THE MADNESS OF GEORGE W. BUSH

[Guest guest]

The Madness of George W. Bush

 

A reflection of our collective psychosis: Bush's sickness is our own

 

 

 

 

January 15, 2005

 

By Paul Levy, Baltimore Chronicle

 

 

 

George W. Bush is ill. He has a psycho-spiritual disease of the soul,

a sickness that is endemic to our culture and symptomatic of the

times we live in. It's an illness that has been with us since time

immemorial. Because it's an illness that's in the soul of all of

humanity, it pervades the field and is in all of us in potential at

any moment, which makes it especially hard to diagnose.

 

Bush's malady is quite different from schizophrenia, for example, in

which all the different parts of the personality are fragmented and

not connected to each other, resulting in a state of internal chaos.

As compared to the disorder of the schizophrenic, Bush can sound

quite coherent and can appear like such a " regular, " normal guy,

which makes the syndrome he is suffering from very hard to recognize.

This is because the healthy parts of his personality have been co-

opted by the pathological aspect, which drafts them into its service.

Because of the way the personality self-organizes an outer display of

coherence around a pathogenic core, I would like to name Bush's

illness `malignant egophrenic (as compared to schizophrenic)

disease,' or `ME disorder,' for short. If ME disorder goes

unrecognized and is not contained, it can be very destructive,

particularly if the person is in a position of power.

 

In much the same way that a child's psychology cannot be understood

without looking at the family system he or she is a part of, George

Bush does not exist in isolation. We can view Bush and his entire

Administration (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, etc), as well as

the corporate, military industrial complex that they are co-

dependently enmeshed with, the media that they control, the voters

that support them, and ourselves as well, as interconnected parts of

a whole system, or a " field. " Instead of relating to any part of this

field as an isolated entity, it's important to contemplate the entire

interdependent field as the `medium' though which malignant

egophrenia manifests and propagates itself. ME disease is a field

phenomenon, and needs to be contemplated as such. Bush's sickness is

our own.

 

THE DISEASE IS NON-LOCAL

 

Being a field phenomenon, malignant egophrenia is non-local in

nature, which means that it is not bound by the limitations of time

or space. Being non-local, this disease pervades and underlies the

entire field and can therefore manifest anywhere, through anyone and

at any moment. The disease's non-local nature makes the question of

who has the disease irrelevant, as we all have it in potential. It is

more a question of whether or not we are aware of our susceptibility

to fall prey to the disease. This awareness itself serves as an

immunization that protects us from the pernicious effects of the

illness, thereby allowing us to be of genuine help to others.

 

Bush, like all of us, is both a manifestation of this deeper field

and simultaneously an agent effecting this field. He's become so

fully taken over by the disease, all the while not suspecting a

thing, that he's become a " carrier " for this deadly disease, thus

infecting the field around him. He's become a portal through which

the field around him " warps " in such a way as to feed and support his

pathogenic process. A non-local, reciprocally co-arising and

interdependent field of unconscious denial and cover-up gets

constellated around Bush to enable and protect his pathology. People

who support Bush are actually complicit with and enabling Bush's

madness in a co-dependent, self-reinforcing feedback loop that

is `closed,' which is to say it is insular and not open to any

feedback from the `real' world.

 

Bush supporters are not merely disinterested in seeing that they are

in denial of reality; on the contrary, they actively don't want to

look at this, which is to say they resist self-reflection at all

costs. Bush and his supporters perversely interpret any feedback from

the real world which reflects back their unconsciousness as itself

evidence that proves the rightness of their viewpoint. All of Bush's

supporters mutually reinforce each other's unconscious resistance to

such a degree that a collective, interdependent field of

impenetrability gets collectively conjured up by them that literally

resists consciousness.

 

People who don't recognize Bush's illness and support him are

unconsciously colluding with and enabling in the co-creation of the

pathological field that is incarnating itself into the human family.

People who support Bush become unwitting agents through which this

non-local disease feeds and replicates itself. By supporting Bush

they are collaborating with and becoming parts of the greater,

interconnected and self-organizing field of the disease.

 

ANALAGOUS TO GERMANS IN THE TIME OF HITLER

 

The situation is very analogous to when seemingly good, normal,

loving Germans supported Hitler, believing he was a good leader

trying to help them. The German people didn't realize that the

virulent pathogen malignant egophrenia had taken possession of Hitler

and was incarnating itself through him. By not seeing this and

supporting Hitler, they became agents used by this non-local, deadly

disease to propagate itself. This was a collective psychosis, and

this is what is taking place in our country right now.

 

This is exactly what C. G. Jung, one of the greatest psychologists of

the twentieth century, was warning us about when he said " The

gigantic catastrophes that threaten us today are not elemental

happenings of a physical or biological order, but psychic events. To

a quite terrifying degree we are threatened by wars and revolutions

which are nothing other than psychic epidemics. At any moment several

millions of human beings may be smitten with a new madness, and then

we shall have another world war or devastating revolution. Instead of

being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides, and

inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of his

own psyche. "

 

THE LIE

 

It is not that the threat of terrorism is not real, but that Bush's

policies in dealing with terrorism are actually fueling the fire. The

way Bush is fighting terrorism is actually the very act which is

invoking and creating more of it in the first place. It is as if he

is fighting against his own shadow, which is a battle that can never

be won. Bush is so dissociated from the darkness within himself that

he splits off from it and tries to destroy it. Bush's inner process,

because of the position of power he finds himself in, is getting

dreamed up and played out on the world stage.ME disease is unique in

that it collapses the boundary between inner and outer. Egophrenia is

an inner disease of the soul that expresses itself via the medium of

the outside world. We could even say that the inner core of

egophrenia actually in-forms and gives shape to the outer universe so

as to express itself.

 

By creating more of the very thing he is fighting against, Bush is

enacting the repetition compulsion of the traumatized soul. In Bush's

case, it is the repetition compulsion gone awry, to daemonic

proportions, getting acted out on the world stage. To quote noted

psychologist Rollo May, the daemonic is " any natural function which

has the power to take over the whole person [or whole nation].....the

daemonic can be either creative or destructive [i.e,

demonic].....violence is the daemonic gone awry. "

 

The daemonic aspect of the disease develops a certain autonomy and

literally possesses the person or group, as it is self-generating,

self-perpetuating and self-organizing in nature, like a closed and

negative feedback loop. The person who is taken over doesn't suspect

a thing, as the field secretly conspires and colludes with and

enables their psychosis. For example, Bush, in his delusion, imagines

he is divinely guided. His supporters want to believe this to feed

their own adolescent fantasies of wanting to have a divinely inspired

leader to take care of and protect them. Because of this need they

invest, so to speak, in Bush's delusion, which just confirms to Bush

all the more that he indeed is God's instrument. Bush and his

followers are co-dependently and reciprocally feeding and supporting

each other's unconscious narcissistic needs in a truly pathological,

and ultimately self-destructive co-dependent relationship.

 

At the root of Bush's pathology is a deep dissociation. Like the

terrorists, he has split-off from his own darker half, projecting the

shadow `out there,' and then tries to destroy this dis-owned shadow.

By projecting the shadow onto each other, Bush and the terrorists are

each seeing their own shadow reflected in the other. They see each

other as criminals, as the incarnation of evil. By projecting the

shadow like this, they locate the evil `out there,' which insures

that they don't have to recognize the evil within themselves. It's

interesting to note that the inner meaning of the word 'mirror'

is 'shadow holder.' Ironically, by fighting against their own shadow

in this way, they become possessed by the very thing they are trying

to destroy, thereby perpetuating a never-ending cycle of violence. To

quote Jung, " The psychological rule says that when an inner situation

is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say,

when the individual remains undivided [not in touch with both the

light AND dark parts of themselves] and does not become conscious of

his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and

be torn into opposing halves. "

 

Jung simply refers to projecting the shadow as " the lie. " It's

interesting to note that one of the inner meanings of the word Devil

is `the liar.' Projecting the shadow, to quote Jung, " deprives us of

the capacity to deal with evil. " Jung stresses the importance of

consciously developing what he calls our " imagination for evil, "

which is to consciously recognize our potential for evil. This

recognition means embracing and integrating our dark side into our

wholeness, which is made up of both light and dark. If we have no

imagination for evil, to quote Jung, " evil has us in its

grip.......for only the fool can permanently disregard the conditions

of his own nature. In fact, this negligence is the best means of

making him an instrument of evil. "

 

By projecting the shadow, Bush is unwittingly being a conduit for the

deepest, archetypal evil to possess him from behind, beneath his

conscious awareness, and to act itself out through him. At the same

time, ironically enough, he identifies with the light and imagines

that he is divinely inspired. To quote Jung, a person in a position

of power who has become dissociated like Bush " even runs the grave

risk of believing he has a Messianic mission, and forces tyrannous

doctrines upon his fellow-beings. " He then believes that any action

he desires is justified in the name of God, as he can rationalize it

as being God's will. Unable to self-reflect, he is convinced of the

rightness of his viewpoint, which he considers non-negotiable. This

is a very dangerous situation, as Bush has become unconsciously

identified with and possessed by the hero, or savior archetype. This

figure is religious in nature, as it derives from the transpersonal,

archetypal dimension of the collective unconscious. Being inflated

with the hero archetype, he (archetypically) wants to save the world

from evil and to liberate the planet.

 

This is the height of irony since, in reality, Bush is acting as an

unwitting conduit for evil by instigating wars and taking away

people's freedoms. This incongruity brings into bold relief the

severe schizoid split that characterizes Bush's condition. His

inflation blinds him to the real consequences of his actions and is

one of the easier-to-recognize aspects of his pathology. Being

inflated due to an unconscious identification with an archetype is,

in essence, an expression of having forfeited one's humanity, a state

in which humility becomes impossible.

 

Bush has fallen into a state that is the embodiment of arrogance.

Succumbing to the temptation of power, Bush has become corrupt, which

is the inevitable consequence when one prefers power over truth. He

has fallen into a vicious cycle where he has become addicted to

power. Bush and his regime are compulsively driven to do everything

and anything they can to hold onto the position of power they find

themselves in. Not only do they not see the depraved nature of the

situation they have fallen into, they don't want to see it. Being in

the role of having power, there is a counter-incentive to self-

reflect, which just reinforces the strength of the pathogen.

 

The inner name of ME disease is `Mad Emperor' disease, as it is what

happens when a person in a position of power falls prey to and become

seduced by that power. As Al Gore points out, people who are after

dominance and power " satiate their hunger for more power still by

striking a Faustian bargain. And as always happens--sooner or later--

to those who shake hands with the devil, they find out too late that

what they have given up in the bargain is their soul. "

 

At the root of Bush's process is an unwillingness and seeming

inability to experience his own sense of sin, guilt and shame, as if

he is afraid of being exposed, of being found out. He's clearly

unable to feel any remorse and experience his own weakness and

vulnerability, his own sense of failure. This threatens his

narcissism too much. One aspect of Bush's pathology is `malignant

narcissism,' as he reacts sadistically to others who mirror back his

guilt and don't support and enable his narcissism.

 

This inability to experience his shame and guilt sets in motion a

self-perpetuating cycle of denial, cover-up and projecting the

shadow, all of which are based on a lie. Bush then falls into an

endless loop of hiding from his own lie, which is to say, from

himself. This process allows Bush to become a conduit for egophrenia

to take him over and incarnate its malignant aspect through him.

 

Jung comments on this resistance to self-reflection and endless cycle

of self- deception by saying " Hysterical self-deceivers, and ordinary

ones too, have at all times understood the art of misusing everything

so as to avoid the demands and duties of life, and above all to shirk

the duty of confronting themselves. They pretend to be seekers after

God in order not to have to face the truth that they are ordinary

egoists. "

 

Falling victim to one's own deception as Bush has can have a very

mesmerizing and gripping effect on others, as he appears so convinced

of what he is saying and is able to project this conviction. To quote

Jung, " Nothing has such a convincing effect as a lie one invents and

believes oneself, or an evil deed or intention whose righteousness

one regards as self-evident.....things only become dangerous when the

pathological liar is taken seriously by a wider public. Like Faust,

he is bound to make a pact with the devil and thus slips off the

straight path. " Bush has the seductive coherence of someone who is

fanatically identified, like the typical fundamentalist, with only

one side of an inherently two-sided polarity. Thomas Merton,

commenting on the case of the obviously demented Nazi war criminal,

Adolf Eichmann, points out " One of the most disturbing facts that

came out in the Eichmann trial was that a psychiatrist examined him

and pronounced him perfectly sane. "

 

A key feature of malignant egophrenia is that it is very hard to

recognize when someone is a carrier, because the person can seem so

normal and even endearing. The person afflicted can be

very `charming' and have a certain type of charisma that can entrance

those who don't see through their subterfuge. Concerned about nothing

other than himself, a person stricken with egophrenia is in reality

indifferent to other people's suffering, all the while professing his

compassion, like a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Just like Hitler struck a chord deep in the German unconscious, Bush

is touching something very deep in the American psyche. Bush is

acting out on the world stage an under-developed psychological

process that deals simplistically with issues such as good and evil.

It's as if he hasn't grown out of and fully differentiated from the

realm of mythic, archetypal fantasy that is typical of early

adolescence. This immature aspect of Bush's process speaks to and

resonates with those voters who support him, as it is a reflection of

their own under-developed inner process.

 

Whereas Hitler's evil was more overt in its cruelty and sadism,

Bush's dark side is much more hidden and disguised, which makes it

particularly dangerous. People who voted for Bush are somehow blind

to what is very obvious to others. It's as if they've become

hypnotized and fallen under the spell that Bush is casting. Why would

people vote for someone stricken with malignant egophrenia? People

who support Bush are suggestible and susceptible to the same malady

that Bush is embodying, as if they have a predisposition for it

(based on their own trauma, dissociated psyche and tendency to

project the shadow). Supporting Bush is a sign that a person not only

doesn't see the deadly illness that is incarnating itself through

Bush, but is an expression that this disease has taken up residence

in their being and is using them to do its bidding.

 

A COLLECTIVE PSYCHOSIS

 

It is a very dangerous situation we are in--because of the position

of power Bush and the religious right find themselves in, they can

literally dream up and create the very apocalypse that they are

imagining is prophesized, like a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a

perversely self-reinforcing feedback-loop, the more death and

destruction happens, the more this confirms to them the truth that

their deluded end-time scenario is actually happening as prophesized.

In a diabolical self-validating vicious cycle, Bush and the religious

right are ignoring the role they are playing in creating exactly what

they are using as evidence to prove the rightness of their viewpoint.

ME disease is a world where up is down, as its flawless illogic is

convoluted and inverted at its core.

 

Malignant egophrenia is crazy-making. It induces a very hard-to-

recognize form of insanity. When we fall prey to egophrenia, we are

unable to recognize that we are taken over, as we become bewitched by

our own projections, accusing other people of doing what we ourselves

are doing. For example, Bush is talking about himself when he accuses

Saddam Hussein of being " a man who has defied the world, " and " a man

who has made the United Nations look foolish. " Part of the disease is

that when we point at it and call it by its true name--as being a

form of insanity called ignorance--people who are stricken with the

disease will see us as the ones who are crazy. Unless we recognize

the insidious nature of this disease, there is a crazy-making field

around it that will make us a part of itself. Collective psychosis is

like that.

 

There is only one reason why the mainstream psychiatric community is

not studying this contagious psychosis as it spreads through Bush,

his regime, and the surrounding field. They are not studying this

disease because they haven't yet recognized that the disease even

exists. To the extent that any of us are unaware that this non-local

pathogen pervades the field we become hooked by it through our own

unconscious blind-spot. By not recognizing the nature of the disease,

the mental health community becomes its unwitting agents, helping the

disease to propagate. What clearer sign do we need of a collective

psychosis than when our mental health system itself, whose job it is

to monitor such phenomena, not only doesn't recognize that there is a

collective psychosis running rampant in our society, but are

themselves infected with it?

 

The DSM-IV, the psychiatric diagnostic manual, is continually

expanding and including new diagnoses as we deepen our understanding

of and map the contours of the human psyche. The problem is that the

DSM-IV is an expression of an `old paradigm' way of thinking in that

it looks at mental illness as it exists in individuals, regarding the

individual as an object existing separate from the field around them.

This is based on an illusion, for the individual is embedded in the

greater field (family system, society, and planetary culture) and is

an expression of this multi-textured field. The individual and the

field around them interpenetrate and condition each other so fully

that they can't even be regarded as two separate aspects that have

become joined together, but rather must be seen as inseparable parts

of a greater whole. Egophrenia expresses itself non-locally

throughout the entire field. Consequently, instead of being viewed

through the lens of the fragmented, separate self, it requires a more

holistic vision that recognizes the existence of the interdependently

co-arising field. It's not a question of integrating ME disease into

the existing DSM-IV, but instead of radically expanding, up-leveling

and re-visioning our understanding of the nature of illness itself.

 

It is profoundly important that the mental health community at large

recognize this age-old disease with which we are all afflicted. Doing

this changes this community from being part of the problem to part of

the solution. The disease literally feeds on our unawareness of it.

The recognition of the disease is itself the beginning of the cure.

By recognizing the nature of this collective psychosis, we snap out

of being part of it. Malignant egophrenia, unrecognized and

misdiagnosed until now, has wreaked havoc all throughout human

history, and is at the very root of our current world crisis. To the

extent we are unaware of the nature of this collective psychosis, it

has us in its grips and will unconsciously get acted out through us

in a destructive manner. The choice is truly ours.

 

One of the signatures of ME disease is that it hooks people through

their unconscious blind-spot, so when people are afflicted by this

deadly disease they are truly asleep to what is getting acted out

through them. Bush himself is being manipulated, used and victimized,

like a puppet on a string, by a deeper matrix of cover-up and deceit

that has been perpetrated by him and his very regime, and has now

taken on an autonomous life of its own. This disease, if it gets out

of control, means self-destruction for both victim and perpetrator.

There are no winners. The entire interconnected web that supports

Bush can be recognized to be tentacles of this virulent, non-local

pathogen that, to the extent that it is not seen, is potentially

gaining more and more sovereignty. Like a sci-fi movie, we have

dreamed up a higher-dimensional Frankenstein monster that has taken

on a life of its own and truly threatens all of us.

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF NAMING THE DISEASE

 

Malignant egophrenia is both an expression of and at the root of the

extreme polarization and dissociation in both the human psyche and

the world process at large. The disease is archetypal in nature,

which is to say that it has eternally re-created itself and played

itself out over the course of history. We can even say that it's

the `bug' in the system that has in-formed and given shape to all of

the conflict and disharmony of human relationship. ME disease is as

old as the human species. However, we're now at the point in our

evolution where we can finally recognize it, see it, give it a name

and diagnose it.

 

Malignant egophrenia is truly diabolical in nature and is what the

ancient, indigenous cultures would call a demon. Jung warned us that

a difficult task lay ahead of us after the mass insanity of the

second World War. He points out that after the `demons' abandoned the

German people, these negative energies weren't banished. To quote

Jung, " the demons will seek a new victim. And that won't be

difficult. Every man who loses his shadow, every nation that falls

into self-righteousness, is their prey. " Projecting the shadow

literally opens the door for malignant egophrenia to take up

residence in our being.

 

What the ancient people called 'demons,' Jung calls 'autonomous

complexes,' which are split-off parts of the psyche that can possess

a person and seemingly develop an independent will and quasi-life of

their own. These autonomous complexes can't stand to be seen in much

the same way a vampire can't stand the light. Malignant egophrenia

will shape-shift and do everything in its power to resist being seen.

It's elusive, mercurial and very much a trickster.The disease

obfuscates itself, creating any number of distractions to hide

behind, and will even react violently to being seen, for being seen

takes away its omnipotence and autonomy.

 

When we see a demon we know its name. Naming it is exorcistic, as it

dis-spells the demon's power over us. To name something is to

symbolize it. The word `symbolic,' which meansthat which unites,' is

the antidote and antonym to the word `diabolic,' which means that

which divides and separates. George Bush claimed to be " a uniter, not

a divider. " However, he has only united one thing--the entire world

against us. To see this diabolical aspect of what is coming through

Bush, namely, that he is an instrument that is creating separation,

is itself to be seeing with symbolic awareness.

 

Naming the disease, we are able to (alchemically) contain it, so that

it can't possess us from behind and act itself out through us

unconsciously. Once the disease is named, it's anchored to

consciousness so that it can't vaporize back into the unconscious.

This de-potentiates the disease, beginning the process of re-

integrating it back into the profound unity of the psyche. The energy

that was bound up in the compulsion to endlessly re-create the

disease becomes liberated and available for creative expression. The

prescription for this disease is simply for enough of us who see it

to connect with each other in lucid awareness so that it can be

contained, metabolized and healed. We can put our collective

realization together and dream a much more grace-filled universe into

incarnation. This is an evolutionary impulse from the universe in

which we are invited to participate.

 

Encoded in the disease is its own medicine. Hidden in the daemonic is

our guiding spirit, our true genius and inner voice. This is why Jung

calls the daemonic the " not yet made real creative. " The fact that

such a dark shadow is emerging in our world is an expression that

light is nearby, as shadows are themselves an expression of light.

Demons are actually blessings in drag. Lucifer is truly the bringer

of light.

 

A MODERN DAY PLAGUE OF EGYPT

 

Malignant egophrenia is manifesting itself, both literally and

symbolically, hidden yet visible for all who have eyes to see,

simultaneously veiling and revealing itself. Symbolically encoded in

egophrenia's literal manifestation is the key to its re-solution.

Symbols are the language of dreams. A symbol brings together and

reconciles two contraries into a greater whole. A symbol reflects and

effects a change in and of consciousness itself. A symbol is both the

expression of as well as the doorway into a more transcendent, higher-

dimensional part of ourselves.

 

People don't see egophrenia because they don't recognize the symbolic

dimension of existence, but rather are absorbed in the literal

dimension of reality. It is very convincing to (only) take things

literally and see these literal facts as " the (one) truth, " as events

in this world are literally happening. They're as real as real can

be. This can be very entrancing, particularly with the evidence right

in front of our face. People are dying. Seeing symbolically doesn't

negate the literal dimension but instead complements and completes

it, as both are true simultaneously. The literal and symbolic

dimensions of reality interpenetrate each other so fully that they

can't be seen as two separate things that are joined together, but

rather are interdependent parts of a greater whole. The birth of

symbolic awareness not only more fully completes our picture of the

nature of the universe we live in, but gives us access to the way to

actually deal with this deadly disease. Egophrenia is truly

initiatory, as it is a wake-up call to symbolic awareness, which is a

higher dimension of our being. All that is needed for malignant

egophrenia to reveal its blessing is for us to recognize its

revelatory function.

 

Jung says, " Everything could be left undisturbed did not the new way

demand to be discovered, and did it not visit humanity with all the

plagues of Egypt until it finally is discovered. " Malignant

egophrenia is a modern-day plague of Egypt. If we don't see what it

is symbolically revealing to us, malignant egophrenia will destroy

us. It's a gesture from the universe, beckoning us, demanding us to

integrate it and thereby receive its blessing. By prompting,

pressuring and challenging us to come to terms with it and receive

its gifts, malignant egophrenia has the potential to awaken us,

thereby furthering the evolution of the species.

 

The fact that malignant egophrenia is manifesting in fully visible

form in our world right now is an expression that this particular

energy is available for assimilation in a way un-imaginable until

now. When an unconscious content is ready to be integrated, it always

gets dreamed up into fully materialized form. This is the dimension

in which the energy bound up in the infinitely regressing feedback

loop of the disease can be accessed and redeemed.

 

This quantum leap in consciousness that is being offered us by

egophrenia is fully imaginable into actualization in this very

moment. If we can make use of its lessons, ME disease becomes a

portal into a more whole and integrated part of our being, both

individually and collectively. Egophrenia is introducing and

initiating us into the dreamlike nature of reality, where this

universe is like a mass shared dream that we are all collaboratively

dreaming up into full-bodied materialization together. This is to

have the realization that we are interconnected and not separate from

one another, as if we are parts of and contained in a greater being.

We wouldn't be able to have this expansion of consciousness without

egophrenia, so therefore egophrenia is a `potential' blessing in a

very convincing disguise that it's not.

 

Being a non-local field phenomenon, the malignant egophrenia epidemic

is something all six billion of us are collaboratively creating and

dreaming up together. Bush is an embodied, mirrored reflection of a

part of ourselves, just like we, reciprocally, are a reflection of a

part of him. His disease is our disease. Bush and his regime are a

living, full-bodied reflection of our collective shadow, as we are of

theirs. We have all dreamed them up to play out these archetypal

roles, in full living color, so that we can see and integrate these

parts of ourselves. Embracing these parts of ourselves that we see so

clearly reflected in Bush and Co. is the first step towards healing

the situation. This is because it dispells the polarization and

separation, which is the root factor preventing reconciliation. Bush

and Co. are playing out roles that exist deep inside the collective

psyche of all of humanity. If Bush and Co. weren't around, there

would be someone else sent by `central casting' to pick up and play

out these very same archetypal roles. Compassion spontaneously arises

when we truly recognize these fear-ridden parts of ourselves.

 

GENUINE COMPASSION AS ACTIVISM

 

The malignant egophrenia epidemic is happening right in front of us.

It is self-evident for all who have eyes to see. If we don't look at

what's happening, if we turn away, ignore it, and contract against

it, we are lying to ourselves. Then we're colluding with and

unknowingly feeding the disease. Our looking away is a form of

blindness. Our looking away is a form of ignorance. Our looking away,

our contraction, is itself the disease. Our resulting complacency and

inaction is, in fact, an expression of our lack of compassion. To

quote Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. " One who passively accepts evil

[allowing it to happen] is as much involved in it as the one who

perpetrates it. "

 

There is a great danger when we see evil, though. To quote Jung, " It

is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our

own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our

hearts.....the sight of evil kindles evil in the soul. " Malignant

egophrenia forces upon us the responsibility to come to terms with

the evil inside our own hearts. If we solidify Bush as being evil and

react with righteous indignation, we are guilty of the very same

thing we're accusing Bush of (i.e, projecting the shadow). We then

become a conduit for the very evil we're reacting to. Who among us

has not been guilty of being a channel for ME disease at one time or

another? If, when we see this virulent pathogen, we contract against

it and react in any way, be it in judgment, hatred, anger or

revulsion, we're helping to perpetuate the diabolical polarization

that is the signature of the disease. Our reacting in this way, which

is typical of many political activists, is itself an expression that

we ourselves have the disease, or to say it more clearly, the disease

has us.

 

This disease literally has the potential to humble us. We may think--

not us, we could never catch this disease. However, this very

arrogance opens us up to being hooked by the pathogen. We may think--

let's step out of our arrogance, for who are we to know anything?

Let's be an enlightened bodhisattva and not judge what Bush is doing,

for who are we to judge? Or let's be an enlightened psychiatrist and

not diagnose, name or pathologize Bush in any way, for we don't want

to cast any spells. However, to have these attitudes is to fall under

the seductive spell of the bug, causing us to disconnect from and

give away our power. In this way, we forsake one of our greatest

spiritual treasures, the act of discernment. Being a spiritual

warrior embraces and includes the most extreme discernment, which is

the ability to differentiate and is a function of seeing clearly.

Discernment is different than when we are unconsciously caught in

judgement, which is a reaction to and contraction against something.

Wielding the wisdom of discernment is an expression of having genuine

compassion.

 

Compassion is sometimes fierce, though. Sometimes it says " no, " and

sets a boundary. Genuine compassion is not always smiley-faced,

otherwise known as " idiot compassion, " which just enables and

reinforces asleepness. Genuine compassion is not passive. It propels

us to act for the benefit of all beings. True compassion demands us

to be willing to consciously step into our power, mediated through

the heart, and to find the courage to speak our true voice: The

malignant egophrenia epidemic has induced a form of criminal insanity

in the entire Bush regime that we are all complicit in by allowing it

to happen.

 

With Bush as president it's as if we're in a car going over the speed

limit being driven by a drunk adolescent who has fallen asleep at the

wheel. It's our responsibility to recognize the extreme danger of our

situation and come together to do something about it, whatever that

might be. If not, if we continue to passively and helplessly watch

what is playing out in front of our very eyes, then we have no one to

blame but ourselves. To quote Abraham Lincoln, " We--even we here--

hold the power, and bear the responsibility. " Now is the time to join

together and creatively express our true voice. As the Reverend

Martin Luther King, Jr. says " Our lives begin to end the day we

become silent about things that matter. " Our only limitation is in

our own imagination.

 

Malignant egophrenia is a true `reconciling symbol,' in that it

unites the opposites. Malignant egophrenia is both a deadly disease

and the highest blessing co-joined in one phenomenon. Is it a wave or

a particle? It is a true `coincidentia oppositorum,' a conjunction of

opposites, an expression of divinity. The question is, do we

recognize what is being symbolically shown to us by egophrenia, or

not?

 

The inner meaning of the word apocalypse is `something hidden being

revealed.' Will these apocalyptic end times we are in be an

initiation into a more expansive part of our being? Or will it

destroy our species? The choice is truly ours. All that is needed is

for enough of us to recognize what is being revealed, and to

creatively act out of this realization.

 

 

 

 

 

----

----------

 

 

 

 

Paul Levy, a healer in private practice, is profiled in the book

Saints and Madmen: Psychiatry Opens its Doors to Religion. Steeped in

and inspired by the work of Swiss-German psychoanalyst C. G. Jung,

Levy is an innovator in the field of dreaming. He has had over forty

articles published on consciousness, dreaming and spirituality, and

has lectured about his work at various universities. A Tibetan

Buddhist practitioner for over 20 years, he has studied with some of

the great masters of Tibet and Burma. Inspired by the Bush

Administration, Levy describes himself as " a spiritually-informed

political activist. " He is currently writing a book about his work.

Visit his website at awakeninthedream.com or write him at

paul.

 

© Copyright 2005 Paul Levy