BUSH: POSSESSED BY THE COMPULSION TO DESTROY

BUSH: POSSESSED BY THE COMPULSION TO DESTROY

by Paul Levy

I have to confess – there’s a part of me that’s sick of writing about George Bush. And yet, his mental derangement is so interesting that I find myself continually wanting to unfold what it is showing us. I see no reason whatsoever to not try and illumine the malignant pathology that is animating him, especially because it is having such an undeniable impact on all of us. If we want to understand Bush’s sickness, all we need to do is contemplate what he is acting out on the world stage, and realize that, just like a dream, it is symbolically expressing what is going on inside of him. Understanding more and more deeply the psychological roots of what Bush is acting out on the world stage only serves to empower us in dealing with him.

The figure of George Bush is “symbolically” reflecting something back to us about ourselves. Symbols are the language of dreams. Seen as a figure in a dream – a part of ourselves - that we have all collaboratively dreamed up into materialization, Bush is none other than an embodied reflection of a deep unconscious, wounded and pathological part of ourselves. Seen as our dream character who is ultimately not separate from ourselves, the figure of Bush is symbolically expressing a process that is going on deep within the collective soul of humanity. The figure of George W. Bush has been dreamed up by us to embody the ignorant, sick, and mad part of ourselves so clearly that it is as if he is a revelation, in human form, of these pathological parts of ourselves.

For those of us who would say that to see Bush as our dream character is “crazy,” I only have to point out that to not see Bush as our dream character means to see him as an independently existing being who is separate from ourselves and the field around him. As all spiritual wisdom traditions make clear, to relate to any part of the universe as existing in isolation from the rest of the universe is not only not in alignment with the interdependent and interconnected seamless nature of reality, but is a perspective that is itself both a cause as well as an expression of genuine insanity.

Once we recognize that Bush’s pathology is a reflection of something in ourselves, the pathology within ourselves becomes available to be transformed through bringing it to the light of consciousness. Recognizing Bush’s illness as our own is to instantaneously initiate a change in ourselves towards greater wholeness and integration. Because of the primacy of his role, we are being asked by the universe to recognize something which is being reflected back by, in and through the figure of George Bush. Seen as a mass shared dream that we are all collaboratively co-creating, we have dreamed up Bush as a symbol so as to see, and hence, heal this sick part of ourselves. The figure of Bush is what I call a “lucidity stimulator,” in that once we recognize what he symbolically re-presents in ourselves, we have woken up to a more expansive, healed and whole part of ourselves.

What I am pointing at needs some clarification so as to get it in focus. Once we see what I am pointing at, however, everything changes. There is a deeper, archetypal process that is re-presenting itself all throughout the underlying unified and unifying field of consciousness. This is to say that there is a deeper, underlying process that, like a fractal, is expressing itself in multiple dimensions or channels simultaneously – collectively in the outer world, within ourselves, and through certain people such as Bush who fully embody this deeper process. Bush has become so unconsciously subsumed by this deeper dynamic that he can be said to be a living incarnation of this deeper, archetypal process in human form. Just like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is considered to be an “incarnation” of the bodhisattva of compassion “Avalokitesvara,” so embodies the quality of compassion that he can be said to be the incarnation of this quality in human form, Bush can be said to be just the opposite: an incarnation in human form of an illness that exists deep within the collective soul of humanity.

What I am pointing at seems so hard to understand, and yet, when we see it, it is so obvious that we will never not see it again. Being so completely taken over by these deeper forces, George Bush can be said to be a personification, or materialization of these darker forces crystallized in a human being. As if a symbol in a dream, George Bush has been collectively dreamed up by all of us to embody, and hence reveal to us a deeper, archetypal process that is happening in the collective unconscious itself. This deeper process transcends boundaries of inner and outer, which is to say that it is not only incarnating through figures like Bush, but it is manifesting in both the macrocosm (collectively) and in the microcosm (ourselves), which are mirrors of each other.

Bush is possessed by the power-drive of what Jung calls the shadow. To quote Jung, “A man who is possessed by his shadow is always standing in [and obscuring] his own light, and falling into his own traps….And if there is no doorstep for him to stumble over, he manufactures one for himself and then fondly believes he has done something useful.” It could not be more obvious that a military solution in Iraq is no longer possible. Being offered a potential solution to the quagmire in Iraq by James Baker and the Iraq Study Group, Bush is choosing to do exactly the opposite of what is recommended, which can only make a bad situation worse. Literally creating endless destruction, he is deluding himself into thinking he is doing something good. To quote author James Carroll, “George W. Bush is the impresario of unnecessary violence.” Our president is mad as a hatter, and it is our responsibility to do something about it.

Bush is suffering from a form of madness in which the pathological core of his psyche has co-opted all of the healthy parts of his psyche into its service. Jung commented on this age-old pathology when he said that “…an unknown ‘something’ has taken possession of a smaller or greater portion of the psyche and asserts its hateful and harmful existence undeterred by all our insight, reason, and energy, thereby proclaiming the power of the unconscious over the conscious mind, the sovereign power of possession.” Jung is not talking about being possessed by a “demon” in the sense that demons are objectively existing entities that take us over, but as an inner, “psychological” phenomenon to which we all are susceptible. It is particularly dangerous when the person so possessed is in a position of power such as Bush, where he can act out his pathology on the world stage.

The word “demon” is related to the word “daemon,” which is a transpersonal (beyond the personal) energy that can literally take over a person (or a group, or nation). George Bush has literally become possessed by what the ancients would call a “demon.” Referencing Dante’s “Inferno” to make this same point about Bush, noted historian Webster Tarpley says, “…in cases of particularly heinous betrayal, the damned soul departs from the body and descends directly into Hell. The body remains alive, but it is operated by a demon during the rest of its natural life span. Something similar happened to Bush when he betrayed his oath of office…The demon has been in control ever since.” In falling into utter self-deception and denial, ultimately George Bush has betrayed himself, but he has certainly betrayed all of us in the process. He is a genuine traitor.

We should get over our modern-day prejudice against words such as “demons.” What the ancients called demons are what psychologists call “autonomous complexes.” These are split-off parts of the psyche that, due to trauma, have become so dissociated that they possess us from behind, beneath our conscious awareness. Repressing these split-off parts of ourselves, we become unconsciously taken over by them, which is to say that these complexes autonomously act themselves out through us destructively via our unconscious. When someone becomes taken over by these autonomous complexes as completely as Bush has, the complex develops a seeming life of its own and incarnates itself through the person. The person so taken over has now become the unconscious complex’s (or demon’s) instrument. By embodying this dynamic, they can be said to be the incarnation or revelation of this unconscious process in human form. A hidden psychological process that exists deep inside the collective unconscious is showing itself to us through the actions of the person so possessed, of which George Bush is a perfect illustrative example.

Being possessed by a demon, Bush himself has become the literal, as well as symbolic incarnation of this deeper process in human form. Paradoxically, the underlying pathology that has taken over Bush is the “problem,” while simultaneously, in its self-revelation of itself through him, is openly displaying to us its nature so as to become transformed and “re-solved.” Everything depends upon if we recognize what it is revealing to us.

A true symbol in a dream which unites both opposites, the figure of Bush includes both the darkest shadow while simultaneously infused and encoded with the lucidity stimulating light of consciousness itself. Encoded in the very manifestation of the demon that is coming through Bush is the key to its transformation, integration and healing. Bush is the embodiment of the demon, while simultaneously reflecting back to us how to exorcise the very demon within ourselves of which he is the revelation. Bush has gotten dreamed up by us to embody this demon who exists inside the consciousness of all of us and who “haunts” the entire field of humanity. Like Jung says, when an unconscious daemonic content is ready to be integrated, it always appears physically, which is to say it gets dreamed up into seemingly objective, material form so that we can see it in order to ultimately transmute it.

To say Bush himself IS evil is not quite accurate and is to confuse the personal and the archetypal, for evil is a transpersonal energy beyond and of a higher dimension than the merely personal. By being so possessed, Bush is an “instrument” for evil, which is very different than “being” evil. He is simply a completely deluded human being who, due to his ignorance, has allowed himself to be used by darker forces to incarnate their power-hungry agenda. If we concretize Bush as being evil, we are ultimately doing the same psychological act (projecting the shadow) that we are reacting to in Bush, which is to unwittingly fall into being instruments of the very evil we are reacting against.

Like the figure of Mercury was for the ancient alchemists, Bush (seen as a symbol) is a conjunction of opposites: the darkest evil inseparably united with the liberating light of consciousness itself. Symbolically, who is George Bush? Will his madness destroy the planet? Or will it precipitate a global awakening? This is analogous to the question in quantum physics: “is light a wave or a particle?” How our universe manifests depends upon how we dream it.

Bush’s acts are truly “diabolical,” whose inner meaning is that which “separates and divides.” The antonym to the word “diabolical” is “symbolic,” whose inner meaning is that which “unites.” Seeing the deeper, diabolical aspect of Bush’s agenda is itself to be seeing with symbolic awareness. Recognizing that the figure of Bush is as if a symbol in a dream is to non-locally dis-pell the diabolical polarization in the underlying field. In recognizing the demon who has taken over Bush, we take away the power from this same demon who lives within ourselves. Seeing the demon who is possessing Bush, we become potential exorcists, as our realization empowers us to dis-spell the darkness both within the seemingly outer field, as well as within ourselves.

Because Bush is so completely possessed by a split-off part of himself, he compulsively acts out his dissociation in a negative, and hence destructive manner. He is so taken over by an unconscious part of himself that it is as if he has no choice in the matter, as if he is compelled to act out his unconscious destructively, as if he can’t not create destruction. To quote Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, “We don’t know if human beings have free will. We just know that human beings in Washington appear not to.”

Bush is truly a menace to all of us, including himself. He is so completely taken over by his unconscious that it literally compels him to do its bidding. Paradoxically, though supposedly the most powerful man on the planet, Bush himself has the least amount of internal freedom of anyone. Because he is an obedient slave to these more powerful forces, he will in no way voluntarily change his course towards a positive, and more constructive direction. Like a Manchurian candidate, Bush is truly a victim of mind-control, having fallen prey, at the very least, to the poisonous potential of his own mind. He has become bound and captive to his own capacity for darkness and destruction. We have to take responsibility for coming to terms with the indisputable fact that our president is mentally, emotionally and spiritually incapable of leading anyone anywhere. He has the “anti-Midas” touch, destroying everything he gets involved in.

Bush’s seemingly never-ending incompetence is at the same time camouflaging the underlying evil intent of the powers-that-be whose agenda he serves. Some people think that Bush is not incompetent, and that all the destruction he is wreaking, both domestically as well as around the world, is part of a greater plan to establish a new world order and impose full-spectrum dominance upon the entire planet. If this is indeed the case, this only confirms that Bush is possessed by a demon, for who in their right mind would do such a thing but someone who is truly an agent of darkness? It should be pointed out, however, that both could be true: Bush is totally incompetent, and his incompetence is being used to hide and further the underlying nefarious agenda of the powers-that-be which animate him.

Bush is truly a Luciferian figure, as by being an agent of darkness, he is unwittingly revealing the light by contrast. The figure of Bush is a fully materialized revelation of an illness pervading the entire field of consciousness. Being a non-local field phenomenon, this malady potentially afflicts any one of us at any moment. The pathology that Bush is embodying is simultaneously being acted out by millions of people in their households or workplaces world-wide, as it is truly a sickness that afflicts the whole human family. Our awareness of our susceptibility to this contagion not only generates humility, but acts as an inoculation against its pernicious effects. When enough of us recognize how the collective illness we are suffering from works through our unconscious, we can unite together like T cells to heal the cancer that is infecting the greater body politic.

To recognize what the figure of Bush is revealing to us IS to have an expansion of consciousness in which we realize the dream-like nature of reality To have an expansion of consciousness and recognize that we have all dreamed up Bush to reflect back our own madness is to snap out of our trance of interpreting our experience literally, and recognize that our universe is a living oracle, an unfolding revelation which, like a dream, is speaking symbolically. Seen as our dream character, Bush is simply a compelling case study who reveals the structure and dynamics of a collective psycho-spiritual malady that pervades the entire field of consciousness. Seen as a symbol in this mass shared waking dream that we are all having, the figure of Bush is (potentially) a “lucidity stimulator” who is unwittingly revealing to us an asleep part of ourselves, and is hence, waking us up.

Paul Levy is an artist and a spiritually-informed political activist. A pioneer in the field of spiritual awakening, he is a healer in private practice, assisting others who are awakening to the dream-like nature of reality. He is the author of “The Madness of George Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis,” which is available at his website www.awakeninthedream.com. Please feel free to pass this article along to a friend if you feel so inspired. You may contact Paul at paul@awakeninthedream.com; he looks forward to your reflections.

From the site: Awaken in the Dream http://www.awakeninthedream.com/