Once there was a woman with me for a spiritual healing session who had a very common problem with a very unusual explanation for it. She said she wanted to quit smoking. I am often asked by people who have the question ‘How do I quit smoking?’ and I always tell them that it is their own decision. You need to decide and then have the willpower to do it.
This woman understood this point and told me that many people said to her that it was a thing of the mind, which I also had explained. ‘But with me, I think, it is something different!’ When I asked her in which way she described that always when she wanted to quit smoking, there were spirits around her, talking to her and telling her that it was okay if she smoked another cigarette. They urged her to stay in her addiction and she could not do anything else!
I told her straight away that I do not believe in this at all. I basically do not believe that there are ghosts that tell us what to do and what not to do and don’t you think, if there were any, they would have something better to do than telling you to smoke your cigarettes? No, you are fooling yourself and others into believing this so that you have an excuse to keep your addiction.
Ramona said afterwards that when she translated this point she was afraid the woman would get up and leave the room because of my direct answer. This was quite possible but she just sat there for a moment and then said ‘You know, I think you are right! I have had this situation that I was sleeping and woke up with the thought that ghosts are there. I felt as if they started choking me and I got panic. But then I somehow relaxed and realized that they are not there. I just had a very bad time with much stress and some problems which I suppressed instead of expressing them. I had to change my thinking and as soon as I did and expressed them, I felt much better and the ghosts were gone! I guess they never really existed.’
So you see, this lady realized herself that she only imagined those ghosts. She knew that this could be but still she used this as an excuse for her nicotine addiction. I have heard this kind of excuses from alcoholics, too, who said that spirits of deceased relatives and ancestors wanted to drink, not really they themselves. How creative people become when they need to find a reason to stick to their addiction!
The woman was then very happy that I have been so direct and I hope it helped her to finally quit smoking. The human mind searches for a way to trick not necessarily others but definitely to trick you!
Today’s food was sponsored by Giuseppe for his mother Maria. See pictures of today’s food in India.
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I know I may just be echoing Swami’s views, but I want to stress the great importance of overcoming addictions. I know this may be hard for some to believe, but I’m convinced that if we don’t transcend them in this life, we will carry these tendencies into the next. There is no good excuse for continuing addictions. The more free one is from dependence on external things, the freer and happier one is in Spirit. By the way, I’m glad to see some of these diary comments now posted on Facebook. I think one of the incentives for posting comments is that we would like to share them and have them visible to our Facebook friends as well as to those who log in to this site. Maybe that could be considered as a next step in linking this site to Facebook.
“How creative people become when they need to find a reason to stick to their addiction!” This comment really sticks out to me. It allowed me to relate this passage to myself. Thank you for another great post Swami Ji.
Some people seem to be addicted to many things or bounce from one addiction to another. They very well may hear voices telling them that they need to consume something to cover up their pain or fear. But what they must take responsibility for is the fact that those voices are coming from within! They are the wounded and neglected aspects of yourself that need nurturing and love. The first step is realizing that those voice are your own and not a ghost’s. Then you start to realize how much your addiction relates to your own wounds inside.