Wow – I didn’t realize how much energy I would stir up with my last blog post about the “invisible forces” that stopped us being in Tokyo when the earthquake hit. Have you been thinking about what you believe?
I promised that in my next (this) article I’d share my own beliefs on the subject. But I have to admit I’ve had a huge resistance. There’s a genuine fear holding me back. Not a fear for my own sake, but for the work.
Before I get onto the topic of what I believe, I’d like to open a discussion with you about spiritual beliefs generally, my past mistakes, and the risks for me of being too clear about what I think.
As I’ve confessed in recent articles, my own spiritual beliefs are evolving rapidly as I learn and grow. When I look back a mere 3 years ago to what I was teaching (as a licensed TH teacher), it amazes me how strongly I have abandoned every single spiritual belief I held back then. It also embarrasses me somewhat how I stood in front of classes of intelligent people and confidently told them “this is The Truth.” These memories embarrass me on several levels which I don’t need to spell out. I’ve learned and grown and changed a lot in the last few years, and a good indication of this is the fact that pretty much every spiritual belief I have has changed. This is great, but also reminds me how quickly we grow -who knows what I’ll believe in another 3 years? That means I had better not try to pretend to know the “Truth.”
What I learned from past mistakes
OK so here’s some of what I got from past mistakes:
- Don’t preach.
- Seriously, don’t preach – no one’s beliefs should be based on other people’s beliefs.
- Don’t share your beliefs unless relevant, necessary even, and only then in context.
- Don’t ever try to convert people or persuade them of the truth of your beliefs – your truth is just that, YOUR truth.
- Find a way of teaching healing and personal development work that doesn’t rely on any specific spiritual belief or system. Make “self-healing” available to everyone from the atheist to the fundamentalist.”
Well it’s been 3 years since my “re-awakening” and I honestly think I’ve done a really good job of biting my lip and keeping my beliefs to myself. Those of you who have taken an RPT course with me know that I am passionate about my beliefs but keep very quiet about them.
What am I afraid of?
I think that my biggest fear in sharing my spiritual beliefs is the knowledge that, pretty much by definition, 99.9999% of the world’s population will disagree with me. Atheists will say I believe in woo-woo. Every follower of religion will say I’m a blasphemer. New Agers will resent me because, well they always just seem to! (Some people just don’t like feeling challenged or threatened!)
But mostly my fear is this – I know that our method, RPT, works brilliantly and doesn’t require any belief system. So my fear is that people will reject a wonderful tool because they disagree with the spiritual beliefs of its creator.
Of course that’s silly – you don’t refuse to see your doctor because of her religion, and you don’t ignore your school or university lecturers because of their political or spiritual views. The only thing that’s different is because RPT, as a healing and personal development technique, is in the spiritual/ New Age marketplace. And in that marketplace, it’s normally and accepted to judge the technique by its creator’s beliefs. It’s not right, but it happens.
I’ve been mulling over this today, and in fact procrastinated publishing this post, until I found a compromise. And my compromise is this – I will, on this blog, share my very personal and unique spiritual beliefs. And when I do, I will always start with the disclaimer: The following views are the personal opinion of one of the co-founders of RPT but do not represent the RPT technique. These views have no bearing on how effective RPT is for you. The other co-founders of RPT have quite different beliefs.
There, that should cover it.
And now, we seem to have filled up today’s blog without me actually having to share any of my beliefs! Clever, hey. That’s OK we have more than enough to talk about for today and I can work on a more detailed post about my beliefs for Wednesday.
What are your thoughts?
Here are some questions I’d love to get your opinion on:
- would you judge a personal development / healing technique by the personal spiritual beliefs of the founder? Why / Why not?
- would your opinion of me change if you found out that your spiritual beliefs and mine are totally inconsistent (e.g. you believe in angels and fairies and I have strong views about such things that challenge you considerably)?
- is my disclaimer necessary (not for you, I realize, but for those unfamiliar with RPT)?
- how comfortable are you sharing your spiritual beliefs (or non-beliefs)? For instance with friends, at work, and among those you know will disagree?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these subjects. Remember that leaving a comment is your “payment” for any value you get from this site. Even better is to leave a link back to this page from your own blog/website or any other site you comment on.
Blessings
Simon
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Hello Simon, wow this is fun!
I would love to give my opinion, do with it what you please ☺
1. The people that we attract into our lives show us who we are. If you judge others you are judging a part of yourself. If I attract a teacher who walks their talk, is in truth, compassion and integrity, I am a happy girl.
2. I am pretty sure that our spiritual beliefs have always been quite inconsistent. Both of us are changing what we think and feel towards certain things – I am constantly changing and evolving. I still love you!
3. I think the distinction is quite important – where the technique starts and ends. It is a bit lawyerly wordy though. lol
4. As I go along I am more open to sharing my spiritual beliefs. I will only ever comment if I am invited to and the time and space is appropriate. Generally, I find only religions/belief systems that are based in fear and/or ego will have any issues with my own brand of spirituality.
Love to you xxx
[Reply]
Simon Rose Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 9:10 pm
hey ‘Nee, great to have you visiting us here. I changed your username to “Renee from Melbourne” because there’s another Renee (from Byron Bay) who comments here often. Didn’t want to confuse people.
Yep I agree with your comments. And most of all, you and I have happily disagreed about lots of stuff for years without it ever being a problem. Even if I usually laugh at crystal healing and hand-waving energy tricks, you know that I’ve always open to you practicing those methods on me and it usually helps too!
blessings,
Simon
[Reply]
Barbara Reply:
March 16th, 2011 at 7:16 pm
I will only ever comment if I am invited to and the time and space is appropriate.
I agree here. Religion and one’s belief systems can be a very personal thing. I find I take a bit of a religion and put it all together to form my own ideas.
[Reply]