There is a specific inner conflict in every person, between the positive and negative aspects of personality or between “good and evil.” This conflict is present in the majority of people and is even more prominent in those who are positively oriented than in those who consciously undertake evil acts. Those who have surrendered to their destructive inner impulses and have built up a negative worldview and behavior system do not seem to have this conflict since they identify with the negative aspects of their own being and relegate the positive aspects deep into the subconscious mind. They usually do this because of traumas they have gone through, where they decided to use negative means to realize their goals. There are also people who are actually born without a conscience and don’t have even the most elementary emotional intelligence. We usually call these people psychopaths, and some studies point out that approximately four percent of the population consists of psychopaths[1]. But these people belong to an extreme group of the mentally ill, although they appear quite “normal”, or even healthy. Psychopathy can hardly be cured because it seems that it has something to do with genetics, although even genetic disorders are nowadays treatable. The problem is that psychopaths don’t think there’s anything wrong with them, so they rarely come for treatment.
Apart from the mentally ill, humans generally do have a conscience and know very well what is wrong and what is right. But how do they control their negative characteristics and urges? Mostly by suppression. And if they suppress they also project, so others are bad, not them. On the other hand, if some of their negative traits fit within the boundaries of socially acceptable behavior, they will act them out. But that which is socially acceptable doesn’t have to be ethical or right, so hiding behind social acceptability is just an excuse for laziness and conformity. Some people believe that evil somehow balances good and accept the kind of philosophy where negativity has an equal role as positivity, as if it is “normal” to be just as bad as you are good. Others accept the view that good equals stupid, knowing very well what governs our society and how it is structured. The fact is that most people have neither the will nor strength to fight their negativity, and they justify it with a range of positive characteristics that they have. Some occasionally go to church to confess, just to be able to peacefully continue with their large or small-scale malice and vices because negative inner states and behavior have long since become a source of pleasure for them, which they simply cannot, and often do not wish to, resist.
Spiritually oriented people who actively practice some form of personal development methods also occasionally face extremely dark and destructive fragments of their personality, whether they want to or not. But in order to overcome them, they often stick their heads into the sand and pretend that their negative traits do not exist. Some keep themselves on a tight leash and adopt an ascetic way of life, while others try to “think positive” and act very “enlightened,” believing that evil will bypass them in that way. Some spiritual people completely neglect themselves and their personal needs, even when it is obvious that they are not ready for such a kind of freedom. Some devote themselves to charity and humanitarian work in an attempt to root out their own evil, sacrificing some of their own needs in order to help others. Typical for all these models is the resistance to evil or the fear of evil. But as soon as there is resistance or fear, it means that evil is still within us, so resisting won’t help. The purification system I will present later on enables us to dissolve these influences in a manner far more elegant than these numerous forms of self-torture.
Contrary to the widespread belief that only villains are connected to evil, subtle connections with what is known as lower astral realms, or the negative aspects of the collective unconscious, are present in the majority of people. Even those who are spiritually oriented are full of lower astral connections, yet most spiritual practitioners nowadays simply don’t know that this subtle level of inner impurity exists at all. Some of them might be familiar with this concept but often create a belief system in which they are something special and under some exclusive form of God’s protection and mercy. They think that their spiritual orientation itself proves their purity from lower astral connections, but in most cases, the truth is exactly the opposite. With their over-emphasized and often snobbish aspiration to spirituality as something especially elevated, they actually mask the existence of negativity within them and suppress it to the darkest corners of their subconscious mind. But as long as we live on this planet, we are definitely vulnerable to lower astral influences. At the end of the day, purifying inherent evil is one of the main reasons that the majority of souls incarnate as humans.
Examples of saints from various traditions show how deep and subtle connections with evil can be. In his attempt to test his inner strength immediately prior to his mission, Jesus allegedly spent forty days in the desert fighting Satan, and just before his enlightenment, Buddha had to face Mara, the “Dark Lord.” More contemporary saints have also frequently encountered evil in themselves, sometimes in unexpected and dramatic ways. The famous Italian saint Gemma Galgani (1878-1903)[2] began having stigmata on her palms as a young nun at the age of nineteen. Immediately prior to these experiences, she would allegedly show signs of “demonic possession” and felt extremely sinful. What is the origin of such extreme sinfulness in a person who lived a chaste life in a Christian family and entered a monastery at the age of eighteen, completely devoting her life to God? This is only one of the many examples of saints who lived ascetic and “pure” lives and yet still found almost inexplicable negative drives in themselves. It seems that sources of “sin” are very deep and subtle and should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, many contemporary spiritual seekers, especially those of “New Age” orientation, often think that they don’t have to purify themselves from lower astral connections simply because they practice some currently modern method, wear clothes made from recycled materials, and eat raw food. By thinking this way, they easily fall prey to their inner weaknesses, which sooner or later divert them from the spiritual path.
The influence of the “reverse of Creation” is also present in the majority of people who live “regular” or secular lives. With some of them, the connections with lower astral worlds are very active, while in others, they are dormant. Apparently, “good” and “nice” people, who strictly control their behavior, will manifest them under the appropriate circumstances. This primarily regards our reactions to crises or unusual situations. For example, in a moment of failure, are we going to resort to negative means to accomplish our goal? If we find ourselves in a position of power, are we going to use it for general well-being or exclusively for personal wealth, manipulating others and acquiring as much earthly pleasure as possible? There is an old folklore belief, obviously based on experience, that “power corrupts” and that anyone who finds themselves in a position of power will inevitably misuse it, no matter how good that person was before. We all know that fame can spoil even the purest of us, that war draws out “the worst” in people, and that someone who was abused will inevitably become an abuser one day. For these reasons, we all sometimes ask ourselves why there is evil in man and where it comes from.
Apart from traumatic experiences and their psychological consequences, there are huge sources of negativity that reach quite far and deep. The conflict between good and evil is a universal one, manifesting in man on both the psychological and physical levels, but its source is always spiritual. This conflict is not present on Earth only; in a certain way, it comprises the cosmic dimension of the manifested universe (ours and extraterrestrial civilizations), together with the spirit world. All religions mention the negative aspects of non-material worlds and the existence of negative energy realms. Each has its own concept, name, and interpretation, but they generally describe one and the same territory. Myths and folk wisdom are just as full of stories about the worlds of “darkness” as religions are, and the conflict between good and evil is a component of almost every fairytale. However, in contrast to fairy tales and myths, which mainly use metaphors, many mystics have described the worlds of heaven and hell in detail, with almost scientific precision. Some of them were, in fact, scientists by their education and original profession, like Emanuel Swedenborg and Carl Gustav Jung, and some were artists, like Goethe, Dante, or Shakespeare, which endows them with additional credibility. A description of the negative aspects of the spirit world would, therefore, be clearer if we approached it from several different angles.
I am aware that this is very “shaky” ground. Many spiritual schools think that knowledge of the sources of evil should remain hidden or only available to true devotees so as to protect the common people from committing evil acts. Apart from the silence and mystification by religious and spiritual schools, science has opposed superstition and abstract spiritual models for a long time, claiming that the sources of negativity are exclusively personal and psychological and not recognizing evil as a force that can exist independently of the physical world or reality. However, the appearance of Carl Gustav Jung in contemporary psychology with his concept of the collective unconscious offered a model that could present the basis for the scientific explanation of this idea. Following Jung, many other scientists have recently appeared with their research and theories on the sources of evil. Among the most interesting are the psychiatrist M. Scott Peck with his book People of the Lie, Elaine Pagels (author of The Gnostic Gospels) with The Origin of Satan, or the American psychiatrist of Indian origin Shakuntala Modi, M.D., who provides a new perspective to contemporary psychiatry and the sources of psychiatric disorders in her book Remarkable Healings.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL OF THE SOURCES OF NEGATIVITY
In order to describe this elusive idea, I will start with the psychological model. For that purpose, I have adopted Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, the difference being that my interpretation will be supplemented with several new ideas. So, just as the individual unconscious of every person, apart from a range of positive and desirable functions, contains stored negative contents, the collective unconscious of the human race contains all the negative universal models that society wants to hide or suppress for some reason. We tend to personify the collective negative models, and these personifications will sound familiar to everyone. Goethe’s Faust, for example, doesn’t call on God’s help to realize his goals but makes a deal with the most famous negative figure of the collective unconscious, Mephistopheles or the Devil. As you will soon find out, everybody else does the same, provided there are appropriate conditions for it. From the psychological point of view, a connection to the negative archetypes of the collective unconscious will immediately follow a traumatic experience as a form of our ego’s reaction to the negative perception of the reality we find ourselves in. And, since the negative models arising from the collective unconscious generally stick to the negative models imprinted in the individual unconscious, this sows the seeds for all future disorders and unhealthy processes this person will suffer from, be they physical, psychological, or spiritual.
Here are three typical examples from my daily therapeutic practice. A woman was raped by her father, and we all know that rape may produce one of the worst traumas ever, especially if it was done by a parent. The traumatic model that this person built up through her experience was a frozen conglomerate of fear, rage, and hatred, together with attitudes that there is no love, that all men are chauvinist pigs, that life on this planet is revolting, and that any God who allows such things to happen either doesn’t exist or must be completely insane. Together with the avenger identity, the negative beliefs about God become a trigger for creating a lower astral connection. After this experience, the woman felt unstable, threatened, and completely unprotected, but the negative attitude toward God created resistance to the spiritual world as a possible source of protection and security. Traumatized persons search for any kind of protection, but as they have turned their back on God, someone else steps up to the stage, ready to provide all the “help” needed. This someone is the personified collective negative force which we, for lack of a more adequate and equally simple term, usually call the Devil. This force offered protection to the girl in the form of certain abilities (powers) and personality characteristics, which would enable her to protect herself from all similar unpleasant situations in the future.
Of course, the Devil didn’t physically materialize in front of her, offering earthly powers and pleasures. The whole thing took place within her psyche, where the subtle “soul trade” occurred. She rejected faith in positive principles such as universal love, tolerance, or understanding and accepted the power of sexual manipulation over the opposite sex, developing a magnetic attraction and eroticism that she (ab)used in order to realize all kinds of goals. These abilities are offered by the Devil and his kingdom, the lower astral world, so she established a subtle connection with such energy sources and used this energy for negative activities. However, exchange is a two-way process, and the Devil always asks for something in return. Therefore she denounced some aspects of her soul, those which would clash with the above-mentioned negative characteristics and abilities. She gave up her sensitivity and became cold-hearted and emotionless, entering sexual relationships without an ounce of true feeling. She was unable to open up emotionally, even when she wanted to because she had given up the part of her soul that would enable her to do so. For her, sex became a weapon of revenge on the opposite sex, and human relationships became an arena for manifesting personal power, a battlefield for the domination of one person over another.
Later on, such persons become motivated by status and personal ambition, trying to seduce someone successful in order to acquire money and reputation to feed their wounded ego. They go astray and violate the law of karma in every possible way, thinking that they can manipulate their path to success and happiness. But every action has a corresponding reaction, so in the long run, they inevitably lose and have to redeem for their actions. Fortunately, my client was able to sense the existence of such tendencies in her on time and managed to step back from them and seek help. In this way, she avoided a destructive course of events and saved herself from the immense suffering that would arise from the negative actions she would have done in the meantime.
The person from my next example was a young man with a harmonious family life who began working on his excessive aggression, which would occasionally appear often during totally banal situations. The trigger for an outburst of aggression would be a trifle, such as other people’s behavior in traffic, bad waiter service, a rude clerk at the post office, and so on. This person was aware of his overreacting, yet in every subsequent situation, he would respond in the same way; he simply couldn’t resist his inner urge. Having dissolved the symptoms of the problem, he worked on a range of traumatic experiences from his current life and purified his relationship with his aggressive father, but also dissolved a strong victim identification caused by his mother’s passive endurance of his father’s domination. Then he finally encountered a past life where an enemy army entered a village where he lived as a seven-year-old boy and killed everyone except him because he managed to take shelter beneath the house. Once the massacre was over, the boy came out of his shelter and suffered a shock. It is needless to mention the negative emotions and conclusions here. The traumatic experience was so strong that it was immediately followed by a connection to the lower astral world. The boy connected himself energetically to a negative source of power that gave him almost super-human strength and an urge for aggressive behavior with anyone who presented even the slightest threat to his personality. He also acquired the ability to kill a man without feeling a thing and eventually became a mad avenger who was constantly at war with the rest of the world. This model is subtly felt even now when this person is far from his earlier identity and is an advanced spiritual practitioner.
The third person was a young woman with chronic love problems. Whenever she built up a quality partnership, the relationship would somehow fall apart. It seemed that this was not her fault, and very often, it happened for quite strange reasons. Having dissolved several psychological levels of causes, this woman encountered a certain energy form in her aura, which seemed to be the result of an occult attack, or “spell,” aimed at making her “unlucky in love.” Further examination showed that the occult attack was produced by her jealous neighbor, a single mother who couldn’t stand the fact that this woman could start relationships with the opposite sex easily while no one showed interest in her or her daughter. Some professional “spell removers” would end their job by dissolving the energetic consequences of such an attack, but this woman’s goal was to discover what made her susceptible to it, that is, what there was inside her that attracted this influence.
She continued searching for deeper causes and encountered a past life in which she had a strong love trauma. She fell in love with a young man from a higher class, and their relationship bloomed for a while. But once his family discovered that their son intended to marry an “ordinary peasant,” they managed to force him to leave her. This act completely shattered the young girl, who had just come out of puberty and fallen in love for the first time. Apart from the break-up, she also experienced the mocking of her fellow villagers who had been telling her that the relationship was doomed to finish this way from the very start. Since a traumatized person usually doesn’t behave in a rational or well-thought-out way, this girl went to see the local witch in order to ease her emotional suffering. The witch saw a candidate for her successor in the girl and promised to help if she became her assistant, offering to pass on all her knowledge and abilities to the girl. But since she owed her powers to lower astral connections, the witch initiated the girl in her skill through a series of magic rituals and connected her to negative energy sources of power. In this way, the girl acquired, among other things, the ability of negative occult influence on others. In exchange for money, she offered persons with love problems spells that would make the rogue partner come back. Some clients were unsatisfied with their relationships and ordered spells that would make their partners leave or “disappear,” regardless of the way. It is, therefore, no wonder that pursuant to the law of karma, this person had love problems in her current lifetime with seemingly invisible causes.
These examples show that lower astral connections created after traumatic experiences (either in the current or past life) manifest as subtle urges for immoral or excessive behavior or as strange and unwanted outer influences over which we seem to have little or no control. Even though lower astral influences do not necessarily manifest in criminal or promiscuous behavior, such behavior certainly indicates the existence of these connections. Only when active do they directly influence our daily reactions and activities, so we tend to identify with their negative characteristics and consciously commit negative acts, justifying them in various ways. However, if they are suppressed in the subconscious but still present, lower astral connections can be manifested in a far subtler manner. While a criminal may express them through a whole range of destructive activities such as stealing, blackmail, or violence, in spiritually oriented people, the existence of lower astral connections will be indicated, for example, by the inability to quit smoking or drinking coffee, to stop gossiping or judging others. In Croatia, there is even a saying that small children should not drink coffee because if they do, they will “grow a tail.” That is, connections with lower astral realms sometimes actually look exactly like tails…
Although not always active, lower astral connections are present in the majority of people. They are most often dormant and suppressed in the subconscious, but even there, they produce problems that cannot always be solved easily. People who are influenced by this kind of negativity can attempt to change and improve themselves but are simply not able to, at least not at the speed they would like. They often justify their problems with “hard destiny” or “bad karma” and consider the goals taught by spiritual schools as unattainable. All people who fear evil are under the influence of the lower astral, having lots of subtle energetic connections with that sphere, although usually dormant. They want to “see no evil, hear no evil,” which essentially makes them no better than criminals because, with their noninterference, they tacitly approve and support the evildoers. This is why the only way to make a quality breakthrough through spiritual impurities is to consciously confront them and dissolve them using adequate methodology.
So, lower astral connections inherited from past lives can become active when triggered by some traumatic experience or if illuminated by higher consciousness and spiritual energies. What happens if we create or activate these connections through trauma is well known – we usually follow some kind of destructive life path. But let’s analyze what happens when spiritual aspirants activate them through meditation and advanced levels of integration.
Mana Personality
Lower astral connections that haven’t been thoroughly purified, not only in the psychological or energetic sense but also through changes in behavior and lifestyle, will present the source of three possible forms of temptation for the spiritually orientated person – obsession with power (status), money, or sex. These obsessions can turn a spiritual aspirant into what Jung called mana personality. He defined the mana personality as an identity assumed by persons going through a phase of development that follows after they have become whole or “individuated.” Jung claims that not even being whole on the individual level automatically results in complete balance. Wholeness establishes mental health, but once this has been achieved, the next goal is going to be spiritual health. If someone wishes to develop further in the direction of creative self-realization, they have to undergo the process of purifying their bonds and identifications with the negative aspects of the collective unconscious so that the goal of spiritual wholeness can follow. A whole person is, therefore, a powerful person (mana means power), but the question is, what will these people do with their newly gained power? Having completed individuation, they will inevitably face very subtle temptations since, as Jung says, the mana personality is an almost inevitable phase of personal development, which has both positive and negative aspects.
At first sight, the abuse of power by the mana personality doesn’t necessarily appear as abuse. The mana person can simply be fond of money, power, or sex within socially acceptable boundaries. But since our society is by all indicators sick and imbalanced, socially acceptable boundaries are one thing, and spiritually acceptable ones are quite a different thing. Therefore the people who go through the mana personality phase and become “spiritual teachers” will enjoy the advantages of their inner achievements and outer status by embodying certain archetypes, such as the wizard, magician, hero, master, or saint. Others, usually their students, idolize them, seeing their own separate and nonintegrated personality aspects in them, but are not aware of this, so their “teacher” has a certain power over them. Spiritual teachers should use their authority to positively influence students, transfer knowledge to them, to be able to push them into crisis and guide them through it. However, many spiritual teachers allow themselves more than what their role strictly defines.
Some, for instance, enter sexual relationships with their students and often justify it for various reasons. Mana personalities are often unable to control their sexuality, so they use their power to satisfy their appetites. Why not, some people would say, thinking that anyone would do the same in their situation. The answer is – because of promiscuity. Although it may seem alluring and attractive, promiscuity is not energetically and spiritually acceptable. It would be okay to find a partner in a student, but to have sex with most disciples of the opposite gender would inevitably destroy the very spirituality within that group or system. On the other hand, some individuals who go through the mana personality phase attempt to control their suddenly emerged libido by force and resort to celibacy. However, celibacy is just another extreme, so it cannot be an efficient means to control our sexuality. Neither excess nor restriction is the sign of true freedom; only balance is. To be really free means that you can afford to engage in an activity without being afraid that you won’t be able to control yourself. If there is no alcohol in the house of an ex-alcoholic, it means that this person is still a potential alcoholic, and the same goes for any other pleasure people become addicted to.
The next legendary vice is money. Certain individuals who become whole at the soul level will try to use their personal power to acquire material wealth. Using their influence over people, they will attempt to market themselves higher than their actual worth. What’s wrong with that, some of us would ask? Haven’t you noticed that the accumulation of material wealth for ego purposes regularly destroys people – ethically, emotionally, and physically? There would be nothing wrong if the mana personality used acquired wealth in a constructive way, investing in creative and humanitarian projects, but they don’t; some spiritual “masters” can be seen gambling in casinos, and some drive limousines worth a fortune. On the other hand, some spiritual people who are able to recognize money as their weakness try to overcome it with deprivation. They renounce material wealth and consider poverty a virtue. Often they don’t charge for their services or charge less than others who do the same job and then consider themselves to be “honest.” These are still mana personalities because they just stand on the other side of the rocker.
There is a third group of people who like power and status and often wish to show themselves or their life path as the best, unique, and superior. Such persons easily enter discussions and conflicts in their attempt to prove their righteousness to others. They feed their egos with their own significance and influence created by the social status they enjoy. They accept systems of spiritual development that rely on tradition and oppose novelties, as they require the backup of a significant and “extremely important” source. In the case that they themselves create new systems of personal development, there’s no end to their boasting – they present them as epochal, to say the least. Sometimes their grand ideas about themselves and their “abilities” motivate them to build a personality cult, often establishing sects, churches, or spiritual schools. What these people should really do, instead of being on a power trip, is to put their charisma and personal power in service to the greater good.
On the other hand, there are people who consider power as a weakness and try to deny it, so they live a quiet and withdrawn life, unnoticed by their environment. These individuals are unable to present themselves in an appropriate way and are ashamed of any self-promotion. They know that their subtle weakness is related to power abuse and, therefore, do not wish to be powerful in any way, whether positive or negative. But in this way they still have issues with power and have to put in additional effort to resolve it. Minimizing their own significance is not going to make them happy and fulfilled, so they have to find the balance in their personal promotion and present themselves properly.
In my experience, the root of the mana personality lies in a lack of adequate spiritual experience and in connections to the negative aspects of the collective unconscious, which originated as reactions to emotional wounds. Lower astral connections are the means of compensation for our wounded ego and unfulfilled spiritual needs. Instead of opening up to the omnipresent spirit as an endless and unconditional source of fulfillment, mana personalities yield to the temptation of money, sex, or their own personal significance in order to heal their inner emptiness. But after spending some time ranting and abusing their power, mana persons will inevitably have to face their deepest weaknesses and dissolve the destructive influences of the collective unconscious. That’s why they need to face all forms of power abuse from their past and dissolve them. Being psychologically whole, cleansed of the destructive influences of individual consciousness, the mana persons are on the path to spiritual freedom, so it is only logical that they will need to experience the spirit in ways that totally exclude even the slightest residues of ego and go way beyond individual forms of existence.
Just as the person who wishes to establish a love relationship needs to face all previous disappointments and traumas related to their emotional life, people who finally become whole and ready to take over one of the positive collective identities need to face all remnants of identifications with the negative ones. One of the ways to harmoniously go through this phase is to dissolve lower astral connections and build up positive identities based on deep immersion into the omnipresent and all-fulfilling spirit. Finally, whole persons need to become aware that they simply are powerful and that their power doesn’t need to be spectacularly displayed but placed at the service of the principles of universal love and unity. This realization will also enable mana personalities to fulfill their own needs in the best way, not by satisfying their childish urges but through wider expression and the manifestation of unconditional love and unity consciousness.
So, the natural course of development that ensues upon the completion of psychological health is an aspiration to spiritual health. Those who want to become enlightened, karmically cleansed, and creatively realized need to de-identify from all unhealthy forms of attachments to the manifested world. The mana personality appears in one of the last phases of this process. Whole persons have already integrated the major part of the separate aspects of their soul, so now they will need to work on integrating the aspect of their being that we usually call the spirit. The map of the “spiritual territory” includes the whole of existence, meaning the whole of the manifested and non-manifest universe. Therefore all manifestations of the outer world that mana persons reject will have to be accepted, and all needs for fulfillment with something from the outside world will have to be balanced. Attachment to collective life models such as marriage at all costs, money at all costs, obligatory Sunday lunch, working throughout the week, and resting at the weekend will have to be overcome.
A mana personality, therefore, comes into being when someone finally becomes whole on the individual level but still strongly resists complete acceptance of the whole of reality as a constituent part of them. A subtle lack of faith (doubt), fear, and guilt are at the root of the mana personality. These people are unable to accept that they already have everything they need and that the source of fulfillment is within them. They resemble a child who plays one of the final unconscious games but are nevertheless strongly attached to their game. They do not wish to go beyond all processes and overcome their yearnings for life experiences. But life no longer shows mercy for people developed such as they are, so they pay dearly for their mistakes. For this reason, they have to free themselves from being attached to those aspects of the manifested universe that they have a soft spot for and must work on connecting with the omnipresent spirit. Otherwise, they risk destroying everything they have ever achieved.
THE ENERGY MODEL OF THE SOURCE OF NEGATIVITY
Connections with lower astral spheres are mostly experienced as energy channels located in certain chakras and connecting a person to a source of negative energy and power. So, apart from adopting negative characteristics, or “soul trade,” we are also energetically connected to the lower astral worlds. Such connections enable us to perform different supernatural acts, such as occult influence or superhuman endurance. In order to accomplish these acts, we need to be initiated into those skills and connected to the sources of power that will provide us with energy for such actions. Once we realize that such skills actually burden us and hinder us from accomplishing our goals, we will have to know how to dissolve our subtle energetic connection with a particular source of destructive energy.
People who have created a lower astral connection have an irresistible, compulsory, and obsessive need to exercise the skills they have been given. They hardly have any choice since they are addicted to their negative characteristics and powers. These destructive energies put strong pressure on their psyche, trying to manifest in their daily lives. If such people decide to change and reject the negative lifestyle produced by the energy channels connecting them to the lower astral but do not dissolve the energy connection itself, they will have to invest an enormous amount of energy to resist its influence. They then feel the presence of some subtle “evil” in them but don’t know how to get rid of it. Unless consciously dissolved, lower astral connections stay and continue to burden us with their negative influence. They even pass on from one incarnation to another, so we can be mentally healthy in the present life and of positive orientation (at least on the conscious level), but the subtle remains of lower astral connections continue to cause us significant problems.
One of the indications that someone is under the influence of negative models of the collective unconscious is the need to live and act in a negative way as much as possible. If someone likes perverse sex but only practices it with their partner, it is probably a negative influence of the individual unconscious – a psychological consequence of some traumatic experience, usually expressed as unrealized creativity that is being compensated for in this way. However, if such a disorder develops into promiscuous behavior, visiting brothels, or setting up orgies, then we may be under the influence of the negative aspects of the collective unconscious, as they tend to spread and become a mass phenomenon. The same goes for money obsessions or any other “power trip” – they tend to take on unimagined proportions and are difficult to control later on.
The foregoing examples confirm this. All three persons had an irresistible urge to react in negative ways in various situations or had themselves been the victims of spiritual, mental, emotional, or physical violence for a long time. Consequently, one should not overemphasize the karmic results of connections with the negative spheres of the collective unconscious; these consequences are vast and not only limited to specific individuals. Sometimes they stretch to a whole strata of people and social or ethnic groups. Due to collective karmic debts, people are born in a certain area, state, city, or village and take over duties that attach them to certain people and social or political systems, thus restricting their freedom. In the karmic sense, lower astral connections are heavily paid for because we often use them for massive manifestations of negative powers and for influencing a number of people. We should bear in mind how annoyingly meticulous the law of karma is and that every such influence needs to be karmically balanced later on with an opposite positive activity.
Curses
Suppressed lower astral connections in people of positive orientation sometimes manifest in negative life circumstances. Seemingly innocent individuals become the target of someone’s aggression or find themselves emotionally involved with some manipulative person, or even happen to be under a negative occult influence. Such circumstances are simply an outer reflection of the subconscious contents they haven’t yet purified themselves of. If the person we love is constantly manipulating us, it might be a sign that we once did the same thing, sometimes in the present lifetime and very often in a past life, and that we did not cleanse the causes of such negative acts. The present incarnation is an opportunity to purify ourselves completely instead of endlessly blaming outer circumstances for our problems. Negative occult influences will provide a good example of such a karmic model. Systems of protection from a psychic attack, “black magic“ or a curse are not completely efficient if they only consist of energy defense.
Curses behave like psycho-energetic contents implanted into someone’s energy body in order to execute a negative influence on that person. They are the consequences of the deliberate influence of one person over another. Being energy forms, thoughts and emotions are able to travel through space and be directed onto someone to produce a certain effect. In terms of communication, every energy form finds its target as it travels through the energy field and almost immediately establishes contact with the object it was intended for. Since the nature of energy is neutral, wishing evil on someone also presents a force that travels to its target. To fulfill a negative intention through a relevant type of occult ritual that will endow it with additional power is to be an occult criminal. Still, some people do it, disregarding the fact that the karmic consequences of negative occult influence fall into the group of the heaviest. They are usually compensated for through a range of incarnations in which those people are neither physically nor mentally healthy, followed by another series of lifetimes where they are unable to realize happiness, peace, or fulfillment.
The energy forms of curses are equal to those of trauma, and the cleansing method is identical. We need to identify ourselves with the energy form of the curse and discover its content. Curses regularly consist of some negative commands, which we need to feel completely and dissolve using the Discreation Formula. Examples of such commands are numerous because everything depends on their purpose, so they can range from “be unlucky in love!”, “become ill!” or “be poor!”, up to “die!” or “disappear!”. Yes, using black magic can actually kill someone. Our governments also use it to liquidate their ideological opponents. One good example of this is found in Steven Greer’s case, which he described in the already mentioned book Hidden Truth – Forbidden Knowledge, where he and his closest associate Shari Adamiak were under severe psychic attack, which cost Shari her life…
So, after we have dissolved all the commands and bans imprinted in the curse, we then finally dissolve its energy form. However, the reason why someone becomes a victim of an occult attack should always be checked because without dissolving its causes, it is impossible to provide permanent protection. As long as an inner magnet for outer negativity exists, the person will attract such an influence. One usually becomes a target for occult attacks due to karmic reasons because the person has done the same to others, usually in past lives. Although that person is now no longer an occult criminal, if the outer karma has not been compensated for and the inner aspect purified, she will (seemingly accidentally) find herself again under the influence of a curse. To undo this permanently, we must dissolve the traumatic experiences and lower astral connections that were created as consequences of those traumas. With this kind of work, we can achieve a state of inner purity and if it is followed by the opposite positive activity, we can finally finish the whole karmic cycle.
THE SPIRITUAL MODEL OF THE SOURCE OF NEGATIVITY
After the psychological and energetic models, which I find crucial for a precise interpretation of the dynamics of the spiritual consequences of trauma, we are now going to examine the spiritual model of the source of evil. It may complete the picture of the origin, formation, and role of the lower astral world within Creation. When it comes to spirituality, the main assumption is that there are two basic aspects of the whole of reality, the manifested and the non-manifested universes. The God that mystics speak of belongs to the non-manifested universe or the aspect of the overall reality that exists behind the curtain of material and other manifested worlds. Terms used to describe this aspect are often vague since here God exists independently of the laws of the manifested universe: of time, space, Aristotle’s logic, reason, and intellect or, in short, outside all the principles of the dual world. Although totally abstract, God in its non-manifested aspect can nevertheless be experienced in many different ways via mystical or direct experience, which is a form of perceiving that excludes process and can be learned on Enlightenment Intensives. I have made a list of typical impressions that can convey God’s main characteristics verbally to an extent. So, God in its non-manifested state could be:
– formless, multi-dimensional, multi-personal
– completely free, with unlimited possibilities
– aware of itself as God
– totally fulfilled with its own self
– timeless, eternal
– omnipresent, there is nothing that is not God
– nothingness, the source of mystical love, pleasure, and fulfillment
– Man, potentially
Many will find these impressions strange, but it is almost impossible to speak of God in its non-manifested aspect; there is no clearer way, and there is no explanation or justification for these statements. In any case, a profound understanding of such expressions comes only with direct personal experience. And these qualities are by no means all of God’s qualities, but here they will suffice for the interpretation that is to follow. Why God created the manifested world is a mystery about which there is still no consensus; some mystics say one thing, others another. However, the majority agree that God is the creator of the universe, that he (she, it) created it out of love and in order to fully realize his creative potential. The material world is just the densest part of the manifested universe, which includes all energy forms of various densities. The soul is a manifestation of God, just like all the “spiritual” or disembodied beings that exist as individual forms. Therefore there is a whole hierarchy of beings dwelling in the worlds of various densities. Considering the manifested universe in the order it was created, the process goes “from thin to dense” (alchemical solve to coagula).
Highly conscious spiritual beings are created first and then physical (material) beings whose level of consciousness mainly depends on the development of their brains and nerve systems. This could lead to the conclusion that bodiless beings are at a higher level of development than humans, but that is not necessarily the case. What are known as “angels” and “archangels” are beings in God’s service, made of light and aware of their place in the whole of Creation, but it seems that they are not aware of a very important fact regarding their original nature – that they are also God. It is not my intention to devalue angelic beings and their sacred role, but even though angels serve God and Creation, it seems that they simply have no awareness of the essence of their being as divine. It is one thing to be aware of God and serve the principle of good and completely another to be aware of oneself as God. This kind of awareness is not a consequence of some grand superiority complex, nor does it have anything to do with ego; it is about a particularly high level of responsibility for one’s existence, and that kind of responsibility is usually difficult to take. Although it reflects the final truth of the very essence of all forms of the manifested universe, very few beings are able to recognize this truth and live congruently.
It seems that only physical existence, on this or some other similar planet, enables souls to discover who they really are. Only by having a human body will a soul be enticed to take the path of returning to the original spiritual reality. It is because the human kingdom is made in God’s image. As shown in the characteristics listed above, God also has a “human face” and is potentially man. Therefore God’s kingdom and the human kingdom are two similar worlds, which differ only in density levels, so the human kingdom is a lower octave of the heavenly kingdom. This means that all the rules of the spiritual world apply in the earthly world, with one huge difference. The human kingdom is not free from the influence of what we call “the other side of creation” or the lower astral world. The heavenly kingdom knows no resistance or obstacles, but in the human kingdom, beings have to make an effort to discover themselves and be who they are and then to realize their creative impulse. It is because Earth was hijacked long ago by the lower astral world or, better, that the lower world has infiltrated itself into the Earthly world.
What is the origin of the lower astral sphere? It was not originally created by God because God exists unrelated to the manifested universe, out of all duality, conflict, and discord. The lower astral world was created by beings originally created by God, but since God does not interfere with one’s free will and has created every being free to live or not to live in accordance with their original nature, some energy beings decided to deny their true selves and resist God within them. The Sufi interpretation of what is usually called “the fall” is probably the clearest one, so I will use it to further expand on this extremely delicate subject. Citing the Qur’an[3], Sufis say that God, having created Adam, invited all the archangels to bow and serve his creation. The story has it that an archangel called Satan “loved” God the most and that he couldn’t bear his jealousy of man as the new object of God’s love and attention. He refused to bow to man and said that he would always bow to God but never to any of his material creations. Blinded by his fanatic loyalty to God, Satan was the first archangel to demonstrate a lack of awareness of his real nature. He expelled himself from heaven, became the leader of the rebellion, and subsequently created his own version of Creation as a means of mocking that of God. Satan created the lower astral world and attracted other beings into it, other rebels who were unaware of their own essence.
The question is – why is it so important to be aware of oneself as God? One possible answer is – because this awareness renders us complete. If we are not aware that we have never left the state of original unity with God, that everything we undergo is just an experience we have chosen to go through, and that the path to happiness lies in the creative realization of our original divine nature, then we will be influenced by the lower aspects of our being, which we usually call the “ego.” Instead of being conscious of complete and utter unity, we will perceive all of Creation as a threat to our survival, as an obstacle to the realization of our goals, and as an extremely incomplete place in which all beings are destined to suffer.
The lack of love and fear ensuing from such a worldview will be the main drive for our actions. An eternal yearning for fulfillment with something outside of us and a constant feeling of failure will be the cause of unsuccessful relationships resulting in deep inner unhappiness. Unrest and dissatisfaction will color our existence far more than positive states, which will seem unreal and unattainable. Deep selfishness will lure behind our goals, together with alienation from our own and other people’s emotions, and emotional trade (or even blackmail) will be the only form of relationship we know. This makes every person ruled by such states easy prey for the lower astral worlds. Fallen angels always offer help, whatever kind we want. God does not offer itself – it is the very essence of our being that needs to be recognized. God is love, the source of unconditional peace and satisfaction. This is why we need no outer protection and certainly not that which we will pay for by giving up the good, selling the soul, or closing some dark contract signed in blood. Such protection is equal to that offered by the mafia – we have to pay a tenth (or more) of our revenue for the possibility of undisturbed business. This money fuels the mafia’s casinos, drug trafficking, brothels, and bribing the police, thus slowly creating a lower astral world on Earth.
People have always wondered why God, being almighty, does not destroy evil in its root and what the real purpose of evil is. Since God lets all sentient beings fight for good by themselves, it seems that the existence of evil has its function within Creation, which is not exclusively negative. Even though Satan is a fallen archangel at war with Creation, he still withdraws before God in its non-manifested, original state. It therefore seems that Satan is testing Creation, checking its credibility, and confronting it with its own imperfection. As he facilitates the process of self-realization by enticing people into destructive activities, Satan does God a favor, probably without being aware of it. It is impossible to be completely fulfilled by continuously doing evil, so people who are deeply immersed in lies, fraud, and deceit, sooner turn towards the truth. Goethe’s Mephistopheles says:
“I am part of that force
Which would do evil evermore,
And yet creates good.”
The appearance of the Devil on the scene usually speeds up the awakening of consciousness and the development of good. Every drama, novel and film is based on the same model – presentation of the characters, plot, catharsis, and resolution. Looking at it symbolically, introducing evil onto the scene is what constitutes the plot, because it usually consists of a conflict in which the characters, driven by some outside influence, undergo introspection and purification from negativity. They put their own values on trial, overcome their present capacity and acquire a new state of mind they didn’t have before. This, of course, has all the characteristics of an initiation, and as we already know, initiations hardly ever come without a challenge or test. That is what makes initiations difficult but also genuine. Things are either right or wrong, so if there’s no other way to check if things are right, negative forces will appear in our lives and test us. But if we pass the test created for us by the Devil himself, who can dare to challenge our righteousness?
I am aware that this model resembles a fairytale or a myth and that it contains many inconsistencies. However, the knowledge presented here stems from direct experience, mine and other people’s, and the nature of direct experience renders a logical explanation superfluous. Instead of logical mental processes, the direct experiences of the spiritual world and universal truths are far more characterized by strong feelings, impressions and visions. But even though irrational by nature, feelings are superior to the intellect; they are actually a medium for connecting to our soul and the omnipresent spirit. Thoughts appear later when the rational mind tries to interpret the experience. Such thoughts are usually irregular and difficult to connect, but just because something is illogical, it is not necessarily untrue. That’s why it is often impossible to pose sub-questions in order to clear the spiritual message in a way that would satisfy our intellect’s need for logic. Myth, fairytales, and poetry are far better means of expressing spiritual experience than thoughts and logic. What backs up the idea of presenting such knowledge verbally is the possibility of its practical implementation in therapy. For that reason, the information presented here seems to be quite sufficient for successful work on dissolving lower astral connections and transforming them into deep spiritual experiences.
© Tomislav Budak, 2005
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[1] More information on psychopathy can be found in the book by Andrzej M. Lobaczewski: Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes), Red Pill Press, Canada, 1998.
[2] See David Farmer’s Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford University Press, 1978 and Ann Ball’s Modern Saints – Their Lives and Faces, vol. 1, TAN Books and Publishers Inc., 1983.
[3] Qur’an – 17:61, 63.