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by
Mind Bender
(Russell Hallock)
March 11, 2015
from
MindBendingTruth Website
Spanish version
"Dispelling Wetiko is
one of those rare, courageous books
that leads us where we would
prefer not to go:
into the depths of our own
shadow.
Yet this is the most essential
journey for our present time…
It is a must read, without a
doubt."
Caroline Myss
author of Anatomy of the Spirit
"The world would be a better place
if everyone read this book."
Sting
Temet Nosce
The maxim inscribed on the
Temple of Apollo at Delphi reads:
'Know Thyself.'
This is without question written to
foment the idea that the greatest endeavor one can set on is the
journey within.
Stated at the core, it is the only real
journey we will ever know. The trick is in recognizing that one is
ultimately on that path.
The road is a harrowing one but like a compass, written works can be
a most powerful tool in navigating the seas of consciousness. Books
written by knowledgeable and experienced authors can solidify a
conceptual road map for the mind.
Dispelling Wetiko - Breaking the Curse of Evil is one such
work.
Paul Levy masterfully plays the
role of trail guide into the world of the sub-conscious and the
paradoxically abstract by analyzing and breaking down the shadow in
ourselves.
A term coined by C.G. Jung, this definition from Dispelling Wetiko,
"the shadow is typically conceived
of as the underdeveloped, undesirable, and inferior parts of our
personality, the aspects of ourselves which we repress the most;
it is the part of ourselves we are least proud of and want to
hide from others."
We live in a time when our shadow hides
in plain sight.
There have been many ways to express this concept over the
centuries.
The word wetiko comes from the Native American
Cree
tribe,
"…a term that refers to a
diabolically wicked person or spirit who terrorizes others by
means of evil acts."
Levy understood through his own
experiences and studies of other researchers, Buddhism and C. G.
Jung that
wetiko fit his idea for the expression of this force.
And yet is as mysteriously open to
creative interpretations in relating it to our present circumstance,
sociologically.
He says,
"Wetiko to me 'sounds' like a
mantra, in that it is not a known, Western word associated with
a literal, conceptual meaning in the same way that English words
are.
Mantras operate on the level of
sound vibration, in that they carry a phonemic, sensual level of
affective meaning which is not translatable into conceptual
definitions, speaking to and resonating with a nonverbal part of
our being."
Wetiko can ultimately be seen as
a psychic virus that infects the host with a psychotic cannibalistic
need to feed on and infect others.
The virus itself is not a physical
entity but more of a psychic hyper-dimensional parasite that morphs
the infected individual into a psychoneurotic predator.
Like a vampire, those most infected are truly the antithesis to all
life and move without empathy toward obliteration. Think of
the most
infamous characters in history and one can achieve a clearer picture
of this expression.
Be as it may, the purpose of this study is to recognize how this
virus may exist within us and how to understand the role we
collectively play in its expression.
A key element in fully contemplating
this information is in observing it in others, but ultimately
recognizing it in yourself.
On page 129,
"It is the denial of the humanity of
the other that lies at the heart of the mystery of evil. To
quote theologian and philosopher Abraham J. Heschel,
'The opposite of humanity is
brutality… Brutality is often due to a failure of
imagination… Man turned beast becomes his
opposite, a species sui generis.
The opposite of the human
is not the animal, but the demonic.'
In full blown wetikos there is a
perverse enjoyment of domination over another person(s), which
involves a process of dehumanization, of transforming a person
into an object, a 'thing', in which the other's freedom is taken
away; this process is the very essence of the sadistic drive.
Their sadism is a way of
transforming their feelings of powerlessness and impotence into
a delusional experience of omnipotence."
Understand, the world is run by these
full blown wetikos. In order to truly begin evolving and healing the
outside world, people need to come to this realization and affect
the change in the world on the inside. Step 1 is to recognize this truth.
I believe a strength in Levy's presentation is his conceptual grasp
and articulation of the paradox.
Paradox: Latin paradoxum, from Greek paradoxon, from
neuter of paradoxos contrary to expectation.
-
a statement that is seemingly
contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps
true
-
an argument that apparently
derives self-contradictory conclusions by valid deduction
from acceptable premises
-
one (as a person, situation, or
action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases
In the chapter entitled Evil, on page 146 Levy states,
"In the Gnostic Dialogue of the
Savior, it says,
'Whoever does not know evil is
no stranger to it.'
Wetiko forces upon us the
evolutionary responsibility to become intimately related to and
come to terms with the evil within our own hearts.
The art of alchemy was an attempt at
a symbolic integration of evil, locating the divine drama of
redemption in humanity itself. This involved a process of coming
to terms with the unconscious, which always becomes a necessity
when we are confronted with its primal darkness.
There is no escape from the world,
the flesh, and the devil; they can only be truly renounced by
being faced and overcome. The less evil is recognized, the more
dangerous it is.
To the extent we have not rooted out the wetiko
bug within ourselves we are complicit in the co-creation of the
evil playing out in the world.
The Gnostic text
The Gospel of
Philip says,
So long as the root of
wickedness is hidden, it is strong. But when it is
recognized, it is dissolved.
When it is revealed, it
perishes… As for ourselves, let us each dig down after the
root of evil which is within each of us, and produces its
fruit in our hearts. It masters us.
We are its slaves. It takes us
captive, to make us do what we do not want, and what we do
want, we do not do. It is powerful because we have not
recognized it."
Contemplative study of the self, moving
deeper into the recesses that we call the subconscious; shining
light with the power of truth exposes the shadow that finds
expression in us all.
Engaging in this work will leave one deeply affected and reflective
of one's own personal dynamic expression. I am left a little more
lucid and aware of the dots connecting up the puzzle pieces in the
exploration of my own personal drama.
One of my favorite passages is in the section entitled Four Valued
Logic.
While there are areas of information assessment that do
require the axiomatic position of true or false, right or wrong,
this approach has been utilized in manipulating the mind into a
limited perspective without deeper thought.
An example would be
G.W. Bush's speech about the 'War
on Terror'.
He said,
"Either you're with us or you're
with the terrorists."
Exactly...
From the chapter entitled Understanding Wetiko starting on
page 40 we have this explanation,
"The apparent paradoxical nature of
wetiko cannot be resolved within the framework of the standard
Aristotelian, two-valued logic which is basic to Western
analytical thought, where things are either true of false, or
either exist or don't exist.
This paradox is itself a direct
function or artifact of the intrinsic limitations built into the
nature of a mutually exclusive, binary, two-valued logic. Having
a definite utility, two-valued logic works by contrast, giving
attributes to things and making distinctions, thereby limiting
them; something is 'this' only by defining it as not 'that.'
Our very language itself, in
categorizing things and ideas, conditions us into a dualistic,
two-valued logical way of thinking. The axiomatic set through
which we view the world and its logic conditions our minds.
To get insight into the non-ordinary
reality of wetiko, we have to introduce a higher form of logic
in order to wrap our minds around what we are dealing with.
The solution to such apparent paradoxes as wetiko lies outside
our conventional way of thinking: its re-solution lies outside
the box.
An example: something as basic as the
wave/particle
paradox of light requires an expanded logic to be addressed. It
is well known that under the conditions of various experimental
arrangements, light displays either wavelike or particle-like
properties.
But what, then, is the essential
nature of light? The question is not amenable to the usual
two-valued logic, and may be better addressed by what is known
as four-valued logic, a type of logic that is foreign to and
outside of Western thought.
Two-valued logic is based on the law
of the excluded middle, in which things are either (1) true or
(2) false.
By contrast, four-valued logic
includes the middle and the ends surrounding it, so that things
are (1) true, (2) false, (3) both true and false (4) neither
true nor false.
It is impossible to use exclusively two-valued logic to show the
full range of possibilities in any given situation.
The alternatives offered by
four-valued logic, however, represent all the possible
standpoints from which every problem can be viewed. Four-valued
logic covers the range of any idea we could possibly have about
something.
Four-valued logic lies between the
polarities created by the two-valued logic of duality.
Four-valued logic is the logic of interdependence, unlimited
wholeness, and the unity of all things.
Overcoming the arbitrary confines of
the rational mind, four-valued logic deconstructs the
conditioned mind into a natural state of seeing holistically. It
literally changes the awareness of the mind to allow for a new
and expanded understanding of reality, allowing the mind to
transcend its own grip on and grasping of reality and thought.
Truly subversive, four-valued logic
undermines our ability to hold on to any fixed position
whatsoever.
By rejecting any one view as well as
all views, four-valued logic is in essence rejecting the
competence of standard Aristotelian reason to comprehend the
fundamental nature of reality, a reality which ultimately
transcends thought.
Expanding the dimensionality of
logical thought, four-valued logic describes and is an
expression of a non conceptual system of thought that leads
beyond thought itself, engendering an intuitive awareness of the
timeless existence of the underlying nonlocal field that
pervades everything.
Quantum physics points out that our seemingly objective universe
is more like a dream than we ever imagined. The dreamlike nature
of our universe is articulated in a modern scientific context
through what is called the Observer Effect, which points out
that, just like within a dream, in the act of observing we
affect and evoke the very universe that we are observing.
It therefore makes no sense to talk
about an apparently objectively existing world separate from an
observer such as ourselves, or an independent observer such as
ourselves separate from the world observed.
Just as in a dream, the observer is
the observed; we live in a participatory universe. Returning to
our example, the true nature of light is not accommodated by
either a wave or a particle, because the way light manifests
depends on how it is observed ('dreamed up').
Speaking of the wave like quality of
light, for example, four-valued logic would assert that light is
a wave (which under certain conditions it is), light is not a
wave (which under other conditions is true), light is therefore
both a wave and not a wave, and light is neither a wave nor not
a wave. This truly encompasses all possibilities.
Likewise, wetiko exists, it doesn't
exist, it both exists and doesn't exist, and it neither exists
nor doesn't exist.
To be able to see through this more
holistic view of the world is to be in an expanded state of
consciousness in which we are not creating or investing in an
unnecessary
state of duality.
Both light and wetiko are inscribed in and expressions of the
same underlying unified field.
Like wetiko, light is not an object
that solely exists in space and time. Its photonic aspect exists
in three-dimensional space and time, but another aspect of light
does not.
Four-valued logic gives us a greater range of
possibilities with which to grasp the reality of certain
phenomena such as the nature of light, and four-valued logic
will assist us in getting a handle on the nature of wetiko.
A spiritual path in itself,
four-valued logic is a mind-expanding and mind freeing path to
spaciousness and compassion.
Another example of four-valued logic is the Schrödinger's cat
paradox, a famous thought experiment in quantum physics which
showed that the universe can't be said to exist in a particular
form until there is an observer to experience it.
The key to this paradox is what is
referred to as the principle of 'superposition,' which states
that until we look and collapse the infinitude of the wave
function, the universe is actually in all possible states
simultaneously.
This is to say that in
Schrödinger's
experiment, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time
until it is observed. On the level of the conventional mind and
ordinary reality, this is obviously false and nonsensical, but
it shows the limits of Aristotelian logic, which is to say this
paradox is not consistent with two-valued logic.
Just as with the light paradox,
using four-valued logic we can say that the cat is neither alive
nor not alive at the same time; this is the real meaning of
superposition of states in the quantum mechanical wave function.
To say that Schrödinger's cat is
neither alive nor not alive is a statement that can potentially
dissolve the conventional strictures of the conceptual mind so
as to reveal naked awareness itself, the basic essence of
unconditioned mind.
We are unable to conceptually
understand four-valued logic, however, with a mind that has been
conditioned to think with two-valued logic. Four-valued logic
points to and introduces us to a direct experience of reality
beyond the straitjacketing conditioning of two-valued logic.
Seeing the world through four-valued
logic gives us greater degrees of freedom of choice, in that it
actively empowers our free will.
Four-valued logic sheds light on who we are. For example, on one
hand we are a body existing in space and time. But on the other
hand, we are clearly not just a body.
As a bodily organism, we are finite,
mortal, and subject to suffering, but at the same time, we are
not a body but a consciousness, living in
a multidimensional
universe.
We are a part of a consciousness
outside space/time, participating in a higher-dimensional,
nonlocal universe. We are both a body and not a body. And we are
neither a body nor not a body.
Four-valued logic illumines how
we are able to be both a self and not a self, both separated as
bodies and not separated in consciousness.
Four-valued logic, the logic that
wetiko demands in order to understand, introduces us to who we
actually are beyond the constraining limitations of the
mind/body dualism.
As we deepen our contemplation of wetiko, it is becoming clear
that wetiko is the source of the darkest evil, while at
the same time potentially,
-
freeing our mind
-
curing us of our wrong
attitude
-
expanding our consciousness
-
shifting our identity
-
helping us to achieve gnosis of the divine
-
potentially
waking us up
Can we therefore still say that
wetiko is evil?
Four-valued logic would assert:
In other words, wetiko is not only
the archetype of evil, but understanding wetiko also means
gaining insight into the deeper place that evil plays in the
cosmic plan of creation, salvation, redemption, and incarnation
of the Divine.
Though one of the channels that wetiko manifests is through
individuals, ultimately speaking, wetiko can't be said to exist
in individuals separately from the surrounding field, for the
simple reason that individuals, as separate, discrete entities
isolated from the surrounding field, don't exist in and among
themselves.
Unable to be seen or understood from
the fixed viewpoint of the separate self, wetiko is a relational
phenomenon, in that wetiko happens in the space between us (as
well as the space between 'parts' of ourselves), as we relate to
each other, ourselves, and the world at large. It is as if
wetiko 'places' the unconscious between self and other.
There is no wetiko disease that only
exists in one individual.
Being imaginal, wetiko does not
exist as an isolated, objective entity separate from our
subjective awareness. The subtle body of wetiko is an (im)materialization
of the interactive field between us.
Wetiko exists in the 'in-between'
place in which we are all inseparable interconnected and, in the
deepest sense, don't exist as isolated entities. We are not the
passive victims of the wetiko psychosis. Wetiko is something
that we are potentially participating in and are actively
co-creating with each other in each and every moment.
Wetiko is a dreaming phenomenon, in
that we are all dreaming up the wetiko epidemic together."
"One does not become
enlightened
by imagining figures of light,
but by making the Darkness
conscious.
The latter procedure, however,
is disagreeable,
and therefore, not popular."
Carl Jung
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