In our last article we discussed centripetal force. Centripetal force was the pull that every individual has to go inwards, into their inner-self, in order to make sense of the world and to maintain healthy social boundaries. We talked about how healthy need often drew one outside of oneself into social interactions. Healthy need was associated with the individuals psyche needing to grow and expand its ideas about reality and the world. This pull outward is what we call centrifugal force.
Centrifugal force moves us from the inner world into the larger society. As we interact with others and then move back into ourselves, somewhat like a loop in a figure eight on the horizontal plain, we grow mentally, physically and spiritually. We learn about our gifts and talents, what needs work, and what doesn’t. We learn about our interests and what we need to focus our attention on. In the spiritual sense we can see our reflection in the eyes of the many people that we meet. If we become aware enough we will begin to realize that all of the thoughts and behaviors that we see out there, exist within us too.
We realize that we are not only separate beings, but are connected to everything. The behaviors that we hate and the ones that we like are often part of us. The only difference is the matter of frequency and intensity. This even includes those thoughts, emotions and ideas that we often let go so rapidly everyday that we don’t even acknowledge them.
As we are moved by centrifugal force, it is very important that we begin to work outside of ourselves, to assure that we don’t run into pit falls that can destroy us and prevent us from going back inside to process our experiences. There are people, of course, and always have been people, who are good at manipulating the curious and the innocent. They find ways to influence our thoughts and feelings from the outside, so that our processing abilities on the inside will be limited. This is done by using natural survival instincts and by amplifying them or reshaping them.
As we go outside of ourselves and as we meet with people to get a larger view of the world, we become influenced until a healthy type of fear takes over. As we find that we are losing ourselves this fear pulls us back into the inner world, where we process what is happening and where we reflect on who we are from our inner foundation. If a person can use that natural fear and change it to unhealthy fear they can either prevent centripetal force, the pull inward, from occurring, or they can affect our inner world to the point that we will begin to deceive ourselves. One way of doing this is by creating hooks, or levers in the psyche of the other. This can be done through the use of prejudices and stereotypes. It can also be done through the creation of in-groups.
When one sees a dangerous animal and that animal behaves a certain way before it attacks, it is natural for the mind and body to hold on to that image just in case it sees the animal again. This is the natural, healthy form of prejudice. This form can be changed and purposely manipulated if we are shown some type of neutral animal, and we are constantly told that it is going to attack us. Even if we don’t listen and we never see the animal our minds can imagine scenarios that reinforce the belief. Our active, creative imagination makes it real enough to have the same effect as if we had really seen it. If we are then presented with one image of that animal being dangerous, we acknowledge it, thinking that we already knew about it. We accept it, because we think we thought about it our self. We believe it in actuality because of the seeds and negative tapes planted on the inside. The natural outgrowth of such a belief system is fear and a need not to enter into oneself, or in an in-group that will distill the fear.
When this occurs we go farther out of ourselves into our peer group to find comfort, instead of going back into ourselves and figuring out what is happening for ourselves. That is why it is important to do the balancing act of cultivating friends, but also respecting ones own mind and thoughts. This means balancing one’s life by spending time out in society with others, but also spending time with oneself and carrying out one’s personal agenda sometimes. It means honoring one’s own thoughts and feelings first, sometimes, as well as helping others.
It is very important to keep ones self healthy on the inside, and to engage in healthy relationships on the outside. There are several ways this can happen. One major way is by relying on one’s feelings. If one does the inner work and has clarity of mind, one can feel when something is wrong. When one has a clear feeling about what is wrong, and then checks that feeling out through the use of the mind, he or she often comes up with the correct deduction. When one does the opposite, as many people are taught in this society, they ignore their feelings, try to figure out what is happening, and then, if the feeling is aligned with what they are thinking they will feel it. If they feel slighted, they will even create anger sometimes and feel that it is justified.
As we go outside of ourselves, therefor, it is important to maintain a strong sense of balance. It is important to cultivate healthy relationships, and to become deeply involved with healthy groups. One can tell if a group is healthy or not by whether there are healthy boundaries within the group. If the stated rules say one thing, but some of the people’s actions in the group are above the law, so to speak, this is an unhealthy group. Becoming part of the in-group in such a group can often bring one pleasure and satisfaction for a short period of time, but in the long run it damages the soul by taking away one’s power to make decisions for oneself. It makes one’s need into unhealthy need and one’s fear into unhealthy fear so that one becomes fearful of losing the in-group or being put out of it. One’s self esteem is then based on what is given by the group, instead of based on the fact that we are born as miraculous, power creative creatures from the beginning with worth and dignity.
We must all be careful how we choose our friends and peer groups and even our enemies, because one day we will be just like them. If at all possible, learn how to case organizations and peers. As we know the truth about them we can then decide if, when and how much we want to interact with them and we can choose to reserve our selves from their influences if necessary. If we are daring we can engage in the outer work. We can work in institutions or in the world to try to create healthy institutions and foster healthy relationships.
In the next article we will talk about the third of the Four Forces. The third one is gravity. As we are moving back and forth from the internal centripetal to the external centrifugal, in a figure eight on the horizontal plane, or physical plane, and passing through the neutral center, something happens. We realize that something is wrong in the relationships that we are having. The emotion of guilt, feeling that we have done something to cause a break in these relationships happen. Healthy guilt draws us out of the rat race. As we drop out we can take a look back on the horizontal axis and see how things are going. Gravity moves us to the vertical plain, also known as the spiritual plain, where spiritual maturity and transformation can take place. Unhealthy guilt drives us back into ourselves, paralyses us, and makes us feel bad about who we are. In our next article we will discuss gravity and how we can avoid the influence of institutions that turn healthy guilt into unhealthy guilt in order to maintain external control over our spiritual, internal selves.
You can see more articles on like this on this ezine, or at our free Journal of Practical Spirituality at www.dswellness.com where you will find many books purposely designed to help you do the inner work, the outer work and the greater work of transforming the world.
Dr. John W. Gilmore received his D. Min. degree in Integrating Work and Spirituality at UCS, now known as Wisdom University, in Oakland, CA. He is a writer, a certified healer, a spiritual director and martial arts teacher. His many books on interfaith spirituality can help you do the inner work. His latest book, Reclaiming the Religion of Jesus in a Modern Age, can help you reclaim the teachings and mystical religion of proto-Christianity if you are a Christian or consider yourself a post Christian. http://www.dswellness.com
Reunion of Souls, Dr. John W.Gilmore. A book of deep spirituality in Sci-fi form.
