We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves
after a journey that no one can take for us,
nor spare us

— Marcel Proust

the cure involves working with the mind rather than the body.

How can you tell the difference between a medical and a psychological disorder? When the negative emotional states come ‘out of the blue‘ rather than as a consequence of your interpretation of the events that happened, it is likely to be primarily biological in origin. On the other hand, when the self-sabotaging emotional state is a consequence of your beliefs and perspectives, the cure involves changing pathogenic thinking patterns.

Personal Research

Studying subjective experience [phenomenology] is different kind of challenge than studying the physical sciences. When researching the latter, we can safely assume that the cause-and-effect principles are the same in different laboratories, and once they are specified they can be used by other laboratories and passed down from generation to generation. In contrast, subjective phenomena exist within the experience of each individual. So, each individual has but a single lifetime to learn how to work with the subjective phenomena he or she experiences.

Fortunately, the generic principles of learning and motivation are well understood. However, to apply these principles in your phenomenological universe requires you to do some personal research.

A Developmental Passage

Few of us have been taught how to work with subjective phenomena. Most people continue to follow the thinking patterns they used as children  — even when doing so produces bad outcomes for them. However, as an adult with the mental faculties to explore the cause-and-effect principles that determine your reactions to the things that happen, you can use the understandings you acquire in the service or your will.

Your current predicament is not the result of being diseased, defective, or bad. People become entrapped by a pattern of self-sabotage, because they are all too human.  Unlike mouse traps, a simple entrapment mechanism that you can see and understand, Emotional and Addictive Disorders are phenomenological traps in that they exist in the world of experience and obey psychological rather than physical cause and effect principles.  To escape this kind of trap, you have to understand the cause-and-effective principles that pertain to subjective phenomena [the study of these principles called, "phenomenology"].

Meta-Cognitive Awareness

Meta-Cognitive Awareness is an important milestone along the passage from the mentality of childhood to the more advanced cognitive tactics described here. It refers to the appreciation that your beliefs and perspectives are merely the subjective experiences of a particular creature at a particular time — they are not necessarily true [and not necessarily false]. The feeling of certainty that a particular belief is valid does not make it so — even if you are really certain. Your beliefs are creations of your nervous system, so naturally your nervous system appraises them as valid. As comedian, Elmo Phillips, observed: "I used to believe that my brain was the most important organ, until I realized who was telling me that."

If you can step outside yourself and observe how you think, you will be able to identify the cognitive distortion mechanisms that cause so much unnecessary suffering. We are continually taken in by the illusions that result from assuming that our perceptions and interpretations of the things that happen is valid and complete. This truth
will make you free!

In contrast to the temporary effects of medication, the benefits of understanding the cause-and-effect principles that determine how you react to the things that happen do not dissipate as soon as the treatment ends. In fact, once you become aware of this meta-cognitive perspective, your understanding of and ability to manipulate your subjective experience will continue to grow long after you have completed this course.