How to break free from the collective mind parasite of wetiko
• Explores how wetiko covertly operates both out in the world and within our minds and how it underlies every form of self-destruction, both individual and collective
• Reveals how wetiko’s power lies in our blindness to it and examines how people across the ages have symbolized wetiko to help see it and heal it
• Examines the concept of wetiko as it appears in the teachings of the Kabbalah, Hawaiian Kahuna shamanism, mystical Christianity, and the work of C. G. Jung
In its Native American meaning, wetiko is an evil cannibalistic spirit that can take over people’s minds, leading to selfshness, insatiable greed, and consumption as an end in itself, destructively turning our intrinsic creative genius against our own humanity. Revealing the presence of wetiko in our modern world behind every form of destruction our species is carrying out, both individual and collective, Paul Levy shows how this mind-virus is so embedded in our psyches that it is almost undetectable--and it is our blindness to it that gives wetiko its power. Yet, as Levy reveals in striking detail, by recognizing this highly contagious mind parasite, by seeing wetiko, we can break free from its hold and realize the vast creative powers of the human mind.
Levy explores how artists, philosophers, and spiritual traditions across the ages have been creatively symbolizing this deadly pathogen of the psyche so as to help us see it and heal it. He examines the concept of wetiko as it appears in the teachings of the Kabbalah, Hawaiian kahuna shamanism, Buddhism, and mystical Christianity and through esoteric concepts like egregores, demons, counterfeiting spirits, and psychic vampires. He reveals how visionary thinkers such as C. G. Jung, Sri Aurobindo, Philip K. Dick, Colin Wilson, Nicolas Berdyaev, and Rene Girard each point to wetiko in their own unique and creative way. He explores how the projection of the shadow self--scapegoating --is the underlying psychological mechanism fueling wetiko and examines wetiko in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, showing that we can reframe the pandemic so as to receive the lessons and opportunities embedded in it.
Revealing how the power of imagination can cure the wetiko mind-virus, Levy underscores how important it is for each of us to bring forth the creative spirit within us, which helps shed the light of consciousness on wetiko, taking away its power over us while simultaneously empowering ourselves.
How to break free from the collective mind parasite of wetiko
• Explores how wetiko covertly operates both out in the world and within our minds and how it underlies every form of self-destruction, both individual and collective
• Reveals how wetiko’s power lies in our blindness to it and examines how people across the ages have symbolized wetiko to help see it and heal it
• Examines the concept of wetiko as it appears in the teachings of the Kabbalah, Hawaiian Kahuna shamanism, mystical Christianity, and the work of C. G. Jung
In its Native American meaning, wetiko is an evil cannibalistic spirit that can take over people’s minds, leading to selfshness, insatiable greed, and consumption as an end in itself, destructively turning our intrinsic creative genius against our own humanity. Revealing the presence of wetiko in our modern world behind every form of destruction our species is carrying out, both individual and collective, Paul Levy shows how this mind-virus is so embedded in our psyches that it is almost undetectable--and it is our blindness to it that gives wetiko its power. Yet, as Levy reveals in striking detail, by recognizing this highly contagious mind parasite, by seeing wetiko, we can break free from its hold and realize the vast creative powers of the human mind.
Levy explores how artists, philosophers, and spiritual traditions across the ages have been creatively symbolizing this deadly pathogen of the psyche so as to help us see it and heal it. He examines the concept of wetiko as it appears in the teachings of the Kabbalah, Hawaiian kahuna shamanism, Buddhism, and mystical Christianity and through esoteric concepts like egregores, demons, counterfeiting spirits, and psychic vampires. He reveals how visionary thinkers such as C. G. Jung, Sri Aurobindo, Philip K. Dick, Colin Wilson, Nicolas Berdyaev, and Rene Girard each point to wetiko in their own unique and creative way. He explores how the projection of the shadow self--scapegoating --is the underlying psychological mechanism fueling wetiko and examines wetiko in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, showing that we can reframe the pandemic so as to receive the lessons and opportunities embedded in it.
Revealing how the power of imagination can cure the wetiko mind-virus, Levy underscores how important it is for each of us to bring forth the creative spirit within us, which helps shed the light of consciousness on wetiko, taking away its power over us while simultaneously empowering ourselves.
Foreword by Larry Dossey, M.D.
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
Wetiko in a Nutshell
PART I
Spiritual Traditions and Creative Artists
1 It’s All in the Psyche
2 The Kabbalah’s Remarkable Idea
3 The Masters of Deception
4 Sri Aurobindo and the Hostile Forces
5 The Mind Parasites of Colin Wilson--Fiction or
Reality?
6 The Enlightened Madness of Philip K. Dick--The Black Iron
Prison and Wetiko
PART II
Wetiko in the World and in Our Minds
7 Are We Humans Terminally Insane or Just Waking Up?
8 A Cancer of the Soul
9 Duped by the Beast of War
10 Other Lenses Helping Us See Wetiko
11 Scapegoating--How Darkness Hides in the Light
12 René Girard’s Take on Scapegoating and the Shadow
PART III
The Coronavirus and the Wetiko Virus
13 Covid-19 Is a Symbol of a Much Deeper Infection
14 The Coronavirus Contains its Own Vaccine
15 Quantum Medicine for the Coronavirus
Epilogue
APPENDIX
The Four Ignoble Blindnesses of Wetiko--A Play on the Four Noble
Truths of Buddhism
Notes
Bibliography
About the Author
Index
Paul Levy is a pioneer in the field of spiritual emergence and a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for more than 35 years. He is the founder of the Awakening in the Dream Community in Portland, Oregon, and the author of several books, including Dispelling Wetiko. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
“Utterly brilliant. Paul Levy has identified the unidentifiable and
has answered the questions everyone is asking: What is happening to
us, and what is our way through? No one has articulated the
handiwork of darkness with more precision than Paul. I urge people
to read this book.”
*Caroline Myss, author of Intimate Conversations with the
Divine*
“This is a brilliant, indispensable book written by an authentic
visionary genius. It is terrifying in its analysis of the soul
sickness that now everywhere threatens the human adventure and
exalting and inspiring in the remedies it proposes. Drawing on the
richest possible sources of evolutionary mysticism, quantum
physics, and transpersonal psychology, no one but Paul Levy could
have given us such a feast.”
*Andrew Harvey, founder and director of the Institute for Sacred
Activism and coauthor of Radical Reg*
“In this time of unprecedented crises on almost every level, our
challenge is to become aware of and shed the insidious trance of
destruction that has come over us. Only as we awaken can we become
the spiritual warriors necessary to free ourselves and our world of
this life-threatening spell and step into a prophesied golden time.
In this powerful book, Paul helps us look within ourselves and this
illness to awaken the amazing potential that Creator has given us
to thrive as good stewards of this precious home planet and all our
relations.”
*Brooke Medicine Eagle, author of Buffalo Woman Comes Singing and
The Last Ghost Dance*
“Never before in human history has there been a time when we so
desperately need the insights and profound wisdom that Paul Levy is
offering us in this book. As Levy wisely admonishes us, only by
developing a conscious, thriving inner spiritual life can we dispel
wetiko for good. Otherwise, we will only collude with the darkness
we believe we are fighting.”
*Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., author of Collapsing Consciously and Love in
the Age of Ecological Apocalypse*
“Paul Levy’s first book, Dispelling Wetiko, is a classic and
brought an expanded awareness of the dark force that has invaded
Western culture. If you are one of those who wonder how we are to
deal with it now that the genie is out of the bottle, Levy’s new
contribution, Wetiko, is a compelling read that will provide you
with new tools for your toolbox. A most important book!”
*Hank Wesselman, Ph.D., author of The Re-Enchantment and The Bowl
of Light*
“Wetiko is a gift to the world. Paul Levy brilliantly and
beautifully dissects the wetiko illness and shows us how we can
break its insidious spell. There are no topics more important than
this, and Paul Levy writes exactly what we need to read.”
*Derrick Jensen, ecophilosopher and author of A Language Older Than
Words*
“In Wetiko, the power and authenticity of Paul’s narrative is in
the grounding of his own lived experience of the collective human
psychosis of wetiko. This important and timely book maintains that
the ‘spirit of healing is hidden within the illness’ and exhorts a
shamanic journey of re-membering and reintegrating the innate
wholeness of our true Self. Urging conscious co-creativity as a
healing response and engagement. Wetiko invites us to free our
imagination to literally embody the imaginal cells of the potential
metamorphosis of our species.”
*Jude Currivan, Ph.D., author of The Cosmic Hologram and cofounder
of WholeWorld-View*
“This remarkable book, deeply rooted in Jungian psychology and the
wisdom traditions, addresses the contagious psychospiritual disease
of the soul that constitutes the crisis of humanity. The author
brilliantly integrates a broad range of archetypal themes--from
mythology, alchemy, religion, and quantum physics--to unearth the
deeper meanings of our individual and collective soul-sickness. A
must-read for anybody who is interested in a transformation of
consciousness.”
*Ursula Wirtz, Jungian psychoanalyst and author of Trauma and
Beyond*
“Paul Levy has made a life’s work out of studying wetiko--dealing
with it in himself and shining the light of consciousness on it in
the human world. In this book, he examines this mind-virus from
multiple angles, helping the reader to achieve a full recognition
of wetiko’s nature, its terrible dangers, and the secret gift it
contains. Wetiko is a book of urgent relevance and vital importance
for everyone, alerting us to dire dangers and opening our eyes to
our astonishing and wondrous potential as we engage with the
multiple, simultaneous world crises that we face in these critical
times.”
*Robert Simmons, author of The Alchemy of Stones and coauthor of
The Book of Stones*
“After reading Paul Levy’s work on wetiko, I knew I had to meet
him. I drove from Boston, Massachusetts, to Portland, Oregon. This
man Paul, he is something. He knows things. He experiences things
in ways impossible to explain. All I can say is, that which walks
with me knows that Paul Levy has been placed here to help us--to
help us mitigate the climate crisis, the sixth extinction, this
pandemic, racism, and this wetiko without and within if only we
listen. But we must all do this work if our children and our
children’s children are to experience The Mother. Read this book.
Mitakuye Oyasin.”
*Thomas Balistrieri, Ed.D., assistant teaching professor of
psychology and global studies at Worceste*
"A worthy successor to the classic Displelling Wetiko."
*Sting*
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