In my work with individual clients and also
with groups, one of the positive side-effects
that appears quite frequently is that people
begin to trust themselves more than they did
previously. Perhaps a better way of putting
it is that they start to rediscover the trust
that they once had but had somehow lost, often
without realizing it.
It seems to me that trust is closely related
to instinct, which means it is a bodily kind
of knowing that is largely inherent. This
inbuilt awareness of what is healthy and good
for us, as well as what is detrimental, can
either be reinforced or undermined by our
life experiences and the conditioning we
receive from those around us.
Unfortunately, all too often, as youngsters
we learn very quickly that someone else knows
better than we do, and a pattern is
established that continues long into adulthood.
When I first suggest to a person that they
simply trust the image that appears in their
mind, or the feeling sensation that arises in
their
body, they often look at me as if I'm mad. It
has become almost a foreign idea to us that
we should trust our own, self-generated,
internal experience. We would sooner have
someone else tell us what is valuable and
what is not, and even what is real and what
is not.
On a collective as well as an individual
basis, we have forsaken our internal
authority, and put our faith in experts,
institutions and other external forms. Only
after we have suffered the consequences do we
realize the price we have paid for handing
over our authority in this way, and then we
must begin the difficult task of reclaiming it.
In modern society, an excessive amount of
faith is given to the authorities in science
and in medicine, and we consent to all kinds
of harmful practices and procedures because
those who are supposed to know these things
have told us it is safe to do so.
Not only that, we have been brainwashed into
believing that the 'real' world consists only
of that which is reasonable, rational,
objective and tangible. Anything else is
dismissed as 'superstition' or 'just your
imagination', as if it were something of no
consequence. We forget to our peril that our
inner experience is ultimately the
most valuable thing we possess.
Carl Jung told a sad tale of what happens
when a group of people begin to deny their
inner experience. When he visited the Elgonyi
tribe in central Africa in 1925, he asked the
laibon, the medicine man, about his
dreams. With tears in his eyes, the old man
told how the laibons used to receive
all the important knowledge for the tribe
from their dreams, but now these dreams were
no longer needed because the English knew
everything! In that single statement, Jung
saw the disintegration of an entire society.
Societies, just like individuals and smaller
communities, need meaningful dreams and
visions to sustain and guide them. But the
crucial factor in each case, is that they
must come from within, and their true worth
must be honoured and recognized.
