“The
Jungian
analysis by Paul Levy, of Bush and the culture which maintains him,
reaches deep into the American psyche. It should be studied
and digested by everyone. If the citizenry would recognize
that Bush's egomania is acting out a national illness, we would all be
saner. If the US could integrate the "shadow" which Bush
projects upon "the axis of evil," perhaps we could achieve world peace
and start to solve global problem. A MUST READ.” Carol S. Wolman,
MD, Board Certified in Psychiatry
THE MADNESS OF GEORGE W.
BUSH
A
Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis
by
Paul Levy
George W. Bush
is
ill. He has a psycho-spiritual dis-ease of the soul, a sickness that is
endemic to our culture and symptomatic of the times we live in.
It’s an illness that has been with us since time immemorial.
Because it’s an illness that's in the soul of all of
humanity, it pervades the field and is in all of us in potential at any
moment, which makes it especially hard to diagnose. Bush's malady is
quite different from schizophrenia, for example, in which all the
different parts of the personality are fragmented and not connected to
each other, resulting in a state of internal chaos. As compared to the
dis-order of the schizophrenic, Bush can sound quite coherent and can
appear like such a "regular," normal guy, which makes the syndrome he
is suffering from very hard to recognize. This is because the healthy
parts of his personality have been co-opted by the pathological aspect,
which drafts them into its service. Because of the way the personality
self-organizes an outer display of coherence around a pathogenic core,
I would like to name Bush's illness ‘malignant egophrenic (as
compared to schizophrenic) disease,’ or ‘ME
disorder,’ for short. If ME disorder goes unrecognized and is
not contained, it can be very destructive, particularly if the person
is in a position of power.
In
much the same way
that a child's psychology cannot be understood without looking at the
family system he or she is a part of, George Bush does not exist in
isolation. We can view Bush and his entire Administration (Cheney,
Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, etc), as well as the corporate, military
industrial complex that they are co-dependently enmeshed with, the
media that they control, the voters that support them, and ourselves as
well, as interconnected parts of a whole system, or a
"field."
Instead of relating to any part of this field as an isolated entity,
it’s important to contemplate the entire interdependent field
as the ‘medium’ though which malignant egophrenia
manifests and propagates itself. ME disease is a field phenomenon, and
needs to be contemplated as such. Bush's sickness is our own.
THE DISEASE IS NON-LOCAL
Being a field
phenomenon, malignant egophrenia is non-local in nature, which means
that it is not bound by the limitations of time or space. Being
non-local, this disease pervades and underlies the entire field and can
therefore manifest anywhere, through anyone and at any moment. The
disease's non-local nature makes the question of who has the disease
irrelevant, as we all have it in potential. It is more a question of
whether or not we are aware of our susceptibility to fall prey to the
disease. This awareness itself serves as an immunization that protects
us from the pernicious effects of the illness, thereby allowing us to
be of genuine help to others.
Bush,
like all of us,
is both a manifestation of this deeper field and simultaneously an
agent effecting this field. He’s become so fully taken over
by the disease, all the while not suspecting a thing, that
he’s become a "carrier" for this deadly disease, thus
infecting the field around him. He’s become a portal through
which the field around him "warps" in such a way as to feed and support
his pathogenic process. A non-local, reciprocally co-arising and
interdependent field of unconscious denial and cover-up gets
constellated around Bush to enable and protect his pathology. People
who support Bush are actually complicit with and enabling
Bush’s madness in a co-dependent, self-reinforcing feedback
loop that is ‘closed,’ which is to say it is
insular and not open to any feedback from the
‘real’ world.
Bush
supporters are
not merely disinterested in seeing that they are in denial of reality;
on the contrary, they actively don’t want to look at this,
which is to say they resist self-reflection at all costs. Bush and his
supporters perversely interpret any feedback from the real world which
reflects back their unconsciousness as itself evidence that proves the
rightness of their viewpoint. All of Bush’s supporters
mutually reinforce each other’s unconscious resistance to
such a degree that a collective, interdependent field of
impenetrability gets collectively conjured up by them that literally
resists consciousness.
People
who don't
recognize Bush's illness and support him are unconsciously colluding
with and enabling in the co-creation of the pathological field that is
incarnating itself into the human family. People who support Bush
become unwitting agents through which this non-local disease feeds and
replicates itself. By supporting Bush they are collaborating with and
becoming parts of the greater, interconnected and self-organizing field
of the disease.
The
situation is very
analogous to when seemingly good, normal, loving Germans supported
Hitler, believing he was a good leader trying to help them. The German
people didn't realize that the virulent pathogen malignant egophrenia
had taken possession of Hitler and was incarnating itself through him.
By not seeing this and supporting Hitler, they became agents used by
this non-local, deadly disease to propagate itself. This was a
collective psychosis, and this is what is taking place in our country
right now.
This is
exactly what
Jung was warning us about when he said "The gigantic catastrophes that
threaten us today are not elemental happenings of a physical or
biological order, but psychic events. To a quite terrifying degree we
are threatened by wars and revolutions which are nothing other than
psychic epidemics. At any moment several millions of human beings may
be smitten with a new madness, and then we shall have another world war
or devastating revolution. Instead of being at the mercy of wild
beasts, earthquakes, landslides, and inundations, modern man is
battered by the elemental forces of his own psyche."
THE LIE
It
is not that the
threat of terrorism is unreal, but that Bush's policies in dealing with
terrorism are actually fueling the fire. The way Bush is fighting
terrorism is actually the very act which is invoking and creating more
of it in the first place. It is as if he is fighting against
his own shadow, which is a battle that can never be won. Bush is so
dissociated from the darkness within himself that he splits off from it
and tries to destroy it. Bush’s inner process, because of the
position of power he finds himself in, is getting dreamed up and played
out on the world stage. ME disease is unique in that it collapses the
boundary between inner and outer. Egophrenia is an inner disease of the
soul that expresses itself via the medium of the outside world. We
could even say that the inner core of egophrenia actually in-forms and
gives shape to the outer universe so as to express itself.
By creating more of
the very thing he is fighting against, Bush is enacting the
repetition compulsion of the traumatized soul. In
Bush’s case, it is the repetition compulsion gone awry, to
daemonic proportions, getting acted out on the world stage. To quote
noted psychologist Rollo May, the daemonic is "any natural function
which has the power to take over the whole person [or whole
nation]…..the daemonic can be either creative or destructive
[i.e, demonic]…..violence is the daemonic gone awry."
The daemonic aspect
of the disease develops a certain autonomy and literally possesses the
person or group, as it is self-generating, self-perpetuating and
self-organizing in nature, like a closed and negative feedback loop.
The person who is taken over doesn't suspect a thing, as the field
secretly conspires and colludes with and enables their psychosis. For
example, Bush, in his delusion, imagines he is divinely guided. His
supporters want to believe this to feed their own adolescent fantasies
of wanting to have a divinely inspired leader to take care of and
protect them. Because of this need they invest, so to speak, in
Bush’s delusion, which just confirms to Bush all the more
that he indeed is God’s instrument. Bush and his followers
are co-dependently and reciprocally feeding and supporting each
other’s unconscious narcissistic needs in a truly
pathological, and ultimately self-destructive co-dependent
relationship.
At
the root of Bush's
pathology is a deep dissociation. Like the terrorists, he has split-off
from his own darker half, projecting the shadow ‘out
there,’ and then tries to destroy this dis-owned shadow. By
projecting the shadow onto each other, Bush and the terrorists are each
seeing their own shadow reflected in the other. They see each other as
criminals, as the incarnation of evil. By projecting the shadow like
this, they locate the evil ‘out there,’ which
ensures that they don't have to recognize the evil within themselves.
It's interesting to note that the inner meaning of the word mirror is
’shadow holder.’ Ironically, by fighting against
their own shadow in this way, they become possessed by the very thing
they are trying to destroy, thereby perpetuating a never-ending cycle
of violence. To quote C. G. Jung, one of the greatest psychologists of
the twentieth century, "The psychological rule says that when an inner
situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is
to say, when the individual remains undivided [not in touch with both
the light AND dark parts of themselves] and does not become conscious
of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and
be torn into opposing halves."
Jung
simply refers to
projecting the shadow as “the lie." It’s
interesting to note that one of the inner meanings of the word Devil is
‘the liar.’ Projecting the shadow, to quote Jung,
"deprives us of the capacity to deal with evil." Jung stresses the
importance of consciously developing what he calls our "imagination for
evil," which is to consciously recognize our potential for evil. This
recognition means embracing and integrating our dark side into our
wholeness, which is made up of both light and dark. If we have no
imagination for evil, to quote Jung, "evil has us in its
grip…….for only the fool can permanently
disregard the conditions of his own nature. In fact, this negligence is
the best means of making him an instrument of evil."
By projecting the
shadow, Bush is unwittingly being a conduit for the deepest, archetypal
evil to possess him from behind, beneath his conscious awareness, and
to act itself out through him. At the same time, ironically enough, he
identifies with the light and imagines that he is divinely inspired. To
quote Jung, a person in a position of power who has become dissociated
like Bush “even runs the grave risk of believing he has a
Messianic mission, and forces tyrannous doctrines upon his
fellow-beings.” He then believes that any action he desires
is justified in the name of God, as he can rationalize it as being
God's will. Unable to self-reflect, he is convinced of the rightness of
his viewpoint, which he considers non-negotiable. This is a very
dangerous situation, as Bush has become unconsciously identified with
and possessed by the hero, or savior archetype. This figure is
religious in nature, as it derives from the transpersonal, archetypal
dimension of the collective unconscious. Being inflated with the hero
archetype, he (archetypically) wants to save the world from evil and to
liberate the planet.
This
is the height of
irony since, in reality, Bush is acting as an unwitting conduit for
evil by instigating wars and taking away people's freedoms. This
incongruity brings into bold relief the severe schizoid split that
characterizes Bush's condition. His inflation blinds him to the real
consequences of his actions and is one of the easier to recognize
aspects of his pathology. Being inflated due to an unconscious
identification with an archetype is, in essence, an expression of
having forfeited one's humanity, a state in which humility becomes
impossible.
Bush has
fallen into
a state that is the embodiment of arrogance. Succumbing to the
temptation of power, Bush has become corrupt, which is the inevitable
consequence when one prefers power over truth. He has fallen into a
vicious cycle where he has become addicted to power. Bush and his
regime are compulsively driven to do everything and anything they can
to hold onto the position of power they find themselves in. Not only do
they not see the depraved nature of the situation they have fallen
into, they don't want to see it. Being in the role of having power,
there is a counter-incentive to self-reflect, which just reinforces the
strength of the pathogen.
The inner
name of ME disease is ‘Mad Emperor’ disease, as it
is what happens when a person in a position of power falls prey to and
become seduced by that power. As Al Gore points out, people who are
after dominance and power “satiate their hunger for more
power still by striking a Faustian bargain. And as always happens-
sooner or later- to those who shake hands with the devil, they find out
too late that what they have given up in the bargain is their
soul.”
At
the root of
Bush’s process is an unwillingness and seeming inability to
experience his own sense of sin, guilt and shame, as if he is afraid of
being exposed, of being found out. He’s clearly unable to
feel any remorse and experience his own weakness and vulnerability, his
own sense of failure. This threatens his narcissism too much. One
aspect of Bush’s pathology is ‘malignant
narcissism,’ as he reacts sadistically to others who mirror
back his guilt and don’t support and enable his narcissism.
This
inability to experience his shame and guilt sets in motion a
self-perpetuating cycle of denial, cover-up and projecting the shadow,
all of which are based on a lie. Bush then falls into an endless loop
of hiding from his own lie, which is to say, from himself. This process
allows Bush to become a conduit for egophrenia to take him over and
incarnate its malignant aspect through him.
Jung comments on this
resistance to self-reflection and endless cycle of self- deception by
saying "Hysterical self-deceivers, and ordinary ones too, have at all
times understood the art of misusing everything so as to avoid the
demands and duties of life, and above all to shirk the duty of
confronting themselves. They pretend to be seekers after God in order
not to have to face the truth that they are ordinary egoists."
Falling victim to
one's own deception as Bush has can have a very mesmerizing and
gripping effect on others, as he appears so convinced of what he is
saying and is able to project this conviction. To quote Jung, "Nothing
has such a convincing effect as a lie one invents and believes oneself,
or an evil deed or intention whose righteousness one regards as
self-evident…..things only become dangerous when the
pathological liar is taken seriously by a wider public. Like Faust, he
is bound to make a pact with the devil and thus slips off the straight
path.” Bush has the seductive coherence of someone who is
fanatically identified, like the typical fundamentalist, with only one
side of an inherently two-sided polarity. Thomas Merton, commenting on
the case of the obviously demented Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann,
points out "One of the most disturbing facts that came out in the
Eichmann trial was that a psychiatrist examined him and pronounced him
perfectly sane."
A
key
feature of malignant egophrenia is that it is very hard to recognize
when someone is a carrier, because the person can seem so normal and
even endearing. The person afflicted can be very
‘charming’ and have a certain type of charisma that
can entrance those who don't see through their subterfuge. Concerned
about nothing other than himself, a person stricken with egophrenia is
in reality indifferent to other people’s suffering, all the
while professing his compassion, like a wolf in sheep’s
clothing.
Just like
Hitler
struck a chord deep in the German unconscious, Bush is touching
something very deep in the American psyche. Bush is acting out on the
world stage an under-developed psychological process that deals
simplistically with issues such as good and evil. It’s as if
he hasn't grown out of and fully differentiated from the realm of
mythic, archetypal fantasy that is typical of early adolescence. This
immature aspect of Bush's process speaks to and resonates with those
voters who support him, as it is a reflection of their own
under-developed inner process.
Whereas
Hitler’s evil was more overt in its cruelty and sadism,
Bush’s dark side is much more hidden and disguised, which
makes it particularly dangerous. People who vote for Bush are somehow
blind to what is very obvious to others. It’s as if
they’ve become hypnotized and fallen under the spell that
Bush is casting. Why would people vote for someone stricken with
malignant egophrenia? People who support Bush are suggestible and
susceptible to the same malady that Bush is embodying, as if they have
a predisposition for it (based on their own trauma, dissociated psyche
and tendency to project the shadow). Supporting Bush is a sign that a
person not only doesn't see the deadly illness that is incarnating
itself through Bush, but is an expression that this disease has taken
up residence in their being and is using them to do its bidding.
A COLLECTIVE PSYCHOSIS
It is a very
dangerous situation we are in- because of the position of power Bush
and the religious right find themselves in, they can literally dream up
and create the very apocalypse that they are imagining is prophesised,
like a Self-fulfilling prophecy. In a perversely self-reinforcing
feedback-loop, the more death and destruction happens, the more this
confirms to them the truth that their deluded end-time scenario is
actually happening as prophesised. In a diabolical self-validating
vicious cycle, Bush and the religious right are ignoring the role they
are playing in creating exactly what they are using as evidence to
prove the rightness of their viewpoint. ME disease is a world where up
is down, as its flawless illogic is convoluted and inverted at its core.
Malignant egophrenia
is crazy-making. It induces a very hard to recognize form of insanity.
When we fall prey to egophrenia, we are unable to recognize that we are
taken over, as we become bewitched by our own projections, accusing
other people of doing what we ourselves are doing. For example, Bush is
talking about himself when he accuses Saddam Hussein of being
“a man who has defied the world,” and “a
man who has made the United Nations look foolish.” Part of
the disease is that when we point at it and call it by its true name -
as being a form of insanity called ignorance - people who are stricken
with the disease will see us as the one's who are
crazy. Unless
we recognize the insidious nature of this disease, there is a
crazy-making field around it that will make us a part of itself.
Collective psychosis is like that.
There is only one
reason why the mainstream psychiatric community is not studying this
contagious psychosis as it spreads through Bush, his regime, and the
surrounding field. They are not studying this disease because they
haven't yet recognized that the disease even exists. To the extent that
any of us are unaware that this non-local pathogen pervades the field
we become hooked by it through our own unconscious blind-spot. By not
recognizing the nature of the disease, the mental health community
becomes its unwitting agents, helping the disease to propagate. What
clearer sign do we need of a collective psychosis than when our mental
health system itself, whose job it is to monitor such phenomenon, not
only doesn't recognize that there is a collective psychosis running
rampant in our society, but are themselves infected with it?
The DSM-IV, the
psychiatric diagnostic manual, is continually expanding and including
new diagnoses as we deepen our understanding of and map the contours of
the human psyche. The problem is that the DSM-IV is an expression of an
‘old paradigm’ way of thinking in that it looks at
mental illness as it exists in individuals, regarding the individual as
an object existing separate from the field around them. This is based
on an illusion, for the individual is embedded in the greater field
(family system, society, and planetary culture) and is an expression of
this multi-textured field. The individual and the field around them
interpenetrate and condition each other so fully that they can't even
be regarded as two separate aspects that have become joined together,
but rather must be seen as inseparable parts of a greater whole.
Egophrenia expresses itself non-locally throughout the entire field.
Consequently, instead of being viewed through the lens of the
fragmented, separate self, it requires a more holistic vision that
recognizes the existence of the interdependently co-arising field.
It’s not a question of integrating ME disease into the
existing DSM-IV, but instead of radically expanding, up-leveling and
re-visioning our understanding of the nature of illness itself.
It’s
profoundly important that the mental health community at large
recognize this age-old disease with which we are all afflicted. Doing
this changes this community from being part of the problem to part of
the solution. The disease literally feeds on our unawareness of it. The
recognition of the disease is itself the beginning of the cure. By
recognizing the nature of this collective psychosis, we snap out of
being part of it. Malignant egophrenia, unrecognized and misdiagnosed
until now, has wreaked havoc all throughout human history, and is at
the very root of our current world crisis. To the extent we are unaware
of the nature of this collective psychosis, it has us in its grips and
will unconsciously get acted out through us in a destructive manner.
The choice is truly ours.
One
of the signatures
of ME disease is that it hooks people through their unconscious
blind-spot, so when people are afflicted by this deadly disease they
are truly asleep to what is getting acted out through them. Bush
himself is being manipulated, used and victimized, like a puppet on a
string, by a deeper matrix of cover-up and deceit that has been
perpetrated by him and his very regime, and has now taken on an
autonomous life of its own. This disease, if it gets out of control,
means self-destruction for both victim and perpetrator. There are no
winners. The entire interconnected web that supports Bush can be
recognized to be tentacles of this virulent, non-local pathogen that,
to the extent that it is not seen, is potentially gaining more and more
sovereignty. Like a sci-fi movie, we have dreamed up a
higher-dimensional Frankenstein monster that has taken on a life of its
own and truly threatens all of us.
THE
IMPORTANCE OF NAMING
THE DISEASE
Malignant
egophrenia
is both an expression of and at the root of the extreme polarization
and dissociation in both the human psyche and the world process at
large. The disease is archetypal in nature, which is to say that it has
eternally re-created itself and played itself out over the course of
history. We can even say that it’s the
‘bug’ in the system that has in-formed and given
shape to all of the conflict and disharmony of human relationship. ME
disease is as old as the human species. However, we’re now at
the point in our evolution where we can finally recognize it, see it,
give it a name and diagnose it.
Malignant
egophrenia
is truly diabolical in nature and is what the ancient, indigenous
cultures would call a demon. Jung warned us that a difficult task lay
ahead of us after the mass insanity of the second World War. He points
out that after the ‘demons’ abandoned the German
people, these negative energies weren't banished. To quote Jung "the
demons will seek a new victim. And that won't be difficult. Every man
who loses his shadow, every nation that falls into self-righteousness,
is their prey." Projecting the shadow literally opens the door for
malignant egophrenia to take up residence in our being.
What the ancient
people called demons Jung calls autonomous complexes,
which are split-off parts of the psyche that can possess a person and
seemingly develop an independent will and quasi-life of their own.
These autonomous complexes can't stand to be seen in much the same way
a vampire can't stand the light. Malignant egophrenia will shape-shift
and do everything in its power to resist being seen. It’s
elusive, mercurial and very much a trickster. The disease obfuscates
itself, creating any number of distractions to hide behind, and will
even react violently to being seen, for being seen takes away its
omnipotence and autonomy.
When
we see a demon
we know its name. Naming it is exorcistic, as it dis-spells the demon's
power over us. To name something is to symbolize it. The word
‘symbolic,’ which means that which unites, is the
antidote and antonym to the word ‘diabolic,’ which
means that which divides and separates. George Bush claimed to be "a
uniter, not a divider." However, he has only united one thing- the
entire world against us. To see this diabolical aspect of what is
coming through Bush, namely, that he is an instrument that is creating
separation, is itself to be seeing with symbolic awareness.
Naming the disease,
we are able to (alchemically) contain it, so that it can't possess us
from behind and act itself out through us unconsciously. Once the
disease is named, it’s anchored to consciousness so that it
can't vaporize back into the unconscious. This de-potentiates the
disease, beginning the process of re-integrating it back into the
profound unity of the psyche. The energy that was bound up in the
compulsion to endlessly re-create the disease becomes liberated and
available for creative expression. The prescription for this
disease is simply for enough of us who see it to connect with each
other in lucid awareness so that it can be contained, metabolized and
healed. We can put our collective realization together and dream a much
more grace-filled universe into incarnation. This is an evolutionary
impulse from the universe in which we are invited to participate.
Encoded in the
disease is its own medicine. Hidden in the daemonic is our guiding
spirit, our true genius and inner voice. This is why Jung calls the
daemonic the "not yet made real creative." The fact that such a dark
shadow is emerging in our world is an expression that light is nearby,
as shadows are themselves an expression of light. Demons are actually
blessings in drag. Lucifer is truly the bringer of light.
A MODERN DAY PLAGUE OF
EGYPT
Malignant
egophrenia
is manifesting itself, both literally and symbolically, hidden yet
visible for all who have eyes to see, simultaneously veiling and
revealing itself. Symbolically encoded in egophrenia's literal
manifestation is the key to its re-solution. Symbols are the language
of dreams. A symbol brings together and reconciles two contraries into
a greater whole. A symbol reflects and effects a change in and of
consciousness itself. A symbol is both the expression of as well as the
doorway into a more transcendent, higher-dimensional part of ourselves.
People don't see
egophrenia because they don't recognize the symbolic dimension of
existence, but rather are absorbed in the literal dimension of reality.
It is very convincing to (only) take things literally and see these
literal facts as "the (one) truth," as events in this world ARE
literally happening. They're as real as real can be. This can be very
entrancing, particularly with the evidence right in front of our face.
People are dying. Seeing symbolically doesn't negate the literal
dimension but instead complements and completes it, as both are true
simultaneously. The literal and symbolic dimensions of reality
interpenetrate each other so fully that they can't be seen as two
separate things that are joined together, but rather are interdependent
parts of a greater whole. The birth of symbolic awareness not only more
fully completes our picture of the nature of the universe we live in,
but gives us access to the way to actually deal with this deadly
disease. Egophrenia is truly initiatory, as it is a wake up call to
symbolic awareness, which is a higher dimension of our being. All that
is needed for malignant egophrenia to reveal its blessing is for us to
recognize its revelatory function.
Jung says "Everything
could be left undisturbed did not the new way demand to be discovered,
and did it not visit humanity with all the plagues of Egypt until it
finally is discovered." Malignant egophrenia is a modern day plague of
Egypt. If we don't see what it is symbolically revealing to us,
malignant egophrenia will destroy us. It's a gesture from the universe,
beckoning us, demanding us to integrate it and thereby receive its
blessing. By prompting, pressuring and challenging us to come to terms
with it and receive its gifts, malignant egophrenia has the potential
to awaken us, thereby furthering the evolution of the species.
The fact that
malignant egophrenia is manifesting in fully visible form in our world
right now is an expression that this particular energy is available for
assimilation in a way un-imaginable until now. When an unconscious
content is ready to be integrated, it always gets dreamed up into fully
materialized form. This is the dimension in which the energy bound up
in the infinitely regressing feedback loop of the disease can be
accessed and redeemed.
This
quantum leap in
consciousness that is being offered us by egophrenia is fully
imaginable into actualization in this very moment. If we can make use
of its lessons, ME disease becomes a portal into a more whole and
integrated part of our being, both individually and collectively.
Egophrenia is introducing and initiating us into the dreamlike nature
of reality, where this universe is like a mass shared dream that we are
all collaboratively dreaming up into full-bodied materialization
together. This is to have the realization that we are interconnected
and not separate from one another, as if we are parts of and contained
in a greater being. We wouldn’t be able to have this
expansion of consciousness without egophrenia, which means that
egophrenia
is a ‘potential’ blessing in a very convincing
disguise that it's not.
Being
a non-local
field phenomenon, the malignant egophrenia epidemic is something all
six billion of us are collaboratively creating and dreaming up
together. Bush is an embodied, mirrored reflection of a part of
ourselves, just like we, reciprocally, are a reflection of a part of
him. His disease is our disease. Bush and his regime are a living,
full-bodied reflection of our collective shadow, as we are of theirs.
We have all dreamed them up to play out these archetypal roles, in full
living color, so that we can see and integrate these parts of
ourselves. Embracing these parts of ourselves that we see so clearly
reflected in Bush and Co. is the first step towards healing the
situation. This is because it dispels the polarization and separation
which is the root factor preventing reconciliation. Bush and Co. are
playing out roles that exist deep inside the collective psyche of all
of humanity. If Bush and Co. weren’t around, there would be
someone else sent by ‘central casting’ to pick up
and play out these very same archetypal roles. Compassion spontaneously
arises when we truly recognize these fear-ridden parts of ourselves.
GENUINE COMPASSION AS
ACTIVISM
The malignant
egophrenia epidemic is happening right in front of us. It is
self-evident for all who have eyes to see. If we don't look at
what’s happening, if we turn away, ignore it, and contract
against it, we are lying to ourselves. Then we’re colluding
with and unknowingly feeding the disease. Our looking away is a form of
blindness. Our looking away is a form of ignorance. Our looking away,
our contraction, IS itself the disease. Our resulting complacency and
inaction is, in fact, an expression of our lack of compassion. To quote
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. "One who passively accepts evil
[allowing it to happen] is as much involved in it as the one who
perpetrates it."
There
is a great
danger when we see evil, though. To quote Jung, "It is a fact that
cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness
because it kindles something evil in our hearts…..the sight
of evil kindles evil in the soul." Malignant egophrenia forces upon us
the responsibility to come to terms with the evil inside our own
hearts. If we solidify Bush as being evil and react with righteous
indignation, we are guilty of the very same thing we’re
accusing Bush of (i.e, projecting the shadow). We then become a conduit
for the very evil we’re reacting to. Who among us has not
been guilty of being a channel for ME disease at one time or another?
If, when we see this virulent pathogen, we contract against it and
react in any way, be it in judgment, hatred, anger or revulsion,
we’re helping to perpetuate the diabolical polarization that
is the signature of the disease. Our reacting in this way, which is
typical of many political activists, is itself an expression that we
ourselves have the disease, or to say it more clearly, the disease has
us.
This disease
literally has the potential to humble us. We may think- not us, we
could never catch this disease. However, this very arrogance opens us
up to being hooked by the pathogen. We may think- let's step out of our
arrogance, for who are we to know anything? Let's be an enlightened
bodhisattva and not judge what Bush is doing, for who are we to judge?
Or let's be an enlightened psychiatrist and not diagnose, name or
pathologize Bush in any way, for we don't want to cast any spells.
However, to have these attitudes is to fall under the seductive spell
of the bug, causing us to disconnect from and give away our power. In
this way, we forsake one of our greatest spiritual treasures, the act
of discernment. Being a spiritual warrior embraces and includes the
most extreme discernment, which is the ability to differentiate and is
a function of seeing clearly. Discernment is different that when we are
unconsciously caught in judgement, which is a reaction to and
contraction against something. Wielding the wisdom of discernment is an
expression of having genuine compassion.
Compassion is
sometimes fierce, though. Sometimes it says "no," and sets a boundary.
Genuine compassion is not always smiley-faced, otherwise known as
"idiot compassion," which just enables and reinforces asleepness.
Genuine compassion is not passive. It propels us to act for the benefit
of all beings. True compassion demands us to be willing to consciously
step into our power, mediated through the heart, and to find the
courage to speak our true voice: The malignant egophrenia epidemic has
induced a form of criminal insanity in the entire Bush regime that we
are all complicit in by allowing it to happen.
With Bush as
president it’s as if we’re in a car going over the
speed limit being driven by a drunk adolescent who has fallen asleep at
the wheel. It’s our responsibility to recognize the extreme
danger of our situation and come together to do something about it,
whatever that might be. If not, if we continue to passively and
helplessly watch what is playing out in front of our very eyes, then we
have no one to blame but ourselves. To quote Abraham Lincoln, "We- even
we here- hold the power, and bear the responsibility." Now is the time
to join together and creatively express our true voice. As the Reverend
Martin Luther King Jr. says "Our lives begin to end the day we become
silent about things that matter." Our only limitation is in
our own imagination.
Malignant
egophrenia
is a true ‘reconciling symbol,’ in that it unites
the opposites. Malignant egophrenia is both a deadly disease and the
highest blessing co-joined in one phenomenon. Is it a wave or a
particle? It is a true ‘coincidentia oppositorum,’
a conjunction of opposites, an expression of divinity. The question is,
do we recognize what is being symbolically shown to us by egophrenia,
or not? The inner meaning of the word apocalypse is
‘something hidden being revealed.’ Will these
apocalyptic end times we are in be an initiation into a more expansive
part of our being? Or will it destroy our species? The choice is truly
ours. All that is needed is for enough of us to recognize what is being
revealed, and to creatively act out of this realization.
© 2006 Paul Levy
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