Where does metaphysical belief stand in the therapeutic equation? And what is the relationship between these two philosophies?
Spiritual philosophy lays down laws of the cosmos, such as the law of attraction or the law of attachment, to which we can all readily relate from our own experience.
But what of other types of spiritual doctrine, much of which has been supposedly channelled from on high? Much spiritual doctrine has been handed down and then accepted as an unshakeable truth to which mankind should attempt to comply. But is this doctrine the whole truth? Well, yes, but most spiritual hand-me-down is from the voice of experience from another but not from direct experience by the recipient.
Anyone who has undergone psychotherapy will be able to testify first hand, say, to the law of attraction or the law of projection from their own life experience. But how many people who have received divine wisdom will have experienced these phenomena first hand and related this knowledge to their own psychic awareness? Possibly very few.
If, for example, you are told that you should “forgive” those who have wronged you, then should this not surely mean that when you have fully excavated your own personal truth you will have no need for thoughts of revenge or malice. If your emotive baggage has been defused, then you will have, in essence, “forgiven” your wrongdoer because you will no longer hold on to the angst. Of course, you can come to terms with the deed but you may not wish to actually forgive and condone the actions of the person who maltreated you. By this means you can still retain your self-respect and thus, more importantly, not hang on to any unnecessary and crippling guilt.
The popular press, moreover, have brought the word “transference” into common usage but you can only really understand this term when you experience the phenomena as a light-bulb moment and then relinquish any attachment and its knock-on effects.
Spiritual doctrine thus looks through the wrong end of the telescope perhaps?
Jacquelyne Morison