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[spell-binding]

I have long intended to start a thread to discuss Sandra Brown's book "Women Who Love Psychopaths" but up to now, haven't had the time.  I actually don't have it now, but I'm making it because of a post in another thread that brought the topic into rather clear focus.    Here is a quote of the post that got me going:
http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=11545

Okay, didn't see anything about this yet, so I decided that I would post it. This is the link to the video (audio rather) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRctKSeyQ-s, while below is a transcript. Video was posted Jan 15th of 2009, so I would assume that it is fairly recent.

Quote
Rick Warren asks 30,000 Saddleback Church members to be as dedicated as the young followers of Adolf Hitler.

Minute 33:00 of speech. Warren describes the global plan.

[Minute ~33:00]

"What is the vision for the next 25 years? I'll tell you what it is.

It is the global expansion of the kingdom of God.

It is the mobilization of this church.

And the third part is the dream of the radical devotion of every believer.

Now, I choose that word 'radical' intentionally, because only radicals change the world.

Everything done in this world is done by passionate people.

Moderate people get moderately nothing done.

And moderation will never slay the global giants..."

[minute 48:45]

"In 1939, in a stadium much like this, in Munich Germany...

...they packed it out with young men and women in brown shirts...

...for a fanatical man standing behind a podium named Adolf Hitler, the personification of evil.

And in that stadium, those in brown shirts formed with their bodies a sign that said...

...in the whole stadium, "Hitler, we are yours."

And they nearly took the world.

Lenin once said, "give me 100 committed, totally committed men...

...and I'll change the world." And, he nearly did.

A few years ago, they took the sayings of Chairman Mao, in China, put them in a little red book...

...and a group of young people commited them to memory and put it in their minds...

...and they took that nation, the largest nation in the world by storm...

...because they committed to memory the sayings of the Chairman Mao.

When I hear those kinds of stories, I think 'what would happen if American Christian, if world Christians...

...if just the Christians in this stadium, followers of Christ would say 'Jesus, we are yours'?

What kind of spiritual awakening would we have?

[minute 51:50]

Jesus said, 'I want you to do this publicly.' So what I want you to do is take the card...

...and in just a minute, and if you say 'Rick, I am willing to serve God's purposes in my generation.'

I want you to open up to the sign that says 'Whatever it takes.'

Whatever it takes.

And I want you to just say, 'This is my commitment before God and in front of everybody else, I'm in.

And I would invite you to just stand quietly and hold up 'Whatever it takes'...

I'm looking at a stadium full of people who are saying 'whatever it takes'."

*A picture of people holding a sign saying 'Whatever it takes'*

And here is my reply. 

This is interesting timing.  On Saturday, I wrote a post to QFS as follows:

I am constantly reminded while reading the news, that the pathological types
are so easily able to garner support and "workers" for manipulative and
nefarious ends.  That is, of course, because they use spell-binding (black
magic, according to Gurdjieff) and prey on the ignorance and gullibility
(and pathological conditioning) of the walking wounded.  As a result, they
charge their followers up with some cockamamy "mission to save" this or that
and induce their belief in some false-front ideology.

Here, on the other hand, we work entirely differently.   We don't use
manipulation or spellbinding and we seek in all contexts to assist the
individual in becoming free of pathological conditioning so that they can,
ultimately, act as "first cause" agents as described in Kant's definition of
free will (see Chapter 28 of The Wave) .     We try to
help people overcome gullibility and ignorance.  And we don't want anyone
doing anything for the sake of some "reward" as defined in any mission or
ideology.   No blind faith required.

But somehow, "they" seem to be far more effective... more organized, more
dedicated, even if their dedication is to believing lies. 

This is a problem that has exercised me to no end. 

In the talk by Rick Warrne, quoted above, he says:

Now, I choose that word 'radical' intentionally, because only radicals change the world.

Everything done in this world is done by passionate people.

Moderate people get moderately nothing done.

Then later, he says:

In 1939, in a stadium much like this, in Munich Germany...

...they packed it out with young men and women in brown shirts...

...for a fanatical man standing behind a podium named Adolf Hitler, the personification of evil.

And in that stadium, those in brown shirts formed with their bodies a sign that said...

...in the whole stadium, "Hitler, we are yours."

And then asks the question:

When I hear those kinds of stories, I think 'what would happen if American Christian, if world Christians...

...if just the Christians in this stadium, followers of Christ would say 'Jesus, we are yours'?

What kind of spiritual awakening would we have?

It seems completely lost on this guy that ONLY the "Personification of Evil" could or would do what he is asking! 

So, what do we have here?

First, he equates being "radical" with being "passionate."  Considering the language, it appears that he is appealing to the sexual energy of his audience to fuel their "radicalism".   Hitler did that.  He appealed to a society that was as psychologically wounded as any could be, and the bedrock of this wounding was the effect of German Christianity.  No surprise there.

There are a number of books about the psychopathology of Adolf Hitler and how he manipulated the sexual frustrations and inhibitions of people - calling forth their hidden desires and suggesting to them that following him would give satisfaction to the ache in their hearts and the unfulfilled needs in their bodies.   That is also a fairly standard mode of operation in Christian churches, especially fundamentalist types.  I wrote about this in my book, "Amazing Grace," how one fundie woman explained what "getting in the spirit" felt like, that it was "almost a carnal feeling, you know?"  That was, of course, what set the bells ringing in my head that there was something seriously wrong with what they were after.   

So, here we have another Sexual Predator using some of the techniques that are described in Sandra Brown's book "Women Who Love Psychopaths."  The same techniques that have been used for centuries to foment war and rebellion.  When people are worked up into a sexual frenzy, they become fanatics and will do "whatever it takes."  They become little more than animals, and this is what this Rick Warren is doing here.

It's probably useful to quote Gurdjieff's discussion on the abuse of sex here:

"Is complete sexual abstinence necessary for transmutation and is sexual abstinence, in general, useful for work on oneself?" we asked him.

"Here there is not one but a number of questions," said G. "In the first place sexual abstinence is necessary for transmutation only in certain cases, that is, for certain types of people. For others it is not at all necessary. And with yet others it comes by itself when transmutation begins. I will explain this more clearly.

"For certain types a long and complete sexual abstinence is necessary for transmutation to begin; this means in other words that without a long and complete sexual abstinence transmutation will not begin. But once it has begun abstinence is no longer necessary. In other cases, that is, with other types, transmutation can begin in a normal sexual life — and on the contrary, can begin sooner and proceed better with a very great outward expenditure of sex energy. In the third case the beginning of transmutation does not require abstinence, but, having begun, transmutation takes the whole of sexual energy and puts an end to normal sexual life or the outward expenditure of sex energy.

"Then the other question—'Is sexual abstinence useful for the work or not?'

"It is useful if there is abstinence in all centers. If there is abstinence in one center and full liberty of imagination in the others, then there could be nothing worse. And still more, abstinence can be useful if a man knows what to do with the energy which he saves in this way. If he does not know what to do with it, nothing whatever can be gained by abstinence."

"Speaking in general, what is the most correct form of life in this connection from the point of view of the work?"

"It is impossible to say. I repeat that while a man does not know it is better for him not to attempt anything. Until he has new and exact knowledge it will be quite enough if his life is guided by the usual rules and principles. If a man begins to theorize and invent in this sphere, it will lead to nothing except psychopathy. {Gurdjieff did not mean psychopathy as we use the term, but rather as a "sickness of the soul".} 

"But it must again be remembered that only a person who is completely normal as regards sex has any chance in the work. Any kind of 'originality,' strange tastes, strange desires, or, on the other hand, fears, constantly working 'buffers,' must be destroyed from the very beginning. Modem education and modem life create an enormous number of sexual psychopaths. They have no chance at all in the' work.

"Speaking in general, there are only two correct ways of expending sexual energy— normal sexual life and transmutation. All inventions in this sphere are very dangerous.

"People have tried abstinence from times beyond memory. Sometimes, very rarely, it has led to something but in most cases what is called abstinence is simply exchanging normal sensations for abnormal, because the abnormal are more easily hidden.

"But it is not about this that I wish to speak. You must understand where lies the chief evil and what makes for slavery. It is not in sex itself but in the abuse of sex.

"But what the abuse of sex means is again misunderstood. People usually take this to be either excess or perversion. But these are comparatively innocent forms of abuse of sex. And it is necessary to know the human machine very well in order to grasp what abuse of sex in the real meaning of these words is. It means the wrong work of centers in relation to sex, that is, the action of the sex center through other centers, and the action of other centers through the sex center; or, to be still more precise, the functioning of the sex center with energy borrowed from other centers and the functioning of other centers with energy borrowed from the sex center."

"Can sex be regarded as an independent center?" asked one of those present.

"It can," said G. "At the same time if all the lower story is taken as one whole, then sex can be regarded as the neutralizing part of the moving center."
[...]

"In the first place it must be noted that normally in the sex center as well as in the higher emotional and the higher thinking centers, there is no negative side. In all the other centers except the higher ones, in the thinking, in the emotional, in the moving, in the instinctive, in all of them there are, so to speak, two halves—the positive and the negative; affirmation and negation, or 'yes' and 'no,' in the thinking center, pleasant and unpleasant sensations in the moving and instinctive centers. There is no such division in the sex center. There are no positive and negative sides in it. There are no unpleasant sensations or unpleasant feelings in it; there is either a pleasant sensation, a pleasant feeling, or there is nothing, an absence of any sensation, complete indifference.

"But in consequence of the wrong work of centers it often happens that the sex center unites with the negative part of the emotional center or with the negative part of the instinctive center. And then, stimulation of a certain kind of the sex center, or even any stimulation at all of the sex center, calls forth unpleasant feelings and unpleasant sensations. People who experience unpleasant feelings and sensations which have been evoked in them through ideas and imagination connected with sex are inclined to regard them as a great virtue or as something original; in actual fact it is simply disease. Everything connected with sex should be either pleasant or indifferent. Unpleasant feelings and sensations all come from the emotional center or the instinctive center.

"This is the 'abuse of sex.'

"It is necessary, further, to remember that the sex center .... is stronger and quicker than all other centers. Sex, in fact, governs all other centers. The only thing in ordinary circumstances, that is, when man has neither consciousness nor will, that holds the sex center in submission is 'buffers.'

'Buffers' can entirely bring it to nought, that is, they can stop its normal manifestation. But they cannot destroy its energy. The energy remains and passes over to other centers, finding expression for itself through them; in other words, the other centers rob the sex center of the energy which it does not use itself.

"The energy of the sex center in the work of the thinking, emotional, and moving centers can be recognized by a particular 'taste,' by a particular fervor, by a vehemence which the nature of the affair concerned does not call for.

"The thinking center writes books, but in making use of the energy of the sex center it does not simply occupy itself with philosophy, science, or politics — it is always fighting something, disputing, criticizing, creating new subjective theories.

"The emotional center preaches Christianity, abstinence, asceticism, or the fear and horror of sin, hell, the torment of sinners, eternal fire, all this with the energy of the sex center. ... Or on the other hand it works up revolutions, robs, bums, kills, again with the same energy.

"The moving center occupies itself with sport, creates various records, climbs mountains, jumps, fences, wrestles, fights, and so on.

"In all these instances, that is, in the work of the thinking center as well as in the work of the emotional and the moving centers, when they work with the energy of the sex center, there is always one general characteristic and this is a certain particular vehemence and, together with it, the uselessness of the work in question.

"Neither the thinking nor the emotional nor the moving centers can ever create anything useful with the energy of the sex center.

"This is an example of the 'abuse of sex.

"But this is only one aspect of it. Another aspect consists in the fact that, when the energy of the sex center is plundered by the other centers and spent on useless work, it has nothing left for itself and has to steal the energy of other centers which is much lower and coarser than its own. And yet the sex center is very important for the general activity, and particularly for the inner growth of the organism, because, working with 'hydrogen' 12, it can receive a very fine food of impressions, such as none of the ordinary centers can receive. The fine food of impressions is very important for the manufacture of the higher 'hydrogens.' But when the sex center works with energy that is not its own, that is, with the comparatively low 'hydrogens' 48 and 24, its impressions become much coarser and it ceases to play the role in the organism which it could play. At the same time union with, and the use of its energy by, the thinking center creates far too great an imagination on the subject of sex, and in addition a tendency to be satisfied with this imagination. Union with the emotional center creates sentimentality or, on the contrary, jealousy, cruelty. This is again a picture of the 'abuse of sex.'"

But, I want to come back to why this problem exercises me so much. 

You see, in reading "Women Who Love Psychopaths," I realized that the things that a psychopath does, the things that WORK in baiting, capturing, bonding women are obviously caricatures of things that ought to be manifested in positive ways.  For example: a psychopath may use his eyes and words to entrance and bait a woman to his bed where he "bonds" with her via "super sex."  He uses tender, romantic words, gestures, promises, etc etc. 

On the other hand, normal guys (and I'll talk about guys here since most psychopaths are male) generally do not feel comfortable gazing into the eyes of their beloved, speaking romantic words, performing wildly romantic gestures and certainly, most men are sexually inhibited or downright juvenile in their sexual behavior.  They also do not see sex as it ought to be seen, as one of the best opportunities for GIVING they have in their daily lives. 

But a psychopath observes his prey, does all the things that he has learned will capture her, and then he bends her to his evil will. 

Why don't normal men observe their intended - not as prey, but as the object of devotion and giving?  Why don't they learn everything about her, what she is, what she wants, what she needs, and then give it to her as an act of love? 

Well, that's one thing that occurs to me.  And the reason I bring it up is, as I said, because the interaction between the psychopath and his prey is a caricature of what seems to be an STO practice of great antiquity that we have completely lost. 

How does this relate to Adolf Hitler and Rick Warren?

Well, the first part of it is obvious: they are using the wiles of the psychopath to lure and bait and entrap their prey, only they do it for nefarious reasons.  Oh, of course, they believe themselves that what they are doing is "good and proper."  It is certain now, from all the studies, that Hitler really believed that what he was doing was "for Germany and the German people."  But how objective and how normal can the thinking (and beliefs) of a sexual deviant be?  It is also certain that Hitler was an extremely emotionally and sexually deformed human being.  Several women who had relations with him shortly afterwards committed suicide, including his niece.  Oh, sure, they could have been offed to hide his secrets, but whatever the truth of the matter, they died from having intimate relations with Hitler.  There are a number of books that refer to his sexual perversions, so I won't go into them here.

Perhaps we can draw a parallel and ask the question as to whether or not Rick Warren is similarly sexually and emotionally deformed?

Getting back to the caricature problem: As I said, I think that what psychopaths do is a caricature of what normal love between spiritual people might be like, how we evolved to interact with one another emotionally.  Why do I think this?  Because it seems to be similar to what happens in the process of neurochemical binding.  But I am going to start a separate thread to discuss this.  Here I will just say that it strikes me that what these psychopathic processes seek to emulate is the activity of a TRUE ESOTERIC GROUP.

Here is such a group described by Gurdjieff:

"It was pointed out before when we spoke about the history of humanity that the life of humanity to which we belong is governed by forces proceeding from two different sources: first, planetary influences which act entirely mechanically and are received by the human masses as well as by individual people quite involuntarily and unconsciously; and then, influences proceeding from inner circles of humanity whose existence and significance the vast majority of people do not suspect any more than they suspect planetary influences.

"The humanity to which we belong, namely, the whole of historic and prehistoric humanity known to science and civilization, in reality constitutes only the outer circle of humanity, within which there are several other circles.

"So that we can imagine the whole of humanity, known as well as unknown to us, as consisting so to speak of several concentric circles.

"The inner circle is called the 'esoteric'; this circle consists of people who have attained the highest development possible for man, each one of whom possesses individuality in the fullest degree, that is to say, an indivisible 'I,' all forms of consciousness possible for man, full control over these states of consciousness, the whole of knowledge possible for man, and a free and independent will. They cannot perform actions opposed to their understanding or have an understanding which is not expressed by actions. At the same time there can be no discords among them, no differences of understanding. Therefore their activity is entirely co-ordinated and leads to one common aim without any kind of compulsion because it is based upon a common and identical understanding.

"The next circle is called the 'mesoteric,' that is to say, the middle. People who belong to this circle possess all the qualities possessed by the members of the esoteric circle with the sole difference that their knowledge is of a more theoretical character.' This refers, of course, to knowledge of a cosmic character. They know and understand many things which have not yet found expression in their actions. They know more than they do. But their understanding is precisely as exact as, and therefore precisely identical with, the understanding of the people of the esoteric circle. Between them there can be, no discord, there can be no misunderstanding. One understands in the way they all understand, and all understand in the way one understands. But as was said before, this understanding compared with the understanding of the esoteric circle is somewhat more theoretical.

"The third circle is called the 'exoteric,' that is, the outer, because it is the outer circle of the inner part of humanity. The people who belong to this circle possess much of that which belongs to people of the esoteric and mesoteric circles but their cosmic knowledge is of a more philosophical character, that is to say, it is more abstract than the knowledge of the mesoteric circle. A member of the mesoteric circle calculates, a member of the exoteric circle contemplates. Their understanding may not be expressed in actions. But there cannot be differences in understanding between them. What one understands all the others understand.

"In literature which acknowledges the existence of esotericism humanity is usually divided into two circles only and the 'exoteric circle' as opposed to the 'esoteric,' is called ordinary life. In reality, as we see, the 'exoteric circle' is something very far from us and very high. For ordinary man this is already 'esotericism.'

"The outer circle' is the circle of mechanical humanity to which we belong and which alone we know. The first sign of this circle is that among people who belong to it there is not and there cannot be a common understanding. Everybody understands in his own way and all differently. This circle is sometimes called the circle of the 'confusion of tongues,' that is, the circle in which each one speaks in his own particular language, where no one understands another and takes no trouble to be understood. In this circle mutual understanding between people is impossible excepting in rare exceptional moments or in matters having no great significance, and which are confined to the limits of the given being. If people belonging to this circle become conscious of this general lack of understanding and acquire a desire to understand and to be understood, then it means they have an unconscious tendency towards the inner circle because mutual understanding begins only in the exoteric circle and is possible only there. But the consciousness of the lack of understanding usually comes to people in an altogether different form.

"So that the possibility for people to understand depends on the possibility of penetrating into the exoteric circle where understanding begins.

Now, obviously, there are many people who do FEEL acutely this lack of understanding, who long for Unity of purpose and to "belong" to their "own kind," so to say.  This deep impulse is what the Black Magicians such as Adolf Hitler and Rick Warren and psychopaths play upon to achieve their own entropic goals.  This longing for Union with another soul that understands and accepts one and loves unconditionally and who gives all and to whom one can give all is what is at the core of women who love psychopaths.  And it is at the core of many people who become followers of religions and ideologies, and whose "passion" is abused so that they become fanatics and "radicals" as Rick Warren describes above.

In Secret History, I talked about the drugs and neurochemicals and binding and so on.  Actually, I wrote about this rather extensively in The Wave back in 2000 and what was in Secret History was just an updated version.  It bears repeating here because it is a metaphor for the difference between true love between individuals and the caricature of love that is manufactured by the psychopath.

Back in the early days of the 20th century, it was realized that a drug must work in the body because it can “attach” itself to something in the body. They decided to call this place of attachment a “receptor.” Nobody really knew how this “attaching” worked, or why it led to a whole cascade of changes in the body, but there it was. You take a drug, and all kinds of things happened in the brain and/or other areas of the body.

 It is now known, after long years of research, that the receptor is actually a single molecule! Not only that, but it is singularly complicated. Keep in mind that a molecule, by definition, is the smallest possible piece of something that can still be identified as that specific substance.

A molecule is composed of atoms. Atoms seem to form bonds with one another in accordance with certain rules. These rules have to do with the number of electrons in the highest energy “shell” of the particular atom. An atom is what is IS by virtue of how many electrons it has, and these electrons are arranged in “shells” like the orbits of planets around the sun. The only thing is, they can’t be thought of as round planetary bodies, but as a sort of “cloud” of energy. Full “shells” are particularly stable so that atoms seem to “like” to arrange themselves so that they can get their outer shells filled. Electrons also come in two “flavors,” which are referred to as “up” and “down,” and an “up” electron likes to pair with a “down” electron. This refers to the “spin” state of the atom. And, depending upon the number of electrons in the outer shell of the atom, and how many electrons it would “like” to have in its outer shell, it can bond to one or more other atoms.

The essential thing to know here is this: the resulting molecules that are brought together in these chemical bonding processes have a particular SHAPE. The carbon bonds have plenty of flexibility, allowing bending, and there can be tangling and doubling back and forth to form very complex and very specific shapes. This bending and tangling brings different atoms of one side group into contact with others providing all kinds of opportunities for complex bonding.

Getting back to the single molecule receptors on cells, we can understand from the bonding principles that these receptors have very particular shapes — as well as “shells wanting to be filled” that define precisely what other molecule will be attracted to them for bonding. We can understand that there are atomic forces which cause one molecule to be attracted to another. Receptor molecules on the cell respond to these energies by “wiggling, shimmying, vibrating and even humming as they shift back and forth from one favored shape to another.” Receptors are attached to a cell, “floating” on its surface, like a lotus flower on the surface of a pond, with roots extending into the interior of the cell.

Now, what do these receptors do? Well, we already know that they “attract” other molecules and respond to the atomic/chemical forces of various kinds of bonds, but what is important is that receptors function as sensing molecules — scanners — just as our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, fingers, and skin act as bodily sense organs, the receptors do this on a cellular level. They cover the membranes of your cells waiting to pick up and convey information from their environment that consists of a reality flooded with other vibrating amino acids, which come cruising along, diffusing through the fluids surrounding each cell. Researchers describe receptors as “keyholes,” although these keyholes are constantly moving and dancing in a rhythmic, vibratory way. The keyholes are waiting for the right chemical keys, ligands, to swim up to them through the extra-cellular fluid and to mount them by fitting into their keyholes, a process known as binding.

When the ligand, the chemical key, binds to the receptor, entering it like a key in a keyhole, it creates a response that causes a rearrangement, a changing of shape, until INFORMATION enters the cell.

In a certain sense, a ligand is the cellular equivalent of a phallus! Ligand comes from the Latin “ligare,” or that which binds. The same word is also the root of “religion.” Curious, yes?

A more dynamic description of this very miniscule process would be that relating to “frequency.” The ligand and the receptor combine their identical frequencies — striking the same note, so to say — which produces a sufficiently strong vibration that more or less “rings the doorbell” to cause the doorway of the cell to open and there is some sort of exchange of atomic potentials that constitute the “information” that is “sent into the cell.” What happens next is quite amazing. The receptor, having received a message, transmits it from the surface of the cell deep into the cell’s interior, where the message can change the state of the cell dramatically. A chain reaction of biochemical events is initiated as tiny cellular machines go into action and, depending on the message of the ligand, begin any number of activities — manufacturing new proteins, making decisions about cell division, opening or closing ion channels, adding or subtracting energetic chemical groups like the phosphates — to name just a few. In short, whatever a given cell is up to at any moment, is determined by which receptors are on its surface, and whether those receptors are occupied by ligands or not. On a larger scale, these tiny physiological phenomena at the cell level can translate to major changes in behavior, physical activity, even mood — and ABILITY.

So, to review: as the ligands drift by in the stream of fluid surrounding every cell, only those ligands that have molecules in exactly the right shape can bind to a particular kind of receptor. The process of binding is very selective and specific!

Researchers in the field say that “binding occurs as a result of receptor specificity, meaning the receptor ignores all but the particular ligand that’s made to fit it.” In other words, the cell is the engine that drives all life, and the receptors are the buttons on the control panel of that engine. The ligands or other neurotransmitters, known as peptides, are the fingers that push the buttons. The “musical hum of the receptors as they bind to their many ligands, often in the far-flung parts of the organism, creates an integration of structure and function that allows the organism to run smoothly and in “alignment” with the function of the specific ligands that are binding.

Referring to receptors and ligands, let’s apply our “as above, so below” principle to these ideas. The information that we receive into our organism as a whole — our interaction with our environment — seems to operate on exactly the same principle.

Information that “enters” the “cell” of our mental-body acts on us in the same way as a ligand acts on the cell when it binds to the receptor. The mind, our spirit receptor, having received information, transmits it deep into the interior of our consciousness, where the message can change the state of awareness dramatically. A chain reaction of psycho-spiritual events is initiated as the consciousness realigns itself based on the information received. This realignment then affects the entire self, the reality, and all support systems of the consciousness involved. In short, your BEing is determined by your state of awareness which is a function of your knowledge which depends on what “ligands” — or information units — are “bound” to your spirit, so to say. And just as ligands can produce cascades of cellular events with far reaching effects, so can your state of Being change because increased awareness can initiate major changes in your reality — the larger “body” in which you “live” as a “cell” of All that is.

Remember what we started with here: chemists came up with the idea that drugs worked in the body by attaching themselves to something in the body. Now we know about receptors and that they are receptive to chemicals manufactured by the body itself. Ligands, peptides, neurotransmitters, hormones, etc, are produced in the body and BY the body in certain “steps” that involve very complex processes.

And here is where we come to the DANGER part.

You see, there are chemicals, both natural and synthetic, that are sufficiently similar to the body’s own ligands to bind with the receptors without producing all of the same results that are produced when the body secretes its own ligands in the natural steps. The opiate receptor, for instance, can “receive” not only the body’s endorphins, but can also bind to morphine, or heroin. The Valium receptor can attach not only to Valium-like peptides produced in the body, but also to Valium.

Remember, “no drug can act unless fixed.” This means that if a drug works, it is because there is a receptor for it in the body. This, then, suggests that the receptor is there because it binds to a ligand produced by the body itself, which suggests that the body can produce its own drugs, stimulating its own healing, under the proper circumstances.

Looking in another direction, when we consider drugs that change “behavior,” such as heroin, marijuana, Librium, “angel dust,” or PCP, and so on, which precipitate radical changes in emotional states, these must also be able to bind because there are receptors for similar substances produced by the body. LSD and other hallucinogens, which produce changes in cognition, must also do so because there are receptors specific to them; suggesting again that such chemicals may, under proper circumstances, be produced by the body itself. This suggests to us that there may be natural steps to, or processes served by, such chemicals. And here we approach a very significant problem where, again, we may take the “as above, so below” approach to understanding our own natures.

Alcohol is everywhere. Tens of millions of human beings experience the consequences of alcohol addiction, from decreased job performance to liver damaged by spouse and child abuse, to total breakdown of social concepts and constraints ending in the proverbial “skid-row bum” looking every day for his MD 20-20 - or even a can of Sterno.

That is just alcohol. We aren’t even going to list the details for other drugs as it would be tedious and pointless. You have the idea.

Alcohol and other drugs have the ability to do what they do in our systems because they are “fixed;” they are synthetic ligands; they bind to our receptors and, in various ways, produce their effects.

In order to get an idea of how these fake ligands actually work, let’s take a look at caffeine. As our neurons process information, they produce cellular waste including a buildup of molecules of adenosine. Adenosine is a ligand that binds with the adenosine receptor sending a message deep into the cell that it is time to sleep. You could say that adenosine is a sort of “warning system” that helps keep the body balanced. As the production of adenosine continues throughout the day, as a byproduct of cerebral activity, more and more adenosine is produced, binding with more and more receptors, sending more and more sleep messages into more cells. Little by little our brain cells become more and more sluggish until we just simply must go to sleep. We literally can’t remain conscious. We yawn; our eyes water and try to close, and we just want to curl up and let the lights go out.
Or, we have a cup of espresso.

The caffeine molecule just happens to be the right “shape” for the adenosine receptor. It hops on and binds. But, instead of doing what the adenosine does, it sends a different message or, at the very least, blocks the sleep message from being sent by the real adenosine. In short, it interrupts the natural sleep signal, allowing a lot more cellular waste to accumulate, putting the individual in a state of toxicity, which can eventually lead to a breakdown of health.

In general, this seems to be the worst thing that caffeine does - it simply blocks the action of the ligand adenosine which sends sleep messages. Many people have been scared by incomplete research suggesting that caffeine does other deadly things, but additional studies have suggested that any consequences result merely from the disruption of the sleep cycle and a consequent break-down in the serotonin-melatonin cycle.

The important thing about this is, however, the comparison to information that is or is not accepted by the seeker which we will address more directly at the end of this volume. What we see in the example of caffeine as an “imitator” of adenosine is that the natural ligand seems to have some very subtle property that is conveyed deep into the cell, and the caffeine either blocks this message by occupying the receptor, or perhaps sends a contradictory message. Because of the exactitude of the molecule, adenosine apparently does more than the “almost ligand,” caffeine.

Now, if we think of information as ligands, we can see that accepting as true something that is not, may not only block our ability to receive the proper messages of what IS true, it may even send contradictory messages. Spiritual experiences that are “induced” ritually, chemically or technically from “down here” in order to change the spiritual state “up there,” operate in exactly this way. It seems that what we accept as true or not affects our spirit and state of awareness, not to mention our potentials for soul ascension. We could even compare certain “all is love and light” beliefs to the action of caffeine: they prevent the natural warning system from operating which tells the spirit when it needs to withdraw from certain things and allow a period of “cleansing” to take place. Over time, this can result in serious breakdown of the spirit, even - it seems - ultimate subsumation into Non-being. There is, however, a more serious problem we have to deal with: addiction.

Probably everyone has heard about some experiments that were done on rats where they were implanted with electrodes for self-stimulation of the “pleasure center” of the brain. What was discovered was that the rats would push the button until they were exhausted. Further experiments demonstrated that if the electric reward is doled out only when the rats learn a new trick - such as navigating a maze - the little critters will go to work like crazy to get the job done so that they can get their “buzz.” As long as the rewards keep coming, the rats will keep working - even mastering incredibly complex and seemingly impossible mazes that humans would find nearly impossible!

But, it’s not the learning they love.

The initial studies showed that, given the opportunity, the rats would forget everything - food, mates, and friends, whatever - to push that damn button until they collapse in mindless ecstasy!

In the human being, as in other creatures, the sensation that is experienced as orgasm is the same release of chemicals that stimulate the same part of the brain that makes the rats so happy. Some scientists refer to this in “technical jargon” as the “do-it-again” center.  When this center is stimulated, whatever activity is associated with it will be sought again and again.
As we now know, drugs “short circuit” these centers because they “fix” to receptors. We also know that when we take certain drugs, our brain acts to a certain extent as if the “natural” neurotransmitter were flooding the system. In the case of the pleasure center, the chemistry is so similar to what the brain would produce naturally if we had done something really great such as finding food or warmth or making love with a soul mate, that even if the person is hunkered down in a filthy flophouse reeking of vomit and excreta, with a hypodermic of heroin in his or her arm, the pleasure centers know only that they are bathed in chemical bliss.

Here is an important thing to consider. Even if the first time a person is induced to “try” such a drug, they are disgusted or repelled by the setting, the process, all the external elements, once they have received that reward, their whole perception begins to shift. Because the physical body loves that feeling so much, because it is so overwhelmingly compelling, the mind begins to rationalize that the nasty setting, the whole process that is clearly damaging to the self, is not merely “okay,” but is actually “desirable.” After all, how could it be bad if it feels so good? If part of the self argues that it can’t be good, another part of the self becomes literally frantic to achieve the state again. After all, what is going on in real life only produces “stress” and “bad feelings” which add the argument: you have suffered, now you deserve a reward!

The only problem with both drug addiction and spiritual addiction is that it is nearly always presented in a setting of pleasure and refinement. It is promoted as a “tool” to “enhance awareness.”

When cocaine is snorted up the nose, it heads straight for the dopamine re-uptake sites and blocks them. In this case, the “feel good sensation” is not from the drug, but from the fact that your own natural dopamine is flooding your cells, binding with the dopamine receptors like crazy, unable to be reabsorbed. The brain only knows one thing: this feels GREAT! Crack cocaine reportedly produces a more intense sensation of pleasure than any natural act, including orgasm! And, take note that it is from the body’s own chemical that this pleasure is experienced by virtue of the blocking of the re-uptake site. Again, we note that this prevents the body’s own specific ligand from binding with the re-uptake sites which is very likely also blocking a message intended to go deep into the cell. As it happens, this produces dreadful consequences, as we will soon see.

Morphine and Heroin work in a slightly different way. They mimic endorphins which trigger the release of the body’s own dopamine. So, instead of the sensation occurring because the natural flow of dopamine is not reabsorbed, it occurs because there is too much dopamine to be reabsorbed! But again, the fake endorphin is undoubtedly not sending the proper signal deep into the cells it is binding, and again, the excess of dopamine has significant consequences.

What are these consequences? With repeated use of cocaine, heroin or morphine unbalancing the body’s own dopamine processes, the body reacts by reducing the number of receptors! With fewer receptors, the effects of the drug - as well as the body’s normal ability to bind dopamine that is naturally present - plummets. Without the normal flow of dopamine into a normal number of receptors, the brain experiences “withdrawal” which is interpreted quite literally as “pain.” It is the agony of a mind that can feel no pleasure at all.

In strictly physical terms, one of the serious consequences of this process comes from the fact that dopamine plays an important role in controlling movement, emotion and cognition. Dopamine dysfunction has been implicated in schizophrenia, mood disorders, attention-deficit disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, substance dependency, tardive dyskinesia, Parkinson’s disease and so on. Of course, the situation is a lot more complex because at least seven types of dopamine receptors have been identified.
Now, the point of this diversion into brain chemistry as an exercise in understanding the principle “as above, so below,” is this: “accepting” what is not Truth is like taking a drug that binds to psychic receptors, so to say. So, this brings us back to the beginning of this section where I said “gathering false knowledge is worse than gathering no knowledge at all.” False knowledge, lies, are spiritual drugs and are not the “natural chemical” of the soul’s own “light,” so to say. The result is that it tends to create a condition of dependence by reducing the “psychic receptors” which then reduces the capacity to “bind truth.” In short, a person may be researching like crazy, but if he or she isn’t really, really utilizing perspicacity — that is, challenging and taking apart what is being studied in a diligent way — his or her acceptance based on “blind faith” amounts to getting your jollies with drugs.
The end result is analogous to the skid row bum in spiritual terms.

What is more, we notice from studying ligands and receptors that the body’s own chemicals have qualities that the imitations — drugs — do not. Those qualities, based on shape and atomic structure, can activate processes that the synthetic ligand cannot. The body’s chemical can even turn on cascades of processes within the cells that are blocked by the “artificial” ligand.
Truth works in the same way. The accumulation of “high probability” information without prejudice amounts to the gathering of all the parts of a very complex neuropeptide. When all the right pieces are finally together, it produces a certain “shape” that “fits” the spiritual receptor like a key in a lock. At that point — when the information block/unit is complete — it’s proximity causes the receptor to “hum” and the ligand/info “hums” back and they sort of “jump together” almost in the same way that describes physical ligands and receptors. AUM.

And so we find that the principle is this: to gather, gather, gather information and observations without any “ingestion,” so to say. This most definitely means to avoid practices which may produce the “do it again” chemicals because it is all too easy to be seduced into doing it again and again which amounts to blind belief.

Here, of course, we come up against a very special problem: the programs of our “machine,” our “intellect.” The formation and training of our intellect is done under circumstances that are the worst possible for developing the ability to think. Now is neither the time nor the place to go into a lengthy examination about what is wrong with childhood education, theories of infant care, and the endless lies propagated by our society and culture. Add to that an endless stream of considerations based on physical appearance, and by the time the ordinary person becomes an adult, he can neither think nor feel according to what is Truth. He has become a “false personality” that thinks it has a soul.

In short, it seems to me that what psychopaths do WORKS because they have observed women and know what to do to lure and capture them.  And this works because these women have a certain "something" inside them that is looking for a REAL love and they mistake the caricature for the real because they are ignorant of the facts of psychopathy.  They don't realize that they have "spiritual love binding sites" that can be bound by a "drug" (i.e. the psychopath) which does not act in the way the real neurochemical would act (i.e. the true spiritual love from a man who can GIVE and receive true love.)

This idea raises a lot of issues, not the least of which is what genuinely spiritual men need to do to get over their hang-ups and learn to give on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually; and women who need to learn how to distinguish the true from the false.

This topic is immensely important and comes down to discernment, which is the precondition for growth or development. If you cannot know the difference between a lie and the truth, life becomes a guessing game, the product of chance. Nothing can be truly "chosen" because false choices cancel out correct ones. The balance is always zero.

Discernment is the capacity to recognize truth, but truth is a multilevel concept. OPs (i.e. level I/primary integration/no developmental potential) cannot discern truth from a lie, they must be told the difference. You can see this in religion and politics. Enemies are labeled as "evil" and the in-group is assumed to be "good". But obviously this is an arbitrary distinction. There will be good and bad people in both groups. The fact is, true believers cannot even recognize when evil people (and obviously evil people, at that) are members of their own in-group. They lack the ability of discernment. They rely on social cues (2nd factor) for their beliefs. For such individuals, the only solution is a social environment where truth is known, where multilevel individuals create the social cues. It's only natural that a person who sees in colour will lead those who cannot. But in this world, as it is, the blind lead the blind, and multilevel individuals are targeted by psychopathic individuals.

There are the blind, and those who simply have blinders over their eyes. As Laura points out, removing these blinders is DIFFICULT, because the lie takes the form of the truth. And in a world where truth is in short supply, people will cling desperately to the next best thing. It's like all those disaster movies where the sole survivors of some cataclysm have to raid gas stations to get food. The only stuff they can find is junk food, but because they're so hungry, they take it. And who would want to give up something thinking that they've already got it? And knowing that if they give it up, they may never really find it? It's a test of will, for sure.

Psychopaths offer everything we want and need, but do not have the eyes to discern for ourselves. We want strength, safety, security, but we cannot tell the difference between the protection of a hero, and the arrogance of a psychopath. We mistake the self-certainty and lack of self-doubt of the psychopath with the wisdom and right action of the true leader. We mistake the cheap ploys of psychopaths to snare us with easy salvation for true gnosis and spirit's immanence. We mistake the rock for the philosopher's stone.

Thank you Laura. This post, along with other recent ones from you have made me 'sink' some personal understandings a bit deeper. You wrote:

This idea raises a lot of issues, not the least of which is what genuinely spiritual men need to do to get over their hang-ups and learn to give on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually; and women who need to learn how to distinguish the true from the false.

I'd say that at least for me, as a man, the two things that have prevented me from giving truly and on all levels (which I want to do) are fear and imagination. I now see that the longing is not bad in itself; it's both the fear of being alone forever and the imagination that 'she' is here or there that mess things up. The good news is that I think I'm much capable now of living without those two things than I was a couple of years ago - or at least that's how I feel at the moment. And I have to thank you for that too!

 I have had a number of thoughts about love  that I would like to share that are based on personal experience and observation, not to mention years of helping others with their relationship problems.

One thing that kept going around in my mind over the past couple of days was  what Gurdjieff said about love:

"Conscious love evokes the same in response. 
Emotional love evokes the opposite. 
Physical love depends on type and polarity."

What, exactly, did he mean by these three statements? 

When he said "physical love depends on type and polarity" he was probably  talking about the type of individuals involved and whether or not there was a good  "match" between the individuals' in terms of their type (man 1, 2, 3) and  their traits (polarity) etc.  In short, he seems to be suggesting that love  that begins as a physical attraction MIGHT work in some cases depending on  the variables involved.   That's really like saying it is a crapshoot for  most people, though obviously something could be made of it if the  individuals (or someone) at least were able to see their type and polarity  and make a "educated choice."   In other words, for it to work, it almost  has to move into the realm of "conscious love."

Emotional love, as his little aphorism depicts it, seems to be describing  projection... we know that one pretty well.  One person gets his emotions  cranking, projects onto another an image of something that this other cannot  (or probably cannot) ever be, and more or less makes emotional demands that  cannot be met which then deteriorates into resentment and finally disunion  or even hate.  This can also describe “love” with a psychopath.  The psychopath induces the emotions, generates the projection process, and bingo!

We've certainly had enough examples of that sort of thing to look at (not to  mention, many of us experiencing it; it might be the most common type of  relation that passes for "love.")

But what about conscious love that evokes the same in response?  What  exactly is this?

Well, I've been thinking a lot about it over the past few  years,  thinking about  my own experiences, including my relationship with Ark, things the Cs have  said, and here is what occurs to me to say:

When two individuals encounter one another there can be reactions from any  one or combination, or all three, of the above "centers" -  intellectual/consciousnes, emotional, moving/sex center/physical body.

If the first reaction is physical, the sex center energy can make the  emotional center begin to move and this emotional and/or sex/moving cener  energy can then be usurped by the intellect and the individual begins to  dream and to manufacture reasons why what the body/sex center wants is good  and "real love" or whatever. 

As we know, this is a path full of traps and tricks and can lead to  disaster.  Yet it is the usual way in the world and the source of incredible  misery and suffering.  Most of us come from families where this was the mode  of interaction between our parents, the reasons they got married.  I don't  think I need to give all the examples of how this works.    We can see that  this can create the "emotional love projection" and so on. 

That's not to say that once in a while a relationship that starts this way  can't work out.  But if it does, it is a function of other centers taking over at the appropriate moment and the likelihood of that  happening is pretty remote.

Of course, the chances of such an attraction working are greatly increased  if the individuals encounter one another in particular situations.  For  example, if you go to a bar, you generally go to "meet people" and the  people who go to bars to meet people are generally interested mainly in  meeting them for sexual reasons, not intellectual or spiritual reasons (though they may lie to themselves about their reasons to make it “okay”.)  The  same can be true for about any venue: if you go to a chess club to meet  people (rather than to play chess), you may meet a different kind of person, but you will still be going  there for reasons other than chess and if you meet someone who is there to  meet people too, then both of you have met for reasons other than chess and  probably are lying to the self.  If, on the other hand, you are going to  play chess and others are going to play chess, and you meet someone and form  a relationship based on your mutual interest in chess which then blossoms,  there is more hope for such a relationship.  That is, you are not being  driven by the moving/sex center and/or emotional center which is hungry, to  go to the chess club to "meet someone", even if this is veiled in excuses to  the self that you are going because you like chess. 

What I mean to say is if you go somewhere for a pure and true interest and  you HAPPEN to meet someone else in that venue who is also there for similar  honest reasons, that is, they have not come there for the express (even if  hidden) purpose of "meeting someone", then at least you have the possibility  of having something in common.

Hope that's clear.

Continuing...

Two people meet in a particular environment where they have arrived NOT for  the purpose of "finding someone," but because they are there for deeper  reasons.  Already the odds are in their favor a LITTLE bit.

Now, suppose that in this encounter, rather quickly, the moving/sex center  feels a physical attraction and kicks the emotional center and the sex and emotional  energy suffuses the intellect.  Well, that can really complicate things as  we have observed, but still, there is a chance that once this sort of energy  has burned off that there is something fundamental there to work with  in terms of real love.  It can take time and it can involve suffering – even a LOT of suffering -  but  there is that one factor that the two individuals at least encountered one  another in a particular context that did NOT include being driven by the  moving/sex center. 

Of course, it is possible for the moving/sex center to drive a person to do  certain things because that energy is being consumed by other centers.    If  a person joins a chess club because their sex center energy makes them  fanatical about chess, a sort of chess revolutionary, then there can be  problems.   If a person joins a church because their sex center energy is  driving them to religious fanaticism, same thing...  Gurdjieff talks about  this as "the abuse of sex."  That really amounts to lying to the self about  why you do things.   

But anyway, getting back to our theoretical situations: two people meet in a  particular context that gives some positive environmental factors to their  meeting even if they have some problems with emotional center management.   All kinds of pain and lessons can ensue from this even if there is good  reason to think that the two individuals are good or right for each other!    After all, they met NOT because they were out there "hunting for sex" or hunting to feed their false personality - but  because they had a sincere interest in the context which brought them  together.

It is also possible that two such people can do irreparable damage to each  other even if they are right for each other (indicated by the context in  which they met) because the sex center and emotional center energy starts  flooding their systems and causing them to lie to each other and to  themselves, or at least, to not be completely sincere and externally  considerate of one another.

So, how to proceed?

Remember this from Gurdjieff:

"The chief means of happiness in this life is the ability to consider  externally always, internally never."

And, generally, when one is considering relationships between people who are  wounded, where the centers are not balanced, this is a very difficult  objective to attain.   

The Knightly ideal seems to be a good model: There are dragons imprisoning  the princess in the tower and the knight must slay them, but he needs SOME  help from the Princess who must give him certain information to help him.   Then, once he has freed her from the tower, she must help him rest and  recover or even heal wounds received in the battle with HER dragon.

That's the metaphor for dealing with emotional programs and discombobulated  (that's a technical term) relationships of centers.

What does it mean in practical terms?

Well, it will be different for different relationships because of the  individual differences in nature and polarities and so on.  Here's where  Gurdjieff's remark about physical love also comes into play.

In general, we have observed that MOST of the time, the man plays the  knightly role (we are talking about people working on themselves, not people “out there” who have no knowledge of The Work) but it does happen that this can shift back and forth  depending on the issue at hand.   SOMEtimes, the woman can be the symbolic  knight and slay a dragon plaguing the man - but that is not very common.   Usually, the dynamic follows the metaphor pretty closely. 

How does this "dragon slaying" play out in practical terms? 

It involves knowledge and elimination of barriers to intimacy.  After  all, the knight and the princess in the tower actually represent the two  soul essences that wish to unite and become one. 

Because of our life experiences, our dragons are programs (buffers in Gudjieffspeak) that form in our  natures - our false personality, so to say - as a means of dealing with what  amounts to crazy-making environments usually created by parents who married  for the wrong reasons and live out their lives in dysfunctional situations  that turn them into narcissists and vampires in respect of each other, their  children, everyone they know to one degree or another.

When, as children, our expectations or trust has been repeatedly damaged in  small and not so small ways, we become tense and suspicious and defensive.   When we are tense and suspicious and defensive, we stop communicating  openly.  Our communication becomes "formulaic" - what we believe we can  safely say without getting hurt - and narrow, what we think the other person  wants to hear.   This is a major dragon that must be slain. 

Why? 

Because if there is no true and honest, essence to essence communication,  there is NO intimacy.

The most important thing about a relationship is that the two people share  CLEAR and HONEST information about each other.  And this means not just what  the false personality judges to be clear and honest according to the  emotional energy that can start running the show, but objectively clear and  honest.

If information is shared that is cloudy or mystifying or confusing, intimacy  is not possible.

Our wounded emotions will tend to make us hear and see only what we want to  see and hear.  We cherry pick info from our environment as "evidence" of  what we want to be true.  And very often, what we want to be true is that we  want to replicate the environment in which we grew up where we were trying  so desperately to get real love and attention.   We want to replicate this  old and dysfunctional environment because we want to "fix it."  This is  generally a function of the physical attraction which seeks to replicate  that old dynamic ...

When, in a relationship, a person is blocked by either their own programs, (buffers)  or by the behavior of the other person (their programs/buffers), from giving clear information and  having that information received and understood, it feels like an invasion  of our sanity.   That is "crazy-making."   It can be as crazy-making as not  getting clear information from the other person.  And it is particularly bad  when it concerns our emotions. 

The fear of communicating directly and the fear of receiving direct and  honest communication is equally bad... and can destroy a relationship even  between two people who are "right" for each other.

The fear of saying what we feel can result in us shutting down our feelings  altogether!!! We begin to censor not only externally, but internally.   We  get caught in a trap of denying to others AND TO OURSELVES, what we really  feel.

We all have the right to our feelings.  But, as children, the actions begin  that shut those feelings down, stunt them, freeze them at an infantile state  of development.    When our parents try to impose THEIR views on us, to  convince us that we do not feel the way we do, that we must feel the way  THEY do, we also become angry. And the feeling of anger, not being  acceptable, is also suppressed.   We may get angry at our parent and they  then switch into "victim" or "martyr" mode, and we feel guilty for our  feelings of aggression, so we sacrifice our feelings for peace and goodwill.

All of these programs are dragons that must be slain so that the knight and  princess can come together. 

Good mental health and good physical health  requires that we perceive the  realities of our lives as clearly and accurately as possible.

A good relationship requires that we can share these perceptions honestly  and openly and even find resonance in our partner.

When the other person constantly forces us (by subtle or not-so-subtle  means) to constantly deny or suppress reality as we perceive it because THEY  have some kind of program running, when we must deny what we see, hear and  feel for the sake of "peace and goodwill," life and the relationship is  deteriorating and out of control.

In the mind of the individual who is thinking with emotional energy or  sexual/moving center energy, the person who is running false personality  programs and so on, there is the conviction that what they are doing is  being "right" and "good" and "doing their duty as they perceive it" and so  on.   But essentially, they are only trying to cope with their own lack of  inner control (unable to resist the negative introject that runs their life also known as programs/buffers)  by trying to control another.

Recognizing these dynamics is "seeing the dragon."

Okay, I'm not going to talk about this so much in terms of pathology in this post because  that is not what we are dealing with right here.  We are talking about people who  at least "see the dragon" and know that they must deal with it.

So, we come back to honest communication, external considering ever and  internal considering never. 

Isn't that something of a contradiction? 

Not really.  If BOTH partners are equally sincere in their efforts to see  that the dragons are slain, the external considering of one will act FOR the  other.   It will become a sort of objective internal considering.   Get  that?  It's subtle and tricky, but important.

Okay, so the two people are embarked on engaging intellectually to really  get to know one another.  If they can go a certain distance and realize that  they really want to become more intellectually intimate, this is what leads  to emotional engagement and  the desire and ability to help one another slay  dragons, etc. 

So, the minds join (and this may be a function of the context of meeting  assuming that both are equally sincere in their reason for being present in  the context) and THEN the emotions begin to engage... and here is where the  battles with dragons are fought.

The energy goes from the head to the heart, so to say. 

It is after the period of engagement with the dragons and bringing the  emotional natures together that one can then consider it appropriate to  "commit/marry". 

Keep in mind that sex is a bonding experience on many levels.  It is not  always true, but MOST often, problems arise because the proper order is not  followed.  If sex comes first, you end up bonding in a way that is not  healthy.  Or you bond with someone that you ought not to bond with, only you  don't figure this out for a long time - when the "glue" of the bond wears  off by the agitation of the unbonded (and unbondable) emotional and  intellectual centers.   I’ll have more to say about this in relation to psychopathy in another post.

So, to recap: one soul meets another, the two souls make themselves known to  one another via true communication and this creates a REAL emotional bond,  and from there, the energy spreads and the body can be properly set on fire  for the fusion of true love where the two people grow together day by day  until they are no longer two, but one.

Becoming one is not just self-integration... it can be the union of souls  where the communication is the means of the completion - communication on  ALL levels: intellectual, emotional, physical which then leads to the birth  of the spiritual One.

As the Cs described it: "I am become One, Creator of Worlds."

What I mean to say is if you go somewhere for a pure and true interest and  you HAPPEN to meet someone else in that venue who is also there for similar  honest reasons, that is, they have not come there for the express (even if  hidden) purpose of "meeting someone", then at least you have the possibility  of having something in common.

Hope that's clear.

Or, do what you love/like to do, and 'quit looking for a partner'. Is that close to what you mean, over simplified?

I met my husband that way. 

["This absolute-Love is accessible to the human soul even here. However,neither man nor woman can reach it separately. It is only accessible to a couple, and on the condition of a conscious and total integration of both into a single Being by a synthesis of the real 'I' and 'You' who have had the strength to break the crust of their respective Personalities. In practice, this can only happen when the two Personalities are already very advanced, and both rich with the exper-ience that each has separately acquired in exterior life. "]

What a precious and usefull thread! Thank you so much Laura and the other members.

Ever since i first started to grasp concepts like the "warrior's path" of Castaneda or the "Work" of Gurdjieff, I immediately felt the value that these concepts hold as a way to that metaphoric "Knighthood", meaning the way to become a "Knight: worthy of the love/unity with an equally worthy "Princess" and also a way to become strong enough to fight the "dragons" that stand or will get in between...

Either from being a zodiac combination of Gemini-Scorpio  or simply due to my romantic, and some times "foolishly idealistic" nature, i always had a strong urge to find and unite with my "other-half" but also strangely matched with the feeling that some "force" will be constantly trying to prevent that from happening.    And actually when i did meet the one who -i feel- was my "other-half", this strange "force of coincidences" did came crushing in the most bizarre ways.  My frustration at that critical time against the feeling of being unable to overcome the internal and external "dragons" provided (and still does) for me a great lot of "internal heat" to tap, so the benefits from that experience were on the long run worth it. Fortunately, i was introduced to Castaneda's works and the warrior's concept prior to that event, and that provided a important "setting" to assimilate all that emotional energy creatively. That was more than ten years ago, and today i have some better yet still growing understanding of dynamics behind what happened. Put in a few words, sometimes it only takes a moment before you suddenly have to unhide and be the best "Knight in shinning armor" you can,  but if you are not already ready and vigilant, then the chance will be gone since it takes more than just a moment to become a "Knight" out of thin air if you are not well-prepared the hard way beforehand...

But, Laura's insight in her post sets the equation right: The psychopaths appear to mis-use some originally positive tactics and traits which they "caricaturize" while using them to feed their needs and Self. If that sounds "simple" to you now, it was quite a revelation for me to realize it when i read it... So to continue the metaphor, there are not only "Knights" and "non-knights" may i say, there are also "false-Knights". And since the "false" might be even more than the "real" ones (since i do not know if the corresponding 6-8% of the souled male population has that a high degree of esoteric evolution to be called a "Knight"), we have a genuinely positive model of behaviour for expressing interest, care and affection being corrupted by it's misuse by the psychopaths... If we add to this our culture's submission to money, and it's becoming the main means of judging people, we have all the ingredients to explain the current plight and unhappiness of the world...  If only we could be given a chance to explore the possibilities that are presented to a soul-matched couple in terms of attaining a critical amount of Love-Light-Knowledge during this 3rd density life! 

As Mouravieff wrote in Gnosis :

"This absolute-Love is accessible to the human soul even here. However,
neither man nor woman can reach it separately. It is only
accessible to a couple, and on the condition of a conscious and total
integration of both into a single Being by a synthesis of the real  'I' and
'You' who have had the strength to break the crust of their respective
Personalities. In practice, this can only happen when the two
Personalities are already very advanced, and both rich with the exper-
ience that each has separately acquired in exterior life. "

But i really have to thank Laura for is the reminder:

In short, it seems to me that what psychopaths do WORKS because they have observed women and know what to do to lure and capture them.  And this works because these women have a certain "something" inside them that is looking for a REAL love and they mistake the caricature for the real because they are ignorant of the facts of psychopathy.  They don't realize that they have "spiritual love binding sites" that can be bound by a "drug" (i.e. the psychopath) which does not act in the way the real neurochemical would act (i.e. the true spiritual love from a man who can GIVE and receive true love.)

This idea raises a lot of issues, not the least of which is what genuinely spiritual men need to do to get over their hang-ups and learn to give on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually; and women who need to learn how to distinguish the true from the false.

 

This is really a charged period to me, and many clues are coming from here and here in a funny way. I was struggling two nights ago with the concept of the dragon and of saving the princess and inner Work. Trying to rely the dots about inner-self and outer world (some would suggest microcosm and macrocosm considerations but I'm not sure it will apply at my sorry level). I've always "knew" that I was a romantic boy by construction. Even during my adolescence when I totally closed myself to emotions in an attempt to protect inner world. Last week was my xxth birthday and fortunately I was sick. That gives you time to read, think and meditate and this subject came to mind. In Mouravieff's Gnosis it is designated I think as the 5th Way.

I would like at this point ask two little (stupid? ) questions :

- True Love as described in this thread is the idea one can have about STO dynamics. Healing self through 4th Way, own dragons, then in case one meets a soul who also slained her own dragons through 4th way, help each other to slain the other dragons through 5th way? In a word, the 4th way as a preparation to the 5th STO way where every one gives to the other rather then the imbalanced relationships where one or both takes from the other? Creative energy of giving to the other is at the benefit of both. Is it a possible way to understand it?

- When we speak about a soulmate here. What is it exactly? Is it that idea that every soul has only one soulemate somewhere in spacetime? Or is it that every person with a soul and having enough sincerity and courage to engage in a true love relationship could be the good one? (I am conscious that this question is extremely naive but I really need to know ).

[Ark - February 1967]

Hi mkrnhr

I don't think your questions are stupid, infact I think there quite important.
I'm unable to answer them directly (I realise I need to go away and do some reading/learning on the ideas, to be able to come back and even attempt to answer them), but I do know of 3 threads that may be good starting point to those questions, as they have discussed very similar questions within them.

Can doing THE WORK in a non-collinear relationship be TRUE LOVE?
Marital conflict, children and the work
Sex and the Work

Perhaps it would be useful for everyone for us to get some quotes from Sandra Brown's two books, "How to Spot a Dangerous Man" and "Women Who Love Psychopaths" in here?  Hopefully, everyone has a copy of both.

Is love relationship neccesary for work ? Or one can go 4th way without it ?

Reason i ask, i see women through eyes of a dog, and it does not feel right to be in any relationship while my vision is twisted.

Thank you very much with posts on this topic. It is inspirational.

[Almost every psychopath at some point has accused his woman of being just as sick as he is. He is the Master Projector projecting his own pathology onto others. Nearly every woman indicated he had told her that she is the one who is pathological or mentally ill and since she is so sick, no one else would ever want her.]

Perhaps it would be useful for everyone for us to get some quotes from Sandra Brown's two books, "How to Spot a Dangerous Man" and "Women Who Love Psychopaths" in here?  Hopefully, everyone has a copy of both.

There are many valuable quotes to be found in WWLP.

For me the most shocking idea in this book was the literal destruction of some of the most brilliant women by the psychopaths.

People could think that only naive, pathological, ignorant women fall in the psychopaths trap (as often claimed by the ones who blame the victim and point that the woman, because of her weakness, triggered the psychopath behaviour.

Almost every psychopath at some point has accused his woman of being just as sick as he is. He is the Master Projector projecting his own pathology onto others. Nearly every woman indicated he had told her that she is the one who is pathological or mentally ill and since she is so sick, no one else would ever want her.
Additionally, many counselors have wondered the same thing and have chosen to focus on the woman’s “assumed” pathology because she fell into a relationship with one of the sickest types of men. In some rare cases, there is mutual pathology. That means both the woman and the psychopath
have permanent personality disorders. Out of the 75 women we surveyed, only two seemed to have major personality pathology!

So WWLP are not pathological, quite the opposite actually. They're not introverted and look for fun. They are actually full of life, they love life (at least before meeting a psychopath).

We've heard that “opposites attract” which means that an extravert can be attracted to an introvert.
This isn't true with psychopaths and their women, which makes extraversion an important concept to remember. Two extroverts are intensely attracted to one another. Since extroverts are action oriented, both of them are likely to act on this intense attraction.
Interestingly, this is the only major trait that the psychopath's woman shares with the psychopath—
the issue of extraversion and excitement seeking. This is the attraction, the hookup factor, and the issue upon which their dating relationship was based, the exciting extroverted life they both want to live!

Here is the root of the fake love, the drug ligand, instead of pursuing real love, WWLP are seeking excitement (no doubt modern societies that keep promoting entertainment, excitement, experiences make women even more vulnerable to the psychopaths' trap)

In addition to their liveliness, WWLP score very high in motherly values like empathy, tolerance, friendliness, compassion that are strong indicators of conscience/soul.

Temperament Traits of the WWLP

Excitement Seeking Total      Moderately High
NS1-Exploratory Excitability      High
Relationship
Investment Total      High
RD1-Sentimentality      High
RD3-Attachment      High
RD4-Dependence      High
Harm Avoidance Total      Mixed
HA1-Anticipatory Worry      Moderately High
Cooperativeness (C) Total      High
C1-Social Acceptance      High
C2-Empathy      High
C3-Helpfulness      High
C4-Compassion      High

So WWLP are usually brilliant, full of potential, they are some of the mother goddess representative that our world needs so much to heal.

Then why do they fall into this trap ?

The obvious question is, If she's empathic why didn't she know what she was feeling from the psychopath was fake?” As strong as her quality is as a genuine empath, it is no match for the con artist psychopath. The ability to make an empathic feel strongly about his false stories is probably no more shocking than how psychopaths con psychiatrists and other forensic professionals who are supposed to know what psychopathic behavior is all about. Unfortunately, the psychopath is smarter than we are empathic and he can abuse absolutely any positive trait that will benefit the con he is involved in.

Here is a fundamental cause of the drama : the psychopath's cunnigness is stronger than WWLP empathy.

WWLP having found someone smarter than they are empathic are ready to get under the spell of the psychopath. Actually the psychopath is not only smart, his power of seduction seems almost supernatural.

Nothing about genuine love here but an amazing strong chemistry, a kind of crack+cocaine+heroin ligand that totally takes control of the victim who is sure to live the perfect love.

Many women tell us that psychopaths have a different feel to them. The psychopath is not only charming, engaging and skillful at keeping the relationship pace at a gallop, but he also sends off the most sensual vibes. However, what women think is chemistry is really the intensity of his pathological attachment (see Chapter 7). The chemistry with an extroverted psychopath feels new, different and exciting. It piques women's curiosity. They want to understand how and why this guy is different from the rest. After all, they too are excitement seeking extroverts and surely want to get to know this man who is new and unique. There is no doubt that the attachment and intense chemistry felt with a psychopath is universal. Almost all of the women described in detail the unusual
bond they felt that they didn't really understand. Some felt it instantly:
“We seemed to have this incredible immediate chemistry.”
“He had me at hello…”
“It was instant chemistry. It was the way he looked at me. He had such an energy. “
“We had an instant bond. He was just like me.”
Some felt the chemistry was trance-inducing or magical:
“I thought he was odd but unique. It felt different.”
“He would tell me that I worked magic over him as if he was acting against his own will.”
“He told me I had him under my spell, which the truth is it felt like I was the one under some kind of spell.”
Some used eye gazing:
“He had the most intense eye contact and bonding.”
Some used the general public to validate their strong connection:
“He told me that when he walked into a room with me, everyone was jealous of our connection.”
Others used sexual seduction techniques:
“He teased me sexually at first and withheld so I would feel amorous towards him. He was quite charming and his seduction was a very strong drug that got me hooked instantly.”
Some women noticed the intensity of the attraction or chemistry:
“We had this incredible attraction to each other. It was horrible and wonderful all at the same time.”
“We just seemed to connect.”
“I found him so attractive in many ways. He knew that and exploited it.”
“I tried to stay away from him but…”
“I thought he was the man of my dreams—we had so much in common, hit it off right away and just felt really connected to him.”

Once the bond is there, once the honey moon is over, the psychopaths start to literally destroy their victims. One could think WWLP only experience the usual damages linked to a normal break-up, the truth is far more darker.

“You feel trapped constantly in some weird kind of game that you didn’t ever want to play in the first place. You know you’ll never be the same again. You see who you were just evaporate.”

A relationship with a psychopathic man is not like any other failed relationship. The women who loved psychopaths are not just bitter women scorned. It is simply not possible to have a relationship
with a psychopath and not be harmed and damaged to a significant degree.

Damaged generated by psychopaths are severe, long lasting and affect any field :

Percent with Symptom Type of harm reported (yes or no)
95 Emotional
85 Psychological
71 Financial
67 Career
51 Sexual
51 Physical
26 Other Harm

financial/professionnal life :

“I lost my home because of all the refinances we did to tide us over while we waited for his purported
funds to appear. He took a loan out in my name on my solely owned personal property by having a neighbor pretend to be me.”
“He freely spent over $40K of my life savings and earnings.”
“When I met this man, I only owed money for graduate school loans. Now, I owe a massive amount in credit card debts, for a car payment, and more. He ‘robbed Peter to pay Paul’ and kept it hidden from me. It’s amazing that with $1200 less per month, I somehow manage to pay all my bills on time and am paying my debt down. When he was here, we could never make ends come close to meeting.”
“He took all the money we had. When his credit was no good anymore he forced me to ruin mine. He allowed our house to foreclose. And while we were in the marriage he constantly chose fun over bills, putting us in a precarious financial situation that I am now going to have to file bankruptcy because of.”

psychological life :

“It really destroyed my self-esteem. My emotional and mental energy has been consumed by trying to make sense of it all and figure out how to heal from it. I am not all there yet, but I work on it daily.”
“Again...finding out the man you loved did not ever exist...that the single man who was pursuing you with an ‘honorable’ intent was actually married...Those things ...that type of betrayal messes with your heart, mind and spirit.”
“Has affected my energy level and ability to focus. I haven’t concentrated on endeavors to increase my income (although I really need to). I am just drained by trying to process all of this.”

physical harm :

“This relationship has taken a grave physical toll on my body. I have several conditions. I look about 20 years older than I actually am. This relationship has taken a grave physical toll on my body. I have several conditions. I look about 20 years older than I actually am. It has also ruined me financially. If it were not for my 22 year old daughter, I would be homeless.”

When I finished reading this book an horrific idea haunted me for months.

Our world so desperately needs to develop the feminine values of compassion, empathy, understanding, tolerance.

Meanwhile women, and some of them in particular, are the privileged carrier of this potential but ironically they also are the favourite preys of the psychopaths.

Once into their claws they will be literally destroyed and it will take years for them to recover and be able to bring their exceptional potential into this world on the verge of destruction that need them so much.

Our dear 4th density lords couldn't have designed a more cunning scenario.

[dominant actions]

What is the “pull” of attraction and how does it catch our attention? Studies of attraction reveal women are most attracted to masculine characteristics that are indicators of high testosterone. These characteristics are physical and behavioral. Men high in testosterone advertise this fact to women through their “manly” appearance and dominant actions. Some believe that women’s attraction to these features is evolutionary, that for a woman to sustain the species she subconsciously was attracted to and mated with the strongest males. Testosterone makes a man’s face rugged and his muscles strong and bulky and causes him to be assertive and dominant. Testosterone is also responsible for men’s sex drives, motivating men to seek sex partners.

Trying to apply this to the broader picture, we can see that Guru's, religious and political leaders have that same 'dominant' aspect. They're confident, bold, assertive. "We are good, They are bad." and this gives their followers something to 'bind' too. It's as Laura describes above, the drug or caricature takes the place of the real and you have similar affects. Devotion, willingness to obey orders, etc. Because this is false however the individual is unable to truly grow from the experience and either remains the same or stagnates - taking on the characteristics of their pathological idol.

Testosterone increases a man’s energy level, sensation seeking and impulsivity all of which are related to the extraversion and excitement seeking we discussed in Chapters 3 and 5. As we mentioned
before, these traits in men are very attractive to some women but also, unfortunately, high energy, extraversion and impulsivity are traits associated with psychopathy.

Since all of these attraction-based traits are found in psychopaths, we can see why psychopaths have an easy time attracting women. Since a strong sexual attraction creates impulsiveness, and most women register their level of attraction for a man within seconds of meeting him, this creates a very high risk situation! A few fleeting seconds are not enough to screen out dangerous but highly attractive psychopaths.

The same can be said for ideology or for 'leaders', they're extraverted, exciting to listen to, and they seem to know just what to say in order to get their flock to follow them off a cliff.

After the attraction phase has begun, emotional and physical intimacy creates a love bond. In the early stages of intimacy building, verbal sharing of feelings and ideas lay the foundation of the love bond. Men high in psychopathic traits don’t have the normal spectrum of emotions so they compensate by being great talkers. A range of intense emotions generally makes normal men less talkative because they feel inhibited by these emotions. Men usually don’t cope with emotions by sharing them the way women do. Women then tend to read the psychopath’s sharing of “emotions” in a positive light. Psychopaths are known for their “gift of gab” from which their charm and charisma flow. Women often think they have hit the jackpot with the psychopath because they are used to inhibited normal men, who don’t talk much about their feelings. But along comes the loose-tongued psychopath who can charm her with the flowery language of love. Sharing of feelings, talking, and early eye-gazing are the beginning phases of creating the woman’s love bond. The more they talk, share feelings, spend time together, and make intense eye contact, the deeper she will attach.

And so it goes... the longer one is exposed to a tainted ideology the more one 'believes'. I've seen it myself, most notably with born again Christians. The more they listen to their talk radio, read their literature and absorb it directly from the pulpit the more they hear their ideology's or leader's take on things. Soon they discover they have an answer for everything! Only, in reality, their answers are full of holes but when one is enamored one cannot see them and fills them in oneself, subconsciously. Tons of subconscious substitution and selection takes place and before you know it the individual is behaving pathologically all the while believing they are doing 'God's will' or 'Saving the world'.

Psychopaths are highly sexual. Since they are attractive both physically (with their masculine testosterone) and emotionally (with their verbal sharing), they don’t have trouble getting women to have sex with them—often within hours of the first meeting. Many women say they were shocked how quickly they had sex with the psychopath—violating their own normal standard set for sexual practices. Both an “almost animalistic attraction” and “a sensing she intimately knew him” seemed to fuel her rapid sense of attachment to him.

And I'd say the same for ideologies. Of course some leaders or guru's do have sex with their students, Pepin being a case in point, which makes the analogy literal in a creepy sort of way. But I've seen christians who are obsessed with the bible, or radically defend it's premises and their interpretations of the text, all the while ignoring the possibility for multiple interpretations or the scientific evidence (Reason) that demonstrates it to be falsified and distorted, not to mention the best selling thought-control to come down through the millenia. Heck, I've even been quoted at by a essay called 'The Cult of Reason' - talk about irony!

So we see that when the sex center is involved, especially abuse of its energies, normal people will follow an insane agenda of genocide (Gaza) and justify it with all sort of nonsense as long as it comes from an ideological source or a leader they've bonded with.

Scary. 

Edit: An interesting after-thought, Gaza and Zionist Apologists was on my mind before, now I'm pondering what will happen if Obama goes over to the dark side - think of all the people who have bonded to him.

[In the early stages of intimacy building, verbal sharing of feelings and ideas lay the foundation of the love bond.]

Notice this in particular:

After the attraction phase has begun, emotional and physical intimacy creates a love bond. In the early stages of intimacy building, verbal sharing of feelings and ideas lay the foundation of the love bond. Men high in psychopathic traits don’t have the normal spectrum of emotions so they compensate by being great talkers. A range of intense emotions generally makes normal men less talkative because they feel inhibited by these emotions. Men usually don’t cope with emotions by sharing them the way women do. Women then tend to read the psychopath’s sharing of “emotions” in a positive light. Psychopaths are known for their “gift of gab” from which their charm and charisma flow. Women often think they have hit the jackpot with the psychopath because they are used to inhibited normal men, who don’t talk much about their feelings. But along comes the loose-tongued psychopath who can charm her with the flowery language of love. Sharing of feelings, talking, and early eye-gazing are the beginning phases of creating the woman’s love bond. The more they talk, share feelings, spend time together, and make intense eye contact, the deeper she will attach.

This is the key to what I was writing about above: the intellectual center is engaged and the potential lovers come to know one another deeply via communication.  The psychopath totally fakes this phase with lies and a mask.

That then fires up the emotional center.... which kicks the moving/sex center into gear and off they go.

It's actually worse than having a relationship with an ordinary person who is just physically attractive.  In this latter case, when the physical attraction wears off, that's it, finis, over, sayonara.  It hurts some, but it doesn't feel like your soul has been eaten.

With the psychopath, the woman has been engaged on all three levels IN THE CORRECT ORDER.  But it is all based on fraud, lies, imitation, mimicry.

I think that there is something about this order of engagement that we need to pay attention to. 

As for the "risk taking correlate," I'm not sure that this is exactly what it appears to be.  In the case of the psychopath, they take risks not so much because they have high testosterone but because they have a LACK of fear of consequences, a lack of imagination of consequences and future.   In the case of the women involved, it may relate more to having an imagination and also being generally courageous, keeping in mind that courage is not lack of fear, but rather doing things in spite of fear.  I think that this aspect should have been broken down and examined more carefully, but that's really a minor issue.

What we see with the "normal guys" who are inhibited is that their fear controls them.  A woman who is courageous and is not controlled by her fears (even if she has them) may find it difficult to respect a man who is controlled by emotional inhibitions.  That is the problem of the intellect usurping the energy of the emotional center - men whose thinking is controlled by their damaged and/or undeveloped emotions.

Yes, indeed, normal men are at a very distinct disadvantage in comparison with the psychopath who creates the illusion of a guy whose mind is not entrapped by his neuroses.

But what if sincere guys, guys with heart and a lot to offer, could learn to get over their neuroses and perform this evolutionarily programmed courting process properly and with truth and honor?

And then we also have pathologically narcissitic and narcissistically wounded men to consider.  Some can appear quite charming, much like the psychopath, and they may exhibit similar traits such as lack of fear, assertiveness, excitement seeking and a love of talking about themselves and their feelings. 

[From WWLP Page 56]

Glad to see this thread after just reading the book WWLP.  I found that Chapter 6 Her Characteristics presented a lot of valid information about how a woman’s character traits can be a risk factor in attracting psychopaths. Reading the detailed descriptions of the character traits of women who end up with psychopathic men paints a picture of what a psychopath looks for in a potential mate (victim).  Knowing that a psychopath lacks empathy, my line of thinking is that psychopaths seek out these empathic, cooperative traits as a means of becoming a better mimic, or learning how to act out these emotions in order to dominate the women they seek to feed off of.  The passages from the book listed below may make it clear what I am trying to share.

From WWLP Page 56
Her Cooperativeness
“The set of cooperation-based traits of the TCI shows us how she sees herself as an integral part of human society. When we are cooperative, we use the traits of empathy/compassion so we understood how someone else feels, tolerance so we can manage differences, friendliness so that we are approachable, supportiveness so we contribute with helpfulness and moral principals of life so we can choose between right and wrong, good and bad…These traits are at the heart of who she is and are what makes her selfless and other-person oriented. They are also what makes her a flashing billboard for psychopaths.”

Belibaste Wrote: So WWLP are usually brilliant, full of potential, they are some of the mother goddess representative that our world needs so much to heal. Then why do they fall into this trap?

I would guess that many women are looking for a mate that may have the same character traits. Nurturing qualities that she possess, as those listed above, and in her search for the ideal mate, she assumes that because a psychopath can be talkative, outgoing and sharing, she misunderstands or misinterprets his ‘acting’ as sincerity.

From WWLP Page 60
Empathy
Empath’s are often very affectionate in personality and expression, great listeners and counselors (and not just in the professional arena). They will find themselves helping others and often putting their own needs aside to do so. They are highly expressive in all areas of emotional connection and talk openly, and, at times, quite frankly about themselves.
Women who are tested this high in empathy may have been raised by adults or parents who are pathological and or addicted. Children raised by narcissists and psychopaths learn early how to cater to the needs of the pathological parent in order to avoid punishment or wrath.”

In this passage it is apparent that if women have suffered wounding and trauma as a result of living in a pathological/narcissistic environment they become pleasers and subject their own well being to meet the needs of others. The psychopath is aware of this as he seeks out just this type of wounded women. And over a period of time he begins to use her strengths to fulfill his own selfish desires.

From WWLP Page 61
Empathy as a risk factor
Empathy has made her a sensitive partner, a good listener, and a target for psychopaths. She has more empathy than 97% of everyone else, so she can put herself in a psychopaths shoes with genuine concern. Her empathy is like a drug that the psychopath uses to feed his need for power and dominance. Although she may not realize it, the psychopath doesn’t need her empathy, but uses it to maintain power over her emotions and dominance over the relationship. This could be said for any of her temperament or character traits-they are tools and weapons in the hand of a psychopath”

These passages really struck a familiar chord, as did much of the book. After reading the work of Sandra Brown and even purchasing the workbook, I am beginning to have a better understanding of how strong, independent, loving and intelligent women end up being food for the psychopath. In addition I am beginning to understand how empathy can be a risk factor and how the psychopath can utilize the feminine creative energy for his own feeding purposes. Which ultimately leads to the women being drained and confused as to what exactly she is dealing with.