21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

be meant in a parochial sense. It is hopefully of benefit to remember that we are all of us already far more than could ever be realised. Our efforts need to be made in the light of this. We are part of the interlinked interbeing making up the wider cosmos — the interbeing that somehow sides with grace and beauty.

Sometimes, in a dark place, our strategy can only be to remember what is good about ourselves and to try to celebrate our own being. What if there are things that we find ourselves doing that are just not accepted by the society around us? What if we have some dark obsession or overwhelming compulsion to hurt others or to behave in ways generally rejected by society? What then? The need to change is clearly there, but we have already suggested that change might not be possible. The inner person, the essence or soul of a person remains unchanged, indeed remains perfect. But that means beauty and perfection are veiled by layers of damaged personality, rooted deep perhaps in childhood experiences, emotional pain, anger, bitterness, hate and ultimately self-loathing. I’ve suggested above that our human view of ‘evil’ is a moral one, but we might struggle to come to terms with a view of the soul as ‘perfect’ when it contains such darkness. I don’t pretend to offer an answer to this — if indeed an answer could be offered. All that can be said is that such a person needs to be embraced rather than shut out. I beg you — where possible — to include and always to accept others who betray signs of such darkness. As described above, darkness runs through all of us. By excluding we cut off part of ourselves. By including, we heal.

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