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Psychology
The Fifth Column & The Hungry Ghost
The two biggest foes of self-acceptance are The 5th Column and The Hungry Ghost. The Fifth Column is the saboteur within. The Hungry Ghost makes us feel that we’re “never enough”.
Developing self-acceptance doesn’t mean it’s OK to not have a conscience or goals. The right dose of perceiving ourselves as “having done a bad thing” or “not doing enough” is key to health.
But we must guard against giving The 5th Column and The Hungry Ghost too much power.
The 5th Column’s lethal weapons:
Sow dissension within. Ever catch yourself saying “I hate myself’ or “you idiot”? That means your energy can’t flow. A chunk of you is locked against another chunk like a pair of battling sumo wrestlers. You can’t live at full strength when some part of you is paralyzed.
Defend and deny. When we reject some part of ourselves we waste energy defending or denying that part we feel ashamed of or hate. To use a Star Trek analogy, when the shields are up the phasers can’t fire at full power. When you make peace with that “monstrous” part of you, you access so much more of power.
Suppress. Sealing off, suppressing or tamping down feelings sucks up a lot of life force also. Feelings need to be felt! Suppression just ossifies our feelings in our hearts, which get heavier and heavier. The psychic burden weighs us down, and more effort is needed to overcome the drag.
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