THE VERY SENSITIVE CHILD/YOUTH
THE VERY SENSITIVE CHILD/YOUTH
Nancy, with Twin Flame Uriel
Written as a result of the article below
I make no pretense of understanding what a parent goes through in this situation. I would, however like to share what I have observed as one who has for this entire lifetime cared deeply for people and sought to find viable solutions to the challenges I observed them facing.
After working several years as an Aid To Dependent Children Welfare Social Worker and being rebuked for attempting to help the mothers find a personally meaningful occupation, I resigned and entered a graduate program in seminary. While there, I did a semester long internship in pastoral counseling in a near-by mental hospital. Prior to this, I had read enough metaphysical writings to know that we are multi-dimensional beings and that it is possible to see (clairvoyance) and hear (clairaudience) beings on other-than-physical dimensions. As a result, the more I listened to the mental patients tell of their experiences, the more I came to believe that, in fact, the individual was not mentally ill, but more open to other dimensions of being than the average human man or woman. Because they were the exception to the robotic standards on which Western culture is founded, these exceptional individuals had to adjust to a world unfamiliar to the average human being and to do so while not talking about their experiences. This is an enormous assignment—to figure out a world about which no one else is talking.
Sharing their inner experiences most often inevitably resulted in a diagnosis of mental illness. (See a history of the Spiritual Emergence Network at http://spiritualemergence.info/a-brief-history-of-sen/) Once diagnosed as mentally ill, I found that many patients accepted that title and lived out the life of one who believed him/herself to be mentally ill. No other alternative was available until the Spiritual Emergence Network was founded in 1980.
Religion is a major problem for many very sensitive individuals. A nurse in the mental hospital told me that the rooms were filled with ministers and the very religious. As a child, I was puzzled by the dichotomy of repetitious teachings: “God is Love … If you don’t…..God will punish you for eternity in hell fire.” As children, one of the first Bible verses we were required to memorize was John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son ….” We were taught that God (who had created us) loved us so much that He sacrificed His only Son to die on the cross to save us from eternal punishment in hell fire. As a young child, I was horrified at this teaching and, as a result, publicly dedicated my life to being a missionary so I could share this nonsensical story and protect the people from this unjust God. This mission that I felt was mine to fulfill directed my life until my late 20s. Lucky for me, I’ve been a sensitive, but rebellious individual. Instead of becoming mentally deranged trying to worship and love this two-faced God, I decided to do all I could to protect the people from this God.
Two incidents alerted me to the danger of these contrasting religious teachings. The first occurred during my ministerial internship in the 1990s. The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, can be very upsetting to sensitive children. The minister offers the bread as the body of Christ and the wine (or grape juice) as the blood of Christ. Protestants understand that this language is symbolic; I’m not sure about Catholics. Anyway, during one such service, a child in the congregation heard these words as literal truth and became so upset his mother had to take him outside. She told me about the incident after the service was over. Because what I heard at church as a child was so upsetting to me, I knew this little boy had very likely been psychically affected. I, as a minister, decided I could no longer conduct the Communion Service and left church ministry at the end of my internship.
The second incident occurred shortly thereafter. I attended my former church one Sunday as a congregant. During the Communion Service, I observed a teenage boy, sitting in the pew directly in front of me, weeping throughout the service. He did not partake of the bread and wine, even though his parents did. The next week, he committed suicide. I’m not saying that one incident caused him to commit suicide. I am saying that, from my own experiences, I feel that a very sensitive child being taught that God is love and God will punish eternally—that “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord”–makes absolutely no sense and robs the young person of a trustworthy spiritual anchor. The biblical book of Job has been a regular part of the study course curriculum of churches. It has been mis-interpreted—being taught as the reason why good people suffer—once more presenting to the sensitive youth a God who is unpredictable and therefore, cannot be trusted. God can do anything God wants to do is the inevitable conclusion. (You may study Job from the hidden wisdom point of view at: http://www.pathwaytoascension.com/chapel/index.htm
Bottomline: I think the real problem with youth and perceived mental illness is the result of the Western society’s lack of understanding and knowledge of the world of Spirit and our own multi-dimensionality. What we term as Mental Illness is very often the result of psychic sensitivity that is an “unknown” to the adults, and therefore, to the youth—an unknown that is misdiagnosized as mental illness and therefore, mis-treated.
Thankfully, progress has been made, as a result of the work of Christina & Stanislav Grof’s work through the Spiritual Emergence Network. “In 1994, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) of the American Psychiatric Association supported the Grof’s insights by including spiritual and religious issues under it’s category of conditions which are not mental illness, yet lead people to seek mental health services. This recognition has opened the door for a specialization in spiritual issues.” (http://spiritualemergence.info/a-brief-history-of-sen/)
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In My Shoes: Honoring son who committed suicide is not the end of my story
BY ANNE MOSS ROGERS
Special correspondent, RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH, February 5, 2016
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be the mother of a child who died by suicide. My 20-year-old son, Charles, suffered from depression, anxiety and ultimately a heroin addiction. He took his own life June 5, 2015.”
READ MORE: http://www.richmond.com/life/in-my-shoes/article_42838b8a-9869-54a6-a1c3-84d62f1df94f.html
