Something awesome happened in the Positively Focused Advanced Group session this week. The topic: Christianity. When one participant got mildly triggered, she also triggered a wonderful exploration.
After a hundred hours or so of one-on-one session practice, I invite eligible clients into the Advanced Session Group sessions. The monthly sessions' value lies in the group dynamic. Participants benefit from hearing others' experiences. That's because it's easier seeing something going on in another's life than our own sometimes.
One Advanced Group participant still believes in Christianity. So when Christianity came up "Jane", which I'll call the client, struggled a bit with what came next. It was Jane's struggle that offered Positively Focused gold to everyone else. Including Jane! Let's see what happened.
Cognitive dissonance begets a great conversation
Jane said she appreciates how Christianity aligns with what she's learned from her Positively Focused practice. Of course, that's accurate. What I share in Positively Focused sessions is exactly how the Universe works. This explains why clients' lives dramatically improve as their proficiency with the Positively Focused Way improves. One's life MUST improve.
That's what happens when one stops resisting how life works.
It also makes sense Jane's experience with the Positively Focused Way highlights similarities between it and Christianity. She shared some New Testament Bible quotes, which she believed say the same thing we talk about in our Positively Focused practice. Everyone listened quietly as she talked.
When one chronically views life through a Positively Focused lens, everything reveals its positive aspects to the viewer. That's consistent with the way the Universe works too. Because All That Is sees everything happening in itself as good. Only humans see it differently, often to their detriment. So it made sense that Jane sees similarities between her Christian beliefs and the Positively Focused Way.
But she wasn't taking her analysis far enough. Another practitioner did, however. Her analysis took us right up to the leading edge. Here's how that happened.
When I said Christian teachings contain significant distortions, Jane got uncomfortable. She didn't believe that. Her beliefs about Christianity wouldn't allow it. I added that its distortions primarily explain why humanity experiences much difficulty today. This religion, and others, distort how the Universe works, I said. Accuracies exist in Christianity and other religions. But distortions in them overwhelm those accuracies.
Jane got a bit defensive about her beliefs. I believe others felt that from her too. That's when another participant I'll call "Maria" spoke up.
Introducing Christianity's Major Distortions
"Maria" is an African American woman. She also happens to be transgender. She took to the Positively Focused Way quite quickly. I attribute that to her being trans. Her trans status forced her to look for alternate world views. Ones that told her she is perfect the way she is, not an abomination. Or confused, or mentally ill. As a result of this, Maria took very well to the Positively Focused Way, because it asserts her perfection as a god in human form. Her confidence and ability with the Way reflects that.
Anyway, Maria, gesturing for emphasis said "The main problem with Christian belief is it says God exists 'out there' outside us."
Her statement hung in the air a moment. I let it be a bit before adding "and Original Sin, that we are born into sin, is a problem too. So is the idea that Jesus died for our sins."
Jane was silent for some time. She couldn't deny it. These three basic tenets of Christianity run counter to how the Universe works. They also run counter to who we each are as eternal beings, god in human form.
Think about it. Assume a god exists out there separate from us. He — invariably "he" — arbitrates who gets into heaven. So each person must be a particular way in life to "earn" a ticket in. If we don't, we're condemned to "hell". There's a lot to unpack there. But let's just stick with this separate God. If a God exists as Christianity asserts, one we must satisfy or go to hell, then humans are perpetually wondering if their acts will earn them a ticket to heaven. Don't you think that sets humanity up for perpetual, intense insecurity?
And doesn't this Original Sin greatly amplify that insecurity? It's like the moment we're born we're damned, beholden to the mercy of Christ.
Insecurity is positive, but not the way you think
That insecurity happens automatically. That insecure feeling is also good. It's good because it tells us something we want to know. But if we don't know what it's telling us, that insecurity will inspire action amplifying the insecurity.
For example, it will make a person externalize their insecurity. I'm sure you've experienced this. I sure have. The purest form of this externalization shows up among kids. Christian kids will sometimes tell non-Christian kids they are going to hell. Adults do this too. Christian parents sometimes even say it to their own kids! Such acts are manifestations of trying to soothe inner insecurity born of distorted Christian teachings. But judging others, and emotions that follow such acts, only amplify that inner knowing. The knowing saying "something is off here."
Something is off. We are gods becoming more. We come into this time-space reality in pursuit of that more. There is no one outside of us, judging what we're doing. We needn't please someone in order to get somewhere. And, as gods, when we live from our godliness, life evidence will show us our inherent worthiness.
Life gets better. Confidence replaces anxiety. Security replaces insecurity. Loving others replaces condemning them.
All this is possible. But only when we take "insecurity" for what it is telling us. Then do something about it.
Perpetuating distortion generation to generation
And do something we must. Because no one else can do it. Jesus can't do anything for us. We don't need saving because we were never lost. Instead, we are what Christians externalize. And when we live from that, life turns into the Charmed Life I write about.
If "Original Sin" does exist, it looks like this: the tendency in parents to pass on distortions to their kids. The "sin", if there is one that we are born into, is being born to parents who don't know they are god in human form. Parents who don't know their children are too.
Abraham points to this in a recent email message:
Abraham explains the cycle of perpetuating distortion.
If we are born into a "sin" it is this. It is not realizing we are all god in human form.
For now, every person comes into the world through a woman. That process means being raised by those who came before us. Nearly every such event includes people who don't realize they are god in human form.
It's not just parents though. It's teachers too. And neighbors, including other children who gave their clarity up to curry parental approval. It's religious leaders. Leaders who refuse to believe distortion exists in their teachings. And it's popular figures who gain fame, but don't understand where their fame comes from. So they thank "God".
So the Original Sin is denying our godliness. Then externalizing it in an external God and empowering that figment of our imagination to judge our worthiness.
The conversation between Jane and Maria left Jane and the rest of us deep in thought. It also left Maria feeling empowered, as it should. Her comments were spot on.
What to do about it
Look around. It's not just Christians living distortions. Much of human civilization rests on them. But we don't need to. We can live alongside ordinary people, while living extraordinary lives. In doing so, we turn distortions into blessings. Negative emotion we feel while in the vibration of distorted beliefs is meant to prompt us to take action.
Not physical action though. It's meant to prompt introspection as action. It's meant to inspire us to seek out our Broader Perspective. Do that and we discover whole new dimensions. Dimensions existing right alongside those based on distortion. It's like being born again, but for real. Not symbolically.
Christianity's great tragedies are many. Acts taken in this external "God's" name are legion. The blessing contained in each one is this turning inward. An introspection that can dispel distortion. It doesn't happen overnight. That's why it's taking humanity so long. Thank god we're eternal.
But again, none of us need to wait for others to get it. Our Charmed Life awaits us the moment we tap into that Broader Perspective we all are. And when we do, we enter the kingdom of heaven.
No tickets required.
Find out more or better yet, get started on your journey along the Positively Focused Way Contact me.
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