The Language Of The Unconscious

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my dearest friends. Blessings for every one of you. Blessed be this lecture. May this lecture help you to discover more of yourself, to widen and to raise your consciousness, to strengthen your grasp on reality.

The most powerful aspect in your life is the unconscious. Everything favorable, pleasurable, advantageous, as well as your hardships, your suffering, your disappointments, your unfulfillments -- in other words, your so-called bad luck, which is really the repetition of unfavorable patterns -- are all determined by your unconscious thinking and your unconscious feeling. This comprises a great deal more than is commonly understood. When you speak of your fate, what happens or does not happen to you as if by fate, the truth is that these events are caused by the governing force of the unconscious factors within you.

The unconscious mind is much stronger than the conscious mind because the absurdity of conscious misconceptions and unrealistic outlooks is more easily detectable, and therefore can be corrected. But what is hidden from your awareness continues to govern you without your being able to change it by making use of your reason. Hence it is of the utmost importance to detect such hidden erroneous outlooks.

It is generlly ignored that the unconscious harbors not only petrified wrong conclusions, destructive behavior patterns resulting from the images, and destructive emotions due to unresolved problems, but also utter wisdom, divine truth, and the most constructive elements in the universe -- which it constantly builds with unending creativity and love. These wells of positive energy can be tapped to the degree that the obstructions are let out of their hiding place, which is the unconscious. Only then will all the productive elements which are still hidden rise to the surface.

Only when you are in a dynamic process of growth and development do these words become real. Until then, these words are no more than a theory. As you begin to discover the strange, exciting, at times even slightly frightening and yet exhilarating reality of your unconscious, you will begin to have an inkling of the powerful elements that are buried in it. So on this path we must strive to detect not only what is erroneous, but also all the productive elements behind the errors. They all lie deep within yourself. To the degree that you liberate yourself from the rubbish of the useless fears and misconceptions that divide you, to that degree the constructive, creative, productive elements that you never knew existed in you will be freed.

Why do I repeat this fact after having discussed it so often and in so many different forms? My reason for doing so is that in spite of considerable progress, none of my friends are really and truly aware of the power of their unconscious and of how it still governs them in their daily lives. I wish to help you to become more aware of this, so I want to to give you even more effective tools to help you to discover more of these forces which govern you without your knowing it.

Before we come to more practical hints in this respect, let me discuss the following. Your personality is a repetition -- of course, in smaller form -- of the whole universe. Both the individual and the universe exist because of a certain distribution of various cosmic forces. The way these energies interact and are arranged determines the harmonious or the disharmonious existence of the created being -- human, universe, plant, or leaf. In their ideal creation and state, these energies and forces work together perfectly, complementing each other rather than hindering one another. Hence, the created being emanates one unified cosmic current. Again, this applies to a stellar system, to an individual planet, as well as to every entity inhabiting the individual planets, from mineral to the highest spiritual creature. The regulating universal forces must be the same for all.

When a stellar system disintegrates, then it is because contrary forces are at work. These are the opposite of truthfulness, of realism, of awareness, and of consciousness. These two opposing forces create such tension through the pressure of the two opposing energy currents that finally an explosion occurs and the entity annihilates itself. This is applicable to a stellar system, to a planet, or to the decay of a leaf on a tree. To put it simply, up to a certain degree of development or awareness the universe consists of two primary currents: a yes-current and a no-current. The yes-current includes every constructive energy because it is in accord with truthful insight, which cannot help but breed love and unity. The no-current is destructive because it inadvertently deviates from truthfulness. As a result, it breeds hate and disunity. This general explanation applies to your individual daily life, as well as to the great concepts in the history of creation.

You know from past experience that I never ask you to blindly accept spiritual teachings that you cannot verify within yourself right now. For what applies to you personally in principle must apply to all of creation. It is not only easy but absolutely feasible to detect both the yes-current and the no-current within yourself in your daily lives, provided you learn first to understand and then to interpret the language of your personal unconscious. To do so requires a certain technique, the same as learning any new language. It means practice, perseverance, and patience in order to learn the new symbols.

Language in any shape or form is a conglomeration of symbols. What else is language? When you say the word table, then it is a symbol for the object that you know and use. The same applies to the language of your personal unconscious mind. And it is just as possible to learn its language as it is to learn any other language. But it also takes just as much time, effort, and practice. It does not come to you by itself, any more than learning a new language comes to you without organized effort. Only it is infinitely more rewarding and more essential for your personal life to know the language of your unconscious than to have the knowledge of a dozen foreign earth languages.

The work on this path is many things. We have described it in various analogies and defined it in several ways. Among other things, this path is also the learning of the language of your unconscious. When you do so, then you are bound to detect both your yes-current and your no-current.

The yes-current is the more noticeable of the two because it is mostly conscious. When you find yourself disturbed because of a persistent unfulfillment, then you can be sure that both currents must be strongly at work within you, thereby putting the brakes on. Consciously the yes-current is stronger and therefore blots out the unconscious no-current. The more the latter is squelched in the erroneous idea that this eliminates it, the more it is driven underground, where it continues to do its work. And the more this happens, then the more urgent and the more frantic does the yes-current become. These two currents pull the personality in two opposite directions, thereby creating stronger tension and greater pressure. The way to eliminate this short circuit is to uncover the no-current and to understand its faulty premises. In this way can you gradually shed your belief in the necessity for its existence.

It will be helpful for you to approach both yourself and your life in this way. It sounds simple, and it really is simple, but it is not oversimplified.

In those areas of your life where things go easily, where you appear to be lucky -- in other words, where most of the time you are fulfilled, without any problematic and confusing crises -- then you can be sure that there is very little no-current present. Therefore, the yes-current predominates because there no contradictory undercurrent hidden within you in that particular area. To put it differently, not only is your surface attitude undivided and in accord with reality, but so is the the attitude of your entire being. In other words, you are not split in your desire and in your motivation behind this desire.

But in the areas where you are repeatedly unlucky, then the no-current must be at work in one form or another. The reasons may vary with each individual. But the underlying causes have to be clearly defined in order to inactivate them. Most of you have begun to detect them, at least in part.

Any goal that you consciously desire and nevertheless do not attain is proof of the fact that an undetected no-current is at work in you. It is not sufficient to have gained an understanding of your images and misconceptions, nor of how and why they came into existence in the particular circumstances of your childhood. Important work as that is, it is only one step. Most of you have made considerable progress in this respect. But it is not sufficient. You are mistaken when you believe that having found these misconceptions, these erroneous conclusions will automatically change your innermost emotional reactions -- which are very subtle. It does not work that way. This assumption leads to the illusion that your finding and your momentary relief has already liberated you, while you continue to react in the old way without being aware of it. Sooner or later, this is bound to produce negative results once again, which then come as a double disappointment and will therefore result in discouragement.

The only way that change can come about is through detection of how the no-current continues to work, even prohibiting the change so ardently striven for by the yes-current. That is why it is so important for you to master the language of your personal unconscious.

Let us assume that you wish a certain fulfillment in your life, a fulfillment that until now you have lacked. You may have been aware of a strong desire for this fulfillment. In your pathwork you have discovered certain unconscious misconceptions, certain false guilts, and certain destructive attitudes that prohibit this fulfillment. You may even have discovered a fear of the very fulfillment that you wish and, consequently, a subtle attitude of rejecting it. The fear may be based on an entirely illusory premise and therefore may be unnecessary. It may be due to the childish desire of not wanting to pay the necessary price connected with the fulfillment. It may be a feeling of not deserving this happiness. It may be any number of further reasons, or it may be a combination of all of them. Whatever they are, you have discovered what stands in your way. You may experience this discovery as a one-time nucleus, as it were, like a package of disturbances. But it rarely occurs to my friends that this package continues to send forth its expressions in spite of having been detected. And this is the important part of the work, without which real liberation cannot be achieved.

In view of all this, it is necessary to renew your efforts in the daily detection of your no-current at work. Its manifestations may be subtle, diffuse, and almost too elusive to catch. But if you set out to do so, then what at one time was so hazy as to be almost impossible to formulate will now become obvious. In other words, it will stand out in clear contour. You will discover how you cringe at the very thought of the fulfillment whenever it approaches. When it is playful fantasy, then all may be well. You may detect a vague feeling of familiar uneasiness about the fulfillment. It is a feeling of fear. Or it is the false guilt that you do not deserve it. Whatever it is, try to take these vague, hazy emotional impressions and then question them in the daylight of consciousness. Examine the faraway fantasy when it seems that only your yes-current is at work. But in this fantasy do you wish the impossible in that you do not take into consideration the human imperfections in all concerned? Do you fantasize in a spirit of having it all your way? This may not be bad or wrong. But upon closer examination, you will see that it is is rigid, one-sided, unreal? In this fantasy, do you expect being favored, at the expense of flexibly adjusting to new circumstances? In these circumstances you could give of yourself as you compromise and renounce your expectations. Or, do you feel that life should furnish you with the ideal fulfillment without necessitating change, adjustment, and relinquishing on your part? This prevalent attitude may be extremely subtle, and therefore requires all your discernment in order to discover it. When you do, then you will have found a reason for the existence of your no-current -- which functions exclusively when it comes to reality, but not in your one-sided fantasy. In such one-sided fantasy, you may even be willing to give of yourself, but only because in the fantasy you direct the play and thus you determine how, when, and in what way you are giving. In reality you cannot determine all that. Reality requires you to be ready with your flexibility when necessary. Because you unconsciously know all that, you block the fulfillment, somehow waiting for the impossible.

When you become aware of your constantly-working no-current -- even before fully understanding its presence -- then you will find relief from your hopelessness and the way out will be in sight. You will understand why your life has not changed in spite of the extensive recognition of your images and your childhood lessons. Now you will detect the destructive feelings in the service of the no-current. Some of these are fear, guilt, anger, frustration, and hostility. These feelings continue to smolder. But they may be artfully camouflaged. For example, they may be explained away by apparently real provocations, and thus successfully projected onto others. Discovering all these mechanisms is learning the language of your unconscious. This is a successful translation of it.

No matter how many findings you make, nothing will really change in your life until you observe your no-current in action daily again and again, until you interpret its messages, and until you decipher its codes.

Before you can discover your no-current behind a strong unfulfilled wish, you may be puzzled because your yes-current is so desperately urgent. Instead of letting this mislead you into assuming that this proves the absence of a no-current, you can be certain that the urgency actually proves its presence. The frantic fear that this desperate urgency will not be fulfilled always heralds an underground No to the fulfillment of a specific desire. The absence of such a No produces an easy, relaxed yes-current. In other words, a desire without a tinge of desperation. It is a yes-current that wants the fulfillment, that is wholly ready for it, but that is also capable of leading a constructive life without it, regardless of how welcome the fulfillment would be. If the fulfillment cannot take place for various outer reasons -- for example, if the detection of the no-current happened too late -- then the person will know that other ways are open to him for the experience of a productive life.

Let us now be more specific about the detection of a no-current. You may be sure that it exists if frustration remains in your life in spite of having found the relevant images. You may be sure about its existence if you are desperate in your yes-current. You may be sure that it exists if you fear that the fulfillment will never come. You may be sure that it exists if you believe your life is dismal without it. All of the above are symptoms of the existence of the no-current in you. After having determined that the no-current must exist in this area, it is now a question of experiencing it. But not just once, but whenever it is at work.

To become acutely aware of its existence, the practice of the daily review is immensely helpful and has to be applied in this direction. The observation and the questioning of your emotional reactions must extend in width and in depth on the path, instead of diminishing. If you progress in the right direction, then you will observe more rather than less -- contrary to the mistaken idea that there is less to see because of your improvement. The close scrutiny of your emotions is a number one prerequisite.

It is equally important to stir up the petrified part of your unconscious. If left alone -- untouched and unchallenged -- then the obstructions which are the manifestations of the no-current do not manifest. They slumber quietly. Only when shaken up do they react in a more noticeable fashion. Such stirring up occurs through the frustrations and the difficulties that life brings. It also occurs through consciously and deliberately questioning the self and trying to get through the outer rational self in a spirit of penetrating inner search.

The emotions you have stirred up reveal your no-current, provided they are investigated, questioned, and then understood. As I have said, this stirring up occurs partly through the unavoidable life circumstances and partly through conscious and deliberate processes in the pathwork. In order to observe productively what the unconscious expresses, it is important to separate the healthy part of yourself from the unhealthy, confused, involved part of you. This detached observation of something that at first is obscure and strange is the most healing procedure on the Path of liberation. When your yes-current observes your no-current without frantic self-accusations, then it becomes possible to translate the latter into concise human language. This concise formulation of previously vague feelings is invaluable. It is often emphasized in the early stages of this Path.

You are erroneously convinced that to understand what occurs in your unconscious means merely finding hitherto unknown elements. In other words, you expect to find completely unknown facts. This is true only in the rarest of instances. It is not necessary to go through gyrations and contortions to seek after novelties. Nothing impossible is required in order for you to discover what needs to be discovered in order to live a meaningful and productive life. In other words, you do not have to wait for something that is faraway and completely hidden. First observe those layers that are easily accessible when you focus your attention on them. These are the half-conscious thoughts, the vague and diffuse attitudes and expressions that are almost second nature. They are so easily overlooked because they have become a part of you. But none of these half-conscious feelings, of these half-conscious reactions, and of these half-conscious concepts have been clearly formulated into concise thoughts as yet. If you watch these half-conscious reactions in the problem areas of your life, then you will learn all you need to know about yourself. This is a vital part of learning the language of your unconscious.

I will not discuss dream interpretation, which deals with the translation of deeper levels. For this, more help is needed than the observation of half-conscious material and its translation into your known language. The half-conscious material comprises your immediate emotional reactions and your fantasy life. The comparison of both often demonstrates your discrepancies, your contradictions, and your immature expectations.

The more clearly you see how you either push away or withdraw from the very fulfillment that you crave for -- as you see it in action again and again -- the closer you come to eliminating the no-current. You weaken it merely by observing it.

When the petrified part of your unconscious has been sufficiently badgered -- partly from the petrification itself, which you experience as frustration and pain, and partly from your pathwork -- then the hardness becomes sufficiently fluid to let go of some of its substance. This causes the no-current to appear strongly on the surface, less and less disguised, therefore making it more and more difficult to rationalize it. This can lead to a turning point, provided the ego does not lapse in its vigilance, thereby allowing the no-current to become strong again. Please, test yourself as to this possibility, at least in certain areas.

It is essential that you pay more attention to the no-current in its exact form. A certain type of meditation can help. Become quiet and relaxed. Begin by observing your thinking process -- even your initial inability to do so. This eventually leads to keeping your thoughts out for a short while and thus making yourself utterly empty. In the emptiness it is possible for the hitherto checked and repressed material to surface -- provided you express this purpose and you desire it strongly enough, without shying away from the effort that is necessary to reach the goal. Though difficult at the beginning, after a while this effort will establish a channel to a part of you that previously you could not tap. At first you will see the destructive elements floating up and then you will be able to tap the constructive elements hidden deeply within you. Often the process does not follow this sequence. In other words, it is not that the good follows after all the bad has come out. It fluctuates. This may represent an additional test for you because it may lead you to wishful thinking and to an overestimation of yourself. Someone who has experienced the manifestation of some of his creative, constructive soul material may not be further advanced than another who has not yet tapped this divine channel. They just have a different rhythm.

In occult literature the expression "the third eye" is often used. Through establishing contact with your hidden unconscious and understanding the language of your unconscious obstructions, you develop "third" perceptive organs and forms of communication in every respect: not only eyes with which to see more clearly, but ears and other senses of perception, as well as a new form of speech.

Metaphysical practices have succeeded in providing adequate training and discipline in this respect. But only rarely are they used in the right direction. People are always tempted into the ideal state they have not yet reached, so that newly-acquired faculties are put into the service of escaping, instead of being used for self-detection and for understanding the meaning of their destructive elements.

All this requires self-discipline, as well as unflagging willpower. The difficulty is that behind the lack of the willpower needed on your path is the very no-current that created the problem you wish to resolve. In other words, the brakes which you inadvertently put on your consciously desired fulfillment because of some unknown fear in you manifest in your pathwork in various ways. These brakes manifest as a lack of energy, as a lack of desire, as laziness, as being blocked, as not understanding, as projecting anger onto those who help. They also manifest as dramatizing and exaggerating your actual difficulties, until your pathwork is no longer possible, or can continue only in such a way that your real problem remains untouched. Another symptom of your no-current -- of your No -- is the negative insistence to concentrate on issues that the pathwork does not organically bring to your attention through your life circumstances.

To know and therefore to be on the lookout for such delaying tactics from your no-current is essential to your work of self-realization. Although a substantial part of you is eager to detect, to grow out of, and to change your main problem with the help of your yes-current, there is also a deep fear of change in you -- showing you no-current at work. This fear exists in proportion to the difficulty of your problem and to the amount of work that is necessary for you to solve it. This no-current cannot be eliminated unless the deep fear -- and its concomitant misconceptions which call it into existence -- becomes conscious so that your reason and your intelligence can examine its validity. Therefore, it is advisable not to disregard your no-current and to act as though it did not exist. It must be heeded, for it contains the key to your main the problem.

The no-current is also called resistance. But this word has lost its meaning for you, so the mere mention of it may only increase your no-current. But if you realize that the no-current is a universal factor, one that is present in your world in many forms, then it might be easier for you to go about detecting it.

Every one of you is constantly involved in a no-current. It is not a question of whose current is stronger and whose is weaker. The determining question is whether it is detected, observed, and followed in its machinations, which must be clearly understood. A stronger no-current is less harmful -- and is weakened by your constant awareness of it -- than a puny but sluggishly obstinate one that clings to the personality in a most damaging fashion just because it goes unobserved. These are more difficult to find, especially when the yes-current is strong. So, please, my friends, set out to discover your no-current: in what way it manifests and on what misconceptions it is based.

Your unconscious speaks steadily to you. But it speaks without your hearing it. So you do not communicate with it. Therefore, you miss out on a very important part of your work. Often you go on searching for an intellectual understanding of your misconceptions, but you overlook the steady flow of your no-current and how it works. This should become a task for you, with the main emphasis on your self-observation. If you devote a little time to this all-important issue every day, then the results will be most wonderful.

Therefore, ask yourself: (1) What goal do I want now? Where am I dissatisfied? What would I want to be different? (2) How much do I want it? (3) To what extent is there something in me that fears it, and therefore does not want it, or that says No to it for one reason or another? (4) If this no-current exists regarding the thing I wish most, then it must also exist in my pathwork itself. How does it manifest there? (5) How can I detect the various forms and the manifestations of my no-current in my daily life?

If you clearly formulate these five questions and you begin to answer them truthfully, then your work on the path will be most dynamic and your progress will not only astound you, but it will delight you. However, the truthful answer to these questions -- through the steady observation of your No, through the formulation of your vague feelings, and through meditational exercises -- cannot be a permanent one. In other words, do not believe that what you find now suffices, and therefore that it needs no further attention. On the contrary, it has to be observed continuously. Only then will your no-current slowly weaken. Each observation of your No will bring you a deeper and a wider understanding.

It is essential to be to be very quiet and relaxed during these periods of self-confrontation. But if you have difficulty in this respect -- in other words, if you feel too tense, too harassed, and are too impatient, with a feeling that you are missing something else that is "important," but without being able to name it -- then you can be sure that this is a typical manifestation of your no-current. That is precisely what prohibits you from becoming quiet and from listening to yourself. If you can acknowledge this -- calmly stating to yourself, "I'm too nervous and too restless to relax and do this part of the process that I want," -- then your restlessness will abate because you are in the truth of your now. If you continue to observe calmly -- with all the keen one-pointed attention that you are able to muster -- how at another time your no-current manifests in an entirely different way, then your efforts must be crowned with success. These efforts on your part will eventually eliminate what is most destructive in your life. Instead, usually you often storm ahead in your flights of fantasy to a faraway goal of perfection, while underneath you actually fear this very goal, and thus you overlook what actually stands in your way.

Your yes-current must observe your no-current. Let this be your motto. To the degree that you are successful in communicating with your own unconscious and understanding its language, to that degree you will establish a connection with a deeper, wiser part of your unconscious. It will eventually take over and it will guide you through all the phases of your life, including those in which until now you have not been successful. This helpful part of your unconscious will constantly furnish you with regenerative strength, with creative energy, with resourcefulness, and with harmony. But all this help can come only when you have already learned to become aware of, to observe and to decipher the part of your unconscious which is petrified, and therefore which is destructive.

When you learn to do this with calm detachment, then not only you will learn to communicate with the constructive part of your unconscious, but you will also be able to consciously and deliberately communicate with the unconscious of other people. This means a great deal, my friends. You have begun to discover the truth of what I have been saying, namely that all human beings constantly affect one another on their unconscious levels. These unaware or unconscious communications determine the relationship. Being in a state of ignorance about this, and therefore not being able to grasp what is going on, must leave you hanging in the air. You often fail to understand what really happens in your relationships. You fail to understand and to make yourself understood. Therefore, when you learn to consciously and deliberately perceive the unconscious of others -- thus understanding your interactions -- then you will experience a revolutionary liberation. This is a vital threshold in your development.

When this happens, then you will see that there is no word to describe this phenomenon. It will be as though a dark curtain fell away from you. Misunderstandings, hurts, and fears must cease to exist. You will see that what threatens you in others -- and makes you tense and defensive -- can be observed calmly, in the same way you have learned to do with your own self. Unbeknown to the other person, you will learn to interpret what this gesture means, what that emphasis means, what this expression means, what that action means, what this utterance means, what that tense muscle means. You will hear, you will see, and you will perceive what other people really mean. In other words, you will know what they want to express in spite of their disguise; you will know what they are governed by behind their conscious attitudes; and you will know who they really are behind their facades. In other words, you will know what their unconscious is actually saying when they behave in such and such a way. When you arrive at this point, then you have nothing further to fear from others. But this is an organic development that cannot happen before you have done it with yourself.

But as long as you are frightened, then you lack the necessary calm observation to perceive truthfully, whether this concerns fright of what others might do to you, or fright of your own unconscious. In the last lecture I discussed your fear of your unconscious in connection with the fear of letting go into union with a mate and, the third in the triad, the fear of death. It is vitally important for you to know that it is the fear of your unconscious that makes your no-current so strong. You will see the interconnection of this triad and the liberation I just described when you no longer fear others because you can quietly take them in -- and you use all your observing functions and organs to see them in reality. Hence, this lecture can be truly understandable only if you first verify the fear of your own unconscious. As you lose this fear of self -- as I have called it elsewhere -- you will learn to interpret the language of your unconscious. Thus you gradually perfect yourself in the technique that establishes a fearless relationship with others.

Are there any questions now?

QUESTION: If people become aware of the fear behind their wishes and the wish then diminishes because they fully realize the fear, what can they do then?

ANSWER: The question is really not "what one can do," but rather "what this means." If the wish for fulfillment recedes because of the fear, then it means that the fear is not understood -- perhaps because the misconception and the unreal outlook behind it are not yet seen in all their connections and in all their ramifications. If the fear were fully understood, then it would certainly diminish. But not by being covered up, but by really and truly dissolving. This means that the whole territory has not yet been fully explored. In other words, there are still too many loose ends. This is what remains to be done. Do you understand?

QUESTION: Yes, I do, but I still have the feeling... Can I give an example? I have always wanted to be an actress. I couldn't do it because I feared that I wouldn't be as perfect as I wanted to be and wouldn't want to take the risks. Now, being older, I realize also that I couldn't do it anyway any longer. Now the wish still exists, but also the fear, and also the knowledge that it is too late.

ANSWER: You see, you have discovered here a relatively superficial cluster of emotions, of reactions, and of attitudes. This wish -- with all that is attached to it -- is a manifestation of something much deeper. We might truly say that it is a displacement. In other words, it is the manifestation of a deeper wish and of a deeper fear. It is impossible to resolve a problem when one deals with the displacement of it. It must be dealt with, felt, and experienced in its original manifestation. In order to make this possible, many restrictions, many inhibitions -- in other words, your no-current -- must become fully conscious in all of their aspects. Only then can you re-live the frustration and the pain that you suffered as a child -- and that you still suffer from often. Only now it is no longer necessary to do so. It happens because you have instituted destructive defenses against this original pain and frustration. One of them is an unusually strong no-current. It is the latter which makes it difficult for you to unroll the whole process and to become vibrantly alive.

QUESTION: I understand that very well, I know that the displacement contains exactly the same thing. I feel the no-current.

ANSWER: No, not fully. It is essential that you become more acutely and specifically aware of it. That means as it manifests in your everyday living. In other words, in your reactions, in your contacts, in your attitudes, and in your work on the path itself. Only then will it be possible for you to penetrate where your consciousness has not been able to do so until now.

QUESTION: I have a question from a missing friend. She would like to know what the metaphysical mechanics are concerning the hardening of the brain arteries, thereby impairing a patient's mental capacities. Why does it happen? What can be done to help?

ANSWER: It happens because of a protective mechanism in the human psyche. It enables a person who finds himself on the border between this manifestation of life and a different dimension of life to make the period of transition less painful, physically as well as mentally. Mental pain exists in individuals who are filled with fear and with uncertainty. When your inner problems remain unresolved, then the fear of the unknown is very strong. It could be likened to a form of anaesthesia that nature administers when necessary. This is a blessed thing indeed. This already answers your second question, because when this is understood and is seen in this light, then this understanding will eliminate an inner current of anxiety, which would be picked up by the patient's unconscious. Fears become burdens. But here the absence of apprehension will bring further relief. If you no longer push and press against this natural process, but you gratefully see it as what it is instead, then there will be no pressure from you on the unconscious of your patient. This will make it easier for the patient to give in to this relief, instead of fighting against it in shame spurred on by a false conscience. This may happen in a very subtle way.

Please preserve the questions that come up spontaneously after these lectures. A question or a parallel out of your own pathwork may occur to you as you read a lecture. Do give all the other friends the benefit of sharing, and give yourself a further elaboration on a point that might prove helpful for you by jotting down what occurs to you.

Let us hope that this lecture, in spite of much repetition, conveys something new to you, thus giving you a new incentive and a motor force to approach yourself in a spirit of detached observation. When you find it difficult to do so, then do not override this difficulty, but take it in itself as language -- in other words, as an expression of your unconscious -- and then interpret it.

Be blessed, all of you, in your body, in your soul, and in your spirit. Be in peace, my dearest friends. Be in God.

May 1, 1964