Self-Centered Fear, a transitional concept from Narcotics Anonymous

I applaud anyone who has gone to Narcotics Anonymous even once. This 12-Step Program is a lifeline for so many courageous people in recovery who seek to break free from substance addiction.

One of my cherished long-term clients is GLADYS. She has a history that involves substances. One session at a time, we are moving out STUFF and putting in new understandings, choices, and social skills in alignment with her soul, her strongest individual qualities of Who You Be. (This 50% of move out STUFF and 50% of put-in is, of course, a working definition of Energy Spirituality.)

Today GLADYS mentioned in passing an important concept in Narcotics Anonymous (NA): Self-Centered Fear. And today’s post is a response to this concept, which can be very helpful at a certain stage in recovery but later, well, how often is a human idea useful at every level of consciousness?

Self-Centered Fear

Life grows over-subjective if you smoke marijuana or center your life around cocaine or heroin. The concept of Self-Centered Fear includes false, or irrelevant, concerns that keep the former addict from engaging fully in life.

Speech and action in objective reality always come with risk. As I understand it, Self-Centered Fear is a form of “stinking thinking” that is especially common among people who would seek out Narcotics Anonymous.

At one time, the Self-Centered Fear label really helped GLADYS. She used the concept to identify behavior patterns that were related to her former dependency upon substances. Painful though these patterns were to acknowledge, she needed the clarity as she sought to rebuild her life.

“Get over yourself” is good advice at a certain stage of development. It’s along the lines of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. Move from subjective reality into objective reality. Use speech and action, rather than dwelling on fear. However…. Read More »

My Turning Point, Clearly Signed. A guest post by Scarlett Jade

I have something to say that ties into a couple of themes  that could be summarized as “Pain” and being “High.” For context, I am a former stoner of 20 years. For well over a year, I haven’t gotten high once — unless you count using techniques of energetic literacy for a natural high.

There is something to be said for the contrast of experience being high or not.

I mistakenly started out smoking believing that it was an honorable spiritual path. I also felt that it intensified experiences, and that quality in itself was a positive thing all around.

A subtext of feeling like I was taking something away from myself if I wasn’t high for things like being in the outdoors or being with people I loved –- because it would just shoot me to a place of revelry.

But there was this aspect that made me question the whole stoner lifestyle, Read More »

Arlene, the Groovy Psychiatrist, on the promise of Energy Spirituality

Undercover psychiatrist “Arlene” starts talking about Energy Spirituality, pot, and other topics.

Rose: Greetings to you, Arlene the Groovy Psychiatrist, and greetings to all you blog-buddies who are listening to the recording that we’re making. Funnily enough, we’re making this recording on the 14th of July, 2011, and meanwhile this is a part of a contest that was originally posted at my blog on January 10th, 2011. 

So, would you like to introduce yourself, Arlene, apart from my mentioning that this is not your real name but that you are being given cover as someone interested in the relatively new, possibly controversial field of energy spirituality as well as being a psychiatrist, what do you want people to know about you?

Arlene: Well I’m in my last year of training of my psychiatry residency at an academic medical center. I’ve known you for several years now, I’ve lost count of how many years, and I do follow your blog quite regularly.

Rose: And just for the sake of those who listen, would you explain: Could a resident be a doctor? What is a resident?

Arlene: Oh, yes. So a resident is someone who has gone to college, so they usually have 4 years of college education, and then they have gone to medical school, so they have 4 years of medical education, and then during their last year of medical school they decide, you know, what area they want to specialize in. That’s when people start to sort of identify with do I want to become a surgeon, or do I want to become a pediatrician, do I want to become a cardiologist?

So I decided to go into psychiatry, so during my last year of medical school I applied for a psychiatry residency, which is a 4-year residency. So I have just finished 3 full years of psychiatry training, and I’m just starting my 4th year, which is my last year.

Rose: And then they can set you loose on anybody, right?

Arlene: And then if I graduate from the program I would be eligible to practice general adult psychiatry, but I’ll probably actually do more training, and do a fellowship on top of my adult training, so I’m not quite done yet.

Rose: It’s exciting. So, thank you so much for responding to questions here, and I will just mention where I am coming from in asking you these questions and starting this original contest, and that is that there are three different energy modalities that are part of the leading edge of mind-body- Read More »

My passion project, a guest post by Jeremy

What it is like for spiritual people with evolved ideas and ways of life to live in a world where most people are at least half asleep, if not completely passed out?

We learn to read and understand energy to help us understand and feel more connected to everyone and everything. But if almost everyone around us is asleep, and chooses not to do the same, it feels like you are in essence, more alone.

I bring this up because the more (and more) I feel myself exponentially evolving and growing, spiritually and mentally, the more (and more) disconnected I feel on those levels from people around me.

Having been completely sober for one year and having done eight sessions of Energy Spirituality and one session of Energy Release Regression Therapy with Rose, I almost have a feeling of walking around in a park with lots of people, but no one seeing you but you can see everyone else.

This isn’t a thought or feeling of ego or of being better than anyone else. Instead I thought about it this way. Read More »

What can alcohol, cocaine, and pot do to a person energetically?

How is the aura of a drunk like flypaper?

So much for my orderly plans for the flow of posts at this blog! Soon we will get to Tenderness Part 3, as well as a couple of guest posts I’m waiting to put in, etc. Quite a long list!

Meanwhile, VALERIE asked a great question today. As long as I’m answering, this deserves its own post. So here we go.

She asked, at Comment 79, in our thread about how to stop smoking marijuana:

“I’m curious about what happens to a person energetically when he or she ingests alcohol.”

Energy effects of alcohol regarding safety

Great question! Let’s consider one energy problem at a time.

Many potheads, or first-time weed smokers, are told, “Marijuana is much safer than alcohol.”

It’s common knowledge that research has shown brain cell damage from alcohol. On the level of deeper perception, there is a great deal of STUFF that goes into a person’s aura as well. Read More »

Healing YOUR part of the Loneliness Epidemic

In 1893, sociologist Emile Durkheim coined the term anomie to describe a new kind of loneliness. Unprecedented numbers of workers were leaving the cozy, comfy, ok — stifling comfort, of their small towns and villages.

You could think of these small towns like the bar depicted in TV classic “Cheers,” a gathering place where everybody knows you, including every single one of your quirks. Only, of course, “Cheers” wouldn’t happen for some hundred years after Durkheim’s discovery.

Plus ”Cheers” was fictional.

Plus going to any big-city bar is optional, whereas old-time life in the country was more like being so stuck socially, everyday life was like being fastened to a piece of paper with a thumbtack. Boy oh boy, did you ever know your place.

Big-city life brings freedom. Only, as Durkheim observed, that freedom brings a different kind of pain. Sure, anonymity of a big city liberates. What standards must you, or anyone else, have any more? And you’ll be ignored unless you go out and make yourself some friends, get a job, clone some cronies, etc.

Today’s high-tech shift into loneliness is so more intense than yesterday’s problems with anomie. If Emile Durkheim found out the scope, the anguish of it all, he might well be texting in his grave: “Ooh la la, the pain of it all!”

Read More »

To stop smoking pot, how Energy Spirituality can help

How can you use spiritual healing in general, and Energy Spirituality in particular, to stop smoking marijuana? We have been pursuing a thread about how energetic literacy reveals the hidden dangers of pot-marijuana-weed-grass-MJ-dope.

Let’s begin with some questions posed by one of my courageous clients who has been able to change a long-term dependency. Jeremy wrote that during the four months since he stopped smoking pot altogether,  he has noticed Read More »

Ask A Groovy Psychiatrist, a contest for ex-pot smokers and other wisdom seekers

Carl Jung, Another Groovy Psychiatrist

Psychiatrist “Arlene” has agreed, and I am… psyched. This new contest is a chance for our Deeper Perception community to explore so many topics, including:

• The differences between psychological healing and spiritual healing — from someone who values both.
• Given Arlene’s experience so far as a psychiatry resident, what she has learned about helping patients in recovery from addiction to marijuana.
• Any general questions you might have for a contemporary and very cool psychiatrist — someone from today’s generation of practitioners. Read More »

When you stop smoking pot, a Guest Post from Arlene

As a practitioner of Energy Spirituality, I’ve developed some specialties. One is helping people to release addictions. Over the years, I have helped clients release addictions to marijuana, other recreational drugs, alcohol, and sex (the last of these more fashionably called “love addiction”).

No, I’m not an addictions counselor. But I have developed some skills for helping people to permanently move out STUFF, astral-level debris  which otherwise would make it far harder to release an addiction.

Tomorrow, I aim to add a blog post as part of a thread begun by our Blog-Buddy Jeremy. First, though, here’s a guest post from “Arlene.” She is a psychiatry resident — an M.D. who is developing the specialty of psychiatric care. Of course, a few details (like her name) have been changed, to protect her on her path among colleagues who may not yet be huge fans of Energy Spirituality or anything that might be considered “New Age.”

Because Arlene cares passionately about psychiatry. But, like some other professionals who work with me as students and/or clients, Arlene also has a non-mainstream passion for Energy Spirituality. Read More »

Empath Merge with Cat Stevens, a Guest Post from Elaine

Cat Stevens now, as Yusuf

Our wonderful Bl0g-Buddy Elaine has done another Skilled Empath Merge for us. She used the Magic Picture Technique from Become the Most Important Person in the Room on the younger Cat Stevens.

She did her research with energetic literacy in advance of reading my comments – way to go, Elaine!

Any of you other Blog-Buddies feeling a bit jealous of Elaine here? Remember, you’re invited to Guest Post, too. Often a good way to start is with a short comment at the end of a blog post. Soon you’ll be blossoming, as is Elaine. So proud of you, Elaine! Read More »