The Way Toward Health - June 22, 1984

June 22, 1984

It is vital, then, that any therapist convinces the client that while the superbeing is a self-construction, and/or that the voices are hallucinations – this does not mean that the client is insane.

An effort should be made to help the client understand that errors of thought and belief are responsible for the condition – and that the removal of those erroneous beliefs can relieve the situation.  The therapist should make it clear that he understands that the client is not lying, in ordinary terms, when he reports hearing voices from the devil.

According to the particular case in point, the therapist should then try to point out the errors of thought and belief involved, and also to explain their more or less habitual cast.

First, the ideas must be disentangled, and then the habitual behavior will begin to disintegrate.  The therapist should also assure the client that on many subjects and topics of thought and conversation, the client operates quite well.  The subject itself is so vast that, of course, an entire book could easily be devoted to it, so it is impossible to cover all the issues that may be involved with such cases here.

Some of the errors concern the misinterpretation of physical events.  The individual – convinced he or she is being pursued by some secretive organization – again, may hear the sirens on a very real police car.  The error is the assumption that the vehicle is pursuing the individual rather than some other party.  The therapist can help the client learn to question his or her personal interpretation of such events.

All such cases can have their own peculiar complications.  In the case of secondary personalities, the main operating portion who usually directs activity might be male, displaying all of the usual male characteristics.  The secondary personality may seemingly be female, however, even speaking in a feminine-like voice.  Or the opposite might be the case.

It is also possible for the individual to dress in male attire, while the secondary personality wears feminine clothes – or vice-versa.

What we are involved in mainly, however, are the characteristic periods of seeming amnesia, occurring usually involuntarily, often without any transition except perhaps for a headache.

In this category, I am not referring to individuals like Ruburt, who speak for another personality with a sense of ease and tranquility, and whose resulting information is excellent knowledge – the obvious products of uncommon sense that proves to be helpful to the individual and others.

Behind all of those instances we have been discussing, however, there is again the need for value fulfillment, that has been blocked largely by conflicting or even opposing beliefs.

Regardless of how unbelievable it might seem to some readers, it is true that even the most destructive events are based upon misinterpretations of reality, opposing beliefs, and the inability to receive or express love.  In fact, that kind of rage is the mark of a perfectionist caught in what seems to be the grasp of a world not only imperfect, but evil.

This brings us to another most dangerous belief – that the end justifies the means.

The greatest majority of destructive acts are committed in line with that belief.  It leads to a disciplined over rigidity that gradually cuts down the range of human expression.

You should be able to see, in fact, that the problems we have been discussing begin by limiting the field of available choices, and thus curtailing the range of expression.  The individual will try to express himself or herself to the best degree possible, and so each individual then begins a concerted effort to seek out those avenues of expression still open.  All of the constructive beliefs mentioned throughout this book should be applied to all of the instances in this chapter.  The individual must feel safe and protected enough to seek its own development and aid in the fulfillment of others.