Finally, a block away from the castle, a little child’s voice was heard saying, “But the Emperor has nothing on at all!”
The child’s mother said, “I command you to change your words! Say ‘The Emperor may appear to have nothing on at all, but he is really dressed in fine garments woven of silk and gold threads.’”
“But, Mama,” replied the child, “that is not true.”
“If you want your dinner tonight, child, you will say what I tell you.”
The child turned toward his father and said, “Daddy, the Emperor has nothing on at all.”
His father answered, “Don’t think that! Control your thoughts and words, child, or you will be in big trouble. Just tell the Emperor he looks wonderful, and believe it. Then everything will be fine. If you don’t, then you can forget your bedtime story and goodnight hug.”
“But, Papa,” responded the child, “that is not true. Mama. Papa. That is not true. How can you do this? What you’re doing isn’t fair. It isn’t right.”
And at the same time the child’s mother was saying, “No dinner!” his father said, “No story! No hug!”
The child’s insides were all knotted up. He had difficulty breathing. And he stood there shaking, saying to himself, “I just can’t win, no matter what I do.”
Steven grew up. He no longer remembered the day the Emperor had nothing on at all. Although he was an intelligent man, he didn’t act intelligent. He had trouble speaking. He had trouble thinking. He had trouble following through with anything important. He had come to a point in his life at which everything was at risk — his job, his marriage, his parenting, his friendships, and his volunteer work at the church. The minister who had been counseling Steven was at the limit of his abilities and feeling somewhat distraught himself. Finally he suggested Steven see the famous psychic healer, Miss Trudy. “I know you are not physically ill,” offered Reverend White, “but perhaps Miss Trudy can help you out of this dilemma before your body does take it on.”
Trusting his minister, Steven made an appointment with Miss Trudy. He found out he could tape the session so he could listen to it over and over again, and he was happy about that. He hoped it would help him relax and be in the moment with her.
Welcoming him into her office, Miss Trudy took a look at his physical body and his energy field. Then she popped the cassette he had brought into the tape recorder, pressed the record button, and before he had a chance to say anything or find out anything about her, began speaking: “Steven, you are living in a drugged condition. You might as well be asleep. Your past has overtaken you and has you in its spell. You are addicted. If you don’t snap yourself out of it, you will likely die of an overdose of your own history.
“No more going back to the past to ruminate on old events. No more endless questions, especially those beginning with ‘what if.’ No more being careless with your words. Stop saying things like ‘I’m sick of this,’ ‘I wish she were dead,’ or ‘I could kill her.’ You are only ruining your own karma. Think and speak only happy thoughts.
“The simple remedy for this addiction, Steven, is this: You have to control what you think. You have to command yourself to change what you say and what you do. You have to refuse to be a victim. If you come out of any experience saying things like, ‘I knew it! I knew there was no way out,’ or ‘See! I knew all along I was a loser,’ or ‘That proves it! I just can’t win no matter what I do,’ then you have misunderstood and misinterpreted the experience. This is a matter of life and death, Steven, yours. That is all. Thank you for coming.”
Steven felt her coldness covered with a mask of kindness. He felt her disdain toward him, despite the guise of wisdom. So much of what she had said and how she had said it didn’t feel right to him. But in addition, there was a layer of his response that he couldn’t identify. When he focused on discerning that layer, he felt all knotted up inside.
Abruptly, she stood up, and he stood, too. He paid her a lot of hard-earned money for a 15-minute reading that left him feeling battered. He numbly took the tape cassette out of her hand and left. He felt awful. It was difficult to breathe. He was shaking. His insides were still in knots. Outside Miss Trudy’s office, Steven stood, disoriented, on the street.
People passed by him and didn’t even notice him. Finally a young woman in her 20’s stopped and asked him, “Are you all right, sir?”
“Sir?” he repeated to himself. That jolted him back to reality. He was only 40; did that make him a “sir”?
He tried to speak, appreciating her caring. But he couldn’t get the words out. Not certain what was happening with this man, the young woman didn’t want to leave him alone. She suggested they go to sit on a bench in the park across the street. And Steven agreed; or rather, he simply allowed her to take him to the bench.
Many people in the healing professions lack knowledge of the human psyche and soul and have failed to do their own healing work.
Consider . . .
We need to understand that a statement such as Steven’s “I just can’t win, no matter what I do,” is not merely a core belief. Rather, it is a decision he made that will drive his co-creation with life ever after.
It is a sacred act to discover our own early decisions and how, through them, we continually create a maze-like version of reality, in which we go ’round and ’round in a vicious cycle. This discovery is a doorway into healing.
Imagine the impact created by the early decisions of our healers in different arenas of life. Picture a therapist who decided as a little boy, “When I grow up, I’m gonna tell the whole world what you did.” See in your mind’s eye the effect of a spiritual teacher who decided as a little girl, “When I’m bigger than you are, I’ll have all the answers and no one will be able to challenge me anymore.” And now conceive of the consequences of a government official whose early decision was, “You have the power now, but someday I’ll have all the power.”
We each make our own early life decisions. We each create our own maze. The only way out of the maze is to go through it consciously, uncovering the early decisions, feeling the pain of their original cause and of their cyclical effect. This, over time, will help us free ourselves. |
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