Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Inborn predispositions to life

“When you are born, you possess a group of attitudes toward yourself and toward life.  These allow you to grow with the greatest possible impetus into childhood.  They are also important in every period of your life.  You can see the results in life all about you, though in animals or plants these are experienced as a matter of feelings rather than, say, as thoughts or attitudes. …

“Even as infants, then, you are predisposed naturally toward certain feelings, thoughts and attitudes that are meant to insure your healthy survival and emergence into adulthood.  These are actually composed of inbred psychological information as necessary and vital to your life as the data transmitted by your genes and chromosomes. Indeed, these inbred, inner psychological predispositions are all-important if the information carried by your genes and chromosomes is to be faithfully followed.

“It is difficult to translate such biological and psychological material into the words of any language, even though these inbred psychological prerequisites form kind of language of their own.  It is a language that promotes growth, exuberance and fulfillment, and stimulates the entire organism of the body – signalling the proper responses that are required for health and growth.

“1. I am an excellent creature, a valuable part of the universe in which I exist.

“2. My existence enriches all other portions of life, even as my own being is enhanced by the rest of creation.

“3. It is good, natural, and safe for me to grow and develop and use my abilities, and by so doing I also enrich all other portions of life.

“4. Next: I am eternally couched and supported by the universe of which I am a part, and I exist whether or not that existence is physically expressed.

“5. Next: By nature, I am a good deserving creature, and all of life’s elements and parts are also of good intent.

“6. And next: All of my imperfections, and all of the imperfections of other creatures, are redeemed in the greater scheme of the universe in which I have my being.

“Those attitudes are inbred in the smallest microscopic portions of the body – a part of each atom and cell and organ, and they serve to trigger all of the body’s responses that promote growth and fulfillment.  Infants are not born with an inbred fear of their environment, or of other creatures.  They are instead immersed in feelings of well-being, vitality, and exuberance.  They take it for granted that their needs will be met, and that the universe is well-disposed toward them.  They feel a part of their environment.

“The inborn leanings and attitudes that we have been discussing should ideally remain with you for the rest of your life, leading you to express your abilities, and finding fulfillment as your knowledge expands through experience.  The same feelings and beliefs should also ideally help you die with a sense of safety, support and assurance.  While these inbred psychological supports never leave you entirely, they are often diminished by beliefs encountered later in life, that serve to undermine the individual’s sense of safety and well-being.”

(The Way Toward Health,Session January 26, 1984)

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