Recently, we had the good
fortune to be contacted by a physician, Shannon Paul Thompson, who’s
working on a fascinating book with a section on the effect of paradigms
upon the human genome. As
we corresponded with him, we discovered his impressive grasp of issues
and excellent analyses. When
we mentioned this to him, he replied in a way that we’d like to share
with you:
“About three years ago,
I crumpled in a rather spectacular fashion. I just couldn’t prop up the
charade anymore. I recall
one defining moment. I was
in my last year of residency and ‘performing’ a circumcision on a
one-day old. Here was this
beautiful baby boy screaming his guts out while I mutilated his
genitals! This little baby
may not have been saying the word ‘No!’ but he was certainly telling
me that.
“And it doesn’t matter
whether some pediatric association or religion tells me it’s okay or
not. I didn’t need some
third party to answer that question for me. The question was answered by the
child ... and I didn’t respect it.
“Realizing this while
you’re doing it is a particularly gruesome, sorrowful, and
self-loathing thing. There
were people around me, joking about circumcisions, oblivious to the
child’s protestations and suffering.
I was the only one who heard—but I couldn’t stop.
“So, what do you do when
the house of cards has fallen down around you and you don’t believe
the answers anymore? I
spent two years living in the national forests in my motor home with my
dogs, trying to come up with answers that made sense for me—until
finally, I realized that the world is constantly changing and no answer
lasts forever. People need tools, not answers. Tools to give them the answers
they need on a day-to-day, life-to-life basis.
“Can you imagine what it
was before the dawn of human consciousness? What happened to the sure, lithe
grace of the creature living in the here and now when finally it becomes
aware? Such exaltation! But with it ... such fear.
It is aware ... but it does not understand. It’s scared ... but it does not know what to do. What does it want more than
anything? It wants an
answer! What to do, how to
interpret these feelings, thoughts, and imaginings.
“At first, an
answer—any answer—was more important than its worth. But these answers have become exploited and institutionalized
and with them the fear they were born of.
Can you imagine a humanity free of forced answers? Free of a fear no longer
necessary? Living and
prospering in all aspects of their lives with tools that take them where
they need to go?
“Then, we were like
infants. Now we are the
adolescent—on the precipice of the maturity we have sought for such a
long time. Isn’t it a
fine, fine thing!”
