tests they have passed through. You are invited to collude, with the corollary that if you don’t your skills and abilities as a therapist will be called into question.

The therapist’s probes are: What makes you think you have crossed the Threshold? How did this transformation take place? Where do you see yourself now? What enabled you to persist through the transition (when, for example, I haven’t seen you for six weeks)? What are your intentions about ongoing therapy (this is very important because the delusional, transformed aspirant characteristically does not want to be known since it would give the game away, so they stop therapy with you now if not altogether. If they do some growth work, it is with someone who knows them less well and is therefore unlikely to rumble their delusion).

The emotional walls against her desires and vulnerabilities came down, and she felt them release toward him, responding to his sexual energy as they hugged. She felt available in a physical, emotional, sexual way, beyond her conscious control and beyond the meaning of what was actually true between them. She experienced herself as a woman. And although she enjoyed the feelings of experiencing this, it was separate from her emotional connection with him. Her physical, sensual responses to him were in conflict with the emotional truth between them.

This experience is not uncommon. Sensual experience can leave women with difficulty drawing distinctions for their own benefit. Many of the women who are coming into their power and sense of purpose in life at this time find themselves having difficulty holding on to this in a relationship. For many of them the question is, “How can a woman be fully connected to the vulnerable softness and responsiveness of her sexual and emotional nature, in a way that doesn’t distort the emotional truth between herself and the man she is relating to, and their souls’ purpose in relating with each other – and that doesn’t give away her power and value?” (Although this is from a female perspective, there is, no doubt, an analogous dilemma that relates to many men, but with different dynamics.) The solution relates to whether we get into states of delusion in relation to each other, or whether we are willing and able to be in our present moment experience, with all aspects of ourselves. Sexual energy can be used to create states of delusion, but it doesn’t have to.

There is a major difference between pleasure that comes from reality, and pleasure that comes from fantasy, delusion, or illusion. People who lean on illusion, do so because they don’t believe they can get their needs met in reality. This is the result of unhealed emotional issues, which can be cleared. Reality is always more powerful than illusion and is ultimately the only state in which there is connection, harmony, freedom, joy, growth and evolution.

Narcissism is a major defense system promoted by this culture, which distorts and avoids real experience, mainly by the use of sexual energy. This energy is used to attract and control others. It causes immediate and overwhelming pleasure that has a drug-like effect and can be very addicting, keeping people coming back for more. It also creates illusions about desirability in people who feel lacking in their own value. They give up their power to the person putting out that energy in order to delude themselves they are valued. This is not the same as being related to by that person or being actually valued by them.

Each person is holding a model of reality (paradigm) in place, individually and collectively, and these have a large effect. Many of our paradigms, to varying degrees, are an avoidance of the here-and-now, and therefore a distortion of reality. They hold a surface experience in place we think serves us, while what is really happening under the surface undermines us and keeps us from taping into our potential, evolving, and connecting with each other. They keep our experience of life limited to what we think we can control, understand, and feel safe with.

Current social pressures define sexual relating as attraction based on illusion (often illusion-based appearance), and is an avoidance of reality. From counseling many individuals and couples, and from personal experience, I’ve become aware that a new paradigm is evolving from those of us who have a greater sense of our own value, and those of us who have a strong sense of our purpose for being here on earth. Many of us have worked through enough of our unhealed issues so that our desires are in alignment with real experience. The new paradigm is attraction based on our essence expressing itself. It is accessible, because it is real, something that can be engaged with and related to. It’s inclusive of other people and open to life. When we’re in a state of reality, we can freely, from a place of power and integrity, release our passion and vulnerability, because it is aligned with life-transforming universal truth.

© Jane Ilene Cohen 2007