Demagnetizing A Negative Force Field -- The Pain Of Guilt

By The Pathwork Guide

My dearest friends, greetings and blessings for every one of you. The beginning of this lecture will be a brief recapitulation of certain facets of spiritual law which I have discussed in the past. We shall now explore the material more deeply and let it expand further.

The fusion of consciousness and energy is so powerful that it creates an electromagnetic energy field. This force field contains every conceivable seed or possibility of creation. Every conceivable attitude or concept about life creates such a field. Once a force field is activated, then it sets into its mold specific events, specific patterns, specific behavior, specific reactions, specific states of body, and specific states of the soul. The magnetism of this field is so strong that ensuing actions and ensuing events are inexorably set in motion. Then these actions and these events continue to perpetuate the power of this specific force field.

The force field of a specific attitude to life is also ruled by laws of attraction -- like attracting like. Thus, you who have created various force fields as a result of your attitudes, of your ideas, of your concepts, and of your approaches to life either attract or repulse events, people, happenings, the actions of others, as well as the actions of yourself. You set up continuous chains of action and of reaction, of which you often lose track. In other words, when an event occurs in your life, then you no longer know by what specific belief and consequent action you have created it.

This applies both to real ideas and to false ideas, and to the consequent experience -- which is either productive and blissful or destructive and painful. It is an important aspect of this pathwork to first understand this principle and then to see where and how this applies to your personal life.

My friends on the path have discovered various force fields of distorted ideas which we call images. You have experienced within you how what you now know to be a misconception about life has governed both your actions and your reactions and, consequently, has brought corresponding events to pass. You now see quite clearly that these events are hardly what they at first seemed to be, namely mere coincidence. They occur by immutable law: the law of self-creation.

In the course of this path you have experienced the depth of the negative emotions which are connected with these false ideas. You have also uncovered the negative intentionality that you had instituted as a result. Yet you find yourself stymied in your attempt to give up the whole nucleus of the image, of the force field. Although you know that the ideas are false, nevertheless you cannot help reacting as if they were true. For example, you believe that no woman is trustworthy because you felt that your mother rejected you. You now know that this equation is grossly false, yet you are compelled to react to all women as if they were your supposedly unloving mother. You do not want to give up your negative intentionality regarding her, and your feelings of hate, of blame, and of resentment. You do not wish to open your heart to love any woman. Regardless of your outer, conscious belief, you now discover that this is how you react inwardly. You seem caught or trapped in this image, although you know that this image is unfair, unreasonable, unintelligent, and that it causes you and others pain, frustration, unfulfillment, guilt, and a perpetual longing.

It is extremely difficult to change these force fields, but it is certainly possible. No one who is not deeply involved in and committed to a path such as this -- in which the deepest self-confrontation on all levels takes place -- can possibly do this. To begin with, one is not even aware of the beliefs that one holds, which then create force fields with all their ensuing chain reactions. To discover particular images, to experience fully and without defense all the feelings involved in them, and to take responsibility for the negative intentionality are all actions that indicate significant progress and deeply meaningful work on the path of purification. These aspects are necessary prerequisites but do not by themselves change the creative power of the force fields. Something more is needed. Many of you on the path have now arrived at such a juncture, at least in a part of your personality. You see, you know, you understand, and you fully experience pain, fear, and anger; you assume responsibility for your negative intentions and for your negative will. Yet something in you holds you where you are, although you know at what price. This lecture is designed to help you to move ahead from where you are stuck.

For those who are at the beginning of the path, or for those who still defend against fully assuming responsibility for their lives -- and who therefore are blocked -- the existing image can be deduced infallibly by looking at the life manifestation. Life reveals what one's underlying beliefs and attitudes must be. It cannot be otherwise.

The magnetic power of the force field is self-indoctrinating and self-perpetuating. It is like a deeply imprinted motor mechanism set in motion with great energy. Thus a stronger energy is required in order to deactivate this motor force and then to change a negative force field into a positive one. To put it differently, the image has to be dissolved and the creative energy that was locked up in this image has to be utilized from now on in ways that are compatible with divine law.

Now let us go directly into the main topic of this lecture. How do you change a negative force field into a positive one? In other words, how do you dissolve an image? How do you re-create realistic concepts and then imprint them so deeply into your soul system that positive will, positive feelings, and positive actions ensue? In other words, how do you demagnetize a negative force field?

Different approaches are necessary for voluntary intentionality and for involuntary intentionality. As you proceed with your purification work, then all your involuntary attitudes eventually become voluntary. But at certain stages and in certain areas this is not yet so. For instance, you may be perfectly aware of having a strong defense against feeling a specific pain. In other words, you know by many proofs that this pain must be in you, yet you cannot feel it, although you want to. By the same token, a negative intention may be either conscious or it may be unconscious, and therefore manifest indirectly. In the latter case the approach must be different.

In the instances of both voluntary intentionality and involuntary intentionality it is essential for the conscious mind to express its positive intent -- and to formulate it concisely. But this must not be done in self-delusion and by superimposing a positive intent over still existing unconscious irrational resistance and defiance. The two voices must be brought face to face. Then the conscious personality has to make the final decision.

There are various reasons for one's insistence on remaining in a state of falsehood, and therefore of pain. It is primarily a question of identification. As long as you identify with the negative aspect of your ego self, then giving up something that is the primary motivating force of this ego seems like self-annihilation. And, of course, you cannot wish to give up what seems to be intrinsically you. Therefore, you need to systematically establish an identification with your real self. Unless you do this, then you will lack the volition to give up that in you which destroys your happiness and your joy.

The first step toward this new identification with your real self, apart from simple prayer and meditation, is to reach for new ways of being with your mind. If now you hate, then say with your conscious mind: "I also have in me the possibility to love. I want this new state and I wish to utilize all my hidden energies and my creative forces to release it." Or, if you believe that you can function only in a non-feeling, isolated, spiteful state, although you would want your state to be different, then declare the inherent possibility within you and say: "There are powers and energies in me that I wish to mobilize. The same me that is now locked into a state of spite and of witholding also contains a more natural and beautiful way of being. First I want to release this new way of being and then I want to manifest this new state since it is my own inherent state."

At the same time, either alternately or simultaneously, the demagnetizing process takes place by going deeply into your innermost stillness. I have talked about this at various intervals since the beginning, when this channel was established. I have given you exercises for learning concentration and ways to still the mind. Yet many of my friends find themselves apparently incapable of even attempting to do this. With your increasing progress you will develop the self-discipline to give yourself time for these practices every day. Even a few minutes pursued regularly will pay tremendous dividends, my friends. If you do this seriously -- just become still and express your intent to hear the will of God and to feel the presence of God within you -- then it will happen. You can also go back to the various lectures I have given about these specific exercises (lecture 68 -- The Thought Process) and use them for a few minutes each day. Whether you do these specific exercises or whether you use others which are perhaps more to your liking, the only way to demagnetize a negative force field -- an image -- is to establish contact with your divine reality. In other words, with your cosmic eternal self. You must tune into your inner stillness, become very still, and then wait for its manifestations.

Here you have a contradiction that seems insurmountable. As long as a deliberate negativity or a specific negative intention exists in you, your resistance to commune with your eternal spiritual self will be too great. And yet as long as you do not call on the help of your spiritual reality -- in other words, as long as you do not pray -- you will be incapable of giving up your deliberate negative intentionality. Let us take the commmon and pervasive attitude of wishing to punish your parents. You now realize that this spiteful self-destructiveness has absolutely no benefit for you. Yet you feel that you cannot even want to give it up. Since you do not want to give it up, then you do not feel clean enough to let God manifest in you. Neither can you listen to the creative spirit and attune yourself to its presence. Then you cannot know the eternal being that you really are.

The only way to come out of this self-contradiction that holds you immobilized with a magnetic force -- in spite of knowing what you are doing with your life -- is to begin to use your thought processes in a new way. Let us take the same example. "I want to punish my parents by my misery, by my spite, and by my ungiving state of mind," or, "I do not want to love my parents. So I cannot love anybody else because I want everyone to become better parents for me than those I had." Once you are aware of this attitude -- and a good part of the pathwork consists of becoming aware of such things -- then you can see yourself hooked and trapped.

The freeing new thought process might be the following: "I do not want to stay in this position. There are powers within me that make it possible for me to change, and to feel good and secure about the change. I deserve this change. This change is my birthright. Therefore, I now claim it. I can subsist on good feelings. I can sustain them and I can endure them. I can endure pain and I can endure disappointment. I now decide to no longer believe in the fallacy that I can bear neither painful feelings nor good feelings. If there are any areas within me where I still battle and defend against either the painful feelings or the loving feelings -- which are the giving and the receiving of love -- then I want the power which is in me to make me conscious of them. I want the higher powers in me to help me to lift myself out of the groove that has been set by my negative force field -- by my image -- and to bring a new force field into being. I pray for the power, for the belief, for the faith, and for the volition to be totally committed to living my life in a good, deeply feeling, honest, and productive way."

While you say these words you may feel that a part of you still resists. But if your innermost will pronounces these words strongly and decisively -- without either covering up or denying your negative will but meeting it head on -- then a new power will be created by the force of the intent within your thought. Often you wait for change to take place without your deciding for a new thought process about the issue in question. It is the thought that must change first. For in the thought lies the intent. Then the intent can seep deeper into the layers of your consciousness that still resist. In that way the process takes place on the outermost level and on the innermost level. On the outermost level, by the volitional thought that you issue forth; on the innermost level, by the divine power that you mobilize when you meditate for this specific help. In this way you cannot fail to inactivate the power of the old negative force field and to create a new force field, one that will then bring you into ever increasing fulfillment, into meaningful living, into joy, into peace, and into love.

The lack of understanding that exists in human beings about the power of thought and the power of feeling, and how these two together create magnetic fields which in turn create life experience, is very regrettable. The next decades will bring a change in this. You always have to begin where the thoughts and the feelings are accessible. And that is in your conscious mind, in your conscious thinking, in your conscious willing, and in your conscious doing. If this were not so, then it would be impossible to ever solve any problem. And it has been proven -- on this path as well as elsewhere -- that the most severely disturbed individuals often completely reverse their painful lives into happy, unified, fulfilled lives, while individuals with much less disturbance stagnate. The reason for this is that the former are more motivated to act on behalf of change and therefore succeed.

If you had to rely on mysterious processes that you could not activate yourself, then you would be left to a haphazard fate. But this is not the case. The immediate thought process is always available. Your habit of thinking can be changed rather easily. A new thought inevitably brings a new feeling, which then inevitably brings a new attitude. But you always have to begin where it is accessible. First you have to leap with your thought over the barrier of the "I cannot" into the realm of "it is possible." You should say: "These potentials exist in me and now I claim them. I want to release them, I want to make them available."

Some of you have begun to establish contact with your divinity. As a result, you have begun to experience who you really are. But still your hesitancy to avail yourself of this new power often keeps you unnecessarily away from the beauty of your inner reality. To reach it requires more investment on your part. But could there be anything more wonderful? Could there be anything more worthwhile? This is the aim of this path. You will no longer be needy because you will know that everything exists within you to fulfill every one of your needs. So, instead of looking where your needs can never be fulfilled -- namely outwardly, from parents or from parent substitutes -- you will look inwardly, where you can never be disappointed.

For that you must come with a clean heart. It is necessary that you give up your dishonesty. It is necessary that you give up your hiding. It is necessary that you give up your projecting. It is necessary that you give up your game playing. All of these negative aspects exist on subtle levels in your consciousness and you often manage to deny them even now, after you have temporarily admitted them into your consciousness. It is not only possible to do this, but eventually it is everyone's fate to do so. To be free from these dishonesties is the natural, universal law, and really the easiest way. This is inexorably your fate. It is senseless to hold on to what is most difficult, to what is most contorting, and to what is most hurtful for your soul, because one day you must become your whole self, your real self, your joyous self. In other words, not this little ego, but the Ultimate Creator, of Whom you are a manifestation.

If you listen into your deepest stillness, calling upon the Creator within you, then the stillness in you will answer. This is inevitable if you want to know peace, if you want to know joy, and if you want to know fulfillment. But if you do not want to know peace, joy, and all the fulfillment you can conceive of, then you have your clue, you know why. You prefer to hold on to something dishonest that you are loath to give up. Look at it squarely. When you see it, then you can confront yourself about why you want to hold on to it. Then you can make that leap in your thought process.

Here I come to the second part of this topic. One of the important obstacles to wanting to establish the channel to your real being and to wanting to give up your dishonesty is your guilt either for the pain that you have inflicted, or for the pain that you are still inflicting. I touched upon this subject before, but the time has come to go into it more carefully.

Over the last few years you have learned to open yourself up to the pain that you have endured, pain that was inflicted upon you first by your parents when you were a child and later by others. You have learned to no longer defend against such pain as much as you used to. Now you know that you can feel it and experience it more and more -- and thus you free yourself from it.

However, your entire psychological movement has turned away from the other aspect of pain: feeling the pain of your guilt for having inflicted pain on others. This is so for partially good reasons. Every truth can be distorted. In the days before psychology, religion indoctrinated man not only with the fear of a punishing God, but also with a distorted, debilitating guilt feeling. This is a false guilt. It is a guilt that makes it impossible for human beings to live in dignity and to know who they ultimately are. In order to straighten out the distortions, the pendulum must always swing temporarily to the opposite extreme until the right balance of truth is found.

I want to make a distinction between remorse and guilt. Remorse is the deeply felt pain of your wrongdoing, but without losing sight of your divinity. You become a better person, a stronger person when the pain of your remorse is being fully savored by you. But guilt crushes the self and denies its intrinsic divinity. As a result of the pendulum having swung away from the opposite extreme, the current trend makes all guilt appear neurotic. In fact, there is a difference between neurotic or false guilt and real guilt, and the one can hide the other.

If you cannot bear the pain that others have inflicted upon you, then you cannot experience in a constructive way the pain of your guilt either. The guilt you feel for your distortions must be fully faced and it must be felt. Then it must be understood in all its ramifications and chain reactions. Otherwise you can never be clear with yourself. Unless you do so, you cannot be whole; unless you do so you cannot look at yourself with love and with respect. This means that you cannot be who you really are.

My dear friends, do this in a realistic and well-proportioned manner. That means without exaggeration, without hiding, and without dramatization. It is certainly possible to recognize the chains that you are forging with your negative attitudes and the hurts which you inflict with them, either directly or indirectly. The hurts of omission are no less hurtful than the hurts of commission. Have you not been deeply hurt by what was missing in your life as a child? Was it not the inability of your parents to give you more warmth, to give you more good feelings, to give you more closeness that hurt you? Well, you are inflicting the same hurt on others by your vindictive imitation of the attitude that hurt you the most.

If you are crushed by the pain of your guilt, then this is because you have decided to opt for this reaction. Whenever you wish, then you can question the necessity of being crushed. Listen into your inner stillness for the possibility of a new reaction. Yes, you will feel the pain of your guilt, and so you should. But as with the pain that others have given to you, if you can fully accept it, then it ceases to be pain. When you fully feel the pain and you are motivated with your whole heart to give up your negative pattern, then the pain of your guilt will make way for a wonderful new energy: for light, for hope, for love, and for beauty.

The violations of spiritual law can be corrected only when you learn to feel the hurts that you have inflicted -- and that you may still be inflicting -- without feeling annihilated, without feeling worthless, and without crumbling under a load of guilt. Feel the pain of your witholding! Feel the pain of your spite! Feel the pain of your maligning -- whether in your mind only or in actuality! When you hold on to any kind of negative intentionality, then you cannot help depriving others and hurting others, just as these attitudes must inevitably hurt you. For there is no conceivable difference between yourself and others. What you do to others, you do to yourself; and what you do to yourself, you do to others. I have said this many times before, but in your mind you still make a distinction, so much so that you go on being spiteful and hating.

Therefore, let yourself feel the pain that results from your inflicting pain on others. But feel it without crumbling, without exaggerating it, and without doubting your divine heritage. If you can do this, then you have found the all-important key that will make you want to open up to your divinity, with all its joy and with its eternal reality of love. If you cannot bear the pain of your guilt -- and therefore you look away from it -- then you cannot feel deserving. As a result, you must block the contact with God in you. So this is one of the most important keys you need.

Facing the guilt for the pain which you inflict on others is really not so different from facing the pain that you have received. In both instances you can either exaggerate it -- and you can therefore make yourself incapacitated for life -- or you can decide not to feel it at all. Or you can allow the feeling and say to yourself: "Yes, others have made mistakes. I have made mistakes. They were blind and groping, and I was blind and groping. They were in darkness and I was in darkness. This is regrettable. But this is what we are all here for. I now lift up my head in the dignity of who I am. I know that the greater powers within me will help me to feel both the pain that I have inflicted on others and the pain that I have received from others." This attitude can be cultivated and pursued. You do have the courage within yourself and you do have the greatness within yourself. In other words, you do have the possibility within yourself to feel this, and therefore to become stronger and better, not weaker and worse -- as you erroneously fear.

It is absolutely necessary that you trace all the connecting links between cause and effect, and that you be totally aware of the pain that you have received and of the pain that you have given. See how one leads to the other, back and forth, in an endless chain reaction. It is in your power to break this chain any time you wish. When you decide to go into this area of your being in order to look at it, then express your intent to avail yourself of all the divine help in you. Call upon this help. Become so still that you can listen. Feel it and know its presence.

The apparent paradox is that the more you hide from the pain of your guilt, the more ruthlessly do you punish yourself. Conversely, the truth is that the more you face and then feel that pain, the less you will need to punish yourself. The negative attitude of hiding from yourself what you are really doing and what you are really feeling creates a negative force field that perpetuates itself in the following way. By punishing yourself for your unfaced guilt, you must continue to stay in the negative attitude -- which only accumulates more guilt. In this way you are caught in one of the most tragic of vicious circles. Because you imagine that you cannot face the pain of your guilt, you cut yourself off from your heart, from the center of your being, and therefore from your innermost life. As a result, you feel forever undeserving of joy. If you are undeserving of joy -- as you falsely believe -- then your needs must remain eternally unfulfilled. If you feel undeserving -- and therefore you are unfulfilled -- then you will go on punishing the world for this painful frustration. The reason you dare not turn to the wondrous magnificence of your inner presence to help you out of this trap is because doing so would instantly fill you with light and with joy. You feel that you do not deserve such an experience because you have given pain to others. But how else can you break your negative pattern unless you avail yourself of the power of God within you? And you cannot experience God within you without also experiencing joy, peace, and light. How are you ever going to break the vicious circle unless you use this key?

Go into your inner stillness right now. Declare that you wish to feel all the pain that is held in you -- both the pain that was given by you and the pain that was received by you. Declare that you wish to be the beautiful person that you really are. Feel both the pain of your guilt and the beauty of your real self. Thus you will alter the course which you have set in motion and thereby you create a new force field because you demagnetize the old one. This is the way. As you do this -- as you feel both the pain of your guilt and the pain of what has been done to you -- it will become one and the same pain. Then you will forgive yourself as you forgive others, as it was said in one of the greatest prayers. Then you will be free. You will be free to let go and you will be free to let God manifest through you in your everyday life more and more. As a result, you will be infused with inspiration, with wisdom, with joy, and with peace.

These are not mere words, my friends. They are the unshakeable reality that can be verified by anyone who wishes to go all the way on this Path. These are not promises nor abstract philosophies and principles. They are concrete actions that can be applied to everyday living. Then you will no longer depend on others, but you will be your real self, your divine self. Therefore, you will have true relationships, not dependent relationships. This is your ultimate fate. It is up to you how soon you make it come true.

May 19, 1972