“Come to the edge, he said.
They said, We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came. He pushed them.
They flew.”
Christopher Logue
Ok so where am I going with this? I just thought I'd pass on a couple of personal life experiences which even though small had a big effect on me in allowing me to take greater control of my own mind and emotions.
1/
When it comes to food we all have our loves and hates. Some of these can change as we get older while others remain deeply entrenched in our psyche. One thing I absolutely loathed from the get go was mushroom soup. It was complete anathema to me, I could barely even hold it in my mouth to rush to the sink to spit it out. Smell, taste, texture – all of it would make me balk and wretch (yes ME! The guy whose eaten everything from snails to grasshoppers to pigs brains, the same guy who eats raw meat and still takes nips of neat Tabasco out of the bottle when no one's looking!).
Back in around 1984 when I was twelve I became ill. I remember being stuck in bed for a fortnight feeling God awful and self sorry. Anyway whilst lying there I was reading the latest Spidey comic, a simple storyline – Peter Parker on an assignment ends up being hunted in the wilderness by a deranged millionaire (yes even in the comic they make reference to ‘The Most Dangerous Game’). Peter keeps his secret identity and eventually wins the day, but in the process goes through merry hell and gets pretty banged up and half froze. The last scene is when he is now safe, receiving help, covered with a blanket and imbibing hot nourishing soup. Due to the state I was in I instantly related to the way he was feeling, a common kinship was struck and now I really wanted some hot soup which I requested when my mum checked in on me.
Yep you guessed it all we had in was mushroom soup. Fighting down my initial reaction I said that would be fine – I just really wanted to eat soup alongside this fellow sufferer who had triumphed adversity (don't underestimate the power of an uplifting story especially on a child's imagination).
I ate the lot with great relish and didn't even wince once. Something was different, something had changed . . . and it wasn't the soup!
Fast forward about a decade later and I find myself reading an old battered copy of ‘The Occult' by Collin Wilson. In one chapter he covers the Victorian magicians of the Order of the Golden Dawn who explored the magical systems of both East and West. One simple mind exercise they would practice was ‘Reversal’. You would tell yourself you liked a food you usually found distasteful and would also take a food you liked and convince yourself you hated it – and it would be so! It was a small and simple way to take greater control of your own mind (any psychologist will tell this is a very healthy attitude to take), a first step into greater things which would later require powerful acts of will.
Now for some this food exercise may seem childishly easy, but for many it is not. Many people are resolutely closed minded and have already decided what they do and do not like and will not budge, for to do so would undermine their whole identity of (perceived) self and so would never attempt this harmless exercise or would merely pay it lip service so they can claim it doesn't work. A lot of fuss over nothing. Here there is nothing to lose and everything to gain, greater will power, sense of achievement, true sense of self, a small simple act to open up the doors in your own mind that lets you tap further into your true potential.
To do it is remarkably simple. There is no ritual or anything. You just tell yourself convincingly there and then and just do it. Believe your own words, be truthful and forthright and it is done in an instant. Tap into your Yi energy and use your willpower, which we all have in abundance. Prove to yourself just how much inner strength you have.
As I've said in class ‘you can only heal people who want to be healed’. I know that sounds like such an obvious thing to say but it's absolutely true, so many people cling onto their illness because it's the only thing they have to define who they are and are actually terrified to let it go. I've met a few over the years and there's absolutely nothing you can do for them. The change must come from the self, you must genuinely want it for yourself or you remain stuck, as so many are happy to do so.
As for me I convinced myself I liked cauliflower, yet another childhood bugbear. I figured if I could be turned around on mushroom soup (albeit with a catalyst) why not? So I sat down one day with this formally maligned vegetable and started the process of convincing myself that I now loved the smell, texture, taste etc. A few seconds in and my mouth was actually watering, I ate it, I enjoyed it and I've never looked back. I know, I know, not exactly ground breaking, but you do gain a sense of empowerment and potential ‘if I can do this what else can I accomplish?’.
Bear in mind that this is not the same as holding your nose and swallowing it down fast, you have to now enjoy something that mere seconds ago repulsed you. Give it a go, out of sheer curiosity if nothing else.
2/
Growing up on a farm and game shoots I was taught trapping from an early age, during my own researches over the years I came across a monkey trap used in S.E. Asia. Essentially it is simply an anchored coconut with a small hole in one end which is baited with sweets. The concept is simple – the monkey catches itself! It squeezes its hand through the hole, grabs a fist full of sweets thereby increasing its hand size so it can't pull it out, or rather it could if it would just let go of the sweets, they don't and the hunters catch them later.
All of which put me in an allegorical state of mind. As humans we haven't really swung very far from the tree, we do exactly the same thing all the time, at least metaphorically speaking.
We constantly trap ourselves in our own emotions, remaining there for years, literally YEARS without ever letting go, even if they cause us pain (yes me also, though to a much lesser extent these days – keep reading).
As we go through life we find ourselves on the receiving end of injustice, oppression and a whole plethora of hurtful acts, this creates a great deal of emotional baggage. We become lost in negative thoughts often becoming despondent and holding negative resentments, worse still it may evolve into an habitual cycle which we keep returning to over and over again. We need to get free.
Now as before this is brutally simple to accomplish. You simply make the decision, will it and accept it and there's no reason why not. Give your life a chance to progress, go forward, evolve and change for the better. Show yourself a little kindness and allow your emotions to flow freely. When you feel ready reflect a little on past events that have upset you and ask yourself are you justified in holding onto resentment? Will it only serve to hold you back? What is to be achieved by allowing it to remain? Will it benefit you? If not LET IT GO!
Let go of any feelings of resentment or frustration, put behind you everything and anyone that has ever held you back or made you sad. Let go of them and their attempts to restrict your liberty and individuality, and tell yourself that you are a free spirit walking your own path (let go of those goddam sweets!).
The world being what it is this is a practice you will have to revisit from time to time, just hold onto your intention to let go of suffering and benefit yourself.
Now it's a free world, so if you want to spend the rest of your life with your hand stuck inside a metaphorical coconut you can, but please bear in mind that the clock never stops ticking, the hunter is coming back to check his trap and woe betide any little monkey that failed to let go . . . So sooner's always better than later! So there you go, small inconsequential things that have the potential to lead to much greater things - a much greater control of the will could lead to a greater control of the emotions which could even lead to a letting go of the ego, next stop spiritual awakening.
It reminds me of this thirteenth century proverb.
FOR THE WANT OF A NAIL
For the want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For the want of shoe the horse was lost.
For the want of a horse the rider was lost.
For the want of a rider the message was lost.
For the want of a message the battle was lost.
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Make it happen and change your world. Enough monkey business, my spider sense is tingling, gotta go!
Mathew
SIDE NOTE
For anyone who hasn't read the short story ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ it can be found free online under its original title ‘The Hounds Of Zaroff' by Richard Connell (1924). At the time of writing the 1932 film adapted from the book can be found free on YouTube – it stars Leslie Banks who came from just down the road in West Derby, the scar on his face which he alludes to a hunting accident in the storyline isn't make up he picked it up fighting in the trenches during World War One.
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