Christianity's repression of meditation

[Parsons]

Since you are leaning towards acceptance of the idea, I feel I should add a few thoughts.

When dealing with the thought form concept, you are dealing with a perception that it is an external force. I have personally found it critical to take FULL responsibility for any external influence on myself. I say that because I firmly believe that I am powerful enough to neutralize any and all external influences on myself. That applies to everyone, of course. This attitude is meant to prevent the feeling of helplessness in the face of something that seems so vastly powerful.

IMO, it follows the pattern of understanding, acceptance, and integration that Ra talks about. You understand the forces at play here (you recognize the thought form and the reasons why it exists). Even though you may see it as a powerful external force on one level, you fully accept responsibility for it's effects on you and your ability to deal with it. Then, rather than rejecting the thought form, you integrate the thought form by dealing with the occasional 'maintenance' of neutralizing the aspects of it that you currently don't find to be helpful.

I have done this with the 'atheist skeptic' egregore and even the Bring4th forum egregore. I guess I could liken it to harnessing the aspects that I find useful and neutralizing the aspects I don't find useful.

Your mileage my vary, of course. I have personally found it to be quite effective when I find myself slipping back into old thought patterns. Actually, the only thing I have fear about when it comes to these 'external' thought patterns is not noticing their influence (which I feel is a rare problem).