No Victims

While conducting a two-day Master of Life Counselor Training during the recent American Board of Hypnotherapy Conference, I ran a "belief" process about emotional pain. The participants, all professional hypnotists, each chose a personal situation they wanted to explore. I then hypnotically regressed them, as a group, back to the cause. Once they had observed what happened at an earlier time in their current life, or in a past life, I had them explore the situation in Higher Self before bringing them back to the present and asking them to forgive themselves and anyone else involved.

"Can you forgive yourself? Can you forgive the other people who were involved? Letting go of karma is always a matter of forgiveness."

I directed the forgiveness of parents, ex-lovers, and ex-mates who caused you to suffer. Also, the people who abused you, ripped you off and let you down. After allowing the participants time to process this internal releasing, I said, "And now let's look at the paradox here. Reincarnation and karma are the basis of reality. There is no half-way karma. Everything in your life is karmic or nothing is karmic. And blame is incompatible with karma. So you and you alone are responsible for everything that has ever happened to you. The idea of other people causing you to suffer, or cheating you, or letting you down, does not work. THERE ARE NO VICTIMS ... BUT UNTIL YOU RECOGNIZE THAT YOU FEEL LIKE A VICTIM, YOU CAN'T RELEASE AND COME TO REALIZE YOU WERE NEVER A VICTIM AT ALL."

Neither God nor the Lords of karma bestow your suffering. It is your decision and yours alone to tackle the opportunities you are experiencing in your life. You are your own judge and jury. In Higher Mind, you're fully aware that in order to progress, you must learn. And the fastest way to learn is by directly experiencing the consequences of your actions.

Think about the people in your past who made your life difficult. In actuality, these were the people who helped you the most in your spiritual evolution. They helped you balance your karma and have provided you with growth opportunities. Your goal is to give up expectations, judgment, and blame ... and attain a viewpoint of unconditional acceptance.

It is easy to tell if you're passing or failing your tests. If you respond to a trying situation with love, positive thoughts, compassion, or even neutrality, you're probably passing the test. If you respond with anger, blame or a desire for revenge, you're probably failing. If you fail, you'll always have an opportunity to return to try again in another incarnation.

You were born with a package of karma you desired to experience. From a spiritual perspective, it is only your reactions to the experiences that are important.

When we're in spirit, preparing to enter into a lifetime, I think we're very brave. As an example, you may have decided to test yourself in another relationship with Donald. "If he's willing, we'll fall in love, get married and have three children. When I'm about 32, Donald will begin to ignore me and start having affairs with other women. This time, because I owe Don in this area, I'll emotionally support him and let him go with unconditional love."

As I said, you were very brave and aware in spirit. Now comes the reality. And what do you do? You scream and threaten and blame. You hire a lawyer who socks it to Donald financially for the rest of his days. You and Donald now hate each other. But you will learn through your pain. You and Don can plan to return for another round in the year 2073; maybe next time you'll work it out.

Actually, there is no such thing as failing your own karmic test. If you fell off your bicycle nine times before you finally learned to ride, the nine failures were each small successes, which eventually led to the ultimate success.