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Soul Psychology as Compared to Traditional Psychology
"Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul
on this plane of existence, and soul is
the vehicle on a higher plane for the
manifestation of spirit."
Djwhal Khul
As Channeled By Alice A. Bailey
By
Dr. Joshua David Stone
This chapter is a very interesting chapter and a very important one. It is a chapter that I am particularly qualified to write, given my experience in this lifetime. As you know, I have a Ph.D. in transpersonal psychology and am a licensed marriage, family, and child counselor.
I have gone through traditional psychological training while being steeped in my spiritual studies. Adding to this, both my parents, step-mother and sister are also all in the field of psychology. I have grown up with it, lived, breathed, made my living at it, and have been surrounded by it my entire life. Because of this I have a lot of very strong thoughts and feelings about the entire field in general.
The first thing I want to say is that even though I practice soul psychology, which also might be called spiritual or transpersonal psychology, I have a lot of respect for the field of traditional psychology. I learned a lot in my traditional training and am glad I have the foundation or base.
The problem is that the field of traditional psychology is very limiting. The way I look at it, it is kind of like a horizontal graph that goes from one to one hundred. Zero might be considered the level of conscious-ness of a retarded person, and 100 being that of an enlightenment being or an Ascended Master.
Traditional psychology will take you maybe up to level 30, however, never any farther even if you go five times a week for the next fifty years. The reason for this is that traditional psychology, and I speak in the broadest sense of the term, is 98% devoid of soul and spirituality.
When I went through my B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. programs the way psychology was taught was to throw hundreds of different psychology theories at you, and there was absolutely no understanding of which ones were correct or which ones false. The reason for this was because no one teaching the classes knew.
Every professor had his pet favorite. Your job as a student was to try to develop some understanding of all of them and, on your own, pick the one you happen to like and that is how you ended up doing therapy and living.
The problem comes in the fact that none of them are true, really. They are all what I would call slivers of truth. Maybe if you put them all together you would have a half truth. The problem is compounded because each theorist thinks they have the whole truth.
In my first book, I spoke of the three levels of self actualization. There is the personality level, the soul level and the Monadic level. Psychology, at absolute best (and even this is debatable), will help you to achieve personality level self actualization. There is the 30% I spoke of. Traditional psychology cannot help you to gain soul self actualization or Monadic (spiritual) self actualization because they don't even recognize the existence of soul or spirit.
Of the hundreds of different theories I studied in school, I can only think of three that were of a spiritual orientation. Those three were Jungian psychology, Abraham Maslow, and Robert Assagiolli. I will start with the last one first.
Robert Assagiolli was an Italian psychologist who developed psycho synthesis. This is one of the few forms of traditional psychology I think is really worth studying. Even though I very much respect the work, he was never once mentioned in all the books I studied going through all my formal education. He is basically completely unheard of in the field of psychology in terms of college and post graduate education.
Maslow, although mentioning the value of spiritual aspect of life, wrote very little on the subject. He was well known for studying healthy people instead of sick people which was a major breakthrough in the field.
Carl Jung was the only famous traditional psychologist who broke away from the pack and integrated a spiritual aspect. He was truly a great catalyst in the field. He recognized the ideal of the "self", and broke away from Freud's fixation on sexuality. He was a master of dreams and believed in reincarnation although didn't really advertise the fact.
I greatly respect his work and recommend reading it. The problem is that although Jung was a great catalyst to the field, even his work was quite limited when you compare it to the fuller understanding of soul and spiritual psychology that we know of today. I will speak more on Jung later in this chapter.
One of the basics of soul psychology is that there are two ways of thinking in the world. You can think from your negative ego mind, or you can think from your soul or spiritual mind. Traditional psychology is basically a form of psychology that is trying to heal oneself within the negative ego's web. One cannot truly heal themselves unless they fully transcend the negative ego. Was it not Sai Baba who said, "God equals man minus ego."
Traditional psychology has absolutely no idea that it is our thoughts which create our reality. It does not see that there are two diametrically opposed ways of interpreting reality. By definition this is impossible for them to see because there is no integration of the soul aspect. It is because of this that they see life through a paradigm or set of glasses that the negative ego is wearing.
Traditional psychology may be able to help you to see better through those glasses, however, you will never truly be able to see unless you take off those glasses and put on your Christ consciousness or soul consciousness glasses. The negative ego has infiltrated every aspect of our society, religion, traditional medicine, our prison systems, and all institutions on the planet... including psychology.
Now here comes the major problem. You have tens of millions of people who are graduating from college and post graduate work, getting degrees and licenses, who are completely ill qualified to be doing therapy or teaching psychology in our schools. They have, for the most part, not even stepped onto the path of initiation.
You can't truly understand psychology unless you have integrated the soul. Traditional psychology does not have the slightest clue that our thoughts create our reality including our emotions. Traditional psychology believes that negative emotions are unavoidable, and a normal part of living.
Traditional psychology teaches victim consciousness. They have no understanding of the chakras, the soul, the spirit, the negative ego, intuition, higher mind, abstract mind, or the real purpose of life. They don't even, for the most part, understand how the subconscious mind really works or how to reprogram it.
Again, I want to emphasize that I am not saying that traditional psychology has no value. It does have some initial value. If it can lead a person to personality level self actualization that is a great thing and nothing to shirk at. The problem is that very few forms of traditional psychology do lead to this point, and I will explain why later in this chapter.
The real problem comes, in that many people seek help which is good, but stay stuck in traditional psychology for endless years upon years, and don't really move that far beyond their initial impetus or beyond, maybe, the first year's work. They can't because it is not within the theory they are working with or within the consciousness of the therapist to take them any farther. How can the therapist lead you to enlightenment and self realization when he or she hasn't even taken the first initiation?
The problem for the average person is that there are not that many spiritual counselors around. The average person who has a religious orientation might consider going to their church or temple to receive counseling. I am here to tell you that that would probably be even worse than traditional counseling. Traditional religion is as filled with the contamination of negative ego as the field of psychology. What kind of guidance would a fundamentalist minister give the average couple seeking counseling?
The truth of the matter is that we need more new age spiritual counselors. There are a lot of them but they are unlicensed. In other words they haven't' gone through traditional schooling. The average person can't accept this, in fact, is often warned against it.
In my opinion for the most part, I think they are much more qualified to do counseling than your traditional professional psychologists who have no relationship to soul. This goes completely counter to the views of the average materialistically minded person. They could not imagine how that could be possible. The spiritual people who take the traditional route, in my opinion, are extremely contaminated intellectually by the time they get out.
There are very few people who do not get overwhelmed and confused by all the psychological theories that are thrown at them. In this chapter I will briefly go through some of the main ones and try and compare it to the view of soul psychology.
In summary, there is nothing wrong with going to a traditional therapist for a time. It can be of great value in getting your personality under your control if it is the right person. At some point you need to get out, however, and find a spiritual teacher to take you the rest of the way, or you will never get beyond that 30%.
Traditional psychology, ideally, can be looked at like a pie, each form of psychology being a slice of the pie carrying some small slice of truth. I suggest being an eclectic and integrating all of them. Then add to that, soul psychology and spiritual psychology which is the other 70%. Then you will have a truer understanding of what Djwhal Khul has called "Esoteric Psychology".
This is the true future of psychology. Psychology, as it is now being practiced, is still in its infantile stages, or what might be called the dark ages. Twenty to thirty years from now there will be a complete revolution in the field. Just as the soul is not integrated into the study of psychology in college and post graduate work, the same is the case in all forms of education, politics, sociology, sports, and in every aspect of society.
The human kingdom has sought to create a world that separates the soul and spiritual realities of life and holds them separate from the world in which it lives. A good example of this was communism. Here was a political theory devoid of God. This is why it had to fail.
In truth, our political system is only a little bit better. They speak of God, however politics is completely run by the negative ego. Look at the corruption, the negative campaigning, the legalized bribery, the total and complete bipartisanship of the members of the democratic and republican parties. Their God is what is right for their party, not what is right for the world and all people.
What I am trying to show you here is that the extraction of soul from the field of psychology is not unique. There is not one field of study, or one institution on our planet in which this has not been done in the exact same way including religion. The human kingdom has separated itself from the kingdom of souls, or the kingdom of God. There will never be any true sense of happiness, inner peace, enlightenment, and understanding until these two kingdoms merge together.
This chapter in an attempt to merge the "psychology" of the kingdom of God, with the psychology of humanity. When this is done people can heal themselves completely in months, which traditional psychology takes years to do.
The Limitations of Traditional Forms of Therapy
Most of you reading this book are more advanced, so I don't see any need to go into each form of traditional therapy in depth and explain what they believe. What I am going to do here is attempt to go into the different forms of therapy with what I would call the "sword of discernment", from the perspective of the soul and spirit, and attempt to show you each method's strengths and limitations. As with all my writing, in all my books I try to go right to the core and essential teaching and not waste time with a lot of nonessential information and words.
Psychiatry
Let us begin our discussion with the different modes of therapy people go to, and contrast them to soul psychology. Psychiatry is a "nightmare". I hate to be so blunt and don't mean to be critical, however, if I am going to bring through the sword of discernment this is the truth.
The psychiatrist is a medical doctor who receives, in truth, very little training in psychology. The average psychiatrist's form of therapy is a "valium". Take two of these and see me three times a week for 200 dollars a session. The common psychiatrist has been trained in Freudian therapy, which will take three to five sessions a week for the next twenty years. You may think I am being humorous and I am, however there is much truth to what I am saying.
The only form of therapy worse than this one is when the medical doctors get hold of you and give you "electrical shock therapy" to snap you out of your depression. To say this is barbaric is the understatement of the universe and it is still being done, my friends.
In the average psych ward, the patients are so filled with drugs that it would take years just to cleanse their physical bodies, let alone their minds. Their care is custodial at best. Many of these patients are having valid spiritual experiences, which the doctors interpret as hallucinations.
In truth it is the doctors that are having hallucinations, and the patients are often tuning into real spiritual realities. The care of the mentally ill in our society is a travesty of the highest order. Medical sense is so unclear that they actually think they are going to heal your mind, psyche, and soul with a drug. They have no concept of the inner realities and causes of life.
Behaviorism
This is the second worse form of therapy. Their belief is, again, the complete worship of material science. They see people as nothing more than "rats". There is no such thing as free choice. They believe we are totally shaped by our environment. Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement govern all. Of all the slivers of the pie metaphor of which I spoke earlier, they carry the thinnest, merely a grain of truth.
It is true that the environment affects us, especially at earlier stages of evolution. To not see any form of inner reality and to say we are no different that the third kingdom of animals is quite disturbing, to say the least. I am sorry to say that this is the main form of psychology in all the schools in the United States.
It is only the clinical departments that deal with counseling, that break away from this mold. All the research departments are completely governed by this theory. The psychologist who invented it, B. F. Skinner, actually kept his child in a box and tried to raise him like this. Can you imagine!
Humanistic psychology
In the clinical department of the greater field of psychology as a whole, I would intuitively guess that 70% of the field practices this form of therapy. Humanistic psychology is the "worship" of feelings. You go to therapy and "get out your feelings". You get out the batacas and smash the pillow who is your (husband or wife), express your anger, and have a good cry.
The therapist is so proud of you for letting your emotions out! The key word is "catharsis", and if you will excuse my coarse metaphor, it is kind of like emotionally throwing up. Now the amazing thing about this form of therapy is that you do feel better when you leave the session, this is a fact. The only problem is since there is absolutely no understanding or teaching that it is your thoughts that create your reality, your mind builds it all back the next day. It is a feminine based psychology which ultimately makes you a victim of your subconscious mind and emotional body. I speak from personal experience on this one.
There is nothing wrong with having a catharsis and I am the first to admit the value of such a process. You can not, however, base your entire therapy on this, which humanistic psychology does. There needs to be training as to how your thoughts are creating your feelings and emotions. There also needs to be an integration of the spiritual aspect of life which is missing from this form of therapy.
One extreme example of this type of therapy, to really bring this home to you, has to do with a former client of mine. I saw her for around six months and when she "graduated", she was doing really great and feeling very good. This continued for about a year, until one day I received an emergency phone call from her and she was in terrible shape.
She came in to see me right away and I asked what was wrong. She told me that she had been doing fantastically well for the last year, then about a week ago her girl friend asked if she wanted to go to a workshop called "rage weekend". She ended up going, and the idea of the weekend was for every person to have a catharsis and express their rage.
People were swearing and cursing up a storm when it was finally my client's turn. The "problem" was that she was not feeling any anger or rage, she was feeling very joyful and peaceful. I had trained her to own her power and to cause her own reality. I had trained her in the science of attitudinal healing and how to see life from her Christ consciousness rather than her negative ego consciousness.
Not being run by her ego, she didn't have a lot of anger. She was happy and had even-mindedness. The people in the group thought this was impossible, so they all kept attacking her until she finally broke down and started to cry. They did not let up until she got angry.
By the time I got to her she was a mess. I explained to her what had happened, and why it happened, and also explained to her that she had to be a little more discriminating about the kinds of workshops she would attend in the future, given her spiritual orientation. She quickly got the lesson and we patched her up better than ever, and a little wiser.
The encounter groups of the sixties, which are still going on, are also a product of this type of psychology. The idea is to share your feelings at any cost. It does not matter if you are unloving, or you are attacking or hurting someone. As long as you are getting out your feelings, everything is "wonderful", most definitely an Atlantean form of therapy, (emotionally based). It might be good for someone who is controlled and too polarized in their mental body for a short period of time, if the right person or group were found. Otherwise its value is quite limited.
Cognitive Psychology
If humanistic psychology is Atlantean based, then cognitive psychology is Aryan root race based (mental attunement). Cognitive psychology is unique in that it is the only form of traditional psychology which teaches that it is our thoughts that create our reality. This may be hard for some of you to believe, but this is the truth.
There are many very good ideas and tools in this form of therapy, and it definitely gets some results. The limitation is that the soul or spirit is missing from their systems, nor do they go all the way in understanding that our emotions are caused by our thoughts. They do say we cause our reality but they do not implement it to the point of seeing that we don't have to experience negative emotions if we don't choose to.
Let's say that this form of psychology is definitely a step in the right direction. It might be especially good for a person who is too emotionally polarized and needs to develop their mental body. I want to make it clear now that when I make subtle recommendations, like this I would not choose any of the forms of traditional counseling over a good spiritual counselor who has a good overall complete understanding.
In a sense, I make these recommendations for people who might not be open to seeing a spiritual counselor, because they are not yet at that level of evolution in life, so they must see someone who only works on the personality level, and not on the soul, and spiritual level.
For even a spiritual person who is more spiritually based, who is being victimized by their emotional body, reading some books on cogni-tive psychology might be very appropriate. Unfortunately this is a system that is not taught in traditional colleges or universities very much.
Freudian Psychology
This form of psychology, as time goes on, is getting less and less attention, although in the past has been very strong. Again a lot of the psychiatrists seem to gravitate to this form. Freud definitely has his place in history, and came up with some important concepts, however he was very fixated at the second chakra level.
His theories were also totally cut off from soul and spirit. A person who goes to see a Freudian analyst, in my opinion, is going to get very screwed up. As mentioned earlier they will probably have to go to therapy three times a week for twenty years.
A great co-dependence is created between the therapist and patient, and the therapist will lay all their Freudian philosophy onto the person's reality. If they didn't go in with sexual problems and problems with their outer and inner parent, they will have them when they get out.
They will also have a lot less money in their bank account. Freudian psychology is not of no value, but in my opinion, can take a person from level one to ten on a 1 to 100 scale. If they go for fifty years five times a week they will never get any farther, because it is not within their theory to take you any farther.
Jungian Therapy
Jungian therapy, of course, was started by the famous Swiss psychologist, C.G. Jung. He was a contemporary and student of Freud for a while but broke away because of Freud's fixation with sexuality being the cause of everything.
Of all the forms of "traditional psychology" I would give this form the "highest marks". This form can take one higher than the 30% I spoke of because it is "spiritually" based. Jung has a vague understanding of the Eternal Self, although not a complete understanding as someone like Djwhal Khul would teach.
Jung was in the ball park. Jung had an excellent understanding of dreams. He intimated a belief in reincarnation in his autobiography, although he didn't advertise this. He strongly believed in God, which is refreshing when you're having to study all these traditional therapies going through school.
Again I say, the best word to describe his contribution was, he was a fantastic catalyst to the field. It is very easy to get stuck in Jungian psychology, for the people who are really into it operate a little bit like a cult, although I am sure Jung would turn over in his grave at this. I speak from experience because my parents were Jungian therapists and I saw what they had to go through dealing with the Jung Society in Los Angeles.
We all know what happens with people form organizations around a certain set of teachings. This is not a criticism of Jung, but rather a commentary on what has been done to his teachings. This happens to all spiritual teachers including Jesus, and Buddha.
The limitations of Jungian psychology is that even though it is most definitely moving in the right direction, and is most definitely spiritual in orientation, it is not a complete understanding. For example there is no understanding of the difference between negative ego thinking and spiritual thinking. There is, in fact, an erroneous concept of having to own your shadow. Many people are caught up in this false teaching.
If God created us, then we are made in His image which is Light and Love. If we have a negative or shadow side it comes from our misuse of free choice, or thinking with our ego mind instead of our Christ mind. The ideal is to not own your shadow or negative ego, but rather to die to it. This is why Sai Baba says; "The definition of God is, God equals man minus ego". Buddha said that all suffering comes from our attachments.
We experience negativity because we think negatively. Think with your Christ mind and you will experience joy, happiness, unconditional love, and inner peace. When you feel negatively you can always trace it back to a negative thought coming from your negative ego. Die to your negative ego, and you die to the creation of a negative reality for yourself.
Other limitations of Jungian psychology, are that they don't teach affirmations, visualizations, or how to reprogram the subconscious mind. There is no real inner child work, and no focus on prayer or meditation. A person who stays only focused in Jungian psychology will most definitely progress, but will not go all the way.
Another example of what I am saying is in the fact that Jung did not teach unconditional love. One will not realize God, if they do not realize unconditional love. Again, I do not mean to be critical of Jung, for I have the utmost highest regard for the contribution he made to the field.
On the other side of the coin I see many people getting stuck in the school of Jungian teachings and limiting themselves. I would very much recommend to anyone the reading of his books. I even am very open to people being in Jungian therapy, as long as they will also study and work with other things.
An example of what I am trying to say here is that if you compare Jung's teachings to Paramahansa Yogananda's teachings they are not in the same league. Jung was not a self realized spiritual master. If your goal is self realization and ascension, then you must have a teacher who is self realized or ascended.
Definitely take advantage of Jung's teaching, for they are great, however, they are not in the same league as Sai Baba's teachings, or Djwhal Khul's teachings, or Yogananda's teachings on spiritual psychology. Integrate Jung into your eclectic stew, don't totally identify with him. That is what I am trying to say.
I see a great many people totally identified with him and in my opinion they are holding themselves back. On the other side of the coin this is what they may need for a while in their evolution to take them to the next step. I am just suggesting that when they reach that point, to not hold onto the old form, and to take the next step for it will lead to that which Jung couldn't teach, and that is the state of bliss, unceasing joy, unconditional love, enlightenment, and ascension.
Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt is another school of traditional psychology that is quite interesting. I speak from experience in dealing with this one because I was in Gestalt therapy for a number of years, myself, when I was younger. Fritz Pearls, the founder, was quite dynamic and many brilliant minds have built upon his theories.
It is a more feminine type of psychology as opposed to a masculine type. Gestalt psychology sees no inherent structure to the mind. Gestalt therapy is very much into experiencing everything first before dealing with the mind. They tend to be a little bit "anti-mind".
This school of thought was probably a needed backlash to the over emphasis on mind in some other theories. My favorite thing about Gestalt psychology is what, Fritz Pearls said, "When the top dog or under dog come up within your mind, laugh them off the stage." This was quite an astute statement for without a complete understanding of what he was saying, he was talking about transcending the negative ego which no form of traditional psychology has ever addressed.
Gestalt therapy deals with a lot of role playing which can be a very effective tool. When dealing with a dream, instead of talking about it you were asked to act it out literally. I once had a dream about a tarantula and made the mistake of telling my gestalt therapist. He had me climbing around his office as a tarantula spider. I am being funny here, but in truth, I got a lot out of Gestalt therapy, compared to other forms I tried.
It would definitely be a good methodology for someone who is too intellectual and uptight. The limitations are quite evident, also. It is, in my opinion, too feminine in its approach, and needs to find the male/female balance.
An example of this is the anti-mind and seeing absolutely no structure to the psyche. They have gone to the other extreme. Maybe it was an appropriate pendulum swing, but ultimately to achieve self realization, every person needs to be fully balanced. Gestalt psychology is also not integrating the soul aspect and spiritual aspect.
People have said Pearls, himself, was quite ordinary and even nasty at times. He definitely did not believe in unconditional love. This probably would have been too constricting for his teaching. Pearls definitely made a great contribution, and if this type of therapy is used scientifically, for the right adjustment needed to find personality level self actualization, it can be of some great value.
All these different therapies I am sharing are leading towards personality level self actualization. My complaint is that they don't lead to soul level self actualization, and then Monadic level or Spiritual level Self actualization. If what I am saying here is kept in the proper perspective then you can see how gestalt therapy or some of the other therapist can be of some value and use.
Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers was considered one of the great humanistic psychologists. His type of therapy was called client centered therapy. This type of therapy is very non-directive. He believed the client had all the answers and all one had to do is give unconditional positive regard, and practice "active listening".
My personal feeling about this is that I very much like his idea of unconditional positive regard. He was basically practicing and teaching unconditional love, and he should be commended, for this was a major breakthrough in the field of psychology.
His method of thinking that the client had all the answers and letting the client run the sessions, in my opinion, is a serious mistake. Most clients, by definition, are totally run by their emotional body, negative ego, subconscious mind, and desire body. I believe a therapist is a teacher, in truth. there are definite things that a client needs to learn to get their life together.
Rogers' practice of active listening was to repeat back whatever the client says, "I am pissed off at my wife." then Rogers would say, "so you are angry at your wife". It wouldn't be bad if he did this a couple of times in the session, but therapists are taught to do this constantly which would drive me nuts.
This type of therapy is a back lash or pendulum swing, from the Freudian and other types of therapies where the therapist talks too much and gives too much advice and doesn't listen enough. In my opinion, in Rogers' original theories he went too far to the other extreme.
This, of course, was his beginning writings. An interesting side note, of which many people are not aware, is the fact that in Rogers' later years he moved into "transpersonal" psychology, which is the traditional word for spiritual psychology.
Alfred Adler
Adlerian psychology is practiced by those who consider them-selves social psychologists. Adler had some good ideas. He saw the purpose of life as striving toward mastery and perfection, which is right on. He also saw the purpose of life as moving from the self centered viewpoint to a more socially useful viewpoint and activity.
Here Adler was clearly moving out of the negative ego thought system whose core is selfishness and separativeness. I very much commend him for this. The only problem is that he didn't quite go far enough. In a complete spiritual understanding, the purpose of life would be to move from the self centered view point to the soul and spiritual centered viewpoint, not just social viewpoint. This is where the theory stays on the humanistic plane and doesn't take the step to the soul level.
It is most definitely a step in the right direction. Adler dealt very much with the issue of needing to own one's power, and the need to get out of the superiority and inferiority complex.
Adlerian psychology was not very often taught in school, and this is unfortunate, for he had a lot of good ideas. Have you noticed that all the good theorists don't seem to be taught in school. In my estimation traditional school is 90% behaviorism and humanistic psychology, although, in more recent times this may be beginning to change.
Family Systems Psychology
This is a form of psychology that many of the marriage and family child counselors are trained in. It is an interesting theory in that the family is looked at like a functioning personality in and of itself. Any change of behavior on the part of a family member, causes a repercussion in the entire family system.
Instead of dealing with the individual psyches of each individual the family systems therapist seeks to make adjustments in the family system. If the child, for example, is having a problem the family therapist may not even deal with the child, but deal with making adjustments in, lets say, the parent's marriage. That adjustment may then heal the child.
As you can see, there is some truth to this. The problem is that, in my opinion, they have gone too far to the other extreme again, in the sense of not dealing enough with the individual psyches of the people involved. The ideal, in my opinion, would be to work both with the family system and with the individual psyches of each member of the family.
Again, each theory brings a sliver of truth in from the entire pie. These different theories seem to branch up because some other theory went too far in the other extreme. My suggestion is to stay in the center of the pie and not go to any extreme. Integrate all the different points of view and then you have a more "self" realized or whole understanding.
Transactional Analysis
This theory was developed by Eric Burns. It is based upon dividing up the personality into the parent, adult, and child. It is a very simplistic model, however. For someone who is just beginning their path of personality level, self actualization it can be a very helpful model to begin integrating the personality.
Ideally it would be nice if they could add to their live model, a Higher Self, and/or soul, but, of course, this is not the case. Although it is a very helpful model for some beginning students, it is too simplistic for my taste. I do like this model better than Freud's id, ego and super-ego. I think, compared to Freudian psychology, it is a much clearer under-standing.
The False Holistic Theory
This is a theory of psychology that I have termed myself. I think it is unknown to most people because most people are either caught in it or have a whole bunch of theories in their mind that they are unsure about. The false holistic theory as I define it is the belief that you need to balance the light and dark aspects of yourself.
Many reading this may be nodding your heads saying, "This sounds all right. I think we are supposed to do that." Well, I am here to tell you that you are not here to do this. Yes, you are here to balance the feminine and masculine parts of yourself. And you are here to balance the heavenly and earthly aspects of yourself. You are also here to balance all your chakras and four bodies as well as all aspects of yourself.
There is only one thing that you are not here to balance however, and this is the key point that very few people in this world understand. You are not here to balance negative ego consciousness, and Christ consciousness. You are her to get rid of and die to the negative ego. That is why Sai Baba says the definition of God is that "God equals man minus ego." Sai Baba is referring here to the negative ego.
It is even true that you need to balance and integrate your ego and your spiritual side. You are not here to balance negative ego thinking and Christ thinking. This is the essence of Sai Baba's teachings, "The Course in Miracles", Buddha's teaching, and in truth, all the teachings of all the Self Realized Masters.
Many people who are caught in the false holistic theory think that you have to balance everything. If you disown anything that it will come back and bite you on some level. This is not true. Remember, it is your thoughts that create your reality. The negative ego is, in essence, fear, selfishness, and separation.
We are not here to balance fear and love. Does not the bible say, "Perfect love casts out fear." We are not here to balance separation and oneness. We are here to live in the oneness. it is the negative ego that creates all the negative qualities such as hatred, revenge, jealousy, lack of self worth, false pride, depression, low self esteem, inferiority complex.
You are not here to balance hatred and love. You are not here to balance inferiority complex and a high self-esteem. You are not here to balance lack of self worth and self worth. God created us and our true identity is the Monad, the Eternal Self, the I Am Presence. Does not the Bible say, "Ye are Gods and know it not."
Does God experience hatred, revenge, jealousy, lack of self worth, false pride and depression? Of course not. Where do these qualities come from if God created us? They come from misthinking on humanity's part. They come from thinking with your separative, fear based mind, instead of your oneness, love based Christ mind. Does not the Bible say, "Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus."
To realize the Christ consciousness you have to get rid of the negative ego consciousness. As the "Course in Miracles" says, "There are no neutral thoughts." Every person is either egotistical in their thinking or spiritual in their thinking or a mixture of both. The ideal is to obviously be spiritual.
When you achieve this state of thinking and perfection of reality you are loving, joyous, happy, even-minded, and peaceful all the time. Did not Buddha say, "all suffering comes from your attachments." God does not suffer so why should we if we are made in His image and likeness. We are here to become the Light, to become the Love, to realize God.
As Sai Baba says, you will not achieve God realization unless you die to your negative ego which is fear, separative, and selfish conscious-ness. Die to this lower self way of thinking and be reborn to your Higher Self way of thinking, and then you will realize God.
This is the main curriculum of the spiritual path, regardless of which path or teacher you choose to follow. Contrary to what other people will tell you, you do not need negative emotions. They are created by your mind. They do not come from outside of yourself or from your instincts. They come from your interpretation, perception, and beliefs about reality.
You are seeing your own movie. Did not Buddha say, in the four noble truths that all suffering comes from "wrong points of view." Think with your God mind which is Light. That is why it is called en-light-enment. It is not called en-dark-enment. We are not here to balance happiness and suffering. We are here to live in happiness and the light all the time. This is the mastery over what Djwhal Khul has called the dweller on the threshold. The dweller on the threshold is the embodiment of glamour, maya, illusion, and negative ego.
This form of psychology, which am sharing with you, has also been called "transpersonal psychology" in the traditional field. Trans-personal psychology is the new wave of the future. In the next thirty to 100 years the field of psychology will be completely revolutionized by this coming new wave. This book and many others like it are antecedents and the beginning stage of this coming revolution.
Copyright © 2004 Dr Joshua David Stone. All Rights Reserved.
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