Monday Musings: Superstitious Nonsense and... Mass Hysteria?

We human beings are a weird bunch. Or, at the very least, we are a wildly inconsistent bunch.

Mrs. Denmarkguy works quite a bit in the area of metaphysics as part of her counseling practice, and a lot of people might insist that what she delves into would be "a bunch of superstitious nonsense!"

Regardless, what she does tends to be very helpful to her clients, who often make mental health breakthrough during her sessions that they were unable to make during months and even years of more conventional psychotherapy.

But this is not a post to sing my wife's praises, but rather to examine our strange human value system.

It's a pretty safe bet that a fair number of the people who'd label her metaphysical stylings as "superstitious nonsense" will journey to a large building this coming Sunday to worship and sing the praises of an invisible being in the heavens whom nobody's ever seen, but lots of people will swear on their lives is "real."

Once again, it is not the purpose of this post to criticize anyone's belief systems... I'm simply illustrating how seemingly inconsistent we humans can be. I'm speaking from the perspective of an alien visitor from another galaxy who sees us for the first time.

Seems to be precisely the sort of thing that gives rise to so much of our unrest and disagreements.

People often believe what they want to be true more strongly than what actually IS true. Of course, we must be careful with the word "true" and limit it to describing tangible facts.

What is it that we want to be true?

Of course, that's a question with answers that vary considerably from person to person. With a bit of deeper examination, we can often discover that what people want to be true — regardless of whether or not it really is — tends to be something that makes them feel less small and alone in the world.

Naturally, that's a broad generalization...

On the surface a lot of Mrs. Denmarkguy's clients want to have the causes of their hardships and suffering to be something outside themselves; something they had no control or influence over... and thus don't have to be accountable for.

Much of the time, the therapeutic process becomes about creating a "safe space" in which they can actually admit their own culpabilities in an environment where they feel heard, but not judged for their foibles and shortcomings. And when I say "safe space," I don't mean in that strange "woke" sense of the word!

A lot of people claim that they are comfortable being "completely open and honest" about their feelings; their shortcomings; their opinions... but most of us actually have pretty strong "filters" in place, most of them relating to not wanting to be judged harshly for who we are. Hence our tendency to reach for God, or blaming our parents or other things outside ourselves.

We tend to have "agendas," even when we claim to not have agendas. Those agendas are often quite simple... and revolve around picking ways to not look at the things that are really troubling us by substituting in some other "theory" for why things are the way they are. Looking directly at our own truth can often be a soul-destroying experience.

Almost 35 years of fairly rigorous "self-enquiry" has been very helpful — at least for me — in reaching a point where I no longer seek external reasons for the outcomes of internal choices.

It's a practice I started as a result — ironically — of not being able to find a therapist I truly felt comfortable enough with that I could break through aforesaid "filters."

So what does this have to do with "mass hysteria?"

Well, we humans do seem to have a knack for collectively seek external scapegoats for personal idiosyncrasies we'd rather not cop to on a personal level... hence movements like Q-Anon, Antifa and others become possible... we push our fears of the unknown outwards, collectively, rather than objectively examining where they originate inside ourselves.

Can't say as how I blame anyone... life in 2023 is stressful, and we're usually pressed for both time and brainspace! Jumping on — and riding — some "me too bandwagon" is a lot easier than authentically sitting in our internal shit and sorting it out.

I don't claim to have any easy answers, by the way... I'm just thinking out loud!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2023-05-09 00:26 PST
0824/2079