DEPENDENCIES AND ADDICTIONS

A recurring preoccupation in comments from my readers and people who come for healing is addiction. A vast majority of people today suffer from a form or other of addiction and dependencies. Most are not conscious of it. Anything can become an addiction: the most common—alcoholism. The most pernicious: emotional and sexual dependencies. Between these 2 poles there is tobacco, soft or hard drugs, food (anorexia, bulimia or gluttony), television, gambling, gaming, excessive work as in workaholic, attachment to those who hurt us, codependency (unwholesome attachment to addicts in our family, lovers or friends), bad habits, etc., the list is endless. Even reading the newspapers and listening to the news becomes an addiction if you do it every day as it does lower your vital energy. Mostly people jump from one to another just long enough to do some damage, but not long enough to notice that they have a problem. This state of being is created by the technocratic system in which we all live. Addictions lower our energy levels and consciousness. People are then easier to manipulate and more inclined to comply with the edicts of the system even if they aren’t logical.

I know a lot about addictions. I’ve got a compulsive temperament and a tendency for addictions. Many First Nations have problems with addiction. Addictions are very rare in a natural lifestyle as our lives then follow the seasons, they are balanced by nature. Thus, it’s a very difficult adaptation when confronted with an artificial lifestyle which is imposed by people already formatted by this system. To live in a society under feudal rule, or monarchies, or the laws of governments controlled by a technocratic system with fewer and fewer liberties, lots of stressful work, where life is ever more complicated, where nature is being destroyed, where joy has been replaced with pleasure, is hard! Unfortunately, these pleasures are often unhealthy and can become addictions. Fortunately, spiritual practice is very helpful.

Rarely does a day go by where I don’t confront my inner demons. I’ve thus investigated this subject extensively and for a long time. Before going into the heart of the matter, it is important to understand that there is no generalized, unique remedy for these problems. There are solutions that have proven effective, but no solution fits all. Some take a path of spiritual healing with their peers (AA, NA, and the other anonymous movements) and others through therapy, psychology or religion. Some manage without outside assistance and others need the support of many family members and friends. Many never make it and end up in the hospital, prison or coffin. Every being followed their own path, but in every case the remedy comes from the discovery and the acceptance of the Divine which lives within us. Those who recover are not always conscious that it’s this discovery (the Divine within) which is responsible for their recovery and this understanding is not required for it to work.

Thus, understanding how to recover from addiction is simple and yet very complex. It’s important to look at this together, because the liberation of our bad habits is a victory which illuminates us all. To follow one’s enlightened path helps us all to walk in joy, love, peace and healing of the earth.

I shall be a few days writing about this as I need time think about what can be most helpful for my readers. As we say, one day at a time.

The first thing I think we need to comprehend is that the desire that leads us to addictions is not evil in itself. It’s the context, this formatted and artificial technocratic lifestyle that creates a devious path for desire that complicates the matter. Desire is very often pure energy which emanates from the innate potential for our development which we need to manifest and develop. When confronted with a controlling and repressive technocratic system the healthy expression of this potential is sometimes misleading into activities that lower our vital energy.

In our modern technocratic society humans are conditioned and programmed to exhibit pre-established behaviour which makes a person a tool of the system. This behaviour corresponds to stereotypes whose purpose is to enslave humans. It does so by decreasing their vital energies so that they cannot reflect, understand truth and thus attain spiritual sovereignty and freedom. Thus, the huge majority of human beings today are dependent and in service to the technocratic system. We almost all pay taxes.

This is very different from Indigenous communities where differences were welcomed and appreciated and people were free of all need to pay royalty or governments for the right to be alive. In these modern times those who are incapable of conforming to the increasingly complicated ways of technocratic bureaucracy often find themselves rejected and pushed into prisons, psychiatric asylums, ghettos, homeless on the street and abandoned by all. In such a context, it’s perceived as dangerous to express our potential. The reality is that we are all special, unique individuals, and our innate wisdom potential leads us to our specific talents that will automatically differentiate us from others, which is a good thing. Thus, when this vital energy rises in us, as it very often goes against stereotypes established by the technocratic society, it can appear as dangerous. We are fearful of differentiating ourselves from others even if this sentiment is very often below our conscious thoughts. Thus, we might seek to stop the manifestation of this potential with an activity that lowers our vital energy. This has the effect of blocking the desire to manifest our potential that’s seeking to express itself. Thus, the impulse to express and develop our unique potential and talents disappears for a time and the fear of becoming different from others and thus the object of the judging, cruel and harassing attitudes that people who are formatted by the technocratic system will automatically wield towards people who are different. We have all received the programming which incites us to bully those who don’t conform to the system. Even children in elementary schools will demonstrate this conditioning.

All activities lowering our vital energy can be used to block the energies that seek to manifest our unique talents and potential. Having too much to eat, drinking alcohol, gambling when we know we will invariably be losing money, smoking tobacco or other substances in a recreational mode, working too hard, etc. In time these activities can become addictions. The body will become used to this way and will automatically signal these activities as a way of releasing the energy that’s building up within.

We suffer many emotional traumas in today’s technocratic world. Families hardly spend any meaningful time together as often children spend most of their time in schools that are not built to inspire joy and play and parents have to work jobs that are not always what they like to do. The world is hard, justice is blind, and the system uses bureaucratic administrations, police and armies to enforce its edicts. Thus, we have been subjected to many inhumane experiences that have choked our emotional bodies. Addictions can be used to mask the pain coming from these unresolved issues. There is always energy within that will want to bring us healing yet these energies also differentiates us from others. As an example, who welcomes a person starting to cry and wanting solace from other workers in the workplace or at school? Expressing emotion is the best way to find healing of traumatic experiences yet this is not welcome in our technocratic societies.

To favour the transformation of these harmful habits, we can work directly on a biochemical level with transformational energy. This can be accomplished with a small piece of amethyst that has been purified and programmed according to our Indigenous crystal healing techniques. When we feel the desire to indulge in our harmful activities, we put the amethyst under the tongue and direct the rising potential which has become an addition into another more beneficial activity. Both are necessary: the will and the effort to change the direction our desire has habitually taken and the programmed stone. We keep the small piece of amethyst under the tongue the time it takes to transform this desire and channel it in another activity. In this way we will develop a beneficial expression of our talents and potential.

What is useful here is understanding that the energy of desire is not bad in itself. It’s the habits that get ingrained when we redirect our arising developments assets to activities which decrease vital energy that become in time harmful. When repeating often these become habits and then addictions which can be fatal but which can be transformed. If we understand this dynamic and seek to channel the energy of desire into activities which will allow us to develop our unique gifts and talents, addictions will no longer be needed.

Emotional addictions are doubtless some of the strongest and most painful addictions especially when the object of our addiction leaves us. Often seen is transposing this attachment to pets as relationships with humans nowadays are often too complicated to be healthy. Then when the pet dies there is another emotional crisis. It’s easy to believe that our happiness depends on others that love and support in our lives have to come from the people around us. In nature, in indigenous communities living naturally, people are very close to each other, spend lots of time together and demonstrate lots of affection to each other. In our technocratic society touching others is often prohibited. People suffer from emotional addiction for different reasons, notably because our basic emotional needs are not met in the technocratic civilization. Individuals in the system often lack emotional equilibrium. They don’t have the opportunities to express their emotions in a healthy way and often don’t have non-judgmental people they can confide in. Another of the reasons this situation is so critical today in because people ignore who they really are and what is their reason for being, their mission in life. They often have very few guidelines, healthy role models and very few references to gauge their search for meaning. It’s actually incredible that those whom people look up to are actors pretending to be someone else! So, this emotional vacuum often gets filled by activities that lead to emotional dependencies and addiction to people who are not those we should be living with.

Alcoholism, narcotics, emotional and sexual dependencies, gambling and the many other addictions seen in our modern societies are “diseases of the soul”. The progression of these diseases can be interrupted and rehabilitation and healing can be found in a spiritual program known the world over. These 12 step programs are known as the Anonymous Programs. The best know is AA, Alcoholics Anonymous. These 12 steps and the help and support offered by others who have found sobriety in the program can help transform the programming and conditioning that addictions have imprinted on the soul, physiology and psyche. Thus, a wonderful solution to these addiction problems was crafted by those who were addicted and found healing. This spiritual program that was first created by alcoholics and called AA, in time created other similar movements that follow the same twelve steps: Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, etc. One of my Elders of the Mohawk nation is a member of these movements and was a long-time director of a rehabilitation center for First Nations battling against addictions. He stated that this 12-step program could be adapted to all religions of the world as it advocates a universal, spiritual way of life. Anonymous circles are very popular amongst First Nations. The anonymous movements have helped countless people transform their dependencies and addictions into a way of life that has meaning and is productive. They are known the world over, are free of charge and are not dependent on any organizations other than those sponsored by other rehabilitated addicts.

The most dangerous and life-threatening addiction which affects us all is the addiction to technology. The dependency on technology is destroying all life on earth at an ever-increasing rate. It’s going to take many generations to heal as our bodies and minds have degenerated. Our dependency on mechanical and electronic tools has replaced the natural ways we used to do things and the muscles and abilities we once had, have dwindled to the point of disappearing. This has been proven by experts in many fields of scientific research. A very simple example is the great number of handicaps that afflict modern man in our technocratic societies. These deformities are also manifest in our emotional, mental and spiritual bodies. We have lost the knowledge and physical abilities needed to live within nature. At this point in time, in front of the extreme crisis we are being faced with, only a very sincere and profound will to call upon the divine nature of man can help us reestablish a healthy way of life. And it will take generations. The path towards this healing is described in this article.

For our spiritual search to be fruitful, it’s very important to not base our values on teachings coming from a person who places themselves above others, like a pope, a priest, an imam, a rabbi, a guru, or from a religion. Only innate wisdom and knowledge which comes from experiencing firsthand the Divine at work within us and the world around us can actuate the truth of who we are and what our relationship to planet earth and nature should be. This knowledge and wisdom are within us. It’s constantly being expressed and visible in nature. We need to relearn how to read the great book of nature.

This is why shamanism and the traditional wisdom carried by Elders of all indigenous cultures are so important today. One of my elders used to say: “I only listen to teachings that teach me how to plant corn.”  What this meant was that we should only listen to teachings that could be put into practice in everyday life. The teachings we receive have to produce good fruit. We cannot waste time with beautiful words that blind and hypnotize us. The time is over when we could believe everything our religious figures would say and depend on them for our spiritual evolution.

The time has come to reaffirm our spiritual sovereignty. The time has come to take responsibility for our existence on planet earth. If we have the most beautiful ceremonies, the most inspiring teachings and yet are not better for it, in better health because of it, if nature is not benefited by our experiencing those teachings and ceremonies, if we cannot apply them in our everyday lives, then they are not adapted to our needs. In time these teachings, ceremonies and religions will hide the true path of life that is ours to walk upon.

Indeed, my experience with addictions has shown me that only by following my true path in life, stemming from my innate wisdom, the Divine within, can I release the need for outer substances or people to give me happiness. The anonymous movements call it our Superior Power, psychology gives it other names and religions still other names. What’s important to understand is that the truth frees us and that the truth is within us, in our hearts, in our intimate relationship with the Divine which expresses itself ceaselessly in all of creation. First Nations and Indigenous Nations worldwide who live within nature with very little technology have learnt to recognize the manifestation of this power in places and special people. It’s the firsthand experience of the Divine, the awe of seeing and experiencing the miracles of Divine will in the world which is the basis of the spiritual practices of Indigenous people. How to do that within our technocratic civilization can be learnt and reactivated today. But that is a whole other discussion.

 

 

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