"Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us?" - MALACHI 2:10

"Distress and illness are the feedback loop of living inauthentically" - Demartini

     Distress and illness are the ever-present, ever-increasing, "bow wave signals" and telltale signs of living in these modern days and times. Together, they represent a groundswell phenomenon that currently assumes a global scale closely resembling epidemic proportions. On an annually repeatable basis, "self-help resources" and "global wellness" represent unabated trillions of dollars every year. The global wellness market is now three times larger than the worldwide pharmaceutical industry. If the year-in-and-year-out annual growth is anything to consider and reflect upon, these growth figures single-handedly suggest that the situation is only deteriorating, rather than preferably improving. Year-in and year-out growth only serves to prove that "distress and illness" are, in fact, on the significant increase, and are definitely not, by any level of human effort, or in any manner, in a state of consequent decline. And not surprisingly, when we look to the root cause, as the bow wave image itself suggests, distress and illness are merely the "front-line symptoms" of an entirely other primary culprit, one that precedes relentlessly before them. In much the same way, like the bow wave, distress and illness don't exist in isolation. They are by-products of a specific and separate condition. And as long as the collective emphasis remains on treating only "the symptoms", and not "the cause", the staggering industry statistics, and astonishing annual revenue figures, will continue to grow indefinitely, at an exponential pace.

     On this matter, man looks in the mirror and sees, but sees only the reflection. Distress and illness are not the primary condition of humanity, but merely "a reflection" of humanity's real condition. Whilst "self-help resources" and "global wellness programs" are the eyes of industry looking into the mirror of humanity's "reflection", if genuine wellness is legitimately desired, we should be casting our collective gaze not into what is merely symptomatic or "second-hand reflection", but squarely and intently into the eyes of "original root cause". Industry's attempts to address growing distress and illness, whilst well-intentioned, merely strive to treat the symptom, and not the cause. And ironically, they look in the wrong place for precisely the same reason that man finds himself in these present times of astonishing distress and illness in the first place.

     Self-help resources and global wellness are ultimately exercises in futility, simply because they only dress up "the symptoms". Secondly, they are ultimately an exercise in futility also because they administer "transient and short-term band-aids" to this pair of tragic symptoms, which ultimately only serve to conceal the significant and glaring truth anchored deep in the bowels of man's ever widespread deteriorating condition. In much the same way that a copy of a van Gogh masterpiece is inauthentic or counterfeit, a mere reflection of the original, a genuine van Gogh can only be produced by the authentic hand of van Gogh himself. In saying this, an original's identity as a van Gogh, and its authenticity, are wholly inseparable from its originator, and derive authenticity entirely from the hand that produced it. In that sense, the painter and his paintings are one. Disease and distress are tragic by-products of man's self-imposed illegitimacy. Man is God's own "van Gogh". For too long now, man has lived inauthentically or illegitimately. By his own choice, man has isolated himself from the very hand that lovingly created him in the first place. Man has severed himself from the very umbilical that deems and decrees him authentic. Disease and distress are symptoms or by-products of man's misguided ambitions to separate himself from God, and his misplaced efforts to pursue and establish authenticity and legitimacy in himself alone, completely removed from the God who created him. As a result, as a direct consequence of cutting oneself off from the very Spirit that sustains man, Demartini rightly points out that distress and illness are the feedback loop of living inauthentically.

     The significant statement of "Let Us make man in Our image, according to our likeness" describes the very two proof points that irrefutably authenticate us as original "van Gogh's." To now claim legitimacy from a position of complete severance, or from a condition of setting oneself distinctly apart from the hand that made and sustains you, is thereby declaring yourself a counterfeit, illegitimate, and ultimately, therefore, as definitively inauthentic. Instead of looking to God for authenticity, looking to oneself for authenticity is like looking at the "reflection in the mirror" as if it was "an original". And as long as man remains inauthentic, the root cause condition will perpetuate and endure, and the unabated twin symptoms of distress and disease will likewise continue. As long as the misdirection of believing that authenticity stems from self, the growing by-product of distress and disease will forever remain the telltale feedback loops of man "living inauthentically".

     Having said that, given that self help resources and global wellness place a massive industry emphasis and ambition on mitigating at "the symptom layer", by their very design, then, they remain by definition unqualified and illegitimate at remediating the condition of living inauthentically at "the root cause layer". In fact, by design, and not necessarily by intent, by addressing distress and illness, they effectively only serve to silence the very feedback loops that point to the root cause in the first place. And unwittingly then, as a direct consequence, in silencing the telltale feedback loops, they thereby ensure that the root condition of inauthenticity perpetuates in ever widespread proportions. This explains why despite every noble effort of industry, the phenomenon continues to grow out of control. Which also answers how an already significant industry quantum of trillions of dollars also continues to grow year-in-and-year-out.

     For precisely the same reasons, man-made religion is likewise an exercise in futility. But man-made religion takes it one step further than industry. Even though man-made religion is a different kind of industry in itself, man-made religion is, by contrast, an attempt to reach up to God. Industry is man reaching out to man, for man. Whilst man may enjoy the intellectual and emotional by-products this alternative industry produces, being man-made, it is a ruse at restoring the severed umbilical with God. Like the Tower of Babel, also man-made, which was man's feeble attempt at also reaching up to God, with the singular objective of establishing man as being equal to God, and therefore feigning the same authenticity as God, at its very best, at the height of its accomplishment, man-made religion remains merely a distant and dim reflection of God.

     One of the world's ever-growing, ancillary, man-derived pursuits of mitigating distress and illness is the predominance of Yoga. Taking it even one step further, Yoga is another man-made industry that by distinction combines both "self-help" with the addition of "man-made religion", with growing numbers of people invested in varying degree at differing points along the "self-help and man-made religion continuum". Behind the motive of every man-made attempt at mitigating distress and illness remains the truth that they all simply address the symptom.

     And let me be clear, I am not saying there is not any human enjoyment or satisfaction from the exercise disciplines, or the soul-realm reflection, of Yoga. What I am merely trying to do is put it all into perspective. Man is born with a sense of incompleteness that presents as a void or hole that man endlessly pursues to fill. There is only one thing that can ever fill that hole, and that is restoring the umbilical with God. All man-made pursuits are effective, yes, but effective at the symptom layer only, and only endure for a moment until the next necessary partaking. Their panacea requires constant revisiting and refreshing to dull the symptom. And if those who partake of the lifestyle practices of Yoga do so fully knowing this, there is no harm. It's when people are looking to Yoga to remedy at the root cause layer that their ambitions become unstuck. It is at this level that I aim my perspective reset. Yoga will never be able to restore the umbilical at the root cause layer. It will merely silence the feedback loops to the void for a single and brief moment at a time. And as any reasonable logic will prove, it's only when you get at the "root of the problem", that the feedback loops will ever begin to, once again, point at the human condition of "living authentically".

Malachi 2:10 "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us?"

Psalm 139:14 "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well."

Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness."

- To God be all the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

- Blessings, Wayne Biehn