The Guilt Distortion

[xise]

I approach this from my own personal experiences with guilt.

I've personally found that guilt is a 'secondary' distortion and catalyst for further balancing. I call it a secondary distortion because it seems to operate upon primary distortions -that is, it seems to function as a second layer upon a primary distortion which causes us to feel there was something wrong, unacceptable, or bad about what we did and can include elements of lack of forgiveness for ourselves. I've found guilt can occur with mere thoughts, and it can occur with actions.

I've found guilt arises in primary two situations for me:
(1) "so-called justified" guilt
(2) "so-called unjustified" guilt

I use the term so-called because as I said above, I believe guilt is ultimately wholly unnecessary and in fact damaging to our energy bodies if not used immediately as catalyst for balancing. In general, guilt seems to occur when we "let ourselves" down by thinking or acting in a certain way that we believed was wrong. In the so-called justified guilt category, the standards we "failed" to comply with are standards that usually balanced beliefs - ie be compassionate to others, don't harm others, etc. In the so-called unjustified category, the standards we failed to comply with are unbalanced beliefs, such as I must be perfect at all times, power is evil, lust is wrong, etc.

In both cases, I find that while in a certain way guilt may serve to hone us in on an imbalance - either the guilt itself in cases of justified guilt, or both the unjustified guilt and the imbalanced belief in cases of unjustified guilt, those feelings of guilt seems to further add a layer of energetic imbalance upon the energy centers. That is, if one fails to conform to their own standards of balanced beliefs, or if one fails to conform to their imbalanced standards, their energy body is significantly further affected by the feelings of guilt on top of whatever caused the guilt. Guilt itself may be balanced by acceptance, forgiveness, and often doing so lets one more clearly determine if this was the case of so-called justified or unjustified guilt. Truly believing that guilt is appropriate seems to further distort, at least for myself, the ability to determine whether the primary cause was a balanced or imbalanced belief. I suppose implicit in my journey was an early assumption that guilt may be a indicator of balance - which it is partially - but in the end I found it totally to be a indicator of general imbalance, and often impedes the journey to fuller balance. I believe that guilt also seems to stem from a distorted positive polarity desire to "control" our behavior. Consider the following Ra quote:

18.5 Questioner: Thank you. I have a question here from Jim that I will read verbatim: “Much of the mystic tradition of seeking on Earth holds that belief that the individual self must be erased or obliterated and the material world ignored for an entity to reach ‘nirvana,’ as it’s called, or enlightenment. What is the proper role of the individual self and its worldly activities in aiding an entity to grow more into the Law of One?”

Ra: I am Ra. The proper role of the entity is in this density to experience all things desired, to then analyze, understand, and accept these experiences, distilling from them the love/light within them. Nothing shall be overcome. That which is not needed falls away.

The orientation develops due to analysis of desire. These desires become more and more distorted towards conscious application of love/light as the entity furnishes itself with distilled experience. We have found it to be inappropriate in the extreme to encourage the overcoming of any desires, except to suggest the imagination rather than the carrying out in the physical plane, as you call it, of those desires not consonant with the Law of One; this preserving the primal distortion of free will.

The reason it is unwise to overcome is that overcoming is an unbalanced action creating difficulties in balancing in the time/space continuum. Overcoming thus creates the further environment for holding onto that which apparently has been overcome.

All things are acceptable in the proper time for each entity, and in experiencing, in understanding, in accepting, in then sharing with other-selves, the appropriate description shall be moving away from distortions of one kind to distortions of another which may be more consonant with the Law of One.

It is, shall we say, a shortcut to simply ignore or overcome any desire. It must instead be understood and accepted. This takes patience and experience which can be analyzed with care, with compassion for self and for other-self.

These are my thoughts on guilt. I believe they are interrelated with a distortion many positives have toward controlling their behavior, as well as a distortion to be judgmental toward their conformity to their beliefs as to the proper standards of conduct and thought. Or, since I'm speaking from personal experience, they are interrelated with my distortions concerning those two things . At the end of the day, I'm trying to move to a place where I not only accept others and other's actions fully, but myself fully and my own actions fully, whether they were loving or unloving. Of course, since I'm polarizing, I try to learn from when I don't act unloving, but I try process, integrate, and accept and let go of my guilt as quickly as possible because I find it is no longer useful. This has done wonders for my energy body.

That being said, I would love to hear others' thoughts on what I find is a fascinating subject!

What does guilt mean to you?

When do you find yourself feeling guilty?

What do you do with those feelings of guilt?

How useful has guilt been in your journey?

[reeay]

The story behind 'guilt' is always interesting. Lot of times I encounter this sense of failed expectation, which then could inform person that he/she is incompetent, unworthy, unloveable person, etc.,. Guilt itself is a useful tool to see what our expectations are and where we learned it, why we believe it. Once it starts to inform a person of who he or she is (e.g., the belief that one is incompetent, unworthy, unlovable, etc.,) that's when I think it becomes more of an intense catalyst.

Also, with guilt there could be a deeper, more intense experience of shame.

I guess there could be difference between taking responsibility and looking at catalyst as an opportunity to learn, and, taking responsibility for everything while being highly critical of self and demanding of self to fulfill expectations. When positively reframed as an opportunity for self-understanding, there are more options/opportunities for growth. When taken negatively as a way to measure/judge self it could be like slapping onself repeatedly.

And so, I think it's useful to look at one's expectations and to increase self-compassion by deconstructing the expectations one has constructed thruout one's life span. To have self-compassion means to understand the aspect of self that have these expectations and emotional reactions to catalyst and understanding how this guilt came to be. Often times we construct these expectations based on our learnings from family, society, and such. The expectation is universally and semi-consciously or unconsciously applied to each situation, even when expectation is not applicable.

When catalyst is taken as opportunity to learn, we can learn from our past choices then be more aware of our actions in the moment. When I feel guilt pop up in my consciousness I acknowledge it 'I feel guilty again, there's something here' then it goes away. Then later I can get down to really understanding where it came from and what pattern is being played out.

I use imagination as a way to play out situations where I experience guilt and then rewind, replay, reflect on the images/thoughts/emotions that emerge. I ask myself, to what extent am I really responsible here? What are these expectations/rules that are implicit (covert) that I need to make more conscious? Where did these expectations or beliefs come from? Where did I learn this? Does it apply to me/to the current situation?

[spero]

If karma (being consciously unloving toward another entity) can keep even 6D wanderers entangled in 3D it might be that guilt is a warning sign of sorts. Those who experience overactive guilt might even have programmed themselves to be this way in order to avoid at all costs the possibility of this kind of entanglement. Guilt might drive a person to seek forgiveness and perchance alleviate or untangle this karma

Another possibility is that if you are positively polarized, then an action which causes you to feel guilt might be related to a loss of positive polarity. If you think about it, the more polarized you are the more power and awareness you have and doing something which dramatically depolarizes might be perceived as guilt/dissapointment. Conversely if you are negatively polarizing then acts which infringe on people dont make you feel guilty since they increase your power and awareness

A third possibility which is something which i've often thought myself is that guilt is an extreme shutdown or blockage of the lower chakras, maybe even all three simultaneously. This makes functioning normally very very difficult and like you said xise points to the need for rebalancing. That said i find that often when i feel guilt, its something i cant resolve myself internally. It usually requires me to speak to someone else and confess a wrongdoing. I dont know why this is the case if it was purely a chakra balancing exercise but maybe this is unique to me.

[xise]

If karma (being consciously unloving toward another entity) can keep even 6D wanderers entangled in 3D it might be that guilt is a warning sign of sorts. Those who experience overactive guilt might even have programmed themselves to be this way in order to avoid at all costs the possibility of this kind of entanglement. Guilt might drive a person to seek forgiveness and perchance alleviate or untangle this karma

Another possibility is that if you are positively polarized, then an action which causes you to feel guilt might be related to a loss of positive polarity. If you think about it, the more polarized you are the more power and awareness you have and doing something which dramatically depolarizes might be perceived as guilt/dissapointment. Conversely if you are negatively polarizing then acts which infringe on people dont make you feel guilty since they increase your power and awareness

What purpose does guilt serve if one is already aware of the karma or depolarization as soon as the misstep is completed?

We're not perfect, even when on the spiritual path. We're going to stumble, and we're going to fall, and I think to understand and have compassion for ourselves while being aware of our stumbles and our falls alleviates the purpose of this so-called justified guilt.

Two steps forward, one step back. And the step back is 100% ok. It's part of the process.

[Monica]

What does guilt mean to you?

I agree that there are 2 kinds of guilt: justified (healthy) and unjustified (unhealthy).

Healthy guilt is that which comes from inside. It is our conscience letting us know that we did something that's not in alignment with our highest values.

Healthy guilt should be listened to, not suppressed or ignored. It's our conscience trying to tell us something. It's an opportunity to learn from our 'mistakes' and make better choices next time. It's also an opportunity for self-reflection, healing, making amends, and forgiveness of self and other-self.

Unhealthy guilt, on the other hand, is imposed by others, and might be entirely misplaced. A good example is a religious parent telling their adolescent son that he should be ashamed for exploring his own body. The young boy then experiences shame and guilt that is entirely unnecessary and therefore damaging, all because of his parents' religious hangups. Exploring his own body is natural and should never evoke feelings of shame or guilt.

If that same boy steals something and feels a pang of guilt, that is healthy. Big difference!

When do you find yourself feeling guilty?

If I inadvertently hurt someone.

What do you do with those feelings of guilt?

I try to make amends...communicate...apologize, etc. It's not enough to just feel remorse. It's important to correct our mistakes if possible, or at least communicate our remorse to the person we hurt, and try to make amends as best we can.

THEN, after those steps are taken, it's time to forgive ourselves and let it go.

Many people skip the making amends step and try to go straight to forgiveness, but if they do that, they aren't very effective at forgiving because the catalyst was wasted...they didn't learn whatever the experience was trying to teach them. By reflecting on our mistake, we can learn from it and then release the catalyst through forgiveness along with resolve to do better next time. That's the whole point. If we just try to suppress our natural feelings of remorse, nothing is accomplished.

How useful has guilt been in your journey?

Very useful. However, there have been times when I had a difficult time forgiving myself, even after the lesson was learned and amends made. This had to do with lack of self-love.

[AnthroHeart]

I've had the trouble with a lack of self love as well. I even desired a short life for some time. But I don't want to leave this world in a violent manner. After I opened up more to Creator, and grounded myself, did I appreciate my life, and have ability to forgive myself for what I had done. I felt unworthy of God's love. Now I just worry a little bit about my life review when I have it I'm going to feel the pain I inflicted on other animals. I've not always been a nice guy.

[Unbound]

I have always found Seth's expression of natural and unnatural guilt to be interesting. Natural guilt seems to be the natural guilt which causes creatures to consume in a balanced manner with the natural environment. That is, it keeps in check the give and take between the individual and environment based on survival needs. Unnatural guilt is guilt that is created through "thinking".

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http://101thankfulness.wordpress.com/201...ral-guilt/

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“Guilt is the other side of compassion. Its original purpose was to enable you to emphasize on an aware level with yourselves and other members of creaturehood, so that you could consciously control what was previously handled on a biological level alone. Guilt in that respect therefore has a strong natural basis…”