After hearing of the horrific attack on Ukraine, I am beyond sad on top of sad. Even as I sit with clients, I am struck by how much what seems to be the rise in hate and cruelty in the world is affecting people—myself included. It elicits a deep grief that the most natural gift of being human— to love and be loved—is thwarted by fear and ignorance. Last year had the highest tally of reported hate crime incidents since 2008, when 7,783 incidents were reported to the FBI.
I was especially moved by a story told me by a 17 year-old client, whose 15 year-old brother was having panic attacks due to intensely cruel bullying. What seems to be a new meme is someone getting hold of a non “politically correct” video made by another student in their earlier years, as in the case of this young man, and using it to destroy the reputation of the person who created the video. Hate to fight hate.
This 15 year-old had created a video while in 6th grade using the “n-word.” He had heard his father use it, and it’s certainly not unusual, unfortunately, for a 6th grader to pick up that language from a parent. At 15, he already understands more and is ashamed of younger self for thinking that way. When another boy blasted that all over social media, the young man began to receive the most vile and shameful messages from those so righteous that they cannot see their own cruelty. He began to receive death threats that led to panic. It happens all the time, and young people take their lives over such hateful attacks.
Is a powerful tool to visually describe the progression that leads to violence and hate crimes. According to the Anti-Defamation League, The Pyramid shows “biased behaviors, growing in complexity from the bottom to the top. Although the behaviors at each level negatively impact individuals and groups, as one moves up the pyramid, the behaviors have more life-threatening consequences. Like a pyramid, the upper levels are supported by the lower levels. If people or institutions treat behaviors on the lower levels as being acceptable or ‘normal,’ it results in the behaviors at the next level becoming more accepted. In response to the questions of the world community about where the hate of genocide comes from, the Pyramid of Hate demonstrates that the hate of genocide is built upon the acceptance of behaviors described in the lowerl evels of the pyramid.”
In the case of this young man, biased attitudes had already led to biased behavior. It is a well-worn slope upward propelled by an insidious misguided fear that grips humanity in the form of experiencing others as separate from ourselves, rather than as part of a larger whole.
When we hear the horrific stories of Ukraine or the atrocities in Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, or any other truly shocking cruelty throughout humanity’s history, it is often hard to imagine how humans can do such things. But none of this began as a sudden decision to commit heinous acts. Instead, all of that horror is built on smaller acts of bias, unkindness, rudeness, thoughtlessness. These smaller ruptures between and among people lay the groundwork for increasingly more potent expressions of hate.
What is this fear?
Fear does not exist separate from our own selves. In his book Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking The Curse Of Evil , Levy says this fear -driven hate is like a virus and calls it wetiko, an Algonquian Indian word describing a mercurial and elusive psychic phenomenon that has both material and spiritual aspects. Wetiko describes a cannibalistic spirit that is driven by greed, excess, and selfish consumption. Wetiko deludes its host into believing that cannibalizing the life-force of others (others in the broad sense, including animals and other forms of life on Earth) is a logical and morally upright way to live.
Says Levy, “The devilish wetiko virus, like a vampire, if left to its own devices, not only has no power but would die, as it is only able to exist if there is someone seemingly outside of itself on whom it can feast.” In other words, the very fact that we perceive wetiko as being separate from us is what allows it to thrive. We all are capable of atrocities. We need to own the insidious ways in which we hurt ourselves and others, with judgments and gossips and harsh tones, so that we can stop contributing to the pyramid of hate.
The wetiko virus is passed down trans-generationally, over multiple generations. Unlike other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, ADHD, and the countless anxiety disorders that are rampant, the wetiko psycho-pathogen cannot be controlled with medication, because the medication would come from the very system that is infected with the virus.
A pack with the devil
Levy says that “Wetikos suffer from pseudologia phantastica, a form of hysteria characterized by a talent for believing their own lies.” This rampant and seemingly unlimited capacity for self-deception that afflicts humanity at this point is like a pack with the devil indeed.
According to Levy—and I concur—though wetiko has no intrinsic power, it is a “virtual reality” that has enough energy to attack and destroy all of humanity. Imagine the power of this force within us that has the ability to destroy us when we remain separate from it, when we collude with the ancient myth—the mother of all myths—that we are separate. Imagine that power!
Says Levy:
“Wetikos can psychopathically (and thus toxically) mimic the human personality perfectly. If it serves their agenda, they can be convincing beyond belief, making themselves out to be normal, caring, politically correct human beings. They are unable to genuinely mourn, being only concerned with themselves. They will feign grief, however, just as they will try to appear compassionate, if it is politically expedient to do so and, hence to their advantage, as they are master manipulators.”
If that sounds like sociopathology and possibly psychopathology, you are not far off base. It’s just that it is so rampant, and the force of it gets stronger from one generation to the next, and those DSM diagnoses don’t even begin to adequately describe the power and nature of wetiko. By shining the light of awareness on what is happening, we can call it what it is—a virus that is affecting everyone all the time.
We need to look at this stuff. There is no way to bypass this, because there has been and continues to be so much trauma, which makes us all more susceptible to wetiko.
An inability to feel
We get separated and cut off from our true feelings due to trauma—cut off from our innocence, from our intrinsic goodness. Then we feed off ourselves and everyone else, and the virus of wetiko takes over. And it is all built on a lie. What if we could reclaim and harness that power?
What Levy calls wetikos are the countless human beings who suffer from not being able to feel—by numbness—and then maintain a point of view that supports that numbness. What’s more, without being able to feel, those who are highly infected by numbness are at risk of being overtaken by the wetiko virus, making them very susceptible to needing the Big Wetikos who are running the show. This notable absence of real feeling causes them to take a perverse pleasure in the ability to dominate and inflict brutality on others, similar to a vampire.
Humans are wired to feel deeply, as a way to survive and not eat our young. We need to preserve this most precious aspect of who we are by being able to be fully authentic with one another—in person, as much as possible. Clearly the reality of the past two years where we have all learned to be socially distant in order to alleviate the intense fear created by the coronavirus has contributed to the rise in cruelty and hate. The misperception of separateness is now on steroids.
We don’t need to look to terrorists to see full-blown wetikos, as the major political parties are, at this moment, hosting the virus. The entire system does. It is not the politicians that are the problem, though you would think so if you believed the mainstream media. Understand that the real problem is how many people are affected by the wetiko virus in order for Big Wetikos to rise up the way they have.
The crowds get all riled up, and while they seem emotional, they are experiencing the rage that covers up terror. Rage and terror are two primal instincts from the lower brain. Feeling involves the heart, and an open one at that—a kind of innocence that is stronger than 10,000 shields. These are the qualities that get wiped out by the virus, which has its roots in trauma.
How can you know when you meet someone if they are taken up by wetiko? Take a moment and listen to the politicians who are on the world stage right now. Find out for yourself if you can feel that person’s heart radiating love. You will begin to know, because your heart does not lie.
Wetiko and the shadow
You may have already made the connection between the notion of wetiko and the human shadow, both the personal and archetypal. The less the shadow is consciously embodied in a person, the more that person will identify with the bright side of the personality. They have a need to be so perfect!
Shadows are intimately connected to the light, and in the great mystery of life, the very light of our souls is discovered in the dark and disowned and discarded parts of the psyche. When we shine the light of awareness on these parts, the power of wetiko weakens. Remaining unconscious of these parts makes us precariously likely to unwittingly enact wetiko drama in our lives. Looking away is wetiko.
Groupthink can create a religion out of the energy of wetiko in no time at all. Wetiko is now globalized and televised, and courses through the waves of thoughts that travel around the planet in live-action time. Wetiko robs us of our souls.
Levy declares that, “Full-blown Big Wetikos are morally insane and abuse power simply because they can. The development of a rigid patriarchy follows wetiko disease like a shadow.” Because they continually recreate the ongoing process of killing their own souls, wetikos are reflexively compelled to do this to others. They turn the golden rule on its head by inflicting the trauma that was inflicted upon them in the ongoing hope of being triumphant. But they need others to survive, so there is but hollow victory.
From trauma to transformation
Trauma is not a noun or a thing, but rather a verb, in that it is a dynamic process that has a timeless dimension which unfolds itself over and over. With trauma, there is the physical correlate of neurons firing over and over in our brain in the course of our lives. When we carry unresolved trauma, it has a way of separating us from the immediacy of the moment, and in all we do we are continuously attempting to work the trauma through.
There is more trauma than ever at this time, just as there is more wetiko being enacted every day. Trauma alienates us from ourselves and from others, but it can also catalyze the deeper process of initiation into the making of the wounded healer or shaman archetype. When this happens, a deeper part of the psyche is being mobilized, opening the door to a call from something beyond. Each of us must answer that call, together with others who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.
In addition to wetikos, there are countless shamans in training, wounded healers and bodhisattvas being invited by the Universe to consciously participate in our collective evolution. Our challenge is in our relationship with the darkness. Our salvation is in our relationship with the light.
Within the very force that can destroy us lies the hope of what can save our world at this time. When each of us penetrates to the heart of our own darkness and we surrender all the ways we have protected against it, we dissolve the lie of separateness and rediscover light, which is love. All that which you rail against is an aspect of you. Accept it all. Our salvation is a path of non-resistance to what is, wetiko and all. We created it, and thus we can own that power and choose to create a new world based on love and truth.
The vortex of love
From the inside, your heart emanates an extremely powerful toroidal energetic field that has actually been scientifically measured to go out as far as 5 miles from your heart.
The heart’s electromagnetic frequency arcs out from the heart and back in the form of a torus field, which is the oldest structure in existence. Its shape is similar to a donut, with the whole center of it folding upon itself. The torus is said to define the workings of consciousness and is refreshing and influencing itself as a self-sustaining source of infinite energy.
Toroidal energy fields exist around everything: people, trees, the earth, sun, and the entire Universe. Your entire life is created by and from this place. Most torus dynamics contain two toruses or “tori” – like the male and female aspects of the whole – one is spiraling upwards and the other downwards.
The human heart generates the strongest electromagnetic field produced by the body. An exchange of electromagnetic energy produced by the heart occurs when people touch or are in close proximity of one another—and social distancing has greatly affected the earth's toroidal field.
The human toroidal field is directed by our breath, which we must continuously infuse it with love. As humans, we are not meant to be a weak link in the Universal System, bur rather a powerful bridge between Heaven and Earth.
Cleansing our toroidal field
It is our personal responsibility to regularly cleanse our toroidal filed of the thickened barriers that form from serious and everyday trauma. By releasing resentments and grief and fear consciously, that which stands in the way of our own light shining forth into the world is removed. This is the real protection we need—the open heart that builds our human toroidal field.
Our own breath is the pump for our human fountain to raise that light energy up and through us and around us like a shower. In a sense, just as we take regular showers to cleanse our physical body, we must take regular energy showers of this source energy, which is love.
The goal of our human energy shower is to fill ourselves so full of love energy that the shine goes out past our skin. As we become so full of this energy, it rises toward the heavens, connects with the universal light force of Source, allowing wisdom and energy to rain down into our body and our energy field, into earth and back up through our bodies, into the heavens. The more we practice this cycle, the faster the cycle repeats itself, until it creates the luminous energy field that we are meant to be.
Changing your electromagnetic field of energy is not difficult, nor does it take years of study or practice. It can be immediate. Energy changes with intention, instantaneously and powerfully. If you change your thoughts, you will notice the instant shift in the energy within and around you.
A meditation to build your vortex of love
Preferably do this meditation standing:
- Relax all the muscles in your face and body. Place your hands at the side of your body and your feet firmly on the ground if you are standing. Keeping your head straight and in line with the rest of the body.
- Rotate the neck gently to relax the torso.
- Close your eyes and imagine roots growing out of your feet into the deep center of the earth.
- Start breathing slowly and deeply, bringing your attention to every breath as you do so. Allow your attention to be natural and effortless, simply observing each breath as it goes in and out.
- Remain in position for a minute or two before starting a circular breathing pattern, with no pause or break between inhaling and exhaling.
- As you do so, begin to feel the energy of Mother Earth flowing up onto your body through your feet, legs, root chakra, and all the way up your spine and out your crown.
- Continue the circular breath as this energy flows up and out through your crown, like a fountain, cascading over your entire body, and down again to your feel and up again through your body,
- Now infuse your breath consciously with the love energy you want to circulate through you and into the world.
- You can choose a color to go with this breath. I suggest radiant white, pink or golden light. Keep this circular breath of radiant love light flowing through you and send it out into the room you are in, the house, the town, the state, as far out as you desire.
Right now, there are so many places in the world that need your love. We are very aware of Ukraine, and in addition, there are several countries at war due to a terrorist insurgency: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq (also political unrest), Libya (also civil war), Mali (also civil war), Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Tunisia.
You can make a difference, and can begin by clearing up the war between you and anyone else in your life. It doesn't matter if they clean things up with you. It takes two to war. Become the vortex of love you are meant to be, which is only a breath away.
