What is outrageous is not what you ask for.  What is outrageous is what you settle for.
                     –  Alan Cohen

Abstract:

Spiritual healing knows no limits. It is activated through intention. If we set the intention to clear the meta-issues that block releases of societal anxieties, fears and beliefs that are counter-productive, this can facilitate healing societal attitudes and beliefs that are impeding dealing with our global challenges that threaten our survival.
Dysfunctional societal beliefs block humanity from responding to current global crises

The world feels safer when we believe that our beliefs are real. We are very reluctant to question our basic beliefs, much less to change them. Meta-beliefs are locks we put on the doors that we shut to keep out questions which might make us feel uncomfortable about our basic beliefs.

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, the human mind is extremely uncomfortable with a conceptual vacuum, a gap in knowledge or an admission that we simply do not know the answer to an important question. To fill the gaps in our conceptual databases of explanations about the world, we develop myths. These are made-up stories that give answers to unanswerable questions.

For instance, every culture has its own creation myth. Wikipedia observes:

There are innumerable stories or narratives of origin. There also are many kinds of narrative that use the same general form and all ‘tell a story:’ history, biography, chronology, parable, allegory, fable, fairy tale, legend, epic, saga, myth, and cosmogony. Most of them contain an explanation that describes the beginnings of humanity, earth, life, and the universe (cosmogony), often as a deliberate act by one or more deities.

Many creation myths share broadly similar themes. Common motifs include the fractionation of the things of the world from a primordial chaos; the separation of the mother and father deities; and land emerging from an infinite and timeless ocean.

Some examples:

According to Shinto mythology, at the beginning of time the heavens and the earths were mixed together in a great cloud. The lighter parts rose up and became heaven, heavier parts descended and became an ocean of muddy water. A pale green sprout began to grow and, when the plant’s flower burst open, the First God emerged. This First God created Izanagi, the god of all that is light and heavenly and his wife and sister Izanami. The First God gave Izanagi the task of finishing the creation of the world. Standing on rainbow called Ama-no-ukihashi (the floating bridge of the heavens), Izanagi and Izanami plunged a jewel crested spear into the ocean. When they pulled it free, the water that dripped from the spear coagulated and formed the first island of the Japanese archipelago. Izanagi and Izanami went down to this island and, from there, made the islands of Japan.

The traditional account of creation by the Mansi people of Siberia involved two loons which dove to the bottom of primeval waters to retrieve a piece of the bottom and placed it on top of the water. From there the Earth grew. After a time, at the behest of his daughter, the spirit of the sky ordered his brother, the spirit of the lower world to create humanity. His brother made seven earthy, clay figures and which were quickened by the gods’ sister, Mother Earth.

(See numerous other creation myths from the Wiki collection from around the world.)

Whether we grow up believing that the Judao-Christian-Muslim God created the heavens and the earth or another cultural myth, each of these comes to have the feeling of ‘being the way it is.’ Anyone who questions such a myth is likely to be dismissed as an outsider who simply does not know the truth.

This is as true of scientific explanations for the world as it is for religious ones. In fact, this may be even more true of scientists, because they claim to base their explanations on methodical observations and measures of aspects of our world that serve as a rational basis for explaining how the world was created.

Unshakable social beliefs

If you always think what you’ve always thought,
You will always do what you’ve always done.
If you always do what you’ve always done,
You will always get what you’ve always got.
If you always get what you’ve always got,
You will always think what you’ve always thought.
                    – Roger von Oech.

Beliefs that are established in early years of our individual lives tend to have a feeling of truth and validity to them. In great part, this is due to the fact that these were the first beliefs we were taught, and we built our whole worldviews with these beliefs at their core.

On the positive side, this might include beliefs such as:

These beliefs, nested at the core of our life plan and guiding our path through life, would produce very positive relationships with others in all aspects of our behaviors and relationships.

On the negative side, we might find beliefs such as:

Such beliefs often lead to behaviors and relationships with other people, other living organisms and the environment that are exploitative and destructive.

Such beliefs, particularly the negative ones, are most often held with an unshakable certainty that they are correct. Any questioning of these beliefs is usually met with arguments, defensiveness and rejection.

Personal meta-anxieties and beliefs

In our personal lives we often experience traumas in childhood that leave emotional scars. We may hold anxieties, fears, phobias and beliefs many years after the original negative experiences, when they are – in and of themselves – no longer problems or threats in our lives. Very often, to our distress and detriment, we find ourselves unable to release these beliefs – along with the defensive patterns we have elaborated and continue to use, in order to avoid feeling these distressed feelings. The defensive patterns are activated in our current lives with issues that we could handle in much better ways with our adult awarenesses and more mature understanding of situations. However, because we have kept the childhood patterns for so long, we continue to hold onto our outmoded and most often unnecessary defensive responses.

In many cases it is possible to release such emotional residues using TWR and other therapies. As we recite affirmations while tapping on the body, the negative childhood feelings and beliefs rapidly dissipate in most cases.

In some cases, however, these residues persist despite all of our efforts to neutralize and let go of them. In such instances, there are often meta-anxieties and beliefs that hold us back from abandoning the lingering issues that are plaguing us.

For instance, we might be saying to ourselves:

These are meta-anxieties and beliefs about releasing the memories of the painful experiences we had. They are locks on the file drawers of our memories that prevent us from releasing them. Until we let go of these locks, it is difficult or impossible to release the painful issues that plague us.

TWR and related methods can be used to diminish the intensity of these meta-anxieties and to eliminate them. Once we have removed the meta-issue locks on our inner file drawers, then we are able to release the problematic residual beliefs and feelings.

Social meta-anxieties and beliefs

In similar ways to our individual meta-issues, there are social meta-anxieties and beliefs that prevent us from changing our collective beliefs and actions, even when these may be destructive to the extent of threatening a collective suicide. Helpful rules may have been developed early in the life history of a family; a clan; a social, racial or religious group; a local culture; or a nation. At the dates of their origins, they may have served very healthy, helpful functions. However, with the passage of time, with changing situations and maturing understandings of ourselves and our relationships with the world, we may have reached places where the original rules are outmoded and actually more dysfunctional and problematic than helpful.

For example:

Meta-anxiety: If they are right, then our beliefs must be wrong, and we’d have to admit [we’ve lived our lives under misguided principles/have acted unjustly towards others/are not the ‘chosen ones’ of the Creator]

More mature understanding: When we lived in a strictly local, pre-industrial society where travels were restricted and contact with ‘outsiders’ was very limited, we needed these rules to help us to co-exist. Now that travel and communications enable us to communicate with people all around the world, in cultures different from our own, we have much we can learn that is of benefit from other cultures. Not the least of our insights might be to discover those aspects of our traditional local teachings that are outmoded and do not serve us well in modern days. (See for instance a collection of deliciously unique words from diverse languages, each of which has no direct translation in other languages, in a wonderful book by C. J. Moore and Simon Winchester.)

Meta-anxiety: If we question the teachings of our religion or of our religious leaders, we will [burn in hell/suffer other Divine retributions].

More mature understanding: The words of Moses, Christ, Muhamed and other religious leaders held many rich teachings at the time they were spoken. A lot of their original meanings have been lost, due to language shifts and other cultural changes over the years, so that our current understandings have many layers of interpretations encrusted upon them over the intervening years. Some of the changes in fact may have been introduced by religious leaders along the way for purposes of keeping the sheep in the fold. The Creator speaks all languages. Each culture has interpreted the messages of the Infinite Source through its own unique understandings of the world. We may arrive at truer approximations of that which is beyond words if we look for the common denominators between religions rather than restricting ourselves to a single window of perceptions. I can work to overcome my discomforts with cultures and lifestyles that differ from my own so that I may harmonize with the urgent needs of our planet.

Meta-anxiety: Why should I/we cut back, however, if nobody else is doing so? My/our little excesses really won’t be that harmful, and I don’t know how we could get along without our accustomed lifestyle.

More mature understanding: We are living in a world that is facing unique challenges. We absolutely must develop new ways, as soon as possible, to deal with these. I, along with everyone else, can contribute to the highest good of all by learning sustainable ways of living, leaving a lighter footprint of wear and tear on this world – and perhaps even leaving the world in better shape for my presence in it.

Meta-anxieties: If animals other than humans have as much right to live as we do, how can we decide on planetary priorities that are fair? What will happen to human lifestyles if this is true? Which and how many of our creature comforts will we humans have to relinquish?

More mature understanding: Every living being on our planet is here by cosmic design and through its evolutionary harmonizing with every aspect of our planet. While it will take considerable adjustments – inner and outer – to achieve this, I will do everything I can to re-examine and adapt my understandings and lifestyles to harmonize with every aspect of Gaia: human, animal, plant, land, water and atmosphere.

Changing basic beliefs and releasing meta-anxieties

In many cases where individuals have released their meta-anxieties over examining or questioning their beliefs from frameworks outside their own, the first step towards releasing these locks on their beliefs was an experiential one. It is very common for teenagers, college students, and travelers to distant lands to start to wonder about their basic values. Next, they may start to question their meta-anxieties about re-examining or releasing these cultural rules – as they encounter others whom they like and respect but whose cultural and religious backgrounds are substantially different from their own.

Truth is compelling – not by argument, but by experience.
                     – Alan Cohen

I can share a few examples from my own life. :

Example 1. I had always enjoyed eating meat, poultry and fish. I thought that vegetarianism was a faddish affectation of those who could afford to eat at stylish vegetarian restaurants. These were behaviors and beliefs acquired along my life path. A 10-day visit to The Findhorn Foundation in Scotland brought about a major shift in my perceptions and behaviors. After eating tasty, simple vegetarian fare in this plant-awareness promoting community for a week and a half, I learned this was not only a possible but also an enjoyable diet. I have since then come to deepen my understandings and reasons for staying away from red meat (the untenable carbon footprint), and to make vegetarian choices far more often then before. As I deepen my awareness of my oneness with all life on earth, I am making these choices more and more often.

Example 2. Having grown up in a Jewish home in New York City, I distinctly viewed people from different religions and cultures, whom I knew for the most part only from passing them on the street, as ‘others.’ Living in Israel as an adult, and rubbing elbows with people who had national origins from Europe, South America, North Africa and Yemen was a very broadening experience. Making friends with people from diverse cultures led me to appreciate that there are many ways to play the game of life, and that mine wasn’t in many cases the best way. This is a lesson that broadened in its effects in my life, to include having married two non-Jewish women.

I probably would not have changed my perceptions or behaviors in these regards in as deep ways as I did, without the personal experiences. Lesson: To change awareness, emotions, beliefs, meta-issues and behaviors, experiential learning is desirable and effective.

Once awareness has shifted, then deliberate releases of beliefs, anxieties and meta-anxieties are possible. Again, an example from my personal experience:

Peeling the onion of life’s stresses and of locked away residues has become a part of my daily life. Most issues respond so quickly to TWR that I have come to expect that painful issues from the past that are stirred by current challenges will melt away and be replaced by positive, healing cognitions and feelings.

I once had a pain in my left hip persist despite using TWR after a minor fall. I probed more deeply and discovered a distant past life memory of dying a lonely death in the snow on a mountain. I had been left behind by my clan because of an injury to my left hip that made it impossible for me to keep up with the group that was on a long trek. I felt no resentment towards my clan, because this was how it had to be for the survival of all. But is was bitter towards God because I felt I had been let down unfairly when my wife had died not long before in childbirth.

My pain was an invitation to clear these old, buried hurts, resentments and angers. Again, however, the pain resisted release with TWR. It was only when I addressed my meta-anxieties and fears of relinquishing these negative feelings that the feelings themselves let go. The meta-anxieties were locks on the door to the inner cavern where the feelings had been buried. They were there to protect me against trusting the Infinite Source (the term I now use instead of God) again – because my inner self believed I would only be setting myself up for disappointment if I trusted again.

Lesson: When blocks to desired emotional releases and changes in beliefs are encountered in our individual work, we can often clear the blocks by identifying meta-issues and clearing them first.

Looking forward, considering where we are in the world

The immanent threats of global social and economic meltdowns and planetary destruction invite creative solutions. The classical wholistic, spiritual suggestion is to work on clearing our personal issues as the best contribution we can make to clearing negativity from the collective consciousness. However, in these perilous times, changing the big picture one pixel at a time does not appear to be a promising or adequate solution. There isn’t enough time, at that pace, to have even a small chance of reaching a turning point in consciousness or actions that will stave off, much less resolve, the multiple serious impending threats of monetary/ economic collapse; exhaustion of fossil fuels, water and food supplies; poisoning by pollution; threat of nuclear destruction; and global heating.

Without a change in consciousness, humanity will continue on its path to suicide – out of lack of ability to accept collective responsibility for dealing with each and every one of the threats to our existence.

I believe there are cultural meta-issues blocking the necessary shifts and awakenings. Several of these are detailed above, in my bulleted examples of beliefs, meta-anxieties, and more mature understandings.

In an earlier article, I suggested it is possible to send healing to any person in the collective consciousness of humanity who is in need of healing, as we engage in therapeutic healing for ourselves and with other individuals. (I also provided research references to support the effectiveness of such distant healings.) These sorts of healings can also be done with the intention that the healing should extend backwards and forwards in time. In another article I detailed how we can deal with individual meta-meta-anxieties , the secondary locks we put on the first layer of locks against experiencing our anxieties, fears and other issues.

Similarly, there is every reason to expect that healing directed to the meta-anxieites and of blocking meta-beliefs in the collective consciousness will be effective and helpful.

Here is a sample focusing statement:

I/We invite anyone and everyone, anywhere and everywhere, anywhen and everywhen, who is part of the collective consciousness of a group, to become aware of their blocks to releasing their [anxieties/ fears/ hurts/ angers/ sadness/ and any other feelings or beliefs] that prevent them from participating in planetary healing.

For the Replacement Positive statement:

I/We invite anyone and everyone, anywhere and everywhere, anywhen and everywhen, who is part of the collective consciousness of a group, to [vision/sense/see/hear] themselves confidently, easily and completely releasing their [anxieties/ fears/ hurts/ angers/ sadness/ and any other feelings or beliefs] that prevent them from participating in planetary healing

I invite you to suggest helpful affirmations to address some of the bulleted challenges to clearing the collective consciousness above. Responses please to  my email .

Hopefully, if we can release blocks to our working on our issues about engaging in healing our planet, we may be able to become more active and to save our world from humanity’s suicidal and genocidal behaviors.

 

References:

Moore, C. J. Winchester, S. In Other Words: A Language Lover’s Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World. New York: Walker & Co. 2004.

You may reproduce all or parts of this article in your journal, magazine, ezine, blog or other web or paper publication on condition that you credit the source as follows: Copyright © 2008 Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABHM   All rights reserved. Original publication at WholisticHealingResearch.com where you will find many more related articles on this and similar subjects of wholistic healing.