Most of us who walk the spiritual path will inevitably find ourselves plagued by “doubt.” Where does the thought or voice of doubt come from? Is it God or is it the ego? Obviously, more often than not, doubt comes from the ego. It is the ego’s every intention to keep you from trusting and moving forward in your life, as this would eventually lead you home, to Heaven, where the ego no longer exists. There are exceptions however. For example, if you have a situation wherein you were on course of action and gained an inspiration to change directions, this might look like you had a doubt and changed course. But in fact, the doubt came not from fear and uncertainty, but instead from an uplifting and loving insight to change course. This is probably God speaking.
How Doubt Manifests
There are, of course other core issues or patterns that prevent people from healing including: Fear, Anger, Denial, Control, Believing you’ve already healed enough, and Lack of Forgiveness. Doubt, however, is one of the most common and most sneaky. Doubt can creep in and undermine the progress you are making in your life in many ways, which can vary. For example, doubt can be about your sense of worthiness. Or, it might be about doubting the technique used in a healing, such as when we think it’s impossible for an nontraditional method to accomplish that which previous, perhaps more traditional methods could not.
Then, there is the issue of having doubts about your healer, such as when you experience a healing but then “others” plant a doubt in your head regarding that particular healer’s abilities or even his/her character. The general rule is that when we experience something new and wonderful in our life, the ego will do all that it can to make us doubt this change. This of course, leads us back to where we started and even worse off than before, as now we have added the conscious anger of whomever failed to heal us or the unconscious guilt we feel for allowing doubt to ruin our opportunity. The bottom line is that people already have a hard enough time accepting the good things and good people in the world. But when they end up doubting their healing experiences and then find a way to shoot them down, it becomes a very destructive outcome for them AND for whoever made them doubt.
Possessed By the “Demon of Doubt”
From my own life’s experiences, I can think of several examples where clients and students were possessed by the “demon of doubt.” For example, there was a woman who once bad-mouthed me, thus trying to instill doubts into her friend. Her friend was surprised by her dislike of me and asked why she felt this way. The woman replied by saying that she was angry because after having a private session with me (which originally blew her mind), she was convinced I could not have known such specific things about her unless I had gone through her purse and peeked at her personal details, which means her doubts got the best of her, thus rejecting her miracle. This woman, who had the doubt, preferred to keep her mind in doubt instead of communicating with me about the issue at hand. This is a perfect example of how we sometimes prefer to live in the darkness of our ego rather than in the light of Spirit.
Many scholars and even some New Thought ministers have decided to believe that Jesus never rose from the dead nor walked on water. They have intellectualized away the “miracles” and have decided these are merely metaphors of common occurrences. In so doing, such people have allowed doubt to prevail over trusting the power of Spiritual Law. They say, for example, that Jesus didn’t walk on water to help his troubled apostles who were caught in a storm; it was simply a low tide. Can you believe it? Gee . . . there was the answer all along! Jesus could simply see that he was safe enough to walk on through due to low tide yet his apostles who were fishermen by trade couldn’t tell the difference.
Fault-Finding
All too often, when we like or love someone or something and/or are impressed by it or them, we somehow go out of our way to find fault with them. Now, I ask . . . Is this the God part of us? I think not! Then who or what is it? Quite simply, this is the part of us (our ego) that is so afraid of our healing that it convinces us to abandon (or find fault with) any good that comes to us. If we are so quick to find fault with our miracles and healers, how will we ever trust enough to grow closer to God? In other words, if you’re pushing away your good, you are pushing away God—albeit in a smaller form for now. I suggest then, that when you create something that is better than what you had before—even if it’s not perfect—try not to destroy that thing with doubt and judgment. You will certainly not be able to create something better with an attitude like that. If you do give in and buy in to the gossip and doubt that tears down your miracles, you may end up waiting a very long time for another chance.
Taking Responsibility and Getting Back on Track
If such doubt befalls you, do your best to see it for what it is: an attempt to tear down what could very well have been the chance for a miracle. Although others may be involved in raining on your parade and seemingly causing you to doubt yourself, your healing, or even your healer, you are ultimately responsible for both the doubts that you are attracting AND your response to these doubts. Next, you must make a determined decision to say NO to these doubts, as well as to forgive yourself for having created them and paying any attention to them. Then, move forward by making plans to get back on track, get back to your healing, and try, try again. Last, but never least, you must choose to trust and be humbled and surrender all doubts to Spirit—God—hopefully as soon as they arise.
When all else fails, if you have a healthy enough relationship with yourself and with Spirit, you will be able to fend off the doubts that arise in your mind, as well as the doubts that other people will inevitably throw your way. After all, these people project their doubts on you because they can sense your weakness of conviction and because of their own insecurities. Instead of caving in to them, show them your courage, as well as your refusal to gossip or express doubts. In so doing, you will be teaching them how to release the life of fear and insecurity that they lived with for so long. You can show others (and yourself) how to return to trusting in God, love, and miracles. In so doing, you’re allowing God to be your first priority, which is the best way to assure yourself of a smoother transition into LIGHT.
