form spontaneously.
Reminds me of schizophrenia.
How about idolatry? You see, I’ve infiltrated the social sciences as I used to infiltrate the monasteries. Instead of the social sciences being sources of direction out of the problem, I’ve managed to turn them into humanity’s psychological defense. Just as I used to focus the clergy of yesteryear on angels-on-a-pin kind of issues, I have again succeeded in leading humanity’s soul growers off track. As long as I can keep tempting everyone to fill their brains with data such as Myers-Briggs profiles, or right-brain/left-brain differences, or gender issues, or ethnic background, I can be quite sure that no one will focus on the information that counts.
And that is?
The important information categories of the soul (and they are the real bridges to community) are:
1 Knowing what you believe. I mean not only what you live for but what you’d die for.
2 Knowing where you begin and where other people who are important to you end.
3 Being able to preserve your own self, that is, having integrity, in a close relationship.
4 Having horizons that are not limited by what you can actually see.
5 Being able to stay on course when others sabotage you. By that I mean mustering up the self-regulation not to be reactive to the reactivity of others when you succeed at the above.
6 And, as I said earlier, making your own salvation dependent upon your own functioning rather than on using or saving others.
These are the information categories that count and they totally transcend social science data.
What about responsibility for others? Where does that come in?
It naturally flows from the above, because all unethical, all immoral, all manipulative behavior is really a form of dependency. The use of others means you need others to pave the path to your own salvation.
You seem to be saying that togetherness can’t be willed.
Correct. That is exactly how the Creator, being a God of process, set it up, and that is why I know that the best way to frustrate his plan is to constantly seduce everybody into willing others to come together.
Like counselors?
Like counselors, like clergy, like educators, like doctors and nurses, like parents, like managers and administrators.
But what is the alternative?
Presence. The nature of one’s presence — being a healing presence, a challenging presence, a nonanxious presence, the kind of presence that turns the verb “to be” into a transitive verb. Entities don’t have to have moving parts in order to modify other entities.
As with catalysts, enzymes, and transformers.
Healing also is a natural phenomenon that can be promoted by the presence of the healer; it also cannot be willed. Frankly, all healing that depends on the functioning of the healer is faith-healing. But let me go on a little. These things are connected. First let me explain how I tempt flesh and blood into violating the second limitation that I was mentioning earlier, omnipotence.
I’m all ears. But before we go on, I would like to ask you something. I notice that you keep referring to the Holy One as “him.” Is God then male, after all?
Don’t get me started on that one.
You are opposed to liberation theology, then?
Liberation, tribulation, I couldn’t care less. What bothers me is that no one has questioned my gender. How do you think I feel? Name me one solid theological work in the past twenty-five years that has suggested that I may not be patriarchal. Some of the process theologians have come close, but they’ve depersonalized everything. All this talk about inclusivity is just plain hypocrisy. You can’t have it both ways, you know. And as long as everyone is going to keep me male, I’m not going to change my ways.
I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was going to be such a sore point. You were about to describe how you tempt human creatures into violating the boundary of omnipotence.
III
Very well. As I said, one of the major differences between a God and a human being, according to Genesis, has to do with power. A God just speaks and things come into being.
“In the beginning was the Word.”
Unfortunately, it was kind of slurred. Actually, in the beginning was a thought. A God doesn’t have to speak. In true omnipotence, all you have to do is think the thought, and your will becomes reality.
Sounds like the fantasy of some people I know.
Where do you think they get it from?
Transforming thought into matter is the hard part, isn’t it?
You are talking about creativity. I am trying to focus on relationships. Haven’t you ever noticed that the worst symptoms in families always show up in communities marked by intense will conflict? Schizophrenia, suicide, anorexia, abuse, and many physical deteriorations almost always show up in families where people are trying to will one another to change. They harp, they cajole, they seduce, they argue, they implicate, they preach, they warn, they threaten, they remind, they guilt, they charm, they accuse, they point out. Find me a polarized relationship and I will show you the will conflict.
And the same would be true for institutions?
Exactly the same. Almost all forms of neurosis and psychosis come about from the effort to will what can’t be willed. You can will going to bed, but you can’t will sleep. You can will going to the dinner table, but you can’t will appetite. You can will physical contact, but you can’t will orgasm. You can will being together, but you can’t will togetherness or symptoms or relationships or morality.
So by seducing everyone into willing, you make them deny that they are not omnipotent.
Omnipotence always leads to impotence.
Why can’t you apply the same to helpers?
That’s what I was getting to. You can.
This is going to be good.
I no longer spend much of my time trying to get people to will one another to conform to their thoughts. I now confine myself to those who try to will them to stop willing one another. I cover far more territory that way. Instead of trying to tempt twenty different families or organizations, I just tempt their consultants. The efficiency has gone up logarithmically. You see, it is the nature of humanity to resist efforts to be willed. Nothing slows someone down faster than trying to will them to speed up. If you don’t believe me, come up behind somebody in the fast lane and blow your horn hard in an effort to get them to pull over and let you by. Those “by-ways” go all the way back to the Garden.
But
