Past Forward

Sorry I've been quiet. I've been tired lately and will undergo testing in a sleep lab next week. In the mean time, I've been researching sleep disorders on my own. I somehow ran into an article on healpastlives.com which is one of those crazy newagey sites that takes the "Medicine is evil!" stance. Still, the in depth articles on the causes and "proper" treatment of illnesses are just too much. Have a look at the karma dictionary and the article about narcolepsy I turned up as an example.

Quote:

Short Description: Narcolepsy Sleep Disorder: (Emotional Body Imbalance)
In Narcolepsy, a chronic sleep disorder, a Soul seeking greater advancement, "burdens" themselves with "excessive and overwhelming daytime sleepiness, even after adequate nighttime sleep" to assist them in honoring their emotions.

Oh, man, why didn't my psychiatrist tell me about this when she told me I might have narcolepsy? My poor emotions need honoring!

Quote:

Causes: Those who contract Narcolepsy are more advanced Souls who, over many lives, have had a track record of "inappropriately" handling their emotions.

So, if I do in fact have narcolepsy, should I think it's an honor? Should I be happy I'm a more advanced Soul (with a capital S!)?

Quote:

Emotions are "energy in motion" which are sent by our Higher Selves, guides, etc to "compel" us to take action (which is how karma is administered in the universe). In the normal course of evolution, by "trial and error", a Soul refines their ability to handle their emotions and thereby becomes progressively better at dealing them.

So...being too tired to express my emotions is a refined reaction to not honoring them?

Quote:

Yet some Souls become stuck in "inappropriate" patterns of coping with "emotionally upsetting events" and so have "agreed" to the extreme solution of Narcolepsy to "break themselves out" of these patterns.

OK...I guess not. And what's with all the quotes?

Skipping some quotes from a book and on to this

Quote:

One of the other inappropriate coping mechanisms of Narcoleptics is extreme anger when confronted with their own karmic responsibility. Like many other sufferers, they look for things outside of themselves to explain their situation as in "I was born without a piece of my brain... so that it is why Narcolepsy is happening to me... science says there is nothing I can do about it... poor little me..."

"I was born without a piece of my brain?" Who talks like that? And if that's the problem, well, I think my brain counts as something inside myself. And hey, how come it's OK for me to read this web site outside myself but not to see a doctor?

Quote:

Yet there are many who accept the responsibility for their situation and in so doing become free of "their problem". For those who do not and cannot accept this, know that there are others in the same situation with the same biology and the same karma who have beaten this most difficult disorder... good for them!

You have confused the hell out of me ... good for you!

Quote:

Symptoms: As those suffering from Narcolepsy will tell you, it is a terrible burden because they often will become "drowsy or fall asleep at inappropriate times and places." Basically, the Narcoleptic has lost control of the management of their consciousness because they do not "decide" to fall asleep, it just "happens" to them.

I don't know many people who decide to fall asleep. It just happens. It's possible to choose your bed time but that's different from saying, "Hey! I'm going to sleep now!" and then going to sleep.

Quote:

And it can happen anywhere, anytime, even when their attention is continually focused as when driving an automobile. Since they are not in full control of their awake consciousness, they are often unable to lead normal lives without ongoing outside assistance (with driving, being in public places, etc).

"Awake consciousness?" What?

Quote:

Advice: Although Narcolepsy can be "treated with medicine", these treatments will reduce symptoms without doing anything to address their causes. The only way to discover the causes of "narcoleptic episodes" is for the person having them to carefully monitor their thoughts and feelings just prior to an attack. By recording these in a journal, one of the "inappropriate" emotional coping patterns will emerge.

Falling asleep at inappropriate times is just one possible outcome of narcolepsy. The main symptom of narcolepsy is simply being tired all the time and while there are other common symptoms, they aren't always present. A "narcoleptic episode" isn't necessarily as exciting as the author of the article seems to think it is. I could be having one right now and I just feel tired. I felt tired since this morning and this morning, I got out of bed. Oh my gosh! That's it! I shouldn't get out of bed in the morning!

Quote:

The truth is that a "narcoleptic episode" is the penalty imposed by the Higher Self whenever the individual uses their habitual emotional coping pattern to respond to any given situation. Having the individual fall asleep just after the pattern is "fallen back on" cannot fail but to get the narcoleptic's attention.

Well...that's a really lousy way of getting attention. It's hard to pay attention to anything when you're asleep.

Quote:

After Effects: Narcolepsy is usually a life sentence. The older the Soul, the more deeply entrenched their inappropriate emotional coping patterns are, the more they resist changing them, the longer it will take to overcome the "emotional body imbalance" that this disorder was designed to correct. Often it will take several lifetimes for the Soul to develop the emotional coping patterns needed to advance their spiritual development. Once the emotions are properly managed in a future incarnation, the individual will emerge stronger for the experience. For they will finally be able to move fully forward in their growth as Soul.

I...I...I don't understand anything this thing is saying. Nonetheless, I am so going to take its word over whatever any doctors say! OK, not really.

That's all of this article I'm going to cover. The funny thing is that I actually believe I've had a few past lives, but that's more of an afterthought if it's something I think about at all. I guess that's just because I think I'm crazy for believing in reincarnation, so of course I don't believe that's the answer to all my problems, quite unlike the people who run this web site.

Man, I'm tired now. How "inappropriate!" :P