We often come to emotional healing work because our lives aren't working, we are in emotional distress and don't know what to do. We seek out an "expert" - someone who will make us "better."

This attitude of helplessness is a continuation of the very illness that is plaguing us - an inability to fully feel, and therefore trust the wisdom of the self. This lack of trust in the self, this sense that we "don't know" (that someone else does), is the sad result of the authoritarianism of the neurotic family structure and its oppression of the young self.

All organisms are directed by their own innate intelligence to select or reject from the environment elements that match their system's need, whether it be food, water or knowledge. No organism is an empty cup that can be filled with whatever anyone chooses. A tree cannot ingest meat, and a hawk cannot ingest light. Even from conception, a human baby grows according to an inner plan - an inner authority.

In this society, however, we are forced to believe that inner authority is only the domain of mature adults, and that children are blank slates upon which the "expert" adult writes. Not so. Children are organisms, like any other, and grow by following the structural needs of their system - gathering food, love, and personally selected knowledge as they go. Nature intends the parent to assist by simply providing opportunities and protection, so that the child's needs can be met.

Inner authority creates democracy - the inner democracy of organs and tissues working together, and the outer democracy of individuals directing their own family and society together. It is power maintained in each individual, and shared with all others, adult or child. It is an image of a circle.

Outer authority, on the other hand, creates authoritarianism, a system where one person or group forces knowledge and activities on another, regardless of the other's needs or nature. It is power hoarded by a few. It is the image of a pyramid, with those on top stealing power and passing down "selected" crumbs to those oppressed below.

As explained elsewhere in this site, trauma causes neurosis - a condition where the upper thinking brain is cut off from the feeling sensations and memories of the lower brain centers and body. The natural "democratic" connection and co-operation between all cells and body systems is subverted, and the upper brain directs the organism in a disjointed manner. It is a state of illness, a state of "brain authoritarianism."

Neurotic humans, then, create top-down authoritarian families, and other stilted coercive social structures that continue this off-balance pattern - authoritarian belief systems (religions), authoritarian knowledge systems (science), and authoritarian learning structures (schools and universities). The sign of an authoritarian system is obvious - the passing of power, approval, and information from the top down, in denial of the inner necessity, direction, and wisdom of the individual organism.

As children in this ill system, we are not allowed to follow our own natural direction, and are constantly forced by the authoritarian "experts" (parents, priests, teachers) to twist our inner drives and bodies out of shape to do it their way. This insanity goes against every organic system on the face of the earth, and causes a great deal of illness, both emotionally and physically, on a personal and planetary level.

"Don't do that, do this."
"That's not right."
"That's stupid."
"Don't cry."
"You're laughing too loud."
"That's silly."
"Grow up."
"You'll go to the bathroom when I tell you to."
"You can't be hungry yet."
"Get to sleep."
"Stop fidgeting."
"You have no reason to be upset."
"You don't know that?"
"Now you're going to learn...."

This is not just unpleasant, it causes sickness. Try treating an amoeba that way. Or a tree. It doesn't make sense, and is fundamentally destructive and organically impractical, at the very least.

So, as human children attempting to grow under this coercive torture, we are tormented, and feel emotionally and physically ill. No wonder. And as adults, due to this destructive training, we continue the pattern by seeking other experts to fill what we have been told is lacking in our sorry, bad, stupid selves. We have been forced to believe that what we need is more expert information from the outside, when in fact, we need more expert information from the inside.

The answer to our illness? To be our own experts. To select healthy assistants and trusted helpers (not experts and authorities) who will protect us from coercion, and support us in being all that we are. To follow the feelings and sensations of our own inner organic wisdom. To untwist ourselves and our bodies from this painful shape the authorities and experts forced us into.

To our own selves be true.

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