Each one of us has things in our life and in our past that are painful. We all have that dark specter that sometimes resides deep inside of us and drives us to do or say things that are self destructive. Quite often these are things that are created by incidents from our past. Other times they are mechanisms we construct within ourselves to protect our innermost vulnerabilities from harm. These mechanisms can be beneficial at some point but as time passes and one changes, they become invalid.
One simple example of this is type of mechanism is the “inability to love”. When asked certain people say, “I can’t love anyone” or “It’s not in me to be able to love”. This is just a form of denial. Love is probably the most dangerous of the emotions because it is so powerful and at the same time leaves the subject so very open to hurt and emotional pain. To protect ones self a mechanism is developed wherein the emotional vulnerability is eliminated by denying or disallowing ones ability to accept love and all its vulnerabilities. We can see that one cannot love if one doesn’t allow themselves to love. So it’s obvious to the external observer that the person who makes these kinds of statements is damaged in one way or another by previous experiences. This statement of denial is the decision: “I will not allow myself to be hurt”. By not allowing anyone to get close or by objectifying others as temporary intruders, the subject controls the access to the inner self. To support this protective device the subject rationalizes it by denial “I can’t love”. If it can be said therefore the statement must then be true. In this case it becomes true; the subject cannot love because they will not allow it to happen and perforce will do whatever it takes emotionally to see that it remains true. Fear of emotional pain, rejection or abuse has enormous power and that fear drives the protection mechanism.
We build these mechanisms to protect ourselves. They often have the aspect of an inner anger, a dark side, and a part of us that is not apparently “part of us”. We all have something like this deep inside our minds. Those types who evidence the most severe manifestations of this are those suffering from abuse (child or spousal), assault (physical or emotional) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In these cases the subject is damaged by some traumatic situation in their life so they build a structure within themselves that takes on a life of its own and becomes a separate part of their behavior. It becomes that process or “entity” that is needed to protect the inner self from further harm or pain. This can be displayed in many manifestations such as callousness towards others, unreasoning hatred, insane jealousy, insecurity issues or intolerance. Once set up these actualizations form a series of walls and behaviors that act as a protection against the re-enactment of the original injury or its painful aftermath.
Once in place the mechanism, (entity or which ever name one might wish to give it), functions very well. The mind can be very efficient when it comes to protection and thus it drives the subjects’ life and their responses. In turn the mechanism is driven by their own fear of injury or pain. It protects the subject from injury by actively driving away that which it sees as dangerous to the subjects core self. So, in this we see this self destructive activity present itself in many people’s day to day behaviors.
The protective “entity”, while beneficial initially, is always self destructive after an extended period of time. As time passes our life experience progresses incorporating lessons along the way and we find that our needs and desires change. The protective entity cannot change its “programming” as it was built by specific threat circumstances. Therefore the entity in its own best interest compels the subject to engage in self destructive behaviors and thus gives the entity “purpose”. This purpose gives validity and power to the entity. So when the subject approaches a threat environment the entity continues to control those unacceptable behaviors and removes the subject from what it considers the threat. We can obviously see that there can be no change in this entity and its mechanism unless a study of core self is initiated at a very deep and honest level by the subject. Through this study of core self we can find, not only the entity’s presence but also the mechanism that empowers it. Once that mechanism is identified, the process or entity can be slowly disassembled, eradicated or re-educated by a restructuring of self image and identifying and coping with the circumstances which created the entity in the first place.
This restructuring can take place though several different avenues; Psychiatry, Hypno-therapy, Regression (past life), counseling or by a combination of these. All avenues for the restructuring must be directed towards a single goal. That goal is facing and learning to cope with the true cause of the entity. The appropriate application of these processes must be tied to the belief structure of the individual allowing the therapist and subject to focus their energy onto the problem and not on a re-evaluation of beliefs. The subject’s belief structure is crucial in the approach to the therapy. Using this augmented and belief based approach generally shows marked improvement as the subject has less to fight against outside issues belonging to the “entity”.
It is quite obvious that trying to change any belief system is extremely hard under “normal” circumstances but attempting to change that system during a course of therapy is almost impossible. Attempting to do so can lead to failure. In most cases of failure the subject may develop a sense of helplessness and clinical depression may ensue. This only reinforces the power of the entity and its control mechanism. So care must be taken in devising any therapy. Reducing the possibilities of failure should be a major consideration and should guide the direction of the therapy.
Once a subject identifies their injury issues the base cause of the entity’s mechanism becomes apparent. Having the knowledge of the base cause is the key to any therapy. A passive approach using a therapy (Hypno-therapy or regression) which peels back the layers of the base cause allows issues to be identified and addressed one at a time. This undermines the base of the protection mechanism and eventually the entity as a whole is “released”. It’s much like uncloaking a masked intruder because they can’t abide the “light”. So it is with the light of reason and truth, those mechanisms fade because we “see” the issue clearly and in that sight, a method of real coping can be affected. In many cases the “release” itself is life changing. It feels like freedom to the subject and they feel euphoria or a quiet peace inside such as they have never known.
While this may be what they wish for, it can also be quite dangerous as they don’t have the aggregated life skills most people learn because of the protection mechanism. It is similar to the subject stepping into a foreign culture where the rules are unknown and thus they are vulnerable again but this time without protective coping mechanisms. Great care must be taken to build these new coping mechanisms so as to protect the vulnerable state of the emotions and psyche. This should reduce the possibilities of new injury.
One of the many reactions to the release of the entity is for the subject to feel a rush of emotions and thoughts that they’ve not experienced before. This is dangerous particularly because the subject may take risks or chance behaviors that can lead to re-injury because they feel “cured”. This is not the case, a cure takes time. What they must understand is that it is just removing of one system of protection and leaving the subject to rebuild a new and better system. Only time and exposure to their emotions will allow them to build the necessary system of protection and the coping mechanisms that we all have developed