The principles behind CORE Therapy
We all have spiritual “needs”, no matter what our beliefs are. Atheists even have these needs, but they are usually satisfied through accepting and immersing our minds with the awe of nature.
Scientific endeavours in the areas of quantum physics and the “philosophy of physics” are tackling the big questions around the fundamental nature of everything. This has long been the goal of science in general, and finding the “theory of everything” has been a driving force since early last century when people like Einstein (and a host of others) took the whole idea very seriously. Added to this is the whole problem of “consciousness”. What is it and how did we get it?
The whole process would take volumes to work through, so I’ll just skip to the latest interesting bits.
There is a fast growing group of physicists (theoretical and philosophical) who believe that consciousness itself is the underlying “energy” from which everything else arises. In extremely simple terms, this means that all forms of energy (which coalesce into more and more complex forms of energy, becoming atoms, molecules and so on up the scale) are products or projections of a “sea” of conscious energy.
There are many versions of this idea. A popular one, that has been around for a long time in various forms is called Panpsychism Despite what the cynical and jaded among us may think, this area of research actually addresses the underlying problems very eloquently.
All this goes to indicate that the ancient ideas around “universal consciousness” (or any of a multitude of terms describing our innate oneness) aren’t some mystical mythology. The fact is, it provides an extremely workable foundation for living life to it’s fullest in every way.
In CORE Therapy, I use all this to explain that there are three arbitrary levels of human experience – our thoughts, our awareness, and our oneness. This can be referred to as the “nature of experience”.
As a very simple description, our thoughts run through our minds non stop, all day, every day. They arise from physical experiences through our senses and from memories, which are then attached to emotional reactions of some sort. Our awareness sits “behind” our thoughts and is the objective part of us (kinda sorta, but more on that in another blog). Then there is the great “sea” of consciousness which everything exists in and comes from.
This empowers us to observe our thoughts in an objective fashion, not with the goal to change them, but to simply see them for what they are – an integral and essential part of what being human is! It’s the core of many ancient philosophies, so is nothing new at all! My goal is to present the concepts in a way that is accessible to the western mind and can be applied practically in the area of mental health.
The simple realisation of this is life changing! This is really important for those of us who have suffered religious abuse and the thought of theology and doctrines, church and religion in general, are too triggering, but are still deeply aware of the need for some sort of spiritual connection that can bring love and light, peace and joy into our lives.
In my next blog I’ll expand on these ideas.
