The Cosmic Perspective in Healing
Marilyn Gordon, CCht, from an article first published in "The Journal Of Hypnotism."
The cosmic perspective is a way of looking at the world with transformed eyes. It’s the ability to witness our struggles, patterns, relationships, our suffering from a panoramic point of view. Usually we’re caught up in our struggles and our patterns; we have no way of seeing them clearly. Through hypnotherapy, we’re able to see the overview of our issues and sufferings, to reframe our experiences so that we can truly heal our lives.
Years ago, I had a vision in meditation. I was standing on a mountaintop, and I saw my parents in the valley below. They were going round and round on the wheel of life. I understood this to mean that they were here on this earth to learn and to work through their life issues, just like everyone else. They, too, were “on the wheel.” I understood that I wasn’t just their daughter. I was a fellow human being, a soul, who came to this earth to spend some time with them in a particular relationship. I wasn’t totally their “child.” This gave me perspective on the vicissitudes of their lives and compassion for their suffering. No longer was I at the effect of their suffering; I was a being who came to interact with it, to learn from it, and ultimately to heal.
When we can look, for example, at our parents or children or mates from a cosmic perspective, we can see that these people are not simply our relatives; they’re separate beings who’ve come to this earth to work out their issues as well. We can grow in compassion for the people in our lives, especially the people who’ve hurt or wounded us, by increasing our ability to stand back and witness them from a much larger point of view. We can understand that the people who have hurt us are themselves suffering greatly, and when this compassion opens, true healing takes place.
The Full Healing Process
It is important to say here, that this transformation happens after we’ve been able to make contact with deep feelings of frustration, anger, grief, whatever feelings need to be experienced and understood. If the transformation happens before this, it can mask emotions that may later emerge. The full healing process of transformational healing includes experiencing, releasing, and then transforming into the cosmic perspective.
Truly, some perpetrations like abuse in its many forms, are unspeakable in their severity, and they need time and much releasing to heal. But the healing can be done, especially as the survivors come to understand that the most difficult experiences of their lives have created the wounds that have led them toward their path of healing. The legend of the wounded healer carries great truth; the healer goes down to the underground or the gates of hell to find the depths of human experience and then at the right time emerges transformed and ready to serve humanity, deepened by those wounds and opened to everyone who has ever suffered them.
Shifting the Focus
Sarah was abused by her father, and he later molested her daughters. In hypnotherapy, after Sarah experienced and expressed her anger toward him by holding actual balloons and popping them, she was able to float above her life. She saw that her father was sick, and she saw that the whole situation was everyone’s learning experience. She began to experience divine voices telling her that these difficulties were given to her so that she could help others to forgive as she was now forgiving. She knew that she came here to help others, including her daughters, and she was able to shift into a more powerful focus for her life.
Burning Away the Wounds
Karen had terrible abuse in her childhood. At age four, she was burned by a blowtorch on 80% of her body. The family told her it was an accident, but she had an instinctual knowing that it happened because of her father’s rage. In hypnotherapy, after healing the burn wounds and comforting this beautiful little girl, Karen was able to release many old pictures of pain. She saw the burned child healed in the light, and she experienced the child as an angel. She used to feel victimized, but now she was able to shift her whole view of her life. She experienced the cosmic view and saw that all of these experiences had contributed to the growth of her soul. Through this, she came alive. Her eyes opened up to the spiritual quality of her life. Up until this point, she’d been hiding, afraid to interact with people, tucked away inside herself. Now she is animated and alive, as she sees the larger perspective and understands the meaning of it for her life.
Many Applications
Those in couples can have compassion for one another’s suffering, as well. Instead of simply being involved in power struggles, couples can come to see that the behaviors of their mates are the result of the difficulties and challenges that they have experienced all their lives. True understanding shifts the entire relationship.
The same process of understanding can help employees who are intimidated by their bosses or who have exasperating co-workers. Shifting into attitudes of understanding, into the desire to look deeply into the reasons for the behavior, into the fact that these people who are causing suffering are themselves suffering so greatly can shift the entire dynamic of the problem. In hypnotherapy, for example, we can help our clients to see into the other person, see his or her childhood or life lessons, understand these in very deep ways. Very often, then, the problem in the outer reality is either solved or much easier to endure.
The Growth of the Soul
We can see how the sufferings of our lives have had many advantages. Childhood abuse or physical illness or challenging relationships can serve to make us very strong. The difficulties have also created the necessity to go within to find some form of comfort or healing, and this inward focus has created a great depth to the soul. Difficulties have brought some people to hypnotherapy who would not ordinarily look deeply into their lives. Difficulties are opportunities to burn off karma, to purify ourselves, and though they are rarely pleasant, they have profound gifts hidden within them.
Christopher Reeve, paralyzed after his horseback riding accident, certainly understands that in some highly extraordinary way, he has been chosen to make a great contribution to this planet. (Note: Christopher Reeve is now deceased).
The Cosmic Perspective in Past Lives
Sometimes the roots of difficulties must be found in realities other than the current reality. Sometimes it takes an even larger canvas to paint the mural of healing. In his current life, Sam felt very alone a lot of the time. In an experience of a past life in hypnotherapy, he was thrown in jail and died of starvation.
From an expanded point of view, he sees how this isolation is shaping his soul, making him stronger. He begins to re-paint this old picture by filling the past-life man with light, opening the doors and windows of the jail cell, and opening up to a realization of the communion with all of life.
How to Transform Ways of Seeing
There are a number of ways we can, through hypnotherapy, transform our ordinary ways of seeing:
We can get in touch with the transcendent forces for healing our bodies, minds, and emotions. Guidance, light, profound healing love, faith and healing attitudes all engender a transformed perspective. When we contact higher guidance, for example, the voices of guides often tell us the reasons for their difficulties, and they encourage us on our path of healing. We can call upon transcendent forces, such as Buddha, Christ, Moses, QuanYin, I AM, or whatever form our connection with higher wisdom takes. Or we simply can allow our own higher wisdom to flow in a more formless way. We can float above the scenarios of our lives, seeing them from other vantage points. We can also stand way back or see our lives on a screen. We can dive into the minds and backgrounds of perpetrators to understand them better and to see how the perpetrator is also suffering. We can go to an after-death experience from a past life and see the meaning of that lifetime for our soul from a greatly expanded perspective.
We can find out what is their soul’s lesson in this experience—and what is the blessing hidden in the difficulty.
