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Sunday 28 December 2008

The sound of silence


Earlier today, with nothing better to do, I picked up my copy of Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth", and began to read, at first at random and then leafing through the index for points of interest. This led to me to the section on the pain body and its need to feed on others pain in order to replenish itself.

For the benefit of those who have not read this work, and are unfamiliar with Tolle's work, the pain body is described (page 144-145) as "a semi autonomous energy-form that lives within most human beings, an entity made up of emotion". Tolle goes on to say, "It has its own primitive intelligence, not unlike a cunning animal, and its intelligence is directed primarily at survival. Like all life-forms, it periodically needs to feed - to take in new energy - and the food it requires to replenish itself consists of energy that is compatible with its own, which is to say, energy that vibrates at a similar frequency. Any emotionally painful experience can be used as food by the pain body. That's why it thrives on negative thinking as well as drama in relationships. The pain body is an addiction to unhappiness".

This got me to thinking about the effect that the media and negative news reporting has on our pain bodies. I once heard Robert Holden, founder of the first laughter clinic in the UK comment that journalism was the most depressing occupation, since reporters spend most of their time looking for bad news. It is not just newspapers that feed the pain body, but any form of violence. It is one of life's mysteries why so many humans pay millions and millions of pounds to watch other humans kill and inflict pain on each other in the guise of entertainment.

In days gone by this 'entertainment' took place inside the Gladiatorial arena, and in modern times, within the Boxing Ring. It also though takes place on the big screen, and increasingly the smaller one, through television and video games.

The reason these films and games attract such large audiences is because they help feed the pain body's addiction to more pain, providing it with food and sustenance. Such material is written and conceived by pain bodies, as well as watched, and is becoming increasingly more violent and graphic, with a (as yet unproven) resultant increase in violent crimes.

This also got me thinking about the effect of working in an environment that sells these games, or the consoles on which they are played, or even stores that have televisions and loud music switched permanently on, which seems to be increasingly the norm.

Customers who play these games to excess, or wish to buy these consoles, are feeding not just their own addiction, but also their pain bodies. They are likely to have extremely dense and active pain bodies and are not nice people to be around. The staff who work in these outlets pick up the vibrations from these pain bodies on a very subtle level, in some cases, triggering their own pain bodies and making what must already be a stressful job even more so.

It is the same with loud music, which contrary to popular opinion, the majority of shoppers (aged 30 plus at least anyway, and don't forget that this age group do form the majority of our population) do not like. It may work in clothes shop that cater for the young, but not in supermarkets or other outlets. Research shows that where uptempo, motivational music is played, staff work faster and are more productive, but this constant noise bombardment also means that they are unable to switch off and hear themselves think.

Perhaps this is the whole idea, for this constant bombardment of external noise means that they are unable to listen to the voice within. Like the incessant music that is designed to blot this out, the voice within, which is part of the pain body, can quite literally lead us to distraction. The over active mind, so Tolle says, is the most serious illness affecting our planet.

It is ironic that those with the densest pain bodies also have the greatest potential for growth. The voice within can also set us free, when we reach the point when we can no longer live with our own unhappiness. By covering this voice up with external forms of noise, we ensure that we never reach that point, and remain trapped in the illusion that is our mind, unable to think or feel for ourselves and totally subservient to those what we serve.

The right to silence is one we must fight for at all costs, for it is also a fight to preserve our sanity and heal the world.

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