Dear ,
I hope you are well, wherever you are in the world. I’m somewhat under the weather at the moment - I must have caught a cold - so I am lying low and enjoying rest. If I’m feeling ill, I often remember the teachings of the Buddha, who said that there are two sources of suffering in any situation. First of all there is the negative situation itself, which could be illness, discomfort, being disrespected, being in unpleasant surroundings
and so on. And secondly, and most significantly, there are negative thoughts about the situation - the thoughts that say, ‘Why me? Why did this have to happen now? Why did it happen? What’s it going to lead to? How am I going to cope?’ In other words, there is an extra layer of suffering that comes from the mind.
So why not cut out the second source of suffering? Why not just let the situation exist as it is? That means that there is an attitude of acceptance, rather than resistance. And the suffering of the situation is at least halved - maybe even more.
So I apply that when I feel ill. I don’t fight it or feel frustrated - I just accept it. I even quite enjoy it sometimes - it’s nice to not put any demands on yourself, to allow yourself to rest and recharge and reconnect. It’s not easy sometimes, if you have to look after the kids and do some work, but you can at least allow yourself to shift down a couple of gears, and let go of unnecessary activity. (And of course it depends to some
extent on what kind of illness it is, and how severe it is.) And when you do feel healthy again, it feels wonderful - like a resurrection. I’ll include a poem I wrote about this at the end of the newsletter, called ‘Illness and Resurrection.’
My Psychology Today Blog
I recently received an email telling me that my Psychology Today blog has now passed the 'three million reader' mark. I started it nearly 8 years ago, and had no idea it would become such a big part of my writing life. When it started, each article would just be read a few hundred times, then it slowly built up over the years, until it now has 100,000 readers a month. It gives me a chance to write about other issues besides those I
address in my books and to respond immediately to events in my life, or in the world. There are 130 articles on there now - feel free to browse, if you have a free weekend! You can read the blog here.
The Clear Light
Thanks to everyone who wrote to me about the title of my next book of poetic reflections. Following your feedback, I have settled on ‘The Clear Light.’ I still haven’t had confirmation about the publication of the book, but I’m hoping it will come out towards the end of this year.
I’m also working on a new book called 'Extraordinary Awakenings,' based on some of the stories people have sent me over the years. describing spiritual experiences and transformations in extreme situations such as warfare, bereavement, incarceration, addiction, and so on. I've collected a lot of material for the book, but I was thinking recently that one area where I don't have many reports is incarceration. I have been in contact with
two prisoners (one who has been in prison for nearly 40 years) who have undergone transformations, but thought I would need one or two further examples to base a whole chapter on it. And then about a week ago, completely out of the blue, someone wrote to me to tell me about a transformational experience he had 7 years ago, when he was working as the captain of a ship, and was captured by Somali pirates and locked up for 6 months. I asked for more details and he sent me a full account yesterday.
It's an amazing story, and will be perfect for my book.
I’m hoping to write most of the book over the summer. (By the way, if anyone you have had similar experiences - or know of someone who has - please let me know, as I’m still looking for material.)
Panspiritism
I'm really pleased that my article 'What is Panspiritism?' will be published in the next issue of Philosophy Now magazine due out at the beginning of April. In my book Spiritual Science, I show that if you accept the 'panspiritist' principle of a universal, all-pervading spiritual force (like the brahman of Indian philosophy or the ‘great mystery’ of Native American groups), both human experience and the world become a
lot easier to explain. You can explain things like human consciousness, the influence of the mind over the body, psi experiences, spiritual experiences, altruism, and so on. I'd really like to establish panspiritism as a viable philosophical approach, like panpsychism (the idea that there is a tiny element of mind or consciousness in all material things, down to the smallest bits of matter.) I've also written a long academic essay about panspiritism, which I have just sent to the International
Journal of Philosophy.
I’m a psychologist at my university, but philosophy has always been an interest of mine, so it’s quite good fun to dive into philosophical waters. I guess I see myself in a similar mould to the great William James, who is a hero and role model of mine. If you don’t know of him, William James was a pioneering psychologist who, towards the end of the 19th century, established many of the principles that modern psychology still abides by.
But he was also a philosopher, and deeply interested in mystical experiences and psychic phenomena. His book ‘The Varieties of Religious Experience’ was one of the first ever studies of mystical experiences, published in 1885. In my long article on panspiritism, I refer to James’ ‘transmission’ theory of mind, which suggests that the human mind is in influx of universal consciousness, acting like a radio receiver which ‘picks up’ the consciousness that is all around us. Someone once told that I
could be the reincarnation of William James. It’s a flattering thought - but he was such a genius that I can’t take it seriously! I feel a strong kinship with him in any case.
Talks
I’m looking forward to doing a talk on the ‘Psychology of Time Perception,’ based on my book Making Time. That book was published in 2007, and it’s a long time since I’ve talked about it. But there seems to be some renewed interest in the book, as a result of which it has just been reprinted. (If you’re interested in taking a look at the reprinted book, it’s here.
Signed Copies of Books
By the way, if anyone would like signed copies of my books The Leap, Spiritual Science or Making Time, let me know. As they are author’s copies, I can sell them at a cheap price. They would cost £8 (10 Euros or 10 dollars) plus postage - postage is £2 in the UK, E8 in Europe or $12 in the US.
Poem
Here’s the poem on illness that I mentioned earlier.
Illness and Resurrection
Illness is inevitable
when you’re weighed down by too many demands
and overwhelmed by too much information;
when you’ve pushed yourself so hard
(after all, you push yourself harder than you would ever push anyone else)
that you’ve lost touch with your essence.
The pressure’s too great, and your being collapses.
It rebels and shouts ‘enough!’
and refuses to carry on.
At first you feel frustrated -
how can you be ill when there’s still so much to do
when you’ve built up so much momentum and covered so much ground?
Surely you’ll fall behind, now that you’ve been sidelined?
But don’t resist - it’s time to retreat and rest.
Let solitude and quietness embrace you
until you feel rich new energy seeping through
and beginning to replenish you.
Then slowly the fragments of your being
will draw together and reassemble.
And soon your mind will slow down and settle again,
like a lake after a storm, as dust falls down to the bottom.
And then you will reemerge
with your vision clear enough to see your path again
with your senses open to the world again
re-attuned to your essence
re-aligned with your purpose
healed and whole again
ready to begin your life anew.
All best wishes and blessings, Steve
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