As I write this a congresswomen lays gravely wounded in a hospital in Tucson – a number of others are dead. We are all shocked and sickened by the violence driven by madness that seems to be all around us in our world. Meanwhile, before knowing any facts, pundits, politicians and commentators have blamed everybody from Sarah Palin to El Niño for the violence.
I thought this would be a good time to talk about and define violence. But first let’s compare ourselves to the gunman in Arizona. At this point it appears clear to me that this person is legitimately psychotic. Many of the facts that have emerge point to Schizophrenia which is characterized by a disintegration of the process of thinking and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction. The onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood. This very closely describes the young man who allegedly fired the gun in Tucson.
The bottom line is that, if my assessment is true, this individual would never be expected to be normal or to exhibit normal behavior because his brain simply does not work correctly. Schizophrenia is a dysfunction of the brain that produces psychosis rather than an emotional issue like anger, depression or anxiety. This does not excuse violence. It’s a good thing you and I are not psychotic. We are not psychotic are we?
But what is violence and where does it come from? The course in miracles says, “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.” And we know that Jesus said, “Anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his mind.”
So violence all comes down to thought – the voice in your head that sounds like you talking to you. Those of you who are familiar with my work know that these thoughts come from the Limbic System, the Monkey Brain, which is only concerned with survival. Violence and attack thoughts are the stock and trade of the monkey.
Here is what the Course in Miracles says about the result of this: “Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack thoughts are. Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be accepted together. They contradict each other.”
But what, in fact, are attack thoughts? Any thought that has its roots in survival. Judgment, criticism, comparison, intolerance, hatred all are attack thoughts. The Monkey Mind is a violent place indeed. It believes it is special. My monkey is more special than you. Ultimately my monkey wants you to die so I can live and be special.
As long as we indulge violent, attack thoughts, we will live in a violent world. The answer to violence is internal transformation. We simply cannot longer tolerate our own attack thoughts if we want to live in a peaceful world. That means we must free our minds from violence, blame, hatred and the cesspool of vitriol we carry in our heads and that ultimately spews form our mouths.
I am making a moral equivalency here. There is fundamentally no difference between the shooter in Arizona and the pundit on TV blaming, making judgments and accusations. Both are attacking. One is just using a different form of ammunition aimed to kill. Both are dangerously insane with minds filled with violence and attack thoughts. The only difference is that the pundits, politicians, and commentators should know better. But they are dominated by the Monkey as well.I urge you to learn Witness Thought Transformation. It is the only way you will ever become fully aware of your own attack thoughts. And then maybe you will join with me to help create a less violent world.
