From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 12 - July 1993
See Home Page at http://www.ivymag.org/


Regular Column

New Realities

By Mark Jones, USA

Feeling and Imagination

It is through feeling and imagination, primarily, that we are
connected to the 'thetanesque' (spiritual) aspects of ourselves
and existence - what New Agers might call the Higher Self or the
aspect of us most awarely connected to God, Goddess, All That Is.

Those are some of the semantic differences in the way that
our non-physical nature is described. Most of us recognize at
least the possibility that such an aspect of ourselves does exist.

From time to time, following an impact or injury, we are made
aware of how our ability to feel can be essentially cut off from part
of our bodies. We may realize, after having experiences of
overwhelming
loss, that we freeze some of our emotions. Yet the degree to which
we may have unwittingly isolated ourselves from the depth of our
emotions
and imagination is more likely to go unrecognized.

What we call physical reality and our use of logic and reasoning
covers a very limited range of vibrations. It is becoming more and
more obvious that limiting our focus within this range
does not lead to spiritual growth or betterment of civilizations.
To achieve these objectives, we have to rehabilitate and further
develop
our ability to feel and imagine. It is by developing greater depth
and facility to use these aspects of ourselves that we can reach and
become integrated with our spiritual nature. We literally have to
unfreeze them.

Our unwillingness to feel and think debilitates our imagination.
Lack of feeling renders imagination impotent or inefficient. There
are various reasons why we do not feel ...

 We have been taught not to. If we feel, we
 may have been told that we are too sensitive, are making waves, and
 that showing feeling is weakness.

 Being emotional is considered being feminine
 and not reliable in a world that has been masculine dominated.

 Fear of getting 'lost' in the emotion
 and unable to return to what is considered to be normal.

Depths

Emotions can be likened to a pool of water. Frequently, we
just splash in the shallows, swimming on the surface, afraid to go
to the depths. We feel 'a little angry' or 'kind of upset'.
We have to really feel, release and move through the emotions nearer
the top to reach the deeper ones:

 anger,
 fear,
 pain,
 loneliness,
 love,
 joy,
 happiness.

Meaning, creativity, core of divinity lie deep.

We prevent feelings by various means, such as:

 denial - 'I'm not really angry'

 deflecting or discounting feeling - 'I'd hate to think...'

 suppression, from a sense that we do not have
 a right to feel angry, hurt and so on by fantasizing and animating
 emotion out of reality: 'I feel like no one loves me,' 'I
 feel like shit,' 'I feel like I'm being torn apart' -
 this is not feeling but a description of feeling, and the key word
 is 'like'; the feel-like metaphor is not the real thing:
 when we are describing the emotion, we are avoiding the feeling,
focusing
 on the imagery rather than the feeling, avoiding feeling with
'detachment'.
 Some share a false sense that the more spiritual or OT beings cannot
 be touched with these feelings, never get upset or angry and just
 love everyone - this is a false sense of detachment, for with
 real detachment one catches the feeling quickly, feels it in depth,
 and releases it; the truly detached person feels emotions more
intensely,
 dives deep, handles them, and then resurfaces.

Emotions that do not come out go in. Some examples are:

 back pain: hidden hurt you will not put out or express

 heart trouble: where you lock in the love

 arthritis: anger stuffed in the joints

 cancer: anger that has given up

 tumors: contained emotions

 blood disease: stored emotions in body fluids

An excellent book by Louise Hay, 'You Can Heal Your Life,'
goes into this issue in much more depth. One by myself, Achieving
our Dreams, covers how to find and release emotions in conjunction
with finding and eliminating beliefs.

Revitalize

There are a number of ways to revitalize our ability to
feel. I will provide these in more depth, without obligation, to
interested
readers(1).
Here is a very broad outline.

First, identify and express old, suppressed feelings. Write
them out; tell self in a mirror; release them in meditation; tell
them to an empathetic, trusted friend. Any or all of those methods.

With current feelings that cannot be appropriately expressed
or identified through interaction with another person, write
spontaneously
a flowing stream of consciousness. Let it flow and overflow without
regard to grammar, punctuation or syntax. Then read it aloud, looking
for and contacting the feeling.

Step-down the emotion to find what is beneath it. Do this
by asking questions and recording answers. For example ...  How
does it feel to be angry? Stupid. How does it feel to be stupid? More
angry. How does it feel to be more angry? Hurt. How does it feel to
be hurt? Lonely. (And so on. Keep asking How does it feel? until you
hit bottom. Writing in a notebook works well.)

Objectify the emotion. 'If this happened to another person,
how would I imagine they would feel?'

Step-up or amplify the emotion. Overstate it in order to
draw you closer to it. This is not to be confused with fantasty or
animation.

As you write it out, play it out - mentally, in meditation.
'What would I do to act it out?'

Practice with current emotions.

Finally, allow yourself to feel and express emotions and feelings
in your daily life. If circumstances do not permit doing so at
the time, do so as soon as you are alone.

(1)PO Box 39422, Los Angeles CA 90027, USA







Tue Jul 11 20:16:38 EDT 2006