Wednesday, January 24, 2007
EVIL FEARS LAUGHTER
Are demons and devils real? In my view, it doesn't matter whether or not
they exist in an objective or literal sense. The point is that we are all
plagued by split-off, unintegrated portions of our own and other people's
psyches. They behave exactly as if they were diabolical entities--demons,
djinns, dybbuks, and devils--working at cross-purposes to our conscious
desires.
In dealing with their hassling interventions, I endorse the approach
described by Paul Foster Case in his book *The Tarot: A Key to the
Wisdom of the Ages.* There he suggested that mirth is the best way to
beat the devil. "Laughter is prophylactic," he wrote. "It purifies
subconsciousness and dissolves mental complexes. In a hymn to the sun
god Ra we read, 'Thy priests go forth at dawn, washing their hearts with
laughter.' This is a prescription we may all follow to advantage."
My friend and teacher, Vimala Nostradamus, echoes Case. "The best way
to neutralize the devil is to laugh at him," she says. "Satan's most
effective recruiting technique is to get people to take themselves too
seriously." To exemplify her argument, she once told her daughter in my
presence about a foolproof way to avoid being hassled if you're a woman
walking by a crew of construction workers: "Pick your nose."
The novels of Tom Robbins provide spiritual guidance about dealing with
diabolical spirits, both those that originate within us and those that come
from without. Here's a sample tip from his *Jitterbug Perfume*: "Play-- more than piety, more than charity or vigilance--is what allows human
beings to transcend evil."
We regret to report that further help on this matter is not available from
the holy books of the world's major religions. None of their authors ever
figured out that an excellent weapon against the fragmented, shadowy
portions of our psyches is humor, tomfoolery, and laughter. This
ignorance may be the greatest mystery in history.
But Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism,
Taoism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, and Jainism aren't the only spiritual
traditions that have failed to take advantage of evil's primary weakness.
The esoteric spiritual paths of the West, including Hermeticism,
Rosicrucianism, and alchemy, also suffer from an inexplicable lack of jokes
and fun at the heart of their practice. Shamanism, paganism, yoga, and
tantra are, for the most part, similarly bereft.
There are rare exceptions. The Sufis have cracked a few funny stories
down through the ages. The Fourth Way teacher, George Gurdjieff, had a
sense of humor that he used pedagogically. And 20th-century America
spawned two authentically comic religions, Discordianism and the Church
of the Subgenius. Unfortunately, their combined flocks are smaller than
the crowds drawn by any popular evangelical preacher in one night of
mean-spirited pontificating.
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