In 2001 the eleventh grade class of a Bavarian high school wrote us the following long letter, as part of a school project. We took this letter very seriously, as you can see from the reply, and at that time made as many copies of it as were needed so that each student would receive one. Our answer may be of interest to you:
Question: On the occasion of the topic “New Age” in religion classes, we discussed your book “Moon Time” and now have some questions regarding its contents. Already when we first leafed through your book, we were unsure of a few things.
For example, you write that everyone to whom evil befalls is to be held responsible to a degree, since he conjures it up himself through negative thoughts. This raises the question of whether this also applies to rape victims, for example. After all, we cannot understand how they should blame themselves for the crime.
Furthermore, you explain all physical ailments with mental problems. Can this be applied to all diseases? Should this be the case, does the doctor who cures the physical ailments therefore only fight the symptoms and not the actual cause? Consequently, would it be better to see a psychologist? We believe that such a theory has dangerous parallels with the methods of some dubious “cancer healers” who try to fight cancer or other diseases only by “cleansing” the psyche. However, this is highly controversial.
Moreover, we have noticed that the “mental invitation” is the same for every disease, although reformulated, namely: loneliness, lack of love, lack of self-confidence and melancholy. These factors are very generally chosen and actually apply to everyone.
Another inexplicable topic is the practice of “bloodletting”, which you describe as a health-promoting healing method. Wasn’t this medieval method only done out of ignorance? Because since then it was always considered only as the very last hope to bring about a cure (for example in the fight against the plague in the Middle Ages) and was never scientifically justified at any time. You write that bloodletting should be performed by a healer, but in your book you also give instructions on how to perform bloodletting yourself. Is one now a healer if one has read your book?
We hope that you will consider or respond to our questions and look forward to your answer.
Our answer was this:
We are glad that our work has become a topic of discussion among you. After all, it is especially aimed at young people, because you have it in your hands to give our future a better direction. Tomorrow’s environmental protection cannot do without the knowledge of the right time in harmony with a lunar calendar, and perhaps one or the other of you will one day be in a position where you can help to bring this knowledge back to life – to the benefit of us all.
Surely no one has ever told you that living according to lunar and natural rhythms was as natural in some regions until a few decades ago as using a cell phone is for you. Until the First World War almost every calendar contained moon phase and moon position in the zodiac. How this knowledge could have been forgotten so quickly? It’s got no cash value – to put it bluntly. We have described it in more detail in the book.
Now to your letter and to your questions:
First of all, if we were to respond to your letter in your writing style and spirit, you probably wouldn’t be able to do much with it. You have misquoted, taken out of context, and read the book only superficially. Nowhere a positive, not even signed with your names. We therefore want to answer to the spirit that breathes between your lines and have taken our time to do so. Let’s wander through your questions together.
Your first question:
For example, you write that everyone to whom evil befalls is himself to blame, since he himself conjures it up through negative thoughts. “Here the question arises for us whether this also applies to rape victims, for example? We can’t understand how they can blame themselves for the crime.”
We feel the same way you do. We, too, ask ourselves what guilt a small child has brought upon itself when it is born into a cruel and cold family situation in which it does not experience a spark of love – until it gives up, grows cold mentally and, as an adult, can no longer pass on any love itself. What is the guilt of a baby whose father beats it to death because it cries all night? What has it done to deserve such a fate? What guilt has a person brought upon himself who wins millions in the lottery, squanders the money, and is unhappier afterwards than ever before (this happens much more often than a wise use of the winnings)? These questions and the answer to them have moved mankind ever since it has existed.
We think that two elements should be considered if one wants to find an answer here that will bring real peace to the questioner.
First, the attempt to answer these questions without having true faith is impossible. Such an attempt would lead straight to a situation devoid of any joy, to a life of coldness and sterility and of complaining about the apparent injustice of the world – completely independent of the material circumstances in which one lives. In other words, only those who have genuine faith can find an answer to these questions that satisfies, that brings genuine peace of mind. Genuine faith is not taught anywhere; one must work for it, in spite of all the contradictions of life. Often self-proclaimed spiritual leaders and “church lords” point the wrong way and find countless followers for it. Simply because people’s longing for meaning and authenticity is so great and the offer to really satisfy this longing is so small. Hence the great opportunities of cults and sects today. They are exclusively the artificially distorted offer to a real demand of the soul. An old saying goes:
False gold exists for three reasons: First, because of people’s greed; second, because of their inability to discern; and third, because real gold actually exists.
Identifying the real gold, discovering the real faith – you gain this discernment only when you learn to love yourself. It is the best recipe against brainwashing of any kind! If you love yourself, sooner or later you can see through every person who does not love himself – and therefore automatically every other person! There are some signs for the real: Every genuine spiritual guide, every real friend will always remind you that love is the only purpose of life and that your free will is the most important tool to discover and live this love. It is only your free will that will allow you to survive the school years healthy in mind and spirit, not the promise of a materially secure future by means of a higher school degree.
In order to illuminate the second aspect, which may bring an answer to your question, a little history lesson is necessary first: At a meeting about 1300 years ago, the “spiritual leaders” of the Christian Catholic Church at that time abolished with one stroke of the pen the knowledge and teaching that every human being has a soul that always returns to earth once.
For millennia, in the course of 600 years of ancient Christianity and even today in many places, the absolute certainty prevailed and still prevails that the soul is born again and again in order to solve certain tasks in the respective “cycle” – with more or less success. And if without success – well then better luck next time! The church leaders had started from an erroneous assumption when they arbitrarily abolished this knowledge: “If we preach from now on that this cycle on earth is the only possible one, then our flocks will try all the harder to lead a God-pleasing life already now in order to enter paradise.” They wanted to banish the attitude: “This time I’ll let it all hang out, because I can make it up to you in the next life”. The church fathers were truly mistaken about human nature, because then as now the following attitude was much more common: “A godly life full of self-discipline is much too strenuous and boring for me. There I rather give up the attempt immediately and believe nothing at all. And if there is a God after all, His almighty forgiveness will absolve me when the time comes.” And they had underestimated what happens when you preach conviction instead of truth. Man’s subconscious senses the lie and gets into spiritual troubles from which the church has not recovered to this day.
The church fathers had thus abolished the knowledge that everything I send out also returns to me. What I give comes back. The good as well as the bad. The abolition was not so difficult, because then as now the sometimes considerable time delay until something “returns to me” is probably the biggest obstacle to realize that man has magnetically attracted everything that happens to him. As with the wrong diet, sometimes it takes years or decades or another lifetime before I reap what I have sown!
The fact that the Catholic Church has started to spread that we have only this one life does not make things easier. So many unbelievable lies have arisen within the various religions that no one should be surprised at the multitudes who change faiths, leave the church, or grow up without faith altogether. Such big and “believable” lies are spread that people blow themselves up and wars are waged in the name of God! This is absolutely embarrassing and absolutely primitive. Never before have there been so many opportunities to be informed, and never before have there been so many opportunities to turn into a blind fanatic.
“By their fruits ye shall know them!” Jesus has given us this simple and infallible tool. “Thou shalt not kill!” – yet today, in our “enlightened” times, people still take the right to transgress this commandment, according to the inhumane principle of “tit for tat!” How carelessly and quickly injustice is done and killed today “in the name of God”! Of course, this does not mean at all that one should passively put up with everything. Gandhi exemplified where non-violent action can lead. In today’s world, it is truly one of the most difficult challenges to negotiate with primitive, stubborn and fanatical people and to speak in such a way that something wise and reasonable comes out of it.
To summarize: Your first question can never be answered satisfactorily without genuine faith and some sense of the persistence of the soul and its return. Does anyone believe that a murdering “God warrior” simply dies and that’s it? Does he not perhaps reap something of what he has sown when he incarnates again? These are the kinds of questions we need to ask ourselves in order to understand the meaning and implications of his actions. In everyday life we use so many things without fully understanding the meaning. But if we want to go deeper and know more, we are not spared to deal with it.
This much is certain: you must find your own answers by your own efforts in the course of your life. Independent and uninfluenced answers. Even if they are answers that your immediate environment does not like, because the “normal” and “accepted” answers just look different. Never be so comfortable and just accept what you hear or read. You will be missing out on one of the greatest adventures this life has to offer. What do you think? Take your time with your own answer and listen to your personal feeling. No dogma, no matter how rigid, can help you with the answer. Not even our own attempt at an answer.
“Why does God allow so much suffering in the world?” This is one of the oldest questions of mankind. The answer of Paramahansa Yogananda, a saint of our time, has pleased us very much. It is:
“All suffering comes from misuse of free will. God has given us the ability to accept or reject free will. It is not in His will that we suffer pain; however, He does not interfere when we decide to act in a way that brings us suffering.
People do not heed the wise counsel of the saints but expect to be saved by unusual circumstances or some miracle when they are in need. The Lord can accomplish anything; but He knows that man’s love and right conduct cannot be bought with miracles.
God sent us out as His children, and as such we must return to Him. There is only one way to reunite with Him: to use His own will. No other power on earth or in heaven can do this for us. But if you call out to God from the bottom of your heart, He will send you a teacher who will lead you home from the wasteland of pain to the house of His eternal joy.
The Lord has given you free will and therefore cannot act like a dictator. Although He possesses omnipotence, He does not simply release you from your suffering if you have chosen the path of wrong action. Is it right to expect Him to relieve you of all burden when you constantly violate His laws with your thoughts and actions? Follow His principles as His Son laid them down in the Sermon on the Mount; therein lies the secret of happiness.”
There is a vast difference between opinion, assumption, presumption and conviction on the one hand and knowledge on the other. This difference is rarely emphasized nowadays, so we do it here – just as a reminder. So we do not have an answer to your first question that would satisfy you immediately. Our knowledge is that the great suffering in the world becomes explicable only if you have genuine faith – whatever the name of the religion from which you draw wisdom, inspiration and confidence. Our feeling is that the apparent injustice in the world becomes can be explained and becomes meaningful only when one takes into account that the present incarnation in a person’s life is not his only one. Without the certainty that every soul experiences justice, there is no answer to your question. Without the absolute certainty that there is free will, neither.
Your second question:
Moreover, you explain all physical ailments with psychological problems. Can this be applied to all diseases? Should this be the case, then, with the doctor who cures the physical ailments, one only fights the symptoms and not the actual cause? Consequently, would it be better to see a psychologist? We believe that such a theory has dangerous parallels with the methods of some dubious “cancer healers” who try to fight cancer or other diseases only by “cleansing” the psyche. However, this is highly controversial.
Not only acute psychological problems lead to physical suffering, but also chronic, long-lasting psychological conditions. An unloving, cold environment is reflected in everything – in the color of clothes, the course of lines and wrinkles on the face and all over the body, in hair texture, skin color, mouth and body odor, etc., etc. Good, real doctors used to have only to look at their patients for a moment, to look at their urine, their smell – and the diagnosis was complete and useful. Only the incredible arrogance of today’s physicians ignores how advanced many of our ancestors were (see “bloodletting”). Progress? Is it progress and “modern” to ruin within a few decades what worked absolutely perfectly for thousands of years? Where man intervenes, chaos ensues. Unless he learns to know nature instead of dissecting, exploiting and fighting it.
Today we know from studies that in more than half of all patients the true causes of the disease (yes, the physical ones!) are located somewhere else than diagnosed. Why? Because at university, from the very first moment, you are taught that you can take anything and everything out of context and break it down into its individual parts. Not only is compassion and true insight not taught at university, but even where it still exists, it is vigorously driven out – and this is then called “internship passed”.
Almost everywhere, only those are promoted to whom humanity, togetherness and love are alien. Why? Because those who are at the top and determine who can pass exams and move up feel threatened by humanity and sincerity. By the way, one of the main reasons why women often have little chance to make a career … They are almost always better, more efficient, more precise and more sincere than men. Men don’t like to be disturbed in their comfort …
The vast majority of today’s physicians are concerned exclusively with the treatment of symptoms. So does the pharmaceutical industry. Real research of real causes is too strenuous, brings too little money, does not lead to the Nobel Prize. Information and real prevention (not “screening”) are boring, do not bring sales. Who do you see on television? Those who lose or win fights, not the great silent heroes who prevent fights. You see the heroic firefighters, not those who prevent the fire. But don’t take our word for it, make your own experience of it.
From China comes the following saying:
Excellent doctors prevent diseases.
Mediocre doctors take care of diseases that have not yet broken out.
Normal doctors treat existing diseases.
Today we have an exact reversal of the circumstances! Who makes money from illness, what is he interested in? Modern medicine has great success with emergency medicine and treatment of certain diseases. We do not want to belittle or devalue anything about it. But we would advise you to read carefully. And then go out and have your own experience. Talk to nurses about the doctors. Keep talking until you learn truths. Always and at all times be detectives of the mind and soul and do not be taken for fools. Least of all by your own inclination to convenient answers.
Basically, as far as scientific research is not done out of pure curiosity, it is almost universally not oriented to the good of the human being, but to the question “How much money and how many medals will it bring and will mommy and the professor also think what I am doing is great?” No, it would not be better to see a psychologist for mental problems. It is only sometimes, namely when the psychologist is a real friend of humankind. Always observe carefully who gives you advice and why: what interest does he pursue with his advice? Where has it brought this person to think the way he thinks? Observe and form your own judgment. “By their fruits you shall know them.”
Do you already know this law of nature? No man can whine and complain himself healthy or to success, no problem can be solved, no disease cured by fighting a problem or disease. No man can bring about a lasting change for the better unless he can bring joy to those involved, unless he makes it clear that only decisions made out of love for people and for nature are of consequence. Action without joy and love leads to absolutely nothing. Those who constantly deal with problems always have some.
Even environmental organizations often fail to take people seriously and to promote their own power of decision. Decisions of a person, which are made by scaremongering or brainwashing of another person, have no benefit in the long run and lead to nothing of lasting value – neither for the one who decides, nor for our environment. What counts is personal experience and insight into interrelations.
You may be of the opinion that “the individual can do nothing after all”. This conviction is a nightmare that will color your whole life gray in gray and will be responsible for every single one of your present and future problems. And from which you will wake up sooner or later. Look forward to it already, because this will be one of the most beautiful days of your life!
Back to the “cause research”: Every real friend can help you to get on the track of causes of problems. And in the end, you yourself know that the true causes of physical illnesses are to be found somewhere else and that ultimately even a good healer can only help you to heal yourself. Your question is in a certain way also a small diversion. Why? Because nowadays it is a little easier than it used to be to back away from self-responsibility or to “party sick.” It’s uncomfortable to get sick and ask yourself first and foremost, “Where have I myself allowed an imbalance in my life that is now manifesting itself in illness?” instead of taking refuge in the comfortable and “normal”: “Doctor, it’s your job to cure me. I’m not interested in anything else.”
Something else comes into play: illness and various aches and pains are, in our very selfish times, for many people the only way to get a minimum of care and attention. Where is the “cause” of the illness here? Deep down you all know it very well: love and joy are the highest, best and only true medicine. The lack of love and joy sits at the root of almost every disease and disorder that can afflict the body.
Your next question:
In addition, we have noticed that the “spiritual invitation” for every disease is the same, albeit rephrased, namely: loneliness, lack of love, lack of self-confidence and melancholy. These factors are very broadly chosen and actually apply to everyone.
Hm, how multicolored the spiritual life of man is! In fact, at your suggestion, when we read the many “spiritual invitations,” we find that we ourselves have issued or are still issuing almost all of them at some time in our lives. In other words: You are absolutely right. They apply to everyone. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. But just to different degrees and with different weight. The mental invitation leads to different results. A miser burdens different organ structures than a choleric. With different consequences. Perhaps you should read a little more in our “Moon Time” – beyond your assigned homework.
As many different people there are in your environment and in your everyday experience, as many different spiritual invitations there are. Some scream into the trees and are swept away by the echo that returns. Some whisper the very same words into it and are happy to remain unscathed. They don’t realize it’s coming back in another place, at another time.
Your next question:
Another unexplained topic is bloodletting … Wasn’t this medieval method done just out of ignorance? … It was not scientifically justified at any time. You write that bloodletting should be done by a healer, but in your book you also give instructions on how to do it yourself. Is one now a healer if one has read your book?
“How little of what has happened has been written, how little of what has been written has been saved!” This was already said by the poet Goethe more than 200 years ago. We would like to sincerely ask you to read the applicable pages “Moon Time”. There is nothing there about self-administering! We try there to illuminate why this wonderful healing method could fall into disrepute and oblivion. Perhaps at this point one more thing: The way in which science and orthodox medicine nowadays deals with gentle and natural healing methods and with the knowledge of our ancestors and the knowledge of primitive peoples – this way is completely characterized by arrogance, greed for money and false pride.
No, nor does the bloodletting fall through the wide-meshed net of scientists’ judgment. They dare not investigate what must not work, because otherwise what they have so laboriously built up in a few centuries would collapse.
A properly executed bloodletting has lost none of its validity. All you need is the right time table and a doctor or healer. It is simple, costs little. Here lies hidden a reason for its disregard. You all will often come across this connection in the course of your life: What costs little and works successfully is ignored and opposed. Almost regardless of the area of the human life. Recently, scientists admitted for the first time that the side effects of correctly prescribed and dosed chemical drugs are the fourth leading cause of death worldwide.
Oh, and once again to your last question, the notes on bloodletting are for the reader to check that their doctor or alternative practitioner is performing the bloodletting correctly. Before our book was published, there was very little information in this area. Whether one is a healer after reading our book? Our book can help prevent disease, through information that was not available for a long time. Our work now and in the future is also directed at reminding people that we have the freedom to go our own ways and to avoid the madness of symptom control – not only when it comes to our health. We thank you for your letter and the opportunity to write to you. We wish you all the best and may curiosity never leave you.
***
On an ending note: We have not received a single answer to our letter.
Paungger & Poppe - Wisdom of the Ages 